Kung-Fu’ing those cravings!

Hey My friends!  Are you confronting junk food temptations on your raw path?  I’ve been there and it can be a pain in the butt, but there are some ways we can deal with all the tasty, but crappy goodies that surround us!

Wether it’s the baked goodies in the break room at work, the maze of fast food joints we have to drive through, or the sodas and candy at the check out counters of nearly any retail store you hit up (including, twistedly, plus sized clothing outlets!) there are less than ideal eats everywhere we go!  At home we’re bombarded by advertisements for pizza and burger joints on tv and many local joints so kindly leave their fliers and magnets in your mailbox.  Well here are some strategies that I used to comfortably side step all the junky munchies that abound!

First thing I would do when confronted by a less than ideal option would be to think about why my raw food options rock so much, rather than focusing on why the unhealthy eats suck!  This kept the things that I wanted to eat in my mind, leaving lil’ room to think about what I didn’t want to eat!  When we waste our time thinking of the negative side of unhealthy eats, it just gives them more air-time on our internal radio and invites our inner rebel to pipe up and defend our former food choices and encourage us to eat them for the sake of being “bad”!  So let’s avoid that mental game by thinking of what we want to eat!

Next on the home front I pimped out my kitchen making it a constant reminder of the awesomeness of rawsomeness!  Bowls of fresh fruit, a fridge stocked with beautiful greens, my favorite raw and healthy living books decorated a shelf below the food processor and ya remember those pizza place magnets?  Well we cut them up and glued them to the back of photos of our favorite raw creations, slapped those on the refrigerator and now we got our own subliminal advertising!

Strawberry Pie with Banana Ice Cream! One of the photos we used for our fridge magnets!

When leaving the house I would be sure to pack some of my favorite raw treats, some fresh fruit and often a chocolate or green smoothie with me.  And I always brought more than I thought I would need!  This worked out really great because when I would be confronted by something junky, I could fill up on the good stuff and have no room left for cravings!  This trick works great for grocery shopping, mall walking and at the movie theatres… I didn’t tell you that!  But, seriously, for the price of a medium popcorn and soda you could treat yourself to dinner at a raw restaurant!  While I was out I would also scout out places that had healthy options, so that if I forgot to bring my stash, I could pick up something else!

For my work lunches I always put a lot of attention into making them awesome and tasty.  because it’s easiest to be raw at home, I would save my awesomest treats for when I would be faced with less than ideal options!  Rather than saying things like “Thanks for the cake offer, but I have carrot sticks.” I could say “Thanks for the cake, but I already have some chocolate filled cinnamon rolls!” You should’ve seen the faces when coworkers tried them and realized this is what raw treats can be!  I also liked to put a lot of love and positive intentions into my packed lunches because it made me that much more enthused about eating it the next day!

The Chewy Chocolaty Goodness Bars from my Sweet Support E-Book, are a worthy opponent to beat out candy bar cravings!

Lastly, but not leastly, if you find yourself eating something you’d rather not have don’t waste a minute beating yourself up!  If you beat yourself up often, you’re going to invite that inner-rebel to pop up again and defend you by bashing your new healthy lifestyle!  Rather than beating yourself up, take that time to boost yourself up instead!  Some of my favorite raw recipes came from slipping, eating some junky snack, and pondering “How can I make a rawified version of this?”.  There’s no need to be hard on yourself, just whip yourself up a green smoothie when ya get home and let the negativity slide!

Keep rockin’ in your healthy living adventures! Much love ~ Rory :0)