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Login Here Signup Here Signup using FacebookHey everyone!!1 Im new to the site but have been eating vegan for a few months and trying to eat as much raw foods as possible. I recently had to move in with my parents again and they eat standard food. For them, a meal without some kind meat is unheard of!! They dont eat junk food and for a SAD diet they are actually pretty good. The thing is, its incredibly hard to transition to a vegan and raw diet when everyone else around you is making faces at your green smoothie while they feast on fried chicken.
Before I moved in I was completely vegan and about 80% raw. I didnt crave meat or anything from my old diet and I didnt have any around me so temptation wanst a problem. Now I have found myself craving regular food very often (since I can smell it all the time) and I even had a ham and cheese sandwich yesterday, which left me feeling sick (literally) for hours!!!
Any advice on how to maintain my diet around my family?
Comments
It comes down to making sure you have plenty of salad stuff and fresh fruits and veggies available and prepare meals together with your family. They’ll be making their meat and things and you’ll be making what they consider to be the “sides” : ). The rest is discipline…. there’s no easy way around being a person with discipline. You just do it, one meal at a time. and if you fall, don’t worry, you just get back up right?
I relate… I am living with my SAD parents and it is so rough. I think the hardest part is that emotional/mental connection to my mothers cooking.
I remember growing up and loving everything she made. It still smells good. But now when I eat it I literally feel ill and am running to the bathroom.
Yesterday was a prime example. They grilled baby back pork ribs and they smelled so good and I needed to do a grocery run so I don’t have anything at home and.. yeah… 3 ribs later and I was ill.
I just try to remember how disgusting I feel when I do eat their cooked food. Usually it works and I can grab some fruit or nuts or greens and be more than satisfied. When it doesn’t work.. well, it serves as a better reminder next time.
Me, too! We live with my parents and I am grateful I had two years of high-raw behind me before moving back in here! Even at that, I think that sometimes what made me go back was that their way seemed so much easier, cheaper, etc. I just recently decided to quit eating meat (High raw for me meant I had meat sometimes, and pretty much everything else was raw, except for sometimes “not really raw” nuts or oat groats or something). That one was harder, but I have just made it a commitment to eat what is best for my body (which included meat before and doesn’t now). I feel good now. Having a garden and a couple of easy, yummy recipes, is a big help for me. I am now starting to transition my son to eating more raw foods, too, so it is a bigger challenge and an easier time all at once. I know that whatever I am making for him I can eat, too. My parents occasionally really like something I make, too, so then I just try to make things we can share more often if I’m feeling more vulnerable. Being prepared with enough good raw foods is really the key for me, I think. I have less willpower when I’m starving ;)
the best thing to do is next time you are tempted, remember how sick it made you feel. if you have to leave the room when they eat, do it. you can have bonding time at non-family time. you can always take the tactic I did when i first went vegan and go on and on about how bad the food they are eating is for them but it didn’t really work that well, they still didn’t become vegan.