raw resolutions

I started my crazy raw vegan adventures in March 2010. I was super-motivated when I started and managed 100% high raw vegan for the first six months… I felt great, I lost 13lb without trying, my troublesome skin started to clear up (a little), and I generally had more consistent energy – or at the very least, eliminating gluten meant I wasn’t falling asleep at work after lunch!

This time last year, after a little time off the raw wagon, I made a resolution to get back into a very high raw diet. To be an organized, inspired, blog-writing, crazy raw vegan again. To be honest, I’m not sure that lasted a week. I made the same resolution yesterday. It lasted a day. I needed some vegan Indian take-out to recover from the NYE celebrations. But I am determined to start properly tomorrow once I can get to the store to stock up my fridge…

I am feeling better about my potential for success in 2012 though, having just started reading a new book – Succeed: How We Can Reach Our Goals, by Dr. Heidi Grant Halverson. She talks about the ways in which we set and pursue goals, what willpower is and how we improve and utilize it, and avoiding ‘positive thinking;, which surprisingly, often ends in failure. It’s a very accessible presentation of a lot of scientific studies, written in a way that both helps you understand the psychology of goals and success, and has practical ways in which you can approach goal setting and execution. Without providing an in-depth book review (and I am only half way through it anyway), this what I have learnt:

Big Picture vs. Nitty-Gritty

• Vacuuming the floor can be viewed as ‘keeping the house clean’, or ‘sucking up crumbs from the floor’. The first is abstract why thinking, which can be energizing/motivating, the second is nitty-gritty what thinking, which is more useful for new or difficult tasks – both are useful but…
• My approach to high raw has been the first – I want to be high raw because I want to “feel better” (what ever that means!)
• What I need to do is approach it at a more nitty-gritty level, i.e. to be high raw I need to: develop weekly meal plans every week and write a grocery list, I need to dedicate time each week to organizing groceries and preparing food, I need to be prepared with sweet and savory snacks to avoid the need to compromise with bought snacks when I’m hungry, and I need to take lunch to work every day. Much more easy to quantify and stick to – I can write a check list and make sure I get it done!

Triggers

• A lot of goals are managed by the unconscious mind, which explains why some days you manage to drive home safely but don’t remember going it!
• The unconscious mind responds to the environment, i.e. the sun is setting, work has finished, I’m sitting in the car leads your unconscious to determine that it’s time to go home
• So first, I need to get high raw into my subconscious (I’m still working my how to do this!), then I need to identify things I can incorporate into my environment that trigger my desire to eat raw, which I think will help establish it in my subconscious – a chicken or the egg dilemma hey?!

Being Good vs. Getting Better

• There are two types of goals: performance goals,  a desire to be good, to achieve a certain outcome; and mastery goals, a desire to make progress, to get better – the difference between people who take classes they know they can get A’s in, and those who take classes they know they can learn something from. While individuals will set both types of goals depending on the situation/goal, they tend to have a preference.
• My preference is for performance goals.
• The problem with my preference to performance goals is that if I don’t do well in something quickly, I tend to stop trying. When I’m in the ‘raw zone’, I certainly see it as something I want to master and am happy to grow and learn, but once I start getting caught up in a cooked food cycle, I feel like I have failed and tend to wallow in it instead of doing anything about it.

So that’s it so far! I’m hoping that understanding my motivations and natural ways of approaching goals will result in MORE RAW FOOD, more weekly meal plans to share, more new recipes, and hopefully some useful insights for you to do the same! This is in the context of me starting a new job on Tuesday that is going to be crazy-busier than my current role, and then starting an intensive MBA program on top of that in March, but as the saying goes – the busier you are, the more tie you find to get it all done! Fingers crossed :)

If you’re interested in learning more about this, I definitely recommend the book – amazon has a good price.

Best wishes for a vibrant fulfilling 2012! Look forward to hearing more about your journeys, recipes, and challeges.

Much love xx