Are you REALLY hungry?

So as you know, I’m on day two of this raw food/ green juice cleanse and somehow by some miracle I’ve convinced my husband to join us – us as in my 18 yr old daughter Shai is on it too now, and she’s loving it!

It’s quite unbelievable really that my husband is trying this because he is a 100% meat and potato’s kind of guy and ordinarily he eats horribly.
Most days he’ll just go all day drinking copious amounts of coffee – eating nothing at all, then cook up a HUGE meal at night and sit there stuffing his face – on mostly meat and potato’s and then go back for seconds, or even thirds.
I have seen him eat SO much that he breaks out into a sweat.
He has been living his life in constant famine then feast mode, which is TERRIBLE for metabolism!

So for him to be actually agreeing to try this raw food thing is nothing short of a miracle and although I’m making fun of him, to his face, I really am very very proud of him….(hear that darling?) because he’s got a belly that makes you want to ask “Is the baby crowning yet?”…..and if we can just teach him the value of changing his eating habits maybe that belly will deflate a little!
(and maybe, just maybe it will help with his snoring!)

I was laughing at him today because while he works away in the home office I know he is keeping a constant ear out for me in the kitchen, hoping I will bring him SOMETHING to eat. (please….anything!)
I did, at lunch time today.
I brought him a salad that consisted of chopped cabbage, baby spinach, cucumber, celery, tomato,and carrot with a dressing of olive oil, flaxseed oil, apple cider vinegar (with the mother in it) and finely chopped raw garlic.
He was still munching on it (like a starving rabbit) when I mentioned the ingredients.
Ordinarily he would have refused to put that in his mouth….and I mean REFUSED, because he’s a stubborn old git.
But you see now…..when he is REALLY hungry he doesn’t even care.
It’s FOOD.
And…..it really doesn’t taste all that bad. (now does it dear?)

So that’s my question, of all of us.
Are we REALLY that hungry, ordinarily?
Or do we use food as a comfort thing?
To ease boredom. For entertainment?
Socially.
As a companion to those lonely hours sitting in front of the TV?

Doe we even listen when our stomachs are full or are we too busy having a party on our tongue to hear the alarm bells ringing “enough!”

Funny how food has become SO much more to us these days than just simply nutrition.
Hey, I’m not saying it shouldn’t taste good….my my, how I’d love a cooked dinner right now, but really this is opening my eyes up and making me look at food differently. Hopefully it will for my husband too.

When he complained about the lunchtime juice I made which consisted of beetroot (an excellent cleansing detoxifying food!) carrot, ginger, lemon and apple, saying “this tastes like the smell of lawn clippings and dirt!” I told him to imagine that that earthy plant like taste was all the goodness from nature now flowing from his stomach into his cells and gently nurturing his health.

It works for me 🙂
He just rolled his eyes.

The only one in the family I haven’t managed to convince about this raw food cleanse is our fifteen year old son.
Of course not. And we did warn him.
In fact we threatened to throw ALL the packaged food in the cupboards away which must have scared him silly because he’s got his beloved box of weetbix sitting on the computer desk right beside him, so he can keep his eyes on it at all times!
He refuses to join us so for the next week he can fend for himself. There are plenty of frozen leftovers in the freezer. He knows where the pots and pans are if he wants to cook, but I suspect all he will eat is ….weetbix .
Is this child neglect? (He thinks it is.)
Maybe ….I’m hoping anyway, he’ll get hungry enough to just TRY something.

We’ll see.