My Week as a Raw Food Grazer
Man, have I been busy! I just started my final year at college a few weeks ago and I cannot believe the amount of work I have.
This semester is seriously the largest workload I have ever had during my time at school. It’s been pretty hard to keep up with everything.
In order to help myself adjust to all the extra work and my wonky school schedule, I was forced to change my eating pattern. For the first week of school, I ate 4-6 meals a day instead of the usual 2-3.
Essentially, I became a grazer for a week. And by the end of this week, I could not wait to get my schedule straightened out and start eating normally again!
Why Grazing Sucks
Do you wanna know what I hate more than anything?
Constant Hunger.
I will do anything and everything to avoid constant hunger. I cannot stand it. It is just so hard to focus on the tasks that I need to do and be productive when all I can think about is food.
Well, this is what I got when I became a grazer for a week. I was constantly hungry. I honestly could not focus on anything because I kept thinking about my next meal!
I would literally finish a meal at 9am and be wandering back into the kitchen by 11!
Maybe you’re used to that kind of timing, but for me it is so annoying! When I am working or doing whatever, I want to be focused on that specific task. I do not want to be thinking about food every two hours.
That was my life when I ate cooked food and I definitely do not want to go back down that road!
I much prefer 2-3 meals a day. When I eat this way, the gap between meal times is between four and five hours instead of the measly two.
This way, I can be totally into my food when I am eating and then totally engrossed in other tasks when I am not.
Hooray productivity!
Tiny Portions
Grazing all day means smaller portions. Sure, you get to eat more often, but as I said above, that is not a plus for me.
One of the reasons I am so fond of the low fat raw vegan diet is because I get to eat massive amounts of food in one meal. There is truly nothing more satisfying than eating two pounds of grapes in one sitting without an ounce of guilt.
It is nourishment AND an ego boost, all in one!
You don’t get that when everything is split up into small meals. Sure, you are still eating the same amount of food overtime, but it just isn’t the same.
I need that ego boost!
Grapes…Again?
I finally get it. I finally understand why so many people complain about the raw food diet being boring. I completely get why people end up returning to cooked food for lack of “variety.”
When I was eating lots of small meals throughout the day, fruit seemed totally boring and even bland at times.
I can’t believe I’m actually saying writing this, but it’s true! I honestly did not enjoy eating bananas for three meals in a row. I wanted other fruit, particularly fruit that had gone out of season (like mangoes and peaches).
And even after eating all those bananas, I still had an appetite. I just wanted something different.
Maybe even, dare I say, something stimulating? Something…cooked?!
That is why I much prefer fewer, larger meals throughout the day. This way, all of my bananas (or whatever the fruit is) for the day are in one or two meals. My food never seems boring and so I feel totally satisfied with what I’m eating.
Serenity Now!
So I’ve finally returned to my old eating ways and it feels great. I am no longer constantly hunger, I feel totally accomplished after polishing off a meal, and I am completely satisfied after all of my fun mono-fruit meals.
Peace at last. 
Go raw and be fit,
Swayze
15 comments
Hi Swayze–I too, prefer 3 meals a day, but I do have either a mid morning fruit or afternoon veg snack otherwise I am ravenous at the end of the day, and I hate being so hungry. I still have a cooked family, so this complicates things as well!
Thanks Swayze for your thoughts.
Are there any physiological reasons to avoid grazing?
Heather Reply:
September 30th, 2009 at 9:00 am
In response to Amir, I think there would be psychological reasons to avoid grazing…such that the more often you are eating, the bigger part of your life eating becomes. For those of us who have problems with food and addiction, the more often you involve yourself w/your addiction, the harder it is to stop craving it.
Swayze Reply:
October 1st, 2009 at 9:12 pm
Yep, that’s very true. The more engaged I am in other activities, the less I think about food.
Swayze Reply:
October 1st, 2009 at 9:11 pm
One reason would be that it could limit the amount of exercise you engage in. Eating all day means that your body will constantly be digesting food. Who wants to workout or play sports when there’s food in their tummy?
I’m with you on the big, satisfying meals–even mono-fruit meals.
I love gardening because I get to think about food and meals without thinking about eating it yet. I am a foodie.
What are you studying? I have a diploma in working as an industrial, plant- maintenance lady and a B.S. in Sociology/criminology. I’ve been around a few decades.
Swayze Reply:
October 1st, 2009 at 9:14 pm
Haha, that’s great! I need to start gardening…
Philosophy with a minor in Anthropology. Yours sounds much more exciting.
Mary Reply:
October 2nd, 2009 at 8:51 am
For philosophy, consider that people only accept the tstyle of government that fits their style of God. This is why separation of church and state is so important–to not get the masses brainwashed into accepting things like the Chinese royal families, the Hitler superior race, etc.
A book I love is Confessions of a Medical Heretic, about how our medical system mimics a cult. He also, I think his name is Beiber, shows how body sytems work together and therfore how to heal much better than most doctors know about.
You “hit the nail on the head”. That’s One of the things I struggle with. Boredom.
I love eating only a few meals a day too so that I can concentrate on other things other than food! Sometimes I have a small snack in between if I’m hungry, but it’s pretty easy to throw in an extra apple or banana in my lunch box!
hi swayze! great article on grazing. i was wondering if you knew why you don’t hear a lot about apples or pears on the 80-10-10 diet. do you eat them? if not, why not?
Swayze Reply:
October 2nd, 2009 at 12:54 pm
Funny you should ask…my Dad asked me the same thing just recently. I think it’s because these fruits, especially apples, are not very satiating. They have a much more “snacky” feel to them and it’s hard to eat them in mass quantity.
Personally, I do not eat many apples, although I did eat A LOT of fuji apples from Fresh Market when I first went raw…I loved them! I will eat apples occasionally, but usually as a snack rather than a whole meal. I much prefer “heartier” fruits like bananas and mangoes and juicy fruits like peaches and cantaloupe.
As far as pears go, Comedian Eddie Izzard says it best (5:15):
WARNING: Do not follow the link if you are offended by explicit language and/or English men in drag.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hh5a0ucs8kQ
Ha! Very funny. And true! And sad. Because a ripe pear is delicious. Anyway thanks for your thoughts, I appreciate them.
Hi Swayze although this is on a different subject and you may have answered this question before can you tell us what you eat in a day or a week if possible? Can you give us like a breakdown of what you actually had for breafast, lunch & dinner? Just so I can get an idea of how to follow the raw food way of eating correctly.
Thank you Sheila
Swayze Reply:
October 3rd, 2009 at 11:13 am
You’ve got good timing! Since so many of you guys have asked, I’ll actually be answering this in a post tomorrow.