The cow’s have nothing to do with this blog post but I thought they were cute.

Here I am on day 20! Heck, I have made it to 20 days of eating a 100% natural raw food diet (minus the little bit of brown rice I had last weekend, which I wouldn’t damn myself a total failure or to hell just yet, like it wasn’t  a frigan bowel of ice cream or anything, no sir eeee).

So today my main squeeze wanted me to come with him while he got his car fixed so we could grab a coffee together while he waited (shyeh like I was going to have a coffee). So we took a nice death-defying drive up Tambourine Mountain to a little coffee shop trying hard to be an art gallery. I call it death-defying due to the fact that it was raining cats and dogs and my Rav 4 is a bit of a slug chugging up the winding mountain side. None the less we made it!

We’d been to this little coffee shop once before so I knew their front cabinet was jam-packed full of delectable cakes and savory snacks. It is also rainy and cold today so as soon as I walked in the front door my eyes were drawn to the blackboard where it said “Special of the day warm creamy pumpkin soup”. This is where I’m really going to have to pull out the big gun’s, I thought to myself. Then Paul says  ” OK then, what cake do you want to share, they have that gluten free crap you sometimes get”.

At this stage every one of my senses is in a stage of foreplay and are being tantalized by the strong aroma’s off baking food wafting from the kitchen, mouth-watering cakes before my eyes and the gentle persuasion in my ear from my boyfriend “C’mon, just share a cake with me, you know you want to”.

For a split second I almost thought “OK, F**k it, I’ll have a slice of that orange cake with a soy hot chocolate don’t forget to double up on that marshmallow then follow it with a nice big bowl of that creamy pumpkin soup”. Then………… my contingency plan came into action. The secret weapons came out to play.

Secret weapon number one: Before you start any health or diet program write a list of all possible challenges that may arise. There can be anywhere from 5 to 55 possible challenges on that list. They could range from “I have a craving and need to eat that whole 2 litre tub of ice cream or else I’ll channel the spirit of Hitler and go on a kitchen rampage” to “my friends have invited me out to morning tea and I don’t think the cafe has any healthy food”  Then for every single challenge you write down pair it with 1 to 2 solutions on how to overcome this challenge. Then if that challenge arises you know in advance the solution you need to start putting into action. This will help keep your emotions in check.

This was my challenge and the solution:- I’d said that if someone invited me somewhere and said “oh come on, you know you want to eat that with me” I’d say “I’m here to enjoy the company more than the food”. So I tried that one on my boyfriend today. He replied “your gay”, but then actually took it as a valid reason not to buy the cake. I told him I’m not stopping him from having a piece. He decided not to. SCORE!!!!

Then secret weapon number two came out: Before you embark on any new goal ensure you write a comprehensive list on why it’s so important to you to achieve this goal. Like I mean 100 reasons plus. Include how achieving it will benefit you, your family, friends, etc.

In the coffee shop today I didn’t whip my list out or anything but instead of thinking of all the reasons why I should eat that cake( trust me there was more than 100 going through my head), order the creamy pumpkin soup or just go along with what my boyfriend says so he stops calling me gay, I started thinking back to why it was so important to me in the first place to fully embrace my raw food diet natural diet.

Last but not least secret weapon number three had to be used: That is BE PREPARED! By the way I didn’t get that from girl scouts because I thought girls scouts or brownies (it sounds like something Bart Simpson does at the back of the school bus) was a little lame so I never went. My little sister went for a few weeks and then one day she lost her $2 donation in the grass outside the guide room and the guide leader didn’t believe her. So she never went back. Talk about Biiiiaaarrrrch. My poor little sis.

So today I was prepared. I was armed with a juicy organic apple which I strategically placed in my hand bag earlier this morning. Many people fail their diets as they do not think ahead. When your stomach is growling like a pack of wolves and there is no healthy food in sight this is a sure-fire way to cave in. So think ahead, plan and BE PREPARED for anything. Keep a stash of healthy food in your car or handbag or man bag.

Today was the first day I really had to pull out the secret weapons. I have plenty more stashed in my back pocket but I’ll let you know what they are when I need to activate them.

So if you currently are in the progress or looking to change something about yourself or life I encourage you to not take another step until you get very clear on why this change is so important to you and how it will benefit you and others. C’mon,go get a piece of paper and write your list now. Keep it close at all times just in case you need to re motivate yourself.

It’s getting a little late so I am taking myself and my secret weapons to blanket bay now.

Good night

Cheers

Larissa