The Popcorn Siren

There it sits on the seat next to me as I drive home from the movie theater; the popcorn bucket, softly calling out to me, "Deeevaaaan... Ooooh Deeeeeevaaaaan. Can you hear me? Can you smell me? You don't have to save ALL of this mouthwatering deliciousness for your sisters. Go ahead. Have a bite. Just one bite. You managed to eat a single kernel at the theater without losing control. Just one crunchy, buttery, salty, delicious bite." I reach over and grab a single piece... reach over and grab two more. That was delightful, I don't need anymore. So why is my hand wandering over to the bucket again? And again. And again. And again. And... Good lord, why is the bucket nearly empty???!!! Sigh... Oh you devilish, rascally little kernels, undermining me in such a way.

So this is the part in previous attempts in dietary changes where I've often said, "Oh, well I screwed up. Guess it's over." Well not this time, buddy! I actually feel very ok with my little junk food relapse. It's all part of the process, or journey, if you will. I actually had to laugh at it a bit, my temporary frenzy. I saw little images in my mind of popcorn flying out of my mouth and hands; little crumbs forming a cloud around me as I sob into the bucket. I didn't by any means actually feel this way, it was just a comical image that entered my mind. I considered not even talking about this, but that would go against everything this blog stands for. My intentions are to share my journey with you; the good, the bad, the ugly, the beautiful, the amazing, the awkward, etc.

What is really good about this experience is I was able to use it as a gauge to see how my body has changed since going high-raw. I've always gotten mild headaches from eating large amounts of movie theater popcorn. I can tell my body liked it even less than before. While I did eat much more popcorn than I had wanted, it really was only maybe a third of the bucket (I accidentally spilled much of it on the floor of my friend's car. You were so gracious. Thank you!), and I feel the same right now as I used to when I would eat probably nearly a whole bucketful along with a 32 oz drink. I have heard stories about how as your body adjusts to healthy, nutrient-dense foods, it starts to reject unhealthy foods more. Some people view this as the veganism, raw food diet, etc., making people sickly or unable to "handle" anything. What many people in the raw foods movement say, however, and this makes sense to me, is that it's more related to building up tolerances. Matt Monarch of the Raw Food World likens it to how we would die if we consumed a teaspoon of arsenic, but were we to take a drop every week, then every other day, then every day, and so on, we'd eventually build up a tolerance. Well, the same goes for food. As babies we live off of mother's milk. We move on to fruits and veggies. Next thing we know we're eating bread, animal crackers, birthday cake, and finally Mcdonald's happy meals. If you gave the newborn these junk foods right away they'd likely get very sick, but slowly introduce them to it and they're fine. Well, supposedly the same thing works in reverse. We can lose our tolerance for unhealthy foods as our bodies become more pure. I don't know the science behind this, or if it's even true, but it kind of makes sense to me, and I don't feel that losing my tolerance for junk food is necessarily something I'm going to feel to bad about. I think it's actually a very exciting prospect. None of us really want to eat junk food. It tastes good and is briefly satisfying, but that's about it, and we know it's horrible for out bodies.

So, to wrap this up, I had a little adventure today, don't feel any remorse about it, and am moving forward with joy. I'm even open to this happening again. Who knows, maybe next time I'll feel gross after only a handful of it... and be ever so grateful. ;)

Much love to you all!
Devan