Eating Enough is Key

If you scroll down all the way to yesterday you’ll notice I ate less total calories than any other day since I’ve been blogging my food intake. Yesterday, and today I had the strongest cravings and desire not to remain raw. There is a very strong correlation between total calories and ability to continue the low fat raw vegan diet.

Getting enough total calories is probably the most important factor of sticking with this diet longterm. I’m finding out that under-eating, even by just a few hundred calories, has got me questioning my conviction and ability to stick to the plan.

This is likely the reason I failed on this diet in the past. When constantly under-eating, like I did previously when I experimented with low fat raw, your self-discipline can only hold you over for so long. If your body is starved for calories your mind will kick in and do what ever it can think of to meet those calorie needs.

Calorie Comparison Raw vs. Cooked

What’s funny is that if most people saw the amount of food I ate yesterday they would probably call me crazy. Adding up the numbers I ate about 7 total pounds of food, but that’s less than I ate at any point over the last 20 days. It takes 10+ bananas to get 1000 calories, even more for other fruit you can buy in the grocery store.

According to cronometer, it takes 1124 grams of banana to get 1000 calories. That’s equal to about 2.5lbs or 40oz of bananas (without the skin). Compare that to 40oz of pizza, which has about 3000 calories, and you can see that when you’re eating low fat raw vegan, you have to eat a lot more volume to get the same amount of calories.

Advice

If you’re a beginner reading this, you may not want to hear this but, this diet is hard. It’s tough to get used to the amount of food to eat, and it’s difficult to adapt in other ways too. Long term I know the benefits are rewarding.

You have to decide for yourself if the longterm benefits outweigh the short term inconveniences. It’s my experience that long-term benefit does almost always outweigh short term inconveniences. That said I still don’t know myself if I’ll be able to stick to it this time around.

You really only get the full benefits if you’re doing right. That’s not to say if you’re eating a SAD (standard american diet) and you switch to low fat raw vegan you won’t notice any benefits because you will. But, longterm if you’re under-eating you’re not doing it right, and you’ll run into problems.

Weighing out my food and inputting it into cronometer everyday has been very eye opening and very valuable for me. I recommend that anybody else experimenting with the low fat raw vegan diet do exactly the same. Buy a food scale, download cronometer, weigh your food and input it into cronometer every single day. Not to restrict your total calories and portions like on popular fad diets, but to make sure you’re eating enough.

Here’s the past six days:

April 19

Body Composition
Weight: 152.8
Body Fat %: 8.3%
Water Weight%: 64.2%
Muscle Mass%: 47.5%
Bone Density%: 5.4%

Food Intake
Meal 1: Banana Date Smoothie, 15 Bananas 5 Dates
Meal 2: Banana Berry Sminach Smoothie, 12 bananas, Frozen Strawberries, and spinach
Meal 3: 4 Atualfo Mangoes

Exercise: Pushups
Water: 1.5L

April 20

Body Composition
Weight: 152.2
Body Fat %: 8.2%
Water Weight%: 64.3%
Muscle Mass%: 47.5%
Bone Density%: 5.4%

Food Intake
Meal 1: Banana Date Smoothie, 13 Bananas and 4 Dates
Meal 2: Banana Date Smoothie, 5 Bananas and 1 Date
Meal 3: 6 Atualfo Mangoes
Meal 4: Banana Smoothie, 10 Bananas
Meal 5: Italian Veggie Wrap, w/ atualfo mangoes, celery, tomato, sweet pepper, cucumber and romaine lettuce

Exercise: Tire flips, plate pushes, pullups, pushups, lunges
Water: 3L

April 21

Body Composition
Weight: 152.8
Body Fat %: 8.3%
Water Weight%: 64.1%
Muscle Mass%: 47.4%
Bone Density%: 5.3%

Food Intake
Meal 1: Banana Date Smoothie, 16 bananas and 4 dates
Meal 2: Banana Date Smoothie, 14 Bananas and 4 Dates
Meal 3: Italian Veggie Wraps with, sweet pepper, zucchini, cucumber, celery, tomatoes, romaine lettuce, and atualfo mangoes

Exercise: Pushups, Squats
Water: 2L

April 22

Body Composition
Weight: 152.2
Body Fat %: 8.2%
Water Weight%: 64.2%
Muscle Mass%: 47.5%
Bone Density%: 5.4%

Food Intake
Meal 1: Banana Date Smoothie, 10 Bananas and 10 Dates
Meal 2: Red Grapes
Meal 3: Half Watermelon
Meal 4: 8 Dates

Exercise: Dumbbell press, incline dumbell press, lat pulldowns, overhead press
Water: 1.5L

April 23

Body Composition
Weight: 151.4
Body Fat %: 8.0%
Water Weight%: 64.5%
Muscle Mass%: 47.7%
Bone Density%: 5.4%

Food Intake
Meal 1: Banana Date Smoothie, 11 Bananas and 5 Dates
Meal 2: 10 Oranges
Meal 3: Red Grapes
Meal 4: 6 Bananas
Meal 5: 4 Dates

Exercise: None
Water: 1.5L

April 24

Body Composition
Weight: 151.8
Body Fat %: 8.0%
Water Weight%: 64.4%
Muscle Mass%: 47.6%
Bone Density%: 5.4%

Food Intake
Meal 1: Banana Date Smoothie, 12 bananas
Meal 2: 9 Dates
Meal 3: Red Grapes
Meal 4: Salad w/ Lettuce, tomato and cucumber
Meal 5: 6 Oranges

Exercise: Pushups
Water: 1L

If you have any questions or comments, post them below or send me an email at Tom at TomHolowka dot com.
If you want to keep following along subscribe here

Here are the other posts in this series if you wanna check ‘em out.

Other Posts in this series

How To Do the Low Fat Raw Food Diet
Low Fat Raw Food Diet – Update 1
Low Fat Raw Food Diet – Update 2
Low Fat Raw Food Diet – Update 3
Low Fat Raw Food Diet – Update 4

More Weight Talk

According to my scale I’m now gaining fat. I think it’s funny actually. I’m gaining fat but looking much better in the mirror and consuming only about 11grams of fat per day.

The more I keep doing this, the more I feel like eating more is key. Every time I’m feeling a craving come on, I know that I have to eat. If I want something cooked I just eat fruit.

I’ve been going for 15 days now and I’m feeling fantastic.

Sodium

The hardest mineral for me to get seems to be sodium. It’s difficult to say how much sodium a person actually needs because the USDA RDA’s are overinflated (similar to calcium requirements) because of how much salt we eat in our society. When you eat a low fat raw vegan diet and don’t eat any salt you’ll realize this. The RDA is about 2000mg, and I’m lucky to come close to 400mg on my diet. So how much sodium do you really need? Any ideas?

Reader Questions

Just in case you haven’t read the previous posts in this series (linked to at the end of this post) some of my readers had some questions that I’d like to share.

One asked me about my protein and lipid consumption beling low according to cronometer. The reason is because in cronometer you have to set your caloronutrient targets. I set mine at 80% carbohydrates, 10% protein, and 10% lipids.

The reason I set it this way is because I want to make sure I’m getting at least 80% of my calories from carbohydrates, and no more than 10% of my calories from proteins and lipids. The 80% is a lower limit, whereas the 10% are upper limits. So despite the screenshots showing that I’m low in those areas, I’m actually right where I wanna be.

Another reader wanted to clarify that I am not weighing the inedible portions of the fruits on my food scale, and I’m not. You only weigh the parts you eat, because only the parts you eat count towards your total calorie consumption. Even though you pay for the banana skins, you don’t count ‘em cause you don’t eat ‘em.

Here’s my daily’s:

April 16

Body Composition
Weight: 152.2
Body Fat %: 8.2%
Water Weight%: 64.2%
Muscle Mass%: 47.5%
Bone Density%: 5.4%

Food Intake
Meal 1: 8 Atualfo Mangoes
Meal 2: Salad with Romaine Lettuce and 2 Tomatoes
Meal 3: Banana Date Smoothie, 7 Bananas and 7 Dates
Meal 4: Cucumber Pasta, Two Cucumbers peeled, 2 tomatoes, 1 date, 1 sundried tomato, lemon juice of 1/4 lemon
Meal 5: 4 Mangoes

Water: 1.5L
Exercise: Squats, Pushups

April 17

Body Composition
Weight: 152.0
Body Fat %: 8.1%
Water Weight%: 64.4%
Muscle Mass%: 47.6%
Bone Density%: 5.4%

Food Intake
Meal 1: 4 Atualfo Mangoes
Meal 2: Date Smoothie aka Dateorade (first time I’ve ever had this, reminds me of root beer) 12 Dates and water
Meal 3: Green Grapes
Meal 4: Banana Date Smoothie, 8 Bananas and 8 Dates
Meal 5: Spinach Tomato and Celery

Water: 1.5L
Exercise: Pushups, Squats

April 18

Body Composition
Weight: 152.4
Body Fat %: 8.2%
Water Weight%: 64.2%
Muscle Mass%: 47.5%
Bone Density%: 5.4%

Food Intake
Meal 1: Green Smoothie, 12 Bananas and Spinach
Meal 2: 5 Dates and Celery,
Meal 3: Banana Date Smoothie, 16 Bananas 4 Dates
Meal 4: 5 Bananas
Meal 5: Salad with Romaine Lettuce and 2 Tomatoes

Water: 2L
Exercise: Dumbbell Press, Incline Dumbbell Press, Lat Pull Downs, Smith Machine Squats, Dumbbell Curls

If you have any questions or comments, post them below or send me an email at Tom at TomHolowka dot com.
If you want to keep following along subscribe here

Here are the other posts in this series if you wanna check ‘em out.

Other Posts in this series

How To Do the Low Fat Raw Food Diet
Low Fat Raw Food Diet – Update 1
Low Fat Raw Food Diet – Update 2
Low Fat Raw Food Diet – Update 3

Mangoes

I decided to try not eating mangoes for a day to see if my weight would go back down. You can see below in the screen shots my weight went down after not eating them for a day and then back up again after a day of eating plenty of mango. I’m not concerned about my weight number either way, but it’s something interesting to note.

Here’s the last two days:

April 14

Body Composition
Weight: 151.6
Body Fat %: 8.0%
Water Weight%: 64.5%
Muscle Mass%: 47.7%
Bone Density%: 5.4%

Food Intake
Meal 1: Banana Date Smoothie 14 Bananas, 4 Dates
Meal 2: Banana Spinach Smoothie 16 Bananas, 1/3lb of Spinach
Meal 3: Green Grapes
Meal 4: 1 Cucumber Peeled w/ 6 Dates

Water: 1.5L
Exercise: Dumbbell Bench Press, Lat Pull-downs, Push-ups

April 15

Body Composition
Weight: 151.0
Body Fat %: 7.8%
Water Weight%: 64.7%
Muscle Mass%: 47.8%
Bone Density%: 5.4%

Food Intake
Meal 1: 5 Mangoes w/ celery after
Meal 2: Banana Date Smoothie 11 bananas and 10dates w/ celery after
Meal 3: 7 Mangoes
Meal 4: 5 Oranges

Water: 2L
Exercise: Lat Pulldowns, Dips, Shoulder Press, and some ab work. Stationary bike too.

Eating Enough

My ripe banana stock is low so I’m forced to eat less bananas until the ones I have ripen up. I have 80lbs of bananas in my house right now but not a single one is edible.

I find it’s much more difficult to get an adequate amount of calories without having ripe bananas available. Bananas are the cheapest and easiest calorie source (outside the tropics) on the low fat raw food diet. I can get one 40lb box of organic bananas for about $28. One banana, depending on the size is between 50 and 110 calories. Peeling 15 bananas and putting them into a smoothie takes about 3 minutes. Then you can blend it up with a tiny bit of water and enjoy it in front of the computer. Simple, fast, easy, convenient, and nutritious. Banana smoothies are like a dream meal, I almost feel a little lost without them.

I’ll continue to do my best over the next couple days without my precious bananas.

That’s it for This update.Subscribe to keep following along.

Other Posts in this series

How To Do the Low Fat Raw Food Diet
Low Fat Raw Food Diet – Update 1
Low Fat Raw Food Diet – Update 2

I decided to do the food intake report a little bit differently for this update, by just showing the cronometer screenshots instead of writing out each thing I ate. It saves me some time. I would like to actually write what I’m at eating for each meal so you guys can see what I’m having each time I eat instead of just seeing all of my food listed.

Things are still rolling right along with the low fat raw food diet, so let me waste no time and get right to the daily recaps.

April 11

Forgot to record all my scale stats in my handy dandy notebook today but I did manage to get a few because of a chart I’m keeping.

Body Composition
Weight: 151.0
Body Fat %: 7.8%
Water Weight%: ?
Muscle Mass%: 47.8%
Bone Density%: ?

Food Intake

April 12

This was mom’s birthday. Happy Birthday Mom!

Body Composition
Weight: 150.6
Body Fat %: 7.8%
Water Weight%: 64.8%
Muscle Mass%: 47.9%
Bone Density%: 5.4%

Food Intake
Meal 1: Banana Smoothie w/ 15 Banans
Meal 2: Banana Smoothie w/ 13 Banans
Meal 3: Salad w/ Romaine and Tomatoes
Meal 4: 5 Atualfo (also known as Champagne) Mangoes. First time I’ve had mango since September, I missed em

Exercise: 75 pushups, 40 crunch, 75 Squats
Water: 1.5 L (est.)

April 13

Body Composition
Weight: 152.4
Body Fat %: 8.3%
Water Weight%: 64.1%
Muscle Mass%: 47.4%
Bone Density%: 5.4%

Interesting that my weight was up today. I wonder if the Mangoes had anything to do with it. Imported mangoes aren’t truly raw because their heat dipped to kill off pests. My other theory is that two of the mangoes I ate weren’t ripe. I could tell because they were sour tasting but I was so excited to have them that I ate them anyway. I might have to try going a day without them and seeing how it effects me.

I also felt poor the first half of the day. Just sluggish. Detox, or a certain food with a negative effect? We shall see.

Food Intake
Meal 1: 2 Dates and a Banana Smoothie w/ 14 bananas
Meal 2: 4 Atualfo Mangoes
Meal 3: Banana Smoothie w/ 12 bananas and about 1/3lb of spinach
Snacks: Celery and Oranges

Water: 1L
Exercise: Pushups (lost count, maybe 50)

Minerals

I wanted to show you a screenshot of my minerals from today because I haven’t been hitting 100%. The areas I’m generally a little low on are the calcium, zinc, and sodium. This tells me I could be enjoying more leafy greens and celery. I hope to enjoy lots of spinach this week because I got a 4lb bag today.

You can see I got a little under my zinc and sodium requirements for today

Total Calories

If you looked at the pics above you’ll notice I’m eating about 3000cals per day. That’s a lot for most people. If you’re not familiar with the low fat raw food paradigm you might think that I’m going to get fat. Like, really fat. Honestly, I feel like 3000cals might not be enough.

Why might 3000cals not be enough? I’m still having cooked food cravings during the day. The biggest reason for cravings is under-eating. Not only that, but my exercise load has been really low since I started blogging my foods. If I start to go heavy on the exercise again I think I’m going to find myself wanting way more food.

If my leg gets better and I feel comfortable running again I could see my daily calorie totals go way up. Stay tuned to see how much fruit I eat tomorrow!

Subscribe to follow along

Other Posts in this series

How To Do the Low Fat Raw Food Diet
Low Fat Raw Food Diet – Update 1

April 9

I didn’t get exact numbers today because I went over to my friend Wynter’s house for dinner. Wynter is the only other vegan and raw-foodist friend I know living somewhat close to me. If you live in Connecticut and looking for low fat raw vegan friend send me an E-mail!

We made this amazing raw cucumber pasta, with tomatoes, cucumbers, dates, lemon juice, and sundried tomatoes. It was excellent and low fat w/ no added stimulants, salt or oil.

Here’s my stats for the last two days;

Body Composition
Weight: 152.8
Body Fat %: 8.3
Water Weight: 64.1
Muscle Mass: 47.4
Bone Density: 5.3

Food Intake
Bananas: 2461 Grams
Frozen Strawberries: 206 Grams
Cucumber peeled (est.): 900 Grams
Tomatoes (est.): 182 Grams
Dates (est.): 216 Grams

Cronometer Screenshot

April 10

Body Composition
Weight: 151.2
Body Fat %: 7.8
Water Weight: 64.7
Muscle Mass: 47.8
Bone Density: 5.4

Food Intake
Bananas: 2975 grams
Grapes: 575 grams
Dates: 65 grams
Frozen Strawberries: 158 grams

Cronometer Screenshot

Weight Loss

So far I’ve lost 5.2lbs in about a week. This is mostly water weight loss. Certain foods like salt, and oil cause the body to retain water. Without consuming those foods the body has a chance to eliminate them and the extra water they hold in.

If you’re eating salt, oil, garlic, onion, spices, nuts, or dehydrated foods you’re probably carrying around several extra pounds of water weight. You can get rid of that extra weight by adding more fresh fruits and vegetables and eliminating the water retaining foods.

Vitamins & Minerals

As you can see I’m getting almost all of my required vitamins and minerals on this diet. The only reason that I haven’t had 100% the past two days is because I haven’t eaten any greens or celery. When I begin to eat more of those you’ll see in my daily screenshots that I’m getting 100% of what my body needs.

Clearly you can get all the vitamins and minerals you need on a low fat raw food diet, as long as your eating a variety of foods and including celery and greens.

Feeling Good

I’m feeling really good since I began a week ago. I have no bloating and no gas and I feel pretty sharp mentally. That’s not really quantifiable but I just feel like it’s easier for me to sit down and focus on something when I need to. I’ve been getting a good amount of sleep and my workouts have been going well.

I’m thinking of posting my workout and sleep totals in future updates for more transparency.

I’ll have a new update soon.

Subscribe Free to get updates on the low fat raw food diet

I’ve begun keeping track of my food intake and I’ve deciced to share it here on my website because I want to show people how to do a low fat raw vegan diet (or 80/10/10). I’ve seen other trials of raw food diets online, but I’ve seen none of people doing low fat raw, and sharing detailed accounts of exactly what they’re eating.

My Diet

I’ve been steadily improving my diet since December 2006 when I gave up soda. Then in October 2007 I gave raw veganism a shot, that lasted just over 5 months until I returned to my old ways.

In June 2008 I went to Hawaii for the summer, and gravitated back to raw veganism because it was so much fun to eat all the fresh local fruit on the Big Island. A couple months after, I came home to New Jersey and I was back to cooked.

All through 2009 I bounced between cooked vegan and raw vegan, generally eating raw all day and cooked for dinner at night.

The problem was never that I wasn’t feeling great on a 100% raw vegan diet because I felt better physically and mentally than I ever had before. Looking back on those times, I realize I made a lot of mistakes that led to me being unable to stay raw. I’ll be addressing my mistakes like poor food combining, under-eating on calories, and eating unripe fruit this time around.

What I Want to Show You

Volume

I think most people will be surprised by the sheer volume of food that I eat everyday. After the first few days I’m eating about 3000 cals/day.

This volume of food is required. You cannot meet all of bodies nutritional needs by under-eating. This is why I was unable to stay eating low fat raw in the past. If you’re eating 1000 calories per day from fruit you’re starving yourself (unless you’re like 4′8 and weigh 73lbs). If you want to experience the optimal health and superior nutrition that this diet brings, eat up!

Nutrition

I also want to show you that it is possible to hit your daily nutritional targets on a low-fat raw food diet. When most people learn about a raw diet they have doubts about nutrition, saying things like: “oh well where does your protein come from?” I hope to quell your concerns about nutrient X or mineral Y by showing you my daily food intake and meeting my body’s nutritional requirements.

I started on April 4th and I’ve been going since then. I don’t really have a definite idea of the amount of time I’ll be doing this for, so I’ll just say I’ll go until I feel like stopping.

Cronometer

I downloaded cronometer, an open source program for tracking my food to show my daily calorie intakes, vitamins and minerals.The great thing about this program is that it breaks down everything and shows how much protein, vitamins, minerals, carbohydrate and anything you could want to know about the food you’re eating.

I made some edits to the program, like removing B12 and Vitamin D from the chart. Vitamin D is not found in non-fortified foods and you get it from sunlight. Since I’m not eating any fortified foods, it would be 0% every day, so I just took it off.

I also removed B12 because it also is generally not found in commercial produce, so the program would also show 0% each day. Vitamin B12 is produced by bacteria in the intestine, so the only way to know if I have adequate B12 would be to get a blood test which I plan to do later this year.

I made some other edits too, which I’ll update later because I don’t have access to them right now.

April 13: Here are the other edits I made to the program. In every case I changed the minimum amount.

Omega 6 to 2.2g
Calcium to 500mg
Zinc to 7mg
Selenium to 26mcg
Vitamin E to 10mg
Vitamin K to 60mcg
Sodium to 400mg

Here’s a screenshot of my day yesterday from cronometer:

I purchased a food scale so I can accurately measure the food I’m eating before I eat it. That’s how I know exactly how many grams of food I ate from the photo.

Measurements

I also bought a scale for weighing humans so I can keep track of body weight fluctuations. This scale also keeps track of body fat percentage, water weight percentage, muscle mass percentage and bone density. I don’t know how accurate those measurements are, but I’ll be keeping track of that also.

On Sunday (April 4th) I took some before photos so you can see any differences in how I look then and how I look in a month or so. After I got some photos, I took measurements of my chest, hips, waist, thigh and bicep to see if there’s any changes.

Here’s my initial measurements
Chest: 35in
Waist: 31in
Hip: 35.5in
Thigh: 21.5in
Arm: 12.5in

Weight: 156.4
Body Fat %: 9.7
Water Weight: 62.5
Muscle Mass: 46.3
Bone Density: 5.2

I honestly don’t expect too much fluctuation in weight or these measurements because I’m already thin and not planning on doing super heavy exercise this month. We’ll see what happens.

Here are some results from the last three days.

April 6th

Body Composition
Above

Food Intake
Bananas: 2543 Grams
Spinach: 260 Grams
Oranges: 1154 Grams
Tomatoes: 287 Grams

Cronometer Summary:

April 7th

Body Compisition
Weight: 153.4
Body Fat %: 8.5
Water Weight: 65.9
Muscle Mass: 47.3
Bone Density: 5.3 %

Food Intake
Bananas: 2988 Grams
Spinach: 100 Grams
Oranges: 743 Grams

Cronometer Summary

April 8th

Body Composition
Weight: 151.8
Body Fat %: 7.9
Water Weight: 64.5
Muscle Mass: 47.7
Bone Density: 5.4 %

Food Intake
Bananas: 2940 Grams
Frozen Strawberries: 224 Grams
Celery (de-strung): 320 Grams
Frozen Peaches: 194 Grams
Romaine Lettuce: 375 Grams
Cucumber (peeled): 235 Grams
Tomatoes: 816 Grams

See the first photo in this post for the Cronometer Summary

In the coming days I’ll continue to share my experiences so anyone reading can get a clear idea of how to do low fat raw food diet.

Part of the reason I’m doing this is to have a source on record that I can show people who have doubts about effectiveness of the low fat raw food diet on health. It works, and I know it works because I’ve done it before.

By sharing this I hope I can help others reach a new level of personal health, so follow along with me!

Your eating habits and your relationship with food is something that develops over your entire life. Every time you’ve ever put something in your mouth you’re reinforcing your eating habits. It takes time to change it. A long time.

How many years have you been alive? However long it is, that’s how long you’ve been developing your eating habits and your relationship to food.

Is it reasonable to expect yourself to break that pattern overnight? No Way! So Take Your Time!

A big problem is that people want to be 100% raw right away, never eat cooked food again or never even want to ever think about eat cooked food again. Our culture is all about instantaneousness. I’m not saying it can’t be done “cold turkey” but for a lot of people it has to be a process.

And when I say take your time I don’t mean give it a week. Years. Many Years. Really.

Here are examples of some of my favorite raw fooders and how long it took them to get to the longterm 100% Mark.

Dr. Doug Graham

Dr. Graham is the author of my favorite book on raw foods the 80/10/10 Diet. Doug was constantly trying to find a diet that worked for him even as a teen. Even when he began raw he failed on it for EIGHT YEARS before successfully becoming 100% Raw 80/10/10. Note: I wanted to source this with a link but can’t remember where I heard/read this.

Doug was developing his dietary habits for most of his life until he started doing what he’s since coined as 80/10/10.

Harley Johnstone

Harley Johnstone aka DurianRider - Was a vegan eating high raw for FOUR YEARS before going 100% Raw. Source He says it at about 0:50 into the video.

Notice that Harley’s diet evolved over a period of many years. If you watch the full video you’ll even see where he says that he hasn’t drank coffee in 10 or 11 years either. Again proving that it’s a process that takes a lot of time. So if you count from the time he gave up coffee to the time he started being 100% raw you’ll get a period of about six or seven years.

Steve Pavlina

Steve gave Raw a shot in 1997 and only lasted 3 Days! He gave it another shot five years later in 2002 and lasted 30 days. In 2008 he blogged publicly about his raw food trial and was eating 100% raw for most of the year. Steve Still doesn’t eat all raw and occasionally will still eat cooked food. Source.

Notice again that his diet evolved over a period of many years. Steve became vegetarian in 1994. Over 15 years of dietary evolution, and even now he still not at 100% raw.

I’m a Wannabe Raw Fooder

I’ve posted before about my diet, but for a quick recap I eat mostly raw and I have eaten all raw in the past for one 5 month period and one 4 month period, both in 2008.

I wrote this post because I too am a wannabe raw fooder. Sometimes I get upset or frustrated I’m not 100% raw not because I’m a freak or insecure or anything like that but because I know when I am 100% raw I feel amazing pysically. Better than my body ever feels.

But I too have to realize that this is a long process that takes a lot of time. I’ve been upgrading my diet since December 2006, and there’s still improvements I’d like to make.

I’m so happy for all the improvements I’ve made so far even though I know I’m not where I’d ultimately like to end up. That’s one of the great things about life, there’s always room for improvement if you want it.

That’s the real takeaway here. All growth, personal or social is a process, and it might take longer than you want but you have to be willing to accept that as part of the ride.

Are you a raw fooder? Or someone who’s been trying to improve an area of your life for a long time? Please leave a comment below and share your thoughts!

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The best part of this trick? You don’t have to do anything but wait.

Wait till it’s Spotted

I see so many people chomping down on these perfect looking golden yellow bananas. Those bananas might look perfect but they could taste waaay better. Why? Because that banana’s not ripe.Ripe bananas taste better.

The reason ripe bananas taste better is because during the ripening process the starch to sugar ratio changes. When the banana ripens the amount of sugars increase while the amount of starch decreases. Sugar tastes good. Starches are bland and boring.
(Photo: Unripe Bananas)

Seriously. Just wait.

How You Know They’re Ripe

The bananas aren’t ripe until they’re spotted. I know, it’s hard to wait until they get spotted, but it’s worth it for superior taste.

It almost seems a little counter intuitive, but that’s the way nature made em. Those spots on the peel signal that they are ready to eat.

Many people won’t even eat a spotted banana because they think it’s bad, spoiled, gross, or yucky. I was one of those people when I was a kid too. Time to grow up people!

(Photo: Ripe Bananas)

Taste Test

Don’t believe me? Do the banana taste test.

I’ve done this test with a few people and they all preferred my ripened banana over their unripened banana.

Get a ripe banana (yellow w/ spots) and an unripe banana (yellow w/ no spots). Take a bite out of the unripe banana. Chew. Swallow. Notice the taste. Next, take your ripened spotted banana and do the same. Viola! Behold the superior sweetness and flavor of the ripe banana!

Excuses

People eating unripe bananas give me the excuse that bananas are too sweet when they’re spotted. Lame.

Too Sweet? Really? I’ll see this person gorging themselves on ice cream or cookies sometime later. Maybe they’re just comfortable deluding themselves. A ripe banana is definitely not sweeter than a big bowl of chocolate ice cream. Lots healthier too.

Wait till they’re ripe for a tasty delight!

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For those not familiar I ate completely 100% raw for two periods. The first began in November 2007 and lasted until April 2008. The second began in July 2008 and lasted until October 2008. My diet has been forever changed, because even in the periods after and in between I still eat a very high percentage raw.

Not 100% Raw

Some days I still eat 100% raw but most days I’ll have raw fruits all day and have cooked meal at night. Like yesterday I had a Banana, Spinach smoothie in the morning, about two pounds of grapes in the afternoon, and at night had potatoes, a very small bowl of soup, a vegan chocolate chip cookie, and a piece of vegan coconut cake.

I don’t really speculate nor care at the moment about what percentage raw I am, but if I had to guess I’d say about 50% raw by calorie. Could be more or less but I really don’t know because I’m not really keeping track of what I’m eating. It always felt to me like people in the raw food world focused too much on percentages than progress in general, so I don’t really like to go by that. (I read over this post and it’s basically all about percentages so I guess I do that too…oops)

The staple of my diet is still bananas! When they’re ripe and abundant I can eat upwards of 30 a day.

100% Vegan

I started being vegan in November 2007 and I’m still vegan today. I won’t say I never “cheated” during that time, but I have been 100% vegan since at least April of this year. I’ve eaten meat about two times in the last eighteen months and both times were in the same week in November. (I fell off the wagon HARD that week!)

When I do eat cooked food I always make sure it’s vegan. When I first became vegan I was interested in being vegan for the health reasons. Today I’m into it for the environmental reasons as well as health reasons. Veganism is a pretty important part of my life now so I stay vegan.

I also tend to eat vegan foods that are very low in fat. These are considered bland tasting to the average person, but they’re good to me. Eating all raw for a long time really changed by taste buds. I can eat a plain slice of whole wheat bread with no topping and be perfectly fine with it. Same goes for a baked potato with no toppings or oils. I like the way the foods taste on their own. Plus it’s unhealthy to add oils to your food because oil is 100% FAT.

Health

My physical health has slid since not being 100% raw anymore. When I was 100% raw I never had any physical illnesses. Nothing more than a headache and even that was a rarity. Since then I’ve had two colds. One in December 2008 and one about two weeks ago. They both were very short, lasting only a few days. When I notice myself getting sick I make it a point to eat a higher percentage raw, to rest more, and to eat less to help myself get better quicker.

Prior to my dietary makeover in November 2007 I would get sick numerous times per year. I wasn’t the guy with the runny nose always sneezing all the time, but I would usually get sick hard two or three times per year. Strep throat, pneumonia, flu, and bronchitis all have multiple occurrences in my medical history report. I considered that normal at the time because I didn’t know any better. I would usually have a fever accompanied with some type of nasty cough and the only thing I could do would be to lay in bed for four days to get better.

About a month before I tried all raw for the first time, I had tonsilitis really bad. I was sick for 5 or 6 sick straight days. I was living in an apartment in South Orange, NJ at the time and actually called my mom to pick me up and take care of me. Wuss!!

Since drastically changing my diet I’m much healthier. I wouldn’t attribute all of my health gains to diet though. I get a lot more sleep these days than I used to. I usually get about eight to nine hours of sleep per night. Sometimes more or less depending on my activity level. If I ran 12 miles that day I tend to sleep more than if I ran only 5 or 6. If I don’t get enough sleep I feel the effects of it pretty quickly.

I’m also a lot more fit today than I was in 2007. I can go out and run 10 miles no problem just about any day. A claim I couldn’t have dreamed of before.

Why I’m not 100% Raw

So why am I not 100% raw despite all the benefits I gained from it? It’s hard!! Being 100% raw is difficult to do to begin with. It’s even more difficult when you’re in an environment that doesn’t feel supportive to it. I’m enjoying being a cooked food vegan who eats a high percentage raw though. I may over indulge sometimes with cooked food, but that’s okay with me right now.

My girlfriend is becoming an excellent vegan chef and it’s fun to try the new things that she makes too. She made the coconut cake and chocolate chip cookies referred to earlier. It’s also fun to go to the vegan restaurants where I live. There’s two very tasty vegan restaurants a short drive from where I live (New Britain, CT)

I’m not 100% happy that I’m not 100% raw anymore. A part of me wishes I was still following the low fat, raw vegan, 80/10/10 lifestyle, but I do my best not to beat myself up for it. I’ve come a long way in terms of my health and I can appreciate where I’m at right now in contrast to where I was. I also know that some day I will be 100% raw again. I’m just waiting for the right time to do it. I’m not trying to rush it. I think it will be easier for me once I move.

Moving to Miami

In less than a month I’ll be moving to the Miami area in South Florida. Part of that decision was health related. I’m not a huge fan of winter either. It’s stressful to me. In this part of the country I feel like it’s tough during the winter to get high quality produce. It’s much easier to eat unhealthy in that environment because even when you’re well stocked up on produce it doesn’t always taste so good. Makes you not wanna eat it. No one wants to eat food that doesn’t taste good. In Miami I’ll definitely find better weather during the winter and hoping better quality food too.

I’m thinking that I’ll begin moving up to a higher percentage raw once I live there. I lived in Hawaii from June 2008-August 2008 and it was so easy to eat raw there. The produce is fresh, cheap and abundant. I”m hoping the Miami area will be similar.

Health like all facets of conscious growth takes time to develop. What does your diet and health situation look like??
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Last time I saw those relatives was about 11 months ago and except for having longer hair I don’t look much different. After thinking it over I remembered other people reacting similarly seeing me for the first time in a few months. It made me wonder why people were telling me I look good and different when I look the same.

I’ve been eating raw vegan for just over a year now.  Maybe I’ve got the glow.

The Raw Glow

I’ve read about the raw glow before, but never an explanation of what it was, just that it happens to people.  Some people like Philip McClusky and Angela Stokes have lost over 150lbs eating raw and look great. As far as I know they don’t glow in the dark.  That’s because the raw glow isn’t something you see, it’s something you feel.

The raw glow is actually non-physical energy. People around you subconsciously sense  positive energy in your presence.  They have no other way to reciprocate feeling your energy than saying “you look fantastic!” even though you look the same.

The energy doesn’t come from raw food. The energy exists within you, but when you eat unhealthy food you block it. Instead of radiating outward, the energy is absorbed by other processes like heavy digestion and toxin elimination.  These processes use up your energy when you eat toxic food.  Cleaning up your diet allows your energy to flow freely, unblocked.

When you eat toxic food you take in toxic energy too. Negative energy coming from the suffering, the mercilessness, and the human indifference of animal production and the negative effects on the planet as whole.  This negative energy blocks your natural positive energy, canceling it out or even producing a net-negative energy.  Could that be why it seems like we live in such a negative angry world?

So are you wondering what makes people compliment you? They’re simply reciprocating the positive energy you’re broadcasting to them.  Your lifestyle change causes you to become a beacon of positive energy. Others receive your positive energy and wish to reciprocate it, so they compliment you, telling you you look fantastic.

It has nothing to do with looks.  I look almost the same as I did last time I saw my relatives.  I was wearing sweatpants and a hoody when I saw them yesterday.  Not exactly fantastic by traditional standards, right?

Other people sense that you are fantastic, even though it has nothing to do with the way you look.  They feel the positive energy.  They feel it so much it makes them think they see it, and that’s what the raw glow is all about.

This might sound a little hokey to you close-minded folk and I understand your skepticism, but I’ve heard and experienced this phenomenon too often lately to not at least consider it possible.

So what’s your experience with The Raw Glow? Does it exist?  Comments?