Vegan Bodybuilding & Fitness

I'm posting blogs all over the place to hold myself more accountable this time! I've only gone 100% raw for 19 days before, and I know I can make it long past that (like, my whole life!) 30 days is nothing, all that takes is commitment... The only reason I've stopped before is due to faltering commitment and starting to question the whole thing. But every time I stray I remember all the reasons I want to do it and why it feels so much better than cooked. I think sometimes I get overconfident and start feeling so normal and healthy that I think I can just eat anything. But then a couple days on bread and whatever, and I'm back to binge eating issues, feeling stuffed and tired and clogged up, and a worse singer too! I also start questioning why I'm "denying" myself everything everyone else is eating, and they seem to be having so much more fun than me. But actually all I'm denying myself is the feeling of having fun, or relaxing about the whole issue. Let it be effortless. And if I eat cooked, I'm denying myself of the kind of health, mental and physical, that I want. So it's back to raw, until I get it down for good! I'll never give up on it, no matter what issues I face. I've already uncovered my bingeing and self-destructive issues, and now just have to kick them in the ass and keep my momentum going until those issues are obsolete. I'm not afraid of detox, and I'm focused on the reasons for doing it, not the reasons why it's too freaking hard! So I'm starting now basically, though I'm at my grandparents until saturday and will eat their steamed vegetables so they don't spend the whole weekend worrying about me and yelling at me. Yes, this should not be an issue and I know health is more important than what anyone thinks, but steamed veggies are way better than the bready crap I've been eating, and it's not like I'm a few months into this and feeling strong and awesome yet! Although I am strong and awesome anyway! But I just don't feel like dealing with the grandparents issue right now, and it's the last time I get to see them before moving to Ashland and they probably already forgot again that I was vegan and baked me a pie that I'll have to politely turn down! Oh well. Anyway, I'll be back, with good news of course!~

I am not very clued up on the whole RAW thing but is it really worth beating yourself over something as simple as cooked Vs non-cooked?

Anyway I wish you success

Not beating myself up for anything, I try not to do that because stress is no good! I just know what makes me feel best and will try and try until I've got it down! I'm getting rid of self destructive behavior though, that is most important.

Best wishes on going Raw! Please keep us posted on yr progress.

veggieGuy, There are many clear & compelling reasons to choose a raw vegan diet - or at a minimum to choose raw fruits & green leafy veggie's as the majority of ones diet. If you are not familiar with the concept, I suggest starting by reading through the raw section here on the forum.

Today was ok; I ate a lot of strawberries and cherries in the morning, then was craving bread and ate some raw crackers and raw pudding instead. But all that combo made my stomach hurt and I wished I'd just had some greens or more fruit! My stomach was never hungry, just my brain. But being at my grandparents' has been fine - they tease me about being vegan still and ask what I eat and where I get my protein, but are still very accomodating. They made me a sweet potato and some beans and salad. They kept asking if it was enough protein though, it was kind of funny! I'm looking forward to more time to myself and no school so I can relax and just work 5 days a week like a normal person for a few weeks!

Wow, I'm lucky that I usually don't run into things like this at all, but last night my grandma (after being so nice and accomodating at dinner) gave me a long lecture about how bad I'm being for being vegan. She said it's just a religion and that I won't be able to get married because no guy would put up with it and that vegan guys would all make bad husbands and that it's bad that I'm 24 and don't even want to get married and don't know what career I want and blah blah blah. Then she was quoting the bible about how it's not what you put in yourself but what you put out. Grrrr. Anyway, this morning it was back to "Want raisins in your oatmeal?" and "I think you can eat these almonds, right?" so that was nice.

First, congratulations and choosing to go raw, I went 100% 3 months ago and it is fantastic!

Like with any big change I have made in my life, there has been a lot of adjusting, learning, ups and downs, etc... through the whole process but I have also found a new level of vibrant health and happiness!

Second, raw vegans are hot. We are happier, healthier, kinder, taste better, smell better, have better blood flow, are less moody, and many many other things when compared to your typical S.A.D. diet victim (or a typical junk food vegan for that matter).

What I have found recently that is working fantastic for me are green smoothies, and not once in a while, but minimum 1 quart a day. If you do that, you can worry a lot less about balancing the right foods because a quart of green smoothie (made out of things like 1/2 head of kale, 2 bananas, and a handful of weeds like dandelions or plantains) packs an amazing amount of nutrients in a bio-available form. In addition, if I have a fairly safe place to pull dandelion greens fresh and blend them up in the first few hours I really get a boost. There are a lot of theories about why, but why does not really matter so much as the experience that it works!

Your doing a great thing for yourself, do it right, learn all you can, talk to people, and believe. For 3 million years this is how humans ate, chimps who are 98.4% the same as us genetically still do, there have only been 7 generations of cooked food eaters.

Welcome back to abundance!

Your right...you smell very very good and you are way nicer than you were last year...you were a complete jerk as a normal hot food eating vegan but now your as gentle as can be.

Hehe! I'll have to come to Vegan Vacation again and see if this is true! I'm craving bread like mad right now but I have the most awesome luscious raspberries from grandmas garden in the fridge at work right now.... gotta go get some. I ate probably 2 quarts of them this morning, then some green juice (with dandelion in fact!) at my dad's house, a few mac nuts, and unfortunately, some weird coffee extract that made me really tired (I'm backwards). I just wanted to try it because my stepmom is a raw foodie and told me it was raw and tasty. But I forgot coffee and wine may supposedly taste good and be good for some people, but for me they're just poison!

Yesterday I had a kick ass green salad, like the best salad ever, and the best tomato basil soup ever at a restaurant in Woodburn in the Wellspring. I have to figure out how to make raw tomato soup like that!

You're right about the green smoothies too Isaac - when I do that, everything rocks! I get discouraged with them sometimes because I love the kale and spinach ones, but when I try the more bitter greens I hate them and end up not drinking them for awhile. But they have the most amazing benefits ever! I gotta make sure to get my greens every day, that's the most important thing I've learned in the past few years!

I got off track on other things.... well actually I decided that my stress levels were way too high (as usual) and I had to stop worrying about food for a little while and try to figure that out when I feel calmer. I'm moving to Ashland in 3 weeks and won't have much to do for a little while except edit my movies and maybe volunteer with kitties or something, so that would probably be a much more logical time to start what really is a big committment. But as of now I'm sick of eating whatever and want to just casually try to eat mostly raw - but feel fine if I want some more calories or want some cooked veggies or whatever. Just not using the stress excuse to eat bread and cookies and nasssty things all the time. Being tired is not good for stress levels either! But I feel optimistic again. I always come back to it and it's unbelievable how far I have come in the past few years - how many things I used to eat that I would never touch now, and how much less I binge now.

Thanks for the recipe and telling us about your experience. This is exactly why I came to this forum. Ciao

Alright I'm starting this up July 1st (all raw) with the challenge... I hope some others are still doing it so I can read your blogs too??!

So... I will be living off gazpacho and green smoothies and fruit. Hehehe. Anyway, luckily I am feeling really good and excited about it instead of "aaahhh I don't know what to eat and I'm afraid of detoxing too hard!" So I only have a little more than 2 weeks left of work (yay!!) and then am off to Ashland, a very good place to be raw

I'm a little worried because my period will start very soon after July 1st, so I'll probably have some funky cravings from the start, but I think the greens should keep those at bay. I'm gonna make my friend do it with me too while I'm living at his house, so there's some extra commitment and someone to make fun things with.

And if I'm back after awhile saying I'm starting agaaaain..... well sometimes people have to fail 9,999 times before they succeed. Not that I'm a failure. I'm a vegan so that's a damn good success already! And of course a lot of other things that have nothing to do with food. I've been editing my movie every day and it rocks! I can sing some phantom ok too even though I've been eating some mucusy foods and not working my abs or breathing....

Oh yeah, and some more of my goals with raw are to be a better singer more easily, to have more energy to sleep less and work on cool projects more and go on adventures, to be more emotionally balanced in the long run, and to have an easier time at running and yoga... along with this my goal is to do some yoga and/ or run just about every day! Running has been fun lately. Which is not how I remember it!

So here's to fresh, clean, colorful food for life! Speed reading too. That's something to work on again.

hmmm... i thought that smiley above was speedreading a book but I think it's actually scrubbing something with a huge brush. who knows??? Maybe this one is speed reading. His eyeballs should move faster....

Today is the first day of the July raw challenge! I came up to my mom's last night and right away was craving bread or something (this always happens at my moms). I thought well.... I can eat some before starting the challenge on the first, but then I realized it was past midnight and decided to count that as the first, so I ate a banana instead... hahahhaa! It's the little things.

This morning I ate a grapefruit, just like an orange but peeled each wedge, my god they are so good that way. Mom and I watched Sergei Boutenko's video on how to make raw rainbow pate and we're going to make some soon. Anyway, I'll post tonight about everything.

The raw pate was pretty good.... it had carrots, red, yellow and green peppers, walnuts, almonds, a bunch of other stuff. I ate it with some carrots, tomato, and cucumber. Very fatty and filling. Had another banana too.