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Day 11 of (mostly) Raw Food Diet - and I feel awesome!


Ravi
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I've been on a (mostly) raw food diet and I feel outstanding. I say "mostly" because I'd estimate that 50-70% of my diet is now based on raw and water-rich foods. I am NOT vegan, though I am very close. I try to avoid any dairy or egg, but in social situations will occasionaly cave in. I AM strictly vegetarian.

 

My routine is:

1. Breakfast: a banana and mango or some nuts and carrots or whatever veggie I have sitting around

2. Lunch: a monser salad with wild greens, lots of veggies, some seeds and olive oil.

3. Snacks: some fresh juice (carrot, superfood) or some carrots, broccoli or almonds.

4. Dinner: whatever I want (raw or not!)...this is my chance to enjoy time out with my friends

 

The benefits I am seeing right now after 11 days:

 

* The interesting thing about this diet, is that I am not at all hungry in the afternoons. I would normally be starving by 3-4pm, even after eating a big plate of food and some other snacks. Not any more.

* I have a much more even energy level. I love coffee and am not avoiding it on purpose, but have only had a few sips in the past 12 days. ….I just haven’t felt like I’ve needed it.

* I’m able to wake up in the morning much easier, almost as easy as when I was back in grade school! I’ve actually found myself waking up at 6am and making myself go back to sleep since it was too early.

* I’ve noticed my skin clearing up quite a bit, though I do still have some pimples on my face that just won't go away. I posted another topic about this in the Nutrition thread/forum to discuss this.

* I’ve lost 5-6 pounds (and I was pretty thin to begin with) with no noticeable loss in strength

* I have a remarkable improvement in mental clarity

 

I’ll keep posting as things progress. I am also documenting this on my blog (link in signature).

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I've also been going more raw this summer, inspired in part by some of our raw food members, as well as from my summer reading (no Danielle Steele novels for me! I read up on heath and nutrition!).

 

I started the summer gradually transitioning by eating more raw (like changing some 'snacks" to larabars and other raw food bars), and making sure to have a raw food at the beginning of each meal (often apples, because they are easier to find organic locally) . Then I went to going 'all raw until mid-afternoon,'' then pretty much to 'raw ntil dinner (which is also sometimes raw). I would estimate that I've been 80%+ raw the last 3 weeks.

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congradulations!

Becoming raw is about the best thing I ever did for myself..

 

I have always been at the very minimum 50% raw.. I've just always

preferred raw produce to almost anything else.

For the past few years I've been nearly 100% raw (consuming pasturized

juices, and hummus on occasion, but my typical everyday is 95-100%)

 

I've tasted some cooked/hot food a couple of times since.. &

WOW, is it amazing to taste the difference, all I taste is salt generally...

It's absolutely amazing how sensitive your taste buds become.

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especially the part about having a more solid sleep schedule. i find that when i'm "off" the raw diet, i am constantly waking up (often times, hungry). i toss and turn. i wake up hungry. i wake up tired.

 

when i'm on the raw foods diet (90%), i get a solid night's sleep. i don't wake up during the night, and i wake up refreshed and ready for the day. i don't even wake up hungry.

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On DAY 16 of this 70% raw food diet (basically, everything except dinner)

 

I still feel very high energy levels. For example, this morning I got up at 5:20am and felt wide awake. I worked out from 6:30-8am and then had a very long day at work. I left at 9pm and was very busy with several presentations and lots of tying up loose ends before I start my vacation (I am off work for 1 week starting tomorrow!). I felt very alert during the whole day. My eyes also didn’t get tired at all, which normally happens when I am very busy. Also, I haven’t had a sip of coffee in a while. Frankly, I don’t feel like I need it.

 

Also, I didn’t feel hungry at all during the day. I had a wheatgrass shot and carrot juice at Jamba Juice in the AM, some almonds and pumpkin seeds during the day, and a big green salad at lunch (no dressing on it, just some olive oil). This was enough to keep my energy levels quite high AND even.

 

I am also noticing a signficiant drop in bodyfat an increase in strength (visually, I see a major change in vascularity and definition, through my scale only says I have lost about 5 pounts in the past 16 days). In my work out this morning (another Static Contraction as I wrote about in another post) most of my lifts were stronger by 5-10% over my last similar workout way back on May 30th. I have also been making major progress in my Yoga practice and other bodyweight exercises I do.

 

I am still planning to keep this up for 30 days. Hope to keep seeing the progress.

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  • 4 weeks later...

Quick update on how my raw food experiment has been going. I made it 17 days on an 80% raw food diet. After this, I went on a weeklong trip back home and it was just too hard to say no to my mom's cooking.

 

For that one week I was home my diet was probably 10% raw (ate TONS of veggies but they were cooked/stir fried). I then returned home and bumped it up to about 30% raw for a week (basically 1 totally raw meal per day).

 

Then, on July 12th, I bumped it back up to 80% and have kept it up.

 

What is interesting, is I am noticing some side-effects after increasing my raw food intake the second time around.

 

* I am not feeling as energetic as I was before, I feel a little bit tired, sort of like I sat in a sauna too long

* I am not waking up in the morning as alert and awake as I was during my first few weeks of going mostly raw

* My mental clarity is really good, almost meditative....hopefully not "sedatative" ....I can focus on things for much longer periods of time when I am moving around my daily life

* In contract to above statement, I find that when I actually try to meditate, it is HARDER! This is very odd. I find myself quite ancy and wanting to move around. During my first 17 days being raw I didn't have this problem, in fact, I found the excact opposite to be true...I could medidate for longer periods of time

* My flexibility is ridiculous! I am doing a lot of yoga right now...but I am getting gains that are starting to scare me this is a good thing!

* I am getting more vascularity in my arms and hands

* My bodyweight isn't changing but, my bodyfat percentage is dropping (dropped from 15% on July 1st to 10% on July 15th with no change in bodyweight)

* I feel much lighter

* When I lift, I can push up the same amount of weight, but I find myself tiring fast. For example, my one-set max for pull ups has increased from 7 to 12 over the past three weeks but after the first set I am now totally hosed for the second set. I used to do 7-7-5 reps, now I do 12-5-4 if I am lucky.

* my skin is clearer than normal, but not completely clear.

 

My uber question is, do other people who go on a RAW FOOD diet feel this decrease in energy/lethargy after a few weeks? How long does it last?

 

I read the article on RAW FOOD that Bigbwii posted that talked about this...but would LOVE to hear from others that have had a similar experience.

 

 

btw...hope ya'll are training hard for the summer shape-up challenge...I am gonna win that thing

 

 

 

Ravi

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Yeah it's great to begin with and then the detox kicks in...then your body will concentrate all it's efforts on cleansing...that's why your lacking in energy....

 

but that's all a part of the big clean up process....it's kinda like trying to come off cigarettes/alcohol....

 

be prepare to feel worse before you get better....do a bunch of research into raw detox....you'll need it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

 

ya doing great.....

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