Raw Ambition

I fully agree! LEAFY & GREEN the 2 words you need look for. I eat very little "veggies" nowadays. I'm not sure if we were meant to be root eaters anyway.... I seem to gain FAT whenever I start eating root veggies, like carrots and potatoes.

A sheep farmer whom was interviewed stated when he fed his sheep concentrated foods (grains, etc.) they did in fact gain weight much faster than the grass fed sheep. But the weight they gained was almost all fat. And not just the fat on the surface, but the fat between the muscle (hence the marbling effect). Sheep on the other hand whom were fed grassy foods gained weight at a much slower pace, but the weight that was gained was all lean body tissue

My results after 1 week: I feel fantastic. I am feeling a real sense of balance, and a real calm effect. I cannot reflect on the long term effects so far, as I felt as such during the first while that I switched to RAW. I feel like I am recovering from my workouts quicker and better. And I swear my muscles are getting bigger/more defined.... So far so good. Not changing anything yet.

I highly doubt that any amount of fruit will make you fat. I've had ALOT of fruit in my diet, and it all it did was make me LEAN! P A R T Why? cuz I gotta!

Yes, I too am big on the green smoothies. It's the only way I can get all those leafy greens in. 1-2 lbs. per day. Today was day 6 of my chimpanzee diet. And there has already been noticeable change. 1. I've lost 4 lbs - I'm pretty sure that this was fat as my strength has continued to increase. 2. My wife commented to me today that there is a glow around me, I have a really healthy appearance. 3. I passed some dark stool today. Not dark green, but DARK. My body is purging something. I'm not worried that I'm not getting enough "protein" to sustain my muscles, just look at those chimps, they sure can throw their poop at each other! my throwing arm should be fine.

Why has nobody mentioned Durian?? It's called the "King of Fruits" for a reason!

Wow! thanks to everyone for their positive support. And not to worry, I have not cut back on my fruit consumption, just cut back on the nuts/seeds/oils and increased the greens. I know the importance of good carbs, especially to a fitness practitioner like myself.

Well I am from Canada, and we have some bitterly cold winters reaching minus 30 degrees. So I manage by bundling up nice and tight. And I do not know the approximate macro breakdown diet. I stopped concerning myself with that a number of years ago. It's too complicated. Life should be simple. I'd rather concern myself with the joy of my training, and the delight of my palate.

Is there such a thing as a "perfect" diet for human consumption? vegan? SAD? how about the Raw food movement? Did you know that wild chimpanzees share an estimated 99.4% of genes with humans (hence the theory of evolution), but their diet is dramatically different from ours. The most glaring difference is that chimpanzees consume significantly more green leaves than humans. Wild chimpanzees eat approximately: 50% fruits (both sweet and non sweet), 44% leafy greens 5% pith, bark, and seeds and 1% insects. After being raw for several years, I'm not afraid to say that I feel like I've reached a plateau, and in fact I may be taking a step back. Some days I've felt like something wasn't quite right, and I've gone through bouts of dizziness, mood swings. I know most raw food "experts" would tell me that it's just my "detox". Well, I'm tired of the never ending "detox". As a raw foodist my diet has been approximately 50 - 75% fruits (sweet and non sweet) 10% leafy greens/veggies and a good 10 - 35% seeds, nuts, avocados, and oils. Somewhat different than the species I share 99.4% of genes with. So what I propose to do, is over the next 3 months I will adopt a similar diet as that of the wild chimpanzee, take pics as I progress and blog it. I will consume approximately 50% fruits, 45% leafy greens and veggies and the remaining 5% nuts, seeds, and oils. Who knows?

Is there such a thing as a "perfect" diet for human consumption? vegan? SAD? how about the Raw food movement? Did you know that wild chimpanzees share an estimated 99.4% of genes with humans (hence the theory of evolution), but their diet is dramatically different from ours. The most glaring difference is that chimpanzees consume significantly more green leaves than humans. Wild chimpanzees eat approximately: 50% fruits (both sweet and non sweet), 44% leafy greens 5% pith, bark, and seeds and 1% insects. After being raw for several years, I'm not afraid to say that I feel like I've reached a plateau, and in fact I may be taking a step back. Some days I've felt like something wasn't quite right, and I've gone through bouts of dizziness, mood swings. I know most raw food "experts" would tell me that it's just my "detox". Well, I'm tired of the never ending "detox". As a raw foodist my diet has been approximately 50 - 75% fruits (sweet and non sweet) 10% leafy greens/veggies and a good 10 - 35% seeds, nuts, avocados, and oils. Somewhat different than the species I share 99.4% of genes with. So what I propose to do, is over the next 3 months I will adopt a similar diet as that of the wild chimpanzee, take pics as I progress and blog it. I will consume approximately 50% fruits, 45% leafy greens and veggies and the remaining 5% nuts, seeds, and oils. Who knows?

Woo Hoo!! way to go you 2!!! glad to see more raw fooders on here!! rawh.!

The truth is, no matter what you do, you cannot avoid bacteria. It's everywhere. You WILL come across it, eventually no matter how sterile you. It is also my opinion that people who are overly hygenic, are at risk. Having not built up any tolerance to the common bacteria, they will succumb much harder when they DO in fact come down with a "bug". So I rarely wash anything.. and have not had any problems. It also helps when you avoid those foods that tend to rot rather quickly.. meat, dairy, eggs, etc.

One gains weight from drinking all sodas. Why? what is soda anyway? it's water, and a whole bunch of acids. When there is an excessive amount of acid in our body, what it does is store it in fat cells until it can eliminate the toxins. You want to lose weight? substitute acid forming foods with alkaline forming foods; not all mind you, you don't want to create an inbalance in the opposite direction. Sounds like a valid theory?

Ooooooooo!!! I love squats!! count me in!! some of you might be in trouble!! Squatting is the one exercise I've never seemed to have any trouble with, but then I've never really done any "high" rep squats.. anything over 20 reps. .... now where's that puke bucket!!

After looking at your avatar, I must recommend you lay off of that "Red Bull" stuff!

I have a question. Has anyone tried weight training without supplementing with protein?? Are most of you like me? When I started weight training, I really didn't know what I was doing, so I bought magazines, books, searched on the internet, etc. And everywhere I read, I was told that I needed to supplement my diet with extra protein, sometimes 1.5 grams per lb. of bodyweight. So that's exactly what I did. I consumed all the protein powders I could afford, because I wanted MUSCLE!! and you know what I discovered?? it takes alot of hard work and dedication!!! muscle does NOT grow very fast at all! it's a good thing I was supplementing. And then when I switched over to the RAW lifestyle, I completely eliminated all protein powders from my diet (at the time, I wasn't even aware of soy powders) and sure enough, I lost all of that hard earned muscle!!! damn!! so the supplementing was working!!! Refusing to return to a diet of protein powders, pills, and bars, I continued to train, and you know what I discovered? it takes alot of hard work and dedication!! muscle does NOT grow very fast at all! It only grows about as fast as it was when I was supplementing! not any faster, not any slower. I wonder why that is? because TRAINING is the factor that stimulates and triggers growth in muscle, NOT protein consumption! Eat. Train. Grow. That should be our motto! in fact! that's what I'm changing my signature to!

I've always had trouble getting rid of that fat around the belly. And I used to do some serious interval cardio... The problem was that all I ever ended up doing was get smaller all around, smaller arms, smaller legs, smaller chest, etc. I never really did change my appearance. A better approach for myself was to completely eliminate "cardio" training altogether (at least for right now) and have increased the frequency of my weight training to compensate. What about the fat burning effects of cardio training?? If one were to shorten their rest intervals during weight training, one could theoretically increase their cardiovascular system. I know that after a good set of deadlifts, followed by a good set of squats, I can barely stand, my chest is pounding so hard and I'm gasping for breath - kinda like when I'm doing some sprint training! This way, I can continue to stimulate new growth in muscle tissue, while at the same time, burn off extra bodyfat... it just may work!

I now officially hate you... just kiddin!!! way to go bro! kickin!!!

Blueberries. Eat Blueberries until you cannot possibly eat anymore. And then eat Oranges, eat them until you think you'll turn into an orange if you eat anymore, and then switch to mangoes... and as far as mangoes go, you'll never get sick of them... that and DURIAN!!

If you want to get rid of that extra skin, eat lots of silicon rich foods, like radishes. It will help return the elasticity to the skin, tightening it back up. This is a major problem for myself, having dropped weight at such a rapid pace, I carry around alot of extra skin. I'm hoping that slowly over time it will tighten up.

From my own personal experiences, I would not recommend that someone go 100% Fruit. I am a strong believer that we ALSO need our dark leafy greens and many other veggies. High fruit is good tho, 75% is a nice # for me

Welcome to my world Ravi, glad to see you're experiencing a fruity buzz!

Strength increases always preceed size increases. I will go for months with no noticeble gain in mass, whilest my strength slowly but surely goes up. And then I'll go to bed one night and wake up the next morning 2-3 lbs heavier (seems that way at least)

Pavel Tsatsouline. He has some very interesting thoughts on training. I really like his Naked Warrior book. Another great teacher wrote "Your workout is everywhere" Look for opportunities throughout your everyday activities to "practice" your workout. Here at work, I don't take coffee breaks, I have exercise breaks!. While my co-workers head off to the lunch room to have their coffee/soda and chips/chocolate, I stay by my desk and do various exercises- Pushups, ab wheel crunches, pistols etc.

I love getting bugged about being vegan, it's just a game really. I even join in the teasing, help them make fun of my dietary choices. I mean, really, what harm can they possibly cause us? OOOh look I'm a tree hugging, granola eating, wuss. So what? I am emotionally balanced and stable. Maybe it's just me, but I really haven't had too many problems with people being threatened by my food choices. I don't push it on people, I don't go around announcing it to people. If people ask, I tell them, if they're curious, they'll ask more questions. Am I bothered by the sight of watching other people eat meat? not in the least, that's their choice. I don't have to cook it for them. Maybe I just learned to shrug it off because of how I grew up. I was the fat kid, and I got teased alot, but once you let them know that nothing they say can hurt you, they usually leave you alone. Besides! what doesn't kill us, will only make us stronger!