Every human being is the author of his own health or disease. – Buddha
Taking Control
The first realization to develop good health is that you are in control. You can’t blame anyone else and doing so only weakens you. I know I’m probably not talking to most of you but this is for the few that need to hear this.
Grabbing the steering wheel is the first thing that needs to happen before you can drive your health forwards. So many people are in denial about this that I thought I’d better point it out first.
It’s hard to admit sometimes but you are doing all these things to yourself. Nobody lifts that hand to eat that burger except you. Only you have the power to change. Now when you’ve claimed your power, here are 9 excellent habits that I’d recommend to you.
1. Stop Eating At 80% Full – Your bodys signals aren’t available to your mind straight away, This is why when you eat to the point of being full, your body feels absolutely stuffed for long after you’ve finished, it was full long before then.
If you stop eating at 80% full then your body will be nourished but not stuffed and your energy wont be drained by an overly active digestive system. Digestion takes so much of your energy away. Just look at how people fall asleep after eating a Sunday Roast.
2. Eat For Nutrition First, Then Pleasure – This is a mindset which all healthy humans make at some point. You realize that health is more important than satisfying your tastebuds. Some people put importance on things like how food is prepared, the cost in disregard to the quality etc.
Eating for nutrition is simple. Just eat what your body needs. I’m not one for over complicating things and so I just eat what I know my body thrives on and makes me feel amazing and take a …
3. Daily Multi-Vitamin – When I first started a Raw Vegan Diet I had a lack of some vitamins because I started it without knowing what I was doing. I didn’t like eating some of the foods that had essential vitamins in. I now take a single multivitamin tablet each day to make up for it and make sure I covered all bases which leads me to my next point …
4. Continual Change/Improvement – You have to be prepared to pick out what you think may apply to you, what doesn’t and experiment with it including everything in this article. Most Raw Vegans don’t eat a supplement but its the right path for me right now.
Most 21 year olds don’t get up at 5am and exercise every day but that feels totally normal to me. Making small changes to your diet each day can lead to massive results a few months from now. Exercising a little self control over time allows you to conquer bigger and bigger challenges.
5. Eating The Diet That Nature Intended – Follow your intuition when it comes to deciding which foods to eat. I like to think that it will lead us all to a Raw Vegan Diet but that might not be the next step for you.
You can find more about my experiences with this diet here. I’m not trying to push it upon you. It’s just that the path for most people tends to be -
Meat/Dairy Eater > No Dairy Products > No Meat > No Processed Food > Raw Vegan (Nuts, Seeds, Fruit, Vegetables – All Uncooked) > Fruitarian (Just fruits – uncooked)
6. Heavy, Light, Veg - This idea came to me when I started a new job and needed to fit my diet around its awkward times. This is what I’d eat on an average day.
Morning – After my morning workout I’d need to get lots of calories. I would eat a fruit and nut breakfast. It would include foods like bananas, mangoes and especially avocados. This gave me energy to burn throughout the day.
Dinner – I would eat lots of fruit. I’d get a large lunch box and fill it with all the fruits that I enjoyed and more for variety. The idea is that the fruit will give you an energy boost at lunchtime just when you need it so that you can get through the rest of the day.
Tea – I’d buy a bag of fresh green leaf salad on the way home and mix it in a big bowl with cucumber, cherry tomatoes, maybe some grapes and definitely some red peppers! The idea is to eat a light meal at the end of the day so your digestive system is not working throughout the night, preventing you from getting good sleep.
7. No Eating For 2 Hours Before Sleep – Did you know that the digestive system is the most energy consuming process in the body? Eating in the 2 hours before sleep made me feel groggy because my digestive system took away all my energy so I stopped and instantly felt more refreshed in the mornings.
8. Regular Waking Time – I’d definitely recommend experimenting but here’s what worked for me. I get up at 5am every day and go to sleep whenever I feel tired. The idea is that you sleep when tired but always have a regular waking time.
It doesn’t have to be 5am. It’s one of the best things I’ve done for my health. The combination of good eating habits and good sleep does amazing things for your body.
Getting up at a regular time helps you stick to a set meal plan and opens so many other doors for you in your health. Getting up early gives you mental clarity, a sense of self control and allows you to exercise or do something you are passionate about before your normal routine starts.
9. Fasting – I didn’t know that they sold Raw Chocolate where I shop and after buying some one day, after eating no chocolate for over a week it was heavenly. Words can’t describe. It was like I hadn’t drank water for a week and the first drop was hitting my dry tongue.
I savoured it like it was the last piece of chocolate I’d ever eat. An occasional fast like this gives you a new level of appreciation for food. They say you never miss the water until its gone and you’ll appreciate it on a whole new level once its back.
You’re are an author writing the book of your health whether you like it or not. Some of the book has been written and some is still to come. It’s a work in progress and you just have to ask yourself – What am I going to write for the next few chapters?
On April 1st 2010, the day after my 21st birthday, I turned around my diet and become a 100% Raw Vegan and after only slipping up twice since then I feel like I’ve got to tell someone about this.
For those of you unfamiliar with a Raw Vegan diet, it includes eating just the following, uncooked;
Nuts
Fruits
Vegetables
Pure Fruit/Veg Juices
100% Pure Honey
Anything else that has been created by the combination of Earth, Air and Sun and not tampered with.
I got the idea from Steve Pavlina and thought I’d try it for myself. All I knew at the start was the above. I hadn’t read any advice about what to eat, how much and when. I just went for it and this is what I found.
Drinking Water
I started drinking little water or juices because I get so much liquid on the diet indirectly through the fruits that are all full of water. Bananas are 75% water, mangoes 82%, avocadoes 74%. I used to eat so much cooked, dry food that I had to make it up by drinking lots of liquids. With giving up alcohol earlier this year it is a strange sensation to go from drinking so much liquid to so little in just a few months. I drink water the most now whilst exercising for a long period of time aka football.
Social Challenges
I once gave in and ate cooked food at a family get together because I didn’t feel comfortable telling everyone that I was on this diet. Even though it was light food (coleslaw, breaddsticks) it affected me so much that I decided the pain of my body was not worth doing it again. Once you go raw it’s really difficult to go back without huge pain and this should be considered before going raw.
This led me to totally cutting out ANY cooked food whatsoever. Whenever I get tempted I remind myself of the 2 times I gave in and the terrible feelings I got and then compared that to the mental alertness I get under this diet. It’s a no brainer by then. It’s all about focus. You focus on the wonderful tastes of fruit and you’ll be fine.
It’s hard socially being a Raw Foodist and this is something I’m still dealing with. At the moment I would say find people who are health conscious or at a minimum people who won’t judge you negatively. It’s hard enough adopting your body to a totally new way of eating without having people sniping at you at any chance they get.
People will see you eating a different diet and their curiosity may lead them to ask you why you eat this way. Some will react positively and be genuinely curious but some will react negatively and put you down, which means they are uncomfortable with it.
This isn’t your fault, it’s just the level they’re at. Imagine a man with women all over him in a club full of loser guys, it’s the same thing. Success makes people who aren’t successful uncomfortable.
Adapting to a 9 to 5 routine
For some stupid reason I decided to undergo a work trial at the JobCentre and ended up quitting after 2 weeks as I hated it. The point is, I was eating a Raw Diet at the time and had to adapt the diet to suit the working hours and boost my energy levels throughout the day.
What I’d usually do is have a basic three-meal plan. I would work the standard 9am – 5pm and had 45 minutes for lunch from 1:15-2pm.
In the morning, I workout and immediately need some energy and to put some more fat back onto my body I’d eat a high-calorie fruit breakfast with nuts. This included mangoes, avocados, bananas and pineapples because they are calorie dense. These calories slowly burn throughout the day.
For dinner, I’d pack a large plastic container with all the fruits that I might enjoy for dinner. I never knew what I’d like so packed a variety. I’d then pack a Spork and a small knife. This meal will give you an energy boost and mental clarity to get you through the remainder of the day.
For tea, I’d pick up a fresh bag of salad on the way home and mix in some red peppers, cucumber, grapes etc for one super salad about the size of a basketball. Some like to finish their day on a heavy meal but I find it leads to poor sleep.
Throughout the day, I’d nibble on food at my desk like nuts and grapes which are perfectly sized. I experimented with making part of my dinner into a smoothie that I could drink whilst at my desk, saving time but found them too filling.
The Cost
Yes, it does cost more than a processed food diet but the ultimate gain of eating a Raw Food Diet is vibrant health which is priceless. It’s all relative. You can get food prices which are updated daily (for Tesco, Sainsburys, Asda, Ocado – All UK) at MySuperMarket. I buy a weekly shop and go a few times throughout the week to get new things which I like fresh on the day.
If you could afford this and are still indecisive, how much is your health truly worth to you? I bet you pay insurance of some kind. Health insurance MIGHT pay out ONE day in the future. A Raw food diet pays out from day one. If you are thinking that this might be for you but are not 100% sure if you could stick with it then I’d say kick it off with a 7-day-trial, see how it goes and then consider adding another week etc.
Weight Loss & Pictures
I weighed about 136 pounds before I started this diet and had been that weight consistently for years. My scales are broke at the moment but I’ve had no noticeable strength loss since I started this diet, it’s gone up. For those trying to gain muscle and stay cut, I direct you to this picture of Tim Van Orden who eats a Raw Food Diet.
And this one which shows how fit you can be at 57 on a Raw Food Diet. Arnold Schwarzenegger vs Storm the Raw Vegan. I think there is a lack of people out there as great examples of this mainly because the Raw Food Diet is still mainly underground. Simply having a smaller population of people as examples doesn’t make something wrong though.
I have been logging my workouts throughout the Raw transition. Here are a picture of me a week before going raw and a week after going raw.
There isn’t much difference really. I’ve been able to lift more with the same (or smaller) sized body so I take this as a good sign
This is the ultimate weight loss diet because you can eat as much as you want and still lose weight. I’ve heard of people increasing their calories on this diet and STILL losing weight. This is great for people who have a strong psychological tendency to comfort eat or over-eat. You can continue doing that, lose the weight and then challenge the psychological side of it later.
At the start, I found myself looking at the amount of food I had in front of me and thinking “I can’t eat that much”. It’s because you’re used to eating dense food that has no water in it. Let’s say you ate a watermelon-sized steak. This would bloat you but the same sized salad wouldn’t even fill you. I got over this by simply starting to eat it and realising that I was still hungry and continuing.
The Detox
Your body goes through a huge detox process whilst on this diet. It’s the strongest at the start but I presume it will last many years. I can’t comment on the long term effects yet but know I’m still in the detox period. I’ve eaten processed food for 21 years and it’s been 2 weeks since I started. I think to myself, what would the level of health be after eating like this for 6 months? a year? 5 years?
Skin
My skin is so beautiful and smooth at the moment. The back of my hands and my torso feel as if they are finally breathing and the skin on them is baby smooth.
Counting Calories
I am not bothered about calories at the moment or how much I weigh. I can tell how strong I am by my lifts and my mental clarity tells me if I’m eating the right foods. If you wish to keep track of calorie amounts you can use Calorie King. You can even put in the exact amount in grams that the food weighs to get an accurate reading.
Because I am so light and have a low body fat if I miss out on a meal it is a major shock to my system and my energy suffers because of it. This is something I’m going to have to look into in the future.
Nuts/Seeds/Chocolate
I started eating lots of nuts and raw chocolate at the start but have noticed that they slow me down and engage my digestive system too strongly so I’m going to slowly phase those out.
Why You Shouldn’t Give In – An Example
Sometimes it is difficult to see how far you’ve come. You know you’re doing well NOW but you can’t remember how it felt before. Well one day I was in Sainsburys and the universe thought it would teach me this lesson on this.
I was in the healthy section and saw a pack of 4 chocolate brownies and after determining they were free of egg I ate two of them. They were quite tasty … a little too processed to taste natural though… I noticed there in big capitals “EGG” on the ingredients. OOPS!
For some stupid reason and I can’t tell you why now I decided I’d better eat the other two just so that they’re all gone. Rationalization is a crazy thing . Everything was fine for a few hours …
Then I started experiencing mental fogginess, lack of energy and kept on farting all the time! The next morning I was on the toilet for an hour and was sweating profusely and was too weak to stand. It taught me a valuable lesson though.
Sainsburys Range
Sainsburys does have a decent range of organic products by the way. If you go, ask for the “free-from” section. Be wary though, a lot of the food is free from some things but still contains lots of processed crap.
You can get Innocent Smoothies from your local Supermarkets too that are blends of 100% squeezed fruit juices and have great taste combinations like Kiwi, Apple & Lime. I was really into them but stopped drinking them as they were too filling and preferred eating the actual fruits.
Mental Clarity
When I started meditating earlier in the year I ate a cooked food diet. Now I’ve stopped meditating for the time being as this diet gives the same level of flow, ease and mental clarity that I got from my daily 30-minute meditation. Combining both together in the future will produce great results. You experience moments of ecstasy and mental euphoria on a daily basis and that’s no exaggeration.
Compassion For Animals
I have found that this will increase as you eat the diet. I tried the diet mostly for reasons like improved energy, personal growth but the compassion for animals will only come later. I often open the fridge to see a chicken carcass in there and I have such a huge compassion whenever I see it now compared to just 2 weeks ago. You will stop seeing cooked food and animal products as “food” and it just becomes “edible”.
Self Control
It’s definitely been a huge challenge for my self control. I basically gave up meat, stopped drinking 90% of the liquids I previous dranked, gave up cooked food, tea, biscuits, crisps and coffee all at once and replaced them with something else. I feel so strong in the fact that I’ve stuck at this that it bears any other benefits hands down.
I think its too tough to tackle this from a position of a normal meat eaters diet without smaller transitions (giving up coffee, then meat, then cooked food etc) if you haven’t already successfully installed habits in your life before. In 2010, I’d already started to meditate, get up at 5am and exercise every day. I knew I could handle this. If you don’t then I’d recommend you take smaller steps to guarantee the success. Who would turn down a guaranteed success?
Isn’t It Boring Eating The Same Foods Repeatedly?
When you’ve stuck at it for a week you get some amazing tastes. Your tastebuds are numbed by all the processed foods you’ve eaten and you come to realize how amazing a juicy watermelon can taste or how smooth an avocado feels on your tongue. It’s like you have a new set of tastebuds as they gradually come back to life.
If you feel like the foods are boring though there are always ways to spruce them up. There were times when I saw a huge salad and thought “That looks so boring”. Salads can be added to with honey, lemon juice, lime juice, fruits like strawberries etc. Experiment and find out what works well for you.
In a week I might eat the following foods – Nuts, Apples, Oranges, Clementines, Bananas, Pineapple, Passion Fruit, Plums, Romaine Lettuce, Chard, Spinach, Red Pepper, Cucumber, Carrots, Mangoes, Strawberries, Blueberries, Blackberries, Sprouts (only once!), Kiwi Fruits, Melons, Watermelons, Lemons, Limes.
I know there are more but that list shows the variety that you can get. I love bananas and feel I could eat them non stop. I read a story about a guy who eat 40-50 of them a day, and that’s nearly all they eats except celery and tomatoes. This guy also runs over 100 miles each week and owns his own software business. Truly inspiring. It’s not for me though … yet .
. Everything was fine for a few hours …
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