After starting to exercise daily earlier this year I got results pretty quickly. My focus was getting the maximum I could out of the minimum time. I exercised for 15 minutes each morning doing Tabata Intervals which included a 5 minute warm up and warm down. You can imagine how frantic it was. I got really bored doing the workout and dreaded it as I went to bed each night. I’m not one to settle for a 7 out of 10 and so started thinking what would be a 10 out of 10 in fitness?
I thought long and hard. I didn’t want to become a bodybuilder and get “huge” as I knew that comparing looks with others would frustrate me. I just wanted an acceptable level of fitness and most of all … I wanted to enjoy it.
A technique I’ve learned is to ask your mind the right questions. If you ask “Why can’t I find a way to get fit?” it will give you an answer to suit the question like “Because you’re an idiot” or “You will find a way”. Both pretty useless answers. I asked “What would allow me to achieve my goal of fitness and enjoy the process?”.
Non-Action
Have you ever had an experience where you are totally immersed in this moment? Hours fly by in what seems like minutes and you have no worries or stress because you are so focused? You feel like you don’t so much “do” an action, it all just flows through you and it’s a beautiful thing to experience. You are taken over by something larger and there is no thought.
People get this when being creative, doing something they love or even when they’re in a fight. I wanted to experience this through exercise and was willing to accept nothing less.
Can you imagine how it would feel to jump out of bed passionate about the exercise you are about to do because you genuinely enjoy doing it? It’s not even work to you, it’s just you being naturally fun and doing what you love – all the rest falls into place. I think that’s something we’d all enjoy.
The idea comes out of the principle of “non-doing” from the spiritual classic the Tao Te Ching. Going running for 2 hours becomes experiencing nature. We regularly go to play football for 3 or 4 hours straight. We have an amazing time … every time. It’s not exercise, it’s socializing.
This idea was inspired by the principle of Love from Steve Pavlinas excellent book – Personal Development for Smart People. It says you should connect with what you love and disconnect with what you don’t love. Obviously I love getting fit, who doesn’t? But I hated the mechanical unalive objects that I had to interact with on a daily basis to get fit.
Taking Up A Sport
Ask yourself the question “What could I do that is really fun that I can also get great exercise from?”. The first answer that pop up is usually the right one. I have always had a passion for freestyle football (soccer) which is a mixture of dance and football. It allows me to be creative and totally present in this moment. At no time during this am I thinking about getting exercise. I’m too immersed in the fun.
Do It With Friends
This takes your attention away from the idea of “exercise” and towards “fun”. Be with others having fun and you share a great experience together. People don’t want to get fit. There’s nothing amazing about having huge muscles and running far. They want the personal growth that will come as a result of it. Fitness is a vehicle for something bigger. Enjoying time with your friends is a great way to experience this.
Frame It
A frame, in this way is a way of looking at a set of events. Exercise can be framed as “gruelling”, “challenging”, “a growth experience” etc and it’s totally up to you which frame you use. At the start I wanted to get super fit for my own benefit so I could do more for me. Now I’ve re-framed it as being a huge never ending personal growth challenge and allowing me to serve others better. Imagine what that kind of mind shift could do for your exercise.
I used to listen to self development tapes whilst exercising too. I framed the exercise and the workout as 2 sides of the same coin. I was challenging my mind and body at the same time and this was a really motivating frame. These are two great mindsets to adopt.
For You And Me
Some of you might say that you need to go gym to get precise workouts but I’m targetting this at the average non-athlete who just wants to get and stay fit. People just like me. People who want to enjoy physical movement as much as they can and get fit as a side effect, not a main focus.
Make it as fun as possible. 10 years from now you won’t care about how big your muscles were or what number plate you lifted on the weights machine. You will remember the fun you had and how the experience felt, good or bad.
Running Is Beautiful
I run too and love it. This is hard for a lot of people to understand as they see running as a gruelling experience of plodding alone one foot in front of the other until you give up. You see, it’s all about your focus. If you are focused on the difficulty of it then you will experience the difficulty. I run at dawn as the sun is rising and the birds are singing in beautiful chorus. I’m totally in the moment and it’s beautiful and this is my focus.
Being Present
When you see people starting out aiming to get fit they usually start getting anal about it. They’re not in the moment feeling the way, they’re too much in their mind where there are constant questions like
“How many kilograms have I lifted compared to last week?”
“What circumference are my biceps?
I laugh now but it’s only because I’ve been there myself.
I actually have things around my house like a football placed in a certain room, a detatchable pullup bar in another, a set of weights rested on the side, a football outside my front door etc. When you decide to do something you don’t want to do, it is boring. When you are being natural then the action of “doing” something just happens. The actions happen through you but you are not there to consciously direct them. It’s a great experience.
Kaizen
This is the principle of “Continuous incremental improvement of an activity to eliminate waste”. There wont be a point that you will get too where you will think “This is too hard” because it progresses slowly and naturally at a pace to suit you. If you’ve got energy – burn it, if you haven’t just have a normal day – but move forwards over time.
Making tiny improvements each day won’t seem that noticeable at first. Just improving 1% in each workout by running a little further, lifting a little heavier will get you into the habit of softly pushing the boundaries of your limits. Your limits will gradually start to stretch. If you look back in a year you won’t see a certain point where you “got fit” but you’ll be able to see noticeable changes in your health. It’s progress without the hassle.
In the end of the day, your physical body is all about self expression. Be present, be yourself and what naturally follows is a beautiful outflow of creativeness. You are a natural creator, you just learned to become otherwise. Unlearn and be.
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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