Set Higher Standards by YogiRavi

I have been travelling since last thursday. A good friend was getting married in Pennsylvania and I have been making the rounds to visit family in NYC/NJ/PA. After the wedding and a few days of parties, I’ve finally made it to home sweet home.

My raw food diet is now officially OVER. My original goal was to keep up with a 70% raw food diet for 30 days before switching back to a mostly vegan diet, with a point to consumer more water-rich foods than normal (fruits and veggies targetting 30%-50% of total diet, either raw or cooked). I am moving into that phase of my diet right now. After 17 days on the raw food diet I trully felt amazing. I lost weight and was getting stronger. However, travelling around and staying with family has made it hard to keep up this program.

I will be applying what I have learned to the way I eat going forward. Some of the major lessons:

• When you are tired, you must 1) Breath 2) Drink and then lastly 3) Eat….in that order. 80% of the time, #1 or #2 will take care it. The body is rarely hungry (physiologically speaking) when you feel that you are hungry.
• Triple the amount of vegetables you eat. At least. As a vegetarian, I though I ate enough but after some introspection it was clear that I wasn’t eating enough fresh veggies to have any impact on my health. Modern Western nutrition and the food pyramid is wrong. Look at many foreign diets (Asian, Indian, Meditteranean, Middle Eastern) and there is much higher emphasis on whole grains, veggies and fruits. Even in these cultures, the diet is morphing to a more western-based diet that is heavy on meat and starchy food (I mean really…potatoes might technically be a vegetable but come’on…eat some spinach for godsake!)
• Throw out any fruit juice in your fridge: it is pure acid and toxic to the body (really)….only drink fresh squeezed stuff (mmmmm Jamba Juice!). Drink juiced veggies if you can.
• Drink 1 or 2 servings of a “green” drink mix (like SuperFood or Green Magma) a day. It alkalizes the blood and keeps energy levels high without adding a lot of junk calories your body doesn’t need. It also will mitigate skin problems you might have.
• Eat veggies (carrots and broccoli) or a few pieces of fruit for breakfast. Avoid any processed carbs, including cereal or breads; especially in the morning. Once you start creating a high insulin response in your body early in the day, you are setting yourself up for a erratic energy level.
• Avoid dairy if you can. It is tough for the body to digest. If do eat dairy, make sure to eat a big green salad or la big serving of veggies with it (raw or lightly cooked)
• Cut back on the coffee. After a few days on the raw food diet I had so much energy I never needed coffee. It dehydrates you and makes it impossible to maintain a sustained and high level of energy throughout the day. If you want to drink it because you like the taste (as I do), that is fine…just know and be honest about why you are drinkin it.
• The body can operate on much less food than you think, while still retaining strength and keeping energy levels insanely high. The key is to make sure what you eat is very high quality and to get your stomach and gut clean and effective so your body can proerply assimilate what you eat.
• Avoid useless snacking. if you are really hungry, eat a few almonds or a carrot. Avoid that if you can. I watched a lot of the Discovery Channel when I was a kid. I never saw Lions running around snacking on rabbits and lizards. No. They ate meals. I am not saying you need to gorge yourself yourself like the lions. But eat meals during mealtime and leave the snacking to the vultures.

Still keeping up this diet.

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. In my work out this morning (another Static Contraction weight workout with my friend Kris) 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.

Did another test today. My other post has background info.

I actually felt pretty sore this morning from Yoga on Thursday and a few too many beers yesterday (again, I am following a mostly raw food diet for 30 days, not totally raw ).

I decided to try it out anyway.

Another week and more gains! Here is the progression:

• April 29th: 20 seconds
• May 9th: 1 min 25 seconds
• May 14th: 1 min 45 seconds
• May 18th: 2 min
• May 23rd: 2 min 6 seconds
• May 26th: 2 min 30 seconds
• June 8th: 2min 48 seconds
• (Today) June 17th: 3min 7 seconds

Now time to finish eating my big salad.

Was eating some broccoli (flowerets) the other day and took a look at the package. This food was one-half protein (measured by total calories)! 3g of Protein = 12 calories out of a 25 calorie total serving.

I always assumed there was some protein in veggies, but I didn’t know the concentration was this high. I realize there may be some issues with the quality of proteins from vegetable sources, but with proper food combining this won’t be an issue.

Looking on the net, I see that the exact percentage of protein depends on if they include just the brocolli tops, the entire flowerette, or the entire stalk. For only the dark green tops you get about 45% protein, for the flowerette you get about 25% (still not bad!).

Here’s a view of the nutritional map for the flowerette. Highly nutrient rich and filling.

Here is a view of the other essential nutrients (vitamins and minerals) in this food:

Now, let’s compare that to some ground beef:

Add to that the difference in fat content; 30-50% for meat depending on the lean-ness vs ~10% or less for veggies; and I think broccoli comes out the winner on this one!

FYI: Check out http://www.nutritiondata.com for lots of great stats on food nutrition.

I am on day 11 of a 70% Raw Food Diet. I feel absolutely outstanding.

I actually hate the term diet. It implies that you are going through some huge ordeal. It implies pain. It implies that you actually need to keep track of things in painstaking detail. It implies that your gains will be fleeting (as most diets are). Regardless, I am still going to use the term. So this “diet” of mine entails eating 50-70% of my diet from Raw and Water-Rich foods. It’s really easy to do. It’s not painful. And the benefits (below) are powerful enough to give me enough motivation to stick with it.
My breakfast and lunches are mostly raw, and my dinners are really whatever the heck I want to eat. Even at dinner, I try to have a salad or some veggies. My typical breakfast is a few pieces of fruit, or a few handfuls of carrots and almonds. Lunch is a big plate of salad with wild greens or spinach, and a bunch of other veggies. I will NOT use any dressing. Instead, I’ll sprinkle some sunflower seeds and olive oil on it. Following this diet is very easy during the work day since we have a killer salad bar. In the afternoons if I get hungry, I’ll have some Odwalla Carrot Juice or a SuperFood drink.

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 I haven’t had coffee in the past 10 days at work….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.
• I’ve lost 6 pounds (and I was skinny 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 plan to maintain this for 30 days and then reassess.

I was watching the sunset with a wonderful friend last night. We were looking out the windows across an absolutely amazing view of the mountains and the water. The sunset was a radiant redish-purple. Everything was perfect….except for a handful of powerlines literally crossing our view of the sun! I was a little ticked. My kodak moment was gone. I couldn’t stop adjusting myself on the sofa to get a better view.

Of course, she reminded me not focus on the power lines, but to focus on the awesome sunset. Believe it or not, it actually worked. After a few minutes, the powerlines appeared to be gone (and no, it was not because I was blinded by the sun!).

At any rate, she reminded me of a quote, which I could have sworn I had heard before, but couldn’t pin down.

“If you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.”

It hit me this morning.

This is a popular saying by Dr. Wayne Dyer. He has several books published and has recently had his “Power of Intention” tv program in heavy rotation on PBS. His audio programs are quite good, and I highly recommend checking out his podcast.

This is soo true. When we focus on the bad stuff, we wonder why the good stuff in life never seems to come there way. Change your perspective and you’d be amazed at how your environment will respond.

OK, enough wisdom for one night. Intense yoga class tonite. I am gonna go rehydrate and go to sleep!

I’ve been on a 70% raw food diet for the past 1 week. I feel absolutely amazing. I have a lot to learn to get my diet really dialed in, but so far so good. I have no intention of keeping a 70% raw food diet forever, that seems a bit extreme for where I am in my life right now, but I do want to sustain a 30-50% raw food diet for the near term and see where it leads me.

Why am I doing this?

I have been lacto-ovo vegetarian for essentially my entire life. It was really the only diet I have known, and I suppose I have felt fine and am fairly healthy. A few years ago I was inspired to go-Vegan by a yoga teacher (Sharon Gannon) and after having educated myself on the issues of sustainable agriculture and mass-market egg and dairy farming, decided to give it a try.

During this period I lost quite a lot of weight, given the fact that I was already quite thin. I went from 145lbs to low 130′s. Many of my friends and family thought that I was getting too skinny. Looking back at pictures of me from that period lead me to believe them now, though at the time I was convinced that I was as healthy as humanly possible. I had insanely high energy levels compared to my vegetarian days, and completed two Ironman Triathlons and a few other ridiculous endurance events during the 1 and ½ years I was vegan. I was also working like crazy.

I eventually decided that vegan was not the best thing for me. The straw that broke my back was going to my sisters wedding, and feeling that I couldn’t eat any of the food (many Indian foods use clarified butter). I decided that I would be a responsible vegetarian, buying only organic eggs and cheese, and not stressing out if I had a piece of non-organic cake or some cheese pizza at Papa Johns.

That was about 3 years ago. It is amazing how subtle changes can cause major shifts over the long term. It had gotten to the point where I was really struggling to get back into good shape. Throughout the past three years, I have run a few half-marathons, and done some other long distance events (swam across Puget Sound), but I never really felt like I had the energy levels that I had when I was vegan.

Slowly reintroducing dairy into my diet had, over a few years, made me feel like crap. I gained about 20 pounds (some of it muscle as I was lifting) and while I felt much stronger, was more lethargic than I had ever been. Waking up in the morning seemed harder to do. I started drinking coffee to wake up and keep myself awake. I ate food but never really felt satisfied. When you start to think about it; if you sit down and have a Super Burrito at noon, should you really be starving by 5pm? Of course not. It just doesn’t make sense.

A few months I decided to make a change. I started to go back to yoga, and have been increasing the amount of aerobic activity I’ve been doing.

Last week, I made a radical change to my diet.

While I want to get back in peak shape, I want to avoid going to some extreme just for the heck of it. I want to eat in a way that gives me more energy than I have ever had before. I also don’t want to turn into a walking stick of skin and bones. I’ve been searching for the right answer to this question for a while. I don’t know if I have found it, but I feel like I am getting close.

Tomorrow I’ll talk more about the diet I followed for the past week, the effect it has had on me and the science behind it.

I wrote on Tuesday how my 1 rep max for push ups was progressing. The progress has come about by primarily doing static holds in the push up position every other day, along with some cross-training. Today, I did a quick check in on my max time for a single push up hold. Again, read my last post for a note about the technique I am using.

Here is a recap of progress for 1 set max push up reps:

• May 7th: 30
• May 14th: 37
• May 16th: 38
• May 29th: 41
• June 6th: 44

Here is the progress of max time for a single push up hold:

• April 29th: 20 seconds
• May 9th: 1 min 25 seconds
• May 14th: 1 min 45 seconds
• May 18th: 2 min
• May 23rd: 2 min 6 seconds
• May 26th: 2 min 30 seconds
• (Today) June 8th: 2 min 48 seconds

For each of these “tests,” I am completely struggling to keep myself up towards the end of each set and actually stop the time when my arms totally give out. It is pretty interesting to look back 1 month from today and see that my time has almost doubled!

I am excited. Progress is coming along.

I plan to do another 1 set max push up test on Monday.

Yes!

I’ve just started going back to yoga. I used to be a regular, but for the past few years have been too “busy” (lazy) to go. Yesterday was my fourth class in the past 3 weeks. I was totally fried at the end. Every muscle and ligament in my body was screaming. It felt great

Would you pay $10 to see a recording of a slideshow on global warming?

What if I said that the presenter was Al Gore?

Think not? I sure did.

I am just imagining the pitch that Al & Co would have made to the movie producers to get this film made and distributed broadly in the theaters. Most people couldn’t imagine anything more boring to do with their time on a Friday night. It would seem so dull and drab that perhaps a few would turn up to see what the gimmick was going to be. Of course, you would expect some super-liberals to take some time out of their busy schedule of saving baby seals and turning over the compost heap to see it; regardless, none of the above would turn this film into a blockbuster hit.

So last weekend, Steve and I decided to check out this film anyway. I was pleasantly surprised. I had no idea that Al Gore was so involved with this movement. Apparently he has been giving a slideshow on the consequences of global warming almost nonstop since the 2000 presidential campaign. He’s travelled the world, presented his pitch over a thousand times (so claimed during the film) and backed up everything with hard data and support from the scientific community.

Gore is very powerful and effective as a speaker. If only he carried this level of poise during the 2000 campaign. The good news is, it is clear that the film is gaining momentum. Positive word of mouth is playing its part. It opened two weeks ago, playing in 4 theaters over Memorial Day weekend, expanding to 77 theaters this past weekend. Next weekend, they expect to play in 130 theaters. You can check out more details about the movie, and just educate yourself on Global Warming at the movie website http://www.climatecrisis.net/.