Set Higher Standards by YogiRavi

I think this is an incredibly important article to read, especially in light of Job’s passing and his authorized biography illustrating what an impact his diet had on his persona.

According to Dr. McDougall, Job’s plant-based diet was not at fault for his cancer. On the contrary, it surely did enable him to live longer than would have been ever thought possible with such a disease.

http://www.drmcdougall.com/misc/2011nl/nov/jobs.htm

Came across some notes from from a few Tony Robbins programs I attended. As we emerge from the holiday’s and the overeating that typically goes along with it, these will come in handy to help us get back on track.

Eight Key Principles for Maximum Nourishment….as taught by Tony Robbins

1. Break your fast every morning with green vegetables, green juices, non-acid producing, low-sugar fruits and fruit juices or light alkalizing foods only
2. Properly combine your foods for maximum health. Eat one concentrated food in a meal and do not combine carbohydrates and proteins in the same meal
3. Eat comfortable amounts of food to maximize energy and nutrition
4. Consume quality oils (Udo’s oil, flax, primrose and olive oil)
5. Do not eat when you are stressed or tired
6. Do not drink water during meals (dilutes the digestive fire)
7. Eat organic food whenever possible
8. Do not eat condensed foods, especially animal proteins, immediately before going to bed

Other general tips….

• Consume 70% from water-rich foods (raw-living foods) – have a salad with every meal!
• Avoid animal flesh – it’s highly acid-producing
• Avoid dairy – it’s highly acid producing
• Eliminate acid-addictions (caffeine, sugar, salt, nicotine, alcohol)
• Eliminate processed fats

Try the above for 10 days and see how you feel! Make it a 10 day challenge to your own health and wellness. Ask a buddy to join you!

Here is part 2 (of 3) of my interview with Vegan Bodybuilder Robert Cheeke. You can see part 1 of the interview here.

In this segment, we cover:

• Robert’s story of transformation from 125 pounder to 200 pound vegan bodybuilder
• How to gain weight on a plant-based diet
• The importance of a journal – keeping track of your goals and training progress
• Tips to staying motivated and achieving goals

Enjoy!

<if you can’t see the video embedded in this post, click here>

A few months ago I got the chance to sit down with Robert Cheeke, my good friend and an accomplished vegan bodybuilder. Robert is currently super-busy working on his second documentary (“Vegan Brothers in Iron“), his first book (due out sometime soon!) and touring the country as a representative for Vega and as motivational speaker. He frequently gives talks at health/fitness festivals, universities and vegetarian/animal rights conferences.

Robert is a super-motivating guy who really walks his talk – he’s been vegan for over 15 years and in that time has gone from 120 pounder to 190+ pound bodybuilder, all using 100% plant-based nutrition. I split the interview into three different clips. I’ll post the second two in the next week or two, but wanted to share this one with you right away.

In this <10 minute clip, we discuss:

• What Robert is up to – filming, speaking, competing!
• Update on his latest competitions
• Common nutrition “pitfalls” many vegans make
• His favorite 100% plant-based protein sources

Enjoy!

Vegan Bodybuilder Robert Cheeke Interview (Part 1/3)

BTW…if you have questions for Robert, please leave them in the comments to this post and we’ll address them in a future post.

The final product, not a soup...not a casserole...I guess it's a stew?

I got the idea for this while visiting my sister over the weekend. We decided to make a soup and ended up using whatever was available. It turned out amazingly well! The awesome thing is that it took very little effort to make.

In my effort to recreate the soup this evening I did something wrong…and it turned out much thicker, more like a thick rice stew.  I think the reason mine turned out this way is that I added rice instead of quinoa (which my sister used). I also used about twice as much rice as I should have .

It still tastes incredibly good so I thought I’d share with all of you.

Cooking time is about 40 minutes and total time including all prep is about 50 minutes – depending on how fast you are at chopping stuff up. In fact, you could probably get by with less cooking time but I like to give it a while for all the flavors to soak into the rice.

Ingredients...use organic stuff where possible!

The key is components of the stew are:

1. a bunch of veggies
2. some sort of starch like a potato, yam or beet
3. a grain like rice, millet or quinoa
4. a protein like beans or tofu
5. some spice like fresh herbs, ginger, etc.

With this framework you can modify to your heat’s content! The recipe for the stew I just made is as follows. It makes a monster sized pot that will probably last for 3 meals for me! Instead of 2 cups of rice use 1 cup of quinoa and even more water for more of a soup instead of a thick stew.

• 3 medium sized red beets (use golden beets if the a red-colored soup scares you!)
• 1 cup brown rice (more makes it heartier)
• 1 cup white rice (ditto)
• 1 can (15oz) black eyed peas
• 12 ounces extra firm tofu
• 4 large celery stalks
• 2 small carrots
• 1 medium onion
• 6 cloves garlic
• 1 tsp grated ginger
• 3 dried red chilies (whole)
• 1 handful fresh parsley
• 10 fresh sage leaves
• 1 small avocado
• some salt
• some pepper
• enough water to cover everything completely (pure spring water of course!)
• a little olive oil

All ingredients in the pot....it thickens a lot when done cooking.

Directions: Stir fry the onions, garlic, celery in olive oil until the onions get soft. Add in everything else and fill up with water. Bring to a boil and then turn down the heat to simmer for about 30 minutes. Check to make sure the rice is nice and soft. Add a little more salt and pepper to taste at the end. Spoon into a bowl and top with fresh avocado.

Enjoy!

p.s. if you try out any variations of this recipe, please post a comment and let me know how it goes! The great thing is you can pretty much throw in whatever you have on hand. Instead of beets you could use sweet potatoes. Instead of onion you could use peppers. Etc.

It is rasberry season! Finally, I can enjoy these wonderful berries fresh without having to pay and arm and a leg. I picked up an entire tray (6 overflowing pints) of rasberries for $15 from a local farmer’s market (all organic of course). I could probably get them cheaper, but that would require a drive outside of town.

Throw half-pint of berries, a super-ripe banana and a heaping tablespoon of hemp seeds into your Vita-Mix. Blend for about 10 seconds and enjoy. I use the whole hemp seeds in this recipe to get more of the good fats (as opposed to just using the hemp protein isolate). Hemp is an amazing source of Omega 3 fatty acids, and is also a complete and full-spectrum protein source – with all the amino acids your body needs to build muscle.

(Breakfast! 1 Whole Organic Honeydew Melon)

I’ve reached the final point in my Raw Food 30 Day Challenge. It has been a great adventure. While I experienced some incredible increases in my overall health and wellness, I was also happy to break the 30-day streak with a dinner at a favorite vegan restaurant of mine with some friends last night!

In my previous updates, I wrote about the benefits I was experiencing through this way of eating. Those benefits continued, and if anything became even more pronounced throughout the last 10 days of the challenge. I feel incredibly light. I think clearly. My skin is clear and I really feel great overall.

In terms of body composition, here is where that ended up. Keep in mind that throughout this entire challenge I had no intention to lose weight. I am already fit and slim enough. I also made a point to eat a significant number of calories (mostly through fresh, organic, ripe fruits!). My goal was to try to keep my caloric intake similar to what my previous diet was (roughly 2300 calories per day). I think I struggled to do this for the first 10 days or so, but then got the routine down and was eating plenty.

Read the rest of this entry »

Wow, time really does fly by! It seems like just a few days ago I was contemplating this little experiment. It really has not been anywhere near as challenging as I thought it would be. My food cravings for cooked foods have diminished even more as I’ve gotten smarter about eating more total calories and also eating the right types of foods.

Over the past week, I’ve started to experiment with some new foods and recipes, and have started to cultivate a keen taste for my morning fruit smoothies and evening veggie soups (un – cooked of course)! I actually look forward to these!

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Today is Day 11 of my Raw Food 30 Day Challenge. I really didn’t expect it to be this easy. I feel absolutely fantastic and have absolutely no detox symptoms to speak of. In fact, this transition from my vegan diet to a 100% raw food diet is easier than my transition from lacto-ovo vegetarian to vegan.

I think difference is that I am both far more educated and also have connected into a support system of people that I have learned a ton from – from various raw food online forums like Give It To Me Raw and 30 Bananas A Day, and through a few friends (like Darrick) who have been walking down this path for a while. I’ve also been reading a ton of books and online resources (including Dr. Doug Graham’s 80-10-10 and David Wolfe’s Sunfood Diet).

Read the rest of this entry »

Starting tomorrow morning I will be embarking on a 30-Day Raw Food Challenge. I’ve done the raw food thing before, most recently as part of a 3-day fruit feast and also for a few months last year as well.

The issue is, last year I wasn’t 100% raw, I did cooked food meals now and then – usually at dinner time. I also wasn’t nearly as educated in terms of what to eat, and such ended up not eating enough calories or nutrient dense superfoods (like goji berries, cacao, maca root, acai, etc.).

This time I am more educated, more motivated and have experience at my side from past successful and not-so-successful experiments with my diet.

I’ll also note a few of the reasons why I am doing this challenge. At the end of the day, I am a big believer that the motivations for doing something are the true driving force for any positive and lasting change.

So why am I doing this 30-day Raw Food Challenge?

1. There are numerous studies and articles that point to raw or mostly raw food diets as a key factor in positively impacting overall human health and longevity.
2. I personally know several raw foodists that are not only surviving, but thriving on a raw food diet.
3. During my last raw food experiment, while I had some breakthrough and positive experiences – right now I am much more well-informed and better prepared to not fall into some of the traps/issues I ran into last time.
4. Primarily raw and water-rich foods are important factors in helping the body naturally cleanse and detoxify.
5. My diet right now features a high percentage of raw foods – about 30-50% on most days. Moving to 100% will be a big challenge but is doable – and will help me dislodge some unhealthy eating habits that I have developed lately (eating too late, eating fried foods, eating too large meals, etc.).
6. During past experiences with fasting or eating raw foods, I experienced a profound heightened sense of mental performance and a deeper ability to meditate and connect to the present moment. I am interested to see how the 30-Day Raw Food Challenge impacts my meditation practice.
7. I am curious to see how my yoga practice is impacted through a Raw Food diet. In past experiences, I’ve noticed increased flexibility and a higher strength-to-weight ratio when eating a raw or mostly raw diet.

For reference, my current body weight is 142.0lbs and body fat is 11% (as measured by a Tanita-brand body fat measurement scale). I’ll be tracking this throughout the challenge.

So there it is. The journey starts tomorrow. If you have walked down this path before and have any tips, please do share in the comments! If you are willing to take this journey with me (even for a few days, a week or the full month) – that would be cool as well!