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).

When making any life shift, it helps not to go it alone!

What has shifted for me in the past 11 days? A lot! Here is a run down on what I am currently experiencing.

• I weight myself at the same time every day. I started this experiment at 142.0 lbs and 12% bodyfat. This morning, after 11 days I weighed 136.5 lbs and 11% bodyfat. So I have lost almost 6 pounds in 11 days. In fact, I lost the entire weight in the first 6 days, since then my weight has stabalized. I am not trying to lose weight, but it is happening.
• My strength levels feel the same on an absolute sense, but I feel a lot stronger relative  to my own body weight. This becomes obvious to me during my yoga practice.
• My cravings for coffee, hot teas or any other cooked food has diminished. At some points I do crave some crunchy snacks or vegan pizza/pastas, but these pass by quickly and are no more pronounced than when I was eating my standard vegan diet.
• I think far more clearly! Really it is hard to explain, but I can think a lot better and focus on a single topic without distraction even easier than before.
• I am less attached to others people’s comment and feedback: be it praise or criticism.
• My yoga practice feels incredible, my flexibility is improving on an almost daily basis. In fact, certain parts of my body (like my hamstrings) that have been tight for a decade (despite 8 years of yoga practice) are starting to loosen up in pretty deep ways.
• Perhaps most noticeably, my skin is super clear. My face especially, no blemishes at all. The rest of my body also looks far more clear. Even my hair seems to be thicker and my nails are stronger.
• I do not smell! At all…in fact, even before on my vegan diet, I never had any issues with body odor. However, now on a 100% raw food diet, I have no odor whatsoever. I don’t wear deodorant (actually haven’t for the past year or so) and have no need to! If you don’t like the way you smell – change your diet!
• I sleep incredibly well. I’ve still been sleeping the same amount, though I do notice that I can wake up earlier if I need to (to teach a yoga class for example) and feel wide awake. No groggy feeling in the morning.

So what does my diet consist of? Keep in mind that I both have a very active lifestyle (I teach and practice yoga every day) and also a very busy lifestyle (I have a career in high technology/software). So my diet focuses on getting enough total calories while also fitting into my work and yoga schedule. Here is what I do on a typical day. It goes without saying that everything is always organic!

• Breakfast: almost always my breakfast is a large fruit smoothie. Typically this would include 2-4 large bananas with some maca root powder, hemp seed protein and perhaps some cacao powder. Sometimes I will just stick with the fruits (usually bananas) and sometimes add some greens in (like kale).

• Snacks: I’ll usually eat 2-4 pieces of fruit during the day, usually a couple things in mid-morning and a few more in the afternoon.  On a weekend, I will eat even more. For example, below are 4 navels I ate before a two hour walk this afternoon.

• Lunch: A large bowl of field greens – a really massive bowl! This could be equal to half a large head of romaine; an avocado, a carrot and some nuts or seed either in raw form or in a raw food seed bar. I have a bag of goji berries and cacao seed next to my desk at work. I’ll usually have a small handful of goji and about 10-15 cacao seed during the day.

• Dinner: I’ll usually make a large vegetable soup smoothie, and eat this with some flax crackers or some other raw food cracker made from seeds. For my veggie soup, I’ll really throw the kitchen sink in the Vita-Mix! This includes typically a hot pepper, some green onions, broccoli, carrot, ginger and some avocado. Blended together it makes the most incredible creamy veggie soup ever! Just add some chunky salsa for some texture. In addition, I might eat some other fruits or greens (I love eating bok choy) later in the evening if I am still hungry.

In total, I shoot for 2500 calories per day. At first I was struggling to get enough, but now I am pretty happy with my overall caloric intake. I am never hungry!

I’ll post another update next week. In the meantime, if you have any tips for recipes I should try. Please let me know in the comments!

A Fruit Feast! I consumed almost all this fruit over the 3 days. Note: the bananas were intentionally purchased unripe. They were perfectly ripe when consumed though. I also only drank 12 ounces of the 100% pure blueberry juice.

Earlier this week, as part of the 40 Days to Personal Revolution program, I did a 3-day fruit fast. As I love to eat fruits, I was really looking forward to this. I considered it more of a fruit feast than a fruit fast!

The picture above shows the entire array of fruits that I picked up for these 3 days. In fact, there was more than enough fruit here to last me over a week! I still have a few mangoes and oranges left in fact.

You might be wondering what I broke my fast with? After teaching a yoga class in the morning, I enjoyed some Idli that my mom made before going to work!

So how did I do on the fruit fast? Here is the scoop. Keep in mind that I entered this 3-day fast after having gone without caffeine or any processed sugar for over 3 weeks. I also have been practicing yoga 6-7 days a week for quite a while and have been following a 100% plant-based diet for many years. As a result of this, I think my detoxing symptoms were a little less severe than others. Your mileage will vary!

The good things I experienced:

• I felt incredibly light, inside and out
• I felt incredibly clean, inside and out
• My skin was super clear, and some scars on my face even started to heal!
• I would wake up feeling refreshed and well-rested
• I was able to think very clearly
• I was able to meditate easier and not engage with my thoughts as much
• I noticed numerous “synchronicities” or coincidences happening, too many to count
• I felt more in tune to other people, their emotions and feelings
• I lost a bunch of weight – including visible fat from areas that I tend not to lose weight from (note: I was also starting to get sick going into this…so that had something to do with it)

The not so good things:

• I was eating a lot – not always convenient to do when you have a busy work day
• I had to go to the bathroom a lot (there is a lot of water and fiber in fruit!)
• I had to carry fruit with me to work, and in my backpack and car
• I had to buy fresh-ripe fruit en mass and buying all organic can get expensive (but it is important!)
• I lost a lot of weight (6 pounds in 5 days) and I am very lean to begin with – part of this had to do with me getting sick right before starting the fast! Funny enough, I got sick before the fast – but I didn’t really feel the worst of the sickness until after I broke my fast.
• I felt mild nausea on the second day
• I was very hungry on the second day (the toughest day for me)

At the end of the day, I must say it was a fantastic experience. For me, the physical and mental benefits were profound – and even now several days after the fruit fast – I still feel clean and light! Perhaps even more important, is the feeling of accomplishment from having done something that is incredibly tough but worthwhile.

We are very connected to the food we put into our bodies, for better or worse. Changing our dietary habits and breaking long-standing addictions to food can be incredibly challenging from physical and mental perspectives. There were times during the fast that it was very tough, particularly in the evenings after a tough yoga asana practice. I would feel like some soup, rice or a curry – but those options weren’t part of the program!

Pushing through and making it through all 3 days (it was actually 3.5 days, from Sunday night through Thursday morning) really gave me a great sense of accomplishment. I feel like I now have more control over what I put into my body. I’ve also developed a greater appreciation for the nourishment that fruits and veggies can give. I can’t explain how amazing my yoga practice felt on this fast – I really felt strong and so light that it was like I was flying at times.

Thinking about doing your own fruit fast? Here are a few tips:

• Make sure you don’t have any physical issues (such as diabetic conditions) that could cause issues
• Stock up on a lot of fresh, ripe and organic fruits. Don’t eat fruit that isn’t ripe…it will just give you digestive trouble. Also, if you know all the crap that they spray on non-organic stuff, you wouldn’t buy anything else. It is worth the money (especially for berries!)
• Venture away from just apples, bananas and oranges. Indulge in tropical fruits and melons!
• Count your calories! The biggest mistake is not eating enough. Think about it, if you are an active adult male – you might need to eat the equivalent of 30 bananas a day to meet your caloric need! Of course, you should eat a wide array of fruits but you get the point.
• Your blender is your best friend. I would make 2-3 smoothies a day on the fast. Load up a blender with 2-3 bananas, 1/2lb strawberries and some papaya into a delicious fruit smoothie. Don’t chug it, just sip it. You’d be amazed at how much fruit you can eat this way.
• Don’t forget, avocados and peppers are fruits! Same with tomatoes and cucumbers! Get creative and buy all varieties of fruits. Eating less sweet fruits at night works well for me.
• Carry fruit with you everywhere…..stash it in your car, backpack, work, everywhere.

There you have it, I hope some of you give this a try. If you do – please do leave a comment and let me know when you plan to start it – and when you finish let me know how you feel!