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.

While I lost over 6 pounds in my first week of the Raw Food Challenge (I wasn’t eating enough), my weight stabilized for a few weeks and then started to rise a bit in the final 10 days. Overall, my bodyfat change shows a 2% drop. Given that I was already very lean at 11% to start, this is a big deal. To put this into perspective, this 2% drop in bodyfat means that I lost about 20% of the total fat on my body in only 30 days!

(Ingredients for my 100% Raw Sundried-Tomato Pasta Sauce)

This is staggering. Aside from the numbers, it is blatantly obvious to me that my body is far healthier. I am slimmer in the right places, my flexibility is far better than before and my skin is so much clearer. I have even noticed small scars on my skin, from long ago, starting to heal.

Perhaps the biggest shift for me has been around food in general. This Raw Food Challenge really gave my body and a mind a reset in terms of what I consider to be real nourishing food. I am now accustomed to eating large meals of just fruit or greens. I don’t need lots of grains or breads or other proteins to feel like I’ve had a meal. I’ve moved away from cravings for fried or spicy foods and my taste buds have become so much more sensitive. I am just so much more aware of what I am putting into my body.

(100% Raw Kelp Noodles w/ Almond-Cilantro Pesto)

Another thing I’ve gained from this experiment is that I’ve started to care less about what other people think about what I do. I’m far more comfortable to just be the way I am, and serve as an example for others – as opposed to trying to fit in. I guess when you sit down at a lunch table with a half-dozen bananas, you learn to stop paying too much attention to what other people think about you, and just do what you have to do! After all, which is better – a few bananas or a Big Mac? Why then do people gawk at someone eating a bunch of bananas but think nothing of eating half a cow? You just gotta laugh!

So, with all these benefits – Why am I not going to continue the 100% Raw Food Diet? Well, first of all I am convinced that eating a large amount of water rich, fresh, ripe and organic fruits and veggies is the way to go. I will absolutely continue to eat a very high percentage of raw foods.

(More 100% Raw Kelp Noodles w/ Sesame-Pepper-Ginger-Turmeric Pesto)

However, I do also enjoy the social aspects that food has to offer. I enjoy the vegan meals that my family will make on occasion and I do enjoy the occasional cup of hot tea or a vegan donut every now and then! I don’t feel like foregoing those things.

I am also aware of the stress that comes with trying to be 100% anything. That takes a toll on the body just as much as a poor diet or lack of exercise does. I don’t want to fall into another trap of trying to be an absolutist. Going forward, I’m going to enjoy as much raw food as I can – probably 50% or so of my diet – focusing on fresh fruits and veggies (as opposed to high fat raw foods), and see where that takes me.

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!

In my last update, after 11 days on the 100% raw food diet, I lost a bit of weight – quite a bit actually. Despite going out of my way to keep my caloric intake even, I lost 6 pounds in the first 11 days, almost all of that coming off in the first week alone. Luckily, the weight loss has stopped, and actually started to reverse itself a bit. This is good since I am already lean and not looking to lose much total body-weight overall.

Some highlights I’ve experienced since my check-in on Day 11:

• This morning I weighed in at 1375lbs and 12% bodyfat, which is a gain of 1.5lbs over the past 10 days. The bodyfat %  varies a bit due to hydration levels, so I assume that is pretty constant – which is great!
• I find it a lot easier to eat large quantities of veggies, fruits and salads. Either my brain has come to recognize that meals can consist of only veggies or fruits, my stomach has become more elastic – or both!
• My skin continues to be far clearer than normal.
• My overall flexibility levels are far better than on my vegan diet. I have not practiced yoga nearly as much as normal in the past week, but I still feel very limber.
• My energy levels are quite high overall – no “crashes” in the afternoon at work or in the evenings after eating. I feel quite light and energetic all the time.
• I have lost any desire whatesoever for coffee or caffeinated products.
• I sleep very well, and wake up feeling refreshed. This hasn’t changed.
• I am getting much better vascularity over my body – I can see veins that I never knew I had! No – I won’t be entering a bodybuilding competition any time soon.
• I am realizing that it is totally possible to be a junk food raw vegan! How? Well – let’s just say I’ve discovered the world of gourmet raw food. We have a few great raw cafes around here, and the food is amazing (and far better for you than most cooked food meals) but eating heavy meals with lots of nuts, seeds and sprouted grains, oils and rich raw desserts will leave you feeling lethargic and heavy. There are also things like raw flax crackers, raw breadsticks (made from seeds) and of course…raw almond and coconut butter! Overeating these foods could spell disaster, so I am keeping myself from over-indulging on these things.

What have I been eating?

I am still eating fruit smoothies in the morning and veggie soups in the evening. This hasn’t changed. I’ve been branching out and eating other fruits like honeydews, watermelon, strawberries as well since they are in season. I also buy papayas every now and then. However, I’ve been cutting back on the raw cacao consumption a bit. I like the stuff, but notice that overdoing it will give me a mild headache.

Here are a few random food pics:

(Romaine lettuce, tomato, sprouts and a home-made avocado and pineeapple dressing!)

(Papaya is great for breakfast! I’ll eat a large one before work.)

(Who says you need Gatorade? Watermelon is the among the world’s best post-workout foods. I ate this small watermelon after cycling 30 miles in the sunny Seattle roads around Lake Washington!)

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!

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!

Those who don’t believe that you can be strong and healthy on a plant-based diet need to take a look at Robert Cheeke. Robert’s a good friend of mine, and is living proof that you can really achieve outstanding physical health as a Vegan.

Mainstream media is finally starting to take notice. The notion that you need to eat meat to be healthy and strong is completely bogus. In fact, Robert was featured in a recent cover story in Williamette Week, one of the larger alternative newspapers in Oregon.

Robert’s an inspirational motivational speaker, National Events Coordinator for a multi-national nutritional  company and founder of www.veganbodybuilding.com.

Those who are looking to improve their health, fitness and outlook on life should definitely check out the Vegan Bodybuilding website. This site also has further information about Robert’s amazing transformation from a 120 pound under-nourished teen to a 190+ lb rock solid vegan athlete (all-natural of course).

His personal site has further information on speaking engagements, articles and interviews he has done with local and national media.

Whether you are Vegan or not….its worth a look.

If you like what you see here, subscribe to Set Higher Standards and get inspiring content delivered regularly right to your e-mail inbox or RSS reader!

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.