Tom’s Raw Foods Blog

I was reading a post on Roger’s raw foods membership forum (the link is in my blogroll) about a woman who was talking about how her husband doesn’t allow meat in her house — nor in his business, even by his employees. She’s changed now, of course (meat eaters don’t usually join an 80/10/10 raw food forum!), but that particular attitude didn’t sit well with me. Let me explain why outside pressure seldom works when trying to make a lifestyle change.

I could never live with somebody who makes those kind of “demands” on me. Then again, I’m not in a situation where I live with a truly demanding person and have no idea of how it would be like, but nevertheless… WOW. What a silly way to live…

I feel very strongly about eating a raw food diet (and it hasn’t even been three months yet since I made the decision to change from the SAD diet) but seriously doubt that I’d “demand” that my wife and kids do anything like I’m doing. True change has to come from the inside and work its way to an outward manifestation. Forcing change from the outside never works in the long run (think religion and proselytizing; a person can confess something with their mouth and you can even enforce it by various means, but is it true, genuine change? No.).

But in the few short months since I made the transition, my wife is eating more smoothies and has cut back the children’s intake of junk food (chips, cookies, etc.) dramatically. A small bag of chips at the grocery store is now a HUGE treat for them, and they went almost crazy today when my wife bought one donut and split it between them. And other than asking (and by no means insisting) that I be allowed to hide somewhere when they are preparing and eating my formerly favorite foods, I haven’t said a thing. It’s all just “happened” (I call it “leadership by example”). And my wife has been my #1 supporter in my actions (not “efforts”) to change.

I’d never make a good evangelist because I don’t think that those type of activities pay off in the long run. I’m more of the “follow me” type of person and hope that, if anybody is watching me, they’ll see something in my example that makes them want to follow (even if it’s just curiosity). It’s actually a more demanding style of leadership because it requires absolute integrity; you never know when somebody is watching your example, and all I’d need at this point is a picture of me sneaking into a fast food joint on somebody’s blog…!

It’s been said that actions speak louder than words. In my case, this is true. Seldom does a day go by now where I’m not asked about what I’m doing. The changes are obvious, and by simply switching to The Healthy Raw Diet (I like that term… Only two Google search results for it right now, one from Frederic Patenaude and the other from somebody I don’t know, so I hesitate linking to him), people are noticing, asking questions, and considering change in their own life.

I like that. I’m proof that this works — at least short term — and there are others, like Roger and Frederic and Dr. Graham, that can prove the long-term value of this lifestyle.

Cool.

Oooh…! Weight loss again! I’m now under 200 pounds for the first time since I can remember (198.5 is yesterday’s official weigh-in). And my mini-garden is starting to grow; the first little specks of green (from the lettuce, probably ; I forget what I planted where!) are starting to peek out from the ground.

It’s a great day to be alive, isn’t it?

Smacznego,
Tom

First, the question…

Am I an 80/10/10 RV, low fat, high energy, high vitality, high health, rompin’ stompin’ Raw Vegan?

Or am I simply eating an all raw food diet?

To answer that question, let’s go back in time to the era of Martin Luther. He found one verse in the Bible that allegedly changed his entire outlook on his faith, started a new church in Europe, spawned revolutions, and ultimately changed history.

That verse?

“The Just Shall Live By Faith.” (Holy Bible, Romans 1:17)

There’s only one problem: Martin Luther got it wrong.

Yup. He was wrong. He was on the right track, though.

Actually, the statement in and of itself, when read literally, is accurate; it’s just not comprehensive enough for one simple reason:

The Unjust Live By Faith, Too.

Huh? Come again?

Yup. EVERYBODY lives by faith.

Why do you do what you do? Because, in doing those activities, you get the results you expect. Do something, get a reward (or an “outcome” might be a better way to state it). But you first must “do” before the “outcome” comes along. It’s never the other way around:

• Go to work, get a paycheck and vacation.
• Exercise and get stronger.
• Eat right and get healthier.

Of course, you say, what about the others? What about those who won’t eat right — who continue to keep all of those deep fried fast food toxic distribution centers in business? What about those whose exercise consists of waddling to the freezer during a commercial break to grab another pint of ice cream?

Good questions: let’s examine that issue.

Do they not have faith? Do they not change their lifestyle because they don’t think it will work? Not exactly…

The #1 reason I hear from people for not adapting the 80/10/10 lifestyle from who desperately want to improve their health and life is this: “Oh, I could never do that!”

I could never do that. Can’t — or won’t? Hey, I did it; (almost) anybody can do it (I hardly ever use absolutes).

So the issue is “won’t” in my book.

So why won’t they adapt a healthier lifestyle? Is it that they don’t believe the results that many are seeing right before their very eyes when they look at me? No, they believe — on a superficial level. They see that my life has changed.

I actually think that the answer to this dilemma lies within another verse from the Holy Bible on faith that doesn’t quite get as much mileage…

“Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen,” (Holy Bible, Hebrews 11:1)

Did you catch that? “Seen”. What exactly does that mean? Well, it’s quite possible that you can “look” at something but not “see” it. There’s no comprehension, no understanding. There’s no evidence, if you will, to prove that what you see actually happened.

And that’s why we have so many food related illnesses and deaths in our world.

Yes, people simply do not see the connection between what they eat and the diseases we get because most of that information is conveniently camouflaged and hidden from public view from those who stand to profit and manipulate.

Don’t believe me? Go back and do a quick study as to when some of our modern diseases came on the scene, then do a quick study to see when processed food and fast food became prominent. See a correlation? Most likely.

Granted, we’re all going to die some day, right? But I’d rather wear out than rust out, as one of my teachers once said, and to me, eating the wrong foods to the point that my body doesn’t function properly puts me in a good position to sit still — and that’s where the “rust” comes from. I’d much rather give myself a chance to wear out, thank you.

So the bottom line is that there’s not enough faith to change their lifestyle, nor is there enough faith to believe that their current lifestyle will result in one of our modern day diseases. There’s not enough faith for either a positive or a negative change — so people keep on plodding forward, lining up for burgers, fried chicken, pizza, and fries (don’t forget the diet cola!)…

So the bottom line is that we all really do live by faith; it’s just that most people have never taken the time to dig up the “evidence” of the things they don’t see so that they can have enough vision to change.

What a tragedy.

Moving on to the B12 part… Following some research I’ve done, I decided that the occasional B12 supplement was in order. I had last taken one back at the very beginning of my raw food transition period (I think it’s been at least two months since I took a supplement), so I went ahead and took some.

But I didn’t follow the good advice I’d read about vitamin B12, which is this:

* DON’T take the cyanocobalamin form (it’s derived from cyanide).
* DO take the sublingual form.

The only form I can find here locally is cyanocobalamin in 100 mg tablets, which is WAY over the RDA. What I did was take one of these 100 mg tablets and break it up into eight teeny-tiny pieces, then took just one.

It COMPLETELY messed me up. I haven’t lost any weight this week, I feel (yucky word alert!) bloated, gassy, and constipated, and I can’t wait until my body gets done processing this batch so that I can get back to normal.

That bottle gets discarded. Next time I think I’ll try the non-cyano, sublingual form. But it’s going to be a while; my research indicates that a person as old as I can probably go for several years without taking any.

So several years it is, unless somebody like Roger or Dr. Graham tells me otherwise.

And remember: Be nice to your bananas!

Smacznego,
Tom

P.S. — So I guess I am a raw vegan…

It’s been a while since I actually checked my daily caloric intake. Since I did most of my own food preparation today (and actually *KNOW* what went into my smoothie!), I decided to fill out my FitDay food profile for today.

Here’s how it looks so far (I may still sneak in an apple or pear before quitting time or a nut or three before bedtime):

10 bananas
16 oz. strawberries
3 medium oranges
2 cups grapes
4 medium stalks celery
.5 European cucumber
.5 red bell pepper
5 mushrooms
10 lettuce leafs

And the summaries:

Total calories: 1560
Fat: 10 grams, 88 calories, 6% of total calories
Carbs: 388 grams, 1336 calories, 88% of total calories
Protein: 24 grams, 97 calories, 6% of total calories

Not too bad. I have increased the total number of calories (I was averaging around 1100-1200 a day the last time I tracked it); that’s good. It also probably explains the continued weight loss. It’s not a concern, however; I’ve been as low as 180 pounds as an adult and still felt and functioned just fine. But I think it would be a challenge to increase that and still eat my daily salad (which normally has at least one small tomato in it; I still have two in my food bag but don’t know if I’ll eat them).

The salad fills me up to the point where I don’t want to eat anything else, pretty much for the rest of the day, so I eat it late in my day. I don’t know why the vegetables have that effect but the fruit doesn’t. Again, by shifting it to the end of my day, it helps ensure that I eat enough calories.

So there it is. My wife may be going to visit her mother for several days next week; if she does, I’ll be able to further track my eating for a few days and see where I stand insofar as calorie intake goes. I think that occasional checks on this are going to be important, but as I’ve mentioned several times before, doing it daily gets to be a drag.

If you want to see my FitDay profile, the link is to the right of this post (if you’re reading it on the main page). The date you’ll want to look for (to track the food I’m referring to in this post) is May 14, 2008.

Smacznego,
Tom