Tom’s Raw Foods Blog

Just a short post today since it will be tomorrow in about nine minutes…!

I did eat five walnuts last night and felt MUCH better today. I woke up early — only got about six hours of sleep — and still did pretty good. I did take a 45 minute “light” nap in the early evening, which helped. Of course, I usually work at night, so I feel awake and alert now as I write this at nearly midnight.

Today I’m going to cut my walnut ration to four walnuts and see how I feel tomorrow. If I feel good, I’ll cut it back to three, then two, and keep playing a bit with it until I figure out the minimum number I need to eat to feel right. Although I could eat ten a day and still eat less fat than most people, I do want to follow the 80/10/10 RV plan — which means less than 10% total calories from fat. I also didn’t eat as much today (again, could it be the fat?); I may end up tracking my food intake again for several days to get more feedback as to the correct number of nuts I need to eat.

Roger Haeske mentioned in a forum post at the How To Go Raw membership site that eating raw does require planning. You need to get your food so that it’s ripe — but doesn’t spoil — when you are ready to eat it. For me, I need to get the right amount of fat into my diet, then decide how much other food I need to eat. Today, for instance, I wasn’t very hungry after 6:00 PM or so, and while I made a green smoothie (with bananas, cucumbers, celery, and a piece of rhubarb that was lying around), it didn’t taste all that good to me because I wasn’t very hungry. I’m also wondering if perhaps my “green” smoothies don’t appeal to me because I’m used to sweeter smoothies? I may try throwing in a handful of blueberries tomorrow to see if that makes it taste better.

Four minutes left!

My weight is hovering tantalizingly close to the 200 pound mark. My “official” weight today was 202.5 pounds. My wife is complaining that there are no soft spots left on my body for her to use as a pillow when we lie in bed together… Awwww!

I also read somewhere that your core body temperature will drop once you adapt this diet. I think it’s because your body doesn’t have to work as hard turning all that complex junk you eat into sugar your body can use, plus there’s not as much junk / toxins to clean out of your body. At any rate, my “average” temperature has been about 98.2 degrees Fahrenheit for years. This morning, when I took my temperature, it was 96.3 degrees.

So it looks like my body is slowly cleansing and healing itself. That’s a good sign.

Two minutes to go… See ya later!

Smacznego,
Tom

I’m still thinking about it, but I think that I’m soon going to “terminate” this blog and start a new raw food blog on another domain.

This blog won’t go away — at least not anytime soon — but it’s my “transition to an all raw food diet” blog. It’s purpose is to document my initial transition to the 80/10/10 diet, and soon I think it will have accomplished its purpose.

While I haven’t yet made my final decision, I’m leaning towards starting up a new web site with a new blog (and I already have a killer domain name that I need to do something with…). And while it may not be about the transition, my goal, as it is here, will be to help and encourage others to do as I have done: Take charge of your health and your life.

Stay tuned; I’ll most certainly post once I’ve made my final decision.

Smacznego,
Tom

Lest I give the impression that my transition to an all raw food diet has been nothing but smooth sailing (or is it “smoothie sailing”?), I’d like to take a step back today and talk about some of the bumps in the road. They aren’t nearly enough to get me to change my mind about my choice (more on that in a moment), but I think that mentioning some of these things might, at the very least, let you know about a few of the issues you may face during transition.

First, I think I mentioned a while back about pain (more on the lines of “discomfort”) about halfway up my back. I’ve never felt anything there before, even when I had back problems (the problems were always in the lower back, near the SI joints). As I’ve gotten farther away from cooked foods and gotten more active, the discomfort has lessened to the point where I don’t even feel it most days any more. I’ve read in some places that this could simply be a symptom of detoxification, and since it’s pretty much treatable with some stretching and light exercise (like walking), I haven’t really given it much thought. But it seems to be back a bit today.

I’m also not all that hungry today. It could be due to the fact that my already messed up sleeping patterns got even more messed up today. Normally I’m home and in bed by 6:30 AM or so when I work all night, but this morning I had an appointment at 7:30 AM, so I didn’t get home and in bed until almost 9:00 AM. Of course, my body told me to get up just before 3:00 PM because it was WAY past my normal wake-up time.

At any rate, I didn’t even eat a banana until 6:30 PM and just now (about 8:00 PM) had a small smoothie. This could be due to the interruption in my already weird sleep schedule.

I’m also wondering if “total detoxification” (OK, I don’t really believe in “total”, but I think that the body should pretty much clean out the old stuff at a certain point) is taking longer than what some people expect because I’m 50 years old (and my body has to clean up 50 years worth of mess) and my sleeping patterns are contributing to a slowdown of the process. Could be, but it will happen. I’m still better off than I was two months ago, four months ago, etc.

I’ve also been feeling much more bloated lately, and to put it “gently”, have been spending more time than usual in the bathroom. Again, this could be just another stage of the detox, it could be due to my lousy sleep patterns, or — it could be due to the fact that I haven’t eaten any fatty foods for the past several days (well over a week). Sure, there is some fat in the fruits and vegetables, but I really do need to eat a few raw nuts every day. My limit, even on days when I do eat them, is no more than five walnuts or five pecans (the only raw nuts I can find at the moment). So I will make it a point to eat some walnuts before bedtime tonight to see if that makes a difference.

I’ll try to remember to report back with the details.

My weight is still dropping slowly. Tomorrow is my “official” weigh-in day, but a quick check today showed that my weight is at 203.5 pounds. It’s a pound lower than a week ago, but the rate of loss is much slower. Part of it is due to the fact that I’m trying to eat more and part of it is probably due to the fact that my body is getting closer to the weight that it wants to be at. While I’m eating more, I don’t really count calories (I found the FitDay thing to be a big pain, but would go back to it if I needed to evaluate my food intake); I simply eat when I feel hungry (and as I mentioned before, I don’t feel hungry today).

I’ve also noticed that I don’t drink nearly as much water as I used to, even though the weather is getting warmer here. There have actually been a couple of days when I did not drink any water at all; I did just fine on the liquids in my fruits and vegetables. But I’m going to make a point to drink a few glasses of water every day (and I only drink water that has been treated with a reverse osmosis process; I can get a gallon jug for only $1.50).

So there it is. Nothing really bad, just some questions and, as always, more adjustments to test. So if today is a “bad” day, I’ll certainly take it over many “good” days that I was having just a few short months ago! I still gladly went for a long walk with the dog, got some writing done, worked on some projects… Perhaps I’ve already gotten used to the extra energy and increased ability to focus and now take it for granted?

OOPS! I nearly forgot… A few reasons why I won’t go back and why I’m not changing my mind about the 80/10/10 raw food diet. Actually, only one!

I don’t know all of the details about my family’s medical history but I know enough to motivate me to continue the course I’ve chosen. On my mother’s side of the family, it’s not uncommon for them to live well into their 90s. My grandmother lived to be almost 94 years old and great grandmother lived to be 100 years old. My mother recently observed the 39th anniversary of her 39th birthday (as she likes to put it) and is still going strong, having recently completed a trip to Hawaii from Ohio. So there’s lots of potential for me to live for a long time.

The “flop” side is that my father’s side of the family seems to have more problems. My grandfather had a history of strokes and etc. and died when he was around 65 years old. My father took care of himself but still had problems with strokes and cancer and passed away from a glioblastoma when he was 77 years old.

So I figure that if I really strive to take care of myself NOW — when I’m barely 50 years old — perhaps I can avoid, or at least minimize the effects — of some of the ailments that are on my father’s side of the family and enjoy the longevity of my mother’s side. Heck, I want to take it even farther than that; I not only want to live into my 90s, I want to be incredibly active.

Actually, my goal is to break dance at my 100th birthday party. I have less than 50 years to learn!

Smacznego,
Tom

P.S. — Can you answer this question for me (leave a comment to this post if you want): What motivates you to eat and live like you do? What results are you pursuing (and yes, you *ARE* pursuing something with your lifestyle habits; the Law of Reaping and Sowing applies to what you eat, too!)?