Tom’s Raw Foods Blog

Just a quick post today…

My wife took the “after” pictures today (Thursday) and I should have time tomorrow to get them posted here on the blog. I wore the smallest clothes that I own at the moment for the pictures, of course (I’ll buy more next month when I’m in the States).

I was also thinking that maybe I’ll dig out the clothes that I was wearing in the December pictures and have my wife take a picture of me wearing them. The problem is that I’d also have to dig out my suspenders; otherwise there’s no way I can keep those pants from falling down…

Post a comment and let me know your thoughts. It’s almost WEEKEND, so let’s have some FUN!

Smacznego,
Tom

You just don’t realize some things until the evidence is presented to you on paper. Or, in this case, in the form of a digital picture.

My wife had me move the pictures off the cards in our digital cameras yesterday, and as is our habit, we all got together and looked at the hundreds of pictures. The pictures went back to last December, and when I saw the pictures of me from that time, I was shocked.

By my counting, I’ve lost 63 pounds from my highest weight, and while I know that there is some difference, looking at those old pictures was shocking.

How did I ever let myself get that BIG? Nobody ever intends for it to happen, but it does.

It doesn’t help that our lifestyles are lousy. Fast food, sitting in a chair at work for hours at a stretch, easy access to junk food (other than the campus of Brigham Young University, where I attended some language refresher courses while in the military, I’ve never seen a vending machine with healthy snacks), and having only other overweight people to compare yourself to — all lead to a lethargy about our weight and, ultimately, our health.

So here’s a wake-up call. PLEASE do these steps to see if you need to take action to reclaim your health:

1. Weigh yourself. Yes, get on the scales and see how much you weigh. And measure yourself if you don’t know how tall you are (you’ll need it for the next step).

If you measure yourself in centimeters, divide your height by 2.51 to get your height in inches if you want to use the resource I’m linking to below. To get from kilograms to pounds, divide by 2.2.

2. Find a body weight chart. I found one at this link (no endorsement of the site is implied, but the chart seems to agree with others I’ve seen). Find the row that has your height.

3. Are you heavier than what the chart says you should be? Then unless you have a very good reason (like you’re a professional athlete with muscles on your fingernails and ear lobes), then you are overweight.

4. What are you going to do about it? While I can’t answer that question, I can tell you what I’ve been able to do so far…

I’ve lost 63 pounds to date and have been on an all raw food diet for just over 100 days. While there are other ways to lose weight, this way was pretty darn easy. I never felt hungry once I got the right information and help.

Don’t know where to start? How about this: Get yourself a copy of Dr. Graham’s 80/10/10 diet book, read it carefully, and do what it says to do. I also STRONGLY recommend that you find a supportive community if you are going to move to an all raw food diet (Roger Haeske’s site is a good one — the link is in the blogroll).

I’ll post my “before and after” pics in a couple of days. Hopefully it will show you just a bit of what’s possible with this lifestyle — and encourage you to either take action or stay on course.

Smacznego,
Tom

A co-worker asked me the other day if eating nothing but raw fruits and vegetables every day ever gets boring. To me, that’s a simple question with a complicated answer.

So if you’re in a hurry, here’s the quick answer: it depends. You can now get back to whatever it was that you were doing (and if you weren’t doing anything, Dr. Graham’s 80/10/10 raw food book is worth “doing”!).

Still with me? Good. This isn’t going to be a short answer, but please read through to the end to see how I now think about such things. My attitude towards food has changed — perhaps permanently — because of the new perspective that’s been shown to me.

There are probably 15-20 aisles filled with food and various other products at my local grocery store. Of those aisles, only one is usually of interest to me: the produce aisle. So out of all of the food in the store, only 5 to 10 percent of that food is of interest to me. That leaves 90 to 95 percent of the food to appeal to somebody else because if it didn’t appeal to enough people to make it profitable to produce, then it would disappear and some other substance would appear in its place.

So why do we “need” all of that other “food” if I’m OK with, at most, 10% of the store’s contents? I think it’s because, when it comes to food, we only think with our taste buds, eyes, and nose. We usually don’t stop to consider the effect that all of that “stuff” will have on our bodies. We’re also susceptible to good advertising. After 100 days of nothing but raw food (yesterday was Day 100!), my perspective is slowly changing. I no longer live to eat; I eat to live (although I do enjoy eating).

To help you see how I think, let me give an example that most people readily understand. Would you put diesel fuel in your gasoline engine car because you liked an ad you saw on television? Of course not! If you did that, then you’d be facing an expensive repair bill so that your car would do what it’s designed to do — mainly, run. So why do we put “anything and everything” in our mouth when we know that it’s not good for us? Instead of ingesting the food that we know we need, we usually eat stuff simply because it looks good to us and appeals to our senses. We then buy it, cook it, and enjoy the smell and taste.

But what happens after that? What happens after the plate is empty and there’s nothing left to please the tongue?

Please take a moment to honestly answer that question.

Incidentally, most people never give that question a second thought. However, now that I have 100 days of nothing but raw foods under my belt (with a couple of experimental exceptions), I do think about such things. It’s no longer just about “taste” for me (although the food I do eat tastes great. Wish you could try these cherry tomatoes I’m eating right now… Superb!).

As you put together a longer string of successful all raw food days, your body and mindset start changing. First comes the detox, then weight loss, better energy, and improved health. And as these things come, you WILL start to look at food a lot differently. Hey, you’ve come a LONG way and made a lot of progress on the road to optimum living — so why would you want to “backslide” (if I can borrow a term from the church I attended as a child)? Why would I want to put over 60 pounds back on my body that melted away like ice in the desert when I started eating right? Why would I want to go back to the time where walking the dog was a chore?

So yes, from the eyes / nose / tongue perspective alone, nothing but raw fruits and vegetables can get mighty boring. But between the time you start this diet and the time it gets “boring”, your perspective begins to change your attitude. I no longer look on it as “boring” — I look at where I was and where I am now and KNOW that I’m doing the best thing possible for me, my family, and those who depend on me. Is doing everything I can to be available for those that matter to me “boring”? Saying that it is would be extremely short-sighted of me.

Last night the others who work with me decided to fire up the grill and cook some hamburgers. As I watched my co-worker eat that blackened piece of ground dead cow (that got to that form through a process that wastes huge amounts of water, causes a ridiculous amount of pollution, and wastes precious energy and other natural resources), I realized that there’s absolutely no way that I’d eat one of those. I’d sooner eat a hockey puck (but only if it were raw… ).

And later, one of my other co-workers asked me if I had gotten my share of the burnt offering. I told him that while I appreciated the thought, my strict diet (I’ve given up on trying to explain it to people unless they ask and seem open to listening) doesn’t allow it. He went on to explain that although he was diabetic, he did allow himself to eat these things on occasion.

What? If your body is already breaking down because of the crap you’ve piled into it, why would you do more of the same? If you kept getting hit by cars, wouldn’t you get out of the street? And if that stuff is doing THAT to your body, wouldn’t you want to stop eating it? And what makes you think that I would want to inject it into mine? Do you really think that I want to go back to having a huge gut and be on the verge of all sorts of ailments that are related to eating improperly?

While raw foods may be “boring” from the eyes / nose / tongue perspective, I’m excited by what it’s doing to me once it gets past my tongue and I swallow it. Think past the tongue to the tons of other benefits that natural raw foods bring. And you can also think about all of those things that you’re missing… like illness, disease, lethargy, being overweight…

And if you’re struggling with an all raw food diet, just stick with it (but make sure you’re following the RIGHT raw food diet first. 80/10/10 is the only way to go) and focus on the GOOD things that are happening to you. Then, when you want to go back to cooked foods, focus on what’s happened to you since you made the switch — then decide if you want to go back to the way you were before. Do you really want to destroy the progress and gains that you’ve made? Are you willing to give up your new-found lifestyle for the sake of a chemically altered substance that your body is going to have to fight to get even some nutrition from (that’s what happens when you apply heat to something, and that’s what happens when you cook stuff) before it struggles to eliminate the toxins (without complete success)? Do you really want to put all of that junk back in your body?

Not me. I’ll stick with boring.

Smacznego,
Tom