Today I woke up 2 minutes before my alarm clock went off. I had slept 6 hours and felt well rested. I hope I keep waking up like this. It’s great to wake up feeling fresh and ready to take on the day. I was really excited about today’s breakfast because I was about to eat an exotic fruit that is native to southern Mexico. It’s called the mamey sapote.

Breakfast

I must admit, I was a little more giddy than I needed to be this morning.  I was just so thrilled about eating something I never knew existed.  Although the mamey sapote is fruit, it has the qualities of a vegetable as well.  The mamey sapote’s skin feels like a blend between the outer surfaces of the potato and the kiwi.  On the inside, the fruit resembles the texture of an avocado, only it is orange instead of green.  Its flavor is a combination of pumpkin, sweet potato, and mango.

The mamey sapote is an interesting fruit and I’m thankful I had the chance to experience it.  I probably never would have tried it, had I not been on the raw food diet, because your everyday supermarkets never carry it.  Luckly, I had to go shopping for some Superfoods yesterday and I so happened to spot it out of the corner of my eye.  “What a weird looking potato” I thought.  I asked one of the produce clerks about it and then decided to purchase it.  It’s not cheap, but I’m always willing to pay for things that lead to positive experiences or growth.  I included two pictures.  One picture of my breakfast and one picture of the mamey sapote half-peeled.  I only ate one mamey sapote, so don’t let the second picture fool you.

1. organic mamey sapote (781g)
2. organic organges (496g)
3. organic pears (504g)

This is a picture of the half-peeled mamey sapote

I ate the mamey sapote first and really enjoyed it’s earthy flavor.  To me it tasted more like a pumpkin than a potato or mango, but the other flavors could be felt as well.  Besides it’s flavorful taste, the mamey sapote also has medicinal purposes.  In Latin American countries the mamey sapote is used to treat gastro-intestinal problems, head-aches, and vanerial diseases.  I can’t speak on the validity of the fruit’s medicinal uses, but I’m sure if it’s been used this long to treat those problems, there must be some compelling reasons.

After eating the mamey sapote and the oranges I felt pretty full.  I didn’t want to stuff myself like I did with the fruit salad on the previous day, so I took the pears with me and ate them about two hours later.

Lunch

For lunch I felt a craving for a salad and a green smoothie so that’s what I made.  I’m starting to listen to my body when it craves healthy foods.

1. mixed salad: organic romaine lettuce, red cabbage, and carrots (292g), organic avacado (205g), organic tomato (256g), 1 Tablespoon lemon juice
2. superfoods green smoothie: ripe organic bananas (248g),organic baby spinich (93g), organic rainbow kale (49g), organic goji berries (25g), organic pumpkin seeds (21g), organic raw cocoa (14g), 3 cups water, 1/2 cup ice

The secret to making my smoothies taste great is the bananas.  If you are making smoothies, you want to make sure your bananas are ripe.  Meaning that they are fully yellow with a  few brown spots on them.  A banana with brown spots will make the smoothie taste sweeter.  If your bananas are too green, your smoothie will be bland (sometimes even tangy), because the green vegetables will overpower the fruit.

If you can’t always find yellow bananas, you can buy some raw honey.  You can then use the honey in case your smoothies taste too bland or chalky.  I haven’t used honey for my smoothies yet, but I don’t see anything wrong with using it.  David Wolfe says he uses honey from time to time and he’s 100% raw foodist.  I’ve read that some raw foodists have a problem with using honey because it comes from bees, but cultivating honey doesn’t hurt the bees physically.  I know a couple of local natural bee keepers that actually encourage an overproduction of honey in their hives so that the excess can be taken out without endangering the bees.

Pre-Dinner

I ate these at work before I came home for dinner.

1. organic baby carrots (221g)

Dinner

Today I was attending a social event and I wanted to eat quickly so that I could get there on time.  I washed some organic apples, cut them and made a simple green smoothie as well.  I ate at home and drank a glass of the green smoothie.  After finishing the apples, I threw the remainder of the smoothie into a big cup and drank it while driving to meet my friends.

1. organic green apples (171g)
2. green smoothie: organic green apples (314g), organic bananas (192g), and organic baby spinach (36g), 2 1/2 cups of water

The preparation time for this was 5 minutes.  It took me another 5 minutes to eat the apples and drink one glass of the smoothie.  That’s a quick turnaround time.

Vitals

Weight: I only lost .2 lbs from yesterday.  This puts me at 176.5 lbs.

Body Temperature: My temperature came in at 97. 8 °F.

pH levels: The average pH level today was 7.50 pH.  I don’t know if this will go higher, but I haven’t given up hope.

Blood Pressure: Systolic blood pressure was at 125 and diastolic was at 67.  I’m down 1 point on the systolic so I can’t complain.

Endurance: I did not go to the gym today, but I felt pretty energized throughout the day.

Strength: After yesterday’s intense workout I was a little sore, but I felt strong.

Cognitive Capacity: Not too much has changed since Day 16.  I feel pretty much that same.

Today I woke up 10 minutes before my alarm clock went off.  That means I was up 5 minutes earlier than on Day 12.  I like waking up this way because I feel it’s more natural.  Waking up before the alarm clock, tells me that my body (mind included) does not need any more rest to repair itself.  I’ll take this over being summoned by the man-made alarm clock any day.  I mean who wants to repeatably wake up to screeching sirens?  To me, the alarm clock seems more like a torture device than an instrument for humanity’s benefit.

Alarm clock bashing aside, since starting the raw food diet I feel calm and clear headed as soon as I open my eyes. This is a contrast to the SAD (Standard American Diet), where I would need around 10 minutes to power up.  The process wouldn’t even start until I had washed my face.  Waking up on the SAD was like booting up the computer (notice it takes a few minutes to load all the software and applications).  On the raw food diet, when I wake up I am already powered on.  All I have to do is move the mouse so the screen saver can disappear, which takes no effort at all.

Breakfast

Today was a real treat.  I had some watermelon for breakfast.  Watermelon is my all time favorite fruit.  Besides tasting delicious, watermelon is also rich in anti-oxidants such as Vitamin C, Vitamin A, and beta-carotene.  These have been shown to reduce the risk of heart disease and colon cancer. If you have heart problems, you should have this fruit visit your stomach often. I have not eaten it during this experiment because it is not as calorie rich as other fruits.  I mean it fills me up, but does not provide the carbs I need during the day.  Even so, today I decided to have some watermelon.  My fridge was empty so I drove 2 minutes and picked up this meal from my local supermarket.  None of the food was organic, so I only bought enough for breakfast.

1. watermelon (266g)
2. strawberries (174g)
3. cantaloupe (376g)
4. bananas (368g)

After breakfast, I went to the gym and increased my weight another +5 lbs bringing the total up to +10 lbs from my SAD days.  I increased the weight for a majority of the exercises I execute.  This included the chest exercises (flat bench, decline bench, decline dumbbell flyes) and triceps (extensions, pull downs, close grip presses).  The weight was not increased for the incline bench or for kickbacks.

This workout felt a bit challenging, but I managed to complete 3 sets (8 reps each) for the exercises listed.  I notice that my rest time continues to be reduced from the usual 1 minute on SAD to 15-30 seconds on the raw food diet.  Thus the benefits of the raw food diet for athletes would be faster recovery time and also increased strength. I am surprised that I don’t hear more athletes talking about this diet because from what I have seen, it would really improve athletic performance.  Even though I’ve been losing weight, my strength and stamina have increased.  This diet may sound like an unbelievable magic pill, but the results speak for themselves.

Lunch

I was hungry after my workout so I went shopping.  I went to my local Whole Foods store and bought the fruit needed to make myself a huge fruit salad.  I also bought some superfoods for a superfoods green smoothie that tasted amazing!

1. organic bananas (366g)
2. organic raspberries (196g)
3. organic blueberries (132g)
4. organic peaches (420g)
5. superfoods green smoothie: organic collard greens (54g), organic baby spinich (68g), organic bananas (232g), organic raw cocoa (14g), organic goji berries (26g), organic pumpkin seeds (24g), 3 cups water

The fruit salad was simple to prepare, I just washed and cut the fruit.  For the green smoothie, I put the goji berries and pumpkin seeds in a coffee bean grinder and ground them up into a fine powder.  I found out, the hard way, that I should put more pumpkin seeds than goji berries into the coffee bean grinder.

Even though the goji berries are dry, when you put them into the coffee bean grinder they become sticky, so if they outnumber the other ingredients, then you will have to go in and scrape the contents off of the walls of the coffee bean grinder.  This extends the preparation time. It is also troublesome when you want to clean the coffee bean grinder after you’re done.

To add some flavor to the smoothie, I put in some organic pure cocoa powder, which David Wolfe has said is beneficial due to all the anti-oxidants it contains.  This particular cocoa batch was brought in from the Amazon, so it was extra pure.  I also added some ripe bananas, which gave the smoothie a sweet and smooth chocolate taste.  I can only describe it as sweet chocolate bliss!

After I consumed the fruit salad along with the smoothie I felt like I was bursting at the seams.  I should have not made such a big meal, but unlike a cooked meal, a raw meal goes bad faster.  Once fruit is cut up and exposed to the air, it starts to change colors.  I did not want to put my salad into the fridge and then come back to it, so I just kept eating.  After finishing it, I felt bloated for around 30 minutes.  This rarely happens on the raw food diet, but if you eat around 4 pounds of stuff at one time, expect it to happen once in a while.

Dinner

For dinner, I decided to have an avocado paired up with some tomatoes and cucumbers.  I like these veggies, even though they don’t contain a lot of calories.  Knowing this I added in two apples.  I also included another green smoothie.

1. organic tomato (189g)
2. organic avocado (114g)
3. cucumber (117g)
4. organic Washington apples (210g)
5. green smoothie: organic baby spinach (61g), organic green chard (37g), organic bananas (191g), organic pumpkin seed (11g), sunflower seeds (14g), organic flax seeds (10g), organic hemp seeds (14g), 3 cups water

I wanted this smoothie to be thicker than my lunch time smoothie.  As I’ve stated in the past, you have to chew your green smoothies.  But if the smoothie is too thin, then it becomes harder to chew.  To remedy this, I just grind some seeds and add them to the mix.  Adding ground seeds to the smoothie makes it thicker and easier to chew. By chewing everything you ensure your stomach will be able to extract more of the nutrients from the raw food.  Just a tip for you to use yourself.

Vitals

Weight: I’ve lost .8 lbs.  This puts me at 176.7 lbs.

Body Temperature: My temperature today was 97. 6 °F.

pH levels: The average pH level today was 7.50 pH.

Blood Pressure: Systolic blood pressure was at 126 and diastolic was at 67.  Seems I’m in a stagnant place or maybe a plateau.

Endurance: I ran the mile without even breaking a sweat.  Then I had plenty of energy to go from machine to machine without missing a beat.  This felt great.  I did my exercises in record time with plenty of energy to spare.

Strength: I increased the weight another +5 lbs for a total of +10 lbs since starting the raw food diet on April 1st.  I think I could have increased the weight sooner, but I did not want to rush it.  My strength has definitely increased, which is surprising considering how much weight I have lost.

Cognitive Capacity: One word: sharp!  I can’t describe the mental clarity.  It’s like your thoughts move at the speed of light.  If you are brainstorming, ideas come at you like raindrops falling out of the sky.  If you want to perform anything physical, it’s like your motor functions get a boost as well.  There are fewer processing errors (Freudian slips, numerical errors, blank outs, lost thoughts).  The raw food diet may not make you smarter, but it will unshackle the chains around your brain.

Today I woke up feeling more tired than usual.  I slept a little over seven hours.  Instead of jumping out of bed, I slowly dragged myself to the bathroom.  I came back and weighed myself, turns out I had lost more weight.

Even though I was tired, I was in a good mood.  I knew I would soon be eating some organic raspberries.  Delicious!  I’ve decided to make some temporary shifts in my budget, which will allow me to purchase more raspberries in the future.

Breakfast

Along with the raspberries I also had some blueberries, because I like blueberries too.  I’m becoming a little tired of eating bananas, thus I only included 1 for breakfast.  Bananas are just so convenient though.  They are so easy to weigh, eat, and peel.  They are probably the lowest maintenance raw food I can think of.  You don’t have to wash them, you don’t have to worry that they’ll lodge themselves in your teeth, and you don’t have to be be careful when biting them because you’re afraid they will drip juice all over your favorite shirt.  Bananas are just cool like that.

1. organic pears (588g)
2. organic blueberries (142g)
3. organic raspberries (165g)
4. organic banana (143)

After this meal, I was back on track.  My energy increased to new highs, leaving me feeling terrific.  Mentally, I did not have any blank outs and I did not space out at all.  I just felt peaceful.  I returned back to a calm state with a steady energy to support it.  The calm feeling that has come over me after starting the raw food diet has been an unexpected benefit.  I feel like I’m in a meditative state, I am aware of everything around me, but the volume on all the noise is turned down, even muted at times.  It’s a serene feeling, engulfing you, making you feel like you are complete.

I’ve had some of you ask me how I can eat so many fruits yet not die from the sugar overdose.  Well to start off with, I’m not a Fruitarian (a raw foodist that eats only fruit).  As you can see from reading my blog, I eat plenty of vegetables, as well as fruits.  Most of the dark green vegetables are blended into green smoothies.  To supplement the smoothies, I also eat mixed salads.

I have read that strict Fruitarians have been known to have some health problems, such as dental decay, osteoporosis, wasting of muscle tissue, thinning hair, weakening nails, irritable moods, and chronic fatigue.  I haven’t experienced any of these symptoms, mainly because  I eat dark, bitter, leafy greens that help regulate the blood sugar metabolism in the body. That and I’ve only been on this diet for 15 days.

Lunch

At lunch I had to pick up a couple of packages from the post office, so I did not have as much time to prepare a meal.  I just threw a few green veggies in the blender and ate some apples.

1. organic Washington State apples (649g)
2. green smoothie:  organic baby spinach (106g), organic collard greens (87g), organic bananas (275g), 3 cups water

I liked the apples, but I felt somewhat rushed while eating them.  I don’t normally like to eat too much of just one fruit or vegetable at one time.  I feel it’s overwhelming.  I feel that a combination of fruits and veggies usually works best.  After lunch I felt light and happy.  I was able to stay focused and continue working diligently.

Dinner

For dinner, I decided to eat some pumpkin seeds, which are beneficial in preventing kidney stones, osteoporosis, and even the dreaded cancer.  I need to incorporate more fats into my diet and while avocados are a good source of plant fats, I don’t want avocados to be my only source of plant fats.  Since pumpkin seeds are a great source of monosaturated fats, they can take some of the pressure off the avocados.  I enjoy eating pumpkin seeds, so it’s not a bid deal to eat them more often.

1. organic tomato (264g)
2. cucumber (244g)
3. organic pumpkin seeds (52g)
4. organic blueberries (122g)
5. green smoothie:  organic bananas (182g), organic celery (170g), organic baby spinach (70g), rainbow chard (44g), coconut (40g), 3 cups water

This was a fulfilling meal and once again a feeling of peace came over me after I had finished it.  I just sat on my bed reading and enjoying the good feelings.

Post-Dinner

1. organic baby carrots (231g)
2. bananas (219g)

I know I said, I was somewhat burnt out on bananas, but when I went to the fridge, I found it empty.  The carrots were there as a “go to” in case of emergencies.  The bananas were “just there” so I grabbed a couple of them as well.

Vitals

Weight: I’ve lost .9 lbs.  This puts me at 177.5 lbs.

Body Temperature: My temperature today was 97. 8 °F.

pH levels: The average pH level today was 7.50 pH.

Blood Pressure: Systolic blood pressure was at 125 and diastolic was at 67.  I’m happy to see that the diet is affecting the systolic blood pressure somewhat.  I guess some of the animal fats are being cleaned up, or at least this diet is helping to cleanse my arteries of unwanted gunk.

Endurance: I did not go to the gym today.  I really need to go in and up the weight for the sake of the experiment.  Tomorrow is a definite gym day.

Strength: I did not do any weight lifting.

Cognitive Capacity: While I felt a little grogy waking up, after eating breakfast I regained the mental capacity I had left behind on Day 14.  It seems all is well with the diet.  I just can’t push myself to sleep three hours a night and expect to get away with it.  After all, this is the raw food diet - not the miracle diet.  Although at times you feel like this diet can preform miracles, especially for your mental abilities, it too has its limits.

On the 8th day of April 2009, I was lucky enough to attended a speech given by world-renown raw food expert David Wolfe.  If you don’t know who he is, I highly recommend you look him up.  David has a lifetime’s worth of knowledge in the raw foods arena and would be an invaluable resource to learn from on your journey to a healthier you.

My first impression of David Wolfe was a bit skewed.  I thought he was quirky.  Maybe even eccentric.  This was due to me looking at his outer appearance and judging, which I must admit was not fair to David.  The decision to see him that way was not a conscious one and the information was already being processed in my brain before I realized what I was doing.  I am working on not having any judgmental thoughts about a person based on his/her appearance, but I have not mastered it yet.  As you can tell from the pictures below, David Wolfe is not your typical jean and shirt kind of guy.  Instead, David prefers to wear what looks like a shawl and jeans.

Outward appearance aside, ten minutes into his speech, I realized what a great speaker David is.  Charasmatic and laid back, he has a stage presence. He draws you in with his sense of humor, vibrant energy, and intellect.  Not only can he make you laugh (a feat in itself for some speakers), but he is also a human database of information with answers to just about any question you could possibly think of.  I noticed, as you will notice when you listen to the audio recording of his speech, that he never misses a beat.  To help you understand my initial impression of David, I have included some pictures of him below.

David Wolfe posing with a fan (she looks excited )

David Wolfe listening intently

David Wolfe enjoying a spicy enzyme cocktail (non-alcoholic)

David’s speech in Orlando was on Superfoods, which are foods with a high phytonutrient content.  In English, that means they are REALLY good for you.  A few examples include raw cocoa, maca, goji berries, wild blueberries, and spirulina.  There are others as well, but these are just the few I remembered.  Although the Superfoods speech was packed with info, I felt it was beyond my current level of the raw food diet.

According to David, Superfoods are the next step in the raw food diet.  Even though I was hoping for a speech catered to my current stage in the raw food process, I still enjoyed the Superfoods speech.  Because of it, I’ve decided that I will be incorporating some of the Superfoods into my routine to see if I can gain any extra benefits from eating them.

David gave the speech mainly as a promotion for his new book, Superfoods, which you can buy from Amazon.  The book is packed with great info and research that David has been doing on Superfoods over the last few years.  I recommend you pick it up if you want to learn some ways of optimizing your body to its full potential.  As a bonus, purchasing David’s book would make it a win/win/win for everyone involved!

David will win because he’ll have the funds needed to do more research on other foods.  I’ll win because I’ll be able to afford going out of town to record other speakers.  And most importantly, you’ll win because you will receive all of this great info at a fraction of what it would cost you to do the research yourself.  At $12.89, the current price of Superfoods on Amazon, I really can’t think of any downsides.  The book has not been released yet, but I have pre-ordered 3 copies.  This may have been an impulsive move on my part, but if his book is anything like his speech, David should be selling it for triple its current price!  Speaking of his speech, I have posted the audio recordings below.

David Wolfe – Superfoods p1 – Speech Orlando April 08, 2009

David Wolfe – Superfoods p2 – Q & A Orlando April 08, 2009

The first part of David’s speech is a little distorted.  I had the recorder at a lower setting, while sitting in a far off position.  Luckly, I corrected this during the break.  Even so, if you are a die hard David Wolfe fan or just want to learn more about Superfooods, you’ll appreciate having these files in your audio collection.  Aside from a 5 minute plug for his website and book, David gave away a ton of info!  I still believe I was fortunate to be in the audience that day and as David would say, “Best day ever!”

Enjoy the audio.

This morning, I woke up surprisingly fast for having only slept 3 hours.  That’s right, I went to sleep at 3 am and woke up at 6 am.  Although I did not wake up before the alarm clock rang, I jumped out of bed fairly fast.  I took care of the hygiene and measurements, then headed to the kitchen.  I’m glad I changed to the simple raw food philosophy, which involves me eating raw food that doesn’t take too much time to prepare.  I certainly gained some time by eating simpler meals.

Although I like having more time, I don’t know if I will stick with the simple raw food philosophy in the future.  This philosophy drastically reduces my food choices.  That may be all right in the short term, but not if I plan to incorporate this diet into my way of life.  I am currently eating whole raw foods in order to gain some much needed time for a few speaking engagements I have over the next couple of days.  Today I spoke in front of a group of 14 people.  That’s not a lot of people, but it is a start.

Breakfast

As you can see from the picture, I want to keep things simple.  Just peel and eat.  And measure and document of course.

1. organic bananas (591g)
2. organic grapefruits (683g)

I was able to eat this whole meal in around 15 minutes.  The preparation time was around 3 minutes max.  That time was spent peeling the bananas and grapefruits.  This meal energized me and I was fine until lunch.

Lunch

Near lunch time I started to space out a little.  I was experiencing some spacing out effects much like I did on Day 3 of the diet.  There was no mental fog, but at times I had thoughts that I wanted to communicate and if I did not verbalize them right away then I lost them.  Normally when this happens, my thoughts came back after a couple of seconds, but this time they were gone for good.

1. mixed salad:  organic and romaine mixed salad (230g), organic spinach (60g), organic orange bell peppers (225g), organic tomatoes (170g), organic onion (40g)
2. salad dressing:  organic avocado (105g), banana (65g), 1 T spoon lemon, 1/4 cup water

After lunch I was in a normal state again.  I could definitely tell I was not as sharp as I had been up until this point.  This is to be expected because I had only slept 7 hours in two days.  After I ate lunch, I was in a more functional state.  I had no more mental blank outs until after dinner.

Dinner

For dinner, I had a simple meal.  I made a green smoothie and ate some of my favorites.

1. organic tomatoes (443g)
2. cucumbers (282g)
3. organic Fuji apples (190g)
4. organic grapefruit (394g)
5. green smoothie: organic bananas (366g), organic baby spinach (56g), 3 cups water

After eating dinner, I drove to give my speech.  The speech was not raw food diet related, but I did share some facts about the raw food diet with the audience.  My speech lasted around 30 minutes and I barely missed a beat during my initial presentation.

I have spoken in front of 100 people before so I am used to public speaking.  Even so, sometimes I become a bit nervous before I am introduced.  Today I felt completely at home in the environment, finishing my speech with only a couple of errors which came near the end.  I think this also happened because I was excited to give the speech, but excitement only lasts a short while before it is defeated by fatigue.  I certainly felt tired after the speech.

This is probably the earliest I will be going to bed in a while, but I feel like my body needs it.  I pushed myself too hard.  Three hours of sleep is not enough. Still, if I had to sleep three hours on the raw food diet or the SAD, I would pick raw foods hands down.  On SAD, I could not even drag myself out of bed.  If I also had to give a speech, I would probably spend half the time admiring the pretty colors on the wall while drooling on my shirt and the other half babbling incoherently about needing more sleep.

Vitals

Weight: I’ve lost .7 lbs.  This puts me at 178.4 lbs.

Body Temperature: My temperature today was 97. 6 °F.

pH levels: The pH level today was still 7.25 pH today.  Went back to a more acidic state, but I don’t know why.

Blood Pressure: Systolic today was at 126 and diastolic was at 68.  An increase in systolic, but not by much.

Endurance: I did not hit the gym today.

Strength: I did not do any weight lifting.

Cognitive Capacity: I feel my mind was not as sharp as it had been on previous days.  The 3 hours of sleep was not enough.  Even though I functioned fine on this amount of sleep and even completed a 30 minute speech.  I did not feel as sharp as usual.  I also experienced spacing out effects and some blank out periods.  For example, after I gave my speech some memebers of the audience had questions.  I would listen to a question, think about it, then I would blank out on what the question was about.  This happened only twice, but still, that’s not the mental processing power I’m looking for.