How to get a Body Transplant !

I’ve been making a real effort to keep off foods that appear to knock my health or energy levels back. As well as eating mainly low fat raw vegan foods, I’m trying to avoid or dramatically cut down on foods such as; fat, spices, onions, nuts, seeds, condiments and anything strongly flavoured. I’ve stopped having rocket. I’ll only have cabbage, kale or broccoli if they are blended thoroughly or cooked, otherwise they are hard to digest. The odd simple bit of cooked food seems OK (typically not more than once every week). I sometimes (maybe every other week) have non vegan food, but I do keep off dairy and meat. I try to avoid grain. I do still experiment, my latest is to occassionally take a B12 and a zinc supplement. I live in hope that my grey hair might return to it’s orininal colour – healthy skin and hair need zinc. I estimate that 95% of my diet is fruit and salads made with mainly salad leaves. My energy levels have been consistently high as a result of doing all this. I’ve had a constant desire to exercise.

I’ve been making a real effort to get fit with running and occasional upper body conditioning. When running, I normally just jog slowly, but I’ve been trying out some quite long slow runs and also some real intense lung bursting, leg jellyifying runs. A combination of doing these together with my diet has made a real difference to how I feel. I noticed it before, when I had times of intense upper body conditioning, but this time it feels like I’ve got a new pair of legs as well!

Imagine a crumpled bed sheet. Someone comes along, washes and irons it, then makes the bed again and pulls it all fresh and neat. It’s a bit like that with health and fitness. If you can find the right balance of super healthy food without adding lots of unnecessary ‘food’, and do some steady exercise and eventually some intense exercise, then it feels like your whole body is pulled into shape. By intense, I mean as hard as you can, or as fast as you can go over a given distance. Shorten the distance or the number of exercise rep’s if necessary. I’ve found that when you push yourself really hard it makes a real difference. You must build up to this gradually though, you don’t want to give yourself a hernia like I did 18 months ago!

I’m not any super human guy. I’m not even very good at running (although I am getting much better). I’m just a guy that went through a phase of being a couch potato. I had some horrible fatigue that totally de-motivated me and left me with no energy. It was often an effort just to get out of a chair or to stand up. Plus I had quite bad digestive issues – search my blog for more details.

I’m glad that I pressed on. I pulled the bones out of my diet and lifestyle and made what some have said are ‘extreme’ or ‘obsessive’ changes. The only changes that I have made are to try and mirror what I might find in nature. I am so glad that I have made those changes, I feel so much better.

I feel like my head has been cut off, my old body has been thrown away and I’ve been given a new one! Wow, now that’s something – a whole body transplant!!!

Improvements in my skin health

Keeping off fat and eating LOADS of greens has made my skin feel amazing. Dandruff hasn’t bothered me for a long time either. If you want to use a moisturiser cream then ensure that it is edible! Whatever you put on your skin soaks in and becomes part of you. I recommend virgin coconut oil.

I only occasionally use the coconut oil on my hands if they became chapped due to doing DIY type of work. It’s usually my hands coming into contact with some chemicals (eg treated wood, or some form of cleaner) that means I need to take extra care. One of my rain coats is treated with something. If my hands are wet and come into contact with the waterproofing material then my hands get really sore – coconut oil sorts them out though. Pollutants and chemicals can and do dry out your skin, including chorine in tap water.

Soap and the squirty stuff you get for washing hands is a big burden on the skin. I recommend trying not to use soap, bubble bath, washing up liquid, shampoo, or any other chemicals that may come into contact with your skin. Most personal care products do absolutely nothing for your health, in fact the majority are a burden on your health.
 
Drinking enough water is essential. Some people may get away without drinking much, I can as well if I’m eating mainly things like oranges and watermelons. However I need to drink plenty of water most of the time. If I don’t, then mental fog and fatigue can creep back in. If you eat cooked food, fat food (eg seeds/nuts), or dried food then you need to drink more water. I drink 1.5 to 2 litres a day and I have loads of fruit and greens. On the odd occasion when I deviate from my diet, then I make an effort the drink more water.

Some improvements in my skin are as follows:

• I used to be forever washing my face because it used to feel dirty and my skin felt clogged up - Not anymore.
• Acne is gone. It bothered me all my adult life until I made the diet and lifestyle changes.
• I used to get very painful cracked skin on one of my toes - that is gone.
• I also used to really itch in various places and tried several creams and ointments over the years. Itchiness is gone.
• I occasionally used to get skin infections on my face (a bit like a large gooey spot). I don’t get these either.

All these improvements in skin health I put down to:

1. Not exposing myself to the chemicals in personal care products, domestic cleaners, and so on.
2. Eating a mainly low fat raw vegan diet with large amounts of greens in the form of juice, smoothies and salads.

How does the low fat raw diet effect your skin?

When in my teens, through my twenties, thirties and right up to my 40’s I had very problematic skin. I’m giving away my age now… If you are interested, I was born in 1965 and I’ve stopped counting!

I occasionally had psoriasis and often had dandruff on my head. I had painful thick cracking skin on one of my toes. I used to get incredible itchiness from clothes and from just taking a shower. I had fungal skin infections. By far the worst for me though was severe acne, I still have bad scaring on my back.

Due to acne, in my late teens I would often have to wear two shirts so that blood wouldn’t show through. One of the most painful gestures someone could do to me was give me a pat on the back. Acne has blighted my life and massively knocked my confidence as I was growing up and in my early adult life.

Doctors used to say to me that diet has nothing to do with acne, THEY ARE WRONG. Diet has a massive effect on the health of your skin.

When on holiday earlier this year I had a few ‘cheat days’ when I just ate regular food. My skin felt clogged and my acne came back, I felt fatigued and depressed. That was a bit of a wakeup call. From then on I decided to take things more seriously and try to stick with my raw diet without cheating. Within a few days the acne on the back of my neck started to reduce, and within 3 weeks my skin was looking and feeling really good again. My skin seems to get better and better for every week that goes by when I don’t cheat with my diet.

In case you are wondering, low fat raw food has helped my skin in the following ways:

* Psoriasis on my scalp is totally gone.
* Dandruff is under control – if it ever shows signs of coming back then I rub coconut oil into my hair and into my scalp in the evening and wash it out the next morning using just water. The times I need to do this are becoming less and less. I don’t use shampoo.
* Thick cracking painful skin on one of my toes has totally gone.
… Oh I forgot to mention… I used to occasionally get athletes foot, this has gone totally as well.
* I don’t get itchy in the shower or from clothes now. I don’t use soap and I really limit use of laundry washing power.
* ACNE HAS GONE!!!!!! Scaring remains, which is still quite severe on my back but it is less pronounced since being on low fat raw food and seems to be improving as the months go by.
* I used to get loads of blackheads on my back, neck, face and chest. I rarely get them now.
* My skin is soft, supple and feels moisturised yet not greasy or clogged.

I moved towards this diet and lifestyle to help with chronic fatigue issues, however I have been helped in numerous other ways too. Getting healthy skin is just another amazing added bonus!

Do we need to eat any fat foods at all?

I’ve been quite strict recently and had only tiny amounts of fat foods. ie just occasional seeds, in very small quantities. I’ve only had one avocado in 3 months.

It’s interesting to experience that my cravings for fat foods and heavy carb’s have gone.

Also, strangely I’ve actually put on a little fat! That could be due to the fact that I’m not exercising as much at the moment. I have done a couple of runs, and considering I’m out of practice due to a forced break, I managed to keep going and do a reasonable time and not conk out on hills. I still run quite slowly though, I have a long way to go before I catch up with Tim VanOrden!

Even more strangely, my skin has actually been feeling slightly oily yet very fresh and clean, a bit like it has a natural moisturiser. So I guess I must be getting more than enough fat from just fruit and greens with the tiniest amount of seeds. The near to ‘zero fat’ experiment seems to be working. It’s not zero fat by the way, as fruit and greens typically contain between 3% and 9% of calories as fat. That is all the fat we need.

Fruit and vegetable juice to revitalise and moisturise your skin

Middlesbrough Town Meal 2009

Middlesbrough Town Meal 2009.

On Saturday I was invited to promote raw food at the Middlesbrough town meal. I was struggling to make the stall look interesting, so I said that I’d make a few smoothies to liven it up. The smoothies went down really well and hordes of people came to see and taste! Unfortunately I couldn’t make smoothies quick enough because I was preparing them from whole fruit rather than pre-prepared fruit and I didn’t make enough money to cover my expenses. It was a great experience though and fantastic fun, it’s the first time ever that I’ve sold smoothies. I need to streamline things if I were to make any money at it! Sorry to anyone who had to wait a long time to be served!

Making smoothies!

During the afternoon I spent three & half hours chatting to people about the benfits of raw food, chopping up fruit, and making the smoothies. My hands were constantly soaked in the juices of pineapple, banana, oranges, limes, lettuce, spinach and apples!

I noticed a fascinating thing to do with the skin on my hands. They feel amazing – really soft and supple! It feels like my skin has been fed from the outside and it is revitalised. I was always sceptical when you see those pictures of women trying to look good by covering their eyes in cucumbers and tomatoes, but now I’m thinking that there is something in it!

1 month, 100% raw, with no added fat foods ….almost!