Stumbling Upon a Plant-Based Raw Food Diet Lifestyle

“The food you eat can be either the safest and most powerful form of medicine or the slowest form of poison.” - Ann Wigmore

With the New Year comes along all kind of resolutions: get a new job or a better paying job, be healthier, lose weight, travel more, find love, spend more time with loved ones….. The list goes on and on. Some of us are good at sticking to those new resolutions and celebrate at the end of the year their achievements with a sense of accomplishment and smugness; others, myself included tend to let life get in the way and dictate outcomes, not truly follow through anything and end up becoming master procrastinators.

Well, not this year. As for me, I have decided to continue on my health journey which I started way back in February 2021. Last year, without a real plan, I started following a more health conscious plant-based diet. Blame Netflix, a comfy sofa and a to-die-for heated blanket. I then got myself introduced to powerlifting, which is Reddit and Youtube’s fault, and went a tad bit crazy with cardio at some point – hello 6+ spin classes a week. Over the course of a few months, during different periods, by mixing different variations of plant-based eating styles, eating whatever I felt like and adding exercise, I lost 40 kg (88 lbs).

Well-done to me, and you might ask, So?

Well, let’s go back to last year. One of the eating variations I did on my plant-based diet in 2021, was to go on a fully raw food diet for 2 months. Yes, I can be a bit extreme and again, Youtube and frankly just Google do not help! But on a serious note, during that period, something stuck very strongly to my mind, and that something was my muscle recovery time after I exercised. For 2 months, I consistently did 3 sessions of powerlifting a week and a minimum of 6 sessions of spin classes a week. Why that many? Simple, I had a lot of time on my hands and I love spin classes. It was either that or lose my mind. Anyways, regardless of the amount of activities I did during the day, I always had a very restful night and woke up each following morning full of energy with little or no muscle soreness. Yes, little or no muscles soreness that’s right. My muscle recovery time was outstanding. I was a new powerlifter. Prior to that, I had never lifted a barbell in my life and being a bit of a geek, had to Google “barbell” when I first came across the word back in March 2021. This led me to have some unhealthy obsessions on reading anything I could find on strength sport, muscle recovery and various diets.

Regardless of the amount of activities I did during the day, I always had a very restful night and woke up each following morning full of energy with little or no muscle soreness

But anyways, I am digressing; the thing is, my research helped me understand the importance of muscle recovery between lifting sessions. But being who I am, I wanted to train more without compromising my recovery to some extent. Diet at that point was for me the only variable that I could play with. After looking into various diets, I came to the conclusion that the raw diet could be a solution. And truth be told, I might have been right.

By eating a raw food diet, no matter the number of spin sessions I added to my weekly training, sometimes up to 3 on off days, I managed to successfully combine strength training and cardio for 8 weeks. I woke up each morning feeling great - and of course that feeling stayed with me ever since.

One other thing that research helped with was highlighting the importance of eating enough calories when on a diet – losing weight? Do not starve yourself, just reduce your daily calorie intake by a couple of 100 calories if you do not exercise or increase your exercise regime if you rather eat more – in the long term your body will thank you. Let me explain.

Research has shown that there is indeed a strong negative correlation between consuming too few calories and exercise in the long term; the body could start conserving energy to survive by increasing fat retention and muscle loss, or in other words the body metabolism will eventually start to slow down and adapt to the new changes. This can mean several things for a dieter: go on a water fast, yes one might lose a lot of weight but as soon as normal eating is resumed, the weight comes back rapidly and sometimes even doubles – why? Because the new metabolism means that the body does not require as much calories to survive and the new excess is transformed into fat. Go on another restrictive diet, rapid weight lost is recorded at the beginning of the diet but eventually it plateaus. This is actually what happens in most cases.

In general, the trick is to address eating habits and relationship with food during the diet or better still prior to the diet. That way, when off the diet, sensible choices can be made to adapt to the new body metabolism.

For my part, I used an online calorie calculator to get an estimate of my required daily calorie consumption based on my weight, age and activity and adjusted it with my weight lost goals. I did count calories at the beginning not because I wanted to restrict myself but rather because I needed to eat a lot more to consume enough calories daily, however, I stopped after about 2 weeks as I had developed a pretty good understanding of what I needed to eat and a solid meal plan. Although on a raw food diet, I did not necessarily adhere to a strictly high carb, low fat philosophy, and just ate as I felt like. I never starved nor restricted myself. I did not go on a 30 bananas a day bonanza, 7 dates green smoothie monster or a 1 week pineapple only juice fast. I just ate food in its raw form.

Yes I mixed smoothies, juices and salads on a daily basis but that is all I did. As long as it was raw, I ate it. Several foods were favourites and made the bulk of my diet: avocado, cauliflower, banana, spinach, most nuts, cranberries, shia and pumping seeds, mushroom, red onion, pepper, cucumber, pear, mangoes, kiwi, lemon, ginger, mint, coriander, chilli, nori seaweed and the lovely, lovely pineapple.

In 2 months, I lost 20kg (44lbs) and my skin and hair looked fabulous! Then life happened, and fast forwards few months, here we are in 2022.

A valid argument can be made that my drastic weight lost while on a raw food diet could have been the result of my excessive exercising during that period; which could be true. But the point here is not the weight lost per say, rather how I recovered after my sessions, how potentially eating raw food could have allowed me to exercise that much and still recover fast enough between sessions for 8 consecutive weeks. After my raw food stunt, I managed to lose a further 10kg (22lbs) in a 4 months window but wasn’t following any specific diet plan.

Eating a plant based raw food diet for a set period could have its benefits

Rapid weight lost over a short period of time has consequences, one of which being loose skin. Yes the dreaded loose skin. So, of course I have my fair share of loose skin. Does it bother me sometimes, yes. Do I lose sleep over it, not really. By losing all that weight, I have become much healthier than when I first embarked on this journey and that is worth more to me than some loose skin. Plus let’s be frank, there are things called body shape wears, surgery, and God knows what nowadays that can help with this; and depending on one’s financial capabilities there are a lot of things that can be done!

It is important to note here that one can lose weight by just restricting calories consumed. The first 3 months, while on my plant-based food diet journey, I only focused on eating healthy, understanding nutrients and my relationships with food, I did not exercise but still lost 10Kg (22lbs). However, research has shown that when losing weight from dieting alone, it is not just fat that one is losing, but also water and potentially muscle as well. And we already know what it means for the body metabolism if one starts losing muscle.

So, here we are, in 2022, and I am still 10kg (22lbs) away from my ideal weight.

My new year resolution is to continue on my health journey which I started way back in February 2021, but this time with a twist: I will lose the weight, but most importantly, I am going to get myself in the fittest shape I could possibly be. I do not want to just lose weight, I want to lose fat, be strong and get healthy.

How am I going to achieve this?

First, something needs to be addressed: last year, cardio was a huge part of my weight loss journey. This year, I am going to do things a bit differently. Although I love spin classes, I will not be doing that type of cardio this year. I will go back to my old love: Muay Thai. I truly believe that to be successful in any resolution, one should incorporate in it things that they love.

Second, the feeling I had while on a raw food diet is still too strong to be disregarded. I want to explore further the impact of a raw food diet on one’s health in the long term, at least longer than 2 months.

Last but certainly not least, I want to see how going on such a diet can influence one’s fitness journey, particularly focusing on the fitness journey of a “still” beginner powerlifter and martial art practitioner.

I have created this blog to document my journey. I can understand that in the fitness world, a raw food eating style is not necessarily the best option. But there might be several instances when and where one would want to take a break from a particular diet or eating plan, give the body some rest from processed food or reset the body’s digestive system. This is where eating raw food for a set period could be beneficial. Now, I am not an expert and do not claim to be one, for the people out there who have studied the science and practiced it, do not be too harsh with my approach.

In today’s society, I can appreciate the fact that the idea of pursuing a raw food diet especially while being physically active can be a controversial subject and consequently induce strong opinions. I welcome open discussions. After all, we learn through experimentation and knowledge. So let us share.

I will post weekly updates on my progress with details on food diary, training sessions and anything related to this topic. Feel free to drop me a line if you have a question or if you are also going on a similar journey.

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Disclaimer

I am not a health professional. All ideas shared on this blog are my personal opinions and experiences. Any information provided is purely for educational purposes and do not constitute professional advice. You should consult a medical professional or health care provider if you want to go on a diet.