So today’s day 18 of raw food, and I’ve got to say it’s not as hard as I thought it would be.

I mean, I knew I was pretty disciplined, but I thought I’d be suffering a lot more than I was.

I’m still not sure what I’m going to do after 30 days – if I’m going to go to 80% raw, or if I’m going to stay 100%.

My friend Adrian Bye showed me a site that had some negative information on raw food, which made me question a bit.

(For what it’s worth I hate 99% of the site – but the bio struck a chord with me.)

I went on one of the raw food boards (I paid for a bunch of raw food information, but my favorite board is free – RawFoodTalk.com) and asked people who’ve been raw foodists over 3 months what their experiences were with 100% raw. They said much more positive things than that site said, so I guess I’ll end up seeing what feels right.

Here’s my experience of raw food so far in a Pro/Cons context:

Cons (To end on a good note )

Hard to be in traffic – I’ve always had problems breathing around smoke, but now that I have an extra-keen sense of smell, there have been quite a few times where I felt like I was going to pass out while near cars. I was sitting on a public bus one day (no air conditioner, windows were open) and we were stuck in traffic for near an hour – I was contemplating death.

Sleepiness – There are some days when I’m ridiculously sleepy, and there were a few times when I was downright lethargic. I know this is part of the detox process, but one day I couldn’t even stand up and see straight. Literally, every time I got up, the world was spinning.

Social Aspects – I’d love to go to a churrascaria, or go out to fun restaurants with Brian sometimes – not for the food (I really have no desire to eat cooked food), but because of the “normalcy” that comes with it. Food is an important part of culture, too, so I’m missing out on that.

Boredom Of Foods – Like I said, it’s not that I crave cooked foods, but it gets boring looking at the same foods over and over again. I know there are better raw food options outside of Brazil, but even still, I think a lot of those “gourmet” things aren’t so superhealthy – tons of fat, sugar, etc. – the best way to go raw, in my opinion and according to my research, is to eat mostly fruits, veggies, and minimal nuts (those are supposed to be eaten at night before you go to bed since they take so long to digest). Healthy, but boring.

Pros

Energy – Like I said, there are times when I’m sleepy – but there are also times when I feel like I can take on the world. Many raw foodists say that this is the normal feeling all the time after the detox process.

Focus – Not all the time, but there are times when my focus is on like nobody’s business. I’ve always been a morning person, and get TONS done then – but on raw foods, I can get tons done all day.

Inexpensive – Sort of. I’ve been eating a lot of raw granola (each package is $5) and have been going to a raw food restaurant once in a while, so it hasn’t been outrageously cheap – but fruits and veggies are pretty cheap here.

Healthy – This trumps every other way of eating (I’ve done a ton of research). Even if I had a zillion cons and this was the only pro, I’d have a solid case pro-raw.

Spirituality – A lot of people say they have much greater spiritual developments while raw. This has definitely been the case for me.

Excellent community – Most raw-foodies are awesome, positive, growth-minded people. They care about themselves, about others, about community – and they all tend to be pretty intelligent (at least the ones I’ve come across). I was checking out places in Sydney, and I saw there’s an amazing raw food community with tons of events going on all the time. Something like this (especially because of how it effects social situations) really bonds people.

Aesthetics - Have you SEEN some of the people who eat raw? There’s tons of 40, 50, even 60+ year olds that look like they’re in their 20s. They look incredible. A lot of people say they release a lot of weight with raw food, too (this hasn’t happened to me yet – but I’m told it can take a while and I’m in no rush).

There are tons of other pros and cons that other people experience, but this is just my own experience so far – 18 days into it.

So I’m still doing the raw food challenge and absolutely LOVING it – and for a lot of reasons.

First of all, even though it’s only day 4, my energy levels have catapulted. Absolutely catapulted. I’m surprised about that because I thought I’d still be in detox mode as the toxins flush out through my body – but I’ve had a mild headache at best. My body is usually pretty sensitive and It’s not even like I ate super-healthy the past few weeks before, so it is REALLY weird that I’m not in more pain. Also, a lot of people who go into raw are vegan to start with – I definitely wasn’t.

I actually considered going on a water fast to get myself through the pain and get the healing done quicker, but then decided there’s no need to be a glutton for punishment.

I did ask in a forum and was told there’s no “law” that says I have to go through pain… guess I just got really lucky and my
process will be a slow, smooth one.

Ever since I even started eating raw, I haven’t considered cooked food at all. I look at it as pure poison and think there’s no reason to do that to my body which I love so much. I’m experiencing so many positive things with this way of
eating.

Here’s Just A Few Of The Benefits:

First of all, I usually go to bed around 10 and wake up at 5:30. 

Last night I wasn’t tired until 11:30 and I woke up at 4:30.I was INSANELY energetic yesterday, getting tons of stuff done and
wanting to move around all over the place. It felt awesome!

I was able to reach meditative states with a quickness, too. I can usually get there, but I have to concentrate for a little bit. I
got there near-instantly two different times yesterday, and was able to connect in a way like I never have before. I was even able to have a conversation with my deceased grandma. I’m still shocked it’s working so quickly, but I’ll take it.

(And for the record, I know stuff like that might sound weird to a lot of readers and that I might disconnect them, but it comes back to it being MY blog. I wouldn’t feel right holding anything back. And fyi, this conversation didn’t come out of nowhere – I’d been communicating with my “main” guide for quite some time, this was just a new development in the process.)

The next benefit is,

I Found Reason To Enjoy Internet Marketing Again!

I felt back “in flow” with Internet Marketing for the first time in a LONG time yesterday. I was getting thoroughly disgusted with
the whole thing and was strongly considering going back to school for psychology. When I got to Rio, Brian asked me what my goals were for my time in Brazil, and I told him I really just wanted to do some soul-searching and figure out what my next life move should be. I’d totally lost passion for I.M. – even a little bit for yayFOOD because all the non-action takers frustrate me.

Thing is, with yayFOOD, I do believe in it – strongly – but it’s just like… I don’t know, you teach people how to release weight, which is awesome… but the majority of people don’t want to go healthy after that, so they’re just good-looking unhealthy people and I feel almost responsible. I do think it’s great for people who want to release weight quickly and then go healthy once it’s easier for them… but I just feel “wrong” sometimes if they don’t.

And then the money-making markets… same thing with the non-action takers. I don’t know, I know everything I put out is high-value, but I still can’t help but feel almost feel snake-oily. I’m doing one last product on membership sites that I’ve been working on for a REALLY LONG TIME, and then I’m going to seriously re-evaluate what I want to do in that space.

With raw food, it’s different. I’m teaching people how to be SO MASSIVELY HEALTHY and do something that’s so amazingly good for their body.

Chris Brisson commented here on the blog yesterday about possibly doing a raw product together, and it felt INSANELY right.At first I thought, “I’d rather just give people the information for free” – but again, whole thing about people valuing what they pay for. And I need to make a living. And to be honest, I haven’t seen any comprehensive package of excellent quality in the raw food market at all. I have a LOT of ideas and this one feels SO RIGHT.

I quickly whipped up an outline yesterday and came up with A ZILLION ideas of things I haven’t seen yet – things which’ll really
help people make the transition. It’s going to be damn phenomenal.Guess that’s it for now, time to go make a smoothie!

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So I’ve been thinking of altering my eating habits for a while now. Yes, I have an awesome weight release site at yayFOOD and I 100% stand behind everything it talks about. It does help people release weight, and it does it in a way in which they can slowly become more and more healthy.

Thing is, if I told yayFOOD customers to go raw right away – or even organic, for that matter – it wouldn’t sit right with the great majority of them and they wouldn’t do it. It’s my opinion that it’s much, MUCH better for me to show people how to release the weight with foods they love (and don’t feel as if they’re neglecting themselves with) – and then tweak afterwards.

Now That That’s Out Of The Way…

I’ve decided to try a 30 day raw food challenge. I’d been thinking about altering my eating habits for a while, so I figured I might as well jump into the healthiest way of eating possible.

At first I was going to get a raw food related domain name for my blogging, or a spiritual related one (because I know this’ll help me advance spiritually by leaps and bounds), but then decided it best fits right here.

I don’t know what most people think of this blog – if they see it as Internet Marketing, or ramblings in my life, or whatever… but I like to think of it as whatever happens to be in my head at the time, and so I’ll keep it that way.

So I started eating raw today. And…

I Screwed Up Right Away!

I hadn’t gone shopping yet, so I ate a ton of raw almonds in the morning. You’re supposed to eat only 10% worth of fat for the day, so I’ll be a bit over – but at least they’re still raw, which is what I was primarily concerned with.I went out and bought a bunch of ingredients, too. It was really interesting because yesterday I considered going raw but decided I’d slowly make the change. I went to a neighborhood that has a raw food restaurant, but walked for 4 hours and couldn’t find it anywhere.I woke up today and was 100% committed to going in full-speed-ahead… none of that “slow” crap… and the day went completely different. I got the random feeling to get off at a bus stop in Ipanema (town before the one I wanted to go to) and ended up finding the “Ipanema Hippie Fair”. It was awesome! I got a really cool ring and met an awesome dude from Portugal.

When I got back on the bus to head to the town I was supposed to go to, again, I got the random feeling to get off somewhere in the neighborhood I was at. I walked half a block from where I got off, and the raw food restaurant was there.

From There, I Got Mixed Results…

Turns out the restaurant I went to was pretty rad. I mostly went there because I heard they sold ingredients and I wanted stuff for my own smoothies. There’s a lot of stuff they don’t have in Brazil – hempseed, a lot of the fruits in the recipes in The Best Day Ever, agave, sprouted grain bread, spirulina, or lemons.There are also some interesting tweaks – for example you can buy cacoa nibs, but you need to bite them open and suck out the cacoa.The owner of the raw food place was REALLY cool. She gave me so much information and I’ll definitely be able to make do with what I was able to buy from there and the market. Produce in Brazil is ridiculously cheap too – I got 2 mangos for $.90!

I’m not too sure about the cacoa bars and the “junk food” type things that I found. One of the guys in my mastermind, Tom, mentioned that people from the raw food forum HE frequents – HowToGoRaw.com says that people there scoff at the typical “high fat raw food diet”. I know Steve Pavlina did the high fat thing before and didn’t like it, and did much better eating solely fruits and veggies. I guess I’ll play with it and see.

As Far As My Progress…

The main reasons I want to do this are…

*Because I love myself, and I should treat my body accordingly. It’s almost evil to be putting downright poison in myself on a daily basis. The more I read about what actually goes into our food, the more disgusted I get.I know I’ll have a detox period where I hate the world for a week or two, but I’m considering it “tough love”.

*Improved energy

*Greater spiritual development. It’s a lot easier to connect when you don’t have crap clogging up your body.

I’m not really doing this for weight loss (though I wouldn’t complain). I don’t have a scale here to see how my weight fluctuates anyway, so it’s a moot point. I can certainly post my measurements if people care since I record them anyway (my genetics make it far too easy for me to gain weight).

Wow, so much has happened in 15 days!

First of all, I want to sincerely thank everyone who responded to the church post. I didn’t respond right away because I wanted to think about everyone’s answers, but I do definitely appreciate them. I read them all closely, followed all links, and spent a lot of time pondering them.(I also want to especially appreciate Frank Sousa for UPSing me 2 books that I can’t wait to read: The Holy Bible and Answers To Tough Questions.)I talked to some friends outside of the I.M. world about this, too, and am still very fascinated by it – I guess it’s just a topic that’ll never have a clear answer.

In Other News…

If you’re following me on Twitter you already know this, but I decided not to go to Europe. It was really weird, but everything surrounding that trip was going wrong. I was getting incredibly stressed (which is not a word I typically feel) and bad thing after bad thing kept happening.

I’d driven to Philly from L.A. so my sister could take over my car, and the insurance company was saying she wasn’t allowed to drive it. I couldn’t find important things that I needed, people on CouchSurfing weren’t getting back to me, etc. The final straw was when I ordered an international cell phone. It came 2 days before I was supposed to leave and was missing the SIM card. When I called to ask about it, everything just surfaced up and I ended up bawling on the phone to the poor lady who answered.

There were 2 people I wanted to talk about the situation to – Jaime and Brian. Not surprisingly, when I first called Jaime, she picked up and then the line broke up as soon as she said “Hello?”. (I’m telling you, EVERYTHING was going horribly.) When I finally talked to her an hour or so later, she gave me awesome advice – to go to my “centering place” (which was a bookstore) to calm down and think about things.(When I got there I read an awesome book by Sonia Choquette – “Love Yourself, Live Your Spirit” – but that’s another blog post ).I still didn’t know what to do but I did feel a ZILLION times calmer. I got a hold of Brian, and…

He Offered Me Quite The Deal!

I told him how I felt – that I didn’t know if I should go to Europe or just stay in Philly and head to Australia in January.

The first thing he said was that he’d be angry with me if I stayed at home. He said he’s never been angry with me (and we’ve gotten in some quite heated battles), but he’d really be mad if I let myself stay home and not explore like I wanted to.

He immediately told me right after that Rio De Janeiro was an option. He has an amazing 2 bedroom penthouse with an unoccupied bedroom that he’s been living in for 10 months.

I decided to go (I actually got here this morning!), and once I did, good things started happening again. The insurance company said my sister could take over the car, amazing emails were pouring in, unexpected money to my PayPal account, etc.It definitely feels much more right over here, and it’s awesome to be hanging out with Brian. I think it’s going to be a phenomenal thing and feel ridiculously blessed to have been able to live with 2 of my best friends. I’m also really looking forward to learning Portugese!

It Kind Of Sucks Though…

…To be in a country where you don’t know the language. Some people said since I know Spanish I’d be okay in Brazil, but that definitely hasn’t been the case. Portugese and Spanish have some cognates, but they say everything with a different accent here. It’s kind of like, “so close, yet so far”. I have no fear that I’ll pick it up, it’s just hard to feel ignorant.

(Also, “It Kind Of Sucks” makes a great headline. )

On the plus side, this all makes for AWESOME people-watching. They say 60-90% of all communication is via body language, and since that’s all I can observe, I’m very much appreciating that.

(The beach is going to be amazing too. )

I guess that’s it for now. There’s a few more things I want to post about soon… things that have been on my mind bigtime lately (how I feel about marketing, abortion, and a slew of other things), so I’ll try to post about them soon.