Liver and Gallbladder Flush

Who worries about their liver? Who spends time everyday caring about their liver?  Unlike our hair which everyone sees, or our teeth which we brush everyday, our liver and gallbladder are unseen. And for the most part, we live our lives not giving them any thought. It's only when a doctor tells us that we're sick of some liver or gall bladder disease that we actually consciously think about them.

For most people, it could take decades of abuse for some form of disease to show up. All this time, we eat and drink as much as we want, oblivious to the fact that our faithful liver has been doing all the clean-up work. Some symptoms of impending liver disease are not even such a big deal. It could start with a feeling of being tired all the time, feeling a little heavy, or having persistent headaches. It could be feeling full after barely eating, puffiness in the face, or getting age spots in your arms. And for a lot of us, we don't get any symptom at all (asymptomatic). And so we go on eating and drinking.

Just for a moment though, think about the other parts of your body that need maintenance. Our teeth need to be professionally cleaned every 6 months. Sure, you could bypass the periodic prophylaxis but the results will become pretty obvious after a year or two. Our scalp needs to be cleaned everyday. If not, we could get dandruff or at the very least, a very oily scalp. We don't see our liver, and therefore do not know what state it's in, but if you're suspecting that your liver is a little overdue for a little tune-up, here's something that you may want to try: flush the stones out of it.

Several years ago, I heard that some friends tried doing a liver and gallbladder flush. Thy said lots of stones came out. I was curious about it but didn't really have enough motivation to do it. I was okay. I didn't have health problems. Why fix something that wasn't broke?

And then I heard that others have tried it too, and couldn't believe the amount of stuff that came out of them - hundreds of tiny stones! I bought the book - The Amazing Liver and Gall Bladder Flush - and decided to try it out myself. The first time I did it, this came out:

Right next to the green thing is a 25 centavo coin - just to give you an idea how big it was

And it wasn't just this one green thing, there were lots of them ... so many green stones! I didn't really bother to count them anymore, I just knew there were a lot of them. And so I did it a second time after a month, and a third time after another month, and every time I do it, lots of green stones come out.

So for those who have been asking me what I did, the short answer is that I followed what was prescribed in Andreas Moritz's book, The Amazing Liver and Gallbladder Flush. You probably would want to read it if you want to know the details, but in case you're ready to jump in, all you need are things that are easy to get from the supermarket: apples, grapefruit, and olive oil. You'll also need epsom salts, but you'd have to go to a health food store to get that.

So here's what I did:

1. Beginning on a Monday, on top of what you're eating and drinking, drink 32 ounces of apple juice. Do this for 6 days. You could get packaged apple juice or freshly squeezed apple juice. (Of course, you can begin this any day of the week, just make sure you do Step 2 after 5 or 6 days of drinking apple juice). The apple juice softens the stones and prepares them to squeeze out of your liver and gall bladder painlessly.

2. Ideally, you would want to avoid greasy and fatty food. You are, after all, trying to clean your liver.

3. On Saturday, your last meal of the day will be at 1pm. Try to finish all your apple juice before 1pm. After 1 pm, the only thing you can have is water.

4. On Saturday night at 6pm, drink a solution made with 6 ounces of water plus 1 tablespoon of epsom salts. At 8 pm, drink another glass of this solution. (Epsom salts have a laxative effect. They also open up the bile ducts to speed up the expulsion of the stones).  Sometime during this period, you might need to go to the toilet. Don't bother checking for stones as this is not yet the time for the stones to come out.

5. At about 10 pm, mix about 3/4 of a glass of grapefruit juice with half a glass of extra virgin olive oil. 3/4 of a glass is about 6 ounces, and half a glass is about 4 ounces. Right after drinking that, lie down and try to sleep. (The olive oil lubricates the stones, helping them to pass out painlessly.)

6. On Sunday morning, upon waking up - the author says wake up at 6am - drink another glass of the epsom salt solution. Do it again after 2 hours. Sometime between 6am and 10am, you will need to go to the toilet. And this is when the green stones will come out.

7. After doing it once, the author recommends that you do it again in the future until no more stones come out. As of this writing, I've done it three times. I know of people who have done this for 8 times before they stopped. You just have to give yourself a month before starting the whole cycle again.

Insalata Caprese

Insalata caprese is so simple to make. Just slice some tomatoes, garnish with pesto, add cheese, and arrange any way you please. As I'm trying to be completely vegan, I made nut pate' instead of using cheese.

Tomato slices with freshly made nut cheese and pesto

To make the nut pate', I placed sunflower seeds and almonds into the food processor. Once they got mashed, I added onions, celery, carrots and bell peppers. To see how it's done, check out this video of Jennifer Cornbleet as she makes "not-tuna pate".

To make the pesto, I placed several handfuls of basil leaves into the food processor, pine nuts, added garlic, a bit of olive oil (just a bit), added nutritional yeast to make it a bit cheesy, and added a pinch of salt. In case you've never made pesto, check out this video.

You gotta try it to appreciate how delicious freshly-made pesto and nut cheese could be.

How to Make Raw Desserts at Home

Tempting treats made right at home, by you, yes, you. All you need is youtube, a food processor, a blender, some ingredients like walnuts, almonds, maple syrup, and some time to make them come to life.

Raw, dairy-free, sugar-free, gluten-free chocolate-chip cookies

This wasn't even that difficult to make, even for someone like me who thinks of doing this maybe just once a year. I just placed soaked almonds in a food processor, processed them till they got mashed up, added raw cacao, maple syrup, chia seeds soaked in water for a few minutes, and carob chips. Then I placed them in the dehydrator at 105 degrees till they got sufficiently hard. 

If you want banana chocolate chip cookies without cacao, simply omit the cacao and add in bananas. With the bananas, you won't even need chia seeds. How simple is that! Check out this recipe on youtube.

Raw, gluten-free, dairy-free, sugar-free walnut carrot cake

What went into this? Soaked walnuts, dates. raisins and grated carrots. Placed them in the food processor and pressed them into a baking pan (not to bake it, just to give it shape). Then for the topping, I just placed coconut oil, maple syrup, and some more walnuts into the blender till they turned into a paste. This doesn't need dehydration. Just put it in the freezer and eat when you're ready. 

And it doesn't take a genius to make this. Just saw the recipe posted on Facebook in the morning and made it as soon as I got up.

The thing I love about raw desserts is that you don't need a recipe. Just throw in a bunch of ingredients that you like, and adjust the amounts of the maple syrup or dates according to taste.

2-day Fast Using a Kapha-balancing Fasting Drink

The recipe below is not raw as it will involve a little bit of boiling. It's also not food as it's technically something to drink, not something to eat. However, what makes it relevant for this blog is that it's a great way to lose weight.

The recipe below is for people whose dosha is kapha. If you're not familiar with words like dosha and kapha, it would be best for you to find out your constitution by taking a simple test at whatsyourdosha.com

If you don't have time to go through the test, and you describe yourself as heavy or big-boned, then this drink might still do the trick. If you are thin, you should not try this.

For 2 days only, when you're hungry, you will drink as much of the fasting drink as you want. Here's the recipe:

3 cups of water
2 tsp ginger juice (I'd use a grinding juicer for this)
10 basil leaves (I'd use a masticating juicer for this, but you can also just pound the leaves)
1 pinch asafoetida (available at most Indian grocery stores)
2 pinches of black pepper
1/2 tsp cumin powder (available at most Indian grocery stores)

Mix together in a pan, simmer for 5 minutes. Allow to cool then drink.

Whenever you're hungry, just make some more of this fasting drink. After 2 days, gradually start having light soups with no meat and wheat. Most people advise that you not eat meat and wheat for the next few days to give your body enough time to get used to eating normal food again.

Master Cleanse - How do I lose weight fast?

Master Cleanse - celebrities rely on it to lose weight quickly, health-conscious people do it regularly to get rid of their food cravings, and spiritual people use it as a form of fasting to get mental clarity. If you  identify with any of the groups of people above, choosing to do the Master Cleanse is a no-brainer - of course, you're going to plunge right into it! But if you're not a celebrity, or you're not health-conscious, or you're not spiritual, why might you want to do it?

Here are just some of the reasons why people choose to do the Master Cleanse:

1. They want to lose weight, fast!

2. They feel bloated and are getting a bit lethargic, and they need to quickly regain their energy.

3. They know for a fact that they're living toxic lifestyles, and they want to do some detox.


Fast weight loss - how does 1 lb. a day sound?

This is just about the average amount of weight that people lose while doing the Master Cleanse. The Master Cleanse is a 10-day fast, so people lose at least 10 lbs. Some lose more, specially the ones who don't cheat and follow the procedures to the letter.

Stanley Burroughs, the person who developed the Master Cleanse, says it can even be done for 40 days or longer. 40 lbs is a lot of weight for most people, but for those who really have a lot to lose, this cleanse delivers what it promises.


Get renewed vitality and energy in 10 days

Fast for 10 days and become energetic in the process? How could that be? Don't people who fast need to sleep all day? People who fast by taking water only need to rest. People who do the Master Cleanse can perform their normal day-to-day activities while doing the fast. While doing the fast, I was even going to the gym 6 days a week.

Once you get rid of all the sludge in your colon, and the toxins in your cells, be prepared to re-experience the kind of energy you once had when you were in your early twenties.


Master Cleanse for Detox

We live in a toxic environment. Mercury in tuna, preservatives in our food, carbon monoxide in the air, flouride in water, chemicals in fabric softeners - everywhere we go, we are exposed to toxins. If we don't periodically deep clean our bodies, we eventually get sick and die. If you clean your house regularly, perhaps you notice that even if you clean it every week, there eventually comes a time when you need to do some general cleaning, as dirt seems to accumulate somehow. Think of the Master Cleanse as your general cleaning procedure.


The Master Cleanse in Detail

The Master Cleanse is not a crash diet, although most people who do it typically lose 1 pound a day. As the name implies, the Master Cleanse is a way for people to clean their bodies from the inside. When we take in toxins through our diet, the toxins must be eliminated by the liver, and when there's too much for the liver to work on, the toxins get stored in our fat cells in the liver. When the liver runs out of room to store these, it releases them into the body and the body creates fat cells to contain these toxins.

The body also accumulates toxins in the colon where the blood has to filter through these toxins to get to the liver. When this happens, the body is being fed dirty blood. Symptoms of auto-intoxication include headaches, nausea, mental depression, irritability, stress, tension, tiredness, sluggishness, mental fogginess, insomnia, and susceptibility to other diseases.

Treating these symptoms is never the solution. We must go the source of these symptoms - the toxins - and eliminate them from our bodies.

Not eating solid food for 10 days gives the body the chance to rid itself of these toxins as our enzymes are freed up to clean our bodies instead of trying to digest the food that we put into our bodies. The lemons and cayenne pepper loosen the toxic deposits, and maple syrup provides us with energy. Meanwhile, the salt water flush removes the toxins that have been released into the colon. This is a system that cleanses that colon, the liver, kidneys, and other organs, and that is why it's called the Master Cleanse.

For the lemonade, use Grade B maple syrup and non-irradiated cayenne pepper. For the salt water flush, use un-iodized salt. And before going to bed, take the smooth move tea.

There are three things to remember:

At night: 

Beginning the night before you do the Master Cleanse, and every night thereafter for 10 days, take a laxative tea. The best tea to take is Smooth Move (which in the Philippines is available through Healthy Options.)

In the morning: 

Immediately upon waking up, drink a quart (0.9 liters) of water with 2 teaspoons (use a teaspoon used for measuring ingredients, not an ordinary teaspoon) of non-iodized sea salt (rock salt will do). Drink it all at once, or at least within 5 minutes. Don't wait longer than that to finish the whole amount. After usually about 30 minutes, you will need to go to toilet as the water will be flushed out of the system.

In the event that you need to go to the toilet even before you take the salt water as a result of drinking laxative tea the night before, don't worry. Just drink the salt water after you're done going to the toilet.

It might take about another 30 minutes for your body to flush the water. Once the water has been flushed out completely, you normally won't need to go to the toilet again. This will not give you LBM.

The combination of the laxative tea and the salt water flush may be compared to the agitation and rinse cycles of a washing machine. The laxative tea agitates the toxins that line your colon, and the salt water rinses them out. It is absolutely important for you to do these steps during the 10-day master cleanse as not doing them will mean that the toxins that are being released from your fat cells are not leaving your body and could therefore re-toxify you.

All throughout the day:

Every time you get hungry, make some lemonade. Here is the recipe:

8 ounces of purified water (about 250 ml)

2 tablespoons of maple syrup (Grade B, available from Healthy Options)

2 tablespoons of freshly squeezed lemon juice (usually the juice from half a lemon)

a dash of cayenne pepper (1/10th of a teaspoon)

There is no need to be scrupulous about the measurements as that would complicate things. To simplify this, you could even make batches of 500 ml or 1 liter at a time. When making 500 ml, just use up a whole lemon and add 4 tbsp of maple syrup. When making 1 liter, use 2 lemons and 8 tbsp of maple syrup.

This was a 1-liter mixture. 1 liter of water + 8 tbsp of freshly-squeezed lemon juice + 8 tbsp of maple syrup. Filled up a coffee jar and a glass. As lemons vary in size, you may use up anywhere from 2 to 4 lemons to come up with 8 tbsp of lemon juice.

Just don't try to make 2 liters at a time as it's best to have the lemons freshly squeezed. Do not use bottled lemon juice.

Most people find that they need to drink anywhere from 6 to 12 glassed of lemonade a day. If you need more than that, go ahead. There is absolutely no need to starve yourself as feeling starved is one sure way to discourage you from continuing the cleanse.

If you can tolerate cayenne pepper well, you can use more than what the recipe calls for. The cayenne pepper breaks up the mucoid plaque and dilates the blood vessels, thus speeding up the detox process.

During the 10-day process, you may also drink water and some caffeine-free tea. Do not take anything else - no coffee, no soda, no crackers, no vegetable soup. Your body must be completely devoted to cleaning out the toxins, and it can't do that if your enzymes are being used to digest food.

Breaking the 10-day fast:

After 10 days, it's important that you take nothing but freshly squeezed oranges or grapefruit for the 11th day and 12th day. Eating something solid immediately will shock the body as your digestive system needs to be eased back into eating solid food.

On the 13th day, have orange juice again for breakfast, but by lunch time, you can start eating fruits and raw salads.  


There you have it - the information that you need to think about, and actually start doing the Master Cleanse.

Weight loss exercises - Do I need to exercise even though I'm eating raw food

Weight loss exercises - do I need these to lose weight even if I'm already eating raw vegan food?
The word "exercise" is loaded with a lot of meaning or emotional charge for a lot of people who don't exercise. Many negative associations come up, and mostly these are the reasons why they don't exercise - not enough time, it hasn't worked before, I'm too tired to exercise, I don't know where to begin, I get sick when I exercise, etc.
For people who don't exercise regularly, the reasons cited above make sense. They have perfectly valid reasons why they don't exercise. Truth is, no one has to exercise. The moment you "have to" do something, it stops being fun. You don't have to exercise, but you could, if you want to get results faster.
Instead of waiting for several months to see results, you might start noticing that your pants are getting loose in a matter of days or weeks. You start seeing your jawline and cheek bones after a week or two. You begin to feel a little more energetic, and you find that you feel more refreshed upon waking up. These are the results that could actually motivate you to exercise some more.
But for most people, the real challenge is starting to exercise. How do you push yourself to do something that you don't even feel like doing in the first place? 


1. Ask yourself what form of exercise you might enjoy.


2. Look around and see where you might do this exercise.


3. Look at your closet and see if you have something to wear.


4. Ask your friends to see if they would want to join you.


Ask yourself what form of exercise you might enjoy.
Some people think that exercise is boring, specially when they see people staying on treadmills for an hour or more. You do not need to spend hours on treadmill. Would you rather swim instead? Do you enjoy playing tennis or badminton? Do you enjoy riding a bike? Have you ever thought of learning karate or capoeira? Initially, what matters is just to pick one, any one, that you think you will enjoy. It has to be enjoyable for you.


Look around and see where you might do this exercise
The gym is not the only place to work out at. For people who don't have the time, money, or inclination to sign up for a gym membership, see if you can start right at home. Maybe you can start by getting an inexpensive rebounder and just jump up and down for 10 minutes. Or maybe you can jog around the block when you wake up. There is no need to spend a single cent to begin exercising right now. 


Look at your closet and see if you have something to wear
I find it to be a bit humorous that some people hesitate to start exercising because they have nothing to wear. Really, this is just an excuse. You can lie down on the floor wearing your pajamas and start doing crunches long before everyone else wakes up. Or if you really must have a complete outfit, there's a sale happening somewhere almost every week, and this would be a great time to shop for clothes. 


Ask your friends to see if they would want to join you
For some people, it's easier to start if they have someone to kick their butt. Find out if your spouse or some other family member would be interested to run with you, or maybe swim a few laps with you, or maybe even just go up and down the stairs a couple of times with you.


Weight loss exercises need not be complicated. They need not be expensive. There is no need to invest in a home gym or buy an expensive piece of do-it-all equipment that you see on home TV shopping.

The important thing is, to borrow Nike's tagline, is to "just do it".


When you start eating raw food, your body will begin to detoxify. All the live enzymes you've been introducing into your system will start doing their job of cleaning out the junk from your body. When you exercise, you naturally start to sweat. This helps your body to get rid of the toxins that are flowing out of your fat cells. 


Being on a raw food diet is the perfect complement to doing a couple of weight loss exercises.

Raw Food Diet - Will I lose a lot of weight on a raw food diet?

Raw food diet is fast becoming a new buzz word everywhere. Some are embracing this new lifestyle because they have no choice. They're sick and they've heard that it can heal their bodies. Others try it because a lot of famous celebrities are openly admitting that raw foodism is much better than plastic surgery when it comes to making them look a lot younger. And of course, more and more people are seeing that eating raw food is one of the best ways to lose weight.

Why is it that adopting a raw food diet will cause you to lose a lot of weight very quickly? 

1. A raw food diet is naturally healthy and nourishing.

2. Raw foods do not contain man-made toxins

3. Raw foods help to make your body more alkaline.

Let's look at each one of these in detail:

A raw food diet is naturally healthy and nourishing.

Uncooked fruits and vegetables are naturally low in calories, high in fiber, and low in bad cholesterol. Time and time again, you've heard that that's the kind of diet that's ideal. When you eat a pineapple for example, you know that there's a lot of fiber in there, it doesn't have animal fat, and considering that there are no added sugars, you know that it's naturally low in calories. And since raw foods are not heat-treated, they retain their enzymes.

When we eat foods that have no living enzymes in them, our body has to use up some of its own enzymes to digest our food. Now this is not good at all. Our bodies need those enzymes for other functions. This means while we are trying to digest our enzyme deficient food, our bodies would have to stop doing other critical functions like detoxing and healing simply because the enzymes are preoccupied with digestion. This is the reason why some people feel sleepy after eating a heavy meal. Your body needs to stop its other activities just to attend to the task of digesting all of the enzyme-deficient food that you just ate.

Raw foods do not contain man-made toxins

Think of french fries and donuts. When carbohydrates are heated at really high temperatures (such as when you fry them), acrylamides are formed. This is a toxin as far as the body is concerned. And here's the bad news - this is not your typical garden-variety toxin. New research shows that acrylamides are carcinogenic! When we take in acrylamides in huge doses, we are actually putting ourselves at risk of getting cancer. And when we eat too much, the enzymes whose job is to detox our bodies can't do their job precisely because we've stuffed so much food into our system. 

With a raw food diet, we don't have to worry about ingesting things like acrylamides and other substances that our bodies were never designed to live on such as high fructose corn syrup and aspartame.

When we eat raw food, we give our bodies the rest that it needs to recover from all the work that it had to do to clean up our bodies.

Raw foods help to make your body more alkaline

Just a simple chemistry lesson: our bodies are either acidic or alkaline. When we eat a lot of sugar and meat, our bodies become acidic. This is the perfect environment for all sorts of diseases to develop in our bodies. When we eat uncooked fruits and vegetables, our bodies become alkaline. When our bodies are alkaline, we start getting healed, we start losing fat, and we start to slow down the rate by which our bodies break down and grow old. Acidic - not good. Alkaline - good. That's a simple rule to remember.

When you start eating more uncooked fruits and vegetables, and eat less meat, processed food, canned food, fast food, and manufactured food, something magical happens to your body - you start losing weight! And this is the kind of weight loss that doesn't make you look like you haven't eaten or slept in days. This is the kind of weight loss that gives you a lot of energy and makes your more youthful.

Some people are hesitant to make the jump to eating 100% raw because they think they'll miss all the good food that they love so much. But whoever said that you have to be 100% raw right this moment? Introducing a fruit into your diet today is a great first step. Eating a fresh leafy green salad instead of mashed potatoes with your steak is another great step. Take small steps. Taking small steps is much better than not taking any step at all.

In the next few days, we'll talk about more baby steps that you can take to successfully transition to a raw food diet.

Raw Food Recipes - Where do I get new recipes?

Raw Food Recipes - it's absolutely critical that you amass a huge collection of raw food recipes as you begin to experiment with this new lifestyle. The question is, where do you get this information?

The first thing that you need to do is to be aware of your learning style. What do I mean by this?

- Do you learn best by watching videos of how other people prepare food?

- Do you learn best by reading books on the subject?

- Do you learn best by watching other people do a demo right in front of you?

Of course, the amount of time and money that you're willing to invest in for your health will also determine the type of training material or program you will immerse yourself in.

My first exposure to raw food was through a book with a picture of what looked like a green concoction on the cover and I was drawn to see what was in it. Before reading this book, I have never mixed drinks or made smoothies, but as the author explained how easy it was to make a green smoothie (fruits and leafy greens thrown into a blender), I realized that this is something that I can do on my own. You can't go wrong with the amount of fruit or leafy greens - just go out and try it.

Then one day, while attending a meditation class, the person sitting next to me saw that I was drinking a green smoothie and she asked me if I got the recipe from a famous raw food teacher in our area. As we talked about my smoothie, she introduced me to a woman who taught classes and gave raw food recipes to people who might be interested in living a healthier life. I attender her class, and on that weekend, I realized that being vegan did not mean eating rabbit food. On the contrary, raw vegan food, if prepared properly, tastes so good! Immediately, a whole new future opened up for me as I saw the possibility of eating really awesome food while staying lean and fit.

Naturally, I wanted to learn more about raw food recipes, and that led me to search the internet for free raw food recipes. There's an abundance of sources on the internet, from Youtube, to personal blogs, to some really awesome websites of culinary schools.

I had no idea that raw food lifestyle has taken the whole world by storm! Famous people like Anthony Robbins, Jason Mraz, Steve Jobs, Sting, Woody Harrelson, and Alicia Silverstone were all raw foodists! Inspired by this, my resolve to adopt this new lifestyle got solidified.

If you're new to this, you would naturally want to build your own library of raw food recipes. The easiest one to make is something that takes less than 30 seconds to prepare. All you need is a blender, some water, some leafy greens, and some fruit. Don't worry about the ratios right now. The important thing is to put in some leafy greens into a fruit smoothie. My first attempt at making a green smoothie used this recipe:

500 ml of water (or coconut water)

1 pineapple (or mango)

2 bananas

a handful of leafy greens (spinach, or whatever grows locally in your area)

Blend until you don't see green chunks floating around. That's it!

For an ordinary blender, this might take 30 seconds. For a high powered blender like a Vitamix, this could take less than 10 seconds.

It tastes like a pineapple banana smoothie. It doesn't taste like spinach at all!

This is a great way of adding leafy greens into your diet.

Now you may be asking, why do I need to add leafy greens into a fruit smoothie?

Leafy greens are just so full of nutrients and enzymes. Chlorophyll has been described by some people as liquid sunlight. Ever wonder what makes apes, cows and horses so strong? The greens. These animals are naturally vegan, and they happen to be really strong.

There is a wealth of free information on the internet, and I have compiled all of this information into an ebook. Pretty soon, I will make this available to anyone who's interested. Aside from information on how to get started on a raw food diet, it will also contain lots of raw food recipes.

Raw Food Weight Loss - How do I lose weight fast with a raw food diet

Raw Food Weight Loss is all about losing weight fast by being a raw foodist.

While a lot of people have tried being vegetarian, or at least know someone who is vegetarian, there seems to be some mystery surrounding the idea of being a raw foodist. A raw foodist is someone who eats uncooked fruits, vegetables, nuts, and seeds. It is not about eating raw fish or raw meat. Raw vegan is another way of calling a raw foodist.

People like Anthony Robbins, Jason Mraz, Demi Moore, and Woody Harrelson are raw foodists. They have healthy bodies that show exactly what one can get by eating raw, living food. But beyond the obvious  physical changes, living on raw food brings you mental clarity and emotional stability. The physical, mental and emotional transformation that happens when you eat raw living food makes it possible for you to live a truly extraordinary life.

Simply losing weight is a goal that pales in comparison to living a full and vibrant life, made possible by being FLESHY (Fit, Lean, Energetic, Healthy, and Youthful). Some severe diets leave us looking old and tired. Instead of becoming more attractive, crash diets may end up making us look even worse than when we were a bit heavier. A much more worthy goal is that of being FLESHY. 

Here's how we can achieve that:

1.  Be very clear with your fitness goals

2.  Eliminate whatever might hinder you from getting that

3.  Create the structure that would give you the body that you want

4.  Detox

5.  Transition to a raw food diet

Be very clear with your fitness goals

How much do you really want to weigh? What would be your ideal waist line? What clothes would you want to be able to wear? What would your blood pressure be? Will you be thin, lean, or muscled?

Before anything else, hold a picture in your mind of what you would want your body to look like. If you are not clear with what you want, it would be very difficult to achieve it.

Eliminate whatever might hinder you from getting that

Come on, deep down, you know what's sabotaging your weight loss efforts. It could be your love for desserts, your habit of having just a little too much to drink, your lack of sleep, your "healthy" appetite, or your food choices. Until you are determined to eliminate whatever might be hindering you from getting what you want, then all your efforts will just go to waste.

Let's say what's stopping you from getting the body that you want is your love for food. You love to eat salty and greasy food in spite of the fact that you know it's bad for you. Just ask yourself why you don't want to let go of that kind of diet. What could you be getting from eating that kind of food? What might stop you from trying raw food weight loss diets?

Create the structure that would give you the body that you want

What do I mean by structure?

Are you the type of person who needs to be reminded to eat healthy? Who will do that, when will they do that, and how will they do that?

Do you have the time to prepare healthy meals? How much time will you allocate every week going to the market to shop for fresh ingredients, making your meals, and bringing them to work or wherever you might need to go?

Is your budget set up in such a way that you have the funds to purchase some essential kitchen tools such as a high-powered blender, a dehydrator or a juicer?

When I say structure, what I'm referring to are the circumstances in your life that are creating the body that you currently have. If you work on creating or redesigning your habits, routines, budget, support system and schedule, then the body that you want will naturally arise from the new structure that you have created.

Detox

Let's say you're done with the first 3 steps. You're now ready to take action to get the body of your dreams. The next step is to detox.

If you look at someone with a really hot body, what you see are the curves, the muscles, and the taut skin. What you don't see is that their kidneys, liver, and colon are functioning properly to support their healthy lifestyle. Without healthy internal organs, a FLESHY body is just not possible.

There are many ways to detox and this probably deserves a whole new blog just to talk about the different ways of removing toxins from your body. However, we will focus specifically on the kind of detox that complements a raw food weight loss program.

Transition to a raw food diet

After detoxing, you wouldn't want to go back to your old salty and greasy meals. But at the same time, you're probably not ready to eat like a yogi who lives in the Himalayas. What you need is a diet that gives you the live enzymes that come from eating uncooked fruits and vegetables AND yet, tastes just like the food that you're used to.


You might begin by going to restaurants that serve healthy raw vegan food. But even better than that, it would work if you knew how to prepare your own food.

Let's say you like pizza and yet you know that the high carb dough and the cheese won't really support your fitness goals. The challenge now is how to prepare meals that are raw vegan and yet taste like the fast food that you're used to. You'll need to arm yourself with a lot of raw vegan recipes that are good for you. 


If you don't know a thing about food preparation, it would be best to take short courses on food preparation. If you know how to prepare your own food, this could spell the difference between quitting and really adopting a raw food weight loss diet permanently.

This blog intends to guide you through the different steps to get you that body that you've always dreamed of. To move from simply dreaming about it to actually having it, you will need to take action. 

I will share with you the challenges that I encountered along the way. Someone who has experienced these challenges will be in a better position to guide you to hurdles the same challenges yourself, sparing you the trial and error along the way.

What you need to do and how you need to do it will all be covered in this blog to support your raw food weight loss.