1 Week Down ...

Week One Results & Reflection

Get Caught Up on the Story by reading 
these posts first:
The Beginning & Inspiration
The Rationale Behind it All
The Blood Work

So one week down and I feel great! I know this is called the Vegan Challenge and the challenge for many participants is to eat the vegan diet. For me, the challenge was not to eat vegan but 100% raw vegan. I've done this for 10 days before and I remember around day 5 it being VERY tough! I don't know if it is because all of us are doing this or what the reason is but this has been easy! 

Today, Saturday April 19th, is the 8th day of being raw vegan and here are my individual results:

• I feel much happier and by day 6 have not felt sad or depressed at all
• I have MUCH more energy during the day despite still not getting enough sleep
• I have lost 5 lbs in 7 days!
• The daily exercise of 30+ minutes is getting much easier each day and enjoyable!

During one of my nightly walks around the neighborhood I noticed someone watching TV and saw a food commercial on their TV. It suddenly dawned on me that was one of the reasons this challenge has been so easy! I didn't think about it before because in our house we don't watch ANY TV. We don't even have the TV's we own connected to local or free cable. We will watch movies on occasion and I do enjoy gaming on my XBOX but there aren't any food commercials coming through on XBOX ... not yet at least. The commercial was for seafood and I have never liked seafood but the way the ad was produced it made me hungry for that food! Crazy, right? Advertisers spend hundreds of millions of dollars a year ... some sectors spend in the billions to get you to eat their food. Pre-cooked, processed, and often animal based foods high in calories and low in nutrients. I know ALL of this yet I still craved what was on the ad. A strategy I recommend when trying to change the way you eat is to not watch commercials. Muting them won't make much difference as food companies appeal to your senses through imagery very well without sound. I am not a TV watcher so I don't know how you would avoid watching the food commercials but I definitely recommend it.

Another reason I have done this so easily is because I live in a household that is also vegan. While my wife and daughter may not eat raw all the time, I never have to sit and eat a dinner salad while watching my family eat a delicious cheese pizza with fresh veggies on top (what we used to eat). I know it can be extremely difficult if those TWO things are factors in your life ... food commercials and a non-vegan house ... so, I would like to say I am proud of you for doing it and keep going! You CAN do it! 

The 30 minutes or more of exercise each day has been an important step during this challenge and I think I have begun something that will be a permanent part of my life. What I wanted to prove and show to everyone was that 30 minutes out of your day is easy enough to do and even a 30 minute walk through a neighborhood can have an important positive impact in your life. There have been days where I just wanted to take an evening nap or just sit after a long day but, instead, I lace up my shoes and head out the door to return 30 minutes later. Each night I return home I am glad I did it and each night it gets easier and easier. On day 7 I was 'gifted' with a light rain as I did my walk. I think I was smiling the entire time! If you have not made daily exercise part of your vegan challenge maybe you can start a 4 week Daily Exercise Challenge and just go out and walk for 30 minutes each day. I am a HUGE fan of music and I could easily put in earbuds and listen to music while I walk but there is something about listening to the world and listening to life. As I walk each evening I notice the birds and listen to their songs as they communicate with each other. I hear people sometimes as they live their lives. Even the sound of the wind through the trees mixed with various other organic and inorganic sounds I realize that there is plenty of music for me in nature. Part of the exercise regimen is also doing so outside. There is something so important to our connecting with the outside world that we have lost as a society in a large part in the past 50 years. Think about this ... your hours awake each day can range from 16 to 19 hours. That is at least 960 minutes! Apart from how long it takes for us to walk to our cars from each structure how much time do you actually spend outside on a normal day? Ten minutes? Fifteen? Less than ten minutes even? Now, think about this ... when humans lived long healthy lives free of preventable diseases like heart disease, type II diabetes, and obesity related diseases not to mention the complete lack of overweight and obese people we spent almost the entire day outside! It is in our ancestry, our roots, it is our nature to breathe outside air and to feel the wind and to be kissed by the sun or even bask in the light of the moon, stars, and various other lights from the universe. Today we live inside our man-made structures and rely on technology to take us places and to see the world. Having traveled and seen many beautiful places I can tell you that no TV sitcom or video game or even blog page :-) compares to the feeling of pure joy and happiness that a hike through the rain forests of Costa Rica can give you. Now, I don't live in Costa Rica but even a walk around a neighborhood in Palm Desert, CA can bring some measure of peace and connection to a mind, body, and soul that is millions of years old. Just because the world has changed to put walls around us and tablets in our hands does not mean we are evolved to be holding one rather than connecting to our environments. So get out there and walk ... aim a certain direction and set your timer for 15 minutes and go! The at the end of those 15 minutes turn around and go back home. It is EASY and you will come to the realization that it can be done every day. If it is hot, wait until the sun goes down and walk at dusk. It will be considerably cooler and very do-able! 

Ok, enough of my rant. Keep up the great work everyone and feel free to post your "successes and/or failures" here on the comment section below. We'd love to hear your story! 

Safe paths to you ~ J.Tate