Time has just flown by! It’s hard to believe I’ve been raw for 9 months already. By far, be best progress was in the beginning, and especially just after I finished my 100 day juice and water fast in early October 2009. I expected a small weight gain, as many people do after a long-term juice fast/feast. I was hoping to keep the momentum going, but my 100+ pound weight loss hovered around the same range, going a few pounds up and down. But, I suppose that was to be expected, as I continued to stay high raw, instead of 100% raw.

In December I decided to go 100% raw since I was stuck at a plateau. For the most part, I was doing well, but as I got into early January, I found myself busy and taking the easy way out and reverting to high raw. Don’t worry – I didn’t have any meat – and have not for almost a decade! But a few times I was in a rush and got cooked vegan food, such as steamed vegetables with tofu from a Chinese restaurant, grilled veggie wraps, curried vegetables with rice, etc. I admit, I wasn’t being as diligent as I was before. Once I noticed the weight creeping up a few pounds, and staying there, I decided it was time to go back to being 100% raw.

There were a bunch of people on Facebook doing a juice feast at the start of January, but I wasn’t ready to join them. However, I did promise myself that I needed to do another juice feast and cleanse myself of all the impure food I had eaten recently. So I did. On February 1, 2010 I decided to start a 100% raw juice feast. Why February 1? It’s a nice even day and easy to remember how many days I’ve been fasting. So far it’s been almost two weeks. Last year I’d have thought that was a long time to fast, but after having done it for 100 days last summer,  a couple of weeks seems quite short. I’m not sure how long I’ll do it for this time.

There hasn’t been a lot of weight loss. Only about 10 pounds, but there was a good amount of detoxification in the first few days. That makes me realize it doesn’t take long to build up toxins. It’s only been 4 months since my last fast, and I was surprised at how much toxicity I eliminated.

The difference this time is that I’m doing a true juice FEAST, and not a fast. I’m following the suggestions of David and Katrina Rainoshek’s Juice Feasting program. That means 4 quarts or about 1 gallon of freshly juiced fruits and vegetables – including lots of greens, especially leafy greens. After a minor mishap with my juicer, I got it repaired and for the most part, I’ve been really good at getting at least 3 quarts of truly fresh juice. Occasionally I’ve bought some good quality store bought juice or from a juice bar, but most of the time I prepare a day’s supply in the morning and take it with me to work.

The downside of drinking so much juice (plus of course the water) is that I have to go to the bathroom a bit more often now. The upside is that even just 13 days into a true juice feast, I can definitely see how much better it was as opposed to the high raw juice “fast” I did last year. My energy level is higher, I routinely get 5 to 6 hours of sleep a night now, and feel very rested and energetic.

I’ve even gotten back into exercise. Nothing fancy, just some walking, since it’s been good outside with the lack of snow and ice on the sidewalks. I also bought a used elliptical machine/exercise bike and bench to go with my Bowflex Selectec dumbbells. Now I just need to use them! I’ve never been a fan of exercise, although I know that when I was doing it regularly last year, along with being high raw, my weight loss was definitely accelerated. That’s what I need to do now. I’m not sure how long I’ll do the juice feast for this time. Maybe until March 1 and then have smoothies, because they’re quicker to make. But I’m definitely sticking to 100% raw. Any deviation from that and I quickly gain weight back. It takes at least twice as long to lose it, and I certainly don’t want that!

I also want to thank all of you rawsome people for following my progress and communicating with me here on my blog, on YouTube and on Facebook. To be honest, that’s part of what has kept me going, knowing that I’ve got so many people watching me!

It’s getting close to 1 year since I started this weight loss journey. My goal, and a very lofty one at that, was to be at my goal weight by May 4, 2010 which is exactly one year from the day I started this. That would mean about 200 pounds of weight loss. I’m not sure that’s healthy or realistic, but I’m going to strive for it. Even if I don’t attain that goal, I will certainly be further ahead than if I had done nothing. If I shudder to think where I would be now if I had kept up my old ways. Probably pushing 400 pounds if not more. But, those days are behind me now! I’m going to look GOOD for this summer!

Wow, 7 months raw already! It seems like just yesterday that I dabbled with the thought of going raw, then 50% raw, then 80% raw, and now, as of December 1, 2009 I am 100% raw. Well… 99.9% raw. After coming off my 100 day juice fast, my weight fluctuated. I didn’t like it going up and down, so that’s why I decided to eliminate anything that wasn’t raw vegan. The next step is to make it all organic.

It’s been a while since my last update – partly due to a really busy work schedule and partly because I was waiting to drop a huge amount of weight. After such amazing progress in the first 5 months, it felt like such a let down to plateau. But many of you have contacted me to see how I was doing (thank you)! so I made some time to put together an update.

Autumn has made way for winter here in Montreal. Yesterday we had our first significant snowfall – about 12 inches (30 centimeters) of snow. My daily walks will become a bit more challenging now with the more slippery conditions. But for some reason, I’m not detesting winter as much as I used to. (we’ll see if I still feel the same way in March)! This made me think back to December last year when I was MORBIDLY obese and suffered a nasty pinched nerve injury which had me flat on my back for several weeks. Much as I cursed it at the time, it was a blessing in disguise. Otherwise I wouldn’t have decided to lose weight and go raw. Who knows where I’d be now if it weren’t for that. My guess is that I’d be pushing 400 pounds for sure.

2010 is going to be amazing! I’ve got so much planned for the coming months, so stay tuned! I will also lose the remainder of my fat in the first half of the year. Then I will be able to fit into some of those clothes I haven’t worn since 1999. I got rid of all my 3XL, 4XL and 5XL shirts and pants recently, so there’s no going back! Just my 2XL and smaller clothes.

With all the overtime I’ve had in the last couple of months, I splurged and equipped my kitchen with some new raw food appliances: a Samson juicer, Excalibur dehydrator, Vitamix blender and bunch of dry goodies for my green smoothies. And of course I had to go buy a bunch of books on Amazon. Stay tuned in the new year for some book reviews!

Thank you to all of you who are following my progress. I truly appreciate it. Without the comments and feedback, I probably wouldn’t have kept up with the video updates. When I hadn’t put out an update in November, many of you emailed me, contact me via Facebook, the Shreddersphere or YouTube to ask how things were going and that you were looking forward to my next update. With all the overtime I’ve been working, it’s been hard to get in as much exercise as I wanted, but I am so thankful that I made raw food a routine and was able to at least get a few 1-hour walks per week done. Looking forward to ramping things up in 2010, so stay tuned!

For the last few weeks, I have been counting down to my next major milestone: 100 pounds of weight loss (45 kg / 7 stone). I am proud to say that today is the day!

Today I weigh in at 271 lbs (123 kg / 19.5 stone). I know this is only a number, but I chose this as a milestone because it’s a nice round number and a significant amount of weight.

Of course, I am only about half way there with my weight loss, but I look and feel so much better already. I can only image how good another 100 pounds of will be!

Back in early April, I was thoroughly disgusted with the way I looked and had all but given up hope on being able to lose weight. No matter what I did, I only gained weight. There were no bigger sizes of clothes available at the “Big & Tall” clothing stores. I didn’t know what to do and knew that my health was rapidly deteriorating. Then I stumbled upon Adam Waters’ RTP (Real Time Physique) contest. I figured “what the heck, why not?” All the while I was half-thinking that I’d probably give up and that this wouldn’t work.

Well, I was pleasantly surprised that I did start to lose weight and quite a few people had taken interest in my journey and my blogs. I couldn’t give up then! There was just one part of RTP that wasn’t quite right for me – the nutritional aspect. I have been vegetarian and near-vegan for the last 8 years, so the meat, fish and dairy wouldn’t work for me. Of course, I had also become a “junk food vegetarian” which lead me to put on so much weight.

Then I stumbled across Philip McCluskey who had gone from 400 lbs to 200 lbs mostly from going to a raw food vegan diet. Philip, Adam and I are all close to the same age and all had weight loss challenges. Adam didn’t have as much to lose as Philip or myself. But I found the raw food vegan way to compliment RTP quite well for me. Adam got me to be accountable and exercise. Philip got me to eat delicious and nutritious raw fruits, veggies and nuts. And I haven’t looked back since.

I can’t begin to explain what a thrill and honor it has been to have met both Adam and Philip in person last month. I met Adam at the NYC Shredder Summit and Philip at Raw Spirit East just outside of Washington DC. And of course so many wonderful people at each of the events too. Everyone was so nice! Plus, all of the terrific people who have followed my progress online, read my blogs, watched and subscribed to my videos on YouTube, commented and even been inspired by me. You people are what kept me going. I didn’t want to let you down, or myself.

Now, my health is so much better, my pinched nerve injury is a lot better (far ahead of schedule) and I have become a much happier and more positive person. Now, people in my offline world are really starting to notice too. It’s so exciting to have lost 100 pounds so far – it sounds quite significant (and it is)!

I wish we were all together in person so we could celebrate, but alas we’re not. So, the next best thing is to join me for a virtual party! Go grab something healthy like a glass of carrot juice or water and join me in celebrating this awesome day!

Must have been something in the water there! Come to think of it, I did drink a lot of ionized water there!

I am long overdue for a new video of my 3 month update, my trip to the Shredder Summit in New York City and my trip to Raw Spirit East. I promise to get that done as soon as possible – just been swamped with so much to do since I got back.

If I didn’t say it before, I’ll say it now… thank you to everyone for taking an interest in me! And to all of you wonderful people I’ve had the pleasure of meeting in person, it was truly awesome! It was a very surreal experience, but it really makes my day to meet all you nice people.

Have an awesome day!

Here is a long overdue update. If you’ve only seen my original videos, you’ll be shocked at how different I look in just two months! I’ve lost around 30 pounds since making the last video, and 64 pounds from my heaviest weight. You’ve just got to see this video where I give all the details!

(Sorry for the poor sound quality – it was my first time recording outside – next time I should use a wireless microphone)