Peter Douglas RAW

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!