VEGAN SQUARED

ON THE MERITS OF PERFECT RAWNESS

2009-04-04T13:51:00.000-07:00

Been busy studying so not much time to put blogs together. Just thought I would comment on something I've noticed.
How many articles have you read about raw food? If you've read a couple, you most likely have come across some variation of "It's not about being 100%, it's about incorporating more healthy food into your diet." Or maybe in your adventures through internet discussion pages you came across the idea that being 100% is just about having the label, and that you should be happy with just being more raw than you were before.
I totally agree with both of those statements, but I also think they are an oversimplification and actually do a disservice to people trying to be really healthy and really happy. Look, I've been varying degrees of raw since 2006. That's going on 3 years. Starting at 100%, at times I dipped down to 50% (Even maybe 5% for that month of military training). I'm sure I was doing great things for my health at 50%, but it always seemed to be a chore when it came down to eating a raw meal.
Now I'm back at 100%. I like to say that being 100% is like going to the mountaintop, because only once you've achieved it for a significant amount of time can you appreciate it for what it is. I realized recently that I only like what I was conditioned to like. There is nothing intrinsically good about cooked food, but I have such an extensive history with it that it felt as if I was depriving myself when I abstained from it. Being 100% has allowed me to recondition myself. I've just reset the default settings. I can be just as passionate about food as before, but the great thing is, the food I am passionate about now is food that is wholly healthy and nourishing (unlike my previous mistress, pizza).
So the next time someone makes a comment to me to the effect of, "I'd rather be happy eating steak and die early, than live a long time unhappily eating vegetables," maybe I'll hit them with a little knowledge. Raw vegetables can make you happy, if only you put forth the effort into changing you preferences (which in some cases, doesn't take much effort at all). And if they are still not convinced, I'll remind them of the fact that they're not going to be too happy when obesity and heart disease set in. So now their argument is looking a little weak. Health is happiness. Live long. Live happy. Eat raw.

3.5 Weeks Baby!

2009-03-30T20:54:00.000-07:00

Wow, almost a month of pure rawness. My eyes have brightened up for sure and I'm getting pretty ripped and the cravings are a thing of the past. I'm in the habit of this thing now, so it's no longer at the forefront of my thoughts and should be smooth sailing from here on out. Maybe I'll throw some pictures in next time.

THE BEGINNING OF THE END

2009-03-23T15:55:00.000-07:00

Check this out: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123777413372910705.html

No, it is not about raw food. And no, it is not about medical school. But I am technically in the armed forces, and that means I care about this country at least a little bit, and this blog is about things I care about, so there you have it.

I've had this feeling for a while and it just seems to get stronger all the time. I have a feeling that the rest of the world is going to pass us by on so many fronts. If this recent economic crisis has taught us anything, it is that we can't build a strong nation and economy on a system of no intrinsic value. We can't sustain an economy that takes so much and contributes so little.

What can we build it on? What do we have to offer? We have an extensive education system with which we can create revolutionary technologies. This is something we can build on.

But we won't do this. For one thing, we have embedded special interests that prevent technologies that would contribute to the common good but cost them profits. Watch the documentary "What happened to the electric car?" if you don't know what I'm talking about. As if to pour salt on the wound that is the relationship between big business and our government, we have to go and make our kids stupider. We have to go and make them less competitive in the global academic marketplace by teaching them superstitious drivel dressed up as science.

If this bill in Texas passes, it may just be the beginning of the end. The rest of the world advances while America begins to step backwards. I can only see things getting worse before they get better...

2 WEEKS!

2009-03-20T22:57:00.000-07:00

As of yesterday I've been 100% raw for two weeks. It feels good.

GOING OVERBOARD

2009-03-17T22:10:00.001-07:00

For me, and I suspect for a lot of others, this diet is about getting back to our natural state of things. It's about mimicking the diet under which we evolved. Our bodies are fine tuned machines, finely tuned to an environment that has only recently (evolutionarily speaking) been drastically altered. It's we like own a Ferrari that was designed for Premium gas but are filling the tank with unleaded. It will still work with the cheap stuff, but it's really going to perform on the premium stuff. This is how I think about the body and living foods.
So then I saw this comment. The comment was, "People always talk about fish oil being so great. Get the same long-chain omega-3 fatty acid from Marine Phytoplankton." Come on. I'm sure the intentions were good, but come on. Can you picture Homo ergaster or Homo habilis combing the ocean for phytoplankton? Phytoplankton? Phyto-freaking-plankton? I can't. And the thing that makes fish oil so special isn't really the omega-3's. You can get that from flax seeds. It's the DHA and EPA that make it so special. And there is also recent archaeological data that suggests a correlation between the eruption in Homo's brain size and access to fish.
But there is no need to go into more detail. This is just an example to keep in mind for those who eat raw for the same reasons I do. Of course, if your motivations and philosophies are different and you feel the need to eat some phytoplankton, be my guest. You can even have my share.

STILL AT IT

2009-03-17T16:48:00.000-07:00

As soon as I get some free time I will sit down and write a proper entry. For now, this will have to do: I made a batch of "rawful awful" (Raw Falafel, but if you say it fast it sounds like that) which was the most soft and delicious batch I have made to date. Warmed and wrapped in collard on a bed of sprouts, tomato, and onion, it is the most wonderful thing to eat.
For the record, I am 2 more days until the week 2 mark of being 100% raw. My sickness is gone and I have a glimmer in my eye. I can't imagine why I didn't get back into it sooner. I will disclose, however, that I had a very close call this weekend with some cravings. Thinking back to the reasons outlined in my first post, however, helped put a stop to that.

VEGAN SQUARED ON TWITTER

2009-03-12T22:23:00.000-07:00

Follow a raw foodist through the glamorous and exciting world of medical school! Today, I drank tea at a coffee shop! More posts like this to come!

WEEK 1: SUCCESS

2009-03-11T20:20:00.000-07:00

100% for 1 week raw and I feel great. Can't wait for week number 2!

CHANGES

2009-03-10T20:59:00.000-07:00

Day 6 raw? I think so. It was surprisingly easy. I stayed in to study (and because I am still sick) and so I was not confronted with any temptations. It's only day 6 at 100% and I'm already noticing the softer skin. Not glowing yet though...

PROTEIN!!!!

2009-03-09T22:12:00.000-07:00

No slips in the raw food department. I supplemented it with some yoga too (by the way, yoga + raw food = perfect combination) and even got to share the philosophy with an inquiring mind (and yes, question number one was "where do you get your protein?" Never been asked that before.)

Here's a quick and dirty way of clearing the protein question up (quick and dirty because I'm tired and need sleep):
What does every living thing have in common? DNA! How does DNA work? It codes for stuff using sequences of amino acids. What is protein? A sequence of amino acids! EVERYTHING HAS PROTEIN IN IT!!! Now the human body can synthesize all the amino acids it needs except for 10 specific ones. These are the essential amino acids. A diet with a variety of plants will contain all of these and your body, the amazing thing that it is, will put them together in the way that it needs to. Now, I guarantee you this is not enough protein to grow Arnold size muscles, but that would defeat the point of this diet. This diet is supposed to mimic the state under which the body evolved in order to maximize the body's function. For putting on a little muscle, however, you probably need more protein than this and would benefit from supplementing with hemp or rice protein powder (this is what I do)

So, can we stop talking about protein now?

KALE DAY

2009-03-08T19:06:00.001-07:00

.
The experiment is preceding as I predicted. The cravings are back but I squashed them with some insanely delicious kale chips and a kale/banana drink for lunch that put me on top of the world.

DAY 4: SAD Sobriety

2009-03-07T21:52:00.000-08:00

It is the end of my 4th day 100% raw and I know what's coming. I've been in this position enough times to know how my body will respond. Today, the thought of dead food (aka: cooked food) crossed my mind a couple of times. Tomorrow the craving will begin and won't let up until day 6 or 7. Once I make it past the 1 week mark, however, I'm golden. Every time I've made it that far in the past, the cravings went away and I was able to remain faithful to my diet until some social event or holiday convinced me to relapse, forcing me to start the whole process over again.
These cycles might be hard to understand if you've never tried a diet like this. Think of things in terms of addiction. Food of the Standard American Diet (SAD) is a drug that we become addicted to very early on. There are a lot of pathways that develop in our brain and certain foods become linked to positive emotions. "Comfort foods." That's our name for them. We feel bad and we learn to use the food to make us feel better. But with a long enough abstinence, these associations begin to fade. Yet they don't completely disappear and are brought back from the murky neuronal recesses to which they had retreated during our sobriety the moment we relapse and bite into that food that long ago we had enjoyed.
A friend asked me once why I didn't include a SAD meal every now and again, as it would be conducive to socializing (as much of that is done over food) and, after all, it couldn't hurt that much. "People spend there whole lives eating that stuff. One meal is not going to kill you." True. But some people also spend their whole lives drinking wine, yet I wouldn't recommend giving a glass of merlot to a recovering alcoholic.

UFC 99: DOMINATION

2009-03-05T21:04:00.000-08:00

It's my first day back on a completely raw diet. I started out the day with buckwheat crispies over fresh chunks of mango and homemade almond milk. I felt like the luckiest man in the world. Who else gets to start their day like that and eat food that good?

As far as the USMLE goes, I've nicknamed it UFC 99: Domination and am preparing for it like UFC Champion Georges St. Pierre prepares for a fight. What I have begun today will not end until April 27th. Just as GSP begins with conditioning and technique training, so do I. My conditioning comes in the form of 8 hours straight of non-stop studying (except for bathroom and snack breaks). This is crucial because, like they say, conditioning wins fights.
But conditioning obviously isn't enough. Before a fighter can fight, they also have to learn the moves. As their training gets closer to the fight, they spend less time learning moves and more time practicing them. I mirror this by increasing the number of practice questions I do per day the closer I come to the big event. And just as GSP had a practice fight with Rashaud Evans before his fight with BJ Penn, I will take full practice tests before facing off on April 27th.

GSP proved that his method works. He defended his title on multiple occasions and consistently dominates the top contenders in his weight class. By adapting his method to the books, I plan on achieving similar success.

WELCOME TO THE EXPERIMENT

2009-03-04T19:51:00.000-08:00

what's the deal?:
As the 2nd year of medical school comes to a close, students must take USMLE Step 1, an 8 hour marathon of a test that covers material learned in the first two years, to ensure that they are prepared for a further 2 years of rotations. The test must be passed in order to proceed. One must also do better than just passing if he or she wants to pursue a competitive specialty. At UC Davis, students have roughly 1-2 months to review for this exam.
This is the situation I am in now. Tomorrow I begin begin studying 6 days a week, 12 hours a day for the next month and a half.
But is it enough? Everyone else is doing at least as much, if not more. How can someone as average as me expect to score well enough to be considered for the more competitive specialties? What is a resource that I can tap into that they can't?

the ace up my sleeve:
Optimal functioning of the mind can only be achieved in perfect health. In order to maximize the potential of the mind, the body must cleansed and strengthened. Daily exercise and a clean diet, a pure diet, of raw fruits, nuts, vegetables, seeds, and grains can be used to achieve perfect health. This will be my leg up on the competition.

The outcome of this test determines my future. Time to see if this raw food stuff works...