HCLF

If you follow me on my other Social Networks, you would have seen that I am taking a trip this coming Spring.....to.....HAWAII!!!!!  I am beyond excited to be attending the Woodstock Fruit Festival Hawaii 2015 ;-)

I first learned about the Woodstock Fruit Festival through Matt Frazier's blog No Meat Athelete. I had been following this blog for a while and purchased his Half Marathon Roadmap (which was awesome by the way!). In his blog he talked all about different vegan lifestyles, including 80/10/10. 80/10/10?!? What is that???  Dr. Doug Graham, author of 80/10/10, describes this diet as the optimal way of eating for our bodies.  80/10/10 stands for the macronutrient percentage of 80% carbohydrate, 10% protein, and 10% fat.  This is the approximate proportion of macros if you eat mostly raw fruit, greens, and a very small amount of avocado/nuts/seeds.   I, like most people, found it hard to believe someone could eat only raw fruits and vegetables and survive. That is before I listened to Matt's interview with Michael Arnstein. 

Mike "the Fruitarian" Arnstein is an incredibly successful ultra endurance athlete, winning numerous events on a raw food diet. However, Mike does not follow the high-fat raw vegan diet that many have probably heard about. He follows a very high carbohydrate-low fat/protein diet.  Raw fruit during the day, raw vegetables in the evening, and little to no overt fats.  A typical day of food for Mike:

"If I am doing a morning workout, my daily diet goes like this: Upon waking, I immediately drink 2 liters of distilled water. Then I juice two large glasses worth of fresh organic oranges. I start my workout. After my workout, I usually eat one type of fresh, ripe, in-season fruit for the rest of the day, until dinner time. Common ones include oranges, bananas, melons, or apples. For dinner I usually have a large salad of romaine lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, maybe some avocado on occasion. If I have a dressing it is usually just some blended orange. A late-night snack might be grapes, mango, or some other more exotic/seasonal fruit. " Mike Arnstein  

This way of eating seems extremely intimidating, but something I want to try.  I already eat a high-raw diet; tons of raw vegetables and a good amount of raw fruits.  However, this is nothing compared to the amount of fruit in this diet.  Could I really do this?  Well, I am going to try and start out small.  I plan to first start out with huge amounts of raw organic fruits throughout the day and some raw organic vegetables in the evening.  I will, however, allow myself a cooked meal in the evening if I really want it (coined the "Raw Till 4" diet).  I believe this will give me the best chance of transitioning to this new way of eating/living. 

Wish me luck everyone

I will be keeping you all posted ;-)

The Redheaded Triathlete