Jim here… Today marks the half-way point of the month of May. Let me tell you, time really does fly when you’re as busy as we are here at Pure Jeevan. We’re still working hard on selling our home, arranging for the acquisition of an RV for our national tour, reducing our worldly possessions to a minimum, packing up the ones we’re going to  keep, writing for Pure Jeevan, keeping in touch with online Pure Jeevan friends and family, and even a new project or two that will, I promise, totally blow you away! In addition, it’s beautiful outside once again, and we’ve been trying to get out more often for exercise, fun, and soaking in some Vitamin D!

As you can imagine, we need high energy to do all of these things, so you may be wondering:  On that low fat raw vegan regimen, how’s it going? 

Well, I felt a change on day one. Mostly, this change reflected my attachment to certain goodies. I was REALLY used to munching on things like raw almonds, raw seed breads and flax crackers, nut dips, and nut/coconut-based desserts. But, under this new protocol, those items (known in low-fat raw vegan circles as overt fats) were out of bounds. In fact, after a few days of this, I declared that changing from raw to low-fat raw was tougher than changing from cooked to raw!

But it got easier. I think I discovered some of the richer staples of a low-fat raw vegan diet. Things like dates and bananas, for example, are good for getting you through cravings. I may have abused the candy-like Medjool dates a bit, but I’m none the worse for it, in my opinion. Soon, I did sense a certain — how can I put this — tightening going on, on a cellular level. I’d like to think that this is my body jettisoning some of the final, more stubborn weight I still need to lose. In fact, I received a phone call from Hugh Jackman the other day, and he wants his physique back! (Okay, that last line was total fantasy.)

In the beginning, I was pretty hard-core about it. For the first entire week, I had zero overt fats. The only fats I had were whatever was present in the fruits and leafy greens I ate. Finding this a little too restrictive, I decided that small amounts (seriously, very small) of some things would allow me to stay within the boundaries set for myself (less than 10% fat intake) and yet enjoy life a bit more. So, for example, when we have nori wraps for lunch, I often make a nut-based spread that helps hold the nori wraps closed. Without that spread, I find nori wraps to be a little dry. But, adding just a smear of it to the wrap adds a pleasant creaminess throughout and still very little overt fat. (I just have to be careful not to overdo it.)

Okay, so I’ve received a few questions about all of this. First: Why are you doing this? I’ve received this one a lot. I suppose it has to do with a few things. First, although I’ve now lost more than 60 pounds (perhaps more, as I haven’t stepped on a scale in months), I ultimately felt that my physical health had reached a plateau.

For most men of a certain age, a big problem area is the abdomen, where fat tends to accumulate faster than in other areas. While I have continually shrunk on raw (under 170 pounds at the moment from my original 230+), I have not yet seen the results I would like to see in the abdominal area.

Back at the beginning of the year, Wendi and I made vision boards for ourselves. (Vision boarding is an exercise whereby you can set your future intentions and goals. Done with focus, purpose, and alignment with a noble life-mission, it’s a powerful way to set your ideal future into motion.) Mine included a picture of what I consider nice, healthy male abs – which doesn’t, for me, have to be the whole “six pack” thing; rather, I’m currently shooting for your basic, flat, toned, healthy abdominals. 

I’ve asked a number of health experts, including Dr. Graham recently when he appeared on Revvell Revati’s Let’s Talk Raw show, whether there is a way for people to lose weight in just one isolated area. The answer I’ve heard from all of them is: No. No, you cannot simply do sit-ups and lose abdominal fat. Doing sit-ups only strengthens the abdominal muscles below the fat. To lose the fat there, you have to – surprise, surprise — lose body fat. So, finally coming to terms with this physical plateau I’d hit, I decided to try out this low-fat raw vegan regimen.

As an interesting side note to that, I want to add that, at the time of my making this decision to try low fat raw veganism, I’d totally forgotten (consciously) about my aforementioned vision board exercise. But, it must have still been there unconsciously. This is part of the magic of vision boarding! Your mind is continually working in conjunction with the universe to bring your desires to fruition. My unconscious mind must’ve concluded, “Jim, this is going to get you to where you want to be!” And, from there, the decision came to pursue it. (So, if you haven’t done a vision board for yourself, by all means give it a try!)

Interestingly, a number of people have asked me whether my skin is drying out now, so I thought I’d address that question. In a word: No! In three words, not at all. I’d asked Wendi one day why so many people had asked me that. She suggested it may have to do with a perception / belief that fats (presumably good fats) contribute to nice skin, balancing oils and so forth. Hmmm, yes, that does sound like a logical assumption. After all, you’re always hearing that sort of thing when people discuss pets. “It’s good for their coat,” people say. So, are fats “good for our coats”?

Well, I think that’s a misconception about “low fat” raw veganism. First, it doesn’t mean “no” fat. Instead, it generally indicates a maximum of 10% fat intake (if you go by guidelines suggested by Dr. Doug Graham in his book, The 80/10/10 Diet). Ten percent, he asserts, is more than adequate fat intake for the body to perform all of these essential functions. (He asserts this based on hard science, not just a personal opinion, by the way.) And, there are fats in tons of foods, including fruits and leafy greens! So, it would be nearly impossible to live a technically fat-free existence. (It would also be dangerous, as our bodies need fat for essential functions.) So, assuming the skin is one organ that requires some fat, I can report, based on my own experiences so far, that a diet made up of roughly 10% fat produces nothing less than perfectly healthy skin.

(As a further disclaimer to that, though, I should probably note that my skin has always been fairly healthy in general, even when I was the most junk-food oriented individual on the planet. I know that a lot of our health is determined by genetics. So, while I do not have the genes to be able to live a long, healthy life fueled solely by pizza and doughnuts, I suppose I do have decent skin genes.)

Finally, I wanted to note again that this is a personal experiment, and not an official Pure Jeevan endorsement or recommendation. If you’re new to raw, I want you to know that, clearly, a higher percentage of fat intake on a raw diet can also be perfectly healing, and also certainly part of a healthy raw weight loss regimen. As Wendi has indicated many times on this blog, she practiced a fairly high-fat version of a raw diet the whole time she was losing nerly 100 pounds — and this is also what made me lose 60 pounds over that span of time — all the while watching her blood work reports improve dramatically across the board.

But, for me, I’m feeling great on this regimen. I’m feeling energized, mentally clear, aware, and like I’ve headed toward the next, higher, plateau of physical health. So, maybe I will get that phone call from Hugh Jackman at some point — or, at least find that I’ve reached one goal on my vision board.

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