End of my Raw Month - It's a Wrap!

So that's it. One month on the raw plan. I'll try to keep this a short wrap up as I'm sure you guys are sick of reading about food.

Progress

At the start of this month I was at 190 lbs and down from 220 when I started a mostly raw diet at the end of September 2011 - I haven't been south of 180 lbs since 2000.

As you probably read in my last blog post the most dramatic drop is in my bodyweight. The cool thing is that I've actually cut back on my training volume and intensity - this proves that if you want to lose weight it is mostly about nutrition, not training. The old saying "you can't outrun a doughnut" is definitely applicable.

My body-composition has changed for the better, I'm much leaner with better definition. My energy during training is outstanding and my focus and mental clarity (particularly during taiji class and practice) is great.

My joints feel really good, even after periods of heavier training.

My eyes are very clear and my skin is good - no cracking or drying - I attribute this mainly to the good fats in avocados, flax seeds / meal and flax oil -- but I could be wrong, sounds good anyway!

Planning

It's true!

The raw foods diet was very easy for me to follow. Probably because I've been eating predominately raw vegan foods since end of September 2011 this wasn't a very dramatic change, I could see how it'd be tough to jump in 100% if you don't eat that well right now.

Here's what I recommend if you want to give this a try:

• start small, begin with one meal a day and a snack or two 100% raw and transition over time
• no matter what make sure the bulk of your raw diet is 80% or better fresh veggies and fruits with some nuts and seeds -- do NOT rely 100% on dehydrated foods and "transition" foods - use these as a treat or variety occasionally
• most dehydrated and transition food recipes call for a lot of nuts, dense calories still add up!
• drink a lot of water
• incorporate juicing - don't give me that crap about juices not being whole foods, yes, I know. What juicing allows you to do is extract the micronutrients, vitamins, minerals, enzymes, etc. from a TON of veggies and fruits to get s super boost of healthy nutrients. Much easier than eating 10lbs of veggies and fruit in one sitting.
• incorporate blended green smoothies - blended your greens allows you to ensure that you unlock all the chlorophyll out of the greens and extract as much nutrition as possible, plus the blended drinks utilize whole food nutrition, so you're getting the fiber and bulk from the fruits and veggies. If you have the time to graze all day and properly chew your food like a cow or horse, skip the blended drinks. I also recommend a Vitamix or Blendtec - they are worth the cash.
• raw vegan eating will assist in detoxification - however if you want to go deeper explore juice fasting - I highly recommend looking at www.juicefeasting.com they are a GREAT resource and have info on healthy fasting for up to 90 days. This has been a very effective approach ion helping people recover from major diseases - it's worth your time to educate yourself at the very least.
• there's nothing wrong with going 80-90% raw - you'll still reap many of the benefits and it will make things like travel and eating out much easier - this is essentially my maintenance plan except when I detox or fast annually from now on.
• at the bare minimum - try to get at least 50-60% of your daily nutrition from raw fruits and veggies - i.e. living food. Want to make it easy? Eat one meal a day 100% raw, the rest of your meals aim to make 50% of the meal raw. Simple.
• don't neglect your fiber.
• a good blender and a good juicer make this stuff really easy.

I could go on and on so if you have specific questions about my experience post a question or email me directly at sshetler613@gmail.com.

Where do I go now

Now that the month is up I'm going to stay mostly raw, my goal was 80-90% for the end of this. I never planned on staying 100% vegan, as I will most likely eat some eggs and a little fish or cheese occasionally; but over time I see me getting closer and closer to pure vegan nutrition - but for only doing this a little over a year now (April 2011 is when I stopped eating meat and fowl) I've made some huge improvements in my overall health and fitness.

Mainly I'm looking at getting my training dialed in and building my strength back while maintaining a lighter body-weight right around the 180 I'm at now.

Thanks for following this month long experiment! I hope it inspired you to take a look at your nutrition and maybe make some changes for the better!

Stay Strong and Healthy!

-Scott

6/13/11 to 6/13/12 - My Fitness Year in Review!

Last year for my 36th birthday I decided to do a fitness test. Joel Jamieson has an online assessment tool, Bioforce Testing Protocol, that he built to test the overall physical preparedness of combat athletes. While I certainly am not a combat athlete, I liked this tool as it measured the following things: strength, muscular endurance, aerobic fitness, anaerobic fitness, explosive power and gave you a total performance index, an upper body and lower body strength profile and an upper body and lower body power profile. In addition the tests were easy to implement.

Keeping with my plan I performed the same battery of tests one year later - this jived well with my eating raw vegan for 30 days plan!

1 Year Fitness Comparison

Scott - before @ 220

-bodyweight: 2011 = 220 lbs; 2012 = 179 lbs

-resting heart rate: 2011 =  90 bpm; 2012 = 54 bpm

-maximum breath hold: 2011 = 36 seconds; 2012 = 1 minute 19 seconds

-max push-ups in 10 seconds: 2011 = 13 reps; 2012 = 17 reps

-double leg triple jump: 2011 = 20' 3.5"; 2012 = 21'

-max push-ups (no time limit, reps must be continuous and never break form): 2011 = 30 reps; 2012 = 45 reps

-2 minute sit-up test: 2011 = 35 reps; 2012 = 55 reps

-max dead hang (NON-KIPPING) pull-ups (i.e. REAL pull-ups): 2011 = 8 reps; 2012 = 20 reps

-squat x 5 reps: 2011 = 240x5; 2012 = 245x5

-bench press x 3 reps: 2011 = 195 x 3; 2012 = 195x3

-1.5 mile run: 2011 = 19 minutes 10 seconds; 2012 = 13 minutes 33 seconds

Scott - 2012 @ 180

Bioforce Test Indexes


-strength: 2011 = 4.5; 2012 = 5.5

-muscular endurance: 2011 = 1.5; 2012 = 3.5

-aerobic fitness: 2011 = 1.0; 2012 = 4.5

-anaerobic fitness: 2011 = 4.5; 2012 = 6.0

-explosive power: 2011 = 4.5; 2012 = 5.5

-total performance index: 2011 = 2.5; 2012 = 5.0

-strength profile: lower body 2011 = 6; 2012 = 7 -- upper body 2011 = 4; 2012 = 6.5

-power profile: lower body 2011 = 5; 2012 = 5.5 -- upper body 2011 = 4.5; 2012 = 6.5

So, there you have it. Bodyweight went down 41 lbs and everything else improved, some better than others. While my strength certainly isn't anywhere near what it was when I was competing in powerlifting, I am happy to see that the numbers went up slightly in the squat and maintained in the bench - as these two lifts are very negatively affected by big drops in bodyweight.

Ultimately at 37 I'm happy with the results. My focus over the next year will be to maintain my lighter bodyweight and continue to build back the strength and power that I lost from my days as a fat, red-faced powerlifter and in addition keeping my new levels of health, mobility, flexibility and overall-fitness in check.

Stay Strong and Healthy!


-Scott

Day 22 or Raw for 30 Days!

As I write this blog it's Day 22 of my Raw for 30 Days birthday plan. So far it's been an outstanding experience! This morning my body-weight was at 180 lbs. I haven't seen 180 lbs since 2002, and I'm definitely a lot leaner and carrying more muscle than I did back then, so at least something good came from being a fat and bloated 220 lbs for all those years.

#1 question I've been asked for the past 22 days - Where do you get your protein? If I had a dollar for every time, I'd have a Bugatti by now...

Despite the lack of "direct" protein consumption I have not atrophied, gotten sick, become "skinny fat", or spontaneously combusted. Yet.

If anything my body composition is changing for the positive, I'm leaning up, getting tighter and definition is improving and the cool thing is I train less than I did before. I still put effort into the workouts, but I have cut my training time down tremendously. Plus my recovery is better and overall I feel a lot better.

This cracked me up! It's funny, this is the type of crap I always used to say about vegetarians and vegans - now I'm on the receiving end. Karma I guess. Oh well - you can't argue results!

Where do I go from here?

With one more week left on my 30 day experiment I've been thinking about this quite a bit. Will I stay 100% raw vegan? Nope. That was never my intention. My goal was to improve from the 70-80% raw vegan plan I was following since September of last year. I wanted to go the 30 days for a couple of reasons, one to prove to myself I could do it since one of the biggest obstacles I see with my clients is motivation and discipline to change their nutrition habits. 

Look, I'm just as busy as everyone else. I work 6 days a week, run my own business and do all the domestic stuff everyone else does. I still have time to eat healthy and workout. 

I'm sick of hearing excuses from people. You are responsible for what you put into your mouth and it takes the same amount of effort to put a handful of goji berries into your mouth as it does a handful of M&Ms. More people need to take ownership of their lives and stop making excuses.

In addition my goal was to use this 30 days to detox and cleanse a bit as well as tighten up my nutrition so that I can maintain an 80-90% raw vegan plan with only 10-20% coming from cooked vegetarian foods. Basically I will continue to follow what I'm doing now with 1-2 servings of cooked food a day. However there will probably be 2 or 3 days a week that are 100% raw and I will continue to do 100% raw periods as well as periods of juice fasting throughout the year to detoxify and maintain the improved health I am experiencing now.

One reason is personal, I want to be healthy and have a very high quality of life through my twilight years and when it's time for me to trade this body in I want to make that transition as strong and healthy (mentally, physically and spiritually) as possible.

I also need to be a role model for my clients. How can people take health, weight loss, and training advice from someone who doesn't embody what they teach? One of my top rules "Don't be the fat trainer selling a fat loss program, DVD or book!"

As a side note - I recently read Dr. Gabriel Cousens' book and watched his DVD on reversing diabetes naturally, due to the fact I have relatives who are diabetics as well as knowing many people who suffer from this horrible disease. It was incredibly informative and enlightening, then my friend Antony posted a link about Dr. Cousens recently on Facebook which reminded me about this - his approach to treating diabetics and getting both Type 2's and 1's OFF insulin and medications is a raw food nutrition plan. Here's a great video intro of his program:

And here's a link to the preview for Dr. Cousens' video I purchased my father:

I'm looking forward to seeing what the last week has in store! Also, last year for my birthday 6/13/11, I conducted a personal fitness test. I repeated the test for my birthday this year and will be posting my 1-year comparisons in the upcoming week.

Thanks for reading!

Stay Strong and Healthy!

-Scott

15 Days into Raw for 30 Days!

And 15 more to go!

After two weeks of raw vegan eating I feel like I'm in the groove with it. This is good and bad. It's good from the standpoint that I can pretty much find the right kinds of foods no matter if we are going out to eat or staying home. It's bad because I can see how falling into the trap of eating the same limited menu over and over would become easy. However this was a problem before I switched to vegetarian nutrition as well.

Preparation is simple - that's one of the things I love about eating this way, nothing to cook! The foods that take the longest are things that I have to prepare in the dehydrator, but even with that it's like 10:00 of prep time to get it ready to dehydrate.

The dehydrator has really opened up some great new options for raw foods, my favorites so far have been the raw sweet bread and flax seed crackers. In addition I've made some guacamole and some awesome raw hummus to eat with them.

Guacamole! 

Raw Flax Crackers!

Raw Hummus - a MUST with the Flax Crackers!

Since this was my birthday week, I loaded up on some raw desserts - raw cheesecake (macadamia nuts, sea salt and dates for the crust and cashews, honey, lemon juice, coconut oil and vanilla for the filling) and some raw chocolate (raw cacao, honey and coconut oil).

Raw Cheesecake!

Raw Chocolate! Happy Birthday to ME!

For my birthday dinner we went to R Thomas Deluxe Grill in Atlanta for dinner. R Thomas has a very healthy, diverse menu with tons of vegetarian and vegan meals and for the resident cannibals they use only free-range hormone-free meats. They have a great selection of smoothies and juices as well. I got a raw vegan entree that had flax chips, sweet potato chips, a mixed veggie salad, mixed veggies, hummus and a couple other raw spreads. I also had a green smoothie and raw apple pie for dessert. Lisa had a raw vegan entree with a veggie / fruit juice. The meal was amazing and if you are in Atlanta check out R Thomas-great food!

Birthday Dinner at R Thomas Deluxe Grill in the ATL!

As I wrap up week two I have to say the experience thus far has been great. I feel better, I recover faster after workouts, my energy is great, my body composition is changing rapidly, I'm much leaner and tighter and my weight is down to 181.5 lbs as of today (190 lbs when I weighed in on June 1).

Scary but this is probably closer to the truth than we'd like to admit!

Even though I only have two weeks of my 30 days raw plan left, I am definitely going to keep up 80-90%  of my daily nutrition as raw vegan, and most likely a lot of days will be 100% raw.

I'd have to concur with legendary turn of the century strongman, George "the Russian Lion" Hackenschmidt, who in his book "The Way to Live in Health and Physical Fitness" said, "I believe I am right in asserting that our Creator has provided food and nutriment for every being for its own advantage. Man is born without frying-pan or stew-pot. The purest natural food for human beings would, therefore, be fresh, uncooked food and nuts."

George "The Russian Lion" Hackenschmidt

I'll have another update at the end of week 3!

Until then,

Stay Strong and Healthy!

-Scott

Meditation

Scott Trying to Calm Down his Monkey Mind

Meditation is something I've been struggling with over the past couple of years. When I first started meditating it was tedious. All I ever heard was meditate for 30 minutes every day. That didn't make sense to me.

As I understood it meditation was supposed to be a complete quieting and calming down of the mind. If I magically entered some enlightened, zen-like state, how was I to know when 30 minutes was up? If I came out of my meditation at 29 minutes, would my efforts have been a waste?


Even if I could last the 30 minutes, was I doing it wrong if I had thoughts? If I couldn't let the thought pass and dwelled on it, was I not meditating correctly?

I read as much as I could, I listened to meditation programs on CD and MP3, I read some more.

Then something happened.

Shifu Leading Meditation

When training with my Shifu, grand master Shi Deru, at my Shaolin School's annual Qi retreat this past February, he guided us through meditation each day.

That is when it hit me.

Meditation is simply about being present and rediscovering your true nature.

Rediscovering your true nature happens when you can disconnect from your ego-by ego I mean your physical self, all the things here in the physical plane that make you, you.

When you can fully quiet your mind and observe your ego - it hits you - you are not you. Your real nature is that of being, of pure consciousness. The problem is you will begin thinking about it and lose "it".

If you are meditating, simply be. Be present. That is all. Sit cross legged on the floor or a chair with your hands placed one on top of the other thumbs touching, just make sure your feet are grounded and your back is straight. Begin to relax every muscle in your body, but don't go limp. Be alert, meditation is not about zoning out-it is about pure awareness-just be relaxed. Breathe. Listen to your breathe. If a thought enters your mind don't freak out. It is fine. Just observe the thought and let it go. Do not attach to the thought. If your "monkey mind" (as Shifu refers to it) begins to take over that's ok - just calm down and focus back in on your breathing.

That is it. That is meditation.

Rediscover Your True Nature-Your True Self

At our retreat when Shifu was asking us all about our experiences many people gave great answers - but I particularly liked Shi Xiong Chen Zhe's response, he said, "When I meditate, I feel almost invisible."

Don't become particularly wrapped up in how long you meditate. I think it is a mistake to think that the only way you will achieve any sort of benefit is to meditate for exactly 30 minutes every day. If you do this you bring meditation into the realm of time which is a complete contradiction. Meditation is about being present, not yesterday and not tomorrow but now. Simply sit quietly, focus on your breathing and relax. Finish your meditation when you finish. Whether it is in 3 minutes or 3 hours.

This idea was confirmed to me when I listened to the excellent audio-book "The Joy of Living" by Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche.

In it Rinpoche states (and I am paraphrasing) "that it is far better to meditate properly-when you are calm, relaxed, happy and at peace-for multiple two or three minute sessions throughout the day, than one longer session where you are forcing yourself to meditate". Please keep in mind that is very loose paraphrasing, but you get the idea.

Meditation is not magic-it is simply learning to be present and identifying with your true nature, your true self.

When walking just walk, when sitting just sit. Above all, don't wobble.

However, I would venture to say that ANYTHING that brings us into the present that does not require a lot of thinking or analysis, may be considered meditation.

Think about it, a weightlifter going for a record attempt, a rock climber hanging by their toes and fingertips off a rock face, a skydiver plummeting toward the earth, a martial artist practicing a form. All of these things bring you immediately into the present.

I don't think there is a better description than the ancient zen proverb that Alan Watts reiterates in his excellent book, The Way of Zen, "When walking, just walk. When sitting, just sit. Above all, don't wobble."


Thanks to Tom Kreutzer for the photos!


Stay Strong and Healthy!


-Scott

Introduction to Indian Club Training Workshop - 6/23/12 at the ECF Gym

Are you interested in getting healthy, strong and mobile shoulders, improved posture, enhanced recovery from upper body training sessions and much more?


Indian Clubs are a great form of training and make an excellent addition to GPP for all strength and power sports as well as offering tremendous benefits for the general fitness enthusiast.


This workshop will teach you the fundamentals of Indian Club training as well as help you refresh and build upon your current skill level.


The course will run from 9am - 12pm.


If you currently have a pair of 1 lb. Indian Clubs you may register for $60. You WILL need tobring your clubs to the workshop as we are ONLY providing clubs to those who register for that option.

If you do not have clubs we are offering a registration option for $85 which will provide you with a set of 1 lb clubs in addition to the workshop.

Cost is:
-$85 if you need clubs
-$60 if you already have clubs

Registration and payment:

If you are registering and need clubs, the cost is $85. Choose this payment link:
https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=7SJAFDVEQUBXL

If you are registering and already own a set of 1 lb. clubs that you can bring with you the cost is $60, choose this payment link:
https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=6AK887HHRRBSQ

The instructors will be Scott Shetler and Angel Rosario. Scott is the owner of Extreme Conditioning & Fitness Gym and his partner Angel was a personal student of Dr. Ed Thomas-the man responsible for popularizing Indian Club training in the United States-for over four years in the early 90's.

Scott with Dr. Ed Thoms at the ECF Gym

Here is a brief description and sample of how we are using Indian Clubs at the ECF Gym:

Location of workshop:

ECF Gym
2375 Button Gwinnett Drive
Suite-500
Atlanta, GA 30340

For more information contact Scott at:
770-403-1363
scott@extreme-fitness.org


Stay Strong and Healthy!


-Scott

Durian Custard - my Favorite Raw "Dessert"!

I'm not a recipe guy by any means, but I came across this simple way to make an extremely healthy raw dessert when I read a great e-book by Markus Rothkranz titled "Heal Yourself 101".

Markus is a big fan of durian fruit. Durians are extremely nutritious and often called king of the fruits. They hail from southeast Asia and are readily available in your local Asian markets. I regularly find them at a couple different Asian supermarkets and one farmer's market all very close to where I live.

The durian is a little bigger than a football and has a hard spikey outer shell. It also has a pretty distinct odor which is why it is better to buy the frozen durian, the smell isn't as strong. You'll just need to let it thaw overnight then prepare it the next day.

Durian is a fruit you either like or don't like. Some people say it "tastes like heaven but smells like hell".

The part of the durian you eat is the custard-like pods located inside the pockets of the fruit. There is a fairly large seed inside each custard pod you'll want to remove.

You can eat the durian straight, or blend it with coconut meat and water from a young Thai coconut to boost it's nutritional value and flavor. This is my favorite way to eat it!

Durian Custard

You'll need one durian and two young Thai coconuts and this will make enough for one or two people for a few days.

-cut open each pocket of the durian and extract all of the custard pods

-remove the seeds from each custard pod (there should be one seed per pod)

-extract the water from two young thai coconuts and put into a high power blender (I use a Vitamix)

-next split the cocounts and scrape the meat out of the inside (I like the young Thai coconuts for this, the meat is much easier to extract than the other coconuts)

-next place the coconut meat and durian fruit in the blender with the coconut water and blend on high, in the Vitamix I let it blend for about 30-45 seconds

-you're done! Pour into a storage container and seal to keep in your refrigerator

Total prep time is about 15-20 minutes. This makes for an awesome meal or snack! For a fruit, durians are pretty high in protein and fat and has high amounts of tryptophan as well as potassium and vitamin c.

Some other things I like to do is add a little raw honey and eat this after a workout or sometimes mix in other fruits like blueberries or goji berries.

Hopefully you give it a shot and enjoy the benefits the durian has to offer!

Stay Strong AND Healthy!

-Scott