As personal (and perhaps yucky) as it may be, one of the greatest benefits gained from adopting a healthy raw food diet is excellent elimination.

But what exactly does healthy elimination “look” like?

Perfect Poo

Sorry, I just couldn’t resist.

Moving on, here are some simple qualities that can be expected in healthy stools:

1. Quick
2. Little Smell
3. Little Mess – Healthy stools require very little to no toilet paper.
4. Painless

As Frederic Patenaude points out in his well-known book The Raw Secrets:

Stools from a healthy human are not as dense, dry, and solid as those of people living on standard fare. They can be loose or dissolve in the toilet bowl – it doesn’t matter. They shouldn’t have any bad smell or be difficult to pass. A healthy bowl movement literally happens in an instant – a matter of seconds.

Many people are surprised at first by how quickly they see improvements in elimination after switching to a low fat raw vegan diet (I know I was!). But that’s not even the best part…

The real beauty is that the results are lasting! You will never again struggle with super stinky and uncomfortable elimination as long as you adhere to an easy to digest diet and healthy lifestyle.

Having Toilet Trouble?

Poor elimination is more often than not a sign of poor digestion. People who do not experience quick, painless, and nearly odorless stools as described above usually DO have gas, stomach pains, gurgly tummys, and sometimes heartburn.

The best remedy begins at the start of the digestive process: the mouth. The vast majority of these problems can be easily assuaged by eating a low fat, high fruit raw vegan diet and avoiding food combining no-nos.

Take a close look at your current diet:

• Are you eating simple fruit meals?
• Are you limiting your fat intake?
• Are you consuming your sugary sweet fruit and fatty fruits and nuts separately?
• Are you eliminating salt, spices, and condiments from your raw dishes?
• Are you eating until comfortably satiated, rather than uncomfortably stuffed?

If you are and you still have tummy trouble, then it may be a particular food you are eating that does not agree with your body. Start by slowly eliminating foods one at a time from your diet until you weed out the culprit.

You could also try drinking water before each meal.  My own digestion is always better when I do this.  Just be sure to finish the water and then wait at least 10 minutes before you begin eating your meal.

Go raw and be fit,

Swayze

P.S. The quote above is just one of the many gems from Frederic’s book The Raw Secrets.

If you are interested in learning more about the absolute best raw food diet from the book that completely convinced me to go raw, then please visit the link below:

The Raw Secrets

This reasoning has just never sat right with me and here’s why:

Enzymes Are For the Plant, Not the Person

Raw foods contain enzymes that are necessary for proper development of the plant. For instance, an unripe banana contains enzymes that allow the starch in the fruit to convert to sugar, i.e. to ripen.

Once the process is complete, the enzymes are gone. So in order to actually consume these enzymes, you would have to consume unripe, acidic, nutritionally-underdeveloped food.

Kind of defeats the point of eating nutrionally-packed raw foods, eh?

And even if you did decide to consume unripe fruit, there is no reason to believe that the enzymes in the PLANT would be capable of functioning in YOUR digestive processes.

In short, these enzymes are important for the plant, not for us. Our bodies have their own enzymes that allow us to properly digest the foods we eat.

So Why Eat Raw Foods?

There are several reasons to eat a diet high in raw foods, the main one being that raw foods are nutritional powerhouses. The food has not been damaged via heat or processing and retains its nutritional integrity.

And, actually, for the enzymes!

As I mentioned, enzymes are very necessary in plant growth. By letting your food fully ripen before consumption, you will allow the enzymes present to work their magic, making the food much tastier and easy to digest…

So what do ya know, plant enzymes DO aid in human digestion after all!

Go raw and be fit,

Swayze

Perhaps you can relate…

Reason #1: I Have NO Excuse Not to Exercise

I began exercising many years before I even knew about a raw food diet.  I knew that moving my body was good for me, but I didn’t necessarily want to do it.

Luckily, I could always find excuses to skip a workout while eating cooked foods…

• I’m too tired.
• My knees ache.
• My joints are sore.
• I have a headache.
• I’m too bloated

On and on and on…

Now that I’m on this crazy fruit-focused raw food diet, I have no more excuses!

I never feel too tired or too lazy to work out.  My knees are in tip-top shape and my joints never ache anymore.  I can’t even remember the last time I had a headache or felt yucky and bloated.

Even *after* my workouts, I’m still totally alert and ready to go, go go.  And my recovery time is great, too…which just means less rest days and more work!

And as much as I hate to admit it, I actually enjoy working out and look forward to it.

Strange…

Reason #2: I NEVER Have a Reason to Skip Class

You see, when I used to eat cooked food (even vegan), I could count on getting sick at least 4 times a year AND catching the flu about every two years.

You know what that meant for me?  No School!

With my healthy fruit-based raw food diet, I never get sick anymore and so I have no reason to ditch class.

Drat!

Luckily, I graduated from school this year so I don’t have to worry about missing a class anymore.  But it does still hurt my heart to think of all those times I could have ditched school to lounge around in my pj’s, doped up on cold meds and chicken noodle soup, watching mindless morning TV.

So if you actually *want* to have energy to exercise and stop catching “inevitable” seasonal colds, then I suggest adopting a healthy raw food diet as soon as possible.

But who in their right mind would want that?

Go raw and be fit,

Swayze

P.S. I hope you enjoyed this cheeky little post.  I certainly enjoyed writing it.

In all seriousness, going low fat raw vegan really *will* bring you all these wonderful benefits as well as a myriad of others.

And if you really DO hate sweet fruit, maybe some tasty raw, fruit-filled recipes are in order.  Just check out my book Low Fat, Fruit Filled, High Fun Raw Recipes at the link below:

www.fitonraw.com/low-fat-raw-vegan-favorites

I don’t know about you, but I love my mornings.  I generally wake up between 6-7am, even though I don’t have class until later in the day, and yet I never feel the need to turn over and go back to sleep.

I wake up completely refreshed and ready to start the day.

But I wasn’t always this way.

I used to absolutely despise mornings.  I was anemic for many years and would dread waking up.  I knew no matter how early I went to bed, I would always wake up feeling groggy and ticked off.

So just how exactly did I become a morning person?

I Adopted a Low Fat Raw Vegan Diet

The very first step that improved my mornings was switching to a healthy raw food diet.  While I didn’t go raw to solve my aversion to the AM, this just so happened to be one of the effects.

You see, when you no longer consume toxic cooked foods, your body is no longer over burdened and does not have to work so hard to process what you eat.

When you eat a cooked food diet, particularly a high-fat SAD version, your body is almost constantly digesting food.  Depending upon the types of foods you are eating, it can take hours and hours for your body to completely digest (digestion, absorption, assimilation, and elimination) just one meal.

So even if you eat an early dinner around 6pm, you will still be digesting your food well into the night.  Now your body has to continue working instead of resting, which means a less restful and deep sleep for you.

And we know how painful those Monday mornings are when we haven’t had a good night’s sleep!

When you eat a healthy low fat raw food diet, on the other hand, digestion takes much less time and effort.  Literally minutes after a large fruit meal, your body will already have run through the first few stages of digestion with relative ease.

And the final stage…you know the one…is not too far *behind*!

Haha, pun intended.

So if you eat dinner around 6pm, your body will have plenty of time to completely digest your food before bedtime.  This means a much more effective sleepy session and a much more peaceful, refreshed morning.

I Killed My Alarm Clock

The second step I took that made me impervious to morning grogginess was to get rid of my alarm clock.

Think about it: how in the world can you expect to wake up to loud, incessant beeping and feel comfortable, refreshed, and ready to start your day?

It just isn’t possible!

When you use artificial means to wake up, whether it’s the beep of an alarm clock or the not-so-gentle nudge from a spouse, you risk awaking during an REM cycle.

These cycles occur every 90-120 minutes and this is when you are at your deepest point of sleep.  Awaking during this time usually leaves you feeling super sleepy because you have not completed the cycle and, therefore, you have not gotten enough sleep.

Getting rid of your alarm clock means that you can allow your body to wake up naturally.  You will awaken when your body is ready, feeling completely energized and ready to go.

I Ate Dinner Earlier

The final step I took that helped me become a morning person was to start consuming my dinner meals earlier in the evening.  While it’s much less-noticeable change than the first two, adopting this technique does make a difference.

Even on a raw food diet, our digestion slows down in the evening in preparation for rest.  If we eat too late in the day, our bodies may still be working by the time we go to sleep.

The general rule is to eat your last meal 2-3 hours before you go to sleep.  So instead of eating dinner at 8pm or so, I began eating between 5-7pm.  This way, I could make sure that my meals were fully digested before my head hit the pillow.

The easiest way to accomplish this is to start eating early in the day.  If you eat three meals a day and have breakfast at 9am, you could wait four hours between meals and have lunch at 1pm and then dinner 5pm.

*Easy, but I do have a little caveat:*

If you are brand new to raw foods, I do not recommend worrying about eating late just yet.  It is more important to make sure you are getting enough calories and become comfortable with this way of eating first and foremost.

Even if you continue to eat late, you will still see a remarkable change in the way you sleep and how you feel when you awake if you adopt a low fat raw vegan diet and say bye-bye to your alarm clock.

When I first went raw and had trouble with undereating, I often woke up in the middle of the night and ate grapes or other fruit.  Even with this late night snacking, I still woke up early and felt a BILLION times better than when I was a poor little anemic cooked food alarm-loving vegan.

Go raw, be fit, and embrace your mornings,

Swayze

P.S. If you are finding it too difficult to stick with a healthy low fat, high fruit raw vegan diet, you may interested in my step-by-step, daily  program 21 Days to Conquer Your Cooked Food Cravings

Check it out here:

www.cookedfoodcravings.com

So what was this big change?

Did I eliminate animal products from my diet?

No.

Did I start exercising?

No.

Did I stop consuming junk food?

No again.

I stopped consuming grains.

Even though I had already made the above lifestyle changes and had seen good results, nothing brought upon the health and wellness that giving up grains brought for me.

My Quest for More Energy

As I’ve mentioned before, I struggled with anemia for many years.  In 2005, I started exercising in order to lose weight and maybe increase my energy.  I definitely lost weight, but I still felt tired.

In 2006, I stopped consuming junk food on a regular basis.  Still tired.

By 2007, I had cut out animal flesh and animal by-products.  Again, still tired.

While I did see some signs of improved health (i.e. weight loss, clear skin, better hair, etc.) with all of these changes, my energy level barely budged.  I couldn’t help but feel defeated and just, well…tired.

Finally in late 2007, I stumbled upon the low fat raw vegan diet.  Only then did I realize the huge role that grains had played in my life, especially since becoming a vegan.

Before going raw, a typical day looked like this:

• Breakfast: Oatmeal with fresh fruit, orange juice
• Lunch: Vegetable sandwich, rice crackers, fruit
• Snack: Whole wheat crackers with hummus and salsa, fruit
• Dinner: Vegetable stir-fry with brown rice, raw veggies
• Dessert: Fruit and rice crackers

As you can see, every meal features some sort of grain.

Every.  Single.  One

This was a huge wake-up call for me.  I couldn’t believe I was eating that much wheat!  I decided then and there that it was time for me to give raw a real shot.

Giving Up The Grains

Giving up grains was not easy for me.  In fact, aside from eliminating salt, I’d say it is the hardest dietary change a person can make.

One reason most grains are so enticing is because they contain the protein gluten.  In Grain Damage: Rethinking the High-Starch Diet, author Dr. Douglas Graham writes:

Gluten, a protein found in many grain products, has been named as a causative factor in several psychoses and neurological disorders. It has been proven to chemically contain fifteen different opioid sequences, or morphine-like molecules.  Opioids that come from outside the body are called ‘exorphins.’

Exorphins are labeled by scientists as addictive and neurotoxic.  They have psychoactive properties and cause related behavioral problems such as addictive eating patterns.  Since the mid-1960s, scientists have repeatedly linked gluten consumption to learning disorders and schizophrenia.

Perhaps this explains why it’s so hard to eat just one cookie or a single slice of bread.

Another reason it is hard to give up grains is not necessarily because of the grains themselves, but what we mask them with.

As I’m sure you have experienced, grains on their own are extremely bland.  And RAW grains?  You’d have to be, well…a BIRD to eat those!

To give them some flavor, we like to add certain salts, spices, and other condiments.  Many of these “flavor enhancers,” such as aspartame and MSG, are more harmful than you might think.

In Excitotoxins: The Taste That Kills, Russell L. Blaylock, MD, provides shocking evidence that these substances (called “excitotoxins”) are highly addictive and actually lead to the destruction of certain brain cells!

In regards to the dangerous effects of excessive monosodium glutamate (MSG), Blaylock writes:

Within fifteen to thirty minutes after being exposed to high doses of MSG, neurons suspended in tissue culture are seen to swell like balloons.  Under the microscope you can see degeneration of the small structures within the cell, called organelles, and also clumping of the chromatin of the nucleus.

Within three hours these neurons are not only dead, but the body’s defense mechanisms begin to haul away the debris.  Under experimental conditions using animals, this degenerative reaction is seen when MSG is either ingested in the diet, injected into the abdominal cavity, or applied directly to the neurons in tissue culture or into the brain by way of cannula or tube.

In short, you may love grains and their accompanying “flavor enhancers,” but they sure don’t love you back!

How To Make Things Easier On Yourself

Often the reason people struggle so much with eliminating grains is because they make up such a huge part of the diet.  It is important to replace them with another calorically dense food if you want to keep the cravings at bay.  This is something that many raw foodists fail to do.

The best advice I can give is to eat lots of sweet fruit.  Sweet fruit is both calorically dense AND high in volume.  This means that you will feel satiated after your meal for many hours.  You won’t find yourself back in the kitchen an hour later searching for some starchy sweets.

You just have to remember to eat a lot!  Put it this way: a cup of cooked brown rice is about 216 calories.  A cup of sliced peaches is only 66 calories!

But really this is a great thing.  What other diet allows you to eat as much as you want and still be healthy and lose weight?

It Was Worth It

The fact that I was able to eradicate my fatigue made all the effort worthwhile.  Thanks to giving up grains, I could actually drive somewhere in the middle of the afternoon without worrying about falling asleep!

Might sound crazy to you, but it was a lifesaver for me.

You Can Do It!

It might be tough at first to give up grains, but I know you can do it!  If you do go raw and find yourself craving grains and other complex carbohydrate concoctions (e.g. bread, pasta, cereal, cakes, etc.), the first step to take is to make sure you are consuming enough sweet fruit.

Keep adding on fruit to your meals until you can remain satiated for 3-5 hours after eating.  That means not even considering eating until meal time arrives.

And remember, you don’t have to go 100% raw right now!  There is no reason why you can’t gradually replace all your staple grain dishes with raw ones.  For instance, if you usually have oatmeal or toast for breakfast, try a couple of juicy melons instead!

Yes, that’s right.  I said TWO whole melons.

Find an approach that works for you and giving up grains will be fun, enlightening and, maybe for you, even life-saving.

Go raw and be fit,

Swayze

P.S. For more information on the harmful effects of consuming grains, raw or cooked, check out my article:

Should You Eat Grains on a Raw Food Diet?