Today was another positive day. I felt great overall.

I think the dry skin on my hands is getting better, albeit very gradually. Only two fingers on each hand still look pretty bad.

My appetite wasn’t as high this morning as it was yesterday morning, but I still ate more calories than usual.

I really wanted to eat something other than raw fruit today, especially something with a bit more fat in it. It’s really getting boring turning to fruit again and again. If I don’t really stuff myself, I get hungry again within an hour or two.

I’m almost out of bananas, so I went grocery shopping this evening to stock up. No strange looks or comments on the bananas this time, although buying 8 watermelons compelled the clerk to speak up. Last time I bought 4 watermelons, and they only lasted a couple days — apparently Erin likes them too.

Losing Weight by Going Raw

While there is some debate over the long-term effects of the raw food diet, the one thing I haven’t seen seriously disputed is its effectiveness at weight loss.

I’ve read several stories from raw foodists who’ve lost over 100 pounds this way. One example is Angela Stokes. Check out the before and after pictures on her web site, RawReform.com. She lost 160 pounds by going raw, 105 of them in the first year and 60 pounds in the first 90 days. Well done, Angela!

Weight Loss

My weight went up 0.4 pounds to 178.2. Net weight loss is 7.8 pounds in 24 days.

Breakfast

1. green smoothie: 4 bananas (536g), spinach (106g), 1 cup water
2. blueberries (166g)
3. blackberries (166g)
4. 3 stalks celery (104g)

682 calories, 4g fat, 169g carb, 13g protein

This is the same breakfast I had yesterday, but it works.

Lunch

1. green smoothie: 4 bananas (548g), spinach (100g), 1 cup water
2. grape tomatoes (94g)
3. 3 stalks celery (196g)

551 calories, 2g fat, 138g carb, 10g protein

Almost a duplicate of breakfast, but the tomatoes didn’t complement the smoothie as well as the berries did.

Afternoon Snack

1. green smoothie: 4 bananas (430g), spinach (94g), 1 cup water
2. 1/2 avocado (94g)

561 calories, 16g fat, 110g carb, 9g protein

Dinner

green smoothie: 4 bananas (448g), spinach (90g), 1 cup water

383 calories, 2g fat, 96g carb, 7g protein

Evening Snack

1. small watermelon (898g)
2. 2 bananas (270g)

510 calories, 2g fat, 130g carb, 8g protein

Daily Summary

2687 calories, 26g fat, 643g carb, 48g protein

519mg sodium, 92g fiber, 357g sugar

8% of calories from fat, 6% from protein, 86% from carbs

5 days to go…

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© 2008 by Steve Pavlina. If you find these ideas helpful, please leave a donation for Steve so you can enjoy the spirit of giving too.

Earlier this month we added a new World Affairs forum to the site’s forums.

Adding this forum was a controversial decision. During the past year, it was suggested multiple times that we add a forum where people can discuss environmental issues, government, politics, the War in Iraq, elections, and so on. My initial response was “No, this is a personal development site. Politics simply doesn’t fit here.”

In truth people were already discussing such topics in the General forum. Some members expressed annoyance upon seeing those threads, while others felt it would be best if those topics had their own home.

Several weeks ago Erin and I had a long discussion about adding a politics forum, and she convinced me that it was worth considering. When viewed in a certain light, taking an interest in world affairs can be considered an extension of personal development, and certainly we’re affected by what goes on in our countries and the world at large.

I still wasn’t sure about the idea, so we discussed it at length with the moderators and then with the members. The members were divided on whether or not this was a good idea. Some felt it was perfectly reasonable to discuss such topics in a growth-oriented community of “smart people.” Others felt it would encourage pointless arguing and drag the community down to a lower level of awareness. You can find that discussion here if you’re curious about it: Thoughts on Adding a Politics Forum. Even though the forum has already launched, that discussion is still ongoing.

Eventually we decided to go forward with it. We moved some of the active political threads there, and some new threads have already been started. The forum has more than 500 messages now, still a baby in comparison to the other forums, but off to a good start.

As with all the forums, we keep a tight handle on moderation, so we don’t allow personal attacks, trolling, or spam. Within those constraints, however, members are free to discuss whatever they want. The posted forum rules are largely common sense, based on how you’d expect people to behave in intelligent face-to-face conversations.

We also discussed what the forum should be named and eventually settled on “World Affairs.” The current subtopics include: politics, government, leadership, elections, global issues, environmental issues, economics, domestic policy, foreign policy, social change, human rights, civil liberty, healthcare, education, news, history, and space exploration. That list is just for the sake of description, so related topics like activism or natural disasters could be discussed there too.

Since this site currently attracts visitors from about 150 different countries, it will be interesting to see a variety of perspectives.

Anyway, if you’re interested in discussing what’s going on in the world around you and what you as an individual can do to make the world a better place, check out the World Affairs forum, and let your voice be heard.

Overall I’m really impressed with how the forum community has evolved. Members often comment that there’s no other place like it online. More than 147,000 messages have been posted so far, an average of about 10,000 messages per month. It’s a busy place to be sure, but it has a unique atmosphere of curiosity, friendliness, honesty, and hope.

A big thanks to the moderators who do an outstanding job of cultivating a spam-free, troll-free community… one that’s genuinely supportive of those with a keen interest in personal growth. It’s great to see that their efforts have paid off so well.

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I’ve decided to share a recording of my raw food coaching session with coach Roger Haeske. This session was conducted on January 4, 2008, when I was only 3-1/2 days into my 30-day trial of the raw food diet.

Roger recorded the phone call from his end. My voice is a little faint on the recording, but you should still be able to make it out well enough.

I’m not counting this as an official podcast, but for convenience it’s encoded for download via RSS for those who subscribe to the podcast feed. I don’t intend to get back into regular podcasting until my book is done.

Some of the items we discuss include:

• how to eat simpler, non-gourmet raw meals
• eating fat later in the day
• green smoothies
• blended salads
• dried fruits
• how to incorporate fat in the diet w/o food-combining problems
• social consequences of raw and vegan diets

For me the value in this coaching session was mainly in learning the attitude and mindset of someone who’s been eating a low-fat raw diet for years.

I don’t recommend listening to this unless you have a keen interest in the raw food diet; otherwise you can certainly skip it and save yourself an hour.

Pavlina-Haeske-Raw-Coaching.mp3 (right-click, then “Save Target as…”)
(Time = 1:01:35, Size = 10.6MB)

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Today was wonderful. I felt very energetic and alert the whole day with scattered bursts of low-level euphoria. The diet seemed much easier to follow, and I didn’t feel nearly as much resistance as I did during the past few days. I’m not completely in love with it, but at least I’m not hating it.

I did my best to incorporate lots of green veggies today, including a pound of spinach. That may have had a positive effect on my mood.

My appetite was higher than usual this morning. I had a strong craving for green smoothies, so I drank 4 liters of them today. They do a great job of satisfying hunger while controlling cravings for non-raw foods. They’re very tasty too.

Setting new records

I broke two of my records today. First, I broke my one-day banana eating record. I ate 19 bananas, about 4.5 pounds worth. 16 of them were mixed into the green smoothies I drank.

Secondly, I managed to do 36 push-ups today. That’s a new lifetime personal best for me. My previous record was 35. This is interesting because I’m still lagging well behind my peak strength in my chest (which I reached last summer), but my muscular endurance is noticeably higher than before this trial. When I do weight training at the gym, I can do a lot more reps than I’d normally expect with the weights I’m using. My muscles just don’t seem to give out as quickly. I’ve gotten a little stronger during this trial too, but the muscular endurance gains put the strength gains to shame.

I can see why this diet attracts a lot of endurance athletes.

Bad Breath

The bad morning breath is pretty much gone as far as I can tell. It was really nasty for a while, but now it’s no worse than before this experiment.

Blood sugar

I still detect no blood sugar problems whatsoever. My blood sugar remains incredibly stable no matter how much fruit I eat.

Feedback

I continue to get a lot of feedback about this experiment, both in the forums and via email. It’s almost getting ridiculous though because everyone is voicing wildly divergent opinions about why I’m experiencing certain negative effects and what I might do to correct them. I’m sure everyone believes their advice is sound. I’m not planning to change the constraints of this experiment as I go along, but I can see many ideas for future trials.

Please forgive me if I don’t personally respond to your feedback. The volume is more than I can keep up with.

Weight Loss

My weight went up 0.4 pounds to 177.8. Net weight loss is 8.2 pounds in 23 days.

Pre-breakfast

2 bananas (190g)

169 calories, 0.6g fat, 43g carb, 2g protein

Breakfast

1. green smoothie: 4 bananas (444g), spinach (94g), 1 cup water
2. blueberries (180g)
3. blackberries (196g)
4. 2 stalks celery (76g)

614 calories, 4g fat, 152g carb, 12g protein

Morning Snack

1. green smoothie: 4 bananas (448g), spinach (102g), 1 cup water
2. green smoothie: 4 bananas (438g), spinach (114g), 1 cup water 

838 calories, 4g fat, 210g carb, 16g protein

Lunch

1. salad: mixed greens (158g), spinach (40g), cucumber (74g), grape tomatoes (126g), avocado (110g), lime juice (18g), lemon juice (18g)
2. veggie juice made from carrots, apple, celery, lime (16 fl oz)
3. 3 stalks celery (124g)

445 calories, 18g fat, 70g carb, 11g protein

Even for a colorblind person, these meals look colorful and visually appealing.

Dinner

1. green smoothie: 4 bananas (448g), spinach (90g), 1 cup water
2. Asian pear (298g)
3. 2 stalks celery (50g)

552 calories, 3g fat, 139g carb, 9g protein

Evening Snack

1 banana (100g)

89 calories, 0.3g fat, 23g carb, 1g protein

Daily Summary

2708 calories, 29g fat, 638g carb, 51g protein

814mg sodium, 105g fiber, 333g sugar

9% of calories from fat, 7% from protein, 85% from carbs

For a while my physical energy was stuck in a yo-yo pattern, but I eventually got through it. Now it seems like my motivation is going through a similar oscillation. Perhaps my mind is following my body.

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© 2008 by Steve Pavlina. If you find these ideas helpful, please leave a donation for Steve so you can enjoy the spirit of giving too.

Hosts: Steve Gibson with Leo Laporte

Steve talks about the remote code execution exploit of the Microsoft Windows TCP/IP vulnerability and answers your questions.

For 16kpbs versions, transcripts, and notes (including fixes), visit Steve’s site: grc.com, also the home of the best disk maintenance and recovery utility ever written – Spinrite 6.

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Running time: 1:13:11