One of the benefits of eating a raw vegan diet, meaning a diet of fresh, raw vegetables, fruits, nuts and seeds, is the ability to condition your body almost effortlessly.

Why do I say almost effortlessly?

Here’s why conditioning your body is quite easy when you remove the obstacles… remove the toxins, processed foods, cooked foods and most unnatural substances from your diet and environment.

You see, when your body doesn’t have to continue to struggle with obstructions, meaning the toxins we just mentioned, it can respond much easier to physical activity, and not need much recovery, if any to longer or more frequent activities.

For example, recently I found myself at a new aquatic center near my home. I normally don’t swim often since most pools I’ve been to in the past in the area use a wide array of chlorine chemicals. To my surprise, this new center uses a salt based filtration system so I decided to enjoy the water.

To give you a quick background, the most I’ve probably swam in a pool throughout my entire life is 2-3 laps continuously without stopping. That’s been the extent.

I noticed that there was a requirement for eligibility in order to be able to attend evening ‘lap night’ and found that you must be able to swim at least 20 laps without stopping. Oh my, 20 laps? Without stopping? Based on the fact that I hadn’t swam for more than 2-3 in my entire life, I wasn’t sure about 20.

Well, always enjoying a challenge, I decided to see how many laps I could do… without stopping.

30.

I was a little sore for a few minutes, but soon felt normal and energetic. In fact, I felt I could have continued (energy wise) but was getting a little dizzy :).

Now I’m not special, anyone can do this if they remove the obstacles our bodies battle with every day when we eat cooked foods, processed foods, ingest toxins and dangerous chemicals as well as being exposed to toxins in our environment.

On a raw vegan diet your body easily stays conditioned and you won’t experience cramps, soreness and have plenty of energy to accomplish anything you want. Run 6 miles? Sure. Go hike a mountain? Of course! Swim 30 laps non-stop? Absolutely.

Just stay active regularly and eat a pure, raw, fresh, low fat, whole food diet of fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds.

And this isn’t just me, ask any raw vegan athlete and they’ll share the same story. I had a friend that could do most any exercise, in most any length of repititions or distance without exhaustion or muscle soreness. He could go on as long as he wanted and enjoyed every minute. Of course this was after he transitioned to a raw vegan lifestyle.

Another benefit to the raw vegan diet.

Peace!

Mark

Related:

Use these two exercises you can do at home, without expensive club memberships or equipment, to stay conditioned, lose weight or tone up.

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With spring warming up the Arizona environment, I decided to go for a hike today. Unlike 99% of Arizonan’s, I enjoy hiking when it’s warm… or better yet, hot, so today’s higher temperatures and sun made it a perfect day to head to one of my favorite hiking spots, South Mountain.

Now, I haven’t been hiking for about 4 months, partly because of the lack of heat as I mentioned, and expected to take a leisurely hike to ‘break’ myself in to a new season.

Well, it wasn’t a leisurely hike, and not by choice.

You see, as soon as I started up the mountain, I had an urge to move quickly. I felt light on my feet and ran in parts up the mountain. Then it happened.

As I passed a group of hikers one gentleman who was trudging along mentioned that I resembled a ‘billy goat climbing up the mountain without hesitation’. We all laughed and I continued on, like a ‘billy goat’.

Then I got to thinking. 

Never in my 13 years of hiking had I ever felt this energentic. Especially after taking the winter off. I mean, there were times today when I felt I was gliding up with energy that didn’t stop. I’ll say this… it was near effortless. And this is 13 years after I starting hiking regularly.

I ran up many parts on the way up, and all the way down. I wasn’t tired and felt I could continue after the hour long excursion up and down the mountain. Here are some pictures and video:

So why am I telling you this?

Well certainly not to impress you, but instead to impress upon you what is normal for a person that eats a natural diet and stays active. A raw vegan diet mainly consisting of fresh fruits, vegetables and a small amount of nuts or seeds. A low fat raw diet. I say this because there has been controversy within the raw community lately on which is better. More about that in another post coming soon.

You see, the longer I’ve followed eating simple whole foods and stayed active regularly, the more benefits I experience. Not a ‘hollywood’ style raw diet, or the gourmet raw food diet, or a high fat raw diet, or the raw junk food diet. Mainly simple fruits and vegetables, leafy green salads, and smoothies. This goes along with the theory I uncovered in Arnold Ehret’s Mucules Diet Healing System and in Paul Nison’s talk ‘The Formula for Health’ that the less obstruction you have in your body, the greater the power and more importantly, the vitality you experience. You see, the fewer obstructions you ‘put’ in your body, ie, cooked and processed foods, stress and toxins in the form of mucus, the more vitality you experience. And after almost 5 years of being 100% raw, with many adjustments, tests, trials and errors, I’ve finally and clearly experienced that greater vitality. It’s been sneaking up on me the last few months and none clearer than today.

Another factor was conditioning. Although I hadn’t hiked during the winter, I stayed active working out at least 6 days a week. Normally 30-45 minutes a day including running and body weight exercises. I do and recommend the two exercises fellow raw vegan coach Roger has put together, and added my own twists to expand them and create a quick routine where I can exercise at home fast or at my local park. No equipment or health club expenses, just a quick daily workout routine.

You can learn more about what I’ve learned, what I recommend, get regular and exclusive meal recipe videos, meal plans, shopping tips, eating tips, your questions and answers and much more at our new site, Learn Healthy (Raw) Meals. This makes transitioning to a raw vegan diet straightforward with a plan and gives answers to your questions.  Check it out while the free trial is available. The feeling is incredible, share in this amazing experience with me!

To your best health!

Mark (aka the billy goat)

P.S. If you liked this post, Stumble it and share it below to help others learn more.

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One of the questions I often hear is whether or not exercising is necessary since we’re already eating a healthy raw food diet.

There is a common misconception that just eating a better diet is enough to gain better health or lose weight. Yes, eating is one main part of the equation, but it’s only one part of the big picture.

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It’s been a very interesting 8 months! As you may know I’ve been focusing exclusively on raw, whole foods and have avoided most everything else including raw ‘junk food’. This includes high fat avocados, dehydrated foods, processed foods, sauces, oils, bars and other foods that contain raw ingredients but have been processed. Basically I’ve eaten locally or organically grown fruits and veggies with a very limited about of nuts or seeds.

There have been many benefits to this but the one thing that stands out for me has been the ability to feel how everything I eat affects me.

I was fascinated with what I’ve learned.

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Recently, raw author Paul Nison visited Arizona and spoke at one of the monthly raw food potlucks I attend.

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80-10-10 author, 27 year raw foodist, athlete, coach and raw food expert Dr. Doug Graham will be online tonight for an exclusive one hour audio and video presentation and interview, and available at no cost for the next 24 hours.

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Many ask me how you learn about a raw food diet, how to be successful, how to lose weight and what you can expect.

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I’m often asked for low fat or no fat raw vegan recipes. Here’s one we came up with today and it was delicious. It’s satisfying, tastes great and takes just a few minutes to make. Most importantly, it has no overt fat!

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Check out this video of Philip McCluskey on CBS’s The Doctors with his testimony of losing 200 pounds over 2 years on the raw food diet. He gives a clear, strong and confident testimonial of how raw foods helped him lose weight.

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