Unhappy about weight loss on raw :(

[ferral-cat]

EDIT: Please disregard the severe tone in this post. This does not accurately describe how I feel. I cant understand why I am so emotional these past 2 days. I osillate between extreme moods and it is so unlike my normal personality. I have had to apologize to 3 different people for emotional outbusts and really dont understand what is causing these rapid emotional shifts from elated to depressed to furious to tired. Its so wierd.

Hi There,

I have been doing 3 days raw so far (at least 80%+ raw)

and I am losing tremendous weight (which is not what I want because I am already skinny).

I walk around at 5' 10" and 135lbs when I was lacto-ovo vegetarian (and this was with egg consumption almost every day)

And I remember when I was on the SAD diet I was at 140lbs. (This was about 4 months ago)

I went 100% Vegan 2 months ago and have dropped down to 130lbs normal weight.

But on Day 3 of Raw foods today I stepped on the scale and I am 118 lbs! I could not believe it! I am very scared and shocked at this weight loss. People are saying negative things about my weight loss and it is very apparent on my face (that I am losing weight). My Mother is very unsupportive and has even implied that I am anorexic and that is why I am doing Raw foods.

We had a screaming match about it last night. I was deeply offended because I am NOT anorexic and certainly I AM NOT happy about being a skinny stringbean.

6 months ago I was size 34 mens and now even size 30 is starting to feel loose. I read a book "Living Foods for Optimum Health" By Brian Clement that says its natural to lose weight in the beginning and then you gain it back. I have donate over 50% of my pants to the homeless shelter because they dont fit me.

I want to look muscular and healthy and be an ambassador for a living foods lifestyle. But I am deeply ashamed of what I see in the mirror when I take off my shirt. I am so ashamed of my current condition that last week at the supermarket the cashier asked if I was vegetarian (when she looked at my purchases) and I lied and said "No". I actually told a lie because i did not want to give vegetarianism a bad name.

I just dont know what to do anymore. I am sinking into a deep depression. I cant even fathom going back to eating meat because of my compassion for the animals. So that is 100% impossible. But I feel that I may have to go back to the eggs and cooked food (and occasional fish) or else I may never meet a wife and be able to start a family. I have not been on a date in 2 years, why even bother to ask a girl out in my current state?

I will try to stick it out for 2 weeks but if things dont get better I am going to have to revert to a lifestyle that I know in my heart is wrong. I feel so ugly and repulsed by the man I see in the mirror. I curse my Creator for making it virtually impossible for me to eat a compassionate diet without wasting away into a walking joke that people ridicule behind my back.

This sucks.

[Green_Woman]

I will try to stick it out for 2 weeks but if things dont get better I am going to have to revert to a lifestyle that I know in my heart is wrong.

May I suggest a different course?

Instead of giving this a mere 2 weeks, which is hardly enough time to allow your body to adjust to your new diet + lifestyle and find it's natural balance... be patient with your body.

It is not at all uncommon for even we naturally slender people to shed a few more lbs. our first few weeks or even months on RAW... your body is seeking balance - and switching back to the diet that makes you unhappy with yourself is, as you admitted, NOT the way you want to pursue!

ALLOW YOURSELF MORE TIME...

...and meantime, UP your fats + proteins + carbs! :)

[Green_Woman]

Also, before I submit any further "advise", may I ask how old you are?

If you are young, and living at home, I can understand your mother's influence being strong - but if you are an adult, and living on your own, your parent's should be introduced to BOUNDARIES. ;)

[rkk]

You might need to eat more calorie dense raw foods, such as lots of bananas (blending helps fit a lot more in), healthy fats - like nuts, avocado, extra virgin oils etc.

I'm not a guy, but there are several men on this forum who could also give you better advice. I know it's very possible to be a muscular raw vegan guy as I personally knew one in the past who was ripped. He did a lot of smoothies though (made a few quarts of it each day) and threw in things like bananas, raw vegan protein powder, avocados, sprouted buckwheat, flaxseed, olive oil etc. On top of that, he used to do a lot of strength training as well.

As far as high fat goes, I don't think you need to eat high fat long term (as many people like other approaches, such as high fruit, etc). But this might be good in the beginning to prevent you from losing weight, then later after your weight normalizes you can cut back on that many nuts.

[pixie_333]

sounds like insecurity and falling into the mind control zap of our soceity.

hey, i can identify with skinniness.. it's my genes, fast matabolisim and i'm small boned. i'm always looked at to be anorexic to which i've never been. i know the insecurity all so well and often wear sweat pants with jeans over them.. i stopped that and at new job am looked at as a whimp by bosses. i'm getting discrimminated.
but this is their mind control acting out on me. nearly everyone has no idea how our world is mind controled in every spec of form. the darkness created it and they want us to be insecure, have hate, discrimminate, get upset etc. why support them?
people have been trained, but doesn't mean you have to allow their insecurities etc to affect you. let them be and have love for who/what you are.
hey i like my appearance thicker... so for ME and ME only i'm now working out again so i am thicker, healthier and able to perform and be prepared if needed to where i'd need more strength than i have now. and also be a better dancer where i need muscels to do certain things.

people in this world love to attack. it isn't them doing it.. not their soul being. f people attack you.. just give loving energy back. don't argue back. to argue back and get negative isn't you.. it's the darkness. be an influance or not... but people pick up on it when you don't allow their energies to affect you. mght not change them and don't worry about it.. their on their own journey, but negative needs negative to live and you'd be doing everyone a favor to not support it whereas possiable.

i'm not even 100% raw yet again.. and i really don't know how much skinnier i can get. but i've learned to accept myself. it takes time. and one of my last jobs i was grateful to of worked with many natural skinny people!

i rambled....

[pixie_333]

ps

if any woman doesn't want to date you because you're skinny.. forget them then because it's the person that counts! and some women are very attracted to skinny men.

[ferral-cat]

I am 31 years old and I moved back to my parents house because when i lived on my own I was drinking and smoking cigarettes so I came back to seek refuge. And also I was very lonely because I dont have any friends (I had to cut them all off because they where involved in the drink/drug scene)

Yep, not exactly "dating material" am i? heh-heh




Also, before I submit any further "advise", may I ask how old you are?

If you are young, and living at home, I can understand your mother's influence being strong - but if you are an adult, and living on your own, your parent's should be introduced to BOUNDARIES. ;)

[Dimond]

The emotions are also part of detox. Angela Stokes has a great book you may want to read devoted to this topic.

[ferral-cat]

Yes, i forgot about this mind control and suppression. Havent thought about it for very long. But I refuse to follow the herd, or be enveloped in the darkness of ignorance. I gaze upon ultimate truth even though it is often extremely unpleasant and it would be so much easier to put the blindfold back on and eat my meat, take my meds, punch a time clock, pay my taxes without question and fall back in line.

The hell with that! This puppet cut his strings long ago.


sounds like insecurity and falling into the mind control zap of our soceity.

hey, i can identify with skinniness.. it's my genes, fast matabolisim and i'm small boned. i'm always looked at to be anorexic to which i've never been. i know the insecurity all so well and often wear sweat pants with jeans over them.. i stopped that and at new job am looked at as a whimp by bosses. i'm getting discrimminated.
but this is their mind control acting out on me. nearly everyone has no idea how our world is mind controled in every spec of form. the darkness created it and they want us to be insecure, have hate, discrimminate, get upset etc. why support them?
people have been trained, but doesn't mean you have to allow their insecurities etc to affect you. let them be and have love for who/what you are.
hey i like my appearance thicker... so for ME and ME only i'm now working out again so i am thicker, healthier and able to perform and be prepared if needed to where i'd need more strength than i have now. and also be a better dancer where i need muscels to do certain things.

people in this world love to attack. it isn't them doing it.. not their soul being. f people attack you.. just give loving energy back. don't argue back. to argue back and get negative isn't you.. it's the darkness. be an influance or not... but people pick up on it when you don't allow their energies to affect you. mght not change them and don't worry about it.. their on their own journey, but negative needs negative to live and you'd be doing everyone a favor to not support it whereas possiable.

i'm not even 100% raw yet again.. and i really don't know how much skinnier i can get. but i've learned to accept myself. it takes time. and one of my last jobs i was grateful to of worked with many natural skinny people!

i rambled....

[ferral-cat]

Is the book "Raw Emotions by Angela Stokes"?

Too bad I cant get it at the local bookstore, only via Internet.



The emotions are also part of detox. Angela Stokes has a great book you may want to read devoted to this topic.

[Dimond]

Yes, that's it. It's also available as an ebook you can download.

Sent you a message through your profile page.

[pixie_333]

deleted...

[Veganelle]

ps

if any woman doesn't want to date you because you're skinny.. forget them then because it's the person that counts! and some women are very attracted to skinny men.

It's true... I've always been drawn to lanky, skinny guys!

Seriously, though ferral-cat, I wish you all the best and hope you can reach a "balance" on a raw food diet. I do identify somewhat as I have lost more weight than I wanted to since going raw, and am now hoping not to lose anymore. As a female though, being skinny is not generally seen as much of a problem. Although I have received a couple of negative comments from people, which I have dismissed as coming from people who likely can't handle the fact that I now weigh the same as I did when I was 18 (30 years later!).

I agree with other posters here that you should give it a longer go than just two weeks to allow your body time to settle in, and in the meantime, increase your intake of healthy high calorie foods like avocados and bananas. In my own personal (and probably biased) opinion though, in the event that you ultimately decide that you cannot maintain adequate weight on a 100% raw diet, I would suggest going back to some cooked veg like yam and potato, rather than any animal foods (disclaimer: I have been a vegan for 22 years, so I am very pro that way of eating for everyone).

Good luck.

[Ocean]

I can understand why you would be upset! My husband who is vegetarian/mostly vegan thinks he is too skinny. I remember Rev George Malkmus (Hallelujah Diet) said he is 5'9" and went down to 112 lbs, from about 165! He then gained back up to 135-140 lbs.

You are probably cleansing right now, from previous unhealthy habits. I had read you will regain it.

I am also not wanting to loose foods on raw (but I am a girl, so it is more acceptable to look slender in our society). I have been eating probably 1/4 cup of olive/flax oil per day plus sunflower seeds and 1/2 -1 avocado every day. I've only lost 1 lbs, but I'm not 100% raw. I was about 95%, but the past couple of days I've goofed some, more like 40% raw, I had some stress.

Anyhow, try to make sure you are eating enough healthy fats for your body. I've noticed how smooth my hands are lately and I've only been at this for about 3 weeks.

Take care,

Ocean

[ferral-cat]

Thanks to all for the helpful and uplifting advice.

"Losing weight because body is cleansing of previous bad habits" that really makes alot of sense and puts things into perspective for me.

Thanks for the support gang, and I feel emotionally fortified now to press on.

I just gotta remind myself that at any moment I can go back to cooked food so its not like I am making some irreversible choice. Just like I tell a smoker that there is "no deprivation" because if they decide to return to the cigarettes - they will always be selling them at the 7-11 or the petrol station.

And certainly cooked food will always be available - especially in USA! LoL No shortage of McDonalds restaurant or Taco Bell in this city!

[Redrocket]

One avacado a day in your smoothie will help. It works as well as any protein powder and with some nice added healthy fat and fiber too. Coconut oil drizzled into your smoothie is also a great fat but known to take off the pounds in some peeps. I would give it some time and add some protein and fats and do some weight training or strengthening exercises. Sun Saluatations in the morning are very good for balancing mind and body and a great preparation for other exercise and medatation. All this will make you feel better. You must have lots of energy since doing all raw, use it in a helpful way not on bad emotions. I'd stick to your diet or you may fall even deeper into the abbyss.

[Mikey_H]

Keep on eatin' raw, up the fats in your diet...
nuts, seeds, coconut, avocado, olive oil...

If you've only been raw for days or even weeks there WILL be emotional/weight swings due to the detox of the system, it WILL pass

Raw food can fix obesity AND underweight issues, most on this board have seen it.

In the meantime, don't worry about the food or your body too much, just trust the process. YOU have the power to control your emotions somewhere deep down, we ALL have issues we must endure. Try getting out and finding activities you love doing!
That gets confidence up more than ANYTHING.

[supersonic_528]

I have the same problem too. I myself need advice on this, but here are my 2 cents. You already know about nuts and seeds. Other than that, you can also try coconut butter. I have recently started adding coconut butter to my green smoothie. If you add 2 tbsp to a 20oz of smoothie, it will give you about 200 calories (in addition to whatever you get from the smoothie).

Since you lost so much weight in just 3 days, if I were you I would have made the transition more slowly (instead of 80% raw, I would eat say 50% raw and increase it slowly). I know most people here will say it's normal to lose weight at the beginning etc etc, but if you're a guy (not overweight) and keep losing so much weight, it DOES bother you. Same thing happened to me. I lost about 10 lbs over a month and people started saying that I look very thin etc etc. Even I didn't like looking thinner, which is more important to me than whatever anybody else tells me.

Right now I'm trying to strike a balance between raw and cooked foods. I will eat mostly raw but will have some cooked stuff too as part of my diet (say 40%) and see how things go.

Good luck.

[raweater]

Hi ferral-cat, I also got your email and will answer it here so it can help others too.

Before going raw I had worked out and had gained weight to about 170 lbs but had stopped working out, once I went raw I fell to 135 lbs in months even though I was eating very dense foods and stayed there for 2 years until I found the fairly obvious solution: start working out again. You said yourself you want to be more muscular, this is simply impossible without doing weight lifting, so if you want to gain weight you must start weight lifting otherwise I've found gaining weight on a raw diet is impossible, and even if you did without working out it could only be fat.

Since I started working out on raw food I've regained about 40 lbs in less than a year and constantly get comments on how muscular I am (I'm also only about 5'7 so I'm quite big considering my weight and size). I've also just recently got accepted at a firefighter school and had to pass their physical tests which are quite intense.

What I'd recommend as a workout is to do some bench press, squats, some arm exercises with dumbbells and some cardio like running or swimming (although cardio isn't important to gain weight, during my firefighter tests that was my weak point so I'm working hard on my cardio since and it's healthy to keep your cardio in shape and helps keep body fat down). For the weight exercises select a weight that you can only lift 4-6 times before failure, that is the best range for gaining weight.

You also need to eat more, but this comes automatically as a result of working out, due to the energy you're spending you'll find yourself having to eat much more food to satisfy your hunger, I normally eat 3000-4000 calories a day. A the beginning I even noted about how much I was eating to ensure I was getting enough calories (I simply estimated about 800 calories per cup of nuts or seeds and about 80 calories per cup of fruit and vegetables so it's easy to estimate).

Try to eat a lot of walnuts, they have as much protein as beef and about 800 calories per cup. Put walnuts in smoothies, make milkshakes with them, make pie crusts by putting 2 cups walnuts and 1/2 cup dates in the food processor and press into a pie pan and add the pie fillings you want.

I also take no protein powders or supplements whatsoever.

So the key is that I've found in my 4 years or so raw are:
-Do weightlifting, you probably won't gain weight on a raw diet until you do
-Make sure you're eating enough calories and protein with dense foods like nuts and seeds

As a side effect, working out has been proven to be more effective than antidepressants for depression, so that will help you too, especially as you see yourself gain weight and get more muscular.

I know you can do it, but you need to start working out, absolutely nothing worked for me until I did and now I'm one of if not the most muscular among my friends even those on a SAD diet.

[Redrocket]

Good advice Raweater;)

[pixie_333]

Hi ferral-cat, I also got your email and will answer it here so it can help others too.

Before going raw I had worked out and had gained weight to about 170 lbs but had stopped working out, once I went raw I fell to 135 lbs in months even though I was eating very dense foods and stayed there for 2 years until I found the fairly obvious solution: start working out again. You said yourself you want to be more muscular, this is simply impossible without doing weight lifting, so if you want to gain weight you must start weight lifting otherwise I've found gaining weight on a raw diet is impossible, and even if you did without working out it could only be fat.

Since I started working out on raw food I've regained about 40 lbs in less than a year and constantly get comments on how muscular I am (I'm also only about 5'7 so I'm quite big considering my weight and size). I've also just recently got accepted at a firefighter school and had to pass their physical tests which are quite intense.

What I'd recommend as a workout is to do some bench press, squats, some arm exercises with dumbbells and some cardio like running or swimming (although cardio isn't important to gain weight, during my firefighter tests that was my weak point so I'm working hard on my cardio since and it's healthy to keep your cardio in shape and helps keep body fat down). For the weight exercises select a weight that you can only lift 4-6 times before failure, that is the best range for gaining weight.

You also need to eat more, but this comes automatically as a result of working out, due to the energy you're spending you'll find yourself having to eat much more food to satisfy your hunger, I normally eat 3000-4000 calories a day. A the beginning I even noted about how much I was eating to ensure I was getting enough calories (I simply estimated about 800 calories per cup of nuts or seeds and about 80 calories per cup of fruit and vegetables so it's easy to estimate).

Try to eat a lot of walnuts, they have as much protein as beef and about 800 calories per cup. Put walnuts in smoothies, make milkshakes with them, make pie crusts by putting 2 cups walnuts and 1/2 cup dates in the food processor and press into a pie pan and add the pie fillings you want.

I also take no protein powders or supplements whatsoever.

So the key is that I've found in my 4 years or so raw are:
-Do weightlifting, you probably won't gain weight on a raw diet until you do
-Make sure you're eating enough calories and protein with dense foods like nuts and seeds

As a side effect, working out has been proven to be more effective than antidepressants for depression, so that will help you too, especially as you see yourself gain weight and get more muscular.

I know you can do it, but you need to start working out, absolutely nothing worked for me until I did and now I'm one of if not the most muscular among my friends even those on a SAD diet.

but aren't you only like 80% raw? i remember one of your posts a couple months ago.

i agree with the weight lifting. regardless raw or not for me i have to get muscle to get thicker. bike riding has the best results for me.

[raweater]

Yes I am around 75% raw but I would have gained weight on 100% raw, many are 100% raw and have gained a lot of weight by working out.

Bike riding will only work your legs, you need to work the upper body also which is where you can gain the most mass and to have a more balanced body. Biking is also not efficient at building mass, as I said the most efficient way to build mass is with exercises you can only do 4-6 repetitions of before failure, with biking you can do thousands of repetitions (pedal strokes) which is completely at the other end.

[pixie_333]

Bike riding will only work your legs, you need to work the upper body also which is where you can gain the most mass and to have a more balanced body. Biking is also not efficient at building mass, as I said the most efficient way to build mass is with exercises you can only do 4-6 repetitions of before failure, with biking you can do thousands of repetitions (pedal strokes) which is completely at the other end.

bike riding has been the only thing that has gotten my legs very musculer and thick. i was buldging with muscle and it looked more like i had toned fat. i use to ride about 40 mins a day... 13 miles on my mountain bike on the streets for a few months and got like immediate results after a couple weeks and kept escalating.
i didn't stretch first nor took supplements or protein powder.

my upper half is fine. i'm blessed to gain muscle easy in my arms etc just by doing everyday things. legs have always been super skinny even when i was playing sports nonstop... it's biking that does the trick. ;)

[raweater]

Of course if you go from no exercise at all to biking you will gain muscle, but if you want to gain more you need to do weight lifting. It almost sounds like you're trying to find execuses to not exercise and at the same time you're sick of being skinny.

[pixie_333]

no excuses raweater. i'm just saying in other words everyones body is different and i disagree with your recomendations with my body. i'm 38, was training for olympics growing up, dancer etc... had worked out at gym off n on for a couple years... bike riding is the ONLY thing that has gotten me thick. sure dancing etc helped some... but no comparrison to bikes.

[pixie_333]

Of course if you go from no exercise at all to biking you will gain muscle, but if you want to gain more you need to do weight lifting. It almost sounds like you're trying to find execuses to not exercise and at the same time you're sick of being skinny.

ps

i was in a severe car wreck and haven't been able to do a lot of things and am perm damaged in neck.
when i couldn't eat for 2 weeks i lost weight and muscle.. reason i am at my skinniest. i have been feeling ok to try to do some things to work out now, but i have to be careful.

[raweater]

The thing is I didn't recommend dancing, I recommended weight lifting, you can't say it doesn't work without trying it. Or if you did weight lifting was it exercises like bench press and squats and in the 4-6 reps before failure range (doing 10 or more reps will not help to gain weight)? Where you also giving yourself at least a day of rest between each exercise (only working a certain muscle group at most once per 2 days) and eating enough? It's sort of silly to think that weight lifting, if done properly, would not make you gain weight, I've gained 40 lbs by weight lifting and wasn't able to gain an ounce before that, and I was biking regularly.

I just don't understand why you're saying you want to gain weight yet refuse to do about the only thing that can get you those results, unless I'm misunderstanding something.

[raweater]

Sorry to hear about your car accident, I hadn't seen it before posting my message above.

[pixie_333]

i don't care about gaining weight. when i go 100% raw i don't want to get skinnier. people say i look 60-85 pounds but i actualy weigh 108 naked.

i'm not degrading weight training at all. i know it works for people and can give me results too. i just know what bikes has done for me and gave me perfect results.

in the gym i did various things.. got on the cardo machines??? the digital timer things. also the ones you stick the pins in for weight. i had a trainer bredifly too.
sometimes i went in nightly sometimes 3 days a week.

but dance training i did a few years ago considering to start performing again i did a lot of stretching and using my body to get more limber and push ups etc to gain muscle to do more moves than i had in the past. it did pump me some. i spent literaly 7-22 hours a day. i was happy with it. but i got lazy.

also to note... i can lose a few pounds in a day if i don't eat and am active.

[RawYorkCity]

I'm not an expert, but I hold one book by Natalia Rose with high regard. She basically says that toxins are being flushed from your system when one eats raw continually. Everyone holds and expels toxins differently, but the majority hold it in their fat. This may be the case for you despite you being skinny now. If you feel healthy and your blood work shows you're not deficient in anything keep at it (raw).

[raweater]

pixie: are you male or female? If you're male 108 lbs is very underweight unless you're very small. Anyway it's up to you what to do or if you're happy at 108. I'm about 5'7 and wasn't happy at all at 135.

[pixie_333]

i'm female and 5'3

i have no idea where my weight comes from and my stomach is pretty flat (inch 1/2 pinch of fat) and i go to bathroom regularly so i don't think it's a waste build up.
but it blows everyone away when i prove my weight. i could easily make big bucks betting people.

[ferral-cat]

This is tremendously helpful, thanks gang.

I have started doing some pushups and pullups and dips here at home and was shocked at how out of shape i have become.

Can you beleive at 5'10" (male) 120lbs that I can only do 2 pushups? And I could do zero pull ups. Yes thats right, ZERO. I did negatives only for 2 days and as of now I can do 4 pullups and 10 pushups. Yay! In only 5 days I was able to accomplish this task so i am very happy.

I am going to go sign up at the gym tommorrow. I had a 1 year membership last year for $400 USD and I went 3 weeks and then dropped it. Now its expired and they offered me $300 USD for a year. I think that is reasonable it is $25 per month.

I made a commitment to 100% raw for 2 weeks (which I have failed at every day so far I am only about 70% raw) but my ultimate plan was 75% raw. I do not have any medical illness and since I gravitate towards skinny I would feel better doing that.

Also I am not a food addict or an emotional eater (quite the opposite in fact) so I think that will be the best plan for me. I just wonder if i do my Tae-Kwon-Do for 1 hour (3 days per week) and I just add an extra 500 calories on those days will that compensate for the cardio?

[ferral-cat]

Pixie: I agree with raweater that you should add some weightlifting or at least some bodyweight resistance exercises such as pull ups, push-ups, dips and squats using a 5 gallon paint bucket filled with enough water to make it challenging for you.

In fact two 5 gallon paint buckets can be used for arm curls and other creative exercises and you can do this at home and very low cost. Remember each gallon of water you add will equal 8 pounds.

Do a search on youtube for "Barilla and Hannibal"

[raweater]

Your improvement on push ups and pull ups in just a few days is great and shows that you can gain strenght and size on a raw diet.

In the gym I'd recommend doing free weights and avoiding the machines other than those for cardio, free weights provide a much superior workout and machines provide a very unnatural workout and unbalanced results because they don't work the stabalizer muscles.

About how much you should eat you should go with your hunger, as you qworkout more you will automatically need to eat more to satisfy your hunger.

[ferral-cat]

Do you take a post workout recovery drink?

I used to make a post workout drink with 80g of carbohydrates + Vitamin C + L-Glutamine.

It was a product called Ultra Fuel from Twinlabs

But then I started making my own version by adding dextrose and unsweetened Kool Aid

Now in Dr Graham's book her recommends water mixed with bananas and maybe a stalk of celery for electrolytes.

[raweater]

I don't really have a post workout drink but I'll often just make a fruit/green smoothie with walnuts for protein and calories.

[pixie_333]

Pixie: I agree with raweater that you should add some weightlifting or at least some bodyweight resistance exercises such as pull ups, push-ups, dips and squats using a 5 gallon paint bucket filled with enough water to make it challenging for you.

In fact two 5 gallon paint buckets can be used for arm curls and other creative exercises and you can do this at home and very low cost. Remember each gallon of water you add will equal 8 pounds.

Do a search on youtube for "Barilla and Hannibal"

that's a great idea with the gallon buckets. when i was dance training myself i used 12 packs to do stuff with my arms and squats.

[Redrocket]

Do you take a post workout recovery drink?

I used to make a post workout drink with 80g of carbohydrates + Vitamin C + L-Glutamine.

It was a product called Ultra Fuel from Twinlabs

But then I started making my own version by adding dextrose and unsweetened Kool Aid

Now in Dr Graham's book her recommends water mixed with bananas and maybe a stalk of celery for electrolytes.

Organic coconut water will hydrate you like nothing else, this is a terrific after workout drink, matter of fact drink two of them and that will bring your electrolites back in balance quickly. It is actually better than a banana. Some developing countries use it in place of IV solution and inject it directly. It was also used in Asia during WW2 for the same purpose. I go through a case a week here in Florida.