Hello all

[Matthew182]

So I'll just introduce myself here. My name is Matthew and I've been eating a calorie restriction with optimal nutrition diet now for 6+ years. The majority of the early years was more focused on large salads, plenty of green leafy veggies but then slowly I went on to eat more cooked foods like sweet potatoes, cooked broccoli, cauli, carrots, brussel sprouts etc etc... I always ate lots of fruits like banana, loads of berries, apples, pears, pineapples, kiwi's. My protein come from beans, nuts, and whey protein powder. Felt really good for years, cured my severe allergy that I had for many years prior to eating healthy (hay fever). Now I never get hay fever again. I rarely get sick with colds or flu, if I do get something it's usually gone within hours rather than days to weeks as the rest of my family. My acne also cleared up! All my senses improved such as hearing, sight, taste. I become literally more 'conscious' and alive. It was almost like pre CRON days I must have been some sort of zombie or something. Thats how I can only describe it.

My blood work and stats are fairly good, and I'll provide a link to that down the bottom. Since starting CR its like I've not aged at all in the last 6 years, in fact I'm probably just as young now at almost 25 as when I was 16 in high school (you can see a comparison picture on my BLOG). Whereas everyone I know seems to be growing up faster than me, even the younger ones. I have amazingly low cholesterol, low inflammation, low blood sugar, very low blood pressure (90/60), very low heart rate between 45-50bpm, low body temperature (signiture of longevity). I have strong teeth, nails, and thick hair. I've been extremely fit all my life from exercise (but while on poor diet of mostly cereal grains).

My goal is simply to live a very long and healthy life, at least 100 years, but I hope to live hundreds or thousands of years through advances in technology later in the 21st century. So I'm using the knowledge now to be alive at that point.

So although I'm not exactly *new* to RAW, I'm now consistently eating at least 75-80% Raw. I love my green smoothies every morning with apples, kale, spinach, banana. Sometimes add in blueberries, pineapple, magno, manuka honey etc...

I hope that I can learn from you, and maybe I can share some of the things I've learned over the years as well.

I'm currently looking to get into the field of aging and studying it, to eventually defeat disease and aging in humans. Because no matter how good our diet is, we all eventually die. Diet can only give us so much, calorie restriction being the most effective method to extend maxmium lifespan in all species tested is something else I employ, but stll not good enough.

So heres me on the right where I took the picture almost 24 1/2 years of age



So I hope that you can check out my blog whenever you have sometime to spare. It's mostly about how to slow down aging, seriously ;)

You can view my BLOG here;
http://www.matts-cr.blogspot.com/

My youtube channel with CR videos on longevity
http://www.youtube.com/matthewlake182

My personal website including all my own lab results
http://www.matthewlake.plus.com/results.htm