Mon, October 10th, 2005

We're all really worried about you

"Sacrifice is giving up something good for something better."

Unknown

So anyway, back to the plot….Have you ever noticed that when you try to make a change for the better in your life there’s an abundance of people ready to tell you why you shouldn’t do it?  The people I worked with at the time actually thought I had an eating disorder, they said that I was losing too much weight and in between mouthfuls of pizza and chips would tell me how they thought I wasn’t getting all the nutrients my body needed!  I found it incredible that they could be so concerned about me but not even think twice about what they were putting into their own mouths.  One of the things that gave me strength in what I was doing was a book by Stephen Arlin called Raw Power.  Here was a guy telling me I could build muscle with raw foods and weight training.  That was very exciting to me as i’d always wanted to be bigger but had never managed it on cooked foods.  I’m now training using Pete Sisco’s Static Contraction Training and track my progress every workout.  I may track my vital stats on this site as I go along, now there’s an idea!

Lunch times at work became ‘question time with Russell’, I would get asked on a daily basis, "what the hell have you got today?"  That was when I was taking in a salad, you should have seen the circus that formed when I brought in the raw burgers!!!  I actually don’t think people realised how offensive they were being, they didn’t go around telling other people how fat they are, why did they feel the need to tell me i’m too skinny?  My weight leveled out at around 11 stones which is where i’m at now.  I believe that means i’ve got rid of most of the toxic fat and can now build on solid (raw) foundations.

So I started eating my lunch outside, in the car by the harbour or anywhere that meant I could just eat in peace!  That actually didn’t help much because no one ever saw me eat which made them think that i’d given up food completely!  It’s so funny now I look back on it.  I’m not around those people regularly anymore but once they realised I wasn’t going through a phase and wasn’t going to ‘change back’ some of them actually started to accept it and even told me how they respected me for it, that was a great feeling.

It’s at that point that you’re expected to be perfect.  I was nearly arrested by the Food Police several times for crimes against healthy eating (I think I was ‘caught’ in the staff restaurant eating a salad with mayo on one occasion and eating a sarnie on another).  My girlfiend at the time, who had also been on a detox and was feeling the benefit of her new lifestyle was interviewed by the personnel manager because she took some time off sick.  It was suggested she was ill because she didn’t eat properly.  In the same interview the manager in question also suggested that the reason I had injured my back was because of what I ate.  Everyone took great delight in telling me that my healthy eating hadn’t stopped my hurting my back, I mean, what can you say to that?!!!

I so pleased my family are behind me all the way with this thing.  My Dad was fine and quite interested as long as I didn’t take up too much room in the kitchen (I lived with him for a while) and my Mum actually came with me on my next detox to Thailand, she now juices regularly and we’re off to the Fresh Festival this month.

I’m living in a house with 3 other friends now and although they are all cooked foodies I can eat in peace, without questions and i’ve got my own area in the kitchen which is a fantastic luxury.  I’ve got my Easygreens set up in the shed and my wheatgrass trays on shelves in the garden so i’m really happy with the situation here.

As for today, i’ve been looking for accomodation for my visit to Living Light in California so i’m getting really excited.  I’ve got so much going on in the next few weeks, it should make for interesting reading, i’ll add some photos to the site soon as well.