Mike Liebner’s Positive Think Tank

Yesterday on August 7th, I began a whole new nutritional program. A “13 Day Nutritional Event”.

I’ve been studying raw food – whole food and have been meaning to get more committed to avoiding eating some of the junk I have regularly been putting in my body.

Raw Food – aka – Whole Food aka Live Food… it’s very misunderstood. At least when I talk to people about it, it is.

Maybe I have not found the proper approach. First off – “RAW” in itself makes most people take a step back and go ooouuuuwww. That’s why maybe it’s more appropriate to call it Whole Food. Whole Food Nutrition.

The general idea is to avoid food that are overly processed and/or filled with artificial ingredients…. taking it a step further the food we eat should ideally be LIVE in the sense that it contains the maximum amount of the nutritional benefits the food provides.

When food is cooked – it kills the good stuff. Enzymes among other things.

I’ll spare the long explanation as that deserves a full article on it’s own, but if you are interested in learning more about getting the most from the food you eat I suggest a great book by Carol Alt called “Eating in the Raw – a beginner’s guide to getting slimmer, feeling healthier, and looking younger the raw-food way”.

The book has an introduction by Nicholas J. Gonzales M.D. that explains it better than Ihave ever heard it explained before.

In a nutshell the good doctor goes on to provide proof and evidence that enzymes are perhaps among the most important factors in keeping us healthy. You really should get this book if nothing else just for the foreward as it will no doubt have a great impact on how you think about cooked processed foods.

The doctor states that at around 106-107 degrees enzymes in food begin deteriorating and that above 116 degrees they become “completely inactive”. As the doc points out so succinctly “that’s why fevers above 107 degrees F are generally deadly”.

 Hmmm… that kind of puts things in perspective, but as I said I’ll spare the long story.

Let’s just say I have been doing a lot of research myself on nutrition and numerous books and studies make a great case that cooked foods and processed and refined foods are what is causing the upsurge in obesity and illness in the U.S.A. and around the world.

From my personal experience I know that my life changed when I started juicing fruits and vegetables back in the early 90’s. It made me realize that in many cases fruits and vegetables had magical powers that could heal and make us stronger and healthier.

So, now as I read all this great stuff on Whole Foods and Eating Raw it is clicking. It all makes sense.

Personally, I need to lose 10 to 20 pounds and I just started a nutritional program that is centered 100% around whole foods. It all clicked for me when I ran across the Wholefood Farmacy web site and the video with Peter Jennings discussing the FOOD INDUSTRY and how they are making us fatter and fatter. Watch this video!

Then I learned about the programs this company offers with whole foods. I took the plunge and ordered the Tri-Decatholon which is a “13 day nutritional event”.

What is so unique about this plan is that they have a program with ”nutrient dense whole foods” packaged to be used exclusively in the 13 days on this program. It’s a combo weight loss and detoxification program that relies heavily on the packaged foods, lots of water and walking.

I already do the walking thing – 4 times a day with my dog so I am already in the right place to take advantage of a nutritional plan.

My biggest problem has always been eating late night meals and snacks. That has been my weakness all of my life. Also soda… So I liked the fact that with this program you could eat as much as you wanted and not have to “diet”. In fact the plan encourages eating regularly throughout the day and not having any large meals.

Once again I’ll spare the dirty details as you can get them on the Wholefood Farmacy web site

Me, I decided I’d go hog wild and try to go the 13 days without eating any cooked food or processed food or anything with chemicals or additives. As I mentioned today is Day 2.

I got my box of stuff from them 2 days ago on Monday (it’s Wednesday) and that night I opened a few of the bags and tasted them. Wow! I was really impressed. Not only are the ingredients incredible but the stuff tastes good.

In the plan I got, it contains several variations of the whole food along with a detox farina. You take the farina each night with 12 oz. water.

 The foods are packaged in air tight ziplock style pouches. They are as follows:

Fruitalicious Plus – “low pressure and sun-dried ingredients” including granola, apple, raisins, bannana, mango, dates – man the list is long… (hey I just copied from the web site!)

Honey Nut Granola, Apples, Red Flame Raisins, Currant Raisins, Thompson Raisins, Banana, Strawberry, Raspberry, Mango, Dates, Coconut, Cranberries & Figs.

It tastes great. Every one of the bags do! If you put these in bowls at a party I’m sure each one of them would be devoured (unless of course you told people they were good for you :’>)

TropiPhi – “rolls royce of raw food” all natural fibers and no cholesterol. Look at the ingredients:

Macadamia Nuts, Walnuts, Brazil Nuts, Pineapple, Papaya, Mango, Bananas, Coconut Flakes, Brown Rice, & Orange Oil.

PhiPlus – “healthiest food in the world”. Big claim but whatever they say – it tastes great and is the backbone of this plan. You simply eat some of this when you are hungry along with some water. It tastes so good that is not hard to do. Look at the ingredients:

Dates, Rolled Oats, Thompson Raisins, Sesame Seeds, Sunflower Seeds, Almonds, Cashews, Hazel Nuts, Pecans, Walnuts, Brazil Nuts, Prunes, Grape Seed Oil, Pure Salt, Figs, Raspberries, Walnut Oil, Brown Rice, Kidney Beans, Beet Powder, Chick Pea Flour, Bananas, Peas, Orange, Flax Seed, Pumpkin Seeds, Blueberries, Millet, Rye, Barley, Oats, Corn, Quinoa, Nutritional Yeast, Cinnamon, Ginger, Clove, Aloe, Nutmeg, Lemon Oil, Orange Oil, Sweet Leaf Powder, and Coconut, Guava Powder, Peach Powder, Strawberry.

Veggielicious Spice – crunchy and tastes great! Blows away potato chips! Ingredients include:

Maize Corn, Sweet Corn, Potatoes, Peas, Tomatoes, Carrots, Green Beans, Zucchini, Broccoli, Red Peppers, Green Onions, Green Peppers, & our own Cajun Spice blend: (Pure Salt, Paprika, Chilli Powder, Cayenne Pepper, Chipotle Pepper, Garlic, Lemon Peel, Onion, Parsley, Rosemary, & Black Pepper), Non-Hydrogenated Soy Oil.

DetoxPhi farina – support the digestive system with whole food cleansing. Ingredients:

Psyllium Seed Husk, Oats, Almonds, Cashews, Pumpkin Seeds, Prunes, Apples, Flax Seeds, Phi Plus, Ceylon Cinnamon, Stevia, Evaporated cane Juice, Senna Leaf, Cascara Sagrata, & our own custom Rice & Grain Blend (Cracked Wheat, Rye, Oats, Millet, Flax Seed, Sweet Corn, Wheat Germ, Bulgar Wheat, Pumpkin Seeds, Brown Rice, Flax Seed Meal, Quinoa, Chick Peas, & Nutritional Yeast).

And then there is also a salt solution you put in the water.

All in all I must say that I am really excited about this. Mainly because after a full day I know it’s easy to do. While I may be cutting out a lot of snack foods and eating out at restaurants like I typically do, I know that these 13 days I’ll be doing something really good for my body.

My goal is to lose 10 to 20 pounds. And also to clean out all the toxic stuff that is in my system.

The only “bad thing” I did yesterday and also today is that I made coffee. NOrmally I have 2 large cups with that artificial flavoring cream (Hazelnut) and now I am brewing 1 cup very weak and nothing added. I do have slight coffee withdrawl symptoms (headachey occasionally) as I am only sipping it. Yesterday I had 1/2 cup – today it looks like 1/4 cup.

I’ll try tomorrow with no coffee.

Also, this program is flexible. While the package has instructions you can follow in detail, you can also deviate slightly.

They suggest if you must get something else to eat that yo only do something like fruits, veggies, salad etc. with no artificla dressings or anything processed. Only made from scratch stuff with natural whle food ingredients.

Well, yesterday I went to Mothers Market (health store) and found a ton of great stuff.

I stocked up on organic spices, sea salt and grabbed some fresh organic veggies. The store also had a suprisingly good selection of Wole Raw Foods! Some of it looked enticing, but since I plan to stay on this food for the 13 days I did not buy anything other than some fruits and vegetables.

Last night I broke down and had a snack. I made a bowl with half of a cucumber alongh with some fresh chopped mint leaves in a teasopn of olive oil and 2 teaspoons of vinegar. Yum!

You know – I can’t say that this is torture. Whole foods that are good for you do not need to taste bad.

Most of the food I have been fond of these days has been fresh and healthy. So I know that even once the 13 days are over that I can incorporate some of the Wholefood Farmacy packed foods and use them when I feel the urge to snack or at late night when I am most likely to want to eat junk.

I’ll keep reporting in the days ahead as to how it’s going. So far so good!