Bodybuilding & Weightlifting on the Raw Food Diet?

Today's post is my favorite. But who believes me that Raw Food is the first step to attain long and healthy life?
"What we consume and what consumes us".
Raw Food Diet is the first step to reverse the diseases even cancer.
( I am an example)

I invite you to Charlie's site. (look UPDATE -down)

Charlie's photos are here: http://www.therawdiet.com/meetcharlie.html

Bodybuilding & Weightlifting on the Raw Food Diet?

"That's the question I'm so often asked, "Can you actually lift weights and build muscle on a Raw Food Diet?" The whole question is asked in a state of disbelief, especially the words Raw Food Diet, which bring to mind images of people looking like concentration camp victims, with protruding ribs, trying to live on lettuce and celery, and oh so woefully deficient in that magic ingredient: PROTEIN.
But when I tell people that I'm a bodybuilder; I'm 49 years old; I just won 3rd place in an actual bodybuilding contest; and my diet consists of of fruits, vegetables, and only 1/2 cup or less of nuts per day (considered a protein food); well, they really don't know what to say. And then I go on, "OK, so if you're eating all this protein - meat, fish, chicken, eggs, milk, and I'm not, in fact, according to you I'm not getting any protein," then, rolling up my arm and showing my baseball size biceps muscle, "then how did I grow these muscles, in fact, let's see your biceps muscles!" To which I've yet to receive much of an intelligent response, and certainly not a response that has any facts or research behind it.
I really can't blame anyone for their interest in protein. I grew up on the Standard American Diet myself. As a bodybuilder in my teens and 20's, I read the bodybuilding magazines and I too, was convinced enough to spend hundreds, if not thousands of dollars on protein supplements along with eating all the protein foods: meat, dairy, eggs, etc. But then my life changed, and I started to learn differently.
In 1999 I opened a personal training studio, and my life's work was to show people how to reap the benefits that a strength training program could offer. I sought to deliver to people the most effective methods I could find in both training and nutrition. We'll talk about training methods later, but right now the focus is on nutrition.
As I sought the best nutritional information, I read book after book, fascinated by what I was learning. I was definitely in the correct occupation because I loved what I was doing, eagerly devouring new information. What I found was that a plant based diet, and specifically a raw plant based diet, was incredibly healthy for humans. I read stories of many people who were even reversing serious "incurable" diseases by adopting such a diet. I even made my own glaucoma go away at age 40 by changing my diet and not using medications. (I'll go into more detail on diet later).
The reason this is important, especially for the strength trainee, is what I heard from listening to the contestants at the last bodybuilding contest I entered in May of 2005, which was the first contest I had entered since 1982.
You see, these bodybuilders are under the impression that what they're doing, their sport, is healthy for them, and it is. But, they never consider the fact that their habit of consuming large amounts of protein, especially animal protein, is hard on their bodies. They just accept it without question.
Bodybuilding started out as a health promoting sport, designed to improve your health and well being by virtue of the fact that the inner health and vitality from healthful living manifested itself in the outward strength, vitality, and large muscles. But then the sport was ruined by not only steroids, but multitudes of other drugs. So I was careful to enter a bodybuilding contest that offered strict drug screening via urinalysis.
So backstage at this contest, I spoke to contestants about things like: "did you hear what happened to such and such famous bodybuilders? He had a triple bypass surgery . . . both brothers died in their fifties. . . he had kidney failure." These were the things that we only heard about through the grapevine, but what about first hand knowledge?
Well, I personally know of a weight lifter in his sixties that had both hips replaced. I actually saw one famous bodybuilder who was featured in the documentary Pumping Iron, who is getting around on crutches these days. And one of the contestants I spoke to at this last contest I entered told me that his doctor told him not to do squats anymore, because all that weight pushing down on his spine will cause degenerative disc disease. Then he told me that "even people who don't workout get degenerative disc disease." And when he told me that, I realized what I said earlier, that bodybuilders think that what they're doing is healthful, but they never even consider the possibility that excess protein is slowly degenerating their bodies.
So when I read about the plant based diet, I thought, you know, it sounds good, it makes a lot of sense, but I just need meat for adequate protein - I'll think about it.
And I did think about it, for two months or so. And then I thought to myself, "Ok, I'll try it. I'll experiment on myself. I'll try a vegan diet and see what happens." And so I did for two years, and then I progressed to a raw vegan diet for the next 3 years. So far, it's been working out great - I'm strong, muscular, healthy, and happy - what more could a man want?
And so, through this website I have the opportunity to pass on to you what I found out. Enjoy your visit, and please, e-mail me with any questions or comments. Also, let me know if I have explained things clearly and if it would help if I wrote a more in-depth training manual or perhaps made a video/dvd of a training session so you can see proper form and intensity.
This information on this website on training and nutrition applies equally to women, although obviously they will not have to eat the quantity of food that I do, and even some men will eat more or less depending upon their size.
So are you going to become a famous bodybuilder after reading this site? Most likely not, but with high intensity training and a healthy diet, you will become as muscular as your body will allow, and build your health at the same time, and not risk your health at the expense of building large muscles. My ideal is to build my muscles as large as they can be, as strong as they can be, and at the same time build my health and live as long as I can, and with the raw diet I no longer worry about developing the disease from a Standard American Diet - I live worry free. "

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How to build muscle on a raw food diet.
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