Feeling Fantastic

During the past four weeks I had a raw/plant based diet for the first three, and I mostly ate traditional cooked food during the entire fourth week. I’ve been back to a raw/plant based diet for the past couple of days. Today is Sunday and as usual since March 2017 I am dry-fasting on the seventh day of the week. For the past three weeks, I’ve been feeling fantastic. I am waking up naturally around the same time in the morning, with energy and the will to do things. I believe that the three week raw/plant based diet was very beneficial for me, even though during the first week of eating solely raw/plant based I wasn’t feeling all that good. I also think that taking nuts out of my diet has been helping my digestion and boosting my overall energy levels.

Gut and Skin Relationship

Now that I’ve been back to a raw plant based diet I also want as much as I can take all kinds of oils out of my diet. I’ve been following a person named Rob Stuart on YouTube. He was able to overcome serious skin related diseases with change in his diet. Rob seems to be convinced that the skin health is the reflection of the gut’s health. Based on his experience all animal products and oils should be avoided. I don’t have serious skin issues, but my scalp and my eyebrows tend to get flaky at times. Nothing major, but it could be sign that something is still a bit off in relation to my gut.

In January 2016 a couple of moths before starting this journey I had decided to completely shave off my head. Once shaved, I discovered that my scalp was in a pretty bad shape. There were some red spots, and a lot of accumulated dead skin on the surface of my scalp. Since I started my journey those more severe looking symptoms disappeared on their own, but I still do have those minuscule fakes coming out of my scalp, my eyebrows, and occasionally form around my nose and under my facial hair in the mustache area. I interpret this situation thinking that I was able to accomplish a lot in terms of improving my gut health thank to my lifestyle change which started in April 2016, but my recovery isn’t complete yet. Now I want to experiment by having for the most part a plant based raw diet, eating whole foods, and avoiding nuts and oils. During the three weeks I went raw/plant based my skin quality improved in a noticeable way. Meanwhile, I was solely eating raw/plant based I was pretty much eating a salad a day except during my Sunday dry-fasting days. Each time I was having a salad, I was putting a good amount of olive oil in it. Now I am curious to see what’s going to happen with me having a raw plant based diet without consuming any oils.

Tenedor Libre Buenos Aires

After my first “tendedor libre” experience in Montevideo, for the rest of the week I kept eating at all you can eat buffets here in Buenos Aires as well. Restaurants tend to a bit on the expensive side for my budget at the current moment. Since I usually only eat one solid meal a day; I tend to eat big portions. In a “tenedor libre” environment, I can chose exactly what I want to eat, how much I want to eat, and as far as the cost goes, such open buffets here in Buenos Aires, cost me less than preparing my own food at home. The main reason behind this is that I try as much as possible to use organic ingredients when preparing food at home. I also know for a fact that I have way more control over what I am putting inside of my body when preparing food at home. This is why I don’t mind the extra investment in time and money. Tenedor Libre types of establishments are in my opinion a good alternatives to dining out. During the entire week when I ate traditionally cooked food, I did not feel bad at all. I also have not experienced any negative symptoms. Maybe my skin has lost some of the radiant orange colored glow it had from the three weeks having a raw plant based diet, but other than that I’ve been feeling great.

Breathing, Deep Squatting, Getting Access to Fresh Clean Air

One other thing I learned from Rob Stuart is that deep squatting supposedly helps the digestive system. I included deep squatting in my daily routine. I’ve been also paying a lot of attention to breathing lately. I’ve been doing breathing exercises on a regular basis at least three times a day. In addition to the breathing exercises, I make an effort to go to places where the air has greater quality. Last week in Montevideo the quality of air was exceptional at shore. Yesterday I decided to reach the river here in Buenos Aires to see if I could get access to a similar grade of air quality. It has been over a year I’ve been living here in this beautiful city, and despite several attempts as a pedestrian to reach the shore, I was never able to make it to the river. A freeway or an airport would always stop my journey.

Yesterday I was able to find two routes to get near the water and take me back to the city. My first finding was a bridge going over the freeway a bit south of the River Plate stadium, I was able to make it to the “Parque de la Memoria” which has a huge water front. After spending an hour or so at the park, I walked for over an hour south, hoping to make it to Palermo. The walk was extremely enjoyable since I had the view on the water the whole time and the weather was hot and sunny. After passing the entire airport zone from north to south, I found a way to get back to Palermo Chico area by taking “calle Jeronimo Salguero” which at one point happened to pass under the freeway.

I ended up in Palermo Chico. The area is very familiar to me, since during one my previous visits to Buenos Aires I had stayed at an Airbnb on “calle Castex” for a couple of weeks. I walked back to Palermo Soho to get a juice at The Factory. I had only a mono meal of grapes all day. After walking the entire day under the sun, having a juice made of green apples, grapefruit and passion fruit was a refreshing and rewarding experience. The actual juice is called “0 Stress”. It’s probably my favorite juice combination at The Factory which also happen to have a store in Recoleta.

10 Day Break from Juicing at Home

Speaking of juicing, I took a break from making my own juices for about ten days now, mostly because of my trip to Montevideo. Tomorrow I want to get back at making my own juices. Although they require me to invest some time and money to make them, I haven’t came across juices that are as satisfying as the ones I make at home. I’m sure that the taste of the juices I make won’t suit the taste buds of everyone, but I personally love the taste and how my juices make me feel. It’s been several years now I’ve been juicing almost everyday and this actual ritual like practice has been one of the key elements to make this journey a success.  Allocating some cash into a slow juicer was probably one of the best investments I’ve ever made. I am also quite proud of myself that I have made the effort to bring my slow juicer with me to South America all the way from Switzerland. Being able to make my own juices with quality ingredients makes a huge difference in my life in terms of how I feel. If you are interested in finding out more about my juicing techniques, feel free to read my post called: Juicing 101 – For a Better Monday Style

Debrief for the past Four Weeks

Overall I am extremely happy with the progress I’ve been making. It looks like having my work opportunity back as a freelancer and the three week raw/plant based diet followed by eating traditionally cooked food for a week was extremely beneficial for me. It feels to me that the three week raw, plant based, nut free diet gave the opportunity to my body to reach the next level of well being on this journey. Coming across Rob Stewart’s videos was a great discovery, they are going to allow me to try new practices, and see how my body reacts to those practices.

Plans for a New Adventure

I have also decided to leave Buenos Aires in a couple of months and travel across  South America while still working as a freelancer and being creative with my own projects. It’s a challenging, but at the same time extremely exciting project. If I can pull it off, I will be very proud of myself. At the moment I am trying to get rid of as many things as I can, and find a storage space for the things I still want to keep. I am thinking of traveling as light as possible, but at the same time I do want to take my guitar and sound interface with me. We’ll see if it’s doable or not. Ideally it would be best to travel ultra light on an ongoing trip like this one, but I think that it would be a shame to not be able to be creative on the road. I am certain that I am going to be extremely inspired by what I am going to be experiencing as a nomadic person traveling in countries I have never been before. I can’t wait to be on the road. Going to Uruguay was kind of a glimpse of what the adventure can be like. Having new and exciting projects are filling me with happiness. I am extremely happy that I’ve made the move from Europe to South America. Even though I’ve been running into challenges, the entire adventure has been very positive so far.

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I AM NOT A HEALTH PROFESSIONAL. I would like to make it very clear that I am only sharing my own experience on this website, and have no intention to give any specific advice on health. Please read the disclaimer section for more information.