Yearly Archives: 2014

How I Cured My Migraines: 10 Questions for Raw Vegan John Fallucca

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So I met this guy at the Woodstock Fruit Festival who is now my one true fruitarian friend. Ah, what a relief to lol about DurianRider and fruitarian drama on youtube with someone who truly gets it!!

At the same time, he really inspires me cause he is being 100% raw vegan, gets to bed early, is striving to be as healthy as possible and most interestingly possibly, he healed a ton of health problems on this lifestyle. When I first met him at Woodstock he told me he had healed his daily migraines with his diet. I decided I have to interview him because I know a number of friends and family who suffer from terrible migraines.

This interview is for them, and hopefully anyone out there on the internet searching for a way to cure migraines.

Oh and he has a really good instagram account, where I took these photos from. Check it out @Juice_and_love

10 Questions for John Falucca

 

1. Can you describe how bad your health problems were before, how often they occurred,  and what you felt about them. Were you in despair over them?   

Before I shifted to a low fat raw vegan/fruitarian lifestyle my health had declined steadily over the years. The worst of it was the severe headaches. I also experienced sleeplessness, brain fog, chronic fatigue, indigestion, excess mucus/phlegm, dry skin, constipation and high cholesterol. I would say most of these issues occurred almost daily. About 2 years ago I had reached a point where I was frustrated and tired of dealing with these issues. When I really started learning about food additives, preservatives and GMOs, I had a good inclination that the reason for my sickness was the food I was eating. Raised on the typical SAD – Standard American Diet I ate mostly meat, dairy, grains, and little fruits and vegetables. I naturally ate a lot of the boxed and canned foods you would find in your everyday supermarket.

2. How did you find out about raw foods and decide to give it a go? Did you expect it to cure you?  

I learned about raw foods mainly through self-education. For a while I was reading everything that interested me about health. A subject matter has countless opinions and theories. I was really curious about Veganism and how it might improve my health. I had a random thought about 5 years ago that one day I would go Vegan. It resonated for a while before I took any serious action. Intuitively I knew my health would improve just by eating more fresh fruits and vegetables. I believed most of my issues would disappear if I changed my diet.

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3. How quickly did you see changes with your health problems when you started changing your diet?

My health problems slowly went away as I adopted a vegan lifestyle. It was a subtle change for me because I took about a year and a half to completely eliminate, meat, chicken, seafood, dairy, processed foods, caffeine, alcohol, grains, and all cooked food. I went about eliminating them one by one, although initially I did not plan it that way. I really felt the detox was slower at times but I still had serious physical and mental cravings that I had to overcome.

4. In your opinion, what do you think it was exactly that alleviated your health problems?

I think a big factor which improved my health was when I eliminated all processed food and dairy. I also think avoiding foods with chemical additives is important.

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5. Do you think everything you had to change about your diet and life makes it worth it to be healthy?

Absolutely, if I didn’t change I would probably be worse off or at best still dealing with the conditions listed above.

6. Why do you think you decided to take it to this extreme with your health?   

I think you have to be a little crazy to adopt 100% raw food diet. It completely changes your life as you know it. Right now I’m striving for optimal health. I want to feel good all the time.

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Were your health problems that debilitating or do you think you had a natural curiosity and inclination towards health and trying new things?

I got to the point where I no longer wanted to deal with these health issues. I think I am very curious and do have a natural inclination towards health. I first started juicing at age 15. I wish I had kept that up but there were other factors that prevented me from continuing at that time.

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7. What are your best recommendations for helping other people who have these particular health issues?

I think the best advice I can give to people today is to educate yourself as much as possible when it comes to your health and nutrition. It is your responsibility. Also I think it is important to keep an open mind. A lot of people judge an idea or concept, before really learning and understanding it. Most people don’t want to be open to anything outside of their belief system. I would also advise people to seek a natural way of healing. Too many people mask symptoms of a greater problem with a prescription drugs. You have to look at the root causes.

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8. Do you enjoy eating this way?

I love eating the way I do now. The majority of food I eat is fruit, so it is really fast food in its freshest form. No preparation whatsoever. Typically when I eat dinner, I have a few pieces of fruit followed by a very large salad or zucchini pasta. I also juice dark leafy greens from time to time. This lifestyle does involve more planning when it comes to meals, especially if you are on the road or do not have easy access to this type of food. A lot of times I’ll bring a food stash with me to where I go just in case.

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9.  Are you into veganism for animal rights too and if so how did you get into the ethical side of veganism?     Did you come to it for health first?

My initial reason for adopting veganism was for health reasons. But the two go hand in hand. It was only after I started watching documentaries online that I learned about the abuse towards animals. When I realized it was not healthy to eat animals and the vitamins and minerals we require can be found from plants, there was really no need to eat animals. The meat and dairy industry is a multi-billion dollar business. When you think about it animals are being exploited for profits.

10. What did you think of the Woodstock fruit festival?

I thought it was a great event for health and fitness conscious people. It is very helpful for people to want to transition to a healthier lifestyle. For one week you get to experience a fruitarian lifestyle – raw fruits and veggies. There are not many people eating this way in the world so I’m glad we are able to connect, share stories, and talk openly about various health/wellness topics.

More info:

John Fallucca is a Raw Vegan/Fruitarian –  Can be found on Instagram: @Juice_And_Love where he posts food photo, recipes, and his raw journey.

 THANKS JOHN!!!!

If any of you internet pilgrims out there find this, do you think focusing on your health to this extent is crazy or would you ever try eliminating all processed foods and eating more fruits and vegetables to improve your health? Your thoughts?

 

Does Raw till 4 Work for Weight Loss? For Me it Did

Hi guys,

Wanted to give a little update about my weight loss.

It’s kind of shocking to me and also a little confusing. I was a person who thought I would never lose any weight. I had tried so many things in the past.

It reminds me of something Doug Graham (author of 80/10/10) said at one of his lectures at the Woodstock Fruit Festival. He joked that the alternate title he was considering for 80/10/10 was “Because Nothing Else Works”.

He was like, “But seriously, how many of you guys tried vegetarian? (yes) vegan? (yes) high fat raw? (yes) raw till 4? (yes)…”

He was like, if they worked for you, and got you the results you wanted, you wouldn’t have done 80/10/10. He was like, believe me, the only reason I do 80/10/10 is because it works. I like bread as much as the next guy.

I had to agree, I myself had gone through all those stages and had to agree that for weight loss, energy, fitness, 80/10/10 is the best.  I think raw till 4 (which is what I’m back to doing) is still very good and perhaps a lot more sustainable, but 80/10/10 gets you it all, if you can do it.

Anyway, even being raw till 4, which is basically doing 80/10/10 correctly most of the time…you can get amazing results.

For weight loss, it works. I see many people talking about weight gain on raw till 4 but I never gained…I’ve lost! I’m kind of in shock that it actually worked 1 and 1/2 years out.

I feel almost lame admitting it, but weight loss was one of my deepest wishes for so much of my life.

You know how when you blow out the candles on your birthday cake and make a wish. I wished so many times to be skinny.

I wish I could have been truly happy with how I looked, as I see so many totally adorable chubby kids. But I didn’t know how.

I couldn’t get over the fact that I didn’t look as good as the little kid models in the American Girl catalog. Ha. I really wish I had figured it out back then and was super happy with myself and said F THE HATERS!!! I LOOK AWESOME every day in the mirror when I woke up.

But it’s ok that I didn’t.

In a sense, it is good as I now fully understand the struggle so many women have with their weight on a gut level. And I would never judge anyone for being fat. I know what they deal with. And I think dealing with it made me a more sensitive person than the norm…in a good way. Sometimes I even wonder if that is why I like and understand animals so much and even became vegetarian and then vegan. I think being an outsider in some way because of my weight made me sensitive to animals, who many are too busy to take the time to understand. Do you guys think that ever?

Anyway, the other day I weighed myself at I was 146 pounds, which is the lightest I can remember being since this one crazy year in high school. I used to be around 160 for a long time.

(ME–sorry my eyes look very DEAD in this photo)

I bought bikinis the other day even. I wanted to wear a bikini for so long but felt I looked so far from what you were supposed to look like in a bikini that people would be scared. I remember last year I bought this pink bikini thinking that thanks to all my raw food I could finally wear a bikini…but I felt so pasty and blob like I just sent it back. But now, I look a lot different.

after photo fruit bikini 2 after photo fruit bikini 3

(me in a fruit bikini. still very curvy? But that’s in these days)

My before photo:

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I did it.

With no dieting. No calorie restricting. Never being hungry.

I can’t believe it.

Longterm the weight will come off little by little. Freelee the banana girl is right about that I guess.

So does raw till 4 work? I never thought I’d be the one saying this, but for me, a person who never thought she would ever lose weight, having given up on losing weight, it worked.

You can see before and after pictures of me here. The latest ones are at the bottom of the page.

How are you guys doing on raw till 4? Have you gained? Or lost? I have been doing it for 1 an 1/2 years so it has taken all that time to lose 15 pounds…like Freelee says it take a long time….but i think it was very worth it.