Before and After pics of the Wannabe Fruitarian
before after
(scroll down to bottom for most recent photos)
Hello everyone,
It is getting to be my one year fruitarian/”plant based” eating anniversary.
I have been vegan and “high fruit” (i.e eating a ton of fruit) the whole time. But I was not doing a perfect job of “raw till 4” or “fully raw” or “vegan no oil” as they say at Whole Foods….the whole time. But I was always eating a lot of fruit and trying to live up to those ideals. So…yeah, not perfect, but…I think it takes some time to get it all right. I’m still learning about it all.
I remember I started in May last year. And now it’s May again.
Hopefully I don’t regret posting semi-clad pics of myself on the net.
So the before pictures that I took when I just started this lifestyle are very unflattering so I was scared to post them for a long time.
But what the heck. That’s what the before photo is all about.
Here you go:
BEFORE PICTURE
Ok now for one I took this morning.
AFTER PICTURE
(trying to be all “I AM YOGA GURU in HAWAII”)
Have I lost weight?
Let’s examine my physique more closely. ;)
Again I forgot to take the time to look presentable. But as Durian Rider and Freelee would say i’m being FULLY REAL. (as opposed to “fully fake”, which is what they call “fully raw” kristina–burn). (you can click on the photos to enlarge).
kind of freelee the banana girl, right?
(freelee the banana girl)
joking.
ok I took these a week ago too. For comparison with the before and afters.
AFTER
BEFORE
Ok i did it! I posted befores and afters. Now you can trust me when I talk about “fruit doesn’t make you fat” and all that.
My advice? Go raw till 4. (check it out on youtube) Watch freelee the banana girl’s vids and eat a lot of fruit and make potato strong’s recipes for dinner.
HAPPY THURSDAY!!
Here is an updated progress photo I took in July 2014, so two months after the last ones. It’s hard to tell month to month if you are losing anything, but over they year I think it really adds up:
September 2014, after one week of full fruitarian at the Woodstock Fruit Festival:
September 21, 2014, back to raw till 4:
December 4th, 2014: After a month of really loosening up on fruit and eating more starches, bread and more restaurant food. Have I gained? I really don’t know but I’m still on the path and that’s what counts. In addition, I still feel I look really great and have not noticed additional weight gain. Maybe even Lost!
June 2015
How mutch weight do you loose in 1 year??
I really wish I had been more consistent with weighing myself when I started. If I had to do it over again I’d weigh myself once a month but not be attached to the outcome at all, but then plot it and graph it. I remember when I just started weighing 155-165. Now I weigh about 145-155. I realize now I wasn’t doing this lifestyle perfectly, but I was trying to learn as much as I could and I did my best. Like I didn’t cut out all oil till recently because I was still eating out at restaurants and ordering food that definitely contained oil. So I think depending how strict you are with the lifestyle, you might lose more or less. Like by going starch based vegan, my friend will at the website potatostrong.com lost 30 pounds, but I guess it varies for everyone. I think you really have to have the long term mindset and not be concerned about losing weight in the short term, but rather over years! I don’t know if there is stuff I could be doing to lose more weight or speed up the weightloss, but I do know over time I did lose weight and feel I will continue to do so.
This is awesome. Thank you so much for posting- it’s super encouraging to see your pictures and perspective. I’m working on recovery from an eating disorder, and have found a lot of peace in rt4 and raw vegan eating. one of my biggest fears though is orthorexia/restricting variety of foods, so i’ve also been just loosely following rt4 and eating what i feel my body craves. did you have any issues with your skin at the beginning? i’ve been eating primarily rt4 since late may- any suggestions or insight for a beginner? thank you!!
Thank you for the awesome comment. I’m very happy you appreciated this. I think that is awesome you are just listening to your body…go at your own pace, eventually you will find what makes you feel best. Random but one interesting thing I have found is the more I eat “clean” in the sense of fruits and vegetables…the louder my body speaks to me. Like when I tried banana island for 4 days, eating only bananas…my body was like speaking very very loudly. Like for example, it would be like “drink water now!” and i would like, chug water. Or “You are DONE EATING NOW” and I would like spit half of the banana I was eating into the trash because my body was like YOU ARE FULL NOW and I couldn’t bear to eat another bite. It’s a very interesting experience…but since I don’t have experience with orthorexia, don’t take any advice from me and do what you feel is best for you…
As for my skin…not at all…My skin greatly improved almost immediately I think. In fact when my friend who hadn’t seen me in two years saw me recently (she hadn’t seen me since I started eating so much fruit)…she was like WOW your skin is glowing. Many people think I look a lot younger than I did. But I do know many people have skin problems…but I don’t know why exactly some do and some people’s skin miraculously improves like mine did. I never had perfect skin, in fact, pretty bad skin when I was a teen and it never cleared up completely…but when I was fully raw and cut out all grains…I found my skin was perfect. Again…I digress! But overall my skin has greatly greatly improved and the more raw I am and the more fruit I eat…I can definitely say the better and better it looks.
For a beginner, here are some suggestions that I feel have helped me.
1. If you are on instagram, follow people who are raw till 4 or fruitarian on instagram. I wrote a post called something like cool fruitarian people to follow on instagram or you can search different hashtags like raw till 4 or 80/10/10…but you probably know all this already. But I find it really motivating to see their pics and I get meal ideas.
2. Follow people on youtube, like Happy Healthy Vegan…(they are so down to earth and rational. I like them.) and other cool vegan channels. Let me know if you want more ideas. I watch a lot of vegan people on youtube and it’s a lot of fun.
3. Read 80/10/10 by doug graham if you haven’t already. It is really informative and even if you don’t want to go fully raw he just explains things really well. I also like his other book Nutrition and Athletic Performance a lot! It is so underrated. It talks a lot about the importance of sleep and rest…which is just as important as food.
4. get involved in community fruit lucks or go to the woodstock fruit festival? I am very anti social so I am really pushing myself to do this. But I’ve heard its really helpful and I can definitely see why it would be. It sucks being alone with your fruity beliefs.
5. Remember that it takes time…like years literally. so you have a lot of time to tweak your diet and figure out what combination of stuff makes you feel best. Don’t worry if you haven’t got the whole system perfectly in one year or for me 1 and 1/2 years. hehe. It is worth it though…I am so happy I got “on the lifestyle” as they say.
6. maybe start your own youtube channel? You can make awesome friends through the net, and I will subscribe.
Let me know if these helped…or if you have any other questions! xoxxo best of luck <3
I can definitely tell a difference between your most recent picture and the one before that. I’m seeing your transverse abs now! I just came across your blog and it’s very sincere and helpful as an all-cooked vegan giving the raw till 4 diet a go. I’m book marking your page!
Thanks Lacey! And thank you for pointing out the difference! I think there is even a difference now from then…well I’m at the woodstock fruit festival now so eating 100% raw so obviously, but even before that. I am excited for you on raw till 4. Let me know how it goes! Or if I can answer any questions xoxo
You’re most welcome! That’s so exciting that you get to be there! That sounds like a blast and an amazing experience. Is your body talking to you loudly again?
Thank you :) It’s going so well right now. I’m feeling amazing so far. I’m still waiting to see the outcome on my skin (just broke out out of nowhere, and I usually have great skin), and on some of my body functions which have been..not so great. I am curious, do you track your caloric intake or just go with what you’re body is sayin’? Thanks for everything. Have fun at the festival!! x
It is awesome here..I’m so glad I went. My skin is so much softer, clearer, and I’ve lost all the water weight from being fully raw…it’s cool. Also I have met so many fruitarians and fascinating people making me feel not alone anymore in my weird eating ways…I even met a group of raw people in nyc who I will be able to hang with. Also I learned a ton about health…and saw so many examples of super healthy people. I’m so glad I went. Here I have not seen anyone using cronometer but fruit is available 24/7 so it is so nice…because if you get hungry there is always fruit available. I have stopped tracking my calories with cronometer… I was wondering for a while whether that was bad because I should be eating more to get more energy…but everyone here seems to be of the philosophy…listen to your body and don’t “smash in the carbs” or try for a minimum number of calories a day. I stopped liking how I felt when I was drinking such huge banana smoothies in the morning, trying to pack in 10-15 bananas. It took a long time to digest it all. So yeah I’ve stopped using cronometer and just now go by how I feel. I think people really differ on whether they try to pack in more calories for more energy for more fitness or whether they just go by whether or not they’re hungry. I am trying the latter for now, and I prefer it. It is a lot easier/less stressful and easier to digest. I think maybe if you are a serious athlete you might need to worry more about “smashing in the carbs” but though i wish i was, right now i’m not. xoxox thanks for your comment and so glad it’s going well for now! keep me updated.
You rock, keep it up!
thank you Rose!!!!!
[…] can see before and after pictures of me here. The latest ones are at the bottom of the […]
I find the fruitarian lifestyle fascinating! I would love to do it, but I struggle with staying committed and temptations to other foods. How do you stay committed? How long did it take you to lose the bulk of your weight?
I would try the starch solution or raw till 4 first…and slowly transition to fruitarianism if you still want to do it. I find it very very easy to stay committed to starch solution or raw till 4 because you get to eat so much great food that you are never hungry, and getting more than you are giving up. For example, I eat probably double to triple what most people eat and have never once felt hungry. If you get temptations to eat other foods, just know that you are hungry and you haven’t filled up on enough of the right foods. The right foods being fruits, vegetables, rice, potatoes, beans, even breads…though the less processed the food the better. Just make sure you never eat oil and eat fruits and vegetables. As for how long it took to lose weight, i think I am still losing weight. I think I really started noticing a huge difference around a year and a half later. Like I noticed all my clothes were swimming on me and had to get rid of them. But pretty quickly I started noticing a lot of positive changes. Like for instance in the first two weeks of doing raw till 4 my horrible cramps dramatically improved and almost disappeared. My skin got a lot better and people always asked me what I was doing and why I was glowing. Then eventually people started telling me I had lost a ton of weight. Try raw till 4, or starch solution…they are a lot easier than being 100% fruitarian but if you want to take the plunge and go 100% 80/10/10 raw vegan go for it!!! Let me know if I can further clarify anything or help in any way.
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Hello, may i ask if u gain any weight when u just started?
Hi Nicole,
I do not think I did gain any weight in the beginning. I quickly noticed I started losing weight. Especially when I did a 100% raw trial in the beginning. I pretty quickly transitioned into 100% raw and then after a month or two I went back to raw till 4. When I was 100% raw the weight was flying off, and on raw till 4 the weight very gradually came off. I think this diet is great for weightloss. Just be careful that you don’t force feed yourself to make an arbitrary calorie maximum like 3000 calories a day. I know some people have run into problems doing that and trying to eat as many calories as freelee the banana girl does (I did it too in the beginning making 15 banana smoothies and having trouble drinking it all and digesting it all).
When you are not eating raw, what cooked food do you eat? It’s expensive to get fruits in my country so I want to incorporate cooked food. And may I asked if you eat soy/beans products too?
Hi Nicole,
Do you have the book the starch solution by John McDougall? It explains the way to eat 80/10/10 style or plant based vegan as they say with cooked foods…basically you can eat all grains, all beans, all kinds of potatoes and vegetables, breads and pastas with no added oil in them, etc. I make a lot of recipes off potatostrong.com . He lost 40 pounds with the starch solution. He posts a lot of pics of his meals on Facebook under Potato Strong. I eat rice a lot, also bread a lot lately although I know that’s not the best and I”m trying to cut back but it hasn’t been a big deal really, also I do eat beans although I try to not eat them as much because they are higher in protein and fat and lower in pure carbs, also i eat soy in soy sauce. Oh yeah I eat a lot of vegetable sushi. Basically if I go out to a restaurant I try to go to an asian place and get something with a lot of rice in it, following ferelee and durianrider’s lead. But I have not been incredibly strict even, and over time I have still lost weight. However the stricter with no oil and only whole foods (minimizing processed foods like bread in favor of potatoes and rice) you are the better and the more weight you will lose I have found. Let me know if that helps. Another good person to check out who incorporates cooked food in a raw till 4 type way is Sasha from the youtube channel and blog RiceandRaw. Check her out, if you haven’t already. She has a really interesting story and has lost a lot of weight too.
I look forward to your blog posts! you are an inspiration!
I hope this is real and not spam. If so, thank you so much HOllY! This really made my day. If you have any requests for what I should write about, please let me know. I would love to hear from you!
Hi Holly,
Did you struggle with any cravings for old foods? If so, how did you handle them? Did you ever count calories? I tried the starch solution, but didn’t lose an ounce. Did you have any detox symptoms?
Thanks,
I like your June picture. I’m also mostly fruitarian.
1) Do not eat fruit seeds, but if you do, try to be outside in the shade. The seeds turn toxic unless you’re outdoors.
2) Remember to drink water when you want to even though you are on a high moisture diet. Go outside under a tree to dry up.
From,
Denver Weir
thank you denver weir!!
Hi! I just started a fruitarian diet this week 😁 I was just curious if you did any exercise while on this lifestyle and what exercise(s) do you do?
I didn’t really, except pole dancing. But now I have followed durianrider’s advice and am trying to use my bike for exercise more and go to spinning classes. But I really did minimal exercise. If you are going fruitarian the weight will fall off no matter what exercise you do. Now I am back to more of a combo of fruit and starch.
For what it’s worth you are absolutely gorgeous. ;)
thank you very much :D that is really nice of you to say. <3