Today, I am the strongest I've ever been!

Now that I have experienced gaining significant muscle as a fruitarian, I feel sorry for people who are playing around with protein powders and strenuous exercise routines.

My Muscle-Building "Past" (in the distance)

Ah yes, I remember the old days of working out intensely to gain muscle. I was in my mid 20s, and I built myself up to being able to do 10 half-assed pushups. When you consider the fact that I was a "relatively skinny" guy and worked in a sitting position for most of my life, this was an accomplishment.

For the rest of this blog, it will be useful to know that I am about 5'8" (172 cm).

Starting workout and diet specifications.

In Mid-January 2017, my weight was at its lowest: 112.2 lbs. I believe I even got down to 110 lbs. If you saw me, you may have thought I was anorexic. If you knew me, you likely thought I was orthorexic. If you were my family members, you were very worried and upset. If you were my cat, you'd care less because you knew I wasn't eating your food. If you knew this journey, you'd already know that this is what it takes to significantly clean your vessel from years of abuse on the highly-polluting Standard American Diet (SAD).

It wasn't until a couple months later where I began to continue the basic "beginner routine" from the Bar Brothers workout. Below is a great illustration on how to do this routine strictly; however, my version contained the following adjustments:

• I only did a single cycle of these exercises. This meant that my workout time was from 5-10 minutes. This is because I know that more is absolutely not better when you are signaling to your physical and mental body to change its muscular frame.
• I did the 5-10 minute session of exercise once every other day.
• I did these exercises with the best form possible. And WOW: the push-ups and leg raises were very tough!
• The maximum plank I could do was 1 minute, and that was hell.
• I didn't always do the mountain climbers or pike push ups :)
• My diet was mainly salads and fruit. I ate twice a day, and usually I would do a dry fast (no food or water) on Saturdays.

Progress Today: 12+ lbs of muscle!

I am now 130 lbs. I've gained at least 12 lbs of muscle, 2-4 lbs of fat/waste, and maybe another 1-2 lbs of colon and water weight from some junk vegan foods I've eaten. The junk food is due to coping with difficult emotional times :) I gained this muscle on a primarily raw vegan diet--fruit based! I did have some moments of cooked food in late January and this month of July--this is where the extra 5-6 lbs of junk come in. And believe me, you don't gain muscle quickly enough to say that those short periods of eating "more protein junk" are when I gained 12+ lbs of muscle.

My exercise routine today: in early July (at 124.7 lbs) I realized 2 very awesome things about my progress: I can finally do diamond push-ups, and I can stand on my head with my legs straight up in the air! My typical exercise routine still consists of the basic "no equipment" Bar Brothers beginner's routine! These are new modifications of mine:

• I still exercise for about 10 minutes every other day.
• I have begun doing double the amount of exercises with full form: 16 squats, 2 minute planks (when I do them!), 16 regular push-ups, 16 leg raises.
• I rarely do the following exercises because I don't care much for them any more: leg lunges and pike push ups.

I also do these additional exercises:

• 16 diamond push-ups
• 16 straight-arm push-ups
• Head-stand with legs straight up in the air for as long as I can!
• Some other exercises that I do not know the name of :)

Btw, I never experience muscle soreness with this routine. If I would've done even 1 minute of those exercises in my past, I would've been sore all week. That happened to me many times. Today, I am stronger than I have ever been in my entire life!

The Beginnings of this Journey

Before you can understand what I do today, you've gotta understand what I did in mid 2016. I was eating mostly fruit, and I found myself somewhat interested in calisthenics. I came across this website:

• http://www.barbrothersgroningen.com/calisthenics-workout-plan/

I was way more newbie than I thought! I couldn't do a chin-up, and the only way I could do 10 push-ups is if I did improper form. However, I still "looked relatively healthy". Check out a picture of me in late May 2016 clocking in at 150 pounds:

I may look like I have some muscle, but it wasn't long until I realized that I didn't have anything for muscle. If anyone thought they saw muscle, what they were really looking at it small, inflamed muscles with a bunch of sub-muscular fat. This is where I first started things like "push-up" challenges, squat challenges, and even the Bar Brothers routine. I did that full routine. It took an hour. There were benefits...but nothing like the benefits after I cleaned out my body and went 100% raw.

Fruitarian Muscle Inspiration

Here are fruitarians who have been a great example. They've made me question everything a personal fitness trainer would tell you.

• Ted Carr: @tedcarr ... check out his Fruit Living page on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/FruitLiving
• Mike Vlasaty: watch him pull up 510 lbs twice. In a past video I've heard him say he weighs 148 lbs--this is pulling up more than triple his body weight! (Ted! How do we get Mike on here??)

There are others, but my laptop battery is about to die :) Remind me to edit tomorrow! Good night!

Before/After picture coming soon...

...as soon as I am willing to pose for a picture :) I am not into posing, to be frank! However, I promise this in the future.