RRARF vs The Milk Diet

There's nothing more fun than comparing two crazy diet experiments. When it comes to fully nourishing your body and encouraging metabolic recovery, both RRARF and the milk diet come closer than most. But for me they were totally different experiences and each had their own benefits. Here's how they compared:

RRARF vs The Milk Diet

Convenience

Winner: RRARF

One one hand, the milk diet is really easy: just drink the milk. A little at a time, throughout the day. But this can also get tricky. Working outside the home and social outings can be a little awkward when the only thing you're allowed to eat is milk. RRARF is a little more doable in these settings, though most food on RRARF should really be homecooked to reap the full benefits. You also basically have to drink milk all day long on the milk diet (every 30 minutes to be exact), whereas RRARF is more of a simple three-squares-a-day sort of plan.

Both diets require taking in a lot of calories, and this can be hard to adjust to. With RRARF, that means a lot of food to cook. On the milk diet, that means drinking a whole lot of milk... which means buying a whole lot of milk. For me this meant traveling 40 minutes out of my way at least twice a week to keep my fridge stocked with fresh raw milk (I was drinking seven gallons a week, plus my family was also drinking their regular amount of milk). So, unless you've got a milking cow in your backyard, I can't say the milk diet is nearly as convenient as RRARF.


Individual Compatibility

Winner: RRARF

Although I loved every minute of the milk diet and I do really well drinking lots of farm fresh milk, I can't say the same for everyone. Some people do well on milk, others don't. And I can't promise that going on the milk diet will magically raise your tolerance to milk (although some people experience it). So success on the milk diet is largely relative to the user. RRARF on the other hand allows for individual tolerances and preferences, which leads us to the next category...


Flexibility

Winner: RRARF

This is important, because adherence is more achievable if a diet is flexible. While RRARF has some restrictions, overall you have a lot of choices when it comes to what and when you eat. You can tailor this program a lot more to what works best for you. The milk diet offers very little flexibility: all milk, all the time.


Basal Temperature

Winner: The Milk Diet (by a hair)

I imagine this is going to vary among individuals, but for me the milk diet resulted in the most dramatic rise in my basal temperature. While I saw some high temps on RRARF, on the milk diet my temps were much more consistently high and about half a degree higher on average. (On either program, however, my temps remained above the recommended 97.8 degrees upon waking.)


Weight

Winner: The Milk Diet (kind of)

This one's a little tough to judge because 1) I'm not weighing myself right now and 2) I'm also not counting calories. As I reported in this post, I averaged around 2,500 calories every day on the milk diet... and this resulted in a loss of a couple pounds (which is far from statistically significant). On RRARF I probably averaged closer to 3,000 calories per day and have definitely gained a little weight, although not much since I still fit in my jeans. Just to ballpark it for those of you who are curious, I probably gained 4-5 lbs on RRARF.


Skin Health

Winner: RRARF

This one is easy. My skin improved somewhat on the milk diet. I noticed a little less inflammation and less blemishes than normal. But RRARF has taken my skin to a whole new level of clear. It's not perfect, but it's better than I've seen in my adult life, and I can't argue with that.


Cravings

Winner: The Milk Diet

This is a tough one as well. RRARF started out strong as far as cravings are concerned. I was even able to pass up candy on Halloween (seriously). But during PMS my cravings got really strong and never really went away. It got to the point where I was sneaking some sugar in during the last few days because I was started to feel deprived. The milk diet (maybe because it's a mono-food diet or maybe because milk contains natural sugar) left me with very few sugar cravings, even around PMS time.


PMS

Winner: The Milk Diet

I've noticed before that my PMS symptoms always improve when I drink plenty of raw milk. I cut out milk during RRARF (as I was avoiding sugar and liquid calories), so this really put RRARF to the test. Unfortunately, it failed for me. Although my PMS symptoms weren't severe, they were still markedly worse than when I'm drinking milk.

RRARF vs The Milk Diet: A Final Word

The greatest thing about both RRARF and the milk diet was that each gave me the opportunity to learn more about myself and the way my body responds to what I eat. The milk diet was certainly fun, but I'll be the first the admit that RRARF principles can be carried into a lifelong eating plan whereas the milk diet provides less long-term guidance. So, my general conclusion is that milk dieting is for entertainment and therapeutic purposes, and RRARF-ing is for aggressively implementing lifelong principles for optimal metabolic health. But in the future I'll sure be including ample amounts of raw milk no matter what else I'm eating. The benefits I get from that stuff are no joke, my friend.

This is my final post on my RRARF adventure (at least for now). If you want to learn more about RRARF, you can download Matt Stone's RRARF ebook for free. You can also learn more about Matt's work in metabolic health research if you watch this video presentation or listen to this podcast on the body weight set point. (Beware, this material may permanently inspire you to change the way you think about weight, metabolism and dieting!)

And finally, if you need to catch up, here's some more posts about RRARF:

Day 1 on RRARF: What is RRARF?
Day 2 on RRARF: Why I'm Doing It
Day 3 on RRARF: Rest and Relaxation  
Day 7 on RRARF: Benefits Already!
Day 8 on RRARF: Eat the Food!
Day 9 on RRARF: Adieu, Le Sucre!  
Day 21 on RRARF: Deprivation is Dieting 
Day 23 on RRARF: Life Without the Scale

 

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Homemade Mouthwash Recipe

I love natural health and beauty products. I love them even more when they actually work. And I really love them when they're cheap. So homemade mouthwash is right up my alley. This natural mouthwash is easy to make, costs next to nothing and includes ingredients you can actually eat. My motto is: don't swish it if you can't swallow it.

I had my personal reasons for wanting to find an easy homemade mouthwash recipe. During RRARF, I made a commitment to avoid sweet things for a period of time. The thought of mouthwash being sweet didn't occur to me till a couple days into RRARF. I guess being off sweets for a few days heightened my sense of taste because suddenly mouthwash tasted sweet! And it occurred to me that if I'm trying to avoid sweets in order to test the PCAT theory, then why would I swish with something with such an overwhelmingly sweet flavor right after eating?

So I experimented with a few ideas and came up with this natural mouthwash recipe:

My Homemade Mouthwash Recipe

16 oz pure water (preferably filtered)
3-5 drops of peppermint essential oil
2 tsp baking soda

Mix all ingredients together in a glass bottle. The baking soda will dissolve after a little while. I still suggest shaking it up a bit before using it to make sure the essential oil is mixed in well. Swish for 30-60 seconds and then spit (although this mouthwash is obviously non-toxic, I don't suggest you swallow it!).

The real beauty of homemade mouthwash is that you can really cater to your own preferences. There are a lot of variations you can use with this natural mouthwash:

• You can mix and match essential oils to find the right flavor for you. Spearmint, citrus or cinnamon are some other ideas.

• You can also add a teaspoon or two of vodka if you prefer mouthwash with a little bite.

• If you'd prefer your mouthwash sweet, you can add a little stevia or xylitol.

• You can experiment with the amount of essential oil and baking soda to see what works for you.

Please feel free to share your own dental hygiene recipes below. I'd love to hear what you've come up with!

You may also want to read: 12 Natural Toothpaste Alternatives



Need a great source of real food ingredients? Check out my Resources page!

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Day 23 on RRARF: Life Without the Scale

Julia Ross told me to do it. Linda Bacon told me to do it. Kat James and Jon Gabriel told me to do it. But I had my doubts about not weighing myself. I didn't think I had the willpower. You see, I was just sure I needed the scale. Its feedback is invaluable... right?

I used to think so. Daily weigh-ins were my gauge. I just had to know how much I weighed. Otherwise, how would I know what to eat? Could I indulge or did I need to restrict? Did I need to put more oomph into my workout or could I go with something more low-key? The scale held the answer to all these burning questions. All it took was a little hop on board.

But as it turns out, giving up the scale was one of the best decisions I've made to date.

The Distraction of Weight

I've placed my priorities on health over weight for two years now. I traded my skinny bod for one with a little more cushion and a whole lot more health. And yet I've continued to weight myself nearly every single day. I felt like this was no big deal. Being healthy was still more important to me than losing weight. Or so I thought.

Weighing myself every day was a distraction. Although I'd like to think I'm above making lifestyle choices based on what the scale says on a given morning, I'm really not. Sometimes it was subtle, other times more blatant. But sure enough, when I was thinking of what I wanted for lunch, I'd be thinking more in terms of how it would affect my weight rather than my health. And I'd try to exercise based on what I felt would be most effective for weight loss, not what would make me feel great and what would be enjoyable for me. I wasn't listening to my internal cues. I was relying on external feedback to make my decisions.

The result? Life was just a little more miserable. I was always aware of my weight. It was part of how I measured who I was. It not only affected many of my daily decisions, it also affected my perception of myself. It continually brought to my attention that my weight didn't line up with what society would deem good enough (never mind that our society's standard for thinness is lower than ever before). I wound up thinking things like, "Everything will be so much better when I'm ten pounds thinner..." I knew better, of course. But with that darn number staring up at me every morning, it was hard to think otherwise.

Life Without the Scale

I haven't weighed myself in... well, gosh, I guess it's been about a month now. I was planning on weighing myself at the end of RRARF just to see the results. But right now I have no plans to hop back on a scale. This experience has been so liberating for me, and I've become aware of all the negative feelings the scale was bringing into my life every day. It's just not worth it to know that arbitrary number.

Not weighing myself has had a tremendous impact on the way I feel in my body. Of course, I think this has a lot to do with the reasons I ditched the scale in the first place. If you stop using the scale but continue to measure your self worth in numbers I imagine that would put a damper on the benefits. But for me this was a giant leap in the right direction, and because of it I've been able to see myself and my life in a whole new light.

Now, I've heard for years that giving up the scale can be beneficial. I fought the advice because I was afraid of letting that number go. All of the testimonials in the world could not convince me otherwise. But as I go along this journey to a nourished life, I find it helps to examine previous choices and see if they are adding or detracting from my life. The scale was definitely detracting. But of course I didn't realize that until I finally let it go.


Other RRARF Posts:

Day 1 on RRARF: What is RRARF?
Day 2 on RRARF: Why I'm Doing It
Day 3 on RRARF: Rest and Relaxation  
Day 7 on RRARF: Benefits Already!
Day 8 on RRARF: Eat the Food!
Day 9 on RRARF: Adieu, Le Sucre!  
Day 21 on RRARF: Deprivation is Dieting 
Day 23 on RRARF: Life Without the Scale
RRARF vs. The Milk Diet
This post is part of Fight Back Friday at Food Renegade.

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Day 21 on RRARF: Deprivation is Dieting

-photo credit-

In my last post about RRARF, I talked about giving up sweets. I could tell this topic was met with some resistance and I wanted to elaborate on it a little. As someone with a lifelong sweet tooth, going sweets-free for 30 days is quite an endeavor for me to take on. I may have given the impression that I was going to be exerting some intense willpower and woefully depriving myself of what I craved. But this would definitely be in opposition to my crusade against dieting. Why? Because...

DEPRIVATION IS DIETING!

That's exactly what dieting is: depriving yourself of one thing or another. Whether it's calories, fat, carbs, sweets or whatever. And this extends beyond what we eat. We can also deprive ourselves of fresh air, sleep, pure water, sunshine, downtime, self-esteem, healthy relationships, living with purpose, or any number of things. It doesn't matter. In the end, deprivation in any form activates the starvation response in the body. Why? Because deprivation is stressful! Deprivation triggers a mental and emotional cascade that ultimately leads to a strong physiological response.

RRARF by definition is the opposite of deprivation. Instead of depriving yourself, you aim give your body all the support it needs through Rehabilitative Rest and Aggressive Re-Feeding. Deprivation is not on the menu.

So then how is cutting out all sweets for 30 days not deprivation? Well, maybe it is and maybe it isn't. Everyone is different. And everyone's metabolic state is different. For some people, giving up sugar is like giving up a limb. There's no doubt in my mind that two years ago, going without sweets would have been extreme deprivation for me. I would have given in to cookies-and-cream ice cream within 36 hours and probably would have felt like a complete failure. But today, I'm finding (with some degree of surprise) that it's no big deal.

These 30 days of RRARF are an experiment for me, not a testament of my personal virtue. I am no model of willpower and nor do I want to be. My intentions on RRARF are to test my own body's cues and whether or not they change under certain conditions. I want to know how sugar makes me feel and see if it interferes with following my internal cues. For instance, is it easier for me to turn down Halloween candy when my stomach is full of hamburgers and potatoes? My answer: absolutely!

But guess what? I still wanted some Halloween candy this year. In fact, I had to stop and consider whether or not I really wanted to turn it down at the risk of feeling deprived. After a little pondering I figured that I was more interested in going through with this experiment than munching on some chocolate. Once I made that decision, I didn't feel like this was an act of willpower any more. It wasn't about being "good" on a program or avoiding "bad" foods. It was something I wanted to do for my own personal reasons. Willpower and deprivation are very subjective, as I have come to personally understand.

So yes, I was able to turn down Halloween candy this year without feeling deprived. That's new to me. But I want to be honest: I don't think I can live without anything sweet in the long-term without feeling some serious deprivation. Milk and fruit certainly have their place in a healthy diet. And so do things like cheesecake and coconut oil fudge.

The take-home message today is this: don't deprive yourself. Instead, consider your personal wants and needs, as well as your current state of health. Then you can make decisions about what's practical and beneficial for you at this time. What may feel like deprivation to you right now may not feel the same way in a few weeks or a few months. So take the time to re-evaluate your needs now and then as well. That way you get the best results for your health.

If you want to know more about RRARF, you can  download Matt Stone's RRARF e-book for free and get all the nitty gritty details. And you can also see what Matt has to say concerning the truth about dieting and deprivation in this video presentation.

Other RRARF Posts:

Day 1 on RRARF: What is RRARF?
Day 2 on RRARF: Why I'm Doing It
Day 3 on RRARF: Rest and Relaxation  
Day 7 on RRARF: Benefits Already!
Day 8 on RRARF: Eat the Food!
Day 9 on RRARF: Adieu, Le Sucre!  
Day 21 on RRARF: Deprivation is Dieting
Day 23 on RRARF: Life Without the Scale
RRARF vs. The Milk Diet


This post is part of Real Food Wednesday hosted by Kelly the Kitchen Kop.

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Day 9 on RRARF: Adieu, Le Sucre!

I've always had a sweet tooth. And although my days of regular sugar binges are behind me (thanks mostly to real food and good rest), up until now I still liked to have something sweet with my meals. A little dark chocolate, a small fruit smoothie, a spoonful of raw honey, or a beverage sweetened with stevia would complete my eating experience. Without something sweet, my meals felt rather... unfinished. Since it never added up to much (and stevia is a free food, right?), I told myself this wasn't a big deal. After all, I wasn't gobbling up a quart of ice cream several times a week like I'd been doing before (you know, back when I thought low-fat dieting and cardio was the path to health heaven). So no harm done, right?

Wrong. The simple flavor of sweetness is enough to alter the body's chemical response to what you're eating, which can raise the weight set point, increase appetite and fuel cravings. Why? Because it activates the pleasure centers in the brain. That's why Matt Stone calls this phenomena PCAT (Pleasure Center Activation Theory). The idea is that the flavor of our food affects how the body responds to it by triggering surges of brain chemicals like dopamine. That's why fast food--with its abundance of chemical additives like MSG and sweeteners like high fructose corn syrup--is so addictive, and also why it appears to so strongly fuel obesity even beyond the individual metabolic effects these refined ingredients have on the body.

Matt wrote a post about PCAT here, where he says:

"In terms of promoting a rise in weight set point, which increases the appetite to metabolism ratio (AM Ratio – kinda like AM Radio), the most powerful promoters seem to be substances that are the most sweet. Saccharine, Aspartame, and Sucralose (Splenda) cause much greater increase in the AM Ratio than plain ol’ sugar. Of course, throwing caffeine into the mix activates those pleasure centers even more. Diet drinks are the perfect obesigenic substances when paired with a calorie-dense meal. Say what you want about Stevia, but that is another dime-a-dozen sweetener for raising your weight set point – it just comes without so much of the neurotoxicity of aspartame, or the bowel destruction of sucralose."

Sweetness appears to illicit a particularly strong response from our brain chemicals. This is indepenent of blood sugar and insulin, which is why non-caloric sweeteners can still activate the pleasure centers of the brain and thus cause problems with metabolism, moods, weight, appetite, etc. Listening to Matt's audio seminar on addictive eating really cemented the idea in my head. After all, if stevia can satisfy a sugar craving, then it is obviously capable of performing some function in the body similar to sugar. That function is presumably the release of brain chemicals like dopamine.

Adieu, Le Sucre!

My top goal while on RRARF is to allow my body to completely self-regulate. If sweetness interferes with the body's natural biochemical response, then it has to go. So, for the duration of RRARF (and hopefully beyond), I'm eliminating sweetness from the menu. No honey, no maple syrup, no fermented ketchup, no dark chocolate, and no stevia. I'm also not having any fruit for the time being, though I'm not bothering to eliminate some of the sweeter vegetables like yams, carrots and onions.

I've even gone so far as to eliminating milk during RRARF, because it is both liquid and sugar, and therefore may have some metabolic side effects when you drink it with every meal (which is basically what I've been doing). And though I don't believe that milk is inherently bad for metabolic health, with my individual pursuits being what they are, giving it the boot for a few weeks seems reasonable. (Okay, I'll be honest, this was Matt's suggestion when I asked him about milk... I'm very slow to voluntarily give up my milk!) In any case, I haven't had milk since last Thursday morning. Congratulate me. That takes willpower, at least for me. Take the cake, but for Pete's sake, give me my milk!

But in all seriousness, I have felt a slight longing for something sweet on a daily basis since starting RRARF, but no outright cravings. I honestly seem to be doing pretty well considering the sweets habit I was getting into. Nine days without anything sweet is officially the longest I have ever gone.

After RRARF? I can't imagine giving up sweets forever (though I may consider it after 30 days of this). But I'm considering eliminating daily sweets, and certainly not having them with every single meal. A weekly splurge might be forgivable (that is, if it doesn't lead to cravings). It's the daily stuff that has the most influence on our metabolic health, after all, rather than what we do every once in a while.

Matt Stone has done some truly remarkable research on the subject of metabolic health. If you have not yet had the chance, I highly recommend you download the complete RRARF e-book for free and find out a little more about the science behind these recommendations. And you can also see what Matt has to say concerning the truth about dieting in this video presentation.

Other RRARF Posts:

Day 1 on RRARF: What is RRARF?
Day 2 on RRARF: Why I'm Doing It
Day 3 on RRARF: Rest and Relaxation  
Day 7 on RRARF: Benefits Already!
Day 8 on RRARF: Eat the Food!
Day 9 on RRARF: Adieu, Le Sucre!  
Day 21 on RRARF: Deprivation is Dieting 
Day 23 on RRARF: Life Without the Scale
RRARF vs. The Milk Diet

This post is part of Fight Back Friday hosted by Food Renegade.

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Day 8 on RRARF: Eat the food!

The message of RRARF is simple: "Eat the food!" But this often inspires questions like, "What food? How much food? When do I eat it?" As human beings, we like to make simple things complicated. That's just our nature. But RRARF really is simple, once you get to know the guidelines.

First and foremost, you have to eat. Not till you're 80% full. Not on a small square blue plate. Just eat. This isn't permission to binge on ice cream and pizza. But it is permission to eat as much whole food as you can possibly enjoy, without counting calories, carbs, fat grams or any other arbitrary measurement.

What to Eat

The basic formula for RRARF meals would be: a generous portion of unrefined starch, an ample serving of protein, plenty of veggies, and enough quality fat to make it all tasty.

Here's an example of what I had for breakfast this morning:

2 cups hashbrown potatoes fried in coconut oil
3 slices of bacon
2 eggs

(I'm still having a hard time adding veggies at breakfast. Sometimes I throw a bunch of fresh salsa on everything to add to the veggie content.)

And the other day, this is what I had for dinner:

2 cups quinoa with plenty of butter
4 ounces roast chicken
1 cup of onions and carrots, sauteed in butter

The kind of whole, real food we've talked about here at The Nourished Life since the beginning is highly recommended while on RRARF. But there are some important keys for making RRARF work for you as far as food choices go:

1) Fat should be mostly saturated, with a view toward limiting polyunsaturated fat as much as possible. That means no peanut butter binges. And veggie oils are definitely out. Stick with good old-fashioned dairy fats and tropical fats. Beef fat is also pretty good.

2) Carbs should be unrefined: yams, potatoes, quinoa, buckwheat, brown rice, whole corn grits, popcorn, etc. If you tolerate gluten then whole-grains like wheat, barely and oats are acceptable, as are beans and legumes if your digestion is good.

3) Fructose is out. (Read about fructose dangers here.) So are basically sweeteners of any kind, including non-caloric sweeteners like stevia. Why? Because sweetness itself impacts metabolic health, whether actual sugar or calories are involved or not. And while I'm not into bashing fruit, during RRARF it should be limited.

4) Keep it real. Processed food has no place on RRARF (or anywhere else, for that matter). Keep all refined foods to a minimum as much as possible. Of course, we live in a world where it's close to impossible to completely avoid processing or refinement of some kind, but just do your best.

How Much to Eat

I've sworn off calorie counting for RRARF (and hopefully forever), but for those of you who are curious, I believe my meals average somewhere between 800-1,000 calories each. I eat 3-4 times per day, depending on how large my meals are (more food per meal generally means less meals for me).

RRARF is a refeeding strategy meant to stimulate metabolic functions by providing the body with tons of energy via real food and rest. So we are not--I repeat not--limiting food intake. As Matt says on page 41 of the RRARF e-book:

"You don’t have to feed yourself to the point of being uncomfortable and gagging, but the calorie, assuming it is accompanied by a great deal of nutrients, is a powerful weapon in the battle to increase metabolic activity."

When to Eat

And as for when to eat? That's the simplest of them all: eat when you're hungry. Not every three hours, not every six hours, not at a predetermined lunchtime... every time you're hungry, eat until you're no longer interested in eating another bite. That's it!

More About RRARF Foods

I really can't compete with Matt's excellent food list and definition of the appropriate RRARF diet that he lays out in his book. I highly recommend you download the complete RRARF e-book for free and check out his recommendations yourself.

And if you think I'm nuts for eating a high calorie diet, then you might want to see what Matt has to say concerning the truth about low-calorie diets in this video presentation.


Other RRARF Posts:

Day 1 on RRARF: What is RRARF?
Day 2 on RRARF: Why I'm Doing It
Day 3 on RRARF: Rest and Relaxation  
Day 7 on RRARF: Benefits Already!
Day 8 on RRARF: Eat the Food!
Day 9 on RRARF: Adieu, Le Sucre!  
Day 21 on RRARF: Deprivation is Dieting 
Day 23 on RRARF: Life Without the Scale
RRARF vs. The Milk Diet

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Day 7 on RRARF: Benefits Already!

I've done coconut water fasting. I've done the milk diet for 23 days. But I have never experienced such pronounced benefits as I'm experiencing right now on RRARF. Who knew that feeding yourself extremely well, resting it up, and avoiding sugar (completely!) could offer such an advantage?

Well, I guess when you put it like that, it's no wonder I'm feeling so great on RRARF. But it's easy to kid yourself into thinking you're doing "enough" on a day to day basis. Trust me, that's what I've been telling myself for months. And my metabolic health is decent enough where it was easy to go on thinking that way. But let me tell you: I was wrong.

My RRARF Benefits So Far

I'm seeing several subtle benefits from RRARF already, but today I wanted to talk about the two that strike me the most:

1) My skin looks awesome. Seriously awesome. You see, I've had acne to some degree or another since I was twelve. There were years when it was pretty severe, and some years when it was mild-to-moderate. But it was always there.

I've seen improvements since I started eating real food and taking better care of myself in general, but nothing spectacular. I also noticed some subtle skin benefits when I was on the milk diet, but this eclipses that experience entirely. I've tried basically every skin care product on the market over the years, and more recently every natural skin care option as well (coconut oil, baking soda, apple cider vinegar, tea tree oil, etc.). But I never found anything that provided truly impressive results.

So eventually I was convinced that I would never have skin that was crystal clear, baby soft and radiant. I thought that was something reserved for ethereal beings, and only to be artificially attained with the right makeup and lighting for us mere mortals. But seven days into RRARF and I have that skin. If this is the only benefit I see from RRARF, I'll be one happy woman.


2) My moods are fantastic. I'm walking on a cloud all the time. I've had this sort of dull, automated feeling during the last several months. Nothing terrible, but there was a definite lack of sparkle and zest. During these last few days on RRARF, the sparkle has returned. I'm practically giddy. My husband even commented on how I'm laughing so much more than usual. And my creative side has blossomed once again, so I've been able to start a few old hobbies back up that I just haven't felt inspired to do until now. If all this has nothing to do with RRARF, then it's one heck of a coincidence.

I'm curious to see if these benefits stick around for the rest of my 30 days of RRARF and afterword. Though I gotta say if this is what I get for going on RRARF, I'm not sure I can think of any reason for ever stopping!

To find out more about the science and reasoning behind RRARF, check out Matt Stone's free e-book on RRARF and metabolic recovery. You can also check out my previous posts on RRARF:

Day 1 on RRARF: What is RRARF?
Day 2 on RRARF: Why I'm Doing It
Day 3 on RRARF: Rest and Relaxation  
Day 7 on RRARF: Benefits Already!
Day 8 on RRARF: Eat the Food!
Day 9 on RRARF: Adieu, Le Sucre!  
Day 21 on RRARF: Deprivation is Dieting
Day 23 on RRARF: Life Without the Scale
RRARF vs. The Milk Diet

Stay tuned: later this week I'll be talking about sugar, fructose and other sweet things... and why I'm giving them all up for RRARF.

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Day 3 on RRARF: Rest and Relaxation

There's a reason the first two letters in the acronym RRARF stand for "Rehabilitative Rest." There's not a person I've met in the last few years that isn't overworked, over-scheduled, stressed and just plain exhausted to some extent or another.

While bed rest isn't necessary on RRARF (though some of us could use it!), this is a time to take a break from taxing yourself mentally and physically. Mental and physical stress screws around with your cortisol levels, increases inflammation and generally just throws off the whole balance of your body. (I've talked about this in length before in part one and part two of a short series devoted to stress.)

Matt Stone has taken a particularly strong stance about the power cortisol levels exert over the body's many functions, including energy, digestion, allergies, immunity, fat storage, body temperature and much more. Balancing cortisol may very well be the most important key in metabolic rehabilitation. Here are some of Matt's recommendations for rest and recovery from his free e-book on RRARF:

"Take it easy on yourself. Nourish yourself well and start cutting back your exercise to low-exertion activities like walking and stretching. Go to bed earlier if you can. Take naps if you are tired. Don’t fight yourself. Just listen and obey – more so than you ever have before. Your body knows what it needs. It is not a lazy pile of junk that sabotages itself. No more jogging or heavy duty weightlifting. Save that for when you have recovered. Just chill. Every day is spa day."

Every day is spa day! How can you not love this guy? He's giving me permission to pamper myself and take it easy. Tell me, Matt, does this mean I can hire a maid during RRARF? Because that would be cool... but I'm not sure my budget would agree.

"But exercise is healthy. Not exercising is just plain lazy!"

Obviously exercise is healthy in general. There's no argument there. But the amount and type of exercise that is healthy for an individual has to be based on their specific metabolic state, not some blanket recommendation.

If you fear taking a break from athletic endeavors for 30 days will have a seriously negative impact on your health, then it's probably time to take a step back and evaluate your dependency on exercise. I personally feel like forced exercise is probably one of the major contributors to metabolic imbalance. So just as we want to learn to listen to the body's cues for hunger and satiation, we also want to obey the body's individual needs for rest and activity.

I stopped over exercising a long time ago. Gone are the days when I pedal away on the elliptical machine purely based on how many calories the annoying little monitor tells me I'm burning. But I'm still trying to disconnect my association between exercise and fat loss (and association that is over-exaggerated to a great extent). When considering exercise, you should always be viewing it in light of its impact on metabolic health, not the number of calories it burns.

So this month during RRARF I'm only doing activities that bring me great enjoyment (and probably a lot of stress relief as well): light yoga and walking outdoors. I can't help but look forward to that!

The Importance of Sleep on RRARF

Sleep is a time when the body puts its energy into repairing and rebuilding every system of the body. When we're sleep-deprived, our bodies simply don't have the opportunity to heal. Sleep is directly associated with healthy cortisol levels and even weight (read more about that here). It aids in adrenal repair, prevents junk food cravings, and mood stability. Sleep is essential for health. Period.

Good sleep habits are something I've been working on for two years. I've come a long way from restless nights spent staring into the blackness wondering how I was going to scrape up the energy to function the next day. These days I get 7-8 hours of sleep almost every night. And on the rare night I only get a few short hours, it doesn't completely wipe me out.

So during RRARF I'm just going to take it to the next level and give sleep a special priority. Cat naps will be encouraged. Sleeping in... well, it will be attempted but I have to admit I'm not particularly good at sleeping in. But going to bed early a few nights a week is definitely on the menu.

In general, I'm also just going to try and take it easy, not worry too much about getting it all done, and find excuses to play and be generally goofy. Because it's hard to be stressed out when you're not taking life too seriously.

Other RRARF Posts:

Day 1 on RRARF: What is RRARF?
Day 2 on RRARF: Why I'm Doing It
Day 3 on RRARF: Rest and Relaxation  
Day 7 on RRARF: Benefits Already!
Day 8 on RRARF: Eat the Food!
Day 9 on RRARF: Adieu, Le Sucre!  
Day 21 on RRARF: Deprivation is Dieting 
Day 23 on RRARF: Life Without the Scale
RRARF vs. The Milk Diet
If you're interested in hearing more about the research behind Matt's work, you can check out his free RRARF e-book. He's also put together a really neat video presentation you can find here. If you think RRARF sounds crazy, you'll think twice after hearing what he has to say.


This post is part of Fight Back Friday hosted by Food Renegade.

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Day 2 on RRARF: Why I'm Doing It

Why does anyone RRARF? Eating real food to your heart's content while indulging in rest and relaxation for 30 days isn't really the conventional road to health... and maybe that's exactly why it works so well to resolve issues with low body temperature, digestion, blood sugar, moods, hypertension, skin, energy and even libido (really!). Anyone concerned with these problems or their general metabolic health is a candidate for RRARF.

But I want to honest and upfront with my own personal reasons for deciding to follow RRARF for the next 30 days. I've taken on a lot of dietary and lifestyle changes in the last two years that have given my metabolic health a huge boost. These changes have included:

• eating more saturated fat
• eating less polyunsaturated fat
• avoiding processed food for the most part
• getting more sleep
• cutting way back on cardio exercise
• cutting out coffee
• fitting more downtime into every day
• learning to handle stress
• shaving my head

(Okay, that last one was just to see if you were paying attention. I prefer my hair long, thank you very much!)

I didn't do any of this overnight. It's been a gradual process, and it's also brought on a lot of metabolic healing. My moods are better, my body temperature is sky high, my digestion is top notch, and I have tons more energy than I used to.

My reasons for doing RRARF are more subtle, but important to me nonetheless. Like many of you, I have a long history with dieting, religiously weighing myself, and basically developing a pretty poor body image over the years. Getting over this has been something I've been working on since earlier this year. But I'll admit that this is often easier said than done. And while there's been periods where I've been pretty good about ignoring the scales and the calories, I haven't been able swear off them altogether. Over the past couple months I found myself slipping back into daily weigh-ins, counting calories, and (probably not a coincidence) getting back my old sweet tooth.


So here are my personal goals for RRARF:

• Learn to listen to my body's cues when it comes to hunger. I'm really good at eating when I'm supposed to, when someone else tells me to or when I just feel like munching. I'm not so good at eating whenever my body asks me to. I plan on learning how to obey my body during the next 30 days. That means I will be completely ignoring calories. No counting, just obeying.

• Give up the scale. I haven't hopped on the scale for ten days and I don't plan on weighing myself at all during RRARF (or maybe ever again!). I'll talk more about this in an upcoming post.

• Ditch the sweet tooth. According to Matt, sugar can really interfere with the body's natural cues, so giving up sweets is a must for me. Nothing sweet for 30 days is my goal (including fruit, raw honey, dark chocolate and stevia!). This will also be covered in a full post soon.

• Learn to love my body. There is no way I am going to live a nourished life if I'm not 100% comfortable in my own skin. My body image has improved dramatically during the last year, but there's still plenty of room for improvement. Again, this topic could probably span a whole post, so I'll talk about this more in the near future.

Learn More...

If you want to find out more about RRARF, you can read Matt's free e-book that explains the whole concept. You should also check out this interesting video presentation by Matt Stone. It will seriously change the way you think about food, dieting and your body.


Other RRARF Posts:

Day 1 on RRARF: What is RRARF?
Day 2 on RRARF: Why I'm Doing It
Day 3 on RRARF: Rest and Relaxation  
Day 7 on RRARF: Benefits Already!
Day 8 on RRARF: Eat the Food!
Day 9 on RRARF: Adieu, Le Sucre!  
Day 21 on RRARF: Deprivation is Dieting
Day 23 on RRARF: Life Without the Scale
RRARF vs. The Milk Diet

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30 Days of RRARF, Day 1: What is RRARF?

Diet experiments are fun. And if not fun, at least they could be called interesting. RRARF is definitely going to be interesting.

What is RRARF?

Contrary to how it may sound, RRARF has nothing to do with dog chow or bulimia. RRARF actually stands for: Rehabilitative Rest & Aggressive Re-Feeding. This therapeutic diet was engineered by Matt Stone, who describes the diet in his free e-book:

"Most people crave refined sugars, sweets, junk food, rapidly-absorbed white flour products, caffeine, alcohol, and other drugs because they are tragically undernourished and their adrenal glands have been overtaxed by everything from dieting to working too much to experiencing some major emotional trauma. RRARF attempts to combat all of this in one fell swoop (the saying ‘fell swoop’ makes no sense, but hopefully you know what it means)."

Why RRARF?

I've been following Matt's research into restoring metabolic health for some time, and while I've supported many of his general recommendations, I've never actually done the full RRARF program. From my own research into the work of Diana Schwarzbein, Julia Ross, Jon Gabriel, Linda Bacon and others, I know that metabolic recovery is an essential part of the healing process. But I told myself I didn't need to do RRARF all the way because I've been working on healing my metabolism for about two years now with great success.

But... I've had some personal breakthroughs lately that gave me some insight into a few areas that I really need to work on. For one thing, I want to kiss diets and counting calories (or anything else) good-bye forever. I'd rather work with my body to the point where I can rely on my own internal signals for eating. I genuinely feel that if I can get my body to regulate my appetite, then that will pave the way for natural regulation of other things like hormones and body fat levels.

And after listening to Matt's audio seminar sessions on lowering the weight set point and on addictive eating, I realized that I need to give sugar the boot, too. Not only because this seems to be the in vogue thing to do (have you read about Coconut Mama's 21 day sugar detox?), but because I'm thinking this may be the main culprit interfering with my body's natural regulation systems. (I'll go into much more detail on giving up sugar--and even all things sweet--in an upcoming post.)

Make no mistake: RRARF is not a weight loss diet. As I said, I'm kissing those good-bye. Matt explains the point of RRARF like this:

"To be clear, RRARF – Rehabilitative Rest & Aggressive Re-Feeding, is a plan designed to achieve one primary goal above all others – raise that mitochondrial activity. It does this through a combination of lowering cortisol levels, restoring the health of the adrenal glands, raising the hormone leptin, increasing leptin sensitivity, topping off nutritional reserves, and flooding the body with a surplus of energy – long known to raise body temperature, increase metabolic rate, increase lipolysis (using fat as fuel), etc."

How to RRARF

Here's a brief summary of how Matt suggests doing RRARF:

1. Take a month off from exercise.
2. Eat as much food as you can within 30 minutes of waking.
3. As soon as you feel inclined to eat--eat again!
4. Get extra sleep.
5. Stay well-hydrated.
6. Minimize mental and emotional strain, within reason.

And although prejudiced individuals may have you believing Matt's plan involves binging on Krispy Cremes and Gatorade, this is not at all the case. In fact, Matt lays out some pretty strong guidelines for what the ideal foods for RRARF should be (although he stresses not to get neurotic about food):

1. Rich in saturated fat, particularly short and medium chain saturated fatty acids (like butter and coconut oil).
2. Rich in unrefined starch.
3. High in calories.
4. Low in fructose.
5. Low in polyunsaturated fat.
6. Devoid of refined carbs, junk food, processed food, fast food, etc.
7. Devoid of caffeine, alcohol, nicotine and other drugs as much as possible.
8. High in protein (but not too high).
9. High in vegetables.

These are the basics of RRARF, but I will be delving into much more detail about the meaning behind these recommendations over the next 30 days. I'll also dish about how I'm doing following the different parts of the plan. Some of these points are surprisingly easy for me to follow... others are going to be far more challenging!

If you want to find out more about RRARF, check out Matt's free e-book here. For more about the perils of dieting and how to restore metabolic health, check out this revealing video presentation by Matt.

Any questions? Ask away below in the comments!

Other RRARF Posts:

Day 1 on RRARF: What is RRARF?
Day 2 on RRARF: Why I'm Doing It
Day 3 on RRARF: Rest and Relaxation  
Day 7 on RRARF: Benefits Already!
Day 8 on RRARF: Eat the Food!
Day 9 on RRARF: Adieu, Le Sucre!  
Day 21 on RRARF: Deprivation is Dieting 
Day 23 on RRARF: Life Without the Scale
RRARF vs. The Milk Diet

This post is part of Real Food Wednesday at Kelly the Kitchen Kop's blog.

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