I've had a pretty good week.

Not too much has happened...

Just school, climbing, eating, sleeping -- the usual. =)


I've received a few compliments on my hair! Which is totally weird, because tomorrow will be my 20th? day without shampoo!

I think my hair looks fine. It's not too greasy... nobody even notices.

Well, except my mom. Yesterday she was like, "Ashley you need to use shampoo. Your hair looks disgusting and you look dirty." OUCH! lol! I honestly don't think she would have noticed that much if i didnt tell her. I told her to give me 2 more weeks. haha. =)






so...... i feel really good on 80/10/10!!! It's amazing.


Tomorrow I'm off to Alabama for next comp in the Triple Crown bouldering series. I see Triple Crown as more of a fun weekend of climbing outside rather than a true competition --- so I'm not worried about placing. It's so much fun!!! camping with people from ALL OVER the place, climbing, partying.. super duper fun!

Have a good Halloween, YA'LL!

climbing comp, cheap bananas, no poo, and rawkathon

This week has been pretty pleasant.

I don't have anything to complain about... well... I probably do, but I will let go and let live so that I can let go of any negative vibes. =)

Anyways,

CLIMBING COMP
Yesterday I competed in a climbing competition in Nashville. It was really fun, but the climbs were pretty hard for me! I still had a blast and I enjoyed myself.

There were many people from Chattanooga and Nashville, but nobody really came from Atlanta like they usually do --- I think this was because it was on a Friday. Nonetheless, I was the ONLY competitor in my category, haha! I was in women's advanced... I won $60 bucks.... thats quite a few bananas! =D


On a RAW note,
The fruit market down the street from my house (which opened in the summer, after I went raw!) has started carrying more fruit. I am psyched. I think i am one of their only loyal customers... I found out today that he charges me 3 pounds for a dollar for bananas! Thats like 33 cents a pound! NO WONDER it always seemed cheaper when I go there! YAY!


NO POO UPDATE:
Today is my 14th day without using any soaps or shampoo. I have had good days and bad days. Right now my hair is pretty stringy... but I know it's detox. A couple days ago in the shower I was so sick of detox that I ALMOST used shampoo. IT was RIGHT in front of me! I even picked it up! But I placed it back down, and stayed strong --- just like when I first went raw and had to give up bread, I suffered knowing it will be amazing in the end. I hope detox ends soon because I hate greasy hair. Yesterday, however, my friends felt my hair and told me that it isn't greasy at all. I feel like it is, but apparently it doesn't really look like it?! At school the other day, a kid in my art class told me that my hair stopped being greasy (a few art kids know about me and my natural health)... so that was good to hear. BUTTT then again, at the gym the other day my friend came up to me (and i never told him about giving up shampoo) and he said "Ash, when's the last time you washed your hair?!" haha, uhhhh...... I dont know if someone told him or if it was THAT noticeable? hm, haha. I'M STAYING STRONG!

Rawkathon -I've been watching the Rawkathon as much as I can... I just wanted to hear your opinions on the interviews!? Who was your favorite? Least favorite? Did you see Doug Graham? Any thoughts!?

chattanooga / competition

This weekend I went to Chattanooga for a climbing competition.

FRIDAY

On Friday I headed out to Chatty with my friends Ian and Marcus and my dad. We went to my brother's boarding school and picked him up too --- for dinner.

We went to the local health food store where I got a couple HUUUUUGE grapefruits, some pecans that were still in their shell, and some macadamia nuts (I only get them when I go to chatty and when I really want them. I am careful that I eat 80/10/10 though, eating maybe only 5 as a snack, very slow as we would in nature)

Anyways, then we went to Mellow Mushroom and waited for a while. When I was waiting, I sat on the sidewalk and pealed/ate a grapefruit. I looked like a homeless bum, eating fruit while sitting down on a chattanooga sidewalk downtown. kinda funny.

Finally the table was ready and while everyone ate pizza, I ate the other grapefruit. Our waitress was pretty cool. She told me that there were a LOT of vegans who work there. COOL!!! When I was a cooked vegan, I remember going there and they were SUPER psyched on making me a vegan pizza. They are nice.


SATURDAY

After a delicious mono-meal breakfast of clementines and a mid-morning snack of 4 bananas, i headed over to the climbing gym for the climbing competion. I competed in advanced, which was v7-v9. It was a HARD comp - the climbs were really powerful, yet VERY fun. I loved every minute of it.

Boys and girls were combined in the categories... so I was competing with the strong guys!!! I got 3rd place, which I was okay with since it was a mixed category.

I tried my best and had a ton of fun.




How was YOUR weekend?!

interested classmates

Today in Government my teacher was talking about how she can not be absolute about anything... but then she turned to me and was like... "except that Ashley here is healthier than me!"

and i was like wait WHAT!? HAHA!


so then everyone was really confused and my teacher just said, "I don't know if you guys know this, but Ashley is one of the healthiest souls on the planet!"

and then my good friend who sits in the back butted in "yeah she is a raw vegan, she only eats foods straight from nature!!!"

I was psyched. ALL SMILES!!!




So... Somehow I became a big hit in science class today!? Let me explain:

This girl was reading through this project I wrote and she saw the words, "raw vegan" and asked what that meant. I explained it to her and she was EXTREMELY interested. She started asking me what I eat for breakfast/lunch/dinner and what i do and dont eat - she was intrigued! So I handed her my 80/10/10 book and she read the pages on Humans vs. Carnivores. Reading this made her even more interested, so we talked back and forth from opposite sides of the classroom while my teacher was helping others on organizing their work. Eventually I just went and sat next to her because I hate talking across the room - and soon enough a crowd of people sat around me to listen to me talk! LOL! it was hilarious. I was answering tons of questions - as if i was a famous orator or polititian! Finally the one girl says to my teacher, "CAN WE HAVE AN ASHLEY DAY!? I WANT AN ASHLEY DAY! SHE IS SO COOL! LETS HAVE AN ASHLEY DAY!!!" and my teacher just kept agreeing that i was really cool. It was a pretty funny experience!!! I love answering questions!!!

NO POO

I forgot to tell you guys!!!

I went NO POO!!! This is day 4 (its only the beginning!)

this means that I DO NOT USE SHAMPOO!

this is my 2nd trial. I hope to end it for good this time.

PLEASE HELP SUPPORT ME! It's hard to deal with greasy hair for a while!!!

At least its almost beanie/hat season!



And for those of you who don't understand why anyone would give up shampoo, i think of it this way:

1. We are the only ones in nature who use shampoo (no other animal uses cleaning products!)

2. There are TONS of chemicals in shampoos - i can only imagine what they are doing when I rub them into my scalp!

3. Shampoo strips our hair of it's natural oils



heres a good article i saw online: http://www.naturemoms.com/no-shampoo-alternative.html

Fall Break 2008

Last weekend was fall break. I had a freakin BLAST.

I spent my 4 days in a boulderfield/campground called HP40 (horse pens 40) located right outside of Steele Alabama.

Imagine a HUUUUUUGE open field on the top of a big mountain with boulders spread out everywhere with ravishing buldging features. There is no place like it!

I climbed a variety of things including:

-Hammerhead, v5
-Uniball, v3 (really hard for v3! one of the best)
-Redneck, v7 (PROUD send, I'm psyched!)
-Bumboy, v3 (I've wanted to do this climb for 4 years!)


I wish I could share all the fantastic photos that Dan Brayack (www.brayackmedia.com) took, but they are magazine potential so I can't ruin it for that...

but, i will share a few other photos:

rough day

Today was a rough day in the raw food world.

I woke up to a txt message from a friend telling me that he "has been talking to some people" and apparently "everyone Ive talked to including me wants you to rethink the whole raw food thing - we're worried about you"


I just woke up so my reply was pretty agressive. I said something like, "Fuck no. Do as much research as I have and you will change your opinion. We are designed to eat this way. I eat about 2400 calories a day. I'm THRIVING. Do you have any valid reasons why I should rethink it? I log my food into a program sometimes and I'm getting about 200 percent or more of most of the vitamins and minerals. Have an open mind dudes. SERIOUSLY."

He said he HAS researched it and claimed that I wasnt getting b12 and iron. Then he said I'm not eating the right types of protein. And that humans have been eating cooked food for too long for someone to safely switch back. Apparently "cooked food has helped reduce sexual dimorphism and kills bacteria and other organisms that are potentially deadly" ...... he also said that when humans ate raw food, they also only lived to about 20 or 30.


........any replies to that?

I told him what i thought. (I won't reply with my whole txt conversation, but you get the jist of it.

He said that I would be climbing stronger if I wasn't raw. BULLSHIT!!!

I am climbing harder than I ever have!

He thinks i'd be stronger.

I can't wait to prove everyone wrong. Or, nicer said, I can't wait to ENLIGHTEN everyone.

I was really upset all day. Like.. crying... I don't know why, but it just hurt me to think about how people HONESTLY don't think I'm healthy.

Nicole and Steve, my two raw mentors, helped me out.

I liked a quote Nicole told me from Dr. Doug Graham (my favorite Dr.) :

"I knew I was onto something when everyone said I was wrong."





anyways
on a better note, I ate my first papaya today! It was pretty good. Some parts were better than others. I think i could have let it ripen one more day, I just wasn't sure about the papaya facts.


and on an even BETTER note, I did yoga class today and the instructor told me that my practice today improved and enhanced like CRAZY. I felt great!



Tomorrow is a new day. I'm starting over. I'm letting go. Screw people who don't understand. Thanks for your concern, but I know what I am doing.

eating well!!!

I have eaten well all weekend! I've been WELLLLLLL past 80/10/10 ---

Today I was 94/4/2 !!!! I feel great!

If you don't know what 80/10/10 is, listen up: It's a type of raw food diet where you get 80% or MORE of your calories from carbs, 10% or LESS from protein and 10% or LESS from fat. It's the way humans were designed to eat.

I highly recommend the book. HIGHLY. www.foodnsport.com or check it out on amazon.com - it will change your life.



On another note, today I was checking out my groceries and the lady was like, "I'm guessing you like bananas?!"

lol... just had to share... ah, yes, life as a raw foodie. I had like 4 or 5 huge bunches of bananas among other fruit. YAY.

Triple Crown

Triple Crown was a blast. Triple crown is a series of outdoor climbing competitions. I see it as more of a huge gathering of awesome climbers rather than a competition.

This weekend it was in Boone, North Carolina. SO BEAUTIFUL! I will add pics when some people send them to me.

I had a great time! and I climbed pretty well too!

Your result for The Perception Personality Image Test...

NBPC - The Daydreamer

Nature, Background, Big Picture, and Color

You perceive the world with particular attention to nature. You focus on the hidden treasures of life (the background) and how that fits into the larger picture. You are also particularly drawn towards the colors around you. Because of the value you place on nature, you tend to find comfort in more subdued settings and find energy in solitude. You like to ponder ideas and imagine the many possibilities of your life without worrying about the details or specifics. You are in tune with all that is around you and understand your life as part of a larger whole. You are a down-to-earth person who enjoys going with the flow.

The Perception Personality Types:

Take The Perception Personality Image Test at HelloQuizzy

80/10/10 retake number... 5?

I AM NOT GIVING UP!

I am totally convinced that The 80/10/10 diet is the way humans are designed to eat by Nature. I have tried this way of eating NUMEROUS times and I always give into too many nuts and then that leads to other things like gourmet foods and juicing.


A few days ago I posted what a typical 811 day for me is on an 80/10/10 topic on a forum, and a guy named Adam sent me a comment explaining to me that I was FAR from eating enough calories and that I was deficient in many vitamins and minerals for the day.

Confused and interested, I started asking him questions and he helped me out A LOT.

The conversation motivated me to eat 80/10/10 again, adding enough calories.

GUESS WHAT!? ITS WORKING!


Yesterday i ate 2700 calories and the day before that 2300. Today I ate 2047.

i finally understand the 811 way! The reason why I was always failing was because i wasnt eating enough calories! I thought I was, but apparently not!

I would eat about 1500 calories and then at the end of the day i'd crave nuts because my body wanted more calories in a dense form. But this was only because i wasnt eating enough fruit!

I used www.nutritiondata.com to find my daily requirement needs and to log some food, and I like that site better than many others.

The best though, however, is downloading Cron-o-meter - it's ridiculously easy! Check it out if you are interested!

ON both of these sites you can see what vitamins and minerals you are getting for the day and all the percentages and stuff. ON Nutritiondata.com there are also graphs and charts which are very helpful. These are great tools for ANYONE on ANY DIET!!!


80/10/10 is a recommendation, but more fruit and less protein and fat is always better. Check otu my accomplishment without even trying:

My ratio for today is 93/4/3 and yesterday it was 95/3/2 --- crazy, huh!?

I am really excited that 80/10/10 is finally working for me!!! Whats working for YOU?!