Beating the Heat: 3 Days, 120 Miles in Death Valley, Ca --on Fruit only

By Rae Whitney, M.B.A., Ventura, Ca., Sept. 24, 2009
 
Over the Labor Day Weekend, my friend, eBook author and fitness advocate Jeff Sekerak, asked me if I would accompany him to Death Valley National Park, Ca so he could attempt a 40-mile-per-day hike for 3 days, subsisting on fruit only. It didn’t seem feasible given the extreme temps we would face---106 as a high plus massive barometric pressure on the valley floor.  But I readily accepted so he’d have a witness. Fortunately for him, being super-fit and living a raw vegan lifestyle made all the difference.


How did he prepare for it? By doing what he’s been perfecting for years: consuming a strict 90% fruit diet and doing 30 minutes of intense, daily bodyweight calisthenic workouts, which are covered in detail in his eBook, “Extreme Minimalist Fitness”. He seemed ready to face the intense desert heat and complete the goal---120 miles in just three days. My job? Keep him hydrated before, during and after each 40-mile trek and take photographs along the way.
 
His daily protocol? Awake at pre-dawn, drink down a green powder drink consisting of broccoli, spirulina and wheat grass, a couple of bananas and out the door for the day’s 40-mile journey.

 It wouldn’t be until midday that I would meet up with him to check on his water levels. It was then that the temps would really start to climb to a level that not even the animals would endure. Lizards disappeared into their underground hideaways as the sun beat and cracked the desert floor. I did not see a single living thing during the three days Jeff hiked 120 miles on this---one of the lowest, hottest points on earth.  I couldn’t help but notice that tourists would occasionally stop and ask if he needed assistance. Even the park rangers seemed a bit concerned when they discovered what he was up to. Sometimes I simply stopped and watched in awe as Jeff’s figure moved forward, becoming smaller and smaller as he hiked across I190, the major artery that connects one end of Death Valley to the other. At the end of each day, we returned to the comfort of the A/C in a small motel on the valley floor, and Jeff would consume a second meal to complete his day---bananas, apples, and grapes – and fall into a deep sleep.



One day blended into the next.  

On day three Jeff woke at 4am and began the final day of his journey. I woke at 7am, grabbed something to eat and headed out to see how he was doing.

I only realized then how much his body went through during our visit – all extreme; the heat, the barometric pressure on his body (You’d think the air would be totally clean in a remote place like this. Not so. Later, we discovered that pollutants from Las Vegas, the biggest and closest neighboring city to the valley, become trapped on the valley floor---something to do with the extreme heat and barometric pressure---making it difficult for many to tolerate being out of their air-conditioned vehicles for more than a few minutes…much less hours at a time), and the long hours it took him to reach the end.  But he looked to be in surprisingly good shape and still was able to give me a smile when we met up. I knew he’d done a 10-day 300-mile hike in Death Valley last February, but it was truly amazing to be able to view and document this one in person. Not many people I know would attempt let alone finish something like this.



It gave me pause about my own exercise routine and diet. Intrigued, I was able to ask Jeff a few questions on our return drive North to Portland, OR after the hike.

Here are the Q&As:

Me: What is it about this barren place keeps you coming back?

J: I think what it represents to me is a symbol of the most demanding and extreme terrains in the USA. The purpose of my hikes here is to prove the value of the raw vegan diet.

Me:  How has being a raw vegan helped you during your long, extended hikes through Death Valley?

J:  By supplying excellent nutritive value and NOT weighing my body down with lots of unneeded fats and excess proteins that are contained in animal products and other foods. I agree with Dr. Doug Graham and others that every nutrient the body requires, even for extreme athletes, is contained in raw fruits, vegetables and a few nuts and seeds.

Me:  I know you’ve been living the vegan lifestyle for years. What initially prompted you to adopt a raw vegan lifestyle?

J: I fished in Alaska for 10 years on commercial trawlers and during that time picked up a lot of bad eating habits. When you’re in that environment, you consume mostly heavy, oily foods and on these trawlers, it seems drinking is kind of a rite of passage. As such, I eventually began to pay the price. After quite a bit of research, I discovered that there’s good evidence to show that humans were strict fruit eaters for the 12 million year period leading up to the time of Homo Erectus (see the work of Johns Hopkins Anthropologist, Dr. Alan Walker, on human fossil teeth striations, May 15, 1979, New York Times). Then I began to study the effects that a raw plant-based diet had on chimpanzees. These animals share 99.4% DNA with us yet do not suffer from the degenerative diseases as we do, i.e. heart disease and cancer. They live their entire lives, strong, healthy and disease- free subsisting only on fruit, green leaves and a small percentage of nuts, seeds, bark and insects. They almost never consume animal products. These creatures have almost identical teeth structure, digestive systems and nutrient requirements as humans. So I thought it only made sense that humans could achieve the same level of health as chimps do if we consumed a similar diet. Then I learned about Dr. Lorraine Day’s case. Dr. Day is a survivor of “terminal” cancer who was given 2 weeks to live and then cured herself completely by going with a 100% plant-based diet. There are plenty of other traditionally trained doctors that advise the vegan diet as being the most healthy possible for humans. Example: Dr. Neal Barnard, head of the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM.org), Dr. Michael Klaper, Dr. Roe Gallo, and too many more to list here.

Me: Okay, so after discovering all this great information and switching over to it, what benefits did you notice?

J: The first thing I noticed is that when you switch to a diet of primarily raw plant-based foods, you’re getting a lot of fiber in your diet. That fiber begins to immediately scrub impurities from your digestive tract that may have been there for years. Most people do not consider that when you eat cooked meat, it stalls in the long, winding human digestive tract. Natural carnivores have very short digestive tracts, made to move dead animal flesh through their systems quickly.  So when we consume cooked flesh, it tends to stall in our extended digestive tracts and then rots in that hot environment. This leads directly to many degenerative diseases (see work of Prof. Campbell, The China Study and work of Dr. Doug Graham) associated with constipation. So when you first begin the plant-based diet, you probably won’t feel that great. This is because your body is being detoxified by the natural fibers in fruits and vegetables. As stored up toxins are scrubbed from your digestive tract, some of them naturally seep into your blood stream. So, I naturally experienced some detoxification symptoms such as fever, runny nose, joint pains, etc. things that you might associate with the common cold. After a couple of weeks, however, I felt better than I had in years. My sleep and elimination patters, and energy levels all seemed to revert to a time in my 20’s, when I was in the best shape of my life. Since then, I’ve never looked back. Now I don’t consume animal products of any type.

Me: What would you tell others that want to get started on a healthier diet?

J: You do not have to go 100% raw vegan Day 1. I’d advise most people to start by consuming nothing but fresh, raw fruit before noon each day. Then eat large organic, green leaf salads before both lunch and dinner. This will naturally cause you to eat less of whatever your “main course” typically is. Just following this simple tip will get you incorporating more raw plant foods into your daily diet. This is a great way to start. Once you master this, you’ll notice that as your body gets rid of addictive, built-up toxins, only then will you begin to crave what it was naturally designed by Mother Nature to consume – raw fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds.

Me: Can you tell me about your eBook – Extreme Minimalist Fitness?

J:  Extreme Minimalist Fitness is a program designed to get you eating more raw, healthy plant-based foods in your diet and also doing daily 15 minute growth-hormone producing workouts. These workouts are not designed to give you huge muscle mass but to give you the super-fit look and feel of an athlete in his/her 20’s – like a gymnast; lean and toned. So I cover both the raw vegan diet and how to get started on a specific workout program that will get you into the best condition of your life, no matter where you’re starting from. I also answer all of the common concerns and questions relating to this type of program such as, ‘Where do I get my protein?’, ‘What about Vitamin B12?’,  ‘How often should I exercise?’ and more. If you follow the program as it’s laid out, I guarantee you’ll be an entirely new person in 30-60 days, depending on your individual level of fitness and overall health, right now.

Me: Any parting thoughts?

J:  The Death Valley hikes represent what’s possible with the raw vegan diet and body weight workouts. If you incorporate both of these elements in your daily life, I truly believe you will defy societal definitions of human aging. Humans are naturally predisposed and designed for the raw plant-based diet. This is a proven fact. And body weight workouts have been used by some of the greatest athletes in the world for literally thousands of years. I’m living proof that this system produces results.  Anyone reading this can do exactly what I’ve done.


 
 
By Rae Whitney, MBA
Ventura, CA, Sept. 24, 2009

go to superiorbodyhealth.com for more info


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