It has been a while since I gave you an update on my frugivore diet and journey through fruitarianism. One of the reasons being that over the past two months I have continued to travel from Ecuador to California and then back to Colorado. In the meantime I have also attended several festivals and camping trips, including a road trip to Wyoming to see the full solar eclipse.

Frugivore Diet on the Road

Since I left Ecuador it has been slightly more challenging to follow a frugivore diet but not even close to impossible. I was surprised to see how much fruit there was available in San Francisco, I even found durian over there! At first I was shocked, but quickly I realized that San Francisco has a huge population of people coming from Asia. It also has massive ports that connect through the Pacific Ocean.

This means that I had the blessing of enjoying some delicious mangos and all sorts of rare fruit while I was in San Francisco. I would have loved to follow a full on fruitarian diet while I was there, but had to attend a wedding and a camping trip where delicious cooked food was offered and too tempting to ignore.

Of course I could have done a much better job at sticking to just fruit, I certainly had the option but it wasn’t as easy. During the wedding we stayed in Sacramento, where there are literary zero fruit markets withing dozens of miles. Of course there was a Whole Foods far away from the hotel we were staying but I had no means to make it there. My family was constantly getting together to enjoy all sorts of meals and I didn’t want to be the odd one out, I mean, I was, and it was already too much.

A week later I found myself at a camping trip where all meals where prepared for us. There was fruit for us to eat whenever we pleased but the meals were too delicious, the company too gracious and I wanted to blend in without too many differences so I ate what was offered.

Frugivore Eating Like an Omnivore

On one hand, I feel disappointed, as I always do when I eat outside of my frugivore diet. I hate the lack of commitment and discipline that I continue to lack to stay on this fruitarian journey. On the other hand, I appreciate my humility, my willingness to try out different approaches, and the simple fact that whenever I eat like an omnivore, I am able to realize how much better raw vegan diets and fruit based diets are opposed to omnivorous or cooked vegan diets.

Quick Note: I already wrote a couple of excellent articles to clarify what is a frugivore and explain why humans are frugivores. If you want to hear good points from both sides of the debate I strongly recommend you read them. 

Now, since I got back to Boulder Colorado I decided to try a more flexible diet, knowing that when winter comes, there will be little to no local fruit available for me to feed on, making it impossible to follow a frugivore diet and much less a full fruitarian diet.

My goal being back here has been to eat nothing but fruit until 4 pm, and eat raw vegan meals after that. Saturdays are my “cheat day”. So far I’ve had mixed results with this approach. For the most part, I have been able to stick to just fruit until 4 pm for most of the month, but many issues have appeared from not sticking to my raw vegan meals in the evening. My Saturday cheat days have also lead to much pain, suffering and discomfort.

Once again, these experiences continue to strengthen my belief in the superiority of the frugivore diet.

Fruitarian Bodybuilding Strikes Back

There is no doubt that since I’ve been back in Boulder Colorado, I have followed a fruit based diet, eating mostly fruit, most days. I have also been diligent with my trips to the gym and general health care. It is likely that I have been exercising between 1 and 2 hours each day, while going to the gym six times a week over the past month. This has resulted in clear gains in muscle tone and definition.

Surely enough, this is by no means substantial proof that fruit based diets can lead to muscle gain, but it is an excellent sample of the potential that rest on fruit based diets. Of course, we could argue that all my “cheat meals” have provided the protein, B12, iron and other essential macro-nutrients and micro-nutrients needed for proper training and muscle growth. On the other hand, I can tell you that had I not been eating so much bread, chips and other “unhealthy meals” my progress would certainly be more impressive.

This is why today I decided to bring back the Fruitarian Bodybuilding challenge. I won’t be writing daily blogs or making daily videos like I have on the past, simply because I have no time for that. Yet, I do plan on eating only fruit for the next few weeks, maybe even for the whole month of September as I continue to train at the gym. I will push myself to stay raw, keeping 100% to 90% of my caloric intake coming from a frugivore diet/fruitarian diet. I don’t count on succeeding, but every attempt gets me closer to it.