January 7th, 2013 | 
Author: Hi, I’m Christian Bates, founder of Longevity Power. I’m sharing my 12-year health transformation in hopes that it will give you critical insights about your health journey and inspire you to take decisive action towards your own transformative goals. If it’s possible for me, it’s possible for you.
Age 15 weighing in at 200 pounds, I was one of the shortest and chubbiest kids in my class. At age 16, I was one of the fittest. In 2001 I lost 50 pounds in 6 months biking every weekend and eating fewer of my favorite San Francisco sourdough baguettes!
“…a few small things done well can have fast and big results…”
To put it in a way that makes sense to the hyper-socially-minded teenager, I went from the kid ridiculed for bouncing man boobs on the school bus to the girlfriend-able guy with a driver’s license. I proved to myself that just a few small things done well can have fast and big results on my health.
At age 18, I discovered the idea of eating organic raw foods. I sat down with a friend named Anthony (who was on a 100 day daily Bikram Yoga fruit-only fast) in Whole Foods and he answered all my questions brilliantly, first being ‘Where do you get your protein?” The concept was really appealing to me so I dove in 99.999% raw vegan within a week. With the help of my parents I got a Vita-Mix (still use the same one today!), a dehydrator and a juicer. I made lots of rich and delicious gourmet meals so I never had any cravings for anything else…well…except chocolate (This was about 2 years before raw cacao hit the US market.)
I felt amazing! The 0.001% left of my diet was tiny bites of organic vegan chocolate and toasted carob recipes. This ‘caring about percentages‘ was about to take me to a place of feeling less than 100% amazing.
“…In a weekend, I was quickly brainwashed into believing that herbs and sea salt are poison…”
2006: Getting really into superfood smoothies
In 2004 I went to RawStock, a Natural Hygiene summer festival in Sebastopol, CA. In a weekend, I was quickly brainwashed into believing that herbs and sea salt are poison, consumption of fats causes candida, and that only sweet fruits and mild vegetables are suitable for all human beings. It made sense since it seemed scientifically validated at the time (nope, dogma) so I tried their 80-10-10 diet : an organic raw diet in which 80% of calories are from sweet fruit carbohydrates leaving 10% each of fat and protein calories from fruits and vegetables.
We’re talking ultra low-fat. Maybe a daily 1/4th of an avocado, a Brazil nut or durian (a sweet and fatty tropical fruit) could be one’s fat source, but anything more than that will quickly throw off the 80-10-10 ratios because fat has about twice as many calories as carbs. I did it full on – highly disciplined – for over 2 months but physically could not get enough carbohydrates and calories to keep my energy up and my weight on. It was extremely frustrating. An 80-10-10 fan would say that I was ‘under-carbed,’ and they would be correct. You have to eat pounds and pounds of fruit throughout the day to get enough carbs/calories.
“…I would gag while my blood sugar got so ridiculously high trying to consume a meal of fruit…”
2012: Spring water and yoga pay off.
My blood sugar was so hyper/hypo-gycemic that my energy was shot most of any day. My body simply (wisely) could not allow me to eat enough sugar in the form of fruit. I would gag while my blood sugar got so ridiculously high trying to consume a meal of fruit. I, like a majority of all people, am a fast oxidizer: I burn sugars and starches fast, so fast my blood sugar levels spike when eating a high-sugar meal.
You’ll notice my ‘late 2004′ skinny photo. I actually got skinnier than that and dropped to 135 pounds (pretty skelator for a 5’10″ 19 year old). After a meditation retreat with my college (The Evergreen State College, WA) in which my energy bottomed out and my intuition stepped up, I drove back to my apartment and ate a big fat-dominant salad. I felt so good, so grounded and so deeply energized that I knew it was the right decision.
I dropped the 80-10-10 philosophy, although I still have many friends who eat 80-10-10 and respect them because their heart is in the right place…even if they are too skinny or malnourished. 
I quickly got my weight back up and soon realized that only slow oxidizers (burn sugar slowly) can feel good on an 80-10-10 diet…until they get sick and need to turn to herbs, sea salt, and fats as medicine. I hope it’s clear that I respectfully speak my truth but avoid living in judgement whenever possible.
“…my mission…is to effectively feed people the best foods and herbs ever to create a big difference in their health…”
2012: With supportive superfriends, drinking Mt. Shasta spring water just 5 feet from where it gushes out of the Earth.
Since then I have focused on a strategic-to-me organic mostly-raw diet rich in nutrient-dense superfoods, and am living my mission which is to effectively feed people the best foods and herbs ever to create a big difference in their health. I’m growing paradise.
I’ve found that although each individual of humanity has so much more in common with another than not, everyone is metabolically different and each person’s needs change from moment to moment. So I must be open to all kinds of health strategies and stick with the ones that work best for me.
“…I’m not perfect and I’ll be shifting things around gradually over time as my intuition dictates…”
Each person changes over time. So 10 years from now I’m sure I’ll be eating differently and implementing different combinations of health practices, as will every health teacher whom you might be following now. The teachers who openly show how their natural diet is changing tend to be the healthiest.
That said, I’ll share with you what works for me knowing that I’m not perfect and I’ll be shifting things around gradually over time as my intuition dictates:
2010: I make hamburgers…raw vegetarian superfoodized hamburgers.
I get chiropractic twice a week (I’m starting with this because food isn’t everything ya know).
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I do hot yoga (Bikram Yoga and Power Yoga) almost daily. I have an old knee injury that’s better than ever but not quite ready for me to run on. I’ll be running in Vibram Fivefingers for an hour at a time – that’s a written goal.
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I consume my own products in copious amounts: Longevity in a Bottle (60 herb-superfood blend for peak vitality), Maca Bliss (black maca extract), Goji Joy (goji berry extract), Longevity Spirulina (high-vibe, best-tasting spirulina), and Yoga Manna (8 algae blend).
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I eat gluten-free and as low-glycemic as possible using just stevia and lucuma as my main sweeteners.
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I don’t drink alcoholic drinks but do consume lots of herbal tinctures.
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I drink hand harvested spring water in glass – never treated, never filtered.
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2008: Blatant advertising of my product WildBar just for fun with my friend Joe Zapf in Havasupai Falls, AZ.
If any food can be found wild or heirloom grown, I choose that instead of a standard cultivar. I never consume GMO’s with 1 exception: If there is an herb that I feel I need but is only available as an extract using a non-organic distilled alcohol fermented from a GMO crop, I will consume it until an organic or non-gmo alcohol extract becomes available.
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I consume at least 1 serving of properly fermented food (like sauerkraut) a day – I’m addicted to smoked jalapeno-cabbage-carrot sauerkraut.
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I’m really into tonic herbalism. This means I consume certain herbs and superfoods that are safe for daily use and have a cumulative effect on my health when used daily over months and years.
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I love cacao but it doesn’t feel good to eat it everyday but it feels great to eat it some days. I always mix tonic herbs and superfoods with cacao to mellow the stimulation of cacao and to bio-potentiate the herbs with cacao’s ability to inhibit neurotransmitter metabolic breakdown.
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2011: Teaching people about medicinal mushrooms on a wild food walk on Mt. Tamalpais, CA.
I’ve eaten seemingly weird things: almost every medicinal mushroom, raw egg yolks, ants and ant extracts, deer antler and placenta, and royal jelly (potent queen bee food from the hive). Although I don’t feel good after eating cooked meat, the highest I’ve ever been (feel good health high) was after eating raw chicken kidneys and raw lamb fat. All the vegetarians would be happy to know that on most days I eat an almost all vegan diet (and I really like royal jelly and fish oils) but maybe that’s just because I’m a really good raw vegan chef. Most cooked plant foods are high in sugars which don’t feel good to me, so I can’t even eat quinoa at this time. I would eat cooked food if I could find a cooked food that felt good to me. I’m not dogmatically raw anymore – I’m just mostly raw by default.
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I make a superfood smoothie everyday. I make superfood beauty elixirs once, twice, or thrice a day.
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I can’t do dairy except small amounts of bovine colostrum and ghee, but I do strongly support raw organic dairy freedom!
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I used to consume 1-3 quarts of green juice (celery based with lots of dark greens, sweetened with lemon) daily but stopped. As of 2007 anything more than 2 sips of green juice sends me into alkalosis (weird cold spacey feeling) so I simply do herbal elixirs instead to get that high-water-content therapeutic dose of vitality.
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2012: I make vortraps out of copper and glass, which concentrate the monoatomic elements out of water to create the best water ever.
I used to fast or juice feast often but haven’t enough in the past 4 years because I’m such an exercise buff. I plan on fasting more to attain new levels of health.
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My health is great but if I work too hard with stress and get sleep deprived then there is a latent viral/fungal load that may present itself on my skin. I’m surprised that given all the antimicrobial herbs I do and all the sugar I DON’T do that I haven’t kicked the critters all the way out. Getting this latent infection (which everyone has by the way) completely out of my body is the final frontier of my health. I am excited to make breakthroughs with this and share about it in the coming months and years.
Thank your for reading my personal journey. All comments and questions are appreciated. Feel free to share this with someone who needs the inspiration.
-Christian
P.S. My girlfriend Bethanne Wanamaker has some kick-ass before & after pictures too!
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Amazing baby! You’re so inspiring to countless people and I hear this often. Let’s keep on our beautifully evolving journey and see just how remarkably high it takes us!
And, I’d like to add for everyone that finding a partner whom supports you is not necessary, but makes your conscious lifestyle so much more fun, exciting, rewarding, playful, and you can relate in ways that are so very deep (food/lifestyle/people/passion/mission-living/etc) & planetary understanding & interest…
“I’m surprised that given all the antimicrobial herbs I do and all the sugar I DON’T do that I haven’t kicked the critters all the way out. Getting this latent infection (which everyone has by the way) completely out of my body is the final frontier of my health. I am excited to make breakthroughs with this and share about it in the coming months and years.”
Thanks for honestly & openly sharing ur story!! great transformation!!! however, when it comes to ur skin fungi problem is similar to where I am right now with my skin disease ( folliclutos decalvans) I had for 12 years. I recently came to conclusion be us of my sugar sensitivity that the cause to be candidiasis. I started a strict regimen and I hope it works
Just wanted to give u a tip that from my own experimentation I find foods high in phytic acid (grains ,legumes) and specially omega – 6, for me cuz I love eating nuts, where the culprits which postponed my healing!
Awesome Moh. That’s amazing that you said that because I’m currently doing a cleanse of no nuts, seeds or omega-6-dominant oils. Keep it up, and I hope your case of folliculitis disappears quickly.
Thank you for sharing some of your journey with us, Christian! You and Bethanne are beautiful beacons of light…inspiring and empowering many! I love you both and appreciate all you are sharing and co-creating!
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Thank you so much Cassie! That means a lot!
I wonder how it is going with your cleanse.. don’t hesitate to add me to facebook, addy: Moh LL1