Sept. 2009, Death Valley Ca. Hike; 3 days, 120 miles, fruit only...
JEFF'S INTERVIEW WITH RAWPEOPLE.COM ON 3-DAY, 120-MILE HIKE IN DEATH VALLEY, CA Tuesday 2-24-09 Man Takes Death Valley WalkaboutBy Paul Jones, Pahrump Nevada, The Pahrump Mirror Newspaper When most men turn 40 they usually mark the event by buying themselves a sports car, taking a long vacation, or desperately ignoring the fact that they are now over the hill and on the slippery slope to oblivion.
“Most people when they hit forty, they’re like okay…everything’s downhill from here. Some people can’t handle it, but I wanted to do something that would act as a mile-marker in my life,” says Sekerak. Sekerak, the author of the e-book, Extreme Minimalist Fitness, is no stranger to tough jobs. His job after leaving college with an English Degree was working as a deck hand (“combi”) fishing for Pollock in the waters of the Bering Sea off the coast of Alaska. He spent five years working the trawlers and it was during this time that he picked up some bad habits. “When you’re in that environment you eat heavy foods all the time. You drink a lot. It’s hard to be out there without picking up some of those habits…As I approached forty I noticed my sleep patterns were changing. I’d wake up in the middle of the night and couldn’t get back to sleep. I would eat and not feel full and I just got to the point where one day I said, I’ve had enough.” Sekerak became a raw food vegan, eating nothing cooked, no milk or meat and consumes only fruit, leaves, nuts and seeds. Coupling his diet with an exercise routine that uses nothing but his own body weight he has stabilized his weight to about 170 pounds…”fruit should absolutely be the first thing we reach for,” he says. Each of his 10 day journey, Sekerak woke at 4am and would immediately do 100 pushups. He would carry a gallon of water with him while he hiked 15 miles from his base camp to mile marker 103, do another 100 pushups before hiking the 15 miles back to his camp and finishing the day with a final 100 pushups. Once back, he would prepare his one meal of the day…nuts and fruit…less than a pound of food a day. Copyright 2009, Jeff Sekerak, all rights reserved |
Not so for Jeff Sekerak. Instead of the fancy sports car or the expensive vacation, when Sekerak hit the big four-oh he headed down to Death Valley in his van on a personal mission. That mission was to prove to himself that he could hike 300 miles, do 3000 pushups and complete it all in just 10 days.
