So what is a good way to start getting rid of excessive weight again? I thought I'd start with detoxification, which is another, more difficult word for cleansing the body of all the rubbish that has accumulated there for the past days, months and years.
So on 31/10 I started following the free 7 days raw vegan detox program from http://www.therawdivas.com/7daydetox/index.php. Well, the site is actually for women and has quite a lot of ads and commercial stuff. But I thought, what the heck, I just follow the free program and buy nothing :)
The program is basically about eating only raw fruit and vegetables and drinking a lot of water. Inspired by Steve Pavlina of http://www.stevepavlina.com/, I decided to just do this experiment and see how it will work out for me!
In this post I am going to update you on my experiences during these 7 days:
Day 1 (31/10): Weight 81.5 kg. The detox started with a day of fasting: from Thursday evening to Friday evening. I am quite used to fasting, because I observe the Baha’i 19-day-long fast every March, but this fast turned out a lot easier because you can drink as much as you want! I finished the day with a whole melon and a pineapple. Indeed, after a day of fasting, the food is not just delicious, I felt I could taste it with every fiber of my body :)
Day 2 (1/11): Weight 80 kg. The idea is that you don’t eat early in the morning, but wait until you get really hungry. And so I did, helped by the fact that I had to feed Anne Sophie and that she and I went to the market in Leiden to get the fruit and the green stuff :). After coming home I ate some fruit and went to fix the lamps in our hall (something I had been postponing for months), and got really hungry by the end of the afternoon. Luda made a huge green salad, and we ate it for dinner, except that she ate it with bread and cheese and ham, while I just had some olives. By the end of the evening I got an enormous craving for some substance, and I confess I eventually got myself some bread with cheese and ham :)
Day 3 (2/11): Weight 79.2 kg. I got up at 6:00 in the morning and drank a lot of water and ate some fruit. At about 11:00, Anne Sophie and I went for a 15-km walk, whereby I carried her in a baby-carrier. It was a beautiful cold sunny day, and I used my Nordic walking poles for the first time! We went to the De Horsten estate, and the autumn colors were amazing. I drank water and some freshly pressed orange juice and ate a banana, while Anne Sophie was devouring her rice cookies. My calorie meter showed that I spent 900 kcal in 3,5 hours, which was quite good. At home, there was again a feast of fruit and green staff, but still I craved for some solid food, so eventually I ate a couple of spoons of Anne Sophie’s potatos. So, again I failed a little, but I was still quite satisfied with my progress!
Day 4 (3/11): Weight 79.3 kg. It is a Monday, and I biked to work as usual. I brought with me lots of veggies (paprikas, carrots, tomato and half a cucumber) and fruit (apple, mandarins, kiwi, two pears and even a melon). Well, I ate the vegetables, but I only ate half the fruit. So, I had to carry the melon back home, on my back :) By the end of the workday, I developed some headache, but it surprisingly disappeared as I was biking back home! At home there was a usual combination of salad and fruit and raisins to still my craving for sugar. It seems that evenings are a lot more difficult to endure than the mornings and the afternoons. Also I get much more tired in the evening, and fall asleep early, even earlier than Anne Sophie!
Day 5 (4/11): Weight 78.3 kg. Today is my 35th birthday! What a great thing to be able to spend your birthday without cakes and sweets and overeating, just feeding on natural green and fruit staff! I took a day off to spend my birthday with my family. The three of us went for a bike ride, and in the evening we went to Roberta to celebrate the Baha'i 19-Day Feast! This day went surprisingly well! I didn't have any cravings for solid food and was even able to withstand the delicious cake at Roberta's! Today I also did my first experiment with green smoothies. The first one (apple, cucumber, coriander, ginger, and lemon juice), which I made for lunch, was really great! Luda enjoyed it too! The second one (cucumber, dill, parsley, paprika, lettuce) was disappointing, I guess because it was vegetagle-only and I still need to get used to it. Because we gave up our TV-subscription, I didn't have to hear or watch any news on the US presidential elections! All in all, it was a great day!
Day 6 (5/11): Weight 78.2 kg. I woke up at about 6am and felt really great, light and clear! Am I past the withdrawal syndrome stage? Let's hope so. My weight seems to be going down steadily, which is great! The important thing is not to kick back to overeating after the detox ends tomorrow. I didn't eat much during the day, just two paprika's and three banana's, which was a mistake. Even though I ate two delicious salads at home in the evening, lovingly prepared by Luda, I still felt quite feeble and low energy. Also I couldn't resist the temptation of eating a couple of spoons of Anne Sophie's mushrooms with potatos.
Day 7 (6/11): Weight 78.1 kg. I had some wild dreams tonight that people started giving baha'i Ruhi courses about environment and healthy way of life in large numbers :) I woke up at quarter to 6, but didn't feel quite well. The shower and the bike ride through the mist and drizzle to work, however, made me feel a lot better! I gave a fruit party at work in the morning to celebrate my birthday of 2 days ago. It was mostly fruit, but also carrots, and some fresh organic juices. This was quite different from the usual birthday cakes in our office. Today is the last day of this detox. I am really happy about this experience, even though I did make a couple of minor slips here and there. I lost quite a lot of weight (between 2 and 3 kg), and it feels like my taste and other senses and even feelings have sharpened. The big question now is how to proceed further tomorrow, when I can eat whatever I want. I still need to think about it, and I'll keep you posted about that!
This is my weight chart from the Hacker's Diet website for these 7 days:
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