infiorno

So on Friday I officially ended my 30 day raw (really unprocessed) food trial. It was definitely a cleansing experience. And I learned a ton from it.

The biggest thing I learned is that my end goal is, in fact, to be completely raw and organic. Ideally I’d have an eco house in a rural area and I’d grow my crops and have a greenhouse and have a compost pile and hang out with other yuppies that decided to leave the city in search of a more pure lifestyle. Food would be a huge part of that. And lucky for me, pure foods taste really good and I felt great after eating them.

The other thing I learned is that raw food takes a lot of planning. Next time I do this I need to pick up some more recipes. And I need to figure out how to get better ingredients. One mistake I made was dealing with my sub-par supermarkets for my food. And I was being a little cheap with my food choices (in Manhattan, every vegetable seems to cost at least $3).

I also need to plan more social gatherings with my friends instead of either dealing with a restaurant that had bad raw food for way too much money or neglecting my social obligations to stay home and eat food. That will not work if I want to take this on full time.

I also need to take my weight loss into account next time I do this. My muscles atrophied a lot in the past month. I know you’re supposed to get enough protein and whatnot, but next time around I have to stop running so much and do a lot of lifting to keep any muscle mass. I lost 11 pounds last month and 4% bodyfat. I think that keeping some muscle and having all the fat burn away would be an ideal goal to work for next time.

Since Friday I have been eating slightly better than my normal diet (and smaller portions), but I’m surprised how easily I could go back to processed foods. Although I do have to admit that yesterday and today I have not been feeling well. I’m sure that my immunity has suffered as a result of switching my diet back to the good ol’ SAD.

It’s sad to say, but I appreciate the taste of unhealthy vegetarian food so much more that I used to. And I appreciate the taste of natural pure foods much more than I used to. So now if I can get over my cold, I can officially call this trial a win-win.

Go to meetup.com or search “reiki circle (your zip code)” on google to find a Reiki circle. They’re either free or cheap (mine was $10) and it’s a great way to put you in a deep meditation. And the people practice Reiki on you! Keep trying out these circles until you find one that is a good match for you. If you’re in one of these circles, there’s no way you can avoid meditating.

Being raw so far has been interesting.

Overall, I still genuinely like the food I’m eating. I’ve noticed how much more food (in terms of mass/size) I eat compared to everyone else and yet I keep dropping weight.

On Saturday night I was a this big party and they didn’t have any organic/raw wine… so I didn’t drink anything that night. Honestly, it would have been much more fun with alcohol involved but I was happy with my determination. Also, at the after party everyone was eating pizza and I wanted a slice pretty badly. But I had an apple instead. Everyone got pissed off and assumed that I was judging them for eating bad food. I got a kick out of that :)

I have lost about 10 lbs so far. People who don’t see me everyday comment on how much more defined my face is and how much smaller my neck is. This diet is perfect for girls trying to lose weight.

I can really see myself doing this full time when money is not such a concern and I am properly prepared for it. I’m thinking June. But before I do this again, I really need to bulk up with muscle and do higher weight-oriented workouts and continue to do them while on the diet. I was doing lots of cardio before this month and in the beginning of the month, but I soon realized that it is not a good use of time for raw food people. Lifting, yoga and stretching is where it’s at.

This month I’ve had a heightened sense of clarity and I’ve been more emotionally aware than before. I recently realized what I need to do with my life. I don’t think eating raw will help you figure out all your problems, but it make me really think about how I am handling my life. I’ll take the credit for figuring out what to do about it…

I will never look at food the same way again. You really have to shut down part of your brain to believe that the processed chemically-filled stuff that comes in boxes is food. Why do humans think that they can make better, tastier and healthier food than mother nature? Because some fat rich corporate person makes a lot of money off of it and he employs his minions to market the hell out of the food that is made.

And on that note, good luck with your raw diet goals!

So I have been raw for 7 days now (although I did have veggies that were from the oven on Saturday). Besides planning to eat, it has been really easy. I keep myself full on fresh fruits and veggies and I am trying to avoid overprocessing my food.

Yesterday I made my own salad dressing and it didn’t go so well. I used 2 whole garlic cloves, tahini and lemon/lemon juice. It looked more like hummus so I added more water. When I tried it I tasted the most pungent taste of garlic and my breath smelled for the whole day. It was embarrasing! Maybe that was partially because of detox symptoms.

My energy level hasn’t really changed. I mean, I’ve been skipping the gym but that’s more because of my self discipline than because of a real reason.

I’m kind of scared that I might love this diet and then I’ll be a raw foodie forever! I am going to keep an eye out for the benefits of being raw (mainly ideal weight, better skin, higher energy) and see if those things come true for me. If so, then staying raw would make sense.

So I have been very hungry all day (but happy with the foods I’ve been eating). So after work I filled up on organic groceries, determined to make the infamous ‘Green Smoothie’.

I was so scared to put spinach in the blender, but I ended up making a pretty good drink. Here’s what it is:

10 spinach leaves
1 banana
1/2 cup blueberries

It blended pretty nicely and turned a dark purple color. It had a slight spinach taste but it was pretty good and I downed it in 2 minutes. I really should slow down when I eat…

Right after I made a variation with the same ingredients combined with celery. The celery has a strong taste, so I thew in a few grapes to cancel it out. It’s still weird… and brownish but I’m still eating it.

Thank god the smoothies taste good. And thank god I will be full for at least a few hours.

So I’m tired of the same old gym routine.

I want to do fun activities to keep my body in shape. But fun things are more calm and sedentary, such as walking and yoga. Or they’re expensive, like rock climbing and snowboarding.

So I’m not going to be so regimented with my workouts this year. I am commited to doing yoga 4x/week (another one of my goals) and I’m commited to breaking a sweat every day. I have a gym in my apartment building so if I don’t workout I’m just going out of my way to be lazy. There are some weights, 2 treadmills, 2 bikes and 2 eliptical machines.

I also am going to make it easier to go by going in the morning (which ties into my goal of “wake up at 7am every day”).

This goal takes a lot of pressure off of me to do the same workout as everyone else. I’m going to be flexible and just keep my body active. I’m also eating only raw food everyday for the month of january (another one of my goals), so that will help me improve my body as well. If I like that change, I’ll keep it up indefinitely.

So I’m going to argentina in 5 weeks and I really need to get my spanish on. I studied abroad in Valencia, Spain 5 years ago and came back with near-fluency. But since then I haven’t practiced that much at all.

Luckily, I found these 2 articles from Tim Ferriss:

http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog/2007/09/20/how-to-resurrect-your-high-school-spanish-or-any-language-plus-be-on-the-cbs-early-show/

http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog/2007/11/07/how-to-learn-but-not-master-any-language-in-1-hour-plus-a-favor/

And I purchased my parents the book “How to learn spanish in 10 minutes a day” and I took a quick skim through it. I remember more than I thought I would, but I need to still beef it up before I go.

I also found my advanced spanish grammar notebooks from when I was abroad as well as my little book of ‘words that I needed to learn’ that I made based on my experiences in spain.

Now I have to be accountable and just do it.

I love wandering around and taking abstract photos. I’ve been doing it the past year and I want to keep this goal so that I keep doing it. I like the calm observant state that I feel when I’m going around and taking photos – I need to keep that in my life.

So I have a photo site setup at:

http://www.mikefior.com

and I have even more photos at:

http://flickr.com/photos/stunninglyatrocious

So I am committed to eating unprocessed food for all of January. Here’s the thing though: I heard that eating raw food in January could be bad since it’s so cold outside. So I’m going to focus on eating raw unprocessed food, but if I feel the need for warm food I’m going to heat up the foods I’m eating. Maybe that’s cheating but we’ll see how it goes.

I’m going raw because I’m increasingly skeptical of processed food. I simply don’t trust that a food manufacturer has the consumer’s best interest in mind. By going raw I hope to raise my energy level and loose any unnecessary weight (I’m not technically overweight but I’d like to see more definition on my body). I’ve also read that these benefits could happen:
-better skin
-better health
-increased intuition
-a craving for healthy food

Right now I’m just eating salads and I really need to step it up if this is going to be a long term change.

So wish me luck!

So I bought a plane ticket for $850 for a direct round trip flight from JFK to Buenos Aires! I’ll be there 2/6-2/22. My friend and I have the 2nd week already booked at a nice hotel in Buenos Aires (the Hyatt?, I forget – he used his hotel points to cover that) and we’re planning on a trip to Patagonia (probably Bariloche) for a week.

I want to go hiking in the mountains while I’m there but every trip excursion costs so much money (500-1500). I’m looking on spanish language sites and it seems cheaper but I am not exactly trusting them.

Does anyone have advice for cheap adventurous trips around Bariloche?

I was reading Steve Pavlina’s article on how to become an early riser (http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/2005/05/how-to-become-an-early-riser/) and I realized that my mornings are usually a horrible rush to get to work. When I was in college and when I lived with my parents, I used to have a nice morning where I would make a bowl of cereal and watch TV before getting to work. I used to also wake up at 9am everyday, which was nice.

But now I notice that everyone who is successful usually wakes up early and doesn’t give into that cranky “I don’t want to!” voice in their head.

I’ve been waking up at 7am pretty often this past week. I put the alarm clock on the other side of my bedroom so that I have to wake up. And once I’m up, I make myself sit up for a minute or two. Then the cranky voice goes away and I’m happy to be up in the morning.

When I start waking up at 7am every morning I want to be able to use my extra time wisely. I want to wake up to healthy food, good calm music, meditation, and going to the gym before I get ready for work. I want to wake up feeling great and reserve the time exclusively for me :)

This will probably be my last master cleanse post until I do it again… which may be in the late winter. Surprisingly, I have adjusted to food very quickly. After being a soup hog, I finally had a BM and since then they’ve been very consistent.

I also ate an avocado salad, a vegetable dumpling, jamba juice, a tomatoe pizza slice (w/ basil and garlic, but no cheese), and lots of almonds. I’m really surprised how much I can eat now. I’m trying to cut down on proportions, but it is no where near what burroughs says we should have everyday. What he recommended is nice in theory, but it’s also boring and repetitive.

By now I know I can eat whatever I want without any big change. And I can eat just about regular portion sizes. But eventhough I can eat anything, I am still not doing the dairy thing for at least a month. I figure, ‘why start now?’. I think of all foods as precleanse and postcleanse. And so far the postcleanse foods has been more natural.

I’m even trying to stay away from veggie burgers. 2 years ago I used to cook a lot of my own meals, but the last year was more of me eating lots of superprocessed “healthy” foods. Now I want to make an effort to make my own foods form a more natural state.

This, of course, isn’t so easy to get into. I was in the natural foods store today to buy food and I was so overwhelmed with what to buy. I really wish I had a trader joe’s here so that I could buy great food at a low price (anyone want to pay me for mentioning them in like 5 of my entries?), but until then I’m gonna have to shy away from organic foods until I get some solid paychecks in.

For someone who was craving papa john’s cheesesticks during the whole fasting period (well, at least the first half), it’s strange to see that I am prettymuch over that now. I had the minestrone soup and it was fantastic. Perfect. My dad said it was bland, but I didn’t notice. He also said it was spicy, but I was too busy tasting the carrots, kidney beans, celery, garlic, zucchini, corn, and about 5 other vegetables for what seemed to be the first time.

I tried to avoid the potatoes because I knew they would be the most filling, and tried to focus on the broth and the little diced up stuff. I guess I was pretty successful in that. However, I had about 3 bowls full. How the hell did I fit that in me? I have no idea. It’s good to see that controlling myself for 10 days really made a permanent habit for me (sarcasm).

With natural foods tasting this good, I can see it taking a while before I go back to dairy. Let’s hope I stay away from unhealthy foods and stay vegan for as long as possible.

So this morning I only had a little bit of orange juice left, so I drank it and did some work in my house. After about 2 hours, I got hungry. Like a real feeling of hunger that I only got before the cleanse.

So I went to the supermarket and bought the foods for my soup today. I already had a list last night because I asked my mom to help me cook my first solid food. She surprised me and jumped at the chance to go through a vegetarian cookbook for a minestrone recipe. This is coming from the woman who rarely cooks, and only goes for the vegetarian cook book when she wants to really make us happy.

The recipe was a very typical ‘vegetarian’ recipe. The problem with most vegetarian cook books is that they love to dump cheese and eggs into everything. This minestrone had parmasean cheese and pesto sauce. My mom wanted to have everything canned or premade, while I was insisting that I get the vegetables in their most natural state and we could make them the old fashioned way.

I ended up buying the vegetables ($20.00 worth! Jesus), so I got to call the shots and bought everything from the produce department. I also bought some extra pulp, not from concentrate orange juice (not organic b/c I’m still cheap as ever), raw almonds, and soy yogurt for the live cultures – a poor man’s probiotics.

When I got home I quickly filled myself with orange juice. You’re supposed to drink the OJ slowly but I am not good at restraining myself with that, unfortunatly. I started making the minestrone soup and I had some of the soy yogurt.

It tasted pretty gross. It’s not a brand I usually use, but it had such a plasticy taste to it. Maybe because it’s processed?

I also nibbled on a raw almond. I was nervous b/c that’s such a solid food, but it felt so good to nibble on it and tasted so great that I quickly got over that. About 7 times.

My stomach doesn’t hurt, but I feel like I can actually feel the food inside me. It’s such a strange sensation.

I feel bad for not eating raw food, and that’s surprising. But I have heard that eating soup is easier to digest and can be a good segway for my body. Overall, I am so excited to eat some healthy, natural foods – eventhough I am completely full from 7 almonds, a half a soy yogurt and OJ. Looks like I’ll have to take it slow.

Orange juice tastes like candy. Very sweet candy. I have to water it down, or else I just dip my tongue into the juice and ‘play’ with the taste of orange juice. Keep in mind that I usually avoid orange juice and if I do have it, I have 90% water and 10% orange juice for flavoring – sort of like how the chinese flavor their food with meat instead of blatently eating meat itself.

But anyway, since the super sweet organic OJ is the only thing I am ‘eating’ today, I find myself going to the fridge compulsively. I’m almost done with the half gallon.

I hate to admit this, but if I run out of the OJ today, I’m going to just deal with the tropicana that I have in the fridge. It’s no sugar added and it is not from concentrate, but it’s not organic. I look at it as a way of retoxifying my body gradually.

I am starting to feel my stomach and digestive system feel more full now. And it’s starting to make some sounds. Not in a bad way, but just like a “oh, I guess the vaca is over” sort of way. It sounds like they’re copoing just fine.

So inconclusion, orange juice tastes great, but feels wrong. And it’s going by very very fast. And it feels like the fast is still going on, despite my graduation into the OJ phase.

As I’m sure everyone who is close to day 10 knows, days 11-13 are such a tease. Like, you can eat, but you can’t eat… it’s frustrating.

I had fresh squeezed organic OJ this morning, but that was sort of a cop out. I only bought 1 orange because I didn’t feel like juicing, and filled the rest up with water. I took a sip of the pure orange juice before and it made me feel like I was cheating and commiting a sin. In other words, it felt great.

The watered down mixture, however, is leaving much to be desired. I’m not really sure that this will hold me over.

I’ve read all over that it’s harder to break the fast and is just as important as doing the fast itself. So eventhough I’m allowed to eat whatever I want on Sunday, I will try my best to take it easy. I at least owe that to my body for cooperating so nicely during the past 10 days.

By the way, I weighed myself at the gym yesterday and found that I weigh 145.5 lbs – that is down from the stable 156 that I’ve been maintaining for the past year. It looks like I’ve been 145.5 for the past few days now, so I’m assuming it’s a pleateu.

My body fat percentage is down to 8.2% (I have to check that again today) and my body mass index was 22.5 I think. I am going to switch my workout to a circuit workout for the next month and get back to my 4-5 mile a day treadmill habit to see if I can keep this definition and maintain, if not lower, my body fat percentage more.

I never really expected to lose that much weight, but I don’t look so bad, so I’ll just roll with it. The thing I’m most excited for now is having a clear separation from my psychological need for food and actual hunger, and enjoying the most natural foods all over again. And I can’t wait to let you know how that goes.

Before I forget to mention this, I have to mention 2 things that have happened to me since detoxing.

The first thing:
I have a really nasty cut from a stupid drunk incident that happened at the end of August. I don’t want to go into too much detail, but it involved me giving a piggyback ride to Gilly in the rain and over a muddy surface… and landing violently onto my driveway, followed by sliding across my knee and the top of my foot I ended up taking a gash out of those two spots. For about a month and a half I have been putting neosporin on it and have to continually cover it up with a bandaid in an effort to make the scarring minimal.

Well, I started this fast at about the same time that the tissue on my knee gave up and decided to become scar tissue. But interestingly, it looks like the cuts are starting to heal again. Who knows, maybe this fasting helped me heal that cut. Too bad I’m ending it tomorrow.

There was something else that I was hoping would happen as a result of the fast, and it sort of worked: My skin has been clearing up since the detox. I made an effort to avoid sun exposure (something I tend to do when I break out… it’s not too healthy but does get rid of acne) during this fast so that I could see how my skin would react. The results: Well, lots of the little breakouts went away. Overall, my skin is nicer in texture and color. However, I have 2 zits that came onto the scene and I’m not too happy about them. I guess some zits are the result of the way you take care of your skin and what you’re doing on the outside (maybe I touched it or irritated it or something), while acne can be caused by inside conditions too, such as diet and exercise.

So now I know that I have to work on the inside and outside to officially fix that problem. And I should probably buy some expensive products to take care of it. Actually, maybe I should use some natural remedies to put on my face and stuff.

Does anyone have any suggestions?

I woke up this morning to my usual lax-induced BM and was thinking about today. It shocked me how it was already day 10. That went so quickly! Also, I’m so used to the whole routine that it seems easier than actually planning to make meals that are different. What a pain.

Honestly, I do look forward to having the experience of eating (which I’ve een saying over and over on these entries), but it seems more like a leisure activity to me than a necessity. I want to sample like every natural, healthy food now, but Burroughs says that the ideal diet after this is raw, with just grapefruit juice in teh morning and some sliced vegetables for lunch, followed by soup for dinner. How boring is that?

I did my last SWF today and it really wasn’t bad at all. Yeah, filling your body with 32 oz. of water feels weird, but I have to say that I got really good at it after a while. I did today’s SWF in two gulping sessions (each session consisted of 8 gulps to down the 16 oz. glass of salt water).

I also felt like my body was taking really well to today’s SWF and let out a lot of mucus-y looking stuff that I was glad to see go. I guess that’s the last of that stuff. In a few days, I’ll become reaquainted with solids.

The last time I checked my weight, I was shocked with the results. I lost a lot of weight. But I’ll hold off on the final results until after I weigh in at the gym today – they have one of those old style sliding scales that doctors use.

I would also like to go before Castro goes and everything changes, but what if he does happen to die when one of us is visiting there, wouldn’t complete chaos happen? Would the US really want to take us back after that?

Not to be negative or anything…

P.S. I’m pretty convinced that Castro is immortal. How is he still alive and kicking?

I can firmly say that today I am officially over food. Now I get how people can go on this for 21 days and not go insane. The truth is, it gets pretty easy after a while.

With that said, I am still excited that I’m almost at day 10. I have so many foods (mostly asian ones) that I want to try all over again. But surprisingly, it’s more for fun than out of need. I read that in other entries but now I’m actually experiencing this mentality.

Oh yeah, I weighed myself again at the gym yesterday and the day 8 super toxic sessions made me drop another 3.5 pounds from the day before. I look a little more cut, but in reality, more scrawny as well. That’s ok; I can work with that.

Also, I thought my tongue was starting to turn pink but really it’s just lighter in the front. That back (you know, the part by my “courage hangy balls”) is still pollen-colored green.

Hopefully I have some good updates for you soon.