Today’s Weight: 182.3
What a day!
I slept in and worked from home in anticipation of the Web Entrepreneurs Meetup that evening, figuring i’d need my energy to go late. I did my saltwater bath (the video from yesterday showed it) then spent most of the day working on a gargantuan blog post that served a number of purposes, like preparing me for the presentation, keeping all of my resources in one place, and linkbaiting the internet to my company’s blog.
Then i squeezed in a haircut (what do you think?) before straightening myself up and heading to the Meetup. At this point, it was 6pm, and i had only drank 1 liter of lemonade, so i took the second one with me.
I was worried about energy because it’s kind of taxing to go to these events. There’s the stairs of the parking garage, all of the loud talking at the event itself, and a few blocks of hiking to get to the bar and back for networking afterwards. All in all it’s a good 6 hours of stress and exertion.
To my surprise, everything was great. I barely touched my lemonade and still wasn’t hungry or weak throughout the time period. It really seems like after about day 4, all of the bad stuff had happened and my body had adjusted to this routine.
My stomach has shrunk greatly during this, no doubt. If that isn’t a benefit of the cleanse, i don’t know what you’re looking for. When i reintegrate food into my diet, it will be really easy to enormously reduce my portions. Not to mention the fact that a nice veggie salad looks as good as a steak dinner, now. If you want to adjust your diet, but are failing to be disciplined enough to do it on your own, i’d recommend the cleanse as a nice way to affect some serious change. Not only do i not want to be stuffed with food, but i don’t want to eat nasty food since i feel so pristine inside.
While we’re on the subject, why do we celebrate being stuffed in this country, anyway? I’ve heard that the difference in us and the French is that we eat until we are full, and they eat until they are not hungry. Sounds subtle, but the difference is pretty huge, especially when you consider that there’s a 20 minute lag time between your stomach and brain in terms of hunger. 20 minutes? That’s a hell of a buffer to contend with, especially at the speed most people eat. I don’t think it’s out of the question that most people eat 5 times as much as they should, before we ever even get to the issue of eating things they shouldn’t.
At any rate, our diets are going to change drastically again after this, i believe. Meat will be entirely killed, portions will be shrunk further, and we’ll probably begin shopping at the organic stores much more regularly. So after the cleanse, its entirely likely that i will continue to blog about the foods we’re eating, and the lifestyle changes that go along with them.
I was watching the Food Network for a few moments today, and it occurred to me that there is no outlet for vegetarians, vegans, or organic advocates on there. Sure, there’s the occasional special episode or something, but overall the consumption of meat and the willy-nilly purchasing at the local big chain supermarket are just assumed in all of their programming.
Is there room for an Organic Network, a Vegetarian/Vegan Network? Man, i bet there is. Maybe we’ll launch a tv network from home before the year is up…
Loren, that’s a great idea!
Looks like there a few veg-oriented shows on public tv and one low-rent internet tv channel. It might be cool to start an Atlanta-centric video cookbook channel. All you need is the right on-air talent!
http://www.delicioustv.com/
http://www.vegtv.com/
Comment by nick — May 17, 2008 @ 11:48 am
Well, here’s some comments!
To address your speculation of the French, in my experience, there are few fat people in Paris. It’s a long-running debate why obesity rates are so much lower there, and nobody really knows. They have a very active lifestyle; most Parisians, from what I understand, take the Metro to work on a daily basis. The couple of times I’ve done jobs in Paris, I spent between 30 minutes to an hour a day walking to and from Metro stations. That daily exercise makes a big difference. As for food, I found most portions were smaller. But while the portions are smaller, almost every meal (lunch and dinner) is soda/alcohol + cheese + meat + starch + desert. I rarely ate vegetables or had them offered to me. The Parisians tend to just eat a piece of bread or a pastry for breakfast. Mostly though, they eat what I think you would now consider crap.
http://camura.com/post/perma/58692
http://camura.com/post/perma/58688
http://camura.com/post/perma/58688
I dig your picture at the top of the blog, btw.
Comment by omar — May 17, 2008 @ 11:53 am
Thanks for the comments, guys!
Yeah Nick, I am considering getting Cara set up to broadcast live from the kitchen while she cooks. We just went crazy grocery shopping, fresh off the fast and looking mostly at organic only foods/recipes. I think it would be fun to learn about the needs/best-practices of running a cooking show, right from the comfort of our home. I’m sure i’ll never look at a kitchen the same, after that (makes for informed decisions when deciding where to move to next, as well!)
Interesting facts about Paris, Omar. I think the ecocity movement is interesting, it’s all about reorganizing the city so you can literally walk to everything you ever need, a vast change from the way American cities are currently organized. It’s kind of ironic that we travel so much farther to and from work every day (so much more work done, from the physics definition), but so little of it is reflected in our physical bodies (because we choose to exert our wallets instead of our muscles.)
Hmmm!
Comment by loren — May 17, 2008 @ 1:48 pm
hmmm……… can I ask an honest question? What has sparked this seemingly drastic change in thought and lifestyle? Initially, I was going to do a bit of naysaying, as I find it difficult to betray my own opinions. But they are simply that,……..MY opinions. Instead, I would rather hear about why this is important. Because I don’t feel like you got a chance to explain that on phlog.
Comment by JP — May 17, 2008 @ 11:35 pm
Loren, this is your website. I want to comment on some things. But some of my comments are the going to be the source of debate/conflict. Let me know if you don’t want me to post here. Laters!
Comment by JP — May 17, 2008 @ 11:40 pm
It’s just a fast, JP. Whether or not fasting has health benefits (and many believe it does), you have to admit it represents a pretty big personal challenge.
What change in thinking are you referring to? The only change I’ve had has been a fundamental philosophical one over the past few years. When you sit back and realize just how little people know, and just how much you take for granted, it starts to really move you to experience things for yourself.
Nutrition is a great field where “taking things for granted” really kicks your ass. The FDA, at one time, was all “People’s diets should be 10% sugar!” Then the sugar lobby got a hold of them, and they amended their recommendation to 25%. 25% of your diet as sugar! Empirically, that amount will cause diabetes in most people by age 40. Thanks Big Bro! [needs citation]
So, if you can’t trust them, who can you trust? Seriously, it’s a fact that red meat is bad for you. A fucking fact, it leads directly to all kinds of things that kill you! But when is the first time you ever heard that from anyone? Hopefully you aren’t hearing it for the first time from me. I know i sound melodramatic when i say “meat is poison”, but i don’t know how else to wake people up than to try and at least shock them.
No one knows anything, JP. I can read as many blogs talking good or bad about the Master Cleanse as i like. Lay folk talk about it, MDs talk about it. Hell, i think the creator of it was an MD, so what good is all of this appeal to experts if the experts disagree? They don’t know!
Well, guess what, now i know because i did it. I no longer have to ask whether its a good or bad experience, whether i’m better off afterwards than i was before, or whether it’s quackery.
Here’s the weird thing, though: It can be good for me, and quackery for you.
As for debate and conflict, i really don’t see how there could be any, given everything i just said. You get your opinions about something you’ve never done, and i get my experiences about something i’ve just done. I mean, are you going to tell me that i don’t feel better? Are you going to tell me that i didn’t learn anything? Are you going to tell me that this is worse for me than my 7-day drinking benders, my 2-story funnels of IPA, or my year spent indoors, on my ass, working?
Important note, here. I haven’t finalized how i feel about the cleanse yet, but there will be a blog post coming that explains whether i advocate it or not, and for whom. That verdict is still out for me, but it is coming.
Comment by loren — May 18, 2008 @ 2:02 pm