Food and Change

There has been a dramatic change in my eating habits in the past month.

About a month ago, lynxter watched "Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead" and decided that we should go on a juice diet to lose weight.  Since I wanted to support my partner and was keenly aware that my weight had crept back up over the years we've been together, I thought it was worth a try.  Also, a colleague had recently lost a lot of weight on a juice diet, so I knew it could be done.  I went out to fatsickandnearlydead.com to find out what I'd gotten myself into.

On the website for the film there was a link that asked "Ready to start juicing? Visit RebootYourLife www.jointhereboot.com today".  I'm glad I clicked on the link before just diving in or I probably would have made every mistake possible.  I went through the quiz and dissatisfied with my results, looked around the site until I found the option that included a juice-only set of days.  They called it the "Reboot Standard" program and even though the fellow in the documentary did only juices for 60 days, the website recommends not doing one that long without medical supervision.

The website gave information on how to ease into a juice-only diet.  I went shopping that day and we started the day after that.  To get the ingredients for the suggested menus was not cheap, but it was a good way to find out what we did and didn't like and we justified it by acknowledging that we'd been eating fairly unhealthy for awhile (yes, toasted almond gelato, I'm talking about you).

I learned about the taste of raw foods and how they differ from cooked foods.  For example, while I am a huge fan of Ukrainian borsht, I don't really care for red beets in any juice recipe.  I will have to take a suggestion on the reboot your life site and try golden beets instead but I can't choke down the red ones.  They taste like dirt to me.

We extended the first five days of the standard reboot to seven so that we could do the juice-only days during the workweek.  After five days of juice-only, we've eased back into a schedule that is mostly vegan and includes juices or smoothies for most of our meals.  The goal has been to keep at this until we've lost our excess weight, but to gradually move back into eating solid foods with occasional "reboots" for those inevitable times we "fall off the wagon".

How are we doing?  Well....

I thought I would be starving, but between the juices and all the water I'm drinking, I haven't really been hungry for the past month.  I've noticed that sometimes what I used to think was "feeling hungry" was actually being thirsty.  I've also noticed that I experience the sensation of fullness differently.  I can actually feel my stomach being full, high up under my rib cage.  In the past I didn't feel it that way, my entire abdomen would have a general feeling of fullness.  So maybe describing this as a "reboot" is really the right description.

To that end, I've noticed how certain foods affect me when I've reintroduced them.  When I ate a little mozzarella cheese melted on portabella mushrooms, I had stomach pains.  I always knew I had a bit of a cow lactose intolerance/allergy, but had never recalled feeling it so directly before.  Feta did not have this effect on me, but then I'm not allergic to goat's milk... And while a couple of bacon strips had no effect, eating a six ounce piece of steak has given me stomach pains, probably because it's not the easiest thing to digest in bulk, especially after eating almost entirely vegan for the past month.  So, as much as I like cheddar cheese and cow's milk and steak, I'll be making some different choices going forward.  I may not eliminate any food entirely, but I will make different quantity choices.  Why make my digestive system work so hard if I don't have to?

Despite a four-day trip to Nashville where we had breakfast (twice!) including bacon, biscuits and gravy and grits at our favorite restaurant, the Country Boy in Leipers Fork, I have lost 20 pounds in the last 30 days.  That's a lot of weight, and includes gaining a couple of pounds after that Nashville trip and a couple of days where my weight stayed the same.  I admit that I was looking at calorie content to minimize the impact of eating this way, which I hadn't done in the past (what a shocker it was to see how many calories were in those breakfasts!), and except for those breakfasts I have been avoiding white potatoes and almost any kind of wheat product.  Breads were always my weakness (and a craving) and since diabetes runs in my family, common sense tells me I have to watch those things.  I am almost to the point where I'm going to need a new wardrobe, as I'm looking more and more like the youngest kid wearing too-big cast-off clothing from the older children in the family .

Most importantly, I feel fantastic.  I had a headache for the first three days, which I think was caused by giving up black tea (I have never been a coffee drinker, but I could put away a lot of tea in a day's time).  I found that when I drank more water, the headache went away.  I have had more energy, I haven't needed caffeine, and I have started to appreciate the smell of food without having to actually eat it.  I can walk through the bakery section of the grocery store on the way to produce and enjoy the yeasty breads and sweets and that's enough.  In fact, I think the aroma may be more satisfying than the consumption would be.  I'm not going to test that theory yet, but I am allowing myself to enjoy the smell of these things without feeling like I have to eat them.

While all of this has been going on for the past month, I've put swimming on hold, although I did go to the pool a couple of weekends ago with my mom.  The swimming lanes were all in use for a triathlon, so we walked around the other part of the pool.  I plan to get back to swimming now that I'm accustomed to the dietary changes I've made.  And I found my old pedometer and I plan to start walking as well.

Since getting all of our juices ready and grocery shopping for fresh produce takes up so much of my evenings, I have not been playing much guitar. Seeing the Americana Festival showcases in Nashville last weekend did make me want to start writing again, and even though I haven't written any music in the past month, I did finish the first draft of a short story.  That's a first for me, I start so much and finish so little.

Could the dramatic dietary change actually be a ripple of change moving throughout my entire self?

I like to think it is, so that's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Carry On, Mr. Chopin

Tonight I attended a visitation for the father of a long-time friend who died in his sleep last weekend just three months shy of his 93rd birthday.  It was the most joyous wake I've ever attended, truly the celebration of a man who was well-loved, not only by his wife and eight children, but by friends who came to this visitation even if they hadn't seen him in close to 30 years. 


In high school, I loved to visit my friend's house.  I loved everything about it, from the chaos of so many kids under one roof, to her dad asking where we were off to and then telling us to "carry on."  Their house vibrated with the love and joy of the family within.  They even had a dinner bell hanging outside they rang to bring everyone home.  When they heard it, the kids came home and if they were out of range, they were in trouble.  I loved my family, but I always thought if I had grown up in a large family, this would have been the kind I would have wanted to be a part of.  It was like Cheaper By the Dozen come to life.

My friend's father is survived by her mother, and I chatted with her for awhile at the visitation.  She didn't remember me, and I didn't think she would.  I was one of dozens (hundreds?) of kids that came and went through their house over the years.  She told me that she'd asked one of her daughters if Jonathan Franzen had ever been to their house.  Of course he had.  In fact, their house is pivotal in a lie prepared for the police in one of the essays in The Discomfort Zone.

My friend's father was hard-working, funny and kind.  He was also passionate and articulate and lived life to the fullest, even up to the end.  He is an inspiration for how to live your life, surrounded by love and family and enjoying every minute of it.  There wasn't a family member in the funeral parlor who exhibited one shred of remorse or regret.  They were happy to celebrate the man they loved so much.  So it was no surprise to me that his obituary indicated that "if desired, contributions may be made in memory to the charity of choice and live life to its fullest."

I was happy to be there for my friend, someone I love, respect and admire.  I was also there for myself, to say goodbye to that happy memory of my youth, to see how the story ends, as it were.  Tomorrow my friend's father will be buried in the same cemetery as his relatively well-known grandmother, a St. Louis writer named Kate.  I can't say that I think he will rest in peace.  I'm sure he's at peace, but I can't imagine him resting.  So carry on, Mr. Chopin.