Why I didn't eat for 8 days
I just spent 8 days without food.
No food? 8 days? "Why?" people
ask. And it's a good question.
Why I Didn't Eat
The
main reason is I'm up for experience, and I've never experienced a fast.
The
second reason: when you fast your body apparently turns all its attention and
energy to the nasty toxic stuff that has accumulated and been stored in your body.
It breaks it down, gnaws on it, and kicks it out! I'm 36 years old and have never
fasted. So I figured it was time to give this body an overhaul.
Sometimes
it was easy, and sometimes it was difficult. But here's the biggest thing I got
out of it:
"I got to FEEL the difference between eating for food, and eating
for entertainment."
I got at a deep level how I crave things that have
nothing to do with sustaining my body. I crave them for taste, for distraction,
for gratification, and to FILL my body and bring my energy DOWN. Particularly
salt and sugar.
All of these are valid reasons to crave and eat. I
believe all entertainment has value. But then I started wondering: How would I
feel if I only ate things that GAVE me energy? And dropped all the things that
DRAINED my energy? I mean it makes sense - why haven't I done it? So I finally
looked into it, and here's what I've discovered....
How You're
Poisoning Your Body
It's been suggested to me that I don't
have to focus on what I eat. If I just stop eating what's poisoning me, I'll feel
great!
You probably know the obvious poisons like alcohol, salt, and
lots of processed sugar. But here are some things that were new to me (or I'd
heard but never really embraced).
Meat - bad.
Sure
I'd heard it wasn't so good - but I'd never thought how our bodies are not made
to hunt down and kill a deer. With our hands and teeth, we're more made to eat
fruits, grains and vegetables than to chase down, rip apart and grind up an animal
with our measly fangs. Add to that the ENERGY it takes our body to break down
meat and get any vitamins that are left by the cooking process, and the rotting
of the meat in our loooooong human intestines, and meat was starting to make less
and less sense....
Dairy - bad.
Now I've
heard good things about dairy - mainly from the Dairy Associations. But I'd never
considered that human babies and calves actually stop drinking milk quite early
in life. Why doesn't nature provide for milk once we hit twenty? (Surely our mothers
wouldn't mind?) Then they told me that in adults, milk does not so good things
to the digestive system, and actually makes it HARDER for us to get vitamins from
anything else we eat. Meaning we have to eat MORE food, and place more strain
on the digestive system just to break even.
OK - so cheeseburgers seem
to be losing quite a few points.
Processed Food - bad.
What!?
Now you want to take away my processed food? Which is like 90% of food sold?
Most
of what we eat has had SOMETHING done to it along the line. I assume this is either
to make it taste more attractive to us, or produce it cheaper, or make it last
longer.
Well - these crazy hippy health-freaks said they weren't 'taking
away' my processed food - just pointing out it takes a LOT of energy for the body
to try and squeeze what nutrients are left from this homogenized, pasteurized
and preserved can of something I just pulled out of the pantry.
Sadly,
I crossed white bread off my list....and almost everything else I had every fondly
considered 'food'.
The Last Straw - cooking our food.
The
biggest shock to my food world was the concept that cooking - an accepted core
part of my life - doesn't actually help my body. In fact it makes everything harder.
What?
My mother was a cooking teacher at High School!!!
Yet, when I think
back to when I was very young, I remember my mother saying, "Oh - we don't boil
vegetables now. Latest thing is that takes the vitamins out. We steam or microwave
them".
Apply this principle to everything, and we pretty quickly see
that cooking food equals killing it. Its value as a food source gradually approaches
zero the longer we kill it. For example, if we cooked it to ashes the nutritionally
value would be very close to zero. Not only that, but our body has to USE UP energy
to try and extract what's left.
So the question becomes - how long
will I let someone kill that live piece of food in front of me before I snatch
it off the hotplate and suck up what nutrients are left?
So what's
left? Rice?
Nope. They took that away too. Rice, bread,
pasta - gone. Milk, butter, cheese - gone. Meat, fish, eggs - gone (although I'm
not convinced on the fish yet). Anything processed - gone. Anything cooked - gone.
In
fact, the crazy hippy freak at the Raw Food store just took away bananas, carrots,
corn, beets and dates! I won't go into it, but he had his reasons why these are
not 'happy body food'. I, of course, turned to the soy/tofu stuff, but OOPS! That's
processed.
So do we just starve to be healthy?
Well
- I initially thought so. And sure, I tried that approach for 8 days. But fortunately
I pulled back from the brink of breatharianism. You see...it turns out there is
SOME GOOD NEWS!
Fruit - is good! (Oh, thank God).
And, it turns out there are a LOT of different fruits out there, (including tomatoes
and cucumbers thank you very much).
Vegetables - are good!
I know, you're surprised, right? I'm sure this is news to people. Add a few healthy
dressings and these can taste really good.
Nuts and seeds -
good! (yeah, even though the guru isn't a big fan - he says they are
still way better than cooked, processed, or cooked and processed food).
And
the Raw Foodists have been creative putting together lots of combinations of healthy
things that actually taste better than the poisonous thing.
Of course
you don't have to go nuts ("oops, sorry", said with Austin Powers accent). But
it's pretty easy to bring 80% of this into your life right now.
10
Tips to Shift Your Thinking, Your Energy, and Your Body
Try
the following for 30 days (what have you got to lose?).
1) Have fruit
for breakfast, and a salad for lunch. It's quick and easy, and tastes great.
2)
Every 3 nights make up three days worth of salad and take it to work for lunch.
Get creative - you can throw interesting things in salads like strawberries or
sun-dried tomatoes. Throw in some pine nuts for protein, and take some croutons
on the side. (But don't tell my food guru about the croutons.)
3) Cut
back meat to a couple of times a week. When you sit down to eat fill up on salad
first so you can't fit a lot of meat in. See if you can have 3-4 meals a week
which are uncooked.
4) Buy a bunch of nuts and seeds and dried fruit
to snack on when you get hungry.
5) Buy Almond Milk, Almond Butter,
and ditch your milk, butter and cheeses.
6) No junk food; no fast food;
no canned food; no packet food - or at least cut WAY down.
7) If you
do eat something you know is not good for you, notice the drop in your body's
energy. Conversely, notice how good you feel after a healthy meal.
8)
If you want to ROCK your system to change your habits, consider a 5-10 day fast
before switching to this new regime. You'll get a WHOLE NEW appreciation for food.
9)
Get hold of the book that shook me up: "A Way Out" by Matthew Grace www.MatthewGrace.com
10)
Don't take anything too seriously. There's no need to go way overboard with anything.
(Which is how I justify still eating Ben and Jerry's ice cream occasionally!)
Why
Bother?
I'm not sure really. I was having a ball before. I
love ice cream, chocolate, bread, cheese, alcohol, lime tostitos, and buffalo
wings (hot chicken wings). I mean I REALLY love this stuff.
And consider
I haven't gained a pound in 20 years. I've been 5'10" and 150 pounds even if I
stuff myself for weeks on end, and don't exercise for years.
But I
know at a deep level that healthy eating will free my energy up for bigger games
to play on this planet. And in ways I can't foresee.
It will free my
attention from my food fetish, and make it available for .....who knows?
Plus,
I'm feeling really healthy right now, and enjoying all the Raw Food I just bought
at the hippy freak store in the East Village. It actually tastes great!
And
finally - if I keep feeling this good, I'm not averse to living the extra 10-15
years this will probably add to my life.
Whatever you decide...
Enjoy,
David
