Water Fast - Refeeding Day #1

My 7-Day Water Fast is completed and today's my first Refeeding Day, so far I had 250gr of watermelon for breakfast and going to have same amount for lunch. I didn't register any weight loss this morning but my ketosis was still in large traces at 80mg/dL, so – to quote Dr. Simeons - if I'm not losing pounds I'm losing inches.

What I believe could be the reason of not seeing changes on the scale, is the fact that I basically didn't sleep last night; I added few sips of green tea in the afternoon that might affected my sleep, I know it sounds crazy but I cannot think of any other reason why I could not sleep at all; yes I always have hard time sleeping during fasting or strict dieting, but not completely for the entire night! But again, mine are just assumptions; let's see tonight how it goes.

After ate and digestion started I felt very weak and with no strengths, I know the feeling because it was even more evident after my 23-Day Water Fast. It still surprises me to see how much energy the digestion process takes from my body, and I would assume from my brain too.

Yesterday I ended up buying some Raw Organic Almonds and some Raw Cashews, my cabinet is completely full, I don't even know why I keep on buying things! I'm getting crazy with the idea of preparing so many recipes that somehow buying the ingredients is a bit like executing the recipe itself. But I have to be conscious on preparing too much food or doing all these gourmet recipes, especially because 99% of them are with nuts and seeds, which hare rich in fat and I know for fact that fat makes me fat pretty quickly.

One thing I want to do this afternoon after work is going to buy a food processor; since today's Black Friday today there are few deals out there and I found a refurbished good food processor for $60, which is good for the brand and size of the processor. The reason why I want to have it, after buying the Vitamix is mostly for chopping and shredding vegetables. I would like to cut my vegetables in smaller pieces, I found that the thick and creamy dressing sauce that I prepare get better into the vegetables while mixing all the ingredients.

Yesterday I took out from the freezer the container with I believe was cut papaya, it was hard to see frozen from outside, but I'm pretty sure it was papaya or I'll have a surprise tomorrow for breakfast. I also took from the freezer one container with a green sauce, which I'm not sure what it is and the 2 Chinese zucchini that I bought a couple weeks ago. I left all this food in the fridge to thaw, adding this morning my lemon container with few slices of lemon, to use in the morning in my water, not yet though, I will start in a couple of days to have citrus, to avoid upsetting my stomach.

Water Fast Day #6 - How am I feeling so far and a morning struggle

My Water Fast Day #6 started very badly this morning. My weight and ketosis were great but I struggled a lot with my BM, I have to say that similar thing happened in my first Water Fast, but this time around was way more painful. I know that lots of people don't always feel comfortable talking about BMs, but it's a natural thing, it's a response of our body on how we process food how our digestive system is working. So I hope my experience can be helpful for who reads and is going through my same difficulties.

So I didn't feel good since a couple of days and my mistake was really not doing anything till today, I should have had an action plan that I can execute while at home and with plenty of time. Unfortunately I didn't, so this morning I had one of the worst half hour of my life! In short I took 2 probiotic as soon as I woke up and a glass of hot water, it didn't seem helping at all so I decided to try again with the salty water and the Shank Pashlanka exercise, well it really took little time for me and just a cup of water to have some relief. I am happy to say that I felt like a new person after that!

Today I have much more energy compared the previous days, my cravings are less than before and I'm good in terms of weight loss, so I guess tomorrow will be ok to stick with the initial plan and end my fast. After that I will start my refeeding process with just watermelon, this time I don't want to buy the whole fruit but I decided to stop by to a local store downstairs and grab just a couple of containers of pre-cut watermelon, it will save me time and avoid wasting anything; I had way to much watermelon in the past weeks, so I'm not looking forward to feed myself all day with this fruit. I will switch to papaya the day after with no regrets.

My back still hurt me today, still don't know why, I never had any issue with back pain, just wondering if could be related to my fast or I'm crazy thinking that this could be the cause.

Usually when we do a Water Fast chances are that the sleep will be very little, sleeping becomes an issue while fasting, maybe because we save so much more energy taken from digestions, but I might be wrong. This second Water Fast for me is a bit different though. During the first one I really had hard time sleeping, I forced myself to stay in bed and close my eyes to let my body rest and heal. This second one instead I have no trouble sleeping; sure sometime I wake up in the middle of the night but I can fall asleep back again in no time, which is good for me.

Another common symptom of the Water Fast is associated with being in Ketosis – I'm feeling always cold. I have the heater under my desk in the office and when I'm home I have to turn on the heater almost all day and night, which is very unusual for me that I like to sleep with chilly temperatures, to enjoy the big blanket - a small price to pay when burning fat though.

I was thinking to buy a recipe book today of Raw Vegan recipes, so I went downstairs during lunch time to check out Indigo store and see if they had good Black Friday deals. They didn't have much really, the only 2/3 books that I found they were not really fully Raw but mostly Vegan, plus the price was a rip off, $30 for a tiny book, full of dessert recipes that I could easily find online…for free. I know they pay for printing and branding and so on, but why then switching to eBook and make it more affordable? I would love to buy a Raw Vegan recipe eBook for $10, as long as it has ONLY Raw Vegan recipes and doesn't talk for half of it about the author Raw Vegan Diet transformation or a classic useless explanation: What is a Raw Vegan Diet?

A Water Fast to reveal my reasons to binge

Here another great discovery thanking my Water Fast that gives me the chance to use my brain and have a great mental clarity about my life, my reasons of binging: I realized that my life is lonely, I'm happy overall because I got accustomed to this lifestyle, but it's lonely. Being alone every day home is bringing me to look for distractions, cooking is one of these. I love to cook and I feel I have to eat what I'm cooking, I have the obsession of not wasting any food so I cook more and I eat more, of course I eat even food that has no chance of being wasted and I do buy things that I really don't need.

Cooking and eating is my night-out, my happy date, my fulfilling relationship, my get-together with friends, my hobbies altogether. It's everything fake of course, but my mind needs it and that's why I will still continue to binge, till all those fake feelings will be replaced by real life events.

7-Day Water Fast - Day #5

Day #5 for my second Water Fast, this is my first short one of just 7 days, but still good for my body to take a rest from food and heal itself in some way. Fortunately today I don't feel all those cravings I had in the past few days, I still look forward on completing this Fast but overall I'm good, I think I'll be even better in a couple of days.

During my lunch break, here at the office, I went downstairs to go for a walk and check out the Black Friday Week deals. I ended up buying a package of Organic Unsweetened Shredded Coconut, a fairly large container of Nutritional Yeast and a big jar of Powdered Peanut Butter the one with no sugar added. I know I'm a shopaholic and I can't help myself, but in my defense I have to say that not having lunch and work to do is not helping my shopping habits.

This morning my ketosis was between moderate and large amount, I would say around 60mg/dL, which is still pretty good plus I believe the amount of water I had yesterday might have changed the real results. I don't feel hungry at all know, I guess also due to the ketosis, but I had difficulties with my BM this morning; I guess not eating anything is not helping me, so I decided to take a probiotic, hopefully will not compromise my fast and will just help me on being regular during this fast, I really don't want to do again a Shank Pashlanka, it takes too much time and effort.

My back still hurt me a bit today, better than yesterday for sure but I have still difficulties on getting ready in the morning, not sure if the heels could be a reason why this pain. I usually don't walk this much during lunch time so maybe walking around with high heels is not good for my back, but today I have just my boots and not high heels.

I wanted to have hot water to drink today because in the past Water Fast I noticed that as soon as I was drinking it, I was going to the washroom! But too much to wait for in the kitchen so I gave up, if the probiotic don't give me any relief, I'll try with the hot water at home this evening.

Raw Vegan Diet and my alarming food cravings

It's Monday today and doing nothing here in the office makes my day feeling longer than actually is, just looking at the watch every 5 minutes or so to see when it's time for me to leave. If my co-worker is working from home tomorrow I will do too for sure. I have a slight back pain today, not sure if it's due to my shoes, the posture or anything else, it's a lower back pain and I can barely bend or staying sit, I'm usually pretty resistant to pain, never complained much, unless is really killing me, but it's uncomfortable definitely – just wondering if it could be part of my detox process in my Water Fast.

Without eating I have of course more time, since I'm cutting the cooking part, the eating and organizing dishes in the kitchen. The good parts are: saving money, keeping kitchen clean, losing weight, detoxing and less trips to the grocery stores. I like shopping in general but not grocery stores, I would rather go to a mall or healthy food stores but supermarkets don't excite me so much; sometime I think I would go back on receiving the organic basket that I use to receive from MamaEarth once a week, the choices though are limited for me so not sure it will be convenient, especially eating so many tropical fruits as I like to do.

So far I can say that being Raw Vegan it is expensive, I cannot eat everything organic or I'll be broke, but fruits in general are expensive, if I combine different types of fruits is a lot of money. I tried to shop in Chinatown to save on my grocery, and I did save some for sure, but my tomatoes tasted like water and the cantaloupe was terrible, I did not enjoy one bite of it. So saving on the pocket to lose on the taste? I need to find a better compromise for it, plus I definitely don't trust fruits and vegetables bought in Chinatown.

I'm doing better today with my water intake, I bought another bottle of my vapour distilled smartwater  but still thinking on buying the pure distilled water at Shopper - I think it might be more convenient for me, even going forward. So far I drank 1.3L only though but I'm usually less than that so I will say is an improvement for the day, plus it's 3:00pm now so I have time to reach at least 2L for the day. One thing I noticed this morning though was the colour of my urine, not dark yellow as it should be, that's why I also think the Ketostix on moderate Ketosis could be inaccurate; the ketosis might be diluted and not precise in terms of measurements.

This time around I have lots of cravings for food, I didn't have it during my first Water Fast, I guess is true when they say that each fast is different from the other one. I'm resisting on the cravings but just looking forward to the day that I'm done with this fast and going back on eating whatever I like, still Raw Vegan of course, I'm really happy with this choice. I hope this is not a sign that my binges are coming back as soon as I complete the Water Fast….or I might need to start a new one again! I thought many times on going back on counting calories, it's the only way on keeping me accountable on the food, instead of loading my salad bowl of 2Kg of vegetables and dressing sauces, not to mention my desserts indulgences. Another thing that I want to do is staying away from doing too many gourmet recipes, it increases my cravings, watching all those videos or posts on Pinterest, and they just make me crave more and more food. I hope this Water Fast will help me to get rid of my cravings so I can go back to a normal and healthy Diet routine without being obsessed by food.

Raw Vegan Diet - What's in my pantry?

Yesterday I bought for the first time Raw Vegan wraps, I checked online where to find them and I found out that my local health store had them so I went there and I bought 3 different types: one dry Raw Vegan wraps made with Spirulina and vegetables, two different types from the live organic brand – a new healthy restaurant that sells also products in various stores in the city – the wraps are one type with spinach and other ingredients and the second one with sundried tomatoes, contrary to the Spirulina ones, these wraps need to be stored in the fridge. I think they are handy to prepare a good snack to bring with me; I can use it with some dressing sauce like guacamole or tahini and mixed vegetables. I noticed that there was also one with coconut, maybe I could do a sort of crepes with that – but I didn't buy it yet, just wondering how they taste first and if I really like it then I'll experiment new flavours.

Before starting my Water Fast I frozen a lot of food, even sliced lemons, so I would not waste anything – well apart of half cucumber that I really could not save. I have already planned a defrosting time for all this food I frozen, well not for all really, I might need to go slowly in the process and maybe use some of the stuff for smoothies; in the past weeks I never prepared smoothies, not that I don't like them – quite the contrary – it's just my crazy idea that I feel I eat more food if drinking and not chewing. I also saw a YouTube video that was negatively commenting on drinking rather than chewing food, since the digestion can start in the mouth when we chew food, if we drink this doesn't really happen so we lose this important step for our digestive system, giving it extra work basically. Not sure if this theory is really true but somehow makes sense, maybe I could start with eating a small amount of solid food and then proceed with the smoothie. Too complicated though…

I'm thinking on buying a food processor, to make those dates dough that I've seen in many recipes, still dreaming about food and desserts! This coming Friday is Black Friday so I'm hoping to find good deals and buy a new food processor with a good price. I don't want to spend too much money but also I don't want to buy anything that will result on being useless. Talking about kitchen accessories I'm also thinking on buying a smaller wet container for my Vitamix, either the 32 or 48 ounces, not sure yet. Actually I've seen it the Vitamix Dry Container as well, but if I buy the food processor I think it will suffice for whatever dry food I need to process. The smaller Vitamix could be useful, I usually do small batches of food, since I'm cooking just for myself. Sometime I do bigger portions but for ice cream for instance, I really don't need any extra amount. At the moment I'll hold on all these purchases though, I'm spending too much money in food!

I'm also fully stocked on dry food; every time I see those Organic Pitted Dates at Winners I buy a little bag. I also have dry organic figs, organic raw almonds, organic raw cashews, organic cacao powder, shredded coconut, organic sundried tomatoes, and I even found the organic dry mulberries – I bought two bags since I don't find them often. I bought few days ago in Chinatown a couple of little bags of goji berries to mix in my salads or in any smoothies, I thought they will be with a lower fat content than any nut I can buy or eat and they're sweet. Yesterday I bought a bag of Raw Organic Kale green chips, made with kale and a mix of vegetables and spices; they're very low in calories and great for a quick snack. I got tempted and bought a bag of my favourite Raw Organic Chocolate macaroons, made with all Organic ingredients and coconut, the only thing I don't like tis the agave in it, but if I'm disciplined once in a while is not a big deal. I still have some white sesame seeds that I can use to make tahini, but I also want to buy just a small quantity of black sesame seeds, to use on top of my dishes, or to make black tahini who knows. Other seeds that I'm storing in the fridge are: chia seeds, hemp seeds, grounded chia seeds and Organic Flax seeds; I also have Raw Organic Almond flour, Coconut flour, Vegan Chocolate Protein powder and Spirulina powder. You would think that I should not shop for weeks now, but I'm always looking around and thinking of something that I miss and I need to buy it!

7-Day Water Fast - My updates on Day #4

Today is Day #4 of my 7-Day Water Fast and I'm happy to report that I've been in Ketosis since yesterday with large and moderate traces, good to know that I'm already burning fat and not muscle.

So far I'm doing ok, my weight this morning was 55.7Kg so it's going down with a good pace, but I would also say that the first few days are always good in terms of losses. Let's see by mid-week since I don't have too much to lose in my opinion, I'm hoping to reach the 53Kg by the end of the fast.

Sometimes I look my body in the mirror and I can see that I'm really out of shape, when I was running or going to the gym I had a completely different figure, it really hurts and I'm always thinking that I should go back to my gym routine once my fast is done. I have in my mind good intentions but I never feel the strengths to do it, I'm wondering if I'm exhausting my adrenals and feeling often tired and demotivated. I'm planning on taking some supplements for the adreno-fatigue once completed the Water Fast and refeeding process – maybe it will help.

Saturday I spent all day mostly in bed, except for a movie date that I had in the afternoon, so I did at least 1 hour walking that day. I really felt tired of doing anything, I didn't even want to go to the cinema, hoping my date will cancel for unforeseen reasons….but he didn't so I went. Before going though I decided to do an injection of Vitamin B12, since the Raw Vegan Diet is usually low in B12 and it could help in giving me energy. The injection itself was not pleasant, I had for the first time lots of blood coming out from the injection site, the needle was very small though, not sure what happened really, not a big issue anyway, it stopped in few seconds after that.

This time around I don't want to drink hot water, I'm satisfied with regular room temperature water, I do feel I'm not drinking enough though, I try on sipping here and there but at the end of the day it never gets up to 2.5L, I just can't make it!

Another thing I noticed that is different for this second Water Fast is my desire of eating; I'm looking to so many new Raw Vegan recipes on Pinterest and buying new Raw Vegan food. During my first 24-Day Water Fast I wasn't thinking much about food, at least not like this. Does concern me a bit really since I don't want to be addicted on food or gourmet recipes, I just want to live an healthy life with a good relationship with food, without being obsessed about eating or losing weight. I really hope I can achieve this goal once forever!