Three Days of Dietary Debauchery
II’m back from vacation at the beach. The Princess, the Sweetheart, and I all had a good time. We timed it well, too. We were leaving as the hordes were arriving from the city to enjoy the Independence Day weekend.
We planned time to do activities that all three of us enjoy. Vacation for the girls is getting out and getting active whether it’s playing at the beach, skating on the seawall, or shopping for new clothes.
Vacation, for me, has to include some down time to read, nap, or just veg.
My reading this trip was The 80-10-10 Diet by Dr. Douglas N. Graham. This is the third time I’ve read the book. Since it’s a familiar read at this point, I’m able to glean a lot more from it than I did the first two readings.
Ironically, I allowed myself to stray very far from the “811″ ideal while on the trip. I’m really glad I did, too, because I learned a few things that motivate me to stay the course in my transition to a raw food diet.
A few posts ago, I talked about how poor food combinations affected my elimination. On the trip, I got more experience with how poor combining affects my digestive tract.
The first night of vacation, I was awakened twice by severe abdominal cramping. The meal that caused it was extremely high in fat and excitotoxins. I’m convinced, based on my experiences of the last week or so, that my system is adapting to the point that it wants to expel both as quickly as possible. Unfortunately, “as quickly as possible” still likely amounts to two or three days.
Fascinated by the results of my poorly combined dinner on day 1 of vacation, I decided to try the same thing again on day 2. Again, I was awakened in the middle of the night by intestinal cramping.
By day 3, I was beginning to adapt to poorly combined meals. I also noticed that, on the third day, I was beginning to feel some of the addictions creep back in. I ate a ton of poor food yesterday.
This morning, back at home, I weighed in. The scale showed a gain of seven pounds in three days!
I notice, though, that the veins in my hands and feet are less visible than they have been. That tells me that I’m retaining a good deal of water. I suspect that I’ll lose at least five of those seven pounds in the next three to seven days.
Today, I also notice that my tummy is a little tender. I suspect that my intestines are working overtime to process the last three days’ meals, and they’ll probably continue to work hard for a couple of days more.
It’s noon, and I haven’t eaten yet today. I don’t know if I will or not. I’m not particularly hungry. I am thirsty, though, and I’m drinking filtered water regularly throughout the morning to help my body get rid of the extra toxins that I’ve ingested. The salt alone requires an enormous amount of water to get rid of it.
One thing I noticed from my most recent reading of The 80-10-10 Diet, is that it can take several years to get rid of all of the excess salt in tissue. I also read that we need to be sufficiently hydrated in order for the organs of elimination to process and expel toxins effectively.
Generally, a raw food diet based primarily on unprocessed fruits and vegetables supplies suffcient water for the body to do its job eliminating toxins efficiently. Raw fruits and vegetables provide the purest, most easily assimilable water one can “drink.”
I’m thinking, though, that while I’m in transition I may want to drink a bit more water to encourage elimination. My body appears to be striving to heal itself, and I want to make sure that it has the nutrients to make that job as easy as possible. So, I’m going to make sure that I include at least a liter of water daily in my diet for awhile. If I start having to make more than a dozen trips to the bathroom daily, I’ll cut back.
Another decision I’ve made is to commit to eating at least 2,000 calories a day. While raw, my calorie intake was all over the map. I’m guesstimatng my ideal weight to be at or below 200 pounds, so I’ll eat for that weight right now and make adjustments as I go along. If it becomes evident that I’m undereating (especially as I increase my activity level), I’ll eat more.
I love banana/strawberry smoothies. I’m not sure that they love me back, though. I think, instead, that I’ll try having bananas alone for awhile, or I’ll mix them with some sub-acid fruits like peaches, pears, apples, and the like.
In the book, Dr. Graham suggests a meal pattern of the following:
- Juicy fruit in the morning
- Sweet fruit at lunch (i.e. bananas and other calorie dense fruits)
- Acid fruits and greens for dinner.
I’m going to work with that for the next few days and see what I notice in the way of results.
That’s enough for today. Time for another glass of water and a nap!
