With each passing day, I can see more clearly how cooked food is used as a drug to create a certain kind of feeling in our bodies. We keep eating it because we’re addicted to it, not because it’s healthy for us. We confuse those addictive cravings for the experience of genuine hunger. Instead of making conscious food choices, we let our addictions dictate what we eat, how much, and how often.

I experienced a glimpse of this during day two of my own short live foods fast:

I feel fine, and didn’t feel too hungry during the day actually. There were times I wanted to eat, but not because I was hungry – I was just craving for taste and the feeling of having a full stomach. There were times I walked past the fridge too and just wanted to open it and pick something up out of habit. Makes you think how much a person eats in a day is based on how hungry he really is!

I’m definitely not comparing one day of a liquid diet to his ten. But I remember how I felt back then; as if I wanted to eat out of habit, not out of hunger. An usually unconscious choice, like eating simply because it was lunch time, became conscious and I realized what I was craving wasn’t the satisfaction of a physical need, but simply the sensations of eating.

Like Steve alludes to, I realized I had been filling a void at times with food, and now had no idea how to fill it without. I’m not saying that eating out of habit is a bad thing per se, but I do think it’s a bad thing to perform the same habits again and again without being conscious of them.

In a way, it’s akin to how I feel when I come home after a while spent overseas. All those little habits that I do at home everyday and feel as if I couldn’t do without disappear in a foreign land. And when I come home, I realize the world didn’t fall apart just because I stopped reading my RSS feeds or watching my favorite TV series. And I didn’t end up any less happy either.

What I Ate

First up was this fresh bowl of grapes, strawberries and mangoes to break my fast. Surprisingly, it wasn’t that much of a big deal, I suppose I didn’t want to just munch on something solid, I wanted something warm and filling as well.

I drove the car out to make a quick repair, and I didn’t feel any difficulties at all being outside (except needing to pee more often and getting hungry again). When I came back, I couldn’t resist another one of those yummy and filling avocado milkshakes.

In fact, I couldn’t resist so much I drank nearly a third before I remembered to take a picture!

Up till now, I’d followed my instructions to take nothing but live foods for the 3 days, except for the salad dressing and milk. But when it was nearly noon, I was to break it big-time for a bowl of soya beancurd

Looking at it another way, excepting the sugar syrup it came with, the soya beancurd was probably pretty good for me.

Next, I had a real treat planned for myself; durian, the ‘king of fruits’. It has a strong, savory smell and rich, creamy texture – a fun way to add some flavor to a live food fast!

Now, I know a lot of people from overseas like Caucasians and the Japanese hate durian, I’ve heard it described as smelling like ‘rotting corpses’ or ’sewage’, but the majority of us living in South-East Asia love this fruit and have no idea what the haters are talking about. My girlfriend (who’s Chinese) can’t stand it either and we’ve determined that it’s genetic, you’re either born with the durian-loving gene or you’re not.

Finally, a healthy salad. I cheated a little bit here, you can see the slices of wholewheat bread I toasted for myself. The taste of something starchy and warm – heavenly!

I also found myself hungrier than the day before when I was just having liquids, and kept snacking on grapes, tomatoes and bananas.

But finally, near evening, I was feeling so hungry I decided I had enough – time for a warm, home-cooked, flavorsome meal to break the ‘fast’.

I felt immediately ‘heavier’ after this meal, like there was something weighing down my gut. It was quite an apparent feeling to end the fast on.

What I Felt

Remember what I said yesterday about not having any of the usual symptoms of a detox? Well, they happened today. Headaches, frequent trips to the toilet, excessive white coating on the tongue – except for the headaches, the rest were actually a good sign that my body was flushing out my system.

I also felt lighter these last 3 days, without taking lots of solid food at one go like starchy carbs or meat, I didn’t experience the ‘afternoon sleepies’ that usually come after a full meal.

Man, those fruits and vegetables sure get processed fast! Luckily I was on leave from work, set meals like breakfast, lunch and dinner lost all meaning as I was getting hungrier more often throughout the day. On this diet, it seems you eat smaller meals, but at more times.

In the evening, I ‘broke’. I didn’t want to deal with this constant hunger anymore, so I decided to share a warm, home-cooked meal with my family. After nearly 3 days of cold leafy vegetables and fruits, there is something to be said for a warm, cooked meal.

It’s during these last 3 days that I remembered how much I love food. I mean, I don’t love it in a 6 burgers a day way, or a 10-course French fine dining dinner way, I just enjoy the way a warm, flavorful meal tastes and the different varieties you can enjoy with food.

And in a psychological sense, there’s also something satisfying about the feeling of a full stomach. Whether this is healthy or not, habitual or instinctual, I’m not too sure. In one of his programs, Tony Robbins talks about going on a fast, and how some people realize during a fast that they crave foods not because they’re really hungry, but because they’ve used foods in the past to satisfy emotional needs, like the need to feel loved, or taken care of, or the need to feel variety in life. This is something I’ll need to explore in my everyday diet after this fast.

So while these last 3 days were interesting, I wouldn’t stick with this diet anytime soon. While I appreciate a good healthy salad as much as anything else, I appreciate the experiences of good meals too, so for me the best philosophy is all food in moderation.

What I Drank

Lots of juices, some herbal tea and lots of water. I juiced different kinds of fruits and vegetables; pineapple, apple, carrots, tomatoes, lettuce, bananas, so on.

I kept my physical activities light, and except for a bicycle ride to the nearest grocery store, didn’t do much except for reading and writing.

I only ‘caved’ twice. Once was when I was feeling hungry in the late afternoon, so instead of a straight fruit juice, I made an avocado milkshake. Avocados are nice and filling, but according to who you talk to, milk can be one of the worst things on earth to drink (find out why from Christine Kane).

Later in the evening, I was still craving for something solid, even though I wasn’t feeling very hungry. So I decided to make banana ‘ice-cream’. Put frozen bananas into a mixer and it turns into a cold, tasty ‘paste’. It’s softer than ice-cream but still has a rich texture, which is sort-of liquid

I just finished a warm broth, and boy, even after just 2 days of not eating anything cooked, I appreciate the varied flavors of a cooked dish so much more now. Yum!

What I Felt

I didn’t feel any of the symptoms normally associated with detox, like excess mucus or trips to the toilet, except for a lot more peeing than usual. My guess is that the duration is too short for any serious detoxing to take place.

I feel fine, and didn’t feel too hungry during the day actually. There were times I wanted to eat, but not because I was hungry – I was just craving for taste and the feeling of having a full stomach. There were times I walked past the fridge too and just wanted to open it and pick something up out of habit. Makes you think how much a person eats in a day is based on how hungry he really is!

Looks like I made it through the 2nd day without incident, and boy am I looking forward to tomorrow when I can tuck my teeth into something solid!

Rules for the Next 3 Days

This is what I set out to do; I’ll only be eating live foods on day 1, which means vegetables, fruits and nothing processed. I won’t be too strict on myself though, which allows me some yummy dressing for my salads.

On day 2, I’ll be going on a all-liquid fast with water and juices. On day 3, I’ll be back on a live food day, maybe something heavier in the evening to transition me back to office food on Tuesday.

What I Ate

I woke up yesterday to a fresh morning breakfast of strawberries, mango and grapes.

Talk about temptation! Same time as I was having this breakfast, my family had this; absolutely delicious nasi lemak, one of my favorite things on the planet (for my overseas readers, nasi lemak is a Malay dish with ingredients like rice, chilli, fried fish, fried chicken – a plate of sin but oh-so good).

But I didn’t give in!

(I did swear to get a plate as soon as possible after the fast though.)

This box of grapes was a great snack throughout the day.

And a scrumptious salad for lunch.

In the afternoon I went to give my car a good wash and polish, and I was feeling pretty hungry by the end of it. I was craving something good, solid and warm, you know, like a rice meal with dishes or a juicy burger. Since I was on the fast, I settled for grains with soy milk.

I felt pretty hungry soon after, so I prepped a snack of strawberries and bananas. My brother started cooking an egg and re-heating the nasi lemak leftovers, which included 2 big friend chicken wings, which made me leave the kitchen as fast as possible!

And finally, my last meal of the day, another big salad.

What I Felt

In addition to the food pictured, I also finished off a whole bunch of bananas throughout the day. I thought the water-rich content of the food would make me less thirsty, but in fact I was thirstier throughout the day today than I would be normally. Maybe it was because I was peeing so much, more than normal.

I also got hungrier than normal, which was obvious looking at what I was eating; smaller portions of food types that get processed faster by the body. But the absence of old, well-known foods made me realize the visceral pleasures in eating. No matter how good they are for you, there’s so much texture and taste to food than just vegetables and fruits.

I suppose in the end, it comes down to what’s more important to you. While health and vitality are big words for me, I could never give up on the experiences of good, if sometimes unhealthy, food.

I’m actually typing this up on the morning of day 2, and today is my all-day liquid fast with water and juices. You’ll see less pictures today as I don’t think juices look as good in photos. I’m already feeling pretty hungry at noon so the day ahead should be interesting

After years of deliberating and procrastinating, I got my order of Tony Robbins’ Pure Energy Greens in the mail a few days ago.

The box has 90 packets of a green powder mix of organic green vegetables. Tony Robbins subscribes to the acid/alkaline diet, in which a host of the body’s problems can be ascribed to an acidic lifestyle and diet, and the solution is to have a largely alkaline diet and lifestyle.

The theory is still pretty much out there, with critics and supporters alike. But the basic premise, as much as I can sort out, is this: eat more veggies than you do everything else, feel better more of the time than feel stressed, and exercise!

Can’t argue with that.

My goal in getting the Pure Energy Greens is twofold;

1) to increase my levels of energy,

2) to improve my health, because I don’t eat enough vegetables.

In this 30 day trial, I’ll be taking 2 servings of Pure Energy Greens a day. That’s 1 less than the recommended because these things cost (the main reason for my procrastination) and do a purely subjective test based on whether or not it raises the level of energy I feel…especially during the afternoon lunch sleepies.

P.S. Read more about the alkaline acid diet.

Your Brain: 2 Classic Ways to Lose It

1) Stress. Stress has not only been shown to be a major health risk, but it can also seriously cramp your brain, make it stop growing new cells, even make it physically smaller, and make you dumberer!

2) Not using it. Still believing in the old myth that your brain doesn’t grow new cells and you can’t stop your memory from going as you grow older? Believe again. Turns out your brain is like your bicep, the more you use it the bigger it grows, even into old age.

Your Brain: How To Fine-Tune Performance

Now that you know stress (and negative emotions) can retard your brain’s performance, and that not stimulating those neurons can leave your brain muscles limp, what can you do to supercharge your brain?

1) Eat well! You and I both know this. While there are more diet theories than you can shake a stick at, most of them agree that more veggies & fruits than anything else is always a good thing. A cappucino is not a fruit (shucks).

2) Work that body! It’s good for your brain & it’s good for your body. It’s also been touted for so many years you know and I know its benefits, so ’nuff talkin’ and more sweatin’. Stretch, do cardio and pump up some muscle at least 3 times a week!

3) Challenge your brain! Push it and you grow it. Even when animals’ brains are damaged, when put in an enriched environment where they can play and learn, the brains are able to grow and repair themselves!

Learn new things, take on new challenges, learn a new language, pick up a new instrument, do sudoku, play games, pick up quantum physics, stretch yourself!

4) Dissolve that stress! Being the big brain-buster that it is, not to mention the bummer that it feels, boosting your ability to deal with stress smoothly is a big plus for anyone.

According to Robert Sapolsky, people who handle stress well are optimistic, take the initiative to do what they can, see things as they really are and not blown out of proportion, have friends and family they can go to and be supported (TLC baby!).

5) Get some TLC (tender loving care)! Yup, you read it right; getting TLC doesn’t only feel good, it provides real physical benefits for your brain. Rats that have been petted not only live longer, but their brains keep growing. Get your hug today, tell people it’s good for the brain. Hugz!

Your Brain: It’s Yours, Make It Lean, Make It Mean

Your Brain: it’s not just there to look good. Treat it well, feed it right, work it out, push it on, let go of the burden and give it some love, and instead of a beat-up old bicycle you’ll transform it into a rip-roaring Ferrari smokin’ down the tracks.

(This post is part of Problogger.net’s ‘How to…Group Writing Project‘! Sources from this post found via Matt, Senia & Dave, all of whom have kick-ass strategies to lead a greater life on their blogs. Thanks guys!)