40 Day Detox

Inca red quinoa - same pack that I have

Woohoo! My Body Fat percentage finally crossed the 17.0% threshold. This morning it dropped 0.4% to 16.9%! My weight dropped 0.6kg to 67.0kg, my Body Water rose to 57.1% and my Body Muscle rose 0.2% to 43.2%. The exercise last night followed by salad, vegetables and a handful of almonds really did the trick. Not only that, since last night I’ve been feeling really energised. I feel great. 

I started my day with a hot lemon juice drink. I then fried some red quinoa (also known as Inca Red Quinoa) in hemp oil, and then boiled it for 20 minutes. Red quinoa, takes a bit more work to prepare. It’s also rarer to find compared to white quinoa which is more commercially available. Red quinoa comes out crunchier than white quinoa. Despite Inca Red’s rarity I do prefer the texture and taste of regular quinoa. I’ve decided to spare the almond milk as a cold beverage treat and instead used coconut milk today with blueberries in my quinoa breakfast with agave nectar. 

For lunch I had Urid dal with some almonds just before going to the park to do a 20 min HIIT session on the cross trainer. 

While I was waiting for dinner I ate a banana. 

Meat Free Zone?

My family came around to break their fasts at my house today. My father-in-law had given my wife some money to treat them during Ramadhan. Normally I would have served them meat without any potential issues. This time I did wonder for a bit whether to cook and serve meat or not. A few days ago my wife requested Fish and Chips. She’s generally been eating vegetarian while I’ve been on this detox, but think she was missing her meat. So I bought her some. As my wife had already eaten fish in the flat it seemed hypocritical if I turned around and said I’d only serve them vegetarian food. My dad swayed my doubts towards cooking meat by calling me and saying that as the family are fasting they will not feel satisfied with just a vegetarian meal. I personally think this perspective of theirs is just in their mind. But my family do tend to become carnivores during Ramadhan. 

The main thing that seemed a problem to me was the fact that I’m the one who normally makes lamb chops, chicken tikka or tandoori chicken for my family when they come. I wasn’t sure how I should feel about making and serving them the meat. I guess as I’m considering the possibility of going back to eating meat after the detox, it’s a bit more understandable for me to do so.

Chicken tikka

I decided to make chicken tikka for them. At first I suggested to my wife that I would prepare the marinade and that if she wouldn’t mind handling the meat i.e. washing it, cutting it and covering it with the marinade I was going to mix. She agreed. So while she washed and cut the meat I made the marinade. By the time we were both done, I had noticed that I didn’t feel particularly repulsed by the dead meat. Actually I have to admit I felt a desire to eat it. It actually looked nice. Also I’m very particular when it comes to preparing food for other people. I’m a bit of a perfectionist, and since I am the one who normally prepares this dish I wanted to make sure that marinade was put on properly on each piece of chicken breast. So at the end of the day despite all the herbivore versus carnivore thoughts in my mind I decided to coat the chicken breast pieces with the marinade myself. It turns out I did good, well in the eyes of the carnivores I did. In the eyes of herbivores I no doubt committed an unforgivable sin. One of the dishes that got the most praise from my family was the chicken tikka. The other dish that got praise was my wife’s urid dal. 

Organic British plums from my parents' garden

While my carnivorous family devoured meat for dinner I had whole grain basmati rice, urid dal, vegetable curry with salad and black Turkish olives. For afters I had a couple of Iranian and Tunisian dates and a bowl full of organic British plums from my dad’s garden. These plums are small but so much sweeter than what you’ll get in a supermarket. With my meal I drank fresh carrot and apple juice. They were organic British apples also from my dad’s garden. 

Before going to bed I had a glass of almond milk. Gorgeous.

Vegetable soup with broccoli, cauliflower and carrots

My weight dropped 0.5kg to 67.6kg. My body fat dropped 0.3% to 17.3%. My body water rose to 56.8% and my body muscle rose to 43.0%. 

I started the day with half a glass of POM Wonderful’s 100% Pomegranate juice, followed by red quinoa with almond milk and agave nectar. Through the morning I had a couple of Redbush teas with the aim of aiding my writers block (perhaps I should have also tried some low GI form of carbohydrate). I also had a peppermint tea. For lunch I had vegetable soup. I later snacked on half a handful of almonds and throughout the day I had some Iranian dates here and there. 

Vegetable curry with buckwheat

Pre-workout I had a vegetable curry with buckwheat.

A Lat Pull Down machine similar to the one I use in Valentines Park, Ilford

I finally ventured out to the park for my first workout in 11 days since Day 19. This seems to happen to me a lot. When I start something and commit to doing it regularly, I’ll start strong, but then something dramatic happens in my life, like my grandfather passing away and the event derails me from my routine. This has happened many times before. I guess the challenge is to try and keep faithful to the good that one has started regardless of the other things happening in one’s life. My workout was tough. I felt so weak compared to when I last worked out. When I was doing the Lat Pull Down’s which I normally find the easiest I felt really weak. Actually I felt like a patient who’s been in a hospital bed for a few weeks and hasn’t used his muscles in a long time. I felt vulnerable like I might tear a muscle or break something so I took it easy. I did half the reps I did last time I did this exercise.

A Cross Trainer similar to the one I use in Valentines Park, Ilford

The days are getting shorter and the colder. I’m thinking of skipping the hour long walks and commit instead to longer HIIT sessions on the cross trainer. Today I did a HIIT session on the cross trainer for 15 min. While doing this again I felt quite weak and lacking in energy. I felt a tingling feeling in my figures as I gripped on the handle, and just didn’t have that much energy or strength in my legs to peddle as fast as I normally can. Having taken this significant break from my workouts I can now really appreciate how wonderful I was feeling towards just before my grandfather passing away. I was more energised, I felt stronger, more athletic. I felt more confident and sexual too. I saw a significant boost in libido. Not only that, I witnessed overall improvements in sexual health and function. Stopping my exercise and going onto the poorly planned daytime liquid diet however reversed this process and I ended up feeling drained of the life force energy. 

Why don't I just pop a pill?

I may have felt weak during my workout. I may even have dreaded the thought of going out in the cold and putting energy into the workout in the first place, but later in the evening I felt full of energy. So much so that I couldn’t sit still and write. I wanted to move about to the music I was listening to instead. I am glad I resumed my workouts and started to eat properly again. It makes all the difference. Next time I feel, down, depressed, feel as though I may be coming down with something, rather than reach for the first aid box and popping a pill, I will try to examine my diet and see where it might be lacking in nutrients, which may well be what is leading me to feel that negative way. I will also assess my lifestyle, is it too sedentary? Am I exercising enough? 

Post workout I tried my MyProtein brown rice protein for the first time. I made a carrot and apple juice and mixed the brown rice protein with it. Though it didn’t taste that bad, the grittiness of the protein felt like I was consuming a puddle of wet mud. It certainly didn’t taste as good as the Biochem 100% Vegan Protein. But the fact that I bought protein without any flavourings added to it meant that I could combine my protein shake and post workout juice into one beverage. Very convenient, and the myprotein option is a lot cheaper too. 

MyProtein.co.uk

For my evening meal I ate corn on the cob with some salad. I didn’t have anything protein to go with it. In the evening I snacked on some mixed seeds and before going to bed I ate a handful some raw almonds.