Day 35 and 105 kilos
My body seems to be adjusting well now to my new diet of fruit juice, vegetable juice and consomme. I have eaten a little of the cold chicken which was left over from the dinner party broth as well as some avocado with no ill effects. I feel extremely well. My main purpose now is to start forming some new healthy eating habits. At the top of this list is to drink a combination of fruit and vegetable juice instead of my morning coffees and breakfast. Carrot, celery and apple this morning (one and a half glasses) - seriously good! The addition of the juicer in the kitchen helps enormously as to make my morning juice is quicker than making my morning coffee. Truthfully it sets me up for the day but the downside is that by 11am my stomach demands a second feed - this might cause problems once I'm back in an office again. I'm trying to steer away from carbohydrates other than those found in the juice. Having said that I did have a cup of coffee yesterday afternoon and it was delicious.
I cooked steak last night with a mushroom sauce and caulifower cheese both with recipes from my book and both were delicious. Avinash having guzzled his steak then returned to the pan to empty out the mushroom sauce to wash down a loaf of bread which I took as a bit of a compliment particularly when combined with his remarks about "enjoying your cooking frenzy". Unfortunately I have been asked to stop cooking so much as the chief is complaining that she will become circular. That said, it seems that it doesn't really hurt to prepare and store stock or chutneys. I think that I made clear in a past post that I liked the idea of buying knives - well I actually found a rather efficient knife sharpener buried towards the back of one of the kitchen drawers. So effective in fact that I have managed to cut my fingers fairly savagely on two separate occasions this week. This is particularly humiliating after the grief that I have given Asya for her knife skills which leave much to be desired.
Asya and I visited Sia Huat (the kitchen shop) again yesterday and slowly I'm starting to build up on our store of proper kitchenware - a good fine mesh conical sieve to strain stock, sauces and stews as well as a decent measuring jug and some muslin for spice sachets.
Also for a man whose television diet was limited to films and documentaries, I find that I am suddenly captivated by the Asian Food Channel - in particular, three presenters grab my attention - Laura Calder who specialises in french food, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall a particularly amiable buffoon who seems to specialise in seasonal English fare in a "Good life" sort of set up and Heston Blumenthal who takes a scientific approach to gastronomy but whose imagination and sense of theatre are superb. I found a clip of his on Youtube Heston's Perfect Steak where he creates what he considers to be the perfect steak. If you have 9 minutes to spare then check it out and tell me that his steak does not look epic.
I appreciate that some of you might be wondering how any of this is relevant to the process of me turning my shattered wreck of a body from an amusement park into a temple. Well, on the one hand I seem to be developing a healthy hobby to turn my hand to in my evenings and spare moments rather than shuffling down to the pub to get clattered. On the other hand, the food that I am cooking is generally pretty healthy and I am working on the basis that it is probably better to try and get a grip on what goes in to my body.
As you can see, my weight has crept back up to the 105kg level as I intake food again but I am being careful to keep out the fats and carbs. I think also that I have decided that this whole process of shedding weight has got to be done in phases. The water fast has taken care of phase one with a drop of effectively 11kgs. I think phase 2 is to now try and get from current level down to 94 kgs. I have been pondering on how exactly to do that over the weekend. Clearly exercise must be involved along with some very careful eating. I have mentioned that I am trying to form some new healthy eating and drinking habits. Wisdom dictates that it is better to have five smaller meals throughout the day rather than three bigger meals as apparently this stimulates your metabolism without putting vast quantities into one's stomach which means that your system becomes overworked - ponder for example how sleepy you can feel after pigging out. I have actually been trying to do this of late and so typically I have had a glass and a half of fruit and veg juice for first breakfast before 9am another glass of fruit juice at second breakfast around 11am, two cups of consomme at lunch and either a smoothie or a fruit juice mid afternoon. The plan is to then have protein and vegetables for an evening meal with Asya. This is going to have to be managed with some forethought once I lose the luxury of spare time. Coupled with this, I need to exercise - strangely this does become easier when I start going back to the office because I can cycle to and from work. On that note my knee has twinged a bit too much to risk a bike ride over the weekend and I'd rather have it comfortable than go through that pain again.
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| Getting a bit more bulgey than it was! |
Dear Ben,
ReplyDeleteWe were pointed to your blog by Cede. So we've read it from start to finish. Well done! Both for the blog and the fast. But we are getting worried now, all this talk of second breakfasts, are you turning into a hobbit?
As someone who cooks for a living, I can only say that cuts to the fingers are only to be expected. The mark of a true chef is the burn scars on the forearms from reaching far into cavernous ovens. So that's what you have to aspire to if you follow your passion into the cooking world. Or perhaps you could miss out on the pain and write about cooking, or something else, because I think that you are developing a definite flair for writing.
Glad to see that you are following the good advice about eating and exercise, just make sure that you do't have too much acid with all of the fruit juice. Finally, have you thought about carrying an emergency cork around with you?
Love Linds and Bob
can this be moderation at last? surely not now in your 43rd year!
ReplyDeletewe'd like to hear about the job interview too -with much talk of losing of spare time and returning to an office - is there something imminent?
Maybe, as well as the cork, you could have one of those buckets that hang behind the rear ends of horses.
ReplyDeleteCould you comment on the your choice of consuming fruit juice, given its sugar content. Could you take vitamin supplements and just have veg juice? Haven't read around myself but this article was the first google came up with:
http://fruit--juice.blogspot.com/2008/09/fruit-juice-negative-effects.html
Lastly, you dropped three hints about going back to the office. Are you waiting for someone to ask the question?... Pray tell.
Ben,it's good to see you are paying attention to the quality of what you consume. I watched Hestons perfect steak, did you take note of the quantity he served, not too much. Yes, I think smaller doses more often makes sense.
ReplyDelete