Devil's Advocate

[Cliff Hargrave]

I am going 21 days without any animal products, junk foods, etc. This has nothing to do with David or this forum section. It's a personal thing I am doing.

I just thought it would be interesting to share what happens and see how it goes.

I do cheat on beverages though. I am supposed to just drink water but I have been drinking unsweetened tea and coffee and an occasional diet Pepsi.

My basic day is fruit for breakfast, salad and nuts for lunch, and a cooked dinner of either vegetables or some kind of beans/peas. I have eaten rice once and pasta twice.

Fats are almost exclusively olive oil and nuts. Raw almonds usually.

This is day 8.

Don't worry, I'm not going vegan or anything. I plan on a huge ribeye and beer on March 21.

[David Craik]

Should be pretty interesting. Good luck Cliff.

[Cliff Hargrave]

This is like a practice run. When I do it for real, it will be secret, and I will only drink water and probably eat just raw foods.

My initial observations:

Yea I have lost weight. A lot actually. Ten pounds fell off me immediately. But going from the way I was eating, to eating good, it should make a difference, regardless of the diet.

First two days I had some hunger pains even though I ate quite a bit. They were gone by the third day and now they are not even there. Day four I was feeling run down and thought it was the eating, but I ended up at the doctor with a raging sinus infection. So I can't contribute that to anything. I got a steroid shot and an antibiotic and felt much better by Sunday. I feel normal today. Ironically when I went to the doctor, I saw that the last time I was there was March 7, 2010 with a sinus infection. March always gets me around here. It stars with allergies and then gets worse.

This morning I wasn't even hungry when I got up. I had some water and coffee. I brought my lunch which consisted of a romaine, tomato, and spinach salad with olive oil, a handful of raw almonds, and a banana. That was four hours ago and I am not hungry at all.

I had some dreams about cooking steaks on my grill :)

I am pretty sure the caffeine will probably be the hardest part when I do this correctly.

I am working out six days a week, but I missed Thurs, Fri, and Sat due to the sinus infection. I got back on track Sunday. I actually started a P90X round the week before this.

[Abbax8]

Thanks for the report and Good Luck!

Dennis

[jjaje]

Is this from a specific program / book or just something you wanted to try?

[sean_stonehart]

Wow!! Impressive... Keep the posts coming & let me know how you do when you toss caffine.

[Cliff Hargrave]

I am seriously dreading the whole caffeine thing. I think that will be worse than any diet I have ever been on.

I need to edit the size of my avatar, I look huge in it. (even though there was a Glock under that shirt)

[Cliff Hargrave]

much better......

[Rasputin]

You might want to add coconut milk as a vegetarian source of saturated fat. Where were you planning on getting your B-12 from this month?

[David Craik]

I would consider a supplement Cliff. As David alluded to, B12 is very important and is -to my knowledge- pretty much only found in sufficient quantities in animal products. Exactly why I'm leery of diets which lack variety, too easy to be deficient somewhere.

[Cliff Hargrave]

I have been reading a lot of good things about coconuts lately. The Gracies are big believers in them. Coconut meat, coconut oil, coconut water, etc.. I just don't know where to get any of it. The grocery stores around here only carry a few coconuts that have already turned brown, and from what I have read those are useless for anything except using the meat to cook. I want some fresh coconuts where the fuzzy part is still white, and some pure consumable oil.

[Rasputin]

http://www.amazon.com/Native-Forest-Organic-Classic-13-5-Ounce/dp/B001HTJ2BQ/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1299789503&sr=8-2

Buy it by the case like I do and shipping is free; no tax either.

As for coconut oil, I get it by the pound locally--Whole Foods is your best bet if they have one in your area. If not, you should still be able to find the oil at a local health foods store.

You can make a mean curry with vegetables, curry paste and/or powder, and coconut milk.

Potatoes (especially sweet potatoes) are a reasonable source of complete protein for those who are eating vegetarian. They pale before meat and eggs as far as nutrients:sugar, of course, but they are still much better than grains for overall health.

If you stuck with this after the experimental three weeks and added only eggs to your diet, you would be doing much better than the SAD if you stay away from wheat and sugar.

[Cliff Hargrave]

I am NOT sticking to this. Its just a personal challenge.

[Rasputin]

Just sayin'. In case anyone else became inspired.

[Cliff Hargrave]

Update....

17 pounds as of this morning. (202 to 185)

I am in the middle of week 4 on P90X.

I feel great!

[Jay Bell]

Awesome =)

[Cliff Hargrave]

Well my walk through the vegan world ended yesterday. It was interesting. I weighed in at 183 this morning. So that's 19 pounds. I am going to stick with my modified Gracie Diet for a little longer and slowly re-introduce meat to it. I am enjoying having fruit for breakfast and a salad and nuts for lunch. I'll leave dinner as my "cooked" meal. I just started week five of this round of P90X. I will probably start having a protein shake post workout again.

I have learned that I love spinach, raw or cooked. I have eaten quite a bit of it over the past three weeks.

I have actually enjoyed this little adventure more than I thought I would. I have gotten really creative in my cooking skills. But I think the best part is I have gotten out of the habit of eating junk food. No donuts, candy, cake, cookies, chips, etc. I don't even crave them or think about them. I think having the fruit for breakfast takes care of the sweet tooth in me.

Btw, for those that were wondering if I had lost my mind, I was doing what is called The Daniel Fast. It was something from church. I do plan on doing it again in a few months. I wasn't exactly 100% on it this time and just wanted to see if I could do it. I learned that I can do it and next time I will do it.

[Jon-Bhoy]

I am in the middle of week 4 on P90X.
The Core Synergistics workout on the off week is one of my favorites..

[Cliff Hargrave]

I'm kind of partial to the Yoga X and Plyometrics.

[Jon-Bhoy]

Ugghh.. I HATE the plyo workout lol...I do yoga 3x a week anyway, so I guess im partial to that too.