You probably think that my sense of flavor is out of whack, with me enjoying the spicy lemonade and all, but I kid you not, the veggie soup is deeeelightful!
OK, I still like the lemonade better. But to be able to use my teeth and chew. My goodness, textures are such heavenly things.
I made a really simple soup:
water
baby carrots
cabbage
ie. whatever little vegetables I have tossed in a pot.
I tried seasoning it with soy sauce etc, but I don't think it worked... save for the chili peppers. What I found to work, however, is tossing nori into the soup, yknow, those dried seaweeds. They're vegetables too!
Ah. I think that's what I'll be having for dinner. I'll hold off the shabu-shabu for now. Either way, I can now eat REAL fruits, drink REAL tea, and not have to worry about my muscles degenerating. Proteins are my best friends.
Now, to whoop that butt into shape!
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
Butt complains... does that make me anal?
I quit.
That's right. On day 3 I quit.
At 5'2 I now weigh around 95 pounds... which isn't that tiny for an Asian girl. Problem is, I looked in the mirror today and lo and behold, MY BUTT IS GONE. What little bump of an excuse that I used to have is g-o-n-e. Fearing that my chest would shrink next (hey, I warned you, this is a girl's blog) I call it quits. I'm gonna drink the rest of the lemon juice as happy little morning perk me up lemonade, but this is the end of my 3 days journey.
And my butt still hurts.
Edit: The first thing I did after calling it quits was downing a glass of 1 part lemonade, 1 part water, some molasses and some pepper. Half a cup of lemon juice, now that's what I'm talking about. Real sour, real refreshing, real good. Looks like I'll be joining James for a shabu shabu dinner tonight. Like I would care about weaning it out, or anyone who wants you to go vegan for the reason of... OK, don't laugh, I'm gonna paraphrase it the way it registers in my brain:
I can't believe that I condone such Diarrhea Yourself to Malnutrition program. Shame on me. Tsk tsk.
That's right. On day 3 I quit.
At 5'2 I now weigh around 95 pounds... which isn't that tiny for an Asian girl. Problem is, I looked in the mirror today and lo and behold, MY BUTT IS GONE. What little bump of an excuse that I used to have is g-o-n-e. Fearing that my chest would shrink next (hey, I warned you, this is a girl's blog) I call it quits. I'm gonna drink the rest of the lemon juice as happy little morning perk me up lemonade, but this is the end of my 3 days journey.
And my butt still hurts.
Edit: The first thing I did after calling it quits was downing a glass of 1 part lemonade, 1 part water, some molasses and some pepper. Half a cup of lemon juice, now that's what I'm talking about. Real sour, real refreshing, real good. Looks like I'll be joining James for a shabu shabu dinner tonight. Like I would care about weaning it out, or anyone who wants you to go vegan for the reason of... OK, don't laugh, I'm gonna paraphrase it the way it registers in my brain:
Protein is overrated, it only makes up 16% of our body. Since it's made of hydrogen, and some other substances that are found in the air, our body has the system that can take in all that and churn out the protein we need. The strongest animals in the animal kingdom are herbivores, and the carnivores need 16-18 hours of sleep each day.
I can't believe that I condone such Diarrhea Yourself to Malnutrition program. Shame on me. Tsk tsk.
Day 3
Quick thoughts.
One reason why I jumped into the master cleanse program is because I have terrible water consumption habits. I usually survive off of what moisture is in my food, and probably a glass or two on top of that. Yes, a glass or two; at best, that's negative six glasses of what I need a day. Times that by 365. Times that by 15 (I trust my parents that they kept me well hydrated from ages 0-5). Plus 4 for the number of leap years. You see where I'm going with this? I can't keep on doing this for the rest of my life. I need to cultivate proper water drinking habits, and what better way than to rely solely on liquid for the duration of the fast. Sure, there's the water fasting alternative, but this one, crappy as it sounds, at least has some semblance of proper nutritional values. Oh and being on the program thus far has motivated me to push myself further upon working out. Might as well, right?
Noonish.
I hand squeezed 3 whole lemons and put them in a cup, scooping out of them as needed. Guess what, after making my second drink, the cup that was happily sitting in the fridge got knocked over when I was trying to reach for my water filter, and broke. *sulk* They ain't that easy to squeeze! Clumsy as I am, I've only broke 1 single glass in the last 4 years before today. Eerily enough, right when it happened, the thought of "I can't wait for my lemon supply to run out" crossed my mind.
Slightly later.
James came home with some groceries I asked him to grab, and the little piece I looked forward to the most was a plastic juicer. So in enthusiasm, I squeezed the rest of my 8 lemons and put them in the blended to liquify the little pulp bits. Whee! A heaping 3 cups worth of lemon juice.
Minutes later.
Trying to make myself my third glass, I discovered that my blender was leaking! Really, of all times! (Is that you, God?) Needless to say, I lost a considerable amount of juice.
One reason why I jumped into the master cleanse program is because I have terrible water consumption habits. I usually survive off of what moisture is in my food, and probably a glass or two on top of that. Yes, a glass or two; at best, that's negative six glasses of what I need a day. Times that by 365. Times that by 15 (I trust my parents that they kept me well hydrated from ages 0-5). Plus 4 for the number of leap years. You see where I'm going with this? I can't keep on doing this for the rest of my life. I need to cultivate proper water drinking habits, and what better way than to rely solely on liquid for the duration of the fast. Sure, there's the water fasting alternative, but this one, crappy as it sounds, at least has some semblance of proper nutritional values. Oh and being on the program thus far has motivated me to push myself further upon working out. Might as well, right?
Noonish.
I hand squeezed 3 whole lemons and put them in a cup, scooping out of them as needed. Guess what, after making my second drink, the cup that was happily sitting in the fridge got knocked over when I was trying to reach for my water filter, and broke. *sulk* They ain't that easy to squeeze! Clumsy as I am, I've only broke 1 single glass in the last 4 years before today. Eerily enough, right when it happened, the thought of "I can't wait for my lemon supply to run out" crossed my mind.
Slightly later.
James came home with some groceries I asked him to grab, and the little piece I looked forward to the most was a plastic juicer. So in enthusiasm, I squeezed the rest of my 8 lemons and put them in the blended to liquify the little pulp bits. Whee! A heaping 3 cups worth of lemon juice.
Minutes later.
Trying to make myself my third glass, I discovered that my blender was leaking! Really, of all times! (Is that you, God?) Needless to say, I lost a considerable amount of juice.
Days 1 and 2
Day 1
I. Love. Convoy. Living at the heart of San Diego's Asian-ville is plain awesome. I walked to Nijiya, a nearby Japanese grocery store, early this morning to gather my supplies. Organic lemons were $.99 each, so I bought 10 of them, thinking that they would last me a while. They didn't have cayenne pepper so I got me some regular red pepper.
Hours later.
I left Nijiya a very happy shopper, all 1.5 miles with three huge bags of groceries, excited of all the dishes I'll be cooking for James (my brother) even though I'd be stuck with my magic concoction. I warned him last night of this wave of insanity, and he agreed to help me stay on track (yeah right!). Also last night, I drank my detox tea as prescribed, and the salt water bath this morning. Thank goodness that I stayed right by the toilet for the hour that followed.
Minutes later.
It finally sank in. I forgot to buy me some maple syrup. Txted James to get me some on the way home.
Noon.
James called after class, he's in a neighboring Vietnamese supermarket. Have I told you that I love Convoy? He couldn't find any maple syrup and went home with a bottle of "syrup" that has a picture of pancakes on it. He said that this one English speaking lady at the store thought that it's probably a maple syrup. I should have suspected why an English speaking lady would work there, cause the ingredients list screams high fructose corn syrup, along with other gunks of factory synthetics. Was happy anyway that James went through all that effort to help me out. I greeted him with a healthy steak of salmon for lunch.
Later on.
For my daily jog, I decided to run back to Nijiya to get that elusive syrup. There are 3 grades of maple syrup: A, B, and C. Grade A is lightest in flavor and contain the least nutrients, not to mention the most expensive. Grade B is ideal for the diet, whereas Grade C are basically store brand material that aren't even graded or something like that. Nijiya only had Grade A, which is twice as expensive, and has far less nutritional benefits than molasses. I somewhat recalled the manual mentioning that it could be used as a diabetic substitute. I grabbed both, with plans to double check at home and return the one I don't use. Did I mention that because I didn't have the maple syrup I ended up eating some sashimi combo for lunch? Yum. That's one delicious mistake. I jogged home with that, a kg of sea salt (the one I had came in a grinder, so it's hard to measure), and 5 more lemons, and my shoulders were sore for over a day since then.
Later still.
People were having complaints that their lemons don't yield the 4 Tbsp. they should... mine did, even more than that in fact. I read online that if you microwave them for 30seconds and rolled them up with your palm over a hard surface like the kitchen counter it would help with the juice. Sure enough, I had more than 2 Tbsp. with each half a lemon. I actually put 3 Tbsp. per glass just because I doubt if my Ikea spoon is of the proper measurement.
A pleasant surprise a little later.
THE JUICE TASTES DELICIOUS! Seriously, I can live off this stuff for a while! I put way more pepper than directed, and it gives it quite a kick, almost as if you actually ate a real meal.
Day 2
The toilet is now my new habitat. Elimination, so to speak, is ideal in this program, at least twice a day, and boy oh boy do I have an active system.
One of 'em bathroom runs.
My butt hurts :(
I think I overdid the peppers and the acidity ain't being too kind on poor old me. I read somewhere that wetting your tissue paper with cold water helps. Now I know why cartoon characters dunk themselves in a bucket of water.
Evening.
The time I'm actually typing this. I took a nice relaxing bath and it did wonders to my shoulders. I had some doubts earlier, and even thought of quitting by the time I run out of lemons, just because I don't think that it's all that healthy, really. As I've mentioned, my main goal is rather unique, it's not for weight loss and I doubt the detoxifying prowess, but I do wanna exercise better consumption discipline. I have quite a bit of lemons left, enough for another 3-4 days, I'm gonna take it from there. Reading other people's logs and testimonials really revved up my motivation. Placebo kicked in, I can breathe freely out of my two nostrils. Yes, I still do have sinus / allergy issues. I haven't felt hungry, though I spent the whole day looking up recipes... have I mentioned that I made some bomb steak for James tonight. I've been getting him to eat healthy too, like oranges for dessert, and baby carrots and ranch for appetizer. See where I'm going? His diet is far healthier than mine! I can't wait to run out of lemons ie. O.J. Day, regardless of what the diet suggests.
Why O.J. Day?
Coming out of a fast is just as important, if not more so than the fast itself. You have to wean yourself out slowly. On the first day you're advised to drink glasses of orange juice, thus O.J. day. The following day, stay on the orange juice and you can have a vegetable soup, the less cooked the better. As you probably notice, I'm the kind of person who doesn't usually touch the veggies on their plate, and eats the skin on the chicken, and asks for extra whipped cream on my coffee. Aside from the chicken skin and some occasional whipped cream treat, I'd love to be able to enjoy vegetables and be out of my own little Pauline stereotype box.
I have the determination to start this diet, and I know that I can finish it if I want to. The juice ain't bad at all, I'm starting to enjoy my weird herbal tea, and I can't see why people have so much problems with the salt water. I'm not hungry and neither am I tempted enough to sneak a little food. I'm not experiencing any withdrawal symptom whatsoever, and... my sense of smell, like many have noted seemed to have improved, which is why I could enjoy my tea.
I. Love. Convoy. Living at the heart of San Diego's Asian-ville is plain awesome. I walked to Nijiya, a nearby Japanese grocery store, early this morning to gather my supplies. Organic lemons were $.99 each, so I bought 10 of them, thinking that they would last me a while. They didn't have cayenne pepper so I got me some regular red pepper.
Hours later.
I left Nijiya a very happy shopper, all 1.5 miles with three huge bags of groceries, excited of all the dishes I'll be cooking for James (my brother) even though I'd be stuck with my magic concoction. I warned him last night of this wave of insanity, and he agreed to help me stay on track (yeah right!). Also last night, I drank my detox tea as prescribed, and the salt water bath this morning. Thank goodness that I stayed right by the toilet for the hour that followed.
Minutes later.
It finally sank in. I forgot to buy me some maple syrup. Txted James to get me some on the way home.
Noon.
James called after class, he's in a neighboring Vietnamese supermarket. Have I told you that I love Convoy? He couldn't find any maple syrup and went home with a bottle of "syrup" that has a picture of pancakes on it. He said that this one English speaking lady at the store thought that it's probably a maple syrup. I should have suspected why an English speaking lady would work there, cause the ingredients list screams high fructose corn syrup, along with other gunks of factory synthetics. Was happy anyway that James went through all that effort to help me out. I greeted him with a healthy steak of salmon for lunch.
Later on.
For my daily jog, I decided to run back to Nijiya to get that elusive syrup. There are 3 grades of maple syrup: A, B, and C. Grade A is lightest in flavor and contain the least nutrients, not to mention the most expensive. Grade B is ideal for the diet, whereas Grade C are basically store brand material that aren't even graded or something like that. Nijiya only had Grade A, which is twice as expensive, and has far less nutritional benefits than molasses. I somewhat recalled the manual mentioning that it could be used as a diabetic substitute. I grabbed both, with plans to double check at home and return the one I don't use. Did I mention that because I didn't have the maple syrup I ended up eating some sashimi combo for lunch? Yum. That's one delicious mistake. I jogged home with that, a kg of sea salt (the one I had came in a grinder, so it's hard to measure), and 5 more lemons, and my shoulders were sore for over a day since then.
Later still.
People were having complaints that their lemons don't yield the 4 Tbsp. they should... mine did, even more than that in fact. I read online that if you microwave them for 30seconds and rolled them up with your palm over a hard surface like the kitchen counter it would help with the juice. Sure enough, I had more than 2 Tbsp. with each half a lemon. I actually put 3 Tbsp. per glass just because I doubt if my Ikea spoon is of the proper measurement.
A pleasant surprise a little later.
THE JUICE TASTES DELICIOUS! Seriously, I can live off this stuff for a while! I put way more pepper than directed, and it gives it quite a kick, almost as if you actually ate a real meal.
Day 2
The toilet is now my new habitat. Elimination, so to speak, is ideal in this program, at least twice a day, and boy oh boy do I have an active system.
One of 'em bathroom runs.
My butt hurts :(
I think I overdid the peppers and the acidity ain't being too kind on poor old me. I read somewhere that wetting your tissue paper with cold water helps. Now I know why cartoon characters dunk themselves in a bucket of water.
Evening.
The time I'm actually typing this. I took a nice relaxing bath and it did wonders to my shoulders. I had some doubts earlier, and even thought of quitting by the time I run out of lemons, just because I don't think that it's all that healthy, really. As I've mentioned, my main goal is rather unique, it's not for weight loss and I doubt the detoxifying prowess, but I do wanna exercise better consumption discipline. I have quite a bit of lemons left, enough for another 3-4 days, I'm gonna take it from there. Reading other people's logs and testimonials really revved up my motivation. Placebo kicked in, I can breathe freely out of my two nostrils. Yes, I still do have sinus / allergy issues. I haven't felt hungry, though I spent the whole day looking up recipes... have I mentioned that I made some bomb steak for James tonight. I've been getting him to eat healthy too, like oranges for dessert, and baby carrots and ranch for appetizer. See where I'm going? His diet is far healthier than mine! I can't wait to run out of lemons ie. O.J. Day, regardless of what the diet suggests.
Why O.J. Day?
Coming out of a fast is just as important, if not more so than the fast itself. You have to wean yourself out slowly. On the first day you're advised to drink glasses of orange juice, thus O.J. day. The following day, stay on the orange juice and you can have a vegetable soup, the less cooked the better. As you probably notice, I'm the kind of person who doesn't usually touch the veggies on their plate, and eats the skin on the chicken, and asks for extra whipped cream on my coffee. Aside from the chicken skin and some occasional whipped cream treat, I'd love to be able to enjoy vegetables and be out of my own little Pauline stereotype box.
I have the determination to start this diet, and I know that I can finish it if I want to. The juice ain't bad at all, I'm starting to enjoy my weird herbal tea, and I can't see why people have so much problems with the salt water. I'm not hungry and neither am I tempted enough to sneak a little food. I'm not experiencing any withdrawal symptom whatsoever, and... my sense of smell, like many have noted seemed to have improved, which is why I could enjoy my tea.
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
The Master Cleanse
Beyonce credited her weight loss to cut the cast of Dreamgirls back in 2007 to the master cleanse diet/detox program. Like other diet fads, it claims to have some miraculous benefits and instant weight loss after just 10 days of drinking just lemonade. To tell you the truth, I'm pretty cynical about it myself.
The diet calls for a spicy lemonade concoction:
2 Tbsp. of freshly squeezed lemons
2 Tbsp. of B grade maple syrup
1/8 tsp. cayenne (red) pepper
8 oz. of water
The lemonade is to be drank at least 6 times a day, chilled or warm like a tea, coupled with consumption of a senna (detox) tea as the last thing you drink at night and a salt water bath (40 oz. lukewarm water and 2 tsp. sea salt) drank on an empty stomach in the morning. The originator of the diet, Stanley Burroughs, claimed that the ingredients listed above provides sufficient sustenance for the short period of 10-40 days that this diet is designed for. That proves a question on its own as to how skilled a nutritionist Burroughs really is.
Looking at the master cleanse from a weight loss perspective, we're faced with the yo-yo effect. Fact: Losing weight real fast using any diet program = gaining back the pounds once you're off the diet. Even with continued maintenance of the diet, your body will adapt to it to a certain degree, much like why we need to modify our work out program as to not get used too it.
Through the detox point of view... hold on to that thought, I am well aware that no detox claim, eg. clearing the hardened waste products from your system, at the time of writing, has been backed up by a scientifically solid, peer-reviewed literature.
Funny enough, the only reason that I know the tiniest morsel about nutrition (Yahoo health doesn't count) and the importance of empirical studies is thanks to my education in Psychology. And that is exactly why I decided to embark on this journey.
While there hasn't been enough research conducted to prove that the master cleanse really works, there is also insufficient evidence to disprove it. It's a matter of one logic against another. One side believes that toxins need to be eliminated from the body via a strict fast-like diet and the other stands that fasting of any kind would jeopardize your metabolism. That's the one possible side effect that I don't wanna mess around with and I will certainly quit the moment I feel that my long-term metabolism is being compromised. I'm writing my own law here, but I think that by continuing my daily jog, it would spur my metabolism still. The cayenne pepper is a plus too.
Placebo or not, the notion of giving up all the junk food I live by is sure to spark some ideas in one's head. Sure, the added benefits would be great, but I'm in this mainly to gain the experience of going 10 days without food. Imagine how much willpower you'd have to combat that oh-so-tempting snickers bar.
Based on Bem's cognitive dissonance theory, Festinger and Carlsmith crafted a classic experiment (1956) where undergraduate students of an Introductory Psychology class at Stanford University were asked to take part in a "Measure of Performance" experiment, and a follow up interview to improve future studies. During the experiment, the subjects (one at a time, of course) were required to perform repetitive tasks (eg. putting 12 spools into a tray, emptying the tray, refilling it, and so on) that seem boring and pointless. At the end of the experiment, the subjecst were be debriefed that they are part of the control group, and persuaded to tell another student that was coming (who is, you guessed it, a confederate) that the experiment is fun and exciting. Half of the subjects were randomly assigned to a compensation of $20 and others $1.
Now the post-experiment interview is when things get interesting. If you were to guess which group would give a higher rating how how much they enjoyed the experiment, which would you choose? Surprise, surprise, it was the $1 group. The theory goes that the people from the $20 group would have little dissonance inside their head: the experiment was boring and they only said that it was engaging because of the $20 (an external source). The other group, however, would have conflicting cognition, "I didn't say that it was fun because of a dollar... I must have actually enjoyed the experiment!"
Applying the last couple of paragraphs to the context of the master cleanse regime, by denying the thousands of temptations I would face each day, I hope to induce the notion and drill into my head that I'm not eating these junk food because I don't like them that much, especially after weighing it against the costs of an unhealthy lifestyle.
So here's my journey. I'm on day 2, and I will post my progress thus far in the next post.
The diet calls for a spicy lemonade concoction:
2 Tbsp. of freshly squeezed lemons
2 Tbsp. of B grade maple syrup
1/8 tsp. cayenne (red) pepper
8 oz. of water
The lemonade is to be drank at least 6 times a day, chilled or warm like a tea, coupled with consumption of a senna (detox) tea as the last thing you drink at night and a salt water bath (40 oz. lukewarm water and 2 tsp. sea salt) drank on an empty stomach in the morning. The originator of the diet, Stanley Burroughs, claimed that the ingredients listed above provides sufficient sustenance for the short period of 10-40 days that this diet is designed for. That proves a question on its own as to how skilled a nutritionist Burroughs really is.
Looking at the master cleanse from a weight loss perspective, we're faced with the yo-yo effect. Fact: Losing weight real fast using any diet program = gaining back the pounds once you're off the diet. Even with continued maintenance of the diet, your body will adapt to it to a certain degree, much like why we need to modify our work out program as to not get used too it.
Through the detox point of view... hold on to that thought, I am well aware that no detox claim, eg. clearing the hardened waste products from your system, at the time of writing, has been backed up by a scientifically solid, peer-reviewed literature.
Funny enough, the only reason that I know the tiniest morsel about nutrition (Yahoo health doesn't count) and the importance of empirical studies is thanks to my education in Psychology. And that is exactly why I decided to embark on this journey.
While there hasn't been enough research conducted to prove that the master cleanse really works, there is also insufficient evidence to disprove it. It's a matter of one logic against another. One side believes that toxins need to be eliminated from the body via a strict fast-like diet and the other stands that fasting of any kind would jeopardize your metabolism. That's the one possible side effect that I don't wanna mess around with and I will certainly quit the moment I feel that my long-term metabolism is being compromised. I'm writing my own law here, but I think that by continuing my daily jog, it would spur my metabolism still. The cayenne pepper is a plus too.
Placebo or not, the notion of giving up all the junk food I live by is sure to spark some ideas in one's head. Sure, the added benefits would be great, but I'm in this mainly to gain the experience of going 10 days without food. Imagine how much willpower you'd have to combat that oh-so-tempting snickers bar.
Based on Bem's cognitive dissonance theory, Festinger and Carlsmith crafted a classic experiment (1956) where undergraduate students of an Introductory Psychology class at Stanford University were asked to take part in a "Measure of Performance" experiment, and a follow up interview to improve future studies. During the experiment, the subjects (one at a time, of course) were required to perform repetitive tasks (eg. putting 12 spools into a tray, emptying the tray, refilling it, and so on) that seem boring and pointless. At the end of the experiment, the subjecst were be debriefed that they are part of the control group, and persuaded to tell another student that was coming (who is, you guessed it, a confederate) that the experiment is fun and exciting. Half of the subjects were randomly assigned to a compensation of $20 and others $1.
Now the post-experiment interview is when things get interesting. If you were to guess which group would give a higher rating how how much they enjoyed the experiment, which would you choose? Surprise, surprise, it was the $1 group. The theory goes that the people from the $20 group would have little dissonance inside their head: the experiment was boring and they only said that it was engaging because of the $20 (an external source). The other group, however, would have conflicting cognition, "I didn't say that it was fun because of a dollar... I must have actually enjoyed the experiment!"
Applying the last couple of paragraphs to the context of the master cleanse regime, by denying the thousands of temptations I would face each day, I hope to induce the notion and drill into my head that I'm not eating these junk food because I don't like them that much, especially after weighing it against the costs of an unhealthy lifestyle.
So here's my journey. I'm on day 2, and I will post my progress thus far in the next post.
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