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Day one (Friday)
I felt like I got hit by a train or the flu or both. We had Fruit for breakfast, lunch and dinner. (apples, pears, grapes)
Work was a blur and I had a real hard time keeping my head above water. I passed out in my car for a few after "lunch".
My mom stopped by and we couldn't form our words. Starving, need food. Not really feeling the effects of no cigarettes because I'm too preoccupied with the pain of hunger and the lack of motivation.
Day two (Saturday)
A very low-energy day. We had fruit for breakfast (3 kiwis). I tried to work on my website while holly went to her sewing class but ended up just kinda staring at the screen. When she got home I had lunch ready (a plain salad of leafy greens, sprouts and grated root veggies like daikon radish and carrots). Bla! Veggies are good, but not when you're starving. We laid around most of the rest of the day and took it very easy. Dinner of "soup" (cabbage, broccoli, onion, carrots boiled in water) Bla!
Day three (Sunday)
Breakfast of one and a half grapefruits. We drove out to Revere Beach and took a walk. This is probably the lowest energy day so far. I feel like I have the flu, Holly feels a little better. It's nice to take a walk though. In the evening we went to see Persepolis which made us think about how lucky we are not to live in a war-torn country where there is no food on the shelves of the grocery store. We pondered our privilege and imagined how stupid we would look reading the nutrition facts on the last bag of flour on an empty supermarket shelf in Tehran and complaining that it's not organic.
Day four (Monday)
Not feeling as bad as Sunday, but I am quite hungry. More energy though, and less flu symptoms. I had a rather productive day at work. On Sunday I was thinking that if Monday was anything like Friday, I was going to have to stop the diet least I be fired for lack of productivity. I had grapes for breakfast - lunch was, as usual, a salad of leafy greens and root veggies, now with a bit of olive oil and a squeeze of lemon juice. Not bad - but on an empty stomach, it doesn't really do the trick. Still hungry, but feeling better. Dinner of baked fennel, onions and beets (no oil or seasoning), steamed broccoli and blanched bok choy.
Day five (Tuesday)
Now we think we can go all the way! Maybe... We had been talking about stopping the diet at day 5. At the time (yesterday) even day 5 sounded like a million years away but now it's here and we're feeling good. Holly read something about how you should stick it out because the real cleansing happens later in the cycle and besides, don't be a pussy! So, la la... here we go. Pears for breakfast, same old salad for lunch and a dinner of baked veggies (onion, fennel, something else...) blanched bok choy and green beans—steamed broccoli.
Day six (Wednesday)
Day six is a bad day. So much for feeling optimistic and good about stuff, I feel like total shit. I can't keep my head up, I'm starving, I feel weak and I can't concentrate. I feel buzzed, partially from the nicotine cravings—which are usually gone after 6 days of no smoking—and also from the starvation. My legs are weak and rubbery and I can not stop thinking about fried eggs on sourdough toast with salt and pepper, or a bacon blu-cheeseburger. I'm definitely going to O'Sullivans next week (best burgers in town). I have proposed to Holly that we make it an 8 day thing instead of 10, that way we can eat this weekend and don't have to suffer through another wasted weekend of lying around feeling like shit. Besides, I think I've lost weight and I'm damn skinny as it is... and I freakin' need food.
Day seven (Thursday)
Nights have been tough, lots of tossing and turning, sleeplessness and waking up tired (and hungry). I've been watching David Attenborough's The Life of Birds... he did a program on meat eating birds—eating monkeys and other birds and stuff—and even that made me hungry. I'm having all these great ideas about what I'm going to cook this summer on the grill. This diet has gotten us thinking a bit about the things we take for granted in this great country of ours. First of all it's nice to even have the privilege of embarking on a cleansing diet. We shouldn't take for granted that we have so much. On a given day we can choose what kind of food we want from seemingly limitless possibilities - especially living in a city. We zoom around in our cars consuming constantly (food and otherwise). We waste so much. Not eating makes one appreciate food more. I guess it's like they say; you never know what you have until it's gone. A lesson... Appreciate what you have and don't take it for granted, just imaging if you lost it. This applies to many things (legs, eyes, girlfriends, cars, jobs, weekends, weekdays). Today for lunch, in addition to the customary salad, we could eat a few Ryvita crackers... it was the best cardboard I've ever eaten.
Day eight (Friday)
It's the last day of the diet and not a day too soon. I've already fed the sourdough starter for bread tomorrow and I'll be making a list of food to pick up at the store tonight on the way home from work. I was distracted this morning watching Barak Obama's speech on racism and I forgot to bring my breakfast to work. I thought about just skipping it until I remembered how hungry I am and went to the store for a grapefruit—and I'm glad I did. The day went by just fine, hungry and can't stop thinking about food – all the good things we're going to eat tomorrow. Holly is home from work before I am and we decided to spice up our last veggie dinner with cheese and crackers, chips and wine – hereby breaking the diet, just a bit early.
I felt, throughout the diet, as if I was looking back at my life from beyond the grave wishing I could do things differently. "If only I had known then, what I know now," says I. "I would not have taken so much for granted." And so on...
That's about it, I'm glad to be able to eat once again. I feel renewed. Cleansed? ...maybe, I'll have to wait ‘till my strength comes back and my body returns to a normal working state to say for sure.