Day four May 16
Fuck, I miss food. It’s not that I’m hungry, actually I find my 700-800 calories of syrup a day is more than enough fuel for sitting in front of the computer and walking home from the metro. I’m not getting lightheaded or anything like that. I just… I miss food. A lot. I went back into whole foods and couldn’t help torturing myself, walking around, smelling things, looking at the samples and the salad bars longingly. I was good, though, no cheating. I’m almost halfway through this thing. Tweaks put me in touch with her trainer, and I will probably have a consultation with him next week, which after beach week should become a regular thing. I’ve been thinking of tons of different ways to alter my diet to maintain and build on whatever gains I make during the course of this thing. That said, when I weighed myself earlier, it was still stuck on 354. WTF, scale? Oh, on the pooping front, the only new development is a teensy bit of actual poop in the evening. Not quite a phantom, this evening. Probably chock full of toxins! Take that, toxins! Terri tried to convince me today that I needed to get those Japanese detoxifying foot pads. The internets are very skeptical about these. I gotta say, I am too. Do all my toxins circulate through my feet somehow? That doesn’t make sense to me. But it *does* make sense to me there would be accumulated toxins in my gut. That… that I could see.
Brian May 17
There are no mystery “toxins” in your body that can be removed by drinking maple syrup or by putting Japanese pads on your feet. Everything that you consume is thoroughly detoxified by your liver and kidneys and excreted through your urine and feces. Detox diets and the entire theory of diuretic detoxification has been pretty handily dismissed by clinical studies.
It is entirely possible that you have been exposed to toxic materials in trace amounts through drinking water or by environmental contamination of the food you eat. However, there is no evidence that these toxins, even in aggregate accumulation, have any affect on you whatsoever, so any claims made by people trying to sell you something are based on wild conjecture and magical thinking. You’ll notice that these people will almost never specify the toxins that are harmful, or the mechanism through which they are being removed.
People talk about wanting to have a “pure” and “clean” body, but your body is naturally teeming with friendly bacteria that help you to digest and stave off infection. Diets such as this have not been shown to have any beneficial effect, but have been shown to have the harmful effect of flushing out friendly micro-organisms. The complete lack of vital nutrients that can not be effectively digested by vitamin supplementation is also a cause for concern.
That said, having struggled with weight loss for some time I totally understand the need to prove something to yourself.
Matthew Barney Gumble May 18
Thanks for the comment Brian - I do know that what I’m doing is essentially crazy and not, y’know… healthy, per se. That said, I’m starting to see food and hunger a lot differently. The fact is, I’ve had no more than 600 calories today and I feel sharper and more energetic than I ever do when I’m eating my normal probably 3-4k calories/day. More than anything, I knew that to change my lifestyle I needed a clean break, and that’s what I’m doing here. Rather than squander the progress on my weight that I make during this fast, I feel motivated and capable of building on it going forward. I have a goal and a plan to pursue it. This is just a step I needed to take.
Brian May 18
I definitely wish you luck with that goal. I couldn’t believe it when I started paying attention and realized that I too was consuming ~3-4k calories every day, but even knowing that I had a really tough time breaking myself of the mindless grazing I’d do throughout the day.
It’s so hard to develop a healthy attitude toward eating, but in my experience once you have, it makes losing weight so much less challenging.
Jessica May 19
OMG GET THE FOOTPADS. Doooooooooooood I need these so bad. So I think I actually mean, “omg get the foodpads, then give them to me.” What makes them turn black???? I need to know! The 40 bucks or whatever that they cost is TOTALLY WORTH the wealth of knowledge gained! (If not the, er, toxins that are like tewtelly escaping through the soles of your feet.)
Matthew Barney Gumble May 19
I kind of do really want to know what turns them black, but I feel like I’ve done plenty to combat the toxins this week… like… enough for at least a couple of years…
Isley May 20
You should get these ear candles too!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ear_candling
Heh…actually I’m pretty sure all the shit inside the candles comes from the candle itself. Still…if they actually did work and pulled that much gunk out of your ear, imagine what they’d get if you stuck one in your ass!