It’s been nearly three months since I discovered juicing, which in turn led me to massive googling sessions on the issues of nutrition, which in turn made me realise that not only have I been eating very badly, but that my food intake was most likely responsible for my lack of energy and buggered immune system which allowed me to catch man flu whenever I became even a little damp or chilled.
Three months on, I feel fantastic. I wake up every morning with a real enthusiasm for the day ahead (slightly dampened if the day ahead involves housework). I feel fit, even though I don’t exercise more than I did (and I know this is something I must address next). Oh, and I have lost ten percent of my bodyweight.
Those who know me would not describe me as fat, but there had been a little bit more tummy than I would like for some time. I peaked at around 84 kilos when I was working, which was very uncomfortable around the waist. After retirement I settled at around 78-80kg and have been that way for years, only dreaming of the far off days when I used to be slimmer of waist and 75kg. After a couple of months of my new way of eating I thought I should check my weight: 71kg!
Cue amazement all round, and she who must be obeyed was off into the recesses of a cupboard where she extracted a pair of jeans she had bought for me a couple of years ago which looked great but were impossible to fit around my stomach due to being a 32 inch waist rather than my usual rather snug 34 inch. Tried them on again and they were a comfortable fit.
So in two months I lost 8KG (and my weight continues to hover around 71KG). And that is 8KG of fat, because my home improvements and other tasks have kept me as least as active as usual; amazing (and disgusting if you imagine what 8KG of fat must look like).
All this is not the result of a special diet; it’s the result of a better way of eating which is really simple to describe: Minimise crap food, maximise healthy food.
Crap food includes processed, sugary junk. Healthy food is fresh, preferably raw, vegetables and fruit. Vegetables and fruit used to be less than 10% of my intake; now they are more than 90%. It has been that easy to change my life.
The day starts with water. Your body has been dehydrating while you sleep. What it doesn’t need is a full English breakfast and a cup of coffee, what is needs is water. I drink a half litre glass of water into which I have squeezed a quarter of a lemon. The lemon helps put your body in an alkaline state, plus it makes for a really refreshing way to start the day. Once you start drinking water in the morning, you realise that that is what your body needs more than food to get it started. That’s a Spike hot tip, try it.
Now for breakfast. My breakfast was always reasonably healthy: muesli and yoghurt, sometimes with a passing banana. But commercial muesli can be laden with processed sugar, so I bought a bag of oats and added in some sliced walnuts and a few dried cranberries. Tastes great and less than half the cost of buying a packet of muesli. The cost declined further when I started using home-made yoghurt. I also add a few frozen blueberries. Blueberries are stuffed with things that are good for you, and even though I can’t afford to buy other than frozen, they are a healthy and tasty addition to breakfast.
Along with or after breakfast I have a fruit juice, or I eat a load of fruit. I know that it is recommended to eat fruit and juice veggies; but it is hard to describe just how good some juices can be. The drink in the photo below contained the juice of three oranges and four passion fruit, blended with two bananas to make a smoothie. Half a litre of heaven.
My remaining two meals are ideally one of veggie juice and one of salad. For the veggie juice I sling whatever is in the fridge in the juicer. If I make sure I include and least one bell pepper and a very small slice of ginger, it is usually palatable and occasionally excellent.
And then salad. I know what you’re thinking; ugh, salad, boring. Not my salad. Sticky firmly to the belief “if it don’t crunch, it ain’t lunch” (™ ® Pattaya Days, all rights reserved), my salads are not your typical slice of leaking tomato and a soggy piece of lettuce, no sir. I made a list of the ingredients I carefully threw into a bowl for yesterday’s salad:
Radishes Onion Lettuce (small hearts from Royal Project farms) Walnuts Almonds Kidney Beans Carrots Bell pepper Apple Tomatoes Cranberries Celery
Put that lot together in a large bowl and attack with a spoon, good times. No dressing to spoil the flavours, just raw delicious food.
Of course I can’t always eat like this. Sometimes I have to be social and I go out and have a meal with she who must be obeyed to break up her working day, or an after-work dinner. This is when my pescatarian cop-out comes in handy; opening up the world of Sushi and assorted fish offerings at various restaurants (it’s depressing how many places offer zero vegetarian choices). Mexican meals (beans option) go down well, maybe because they are always accompanied by a margarita. And of course there is always the occasional lurch into depravity, such as yesterday when we shared a large slice of chocolate mud cake and I ate most of it. I felt guilty for minutes.
Do I miss some of the food I used to eat? Not really, most of it was ingested for convenience rather than pleasure, and the food I am eating now is generally much more tasty than my previous meals. And if I fancy a treat, I indulge; overall I am eating so much better than I did three months ago so I am not going to deny myself.
Looking back, I am amazed how ignorant I have been about nutrition and just how important it is for health. This is obvious now, but I have lived my life on the assumption that you eat to stay alive and it doesn’t matter that much what you ingest. Complete bollocks of course.
Now I am eating healthier, my risk of a chronic disease is dramatically reduced. I may still fall to cancer, heart attack, stroke, diabetes or dementia; but the risks are massively reduced now I eat well. My weight has dropped such that my BMI is on the low side of normal. I am eating food that is delicious and I know is good for me. But most of all I feel so much better; more alive and with more energy.
Never going back.
Comments 🔗
2013-07-07| Jan sayswell done !!!
2013-07-07| Phil saysWell done Spike, a shining example. I have a juicer and feel better every time I take in juice, especially veggie. But, I have a stressful job in Pattaya and find myself eating junk food late at night. I’ve actually put weight on lately, even though I cycle and walk everywhere. I’m going to try your water trick and see hoe it goes. Looking to buy a Hurum juicer next pay day, but my new room doesn’t have a fridge, so I won’t be able to store juice. Keep it up. Phil
2013-07-07| Barry saysYou, sir, are an inspiration to me and I am going to follow your advice. I’ve previously discovered that the easiest way to lose weight is simply to eat less (the diet supplement companies would hate me) after taking the edge off my appetitie with water and/or a banana before a meal. But you have taken things further and also found the correct stuff to stuff yourself with and I will surely benefit from your Googling. A Knighthood will be on the way.
2013-07-07| Clive saysSomething tells me that no amount of congratulations here is going to leave you feeling as good as a glance at the scales: but… good for you!
Given your penchant for helpful tutorials and this new subject matter, any chance you might be tempted to knock out a “Juicing Guide” in a similar style to your “Photography Guide”?
Enough material there to get the creative juices flowing? [ Pun intended! ]
Pathetic attempts at witicisms aside, I imagine that your talents with a camera, the subject matter and your dry wit could easily turn out an easily-absorbed eBook. [Ooh! Another pun!] Via Kindle if you’re feeling mercenary, or uploaded pdf if you’re not…
Go on! You know you want to!
2013-07-07| Clive saysStop the [digital] press…
This is a call out to all the usual Pattaya Days hecklers… you know who you are: pun and/or wordplay challenge on the general theme of juicing. Got to be worth a try…
2013-07-08| Chang Noi saysGood, but do not be over-juiced …. unhealthy building up a body for 50 years leave its marks forever. But since a half year I try to eat less unhealthy and just less. And indeed it works very easy. I like marmalade (jam) so I make that myself. Due to your new way of eating I think you also eat much less gluten (and they are really very unhealthy. I may start to try the juicing also.
2013-07-08| Craig saysYou were always a role model of mine, and now you’ve done it again. I have dropped Carbs, increased Veggies, avoid processed food and look at anything containing sugar as plot to kill me. At least one meal a day is Salad, my juicer is too slow to clean, but will get a new one. What is also amazing is - 20 minutes of stretching and Stand Up Paddle Boarding, 4 times a week and the occasional Windsurf Session or SUP Surf trip to Rayong and I have a new body in just 2 months. Totally ripped, like a magazine cover, now will increase muscle mass and surfing skills for a dream life in Thailand. - thanks Spike
2013-07-08| Craig saysflax, pumpkin, sunflower and sesame seeds - also are good addition to cereal or salad. They are cheap, store well and sometimes i just eat a bowl of them with yogurt or milk. Would like to move away from all processed food, including meat eventually - experimenting with organic food production at our beach club, but progress has almost stopped due to work commitments. Getting out of the “system” reduces my footprint and supports others who care about the environment. Nature is inside as much as outside out bodies. Feels bloody Great to be strong and healthy again.
2013-07-08| The Heavyweight saysBeen eating Muesli, fruit and yoghurt etc. all my life. We’ll only know whether it was good for anything on our 95th birthday ;)
2013-07-08| Spike saysFunny, I always thought you were a role model of mine. We must be following each other around in circles in a cloud of sycophancy!
2013-07-08| Spike saysHot off the cold press?
2013-07-08| Spike saysCan you send it courier please.
2013-07-08| ChristianPFC saysCongratulations! I eat a lot of fruit (whatever is in season in Thailand) for breakfast and dinner, without juicing.
I wonder about this: “The lemon helps put your body in an alkaline state” where did you get this information from? Can you translate this into a language I (a chemist) understand? (This is my polite way to say: I think you confused something or got something wrong.)
2013-07-08| dude saysCould you share a couple of the most usefull links about healthy diets? I somehow have the feeling that everyone says something else! eat this, do that, avoid this… It’s really confusing to me! Home-made juice is awesome. Apples and beetroot are a great starting-point for a refreshing juice - add whatever is in season. I don’t have my own juicer, though.
2013-07-09| Spike saysGoogle “lemon water alkiline”, many articles, including this: http://www.livestrong.com/article/498141-can-adding-lemon-juice-water-make-water-alkaline/
2013-07-09| Spike saysThere are certainly thousands of conflicting views out there. One of the first things I watched was “Fact, Sick and Nearly Dead by Joe Cross. It’s mainly about juicing, but pretty motivational stuff. I defy you not to get a tear in your eye in the last couple of minutes. His site has loads of recipes and tips: http://www.rebootwithjoe.com/ http://www.livestrong.com/ has a load of information
Most of what I have learned has come from typing questions into Google and then reading what comes up.
I also enjoyed watching Food Matters and Food Inc. Earthlings is a hard watch.
2013-07-11| ChristianPFC saysI read that article (lemon water alkaline) and some others. As a chemist, I am not satisfied with their explanations (imprecise unscientific language, and I don’t mean they are simplifying it for laymen, there is simply no scientific basis for this concept!) and still think this malarkey/humbug. But if people eat fruit based on this concept instead of going to McDonalds, it serves a good cause.