What I've Learnt From The Crazy Sexy Diet

Juice
Juicing is kind of expensive, or at least it felt that way. A lot of the extra veggies I was buying went into making juice, and there is so much of them that you put into the juicer and it only makes a glass-full! I know this is common sense and the basic laws of juicing, but throwing out a tub of vegetable “fibre” every morning takes a toll on someone who doesn’t like to waste. However, it really wasn’t all bad. I found that after a few mornings of green juice I started to get used to the taste, which is amazing considering the main ingredient in my juices was cucumber, a vegetable I really didn’t like too much previously. I’ve actually found myself craving green juice lately, which is, bizarre. Liquid breakfasts have become my norm and I felt almost lost about breakfast when I realised that in a few days time I wouldn’t have to drink my brekky every morning. I feel like I have a clear head and can really focus my energy when I’ve got my green juice and lime-water and meditation pillow and I’m working it, and it’s one of the elements of the diet I plan to keep as part of my every day routine, despite having to wash my juicer!

Veganism
Veganism is one of the things I thought I would have the most trouble with, but as it turned out, it was probably the easiest part of the cleanse to stick with. Despite every so often craving pizza (curse you Jamie’s 30min meals!) or the delicious “Heavenly Nachos” dip from Flannery’s I otherwise found it much easier than I’d anticipated. Eating vegan food out and about was also quite easy, so when I did indulge, I indulged in delicious vegan options. Although I can’t see myself being entirely vegan straight away now that I’m off the cleanse, I definitely plan to cut down on how many eggs and how much cheese I eat, and I’m definitely making the switch to Rice milk permanent. I think it was very clear to me that my digestion suffers when I eat too many animal products, and that it’s better for me (and for the earth) if I work towards cutting down how often I eat them, perhaps even cutting them out entirely.

…Raw, lightly steamed or sautéed vegetables should make up 60%-80% of your plate…
Eating Raw makes it near-impossible to eat out, which, by the way, is something I love doing. Even when ordering salads they usually come with some sort of non-vegan friendly ingredient, like fetta or a creamy dressing, and sometimes when you take an ingredient out and don’t replace it you just end up with a plate full of rocket, which I consider an incredibly depressing sight. The diet doesn’t say “a plate full of salad every meal” it says “a rainbow of coloured vegetables” and that just isn’t available at many restaurants. The closest to the diet (without being the aforementioned plate of rocket) I could find in inner city Brisbane was sushi train, and even then the white rice was an unwelcomed compromise – but compromise I did, because some things are just worth compromising for (especially Shlix ice-cream!). Montezumas restaurant (one of which is located conveniently down my street) has a salad made of broccoli, carrot, parsley, celery, green apple and a whole lotta other vegetables which was a god send on a night when I just didn’t feel like putting in any effort – I just had to ask for it without dressing and cheese – easy peasy!

Knowledge
Following the CSD Adventure Cleanse and writing about it really made me want to know so much more about some of the ideas within the Crazy Sexy Diet philosophy. I watched the documentaries Food Matters and Super Size Me, and I’ve spent a lot of time researching raw foodism and nutrition as health care.  The whole diet has been almost equal parts spiritual, physical and mental; spiritual and emotional – meditation and affirmations, physical – exercise and diet and mental – nutritional (but not in a counting calories every meal and snack kind of way) and learning (from books and docos but also from my body).

Conclusion
I stuck with veganism as much as practicality would allow (about 99% of the time) and I was gluten free except for the soy sauce I ate when eating out and the soba noodles (which at the time I thought were made from gluten free buckwheat…). If I count “wean week” (the week previous to the cleanse where I gradually cut gluten, animal products, processed foods and other acidic food from my diet) I lost 4 kilos.

Coming off the diet I admit I had a rather big blow-out on drinks, Pringles, a crepe, sour-dough baguette and a huge burger and chips from Grill’d, and I hate to say it for all you folks out there who want to believe that what you eat doesn’t make a difference, but I felt lethargic and mentally cloudy all day. Monday morning and I’m straight back on the horse – it just made me feel so good I don’t want to give it up. I won’t be sticking to it quite as strictly as I have for the last three weeks, that would be exhausting and probably socially destructive, but I will follow it as much as I can because the closer I follow it, the better I feel.

In the end I think what I learnt the clearest is that you choose what you put in your mouth. Sure, people and places and books and advertising can suggest something to you to eat, but essentially you have the choice to eat it or abstain from it if you want to. And you don’t have to abstain from “eating the bad things” every time either, because you have the freedom to choose when you want to treat yourself. It’s a diet, not a jail cell, but there also needs to be balance. That balance for me, I think I’ve discovered, has to be healthy, delicious meals made for the greater part of vegetables (raw and cooked) when I’m eating at home with treats once or twice a week, sometimes homemade, sometimes eaten out.



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