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.



Related Posts: Crazy, Sexy... Diet?, Update Week 1, Update Week 2, Update Week 3

Crazy Sexy Update: Week Three

DAY SIXTEEN: Today I made the decision that this week I would try as many new recipes from the book as possible (many include ingredients that aren’t available here, even in the finest Health stores, or the recipe requires a vegetable dehydrator. I do not have a vegetable dehydrator.) So today I tried the Thai “Peanut” Sauce Vegetables and it was absolutely delicious! Dusted off an old Yoga dvd and spent 45 minutes of my afternoon bending, stretching and relaxing.

DAY SEVENTEEN: Hit the gym this morning for a really epic cardio work out. Stuck closely to the diet and watched a few movies – generally a great day!

DAY EIGHTEEN: Today I woke up and downloaded a guided meditation, which got me off to a great start this morning! Totally motivated, I hit the library and the grocery store. Made some Southwest Black (red kidney) Bean and Roasted Sweet Potato Burger patties that I ate with some brown rice and guacamole – delicious! It was one of the first meals I’d eaten on the diet where more than just the grains were cooked, and it was a lifesaver, because all morning I’d been craving something hot and savoury. May have had them for lunch and dinner…

DAY NINETEEN: HOME STRETCH E’RBODY! Am really just very excited about finishing this thing. Had another burger or two today, they’re really good!

DAY TWENTY: So close! My skin is particularly glow-y today, and I’m feeling really great today. Have been putting lots of effort into relaxation and meditation in the last few days and it’s really paying off, I feel so Zen.

DAY TWENTY-ONE: Considering this my first day off the cleanse, especially since when I went to the markets this morning the juice lady wasn’t there, so I had a crepe instead, then we had a some baguette for lunch and delicious Grill’d burgers for dinner… And a few drinks after that. Felt really tired and lethargic in the afternoon and the drinks went straight to my head, although that isn’t surprising.

Stay tuned for Crazy Sexy Diet results post tomorrow!

Crazy Sexy Update: Week Two

DAY NINE: Today, if there’s something to be pissed off at, I’m pissed at it, with an enthusiasm and fury like never before. I’m pissed at my bank. Pissed at my GPS. Pissed at the fuzzy caterpillars on the sidewalk. Pissed at the smell downwind of the pet store that makes me miss my puppy. Most of all I’m pissed off at all the freakin’ restriction on my diet – went to dinner with my sister and my dad and ordered side servings of salad and broccoli as they were the only vegan and gluten free things on the menu. Conclusion: Italian restaurants aren’t very Crazy-Sexy-Friendly, and I may have some bottled up unresolved anger issues I was previously unaware of.

WE INTERUPT THIS BROADCAST FOR A SHORT, VIOLENT BOUT OF STOMACH FLU.

Crazy Sexy Update: Week One

WARNING: This article contains over-sharing. Over sharing about poop, and other things.


Day Two:
Today I felt lame, really lame. Tired, out of sorts, exhausted – this wasn’t helped by the fact that I spent all day craving food that wasn’t what I packed in my to-go lunch and dinner bag since I was working away from home all day til 8. Working hard at work while working hard at detoxing is FREAKIN’ hard work, let me tell you.

Day Three:
Today was fine until I went a little off script for dinner – I was just going to not eat until I got home, but when I got there I was so hungry, and I’d never been to a sushi train before, so I incorrectly thought they might have some brown rice options, but alas they did not. So white rice was eaten, but otherwise I ate crazily and sexily. And I felt fabulous too!

Real Life Experiment: Crazy Sexy... Diet?

On Sunday March 13, 2011, I started Kris Carr’s Crazy Sexy Diet 21-Day Adventure Cleanse.

To everyone I’ve talked to about it, or mentioned it to, I’ve just shortened the title to “The Crazy Diet”, since compared to what I would usually eat, that’s what it seems like – borderline mentally unstable. But allow me to explain myself; if you found a book that taught you how to avoid colds, constipation and cancer, have glowing, clear, beautiful skin and led you down the road to inner peace, I think it’d all be worth a few weeks of crazy, don’t you?

The diet is basically vegan and raw plant based – you can tailor it to your own eating wishes, as long as either 60%, or 80% of your plate is filled with raw, lightly steamed or sautéed veggies, and the rest of your plate is alkaline or easily broken down acidic foods. Processed foods, coffee, black tea and alcohol aren’t Crazy Sexy Friendly; you are on a Cleanse, after all. Breakfast is a green juice or smoothie, with some fruit if needed – aiming to have nothing but liquids before lunchtime if possible. Exercise that makes you sweat happens for 35mins once a day, as does meditation, although the length is up to you (15-20 mins minimum is recommended). *

Let me compare this to me regular diet;

• Breakfast = porridge with honey (made with skim milk), rockmelon.
• Morning tea = carrot sticks, green beans and dip, or low fat Greek yoghurt with raspberries, blueberries and honey.
• Lunch = omelette with salad.
• Afternoon tea = corn chips with salsa, or 1 piece of wholegrain toast with Vegemite and avocado.
• Dinner = Home-made Veggie pizza with lots of cheese.
• … Punctuated with mini Snickers bars, small packets of tiny teddies and more corn chips.

As you can see I like to eat in rather large portion sizes, and most of what I eat meets its doom before midday. Sure, my regular diet isn’t too bad – I can usually meet my daily requirement of vegetable and fruit intake and only ever have small portions of really bad junk food… But there is a pretty big difference between the two, clearly.

The first big difference is the VEGAN part. I’m regularly vegetarian, and find milk, eggs, yoghurt and cheese to be a reliable source of protein and they are also pretty delicious (especially when in things like pancakes, pizzas, froghurt…). I’ve never been one of those people who just drinks milk, although I do have a soft spot for cereal with milk, and this has lead to much of me being soft spots, as I tend to eat cereals in excess and expand in result. Omelettes had me at hello, and cheese, oh, cheese, how I will miss thee. But I’m giving them all up for 21 days, no looking back. Don’t worry, I’ll be getting enough iron and protein and calcium and all those things typically associated with animal products – I solemnly swear to be nutritionally stable – through the devouring of delicious delicacies like beans, lentils, leafy greens and whole grains!

The second big difference is the liquid mornings. First thing I would regularly do of a morning is drink 2 glasses of water, followed by scarfing down a big bowl of porridge and stuffing my face with fruit. Only a few hours would pass after this before I’d be munching and crunching on my morning veggies with dip, regularly a Spring Onion or Pesto with Fetta variety. No solid food before midday? Big difference – but I’m up for the challenge.

The great things about this “diet” are the following; there are no restrictive portion sizes – if it’s Crazy Sexy Friendly, and within your veggie-to-other-stuff-ratio you can eat as much of it as you please, the second is that you know exactly why you’re eating this way. Kris Carr hasn’t given you a mysterious meal plan, restricting you to eating each thing at each meal, exactly as she’s written, with little discernable reasoning behind it; instead she teaches you how to eat, gives you some hearty meal suggestions and recipes, and lets you take it from there. She explains why eating alkaline is important, what exercise does to your body and guides you, every step of the way, through daily prayers, affirmations and suggestions. The book isn’t so much a diet book; as much as it is a complete lifestyle book.

So why I would I go on such an extreme quest? Well at the moment my health is in a slump – I’m exercising more, eating better, but getting nowhere. (CAUTION: Over-sharing ahead) Since my real-life-horror-story sinus infection last year in Texas (during which I had a fever so high I almost got a ride in an ambulance – this would have been cool if I hadn’t been hallucinating and trying not to throw up at the time) I’ve had excess mucus up to my eyeballs. Thirdly, I’m going to Hawaii in a month and have a little extra junk in my trunk – a lot of which I picked up during my trip to The Lone Star State – that I could do without in my holiday photos, thank you very much. Plus, cancer can’t deal with being in an alkaline environment, such as me when I’m eating this way.

So I’m bringing you along for my Crazy Sexy Cleanse journey… Wish me luck and cheap veggies in abundance!

* This is a very basic guideline, so if you were interested I’d recommend you get your hands on a copy of the book! It really is a fun read and not boring or complex and confusing at all. It’s also hella entertaining; e.g. in your natural state “unicorns want to lick you”. Fact.