Day 20 Countdown

 So it's day twenty.  I've almost made it.  From here it's only a ten day countdown to pizza fit, and victory over carbs.  Of the permanent changes that this experience has wrought in me naught will I speak ere the end come (been reading Fellowship of the Ring lately).  But I can say, that onions... even raw onions have become close friends, and now fit into the category of "snack" in my mind.  A few days ago I found out that clarified (I prefer to say rarified) butter is allowed in the Whole 30 diet.  Luckily I'm in India and rarified butter, called Ghee, has a prominent place not only on the Hindu plate, but also figures largely in Hindu mythology, a kind of South-Asian Ambrosia, food for the more deific among us.  So it's easy to find, and cheap.  Though heavy in cholesterol it has been a welcome break from frying eggs and veggies in pig fat.  At this point it might be appropriate to take bets on what food I will break my carb fast with.  Pizza?  Oreos?  Ice Cream?  Milk and Peanut Butter Sandwich?  Toast with butter?  It's hard to say.  And now for the the last ten days.  Have just begun to look a bit thinner, but not enough to make a huge-impact if you will.  Mostly I just feel better.  Am skipping breakfast today because a handful of nuts was enough to today, I am just never ravenously hungry which is a welcome change from the last 36 years of ravenous...ness.   Let us see if I can make it all the way... to fit.

Day 18...Caving?

the nearest chocolate cake...very near indeed.

Today is just hard.  My wife is coming to my aid with the advent of her famous tomato soup for lunch today and yesterday we BBQ-ed some chicken, flavored with an olive oil, lime juice, cilantro mixture.  But still, Tiger blood my foot, I just want a peanut butter and Oreo sandwich with cheese and sugar on top as a side-dish to a big plate of rice.  I think maybe instead... I'll go get a haircut and a shave which is awesome here, includes a head massage and costs a whopping $.50  Argh...but maybe I'll just crank into the nearest chocolate cake instead.  Help.  

Day 17...Surviving the Village

after a huge breakfast of...everyone else's omelets

It's day seventeen, and I would love to say that I made it through our week in Sikkim with flying colors but it was more like... with flying cauliflower.  Sikkim is a little-known formerly-independant kingdom turned Semi-Independant Indian State.  It is developing quickly but there are still many small villages to be found with friendly people, no shops and tons of rice and lentils.   To one very kind lady who was trying to give me rice I said
   
Me:  Hoina...Adja-bholi ma bhaat khaadina...
        No please...These days I am not eating    rice...       
Lady:  Bhaat Kanuhunna?!   Kina?!
          You are not eating rice...Why?!

in Rumtek looking East toward Gangtok, early morning

Me:  Kinabane mero dzyulai break garnu chahanchu.
        Because I want to break my body.
Lady:  Eh?!
           What the...?!
Me (realizing my mistake):  Kinabane chini bata mero dzyulai chutti dinu chahanchu.
        Because I want to give my body a holiday from sugar.

And it did mostly feel like a holiday except whenever sweet sweet sweet chia was served (this was like every 10 minutes or so) and it felt like a scene out of Dante's inferno, you know... hell level seven for people who ate too much sugar... always smelling never tasting.  Not eating rice here was tantamount to self-starvation because honestly... if you're not eating rice... what else is there?  Except for a few sips of chia and a big fried chickpea chip, I made it by toting along cooked cauliflower, boiled eggs, plenty of nuts, and coffee.   The sugar cravings are still bad, today for instance I think I could take down a super sized Hershey's Chocolate bar by myself in under a minute... but I am pushing forward to... fit.

Day 12: Gettin back on the horse...radish

I have begun again.  It is now round two, day 12.  Yesterday I went on a picnic with the family and had rice and chilli-chicken but my rice was actually stir-fried cauliflower.  It's a great substitute.

This time I am going to focus not so much on meat but on volume of vegetables.  I am past the initial sugar cravings and oreo dream sequences, and am pushing forward hoping for the promised tiger blood of days 20-30.  Tomorrow I travel north into Sikkim, which is deep in the bowels of rice and bean territory.  For ensuing battle am arming myself with cauliflower, boiled eggs, nuts, coffee, oreos, fruit and resolve to finish.  Check here for updates as I again attempt to answer the question... will I be fit... or fat?

Digesting the Fit-Fat Experience

My Family and I.

Ignorance Exposed:  I have food domains.  Times, places, feelings, and activities that are married, dating, or at least having a DTR with food.   And not just one or two domains, they are legion, and all have long relationships going way back to those early days when I actually considered Taco Bell to be "food", thought of peanut butter as a substance that I could live on exclusively, and drank more whole milk than your average quarter-ton bovine, and wrote run on sentences that made marathons look like the hundred yard dash.

Laziness Unveiled:  A lot of my eating habits are rooted in laziness.  Cooking real food is hard, it takes time, planning, and makes a huge mess, none of which I like.  And these factors more than any other have conspired together to trace me a meal-path through candy land, or at least carbohydrate land.  Carbs are easy, they have a long shelf life, often require little to no cooking and therefore make very little mess.  And since college, fast, easy and not messy have been my eating mantra, instead of healthy, natural, and hearty.

In my Doggie Bag:  What I am taking home from this meal of discovery is a longing for peace.  Inside a single day I am used to having what could be referred to as "mood swings".  Sometimes, in the morning I am plotting the creation of 100% Green, Trans-Atlantic shipping companies utilizing sail boats and solar power, but that same day in the afternoon I am having trouble whipping up the gumption to take a nap.  I always attributed these manic phases to caffeine but there's no way I'm dropping coffee...(perhaps another issue to explore), but during my fit-fat experiment these emotional rogue waves evened out.  I was more even-keel, I was not too excited or too discouraged, and never ravenous or over filled.  Generally, I was content, I had energy but knew what to do with it. 

Ke Garnu? (what to do?): So although I have certainly caved, I am planning to return to fight another month... perhaps in February of 2013.  So stay tuned, though I am currently pushing back my plate... I am certainly going for seconds.  

And for all you 'Bamas out there... Roll Tide.

Day 11-16...Confessions

chicken doing dishes

I spent some time in a village in Sikkim (a bit father north).  Sikkim is one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen.  It's like Kalimpong but everything is more extreme: the hills are higher, valleys deeper, and during monsoon season there are more landslides than people.  The friends I took with me were all into the kind of diet I am attempting, and several of them had done the Whole 30 a few times, that was encouraging.  But... We were deep in Rice and Lentil territory and so here's where the confession comes in.

from this rock we saw the picture below

I broke it.  I broke the Whole 30... perhaps "smash" is a better word.  I will say that I came prepared to continue but living in the village has it's... challenges.  I never knew where my food was, they kept moving it and eating it.  The police lady in charge of granting me permission to stay in the Dentam District handed me grilled corn and in addition to the fact that it looked delicious, for other reasons I simply could not refuse.  Then of course there's chia which is kind of a meal here 1/3 of which is sugar.  I would love to paint my self as a victim of heartless carb-cannon pirates, but in the end, I choose to stop.

dentam seen from viewpoint shown above

more chiya consumption

I think it was a good call over all since, in order to continue, I would have had to spent the whole day cooking my own special food just for me, and I had many other things to concern myself with, like eight tall, loud, hilarious Alabama Americans (roll tide) living in a Sikkimese village unable to drink the water and in need of toilet paper that I didn't bring, or couldn't find. And so with a little sadness, shame, a deepening belly button, mingled with resolve to begin afresh next year some time, I hereby temporarily declare the answer to this blog's question of whether I will be fit or fat as....   (wait for it)...

drinking Chiya

during a days hike

start 'em young on chiya

our road

fat.

trying our hand at hand grinding corn 

Day 10

My son noticed sugar cane in the veggie market... "look papa sugar cane" he said.  I looked but we walked on looking for mustard greens and squash... then...in the back of my mind this thought came.."sugar cane...now that's a vegetable... Right?"... Oh this sooo day 10.