Category Archives: Cleansing

Eat Your Crusts

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Overheard at the Exploratorium cafeteria with my son (sternly, from an incredibly obese woman to her slim daughter, eating pizza): “Eat your crusts”.

It’s difficult to escape my obsession with food when I have none. I’m keenly aware of every person shoving heaps of pabulum into their gullets. It’s sublime. It’s also incredibly telling. We simply eat too much. This woman may be a victim of an awful set of genes or an unfortunate thyroid problem. But, more likely, she probably eats her crusts. I mean, what’s the point? In 99% of the pizza in this country (current Neapolitan craze excluded) the sauce and the cheese are where the action is. The crust is just dry bread with no real value, other than making us fat, right? Of course Pizza Hut will stuff your crusts with cheese if you’re so inclined.

Our portions are obscene. I remember coming back from a long trip in Asia with my wife years ago – stomach shrunk to a manageable size. We went to Park Chow and I ordered the cobb salad. There were two sizes and I chose the smaller one. I ate about half and was totally full. Nice meal. I said to myself, and Julie: “I feel great and I plan to reduce my consumption so that this is always just enough”. Yeah, nice try. I was back on the supersize mentality in a matter of days.

I dreamt a restaurant concept last night that involved only small portions. What a boon that would be! But wait, we have them, don’t we? In fact there was a “small plates” craze a few years ago (which quickly was gobbled up by the comfort food craze – now it’s street food). The problem was that we never ordered small plates to eat individually. They were just so you could try a little of everything. The waiters always would say “I recommend ordering 2-3 small plates per person”. Eat your crusts. (by the way, why is there no proper Pintxos – Basque Tapas – bars in San Francisco? I could easily copy any one of a hundred from San Sebastian and it would be a massive success!)

Another side effect of the cleanse is that I am the uncomfortable dinner-party guest. At least ten times last night I subjected my poor friends with my philosophies on the master cleanse. I’m a one-trick pony and these patient folks must have been ready to smack me in the face with their delicious gouda sausages. I come off as self-righteous, enlightened and holier-than-thou when I am cleansing, because there isn’t much else for me to talk about since my head is swimming with the thoughts of food. Note to self: don’t ruin other’s good times when cleansing. Stay home.

Which leads me to an update on things and some holier-than-thou speak: I am not hungry at all. I had a few pangs this morning that quickly dissipated. My allergies have been acting up and I had something in my eye last night. But those things aside, I feel great. Of course I cannot stop thinking about food, but this is a symptom of the conditioning we have (especially at meal time) and represent “cravings” and not real hunger.

When you embrace the cleanse, you quickly realize the vast difference between real hunger and craving. We are not hungry people. If you can afford to have a computer and run in the circles where you have discovered my blog, you are not hungry. We have cheap calories around us at all times. We are conditioned to feel the need to eat at specific times of the day but it has nothing to do with food-as-survival.

If I can impart any wisdom gained from this controlled starvation it is that it doesn’t take long to get in touch with this concept and it can be revelatory. I don’t think thinking about it is good enough. You have to stop eating for days to realize the true nature of hunger. It’s tangible and empirical. And if you do it, you may just decide not to eat your crusts.

Cleansing and Zealotry

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I woke up in a bit of a panic. The last time I cleansed was quite successful and really enjoyed the process of discovering the truth behind my relationship with food. I feared that this time it might be more of a chore. Will I miss food more? Since I’ve already had my realizations, will the novelty be supplanted by desperate pangs of hunger? If this going to be more difficult?

Also, I questioned my motivation. Truth be told, if I were stronger I could simply strike the balance and have more control with food. I mean, I’m not THAT bad. I’m only about 10-15lbs overweight (mostly in my gut and neck) but I still look damn good (thanks Mom and Dad for the genes). But this isn’t about the weight itself, it’s the psychology of this relationship. And I need a kick in the ass. Plus, what a better time to start? The last day of my cleanse I will be joined by millions of Jews fasting for atonement.

As a secular Jew (it’s a story for another post that I’ll happily explain) I am always looking for alternative ways to interpret and celebrate during our holidays (the humanist haggadah at passover for example). The high holidays always throw me for a loop, because they are heavy with the god stuff. But you’ve got to hand it to my people. Fasting to atone for your misgivings, which is followed by a celebratory feast isn’t so bad. It was designed to help us reconnect with our pure spirituality = clarity of mind without distractions. That seems to fit well into my discoveries with fasting.

If you know the story of the Zealots, the original ones, you’d know the extent to which they would go for their cause. Here’s the wiki on Masada:

After the destruction of Jerusalem and the Second Temple in AD 70, 960 Zealots took refuge by capturing the Roman fortress of Masada and taking no prisoners. Rome sent the TenthLegion to retake the stronghold, but it failed for three years. It is estimated that they took over 1,000 casualties in the process. The Zealots held the fortress even after the Romans invented new types of siege engines. Finally, in the third year of the siege, Rome, gave up on taking the fortress intact and burned down the walls. When the Romans stormed in to capture the Zealots, they found that the fighters and their families had nearly all committed suicide.

So, as the Epicurean Zealot, it would only make sense that my fast were a bit more extreme. If I hope to find true meaning, I will go deeper and finish on the same day as the others (maybe if they did 10 days they’d work-out this god nonsense?!). And that’s some heavy purpose to guide me.
For those following along, I am eating normally today and will take a senna tea before bed tonight. That will mean a significant evacuation tomorrow, particularly after the the first SWF. Also note that there is no book necessary to do this. I love this website [LINK] for all of the details of the cleanse. And you are welcome to ask me. I will continue to post the specifics of my process as the days go by.

Hi, My Name is Adam and I’m a Food Addict

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It’s been silent around here lately, eh? Quiet from the Zealot actually means that the wheels are turning even harder. I’ve been a busy boy. First, I was out of town for the annual trade show for my industry. I do home theater crap. It’s a big convention. I’m involved with the organization. I spoke to a banquet of 600 people, overcoming a lifelong fear of mine. It felt good. I’m pumped.

Julie took a job. It’s kinda of a grind. New technology stuff. Kicking her ass. Long commute. That means that I’m Mr. Mom these days. Drop the booger off at school, play dates in the afternoon. I actually love it. This kind of time with my little man is invaluable. We’re getting on the same page.

The economy finally caught up with me and lit a huge fire under my ass with my business. Quite frankly, as an entrepreneur for the past 15 years, I realized that the energy is constantly ebbing and flowing. The past year has been a real ebb for me. How can I get excited about selling stuff that people are struggling to justify. I’m not selling cancer cures – it’s just a freaking TVs. But I always come around to the fact that being an entrepreneur is not about the thing you do, it’s about the doing. Being successful at anything is more about how you go about what you do, rather than the thing itself. And I like that. So, I rededicated myself to playing the game and figuring out ways to do it better. I’ve been telling my friends for a long time, it’s not about working hard, it’s about working smarter.

So, with the food blog. I am not going away. I have way too much to say and from my stats, it looks like people enjoy reading it. But I’ve fallen in to a familiar rut. You see, I am a food addict. Many of us are and probably won’t admit it. It’s not that I am obsessed with food, it’s quality and all of the foodie nuances that I post about. That shit is fine. It’s the food for nurturing shit that is the problem. You can read my post [LINK] about the last time I did a food cleanse to really understand what this means to me. In fact, read it now before moving on. It’s important to understand what comes next.

So, I’m doing another master cleanse to kick start the next era in my relationship with food. I just had a conversation with my buddy who has half-heartedly done cleanses for a long time. While he agrees with me that it isn’t about the “cleansing characteristics” (because science is conflicted) or about “dieting” (because you WILL go back to the old habits) but it is about the psychological battle. As you read in that post, I believe that mankind is meant to be closer to starvation. My buddy suggested that the physical extremity of the master cleanse could be damaging to the body. I would argue that the physical extremity of the opposite is true. To my sensibilities, gluttony is probably worse for the body than controlled starvation, in the long run. Heart disease, diabetes, obesity – these are the real problems of our time.

The issue remains that once I finish the cleanse I will likely return to my old habits no long after. While I strongly believe this to be true, I also think that something significant changed in me the last time. I can only hope that each time I do it, I get a little closer to a balanced life, rather than constantly living in the extremes. The wake up call has the power to temper the status quo until there is some happy medium. Or not.

So, a lot of you have expressed interest in the master cleanse and some of you might want to join me in solidarity and share experiences. My last full meal will be on Friday evening and I will be drinking the senna tea that night, fully prepared for a salt-water-flush (herein SWF) on Saturday morning. I am going to do it for 10 full days, the last of which will be Monday the 28th. I will return to food, via broth on Tuesday and probably start solids again on Wednesday.

Of course I will be documenting my experiences, since I wasn’t writing the blog the last time and there were a lot of profound thoughts to be shared. I know this is controversial to many and I understand most of the arguments made against the cleanse. Let me restate: I don’t recognize the “cleansing” elements completely. I know the SWF is controversial and damn tough to stomach. I know that as a diet, this is not the best way to lose weight. If anyone is looking for anything other than a psychological way to perceive their relationship with food, I don’t recommend this. But, if you’re down with the experience, post in the comments and we’ll support each other though it.

Living Without Food: My Cleanse Experience

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At the end of last year I embarked upon my first long-term cleanse. It was the “Master Cleanse” or “lemonade diet” whereby you eat no solid food and acquire your only calories in the form of a drink consisting of water, lemon juice, maple syrup and cayenne pepper, for at least ten days, up to three weeks or more. There is a lot of debate surrounding the Master Cleanse and I find the arguments incredibly intriguing. Since I wasn’t writing the Zealot at the time and I’ve had a lot of time to process my experience, I feel this is as good a time as any to share my experiences.

Celebrities Use the MC to Lose Weight Fast

Celebrities Use the MC to Lose Weight Fast

Essentially the MC is a controlled form of starvation. Common sense would lead you to believe that this wasn’t a rational endeavor from the get-go. The concoction drink is designed to provide just enough calories to feed your basic needs (anywhere from 600-1200 calories per day depending on how large you are and how intense you are cleansing), while your body ultimately turns on itself and starts burning your natural fat reserves. One of the immediate results (I’ll refrain from calling it a benefit for now) is rapid weight loss. In the 10 days that I did the MC, I lost 15lbs. Many people do this cleanse solely for the purpose of losing weight fast. It works.

On the cleanse side of things, the concoction contains lemon juice and cayenne, which supposedly act as agents to loosen and scrape your colon clean. The maple syrup is just a simple, digestible form of calories. The MC requires a nightly dose of herbal laxative tea and a morning flush with warm salt water. I sincerely believe that it is arguable whether toxins are actually being flushed since our bodies are already naturally designed to flush toxins. There is contentious debate about whether this actually does anything to aid the process. Some argue that it might have negative effects. Frankly, even the most learned doctors have little information to support either side of this debate.

So the daily routine goes like this….. Wake up and drink the warm salt water flush, about a quart. Wait an hour or so. Waterfall. More waterfall. Get ready for work. More waterfall. First batch of lemon concoction. Note that I preferred to cook my ingredients together and then put it over ice. It was much easier to drink all day, every day – less grainy. Continue about your day, drinking concoction as needed, especially when pangs set in. Dream about food. Before bed, drink a cup of Senna laxative tea. Repeat and repeat and repeat.

Master Cleanse Supplies

Master Cleanse Supplies

The first question people ask: didn’t you feel hungry? My answer was a resounding NO. This was the first discovery and insight I gained from performing the cleanse. During the first few days it was somewhat difficult, but I was excited by the experiment and after day three, my whole perspective changed. The biggest revelation I had with the MC is that we have NO IDEA what it means to be hungry. Rather, our bodies are conditioned to a societal ritual of consumption around breakfast, lunch, dinner and snack times. I certainly had cravings every day, especially during the times of the day when my body expected to be fed, but it wasn’t hunger. It became very clear that our bodies were designed to endure periods of famine, tapping into fat reserves to provide emergency energy. As a well-fed, often gluttonous, member of modern civilization, I could go a long, long time without feeling true hunger.

Which leads to revelation number two. During my controlled starvation, I’ve never felt more alert, energetic and inspired. My mind kicked in to overdrive and became more conversational, outgoing, interactive, creative and excited. It was a if a fog had been lifted and was able to experience life as never before. Which lead me to wonder why. While I couldn’t answer for certain, I have a feeling about it…..

Living with Evolution

Living with Evolution

Humankind has never had the abundance of food that we experience in modern times. As hunter-gatherers our ancestors always lived on the edge of starvation. They needed to be more in touch with their surroundings and alert to the perils of nature. We are simply over-fed, lazy and out of touch with our surroundings. We use food as a false comfort mechanism that actually serves the opposite purpose. A pint of ice cream to someone who is depressed will give an immediate rush but then they will sink into a food coma and find themselves deeper in their funk on the other side. As a long-term habit, over-eating (which isn’t only for the morbidly obese, most of us over-eat) creates the fog, under which many of us live, perhaps without even knowing.

At the end of my cleanse I truly had a new perspective on eating and vowed to change my habits, long term. Yes, I lost 15 pounds and perhaps I cleansed my colon (I did lose an undiagnosed, chronic case of IBS I had been toughing out for years). If you’re doing the cleanse for only these reasons, you’re missing out on the big picture.

Moreover, what I got out of the Master Cleanse was true insight into our propensity to over-eat and how we are conditioned to consume huge portions at regular intervals for no good reason. Living a little closer to the edge of hunger seems to be a good practice and I’ve read a number of scientific arguments that support this as a more natural state. I’ve heard that we should try to only eat until we are 80% full (true full, not bloated full). Until you experience the clarity of mind that goes along with this, it’s definitely hard to break our habits.

As for me, I’ve been up and down over the past six months. I definitely have reduced my overall consumption and my weight has remained under my high. But I think I need another dose of the MC to refresh my memory. If there is enough interest, I may document it here on the blog for all to share. I know (sometimes secretly) many of you are interested in the MC yourselves.