Slept from 10:50pm to roughly 8:20am, after probably 6am kept on shallow dreaming. Also dreamed during real sleep.
Yesterday had some pain on the left of my neck at night. Probably because I read too much. Pain disappeared today.
Yesterday discovered rashes on the inner side of both of my lower arms and back of my hands and they still exist today. Tonight some rashes even on calf.
Yesterday some blood vessels showed up in my right eye, but they disappeared this morning. However, my right eye did feel a little weird when I woke up this morning.
Had a little bit hard time breathing when I was brushing my teeth, washing my face etc in the morning.
In previous two days there was blood when I was brushing my teeth, today it got better, although there still was a little blood.
I found some light orange/red-ish residuals in my first urine in my morning, while my saliva is not that orange anymore.
When I was very close to Lisa this morning, she said my breath smelled, but I couldn’t smell it at all! She said I didn’t have body odor. Probably my breath smelled in previous days too, just that I was not that close to Lisa.
Got a pimple on the chin.
Walked in the rain for about half an hour.
First day of period, roughly 4 days earlier than I expected. Very little blood.
Before bed, blood vessels showed up in right eye again.
A good amount of blood while brushing my teeth.
Today I decided to eat seafood 2-3 times a week on top of my vegan diet, because the major elements vegans lack are omega-3 fatty acid, vitamin B12, and vitamin D, while seafood is one of the best sources for all these three elements. I know I can take supplements, but it sounds so artificial to me. Humans are not designed to eat supplements or fortified foods. We are meant to eat natural whole foods. If the viability of a diet relies on supplement, then it doesn’t sound like a natural diet to me. I like vegan diet a lot, and I feel a little sad that I won’t be a vegan now, but I don’t want to confine my mind. I will keep on experimenting and doing research to figure out a diet that best fits my health and ideology.
Showing posts with label new changes. Show all posts
Showing posts with label new changes. Show all posts
Thursday, March 24, 2011
Saturday, February 26, 2011
Trying fasting
I had two big full plates of extremely delicious Thai vegetable curry for lunch yesterday, and I felt bloated and didn’t eat anything for the rest of the day. I certainly still felt stuffed when I went to bed yesterday, and when I got up this morning my stomach was still not emptied. I would like to give my stomach a rest, so I decided not to eat anything today. Naturally I began to wonder if fasting was healthy, so I searched online. This led me to a whole day’s reading about fasting (except from 1 to 5pm when I hung out with friends). What I was surprised and happy to find was that fasting seems a lot like practicing vegan. They both make you healthier and more spiritual. They are both radical changes to my life and require a leap of faith. Two articles into reading about fasting, I had already decided to take the challenge and practice fasting to explore myself.
Yesterday I ended my curry feast at around 1:30pm and hadn’t eaten anything besides warm water until 5:55pm today. It was my first fasting experience, and it was not painful at all. I didn’t suffer from unbearable hunger or any unusual symptoms, except that 1) My breath and body odor were a little bit unpleasant this evening, 2) I drank a LOT of water today. Today is probably my highest-water-consumption day of my life so far. I was not really thirsty, but I just WANTED to drink this much, partially because it made me feel more filled. I ate two apples on 5:55pm, because I read that fasting for one or two days does not get you to the extremely beneficial deep cleaning stage yet, but it breaks down your muscles. Although it looks like I water-fasted for 28 hours this time, I don’t think the 28 hours fully counts, because even this morning I still felt a little bit something in my stomach. So I thought eating apples at dinner time today could stop my muscle breakdown right in time and also satisfy my stomach when it routinely secreted digestive juice. After further reading, I now tend to believe that fasting for 24 hours does not really hurt muscles, but I’m not 100% sure. Need more research. But at least I’m now ok with fasting for one or two days without being too concerned about losing muscles.
Longer fasting is definitely disproportionally more effective than shorter fasting, so I’ve decided to do a 10-day water fasting during spring break from March 18 to March 28. There will be only 10 days between my graduation on June 12 and the start of my full-time job on June 22, and I’ll work in banking for two years, so I see this spring break the only chance I can do a longer fasting in the near future. The trick is that extended water fasting is better not conducted during periods of stress and heavy workload, so I won’t do it during school year or on the job. I’ve been vegetarian for more than one month and vegan for more than three weeks, so I’ve already started the right preparation for longer fasting. However, since water fasting is an intensive experience for newbies, I think I should do more preparation in the next three weeks by 1) eat mostly raw foods, 2) eat little greasy food, and 3) NEVER feel full. I’m pretty confident that I will easily obey these three fasting prep rules, because I feel a strong belief and commitment in fasting, just like how I believed in my commitment to vegetarian and vegan when I first started them.
Two things are still uncertain. First, since finals are approaching, I don’t know whether I should gradually adapt to fasting by doing one to three days of water/juice/fruit fasting every week in the next three weeks. Second, since today all I had were two apples, I’m actually still on a fruit fasting. So if I continue to eat only fruit tomorrow, I’ll continue the fasting I started yesterday, which will give me a more intense first fasting experience. With regard to these two uncertainties, I think I’ll just listen to my body when I need to make a decision.
Finally, I’ve been not using facial cleansers (except during shower times) since I made the decision of not using them 5 days ago. My skin didn’t change much. Maybe it became a little bit worse, but it could be the skin’s adaptation to the change or the symptom before menstrual cycle. Anyhow, today I’ve decided to go back to using facial cleansers once a day, because when your body actively releases toxins, you want to clean the pores to assist the removal of toxins; I believe in the stage of transitioning to a healthier diet, which is what I’ve been doing recently and will do for the next few weeks, the body releases toxins at a faster rate than usual.
Yesterday I ended my curry feast at around 1:30pm and hadn’t eaten anything besides warm water until 5:55pm today. It was my first fasting experience, and it was not painful at all. I didn’t suffer from unbearable hunger or any unusual symptoms, except that 1) My breath and body odor were a little bit unpleasant this evening, 2) I drank a LOT of water today. Today is probably my highest-water-consumption day of my life so far. I was not really thirsty, but I just WANTED to drink this much, partially because it made me feel more filled. I ate two apples on 5:55pm, because I read that fasting for one or two days does not get you to the extremely beneficial deep cleaning stage yet, but it breaks down your muscles. Although it looks like I water-fasted for 28 hours this time, I don’t think the 28 hours fully counts, because even this morning I still felt a little bit something in my stomach. So I thought eating apples at dinner time today could stop my muscle breakdown right in time and also satisfy my stomach when it routinely secreted digestive juice. After further reading, I now tend to believe that fasting for 24 hours does not really hurt muscles, but I’m not 100% sure. Need more research. But at least I’m now ok with fasting for one or two days without being too concerned about losing muscles.
Longer fasting is definitely disproportionally more effective than shorter fasting, so I’ve decided to do a 10-day water fasting during spring break from March 18 to March 28. There will be only 10 days between my graduation on June 12 and the start of my full-time job on June 22, and I’ll work in banking for two years, so I see this spring break the only chance I can do a longer fasting in the near future. The trick is that extended water fasting is better not conducted during periods of stress and heavy workload, so I won’t do it during school year or on the job. I’ve been vegetarian for more than one month and vegan for more than three weeks, so I’ve already started the right preparation for longer fasting. However, since water fasting is an intensive experience for newbies, I think I should do more preparation in the next three weeks by 1) eat mostly raw foods, 2) eat little greasy food, and 3) NEVER feel full. I’m pretty confident that I will easily obey these three fasting prep rules, because I feel a strong belief and commitment in fasting, just like how I believed in my commitment to vegetarian and vegan when I first started them.
Two things are still uncertain. First, since finals are approaching, I don’t know whether I should gradually adapt to fasting by doing one to three days of water/juice/fruit fasting every week in the next three weeks. Second, since today all I had were two apples, I’m actually still on a fruit fasting. So if I continue to eat only fruit tomorrow, I’ll continue the fasting I started yesterday, which will give me a more intense first fasting experience. With regard to these two uncertainties, I think I’ll just listen to my body when I need to make a decision.
Finally, I’ve been not using facial cleansers (except during shower times) since I made the decision of not using them 5 days ago. My skin didn’t change much. Maybe it became a little bit worse, but it could be the skin’s adaptation to the change or the symptom before menstrual cycle. Anyhow, today I’ve decided to go back to using facial cleansers once a day, because when your body actively releases toxins, you want to clean the pores to assist the removal of toxins; I believe in the stage of transitioning to a healthier diet, which is what I’ve been doing recently and will do for the next few weeks, the body releases toxins at a faster rate than usual.
Friday, February 25, 2011
Rules and Resolutions 20110225
I realized that when a brand new RR is out, like RR 20110221, it should be experimented for several days, just like codes should be tested. In the past four days, as I tried to obey RR 20110221, I kept on discovering more about myself, learning new knowledge, and figuring out what I like and dislike about this RR. So today I upgraded RR 20110221 to RR 20110225. The new, updated RR is more flexible and addresses my biggest problem in the past few days – overeating – especially today, when I had two big full plates of Thai vegetable curry for lunch. It’s 7pm now, I didn’t have dinner, and I’m still feeling full.
How I address this overeating problem is neither by scaring myself with the horrible consequences of overeating, nor by setting strict rules to discipline myself. Instead, I made some semi poems (actually not poems at all) to tell myself why eating less is consistent with my ideology. I also figured there is no point assigning myself titles like 80% Eater or Food Combinator. The best way to successfully adopt new changes is to make myself truly believe in the changes. It should be that I sincerely want to do them, not that I am somehow forced by rules or titles to do them. This is actually how I could easily become a vegetarian and then vegan. I’m happy to share the “poems” here:
以 ……之心进食
慈悲和善
惜福感恩
简朴平淡
从容不迫
少食（食无求饱）
清血养胃
心智清明
无欲无求
回归自然
How I address this overeating problem is neither by scaring myself with the horrible consequences of overeating, nor by setting strict rules to discipline myself. Instead, I made some semi poems (actually not poems at all) to tell myself why eating less is consistent with my ideology. I also figured there is no point assigning myself titles like 80% Eater or Food Combinator. The best way to successfully adopt new changes is to make myself truly believe in the changes. It should be that I sincerely want to do them, not that I am somehow forced by rules or titles to do them. This is actually how I could easily become a vegetarian and then vegan. I’m happy to share the “poems” here:
以 ……之心进食
慈悲和善
惜福感恩
简朴平淡
从容不迫
少食（食无求饱）
清血养胃
心智清明
无欲无求
回归自然
Monday, February 21, 2011
Rules and Resolutions 20110221
I created a new Rules and Resolutions document 20110221, effective tomorrow.
Trying not to use facial cleansers
Strictly speaking, only use facial cleansers when I wash my hair.
Sunday, February 20, 2011
The weekend of room decoration
Dizziness
From probably Thursday to yesterday, I felt dizzy when standing up from the floor (I sit on the floor to admire/arrange pictures). It was the first time I showed such symptom after I went vegetarian/vegan. I suspect it’s because 1) not only did I overeat in general, but I also ate too much starch and protein, which are too heavy for my stomach, and 2) iron. So this weekend I studied iron, along with zinc, another mineral that vegans usually do not take enough. Reason 1) may sound weird, but that’s my intuition. Starting from yesterday I began to consciously follow the 80% eater rule and eat less starch and proteins, and it does seem to work against dizziness. I admit that I didn’t follow the 80% rule well in the past few days.
Fruit
Does a vegan diet enhance your ability to listen to your body, or it makes you less adaptable? Recently I began to notice the effect of some fruit on my body. Probably even before going vegetarian, I had already discovered that pears were incredibly good at making me feel full. Even when I’m very hungry, one pear can keep me full for more than an hour. After eating a pear today, I felt very cold for a few minutes. Watermelons stuff me quickly and make me cold too. Last Tuesday, I felt very uncomfortable after eating a banana in class (MS&E 270, Markstrat party). It occurred to me that these fruits were all “of cold property” according to Chinese medicine. So I studied fruit today. Sure enough, cold fruit makes you feel cold and slows down your digestion, which makes you feel full.
Eating
I didn’t eat much today and it felt good. Couple of thoughts: 1) I don’t really need to eat as much as I usually eat. Moderate intake of food is enough; 2) water fills me up too; 3) feeling hungry is not necessarily a sign of actual hunger. After waiting for a while the hungry feeling disappears. If the feeling of hunger lingers for probably more than 15 minutes, then it’s real hunger.
Nuts
During my visit to Palentir this Friday afternoon, I had two handful of mixed nuts, and my stomach definitely didn't have a good experience.
Flax Seed Oil
I've only used my new flax seed oil once after I bought it two weeks ago, but starting from today I'll use it pretty frequently.
Sleep
Regarding sleep, it’s been both good and not so good. I was decorating my room for three days including today. I loved doing it so much that I didn’t want to go to bed or didn’t even realize that it was already past 11:30pm. So for the past two nights, I slept from midnight to 7:10am. I woke up at 7:10am in the past two days naturally and pretty precisely, and I didn’t feel sleepy at any point of the day (maybe it’s because I was loving decorating my room and studying fruit, vegetables, iron, zinc … …). So the not-so-good part is that I went to bed too late, but the good part is that I figured my natural amount of sleep now is 7 hours every day. I believe if I go to bed at around 10:30pm-11pm, I can sleep even less.
I’ll make a few new resolutions and edit my vegan documents tonight and tomorrow.
From probably Thursday to yesterday, I felt dizzy when standing up from the floor (I sit on the floor to admire/arrange pictures). It was the first time I showed such symptom after I went vegetarian/vegan. I suspect it’s because 1) not only did I overeat in general, but I also ate too much starch and protein, which are too heavy for my stomach, and 2) iron. So this weekend I studied iron, along with zinc, another mineral that vegans usually do not take enough. Reason 1) may sound weird, but that’s my intuition. Starting from yesterday I began to consciously follow the 80% eater rule and eat less starch and proteins, and it does seem to work against dizziness. I admit that I didn’t follow the 80% rule well in the past few days.
Fruit
Does a vegan diet enhance your ability to listen to your body, or it makes you less adaptable? Recently I began to notice the effect of some fruit on my body. Probably even before going vegetarian, I had already discovered that pears were incredibly good at making me feel full. Even when I’m very hungry, one pear can keep me full for more than an hour. After eating a pear today, I felt very cold for a few minutes. Watermelons stuff me quickly and make me cold too. Last Tuesday, I felt very uncomfortable after eating a banana in class (MS&E 270, Markstrat party). It occurred to me that these fruits were all “of cold property” according to Chinese medicine. So I studied fruit today. Sure enough, cold fruit makes you feel cold and slows down your digestion, which makes you feel full.
Eating
I didn’t eat much today and it felt good. Couple of thoughts: 1) I don’t really need to eat as much as I usually eat. Moderate intake of food is enough; 2) water fills me up too; 3) feeling hungry is not necessarily a sign of actual hunger. After waiting for a while the hungry feeling disappears. If the feeling of hunger lingers for probably more than 15 minutes, then it’s real hunger.
Nuts
During my visit to Palentir this Friday afternoon, I had two handful of mixed nuts, and my stomach definitely didn't have a good experience.
Flax Seed Oil
I've only used my new flax seed oil once after I bought it two weeks ago, but starting from today I'll use it pretty frequently.
Sleep
Regarding sleep, it’s been both good and not so good. I was decorating my room for three days including today. I loved doing it so much that I didn’t want to go to bed or didn’t even realize that it was already past 11:30pm. So for the past two nights, I slept from midnight to 7:10am. I woke up at 7:10am in the past two days naturally and pretty precisely, and I didn’t feel sleepy at any point of the day (maybe it’s because I was loving decorating my room and studying fruit, vegetables, iron, zinc … …). So the not-so-good part is that I went to bed too late, but the good part is that I figured my natural amount of sleep now is 7 hours every day. I believe if I go to bed at around 10:30pm-11pm, I can sleep even less.
I’ll make a few new resolutions and edit my vegan documents tonight and tomorrow.
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
Trying 80% Eater
I invented the phrase "80% Eater", which means someone who only fills the stomach to 80% of its capacity. It's the "80/20 Rule" applied to eating :) This also means 1) definitely no eating when feeling satisfied, either at or in between the meals, and 2) moderate (as opposed to over) intake of snacks in between meals.
Recently I've been eating a lot and having an inertia of eating even when I'm already full. I believe this is the main reason why I'm not feeling particularly great these days. I also blame my increasing need for sleep to overeating.
I think it's great to name yourself after what you're seriously committed to. I think one of the reasons why a vegan diet is so easy for me to stick to is that I obtained a title "vegan". Since I AM a vegan, I can't be who I am not, so I always remember my "identity" and stick to the vegan rule. I've been seriously trying to avoid overeating many times, but I always ended up forgetting or disregarding it. Now I'm officially an "80% Eater", and let's see how this works out.
* It turned out that I didn't follow the 80% eater rule well in the couple of days right after this post.
Recently I've been eating a lot and having an inertia of eating even when I'm already full. I believe this is the main reason why I'm not feeling particularly great these days. I also blame my increasing need for sleep to overeating.
I think it's great to name yourself after what you're seriously committed to. I think one of the reasons why a vegan diet is so easy for me to stick to is that I obtained a title "vegan". Since I AM a vegan, I can't be who I am not, so I always remember my "identity" and stick to the vegan rule. I've been seriously trying to avoid overeating many times, but I always ended up forgetting or disregarding it. Now I'm officially an "80% Eater", and let's see how this works out.
* It turned out that I didn't follow the 80% eater rule well in the couple of days right after this post.
Monday, February 14, 2011
Starting Vege Joy
I started this blog Vege Joy on Valentine’s Day 2011, because it’s an easy day to remember. Going vegetarian and then vegan has been an exhilarating self-exploration experience to me, so I would like to keep a diary of the joy of my Vege Journey here on Vege Joy. I intend this blog to be more of a record of what I did and what happened than an educational website about vegetarianism. In fact, what I like most about Vege Joy is that it is not only about the joy of my Vege Journey. It is also about the joy of my life. By life I mean life, unrelated to study and work. I find reflecting on life, designing my life, experimenting a new way of life, and making a change to life a lot of joy.
I created this post on the day I started this blog, but I didn’t write any content. Today, Monday, February 21, 2011, Presidents’ Day, one week after I started Vege Joy and one month after the start of my Vege Journey (btw, I totally didn’t realize that today is such an important day until I was writing the previous sentence), I’m coming back to record what happened in the first three weeks of this exciting journey.
Friday, January 21, 2011 Dinner with Mr. Fauver
I met Mr. Fauver through a class offered by the School of Medicine. I had dinner with him on this Friday night at Wilbur Dining. It was a life-changing dinner. Everything suddenly got connected, I realized that I was actually very spiritual in nature, and I became more peaceful and care-free.
I decided to learn about and start practicing meditation, so the next day I began to read about meditation online. Somehow I learned that a vegetarian diet helps people become more spiritual. I was curious and intrigued, so I began to read about vegetarianism. Then I learned how horribly the food industry treats animals and how a plant-based diet helps protect the environment. A feeling of compassion and love for nature made me want to go vegetarian. After further research, I concluded that a vegetarian diet was even healthier than an omnivore diet. At that time, I knew that I had become a vegetarian.
Sunday, January 23, 2011 Becoming a Vegetarian
I officially became a vegetarian.
I used to be a gluttonous carnivore. I LOVED sea food, dairy and eggs. All-you-care-to-eat dining halls in college were evil accomplices, which made more than 90% of the food on my plates meat. Fortunately I was not fat, so I kept on eating like that, until last year when a friend pointed out to me that not eating vegetables might be the reason why I had acne. This is so duh, but how come I didn’t realize it earlier?! So I began to eat more vegetables, but still not enough. It was not until December 8 last year, when I bet my roommate that I could lose 6 kg in one quarter by neither starving myself nor exercising, that I began to eat probably more vegetables than meat at most meals. Three weeks later, I fell in love with vegetables when eating a big plate of salad in Las Vegas. From then on, I began to be able to crave for vegetables. Coming back to school, I would sometimes even eat solely vegetables for meal out of my free will (not because of the bet at all).
Therefore, going vegetarian was a smooth transition to me. It was so natural that, except for one day when I really wanted the curry catfish at Wilbur Dining, I have never craved for meat at all since I became a vegetarian. Why did I really want the catfish? Well, a few days after going vegetarian, I saw chicken curry at Wilbur Dining and really wanted some curry. So I took some vegetables and curry sauce from the chicken curry. It turned out to be the worst vegetable ever. It had the taste of animal flesh, which instantaneously turned me off. I was surprised to discover that I began to dislike the taste of meat. However, I could not imagine that I would ever dislike the taste of fish, so two days later, when I saw the curry catfish, I decided to try it out to see if I still liked fish. Sure enough, I was still in love with fish. Even after finishing the one piece of curry catfish, I still could not stop thinking about it. So I took another two pieces, telling myself it was the last fish I would ever eat. And so far I was right.
Being a vegetarian definitely made me more sensitive to tastes, not only the tastes of animals, but also those of vegetables. I used to think all vegetables were equally plain tasting, but now I can taste each vegetable’s unique flavor. I was pretty sure that, after 21 years of eating, I had tasted almost all tastes out there, but during the first week of being vegetarian, I suddenly discovered an explosion of new naturally fantastic tastes of vegetables. It was quite a thrilling experience. It was the first time in my life that I loved every single meal I had.
Better taste is not the only unexpected experience I got from a vegetarian diet. Roughly one week after going vegetarian, I also experienced boost of energy, less sleep, and better skin. There’s a 20 degree hill leading to my dorm. I used to hate the hill and I always walked my bike every time I had to climb up the hill. However, one day, I could suddenly bike up the hill without much effort. I also easily acquired the ability to naturally wake up early in the morning (6-7am) and stay energetic all day. I used to sleep more than 9 hours every day, but now I almost never sleep more than 8 hours a day. I didn’t have acne when I went vegetarian, so I didn’t get to witness the direct effect of a vegetarian diet on acne. However, in general, a vegetarian diet is good for skin. Except the week of February 7-11, when I had breakout because of midterm stress, I haven’t had any acne on my face since going vegetarian.
Now move on to the bet I had with my roommate. I entered “safe zone” on the morning of January 27, 4 days after I became a vegetarian, and it was a huge relief. Safe zone means that as long as I hit the upper bound of the safe zone at one point, I could never lose the bet any more, but if I want to win the bet, I have to hit the lower bound by losing another 2 kg. I hated the bet, so hitting the safe zone was like the end of the bet to me. I could finally break the chain and eat freely now (although under the restriction of vegetarian). I didn’t want to become thinner, I didn’t expect to lose more weight, and I didn’t think about losing weight at all, but to my surprise, I lost 1 kg one month into the vegetarian diet. I believe that it’s not losing weight per se. Instead, I’m just getting closer to my natural state of being.
I also became happier and more peaceful. However, it’s hard to separate the effect of a vegetarian diet from other factors. This quarter is definitely much less stressful than my previous quarter, when I was doing recruiting. I also go out more this quarter. Last quarter, three of the four classes that I took had videos online, so I was mostly staying in my room preparing for recruiting. By contrast, this quarter, I began to cram a master’s program into my four years of undergrad study. Plus I am also auditing another three classes. Therefore, I have a lot of classes to attend and I bike around on campus a lot. But one thing is certain: eating only vegetables makes me feel more close to nature and my true self.
Thursday, February 3, 2011 Becoming a Vegan
I didn’t mention earlier that when I first went vegetarian, I decided that it didn’t have to be very strict. In fact, I broke the vegetarian rule twice when I was a vegetarian. First time was in the Integrative Medicine class, which offered students sandwiches for lunch. There was no vegetarian sandwich that day, and I didn’t want to starve myself, so I ate a tuna sandwich. The second time was the catfish incident described earlier. My philosophy was that, as long as I whole heartedly wanted to be a vegetarian, it didn’t matter if I broke the rule in extraneous circumstances. I didn’t like being too intentional and pedantic. I liked being natural and easy-going. I wanted to practice vegetarian out of my free will, not rules. I even briefly considered getting a small amount of fish back to my diet, because of its omega-3 fatty acid (not because I missed fish).
Then how did I suddenly become a strict vegan? First, I learned that cows and chickens are also treated horribly even when they are raised not to be eaten, but to produce milk and eggs. Second, the idea of going completely vegan made me feel more natural and spiritual. Third, being a vegetarian had been a mind-blowing experience, so I was confident to take a step further and discover more about myself. Note February 3, 2011 is the first day of the Chinese Lunar New Year. It was certainly a good start. It’s interesting that I turned from a carnivore to herbivore as the Chinese lunar year turned from Tiger to Rabbit.
Sunday, February 6, 2011 Becoming a Food Combinator
I bumped into the Food Combination (FC) theory while studying digestion time of different foods. FC was something completely new while making complete sense to me. In short, FC refers to the combination of foods which are compatible with each other in terms of digestive chemistry. It is a basic component of optimal nutrition because it allows the body to digest and utilize the nutrients in our foods to their full extent. With gazillions of rules, FC first looked extremely complicated, which discouraged me from studying it. But I gradually began to understand the whole theory and finally mastered all the rules.
It suddenly made sense why sometimes my stomach felt weird after I went vegetarian. It was because I ate too much delicious grain (starch) and yummy legume (protein) at the same meal, while according to FC, starches and proteins should not be taken at the same meal. I had a good amount of knowledge about healthy living/eating and I found FC a very sense-making theory, so I started to follow FC alongside a vegan diet. In the spirit of the post I wrote on February 15, 2011, I now call myself a Food Combinator. When first following FC, I messed up the combination rules quite frequently and I felt bad. But now I’m pretty familiar with all the rules and I feel good about my digestion. One proof that better digestion is probably not my wishful thinking is that since I went FC (and vegan at almost the same time), I have almost never had those farts with bad odor anymore. As we know, the amount you fart is one of the best indicators of how well you are digesting your food. Farts that produce bad odor is a sign of toxin formation occurring inside your gut from rotting of incompletely digested food.
I created this post on the day I started this blog, but I didn’t write any content. Today, Monday, February 21, 2011, Presidents’ Day, one week after I started Vege Joy and one month after the start of my Vege Journey (btw, I totally didn’t realize that today is such an important day until I was writing the previous sentence), I’m coming back to record what happened in the first three weeks of this exciting journey.
Friday, January 21, 2011 Dinner with Mr. Fauver
I met Mr. Fauver through a class offered by the School of Medicine. I had dinner with him on this Friday night at Wilbur Dining. It was a life-changing dinner. Everything suddenly got connected, I realized that I was actually very spiritual in nature, and I became more peaceful and care-free.
I decided to learn about and start practicing meditation, so the next day I began to read about meditation online. Somehow I learned that a vegetarian diet helps people become more spiritual. I was curious and intrigued, so I began to read about vegetarianism. Then I learned how horribly the food industry treats animals and how a plant-based diet helps protect the environment. A feeling of compassion and love for nature made me want to go vegetarian. After further research, I concluded that a vegetarian diet was even healthier than an omnivore diet. At that time, I knew that I had become a vegetarian.
Sunday, January 23, 2011 Becoming a Vegetarian
I officially became a vegetarian.
I used to be a gluttonous carnivore. I LOVED sea food, dairy and eggs. All-you-care-to-eat dining halls in college were evil accomplices, which made more than 90% of the food on my plates meat. Fortunately I was not fat, so I kept on eating like that, until last year when a friend pointed out to me that not eating vegetables might be the reason why I had acne. This is so duh, but how come I didn’t realize it earlier?! So I began to eat more vegetables, but still not enough. It was not until December 8 last year, when I bet my roommate that I could lose 6 kg in one quarter by neither starving myself nor exercising, that I began to eat probably more vegetables than meat at most meals. Three weeks later, I fell in love with vegetables when eating a big plate of salad in Las Vegas. From then on, I began to be able to crave for vegetables. Coming back to school, I would sometimes even eat solely vegetables for meal out of my free will (not because of the bet at all).
Therefore, going vegetarian was a smooth transition to me. It was so natural that, except for one day when I really wanted the curry catfish at Wilbur Dining, I have never craved for meat at all since I became a vegetarian. Why did I really want the catfish? Well, a few days after going vegetarian, I saw chicken curry at Wilbur Dining and really wanted some curry. So I took some vegetables and curry sauce from the chicken curry. It turned out to be the worst vegetable ever. It had the taste of animal flesh, which instantaneously turned me off. I was surprised to discover that I began to dislike the taste of meat. However, I could not imagine that I would ever dislike the taste of fish, so two days later, when I saw the curry catfish, I decided to try it out to see if I still liked fish. Sure enough, I was still in love with fish. Even after finishing the one piece of curry catfish, I still could not stop thinking about it. So I took another two pieces, telling myself it was the last fish I would ever eat. And so far I was right.
Being a vegetarian definitely made me more sensitive to tastes, not only the tastes of animals, but also those of vegetables. I used to think all vegetables were equally plain tasting, but now I can taste each vegetable’s unique flavor. I was pretty sure that, after 21 years of eating, I had tasted almost all tastes out there, but during the first week of being vegetarian, I suddenly discovered an explosion of new naturally fantastic tastes of vegetables. It was quite a thrilling experience. It was the first time in my life that I loved every single meal I had.
Better taste is not the only unexpected experience I got from a vegetarian diet. Roughly one week after going vegetarian, I also experienced boost of energy, less sleep, and better skin. There’s a 20 degree hill leading to my dorm. I used to hate the hill and I always walked my bike every time I had to climb up the hill. However, one day, I could suddenly bike up the hill without much effort. I also easily acquired the ability to naturally wake up early in the morning (6-7am) and stay energetic all day. I used to sleep more than 9 hours every day, but now I almost never sleep more than 8 hours a day. I didn’t have acne when I went vegetarian, so I didn’t get to witness the direct effect of a vegetarian diet on acne. However, in general, a vegetarian diet is good for skin. Except the week of February 7-11, when I had breakout because of midterm stress, I haven’t had any acne on my face since going vegetarian.
Now move on to the bet I had with my roommate. I entered “safe zone” on the morning of January 27, 4 days after I became a vegetarian, and it was a huge relief. Safe zone means that as long as I hit the upper bound of the safe zone at one point, I could never lose the bet any more, but if I want to win the bet, I have to hit the lower bound by losing another 2 kg. I hated the bet, so hitting the safe zone was like the end of the bet to me. I could finally break the chain and eat freely now (although under the restriction of vegetarian). I didn’t want to become thinner, I didn’t expect to lose more weight, and I didn’t think about losing weight at all, but to my surprise, I lost 1 kg one month into the vegetarian diet. I believe that it’s not losing weight per se. Instead, I’m just getting closer to my natural state of being.
I also became happier and more peaceful. However, it’s hard to separate the effect of a vegetarian diet from other factors. This quarter is definitely much less stressful than my previous quarter, when I was doing recruiting. I also go out more this quarter. Last quarter, three of the four classes that I took had videos online, so I was mostly staying in my room preparing for recruiting. By contrast, this quarter, I began to cram a master’s program into my four years of undergrad study. Plus I am also auditing another three classes. Therefore, I have a lot of classes to attend and I bike around on campus a lot. But one thing is certain: eating only vegetables makes me feel more close to nature and my true self.
Thursday, February 3, 2011 Becoming a Vegan
I didn’t mention earlier that when I first went vegetarian, I decided that it didn’t have to be very strict. In fact, I broke the vegetarian rule twice when I was a vegetarian. First time was in the Integrative Medicine class, which offered students sandwiches for lunch. There was no vegetarian sandwich that day, and I didn’t want to starve myself, so I ate a tuna sandwich. The second time was the catfish incident described earlier. My philosophy was that, as long as I whole heartedly wanted to be a vegetarian, it didn’t matter if I broke the rule in extraneous circumstances. I didn’t like being too intentional and pedantic. I liked being natural and easy-going. I wanted to practice vegetarian out of my free will, not rules. I even briefly considered getting a small amount of fish back to my diet, because of its omega-3 fatty acid (not because I missed fish).
Then how did I suddenly become a strict vegan? First, I learned that cows and chickens are also treated horribly even when they are raised not to be eaten, but to produce milk and eggs. Second, the idea of going completely vegan made me feel more natural and spiritual. Third, being a vegetarian had been a mind-blowing experience, so I was confident to take a step further and discover more about myself. Note February 3, 2011 is the first day of the Chinese Lunar New Year. It was certainly a good start. It’s interesting that I turned from a carnivore to herbivore as the Chinese lunar year turned from Tiger to Rabbit.
Sunday, February 6, 2011 Becoming a Food Combinator
I bumped into the Food Combination (FC) theory while studying digestion time of different foods. FC was something completely new while making complete sense to me. In short, FC refers to the combination of foods which are compatible with each other in terms of digestive chemistry. It is a basic component of optimal nutrition because it allows the body to digest and utilize the nutrients in our foods to their full extent. With gazillions of rules, FC first looked extremely complicated, which discouraged me from studying it. But I gradually began to understand the whole theory and finally mastered all the rules.
It suddenly made sense why sometimes my stomach felt weird after I went vegetarian. It was because I ate too much delicious grain (starch) and yummy legume (protein) at the same meal, while according to FC, starches and proteins should not be taken at the same meal. I had a good amount of knowledge about healthy living/eating and I found FC a very sense-making theory, so I started to follow FC alongside a vegan diet. In the spirit of the post I wrote on February 15, 2011, I now call myself a Food Combinator. When first following FC, I messed up the combination rules quite frequently and I felt bad. But now I’m pretty familiar with all the rules and I feel good about my digestion. One proof that better digestion is probably not my wishful thinking is that since I went FC (and vegan at almost the same time), I have almost never had those farts with bad odor anymore. As we know, the amount you fart is one of the best indicators of how well you are digesting your food. Farts that produce bad odor is a sign of toxin formation occurring inside your gut from rotting of incompletely digested food.
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