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Healing
Wednesday, 9 September 2009
It's been a bad winter for me.
A double whammy of flu. The first bout knocked me out for three weeks. This second bout has knocked me out for just a fortnight. I seem to be on the mend again, so I'm back blogging With A Vengeance. I guess you can't keep a good girl down.
As a result of being sick, I'm going on a pretty strict immunity-building diet for the next six weeks. It's Dr. Fuhrman's Six Week Challenge (you can find the Challenge in Dr. Fuhrman's excellent book Eat To Live).
The basic meal plan guidelines are:
Snacks are fruit and raw veggies, with plant-based dips and spreads, and small amounts of nuts and seeds.
There is no portion control, but there is a 10% rule - you can eat 10% calories from whatever you want, as long as 90% of the time you follow the guidelines. So I can go out for dinner if I want, but only 1 night in 10, or less.
Water only (of course!) to drink., although the original version allows herbal teas as well.
In short, it's a vegan, whole-foods, ultra-high nutrition diet, aimed at boosting my immunity and getting me super-fit and healthy again.
I'll also be taking echinacea supplements, and a multivitamin.
Why so extreme?
I've been really sick. I don't want to get sick again. Dr. Fuhrman's diet is evidence-based, and I know from experience that his methods work - it was by following his program that I lost a massive amount of weight (over 50 pounds) a few years ago and have kept it off pretty easily.
However, the last year the MOTS (Male Of The Species) and I have let our habits slide a bit, and although I haven't regained more than a kilogram or two, my health has deteriorated, and this winter's two bouts of flu were the result.
Not good. I need to get back on the wagon. And yes - Pizza is EVIL! ;-)
Looking for a group blog...somewhere...maybe...
I'm not going to bore everyone here at Cluttercut with the sordid details of my Six Week Challenge, what I'm eating, or any of that. If I knew of a group blog doing Fuhrman I'd join it, but I don't. If you know of one doing Fuhrman or similar, please let me know!
So I'll probably create a separate blog sometime soon, and if you want to read my doings, you can head on over.
What I will say, to conclude this long - and rather dull - post, is that I've realised it is really important to look after our health. How can we expect to be effective environmentalists if we're too weak to get out of bed? It has been a wake-up call for me that I really needed.
Finally, thanks so much for all the good wishes. It's nice to know so many people care. Thank you.
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Cluttercut - Be the change
4 comments:
Good for you! One thing, I was reminded of an article I read back at the beginning of winter was to ensure that you have enough Vitamin D (my ds was particularly low even during summer and I wanted to work on raising it up as part of getting his immune system in order for winter). And living down where you are I would guess that you are not going to get the optimum amount of sun to produce adequate vit D during winter (and this article talked of the higher chances of getting knocked by flus if you are Vit D deficient). During winter they say in higher parts of the country that you need 20mins between 12pm-2pm to get adequate vit D, but down where you are I'm not sure if you could get it due to latitude? During summer it is 20mins during the less harsh parts of the day.
Good luck with it!
Oh no! I just ate a big plate of EVIL! I am going to check out this diet, because it might help the belly go down a bit as well. I am sick of being sick as well Daharja!
Gav
Fantastic idea - that diet, although it looks pretty rigid, sounds like it will do the trick for your immune system.
Good luck!
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