#lifeexperiments

[joyfuldaddys]

Do Not Be Too Timid and Squeamish About Your Actions. All Life is an

Experiment. The More Experiments You Make the Better.

Do Not Be Too Timid and Squeamish About Your Actions. All Life is an Experiment. The More Experiments You Make the Better.

Explore the importance of experimentation and bold actions with insights inspired by Ralph Waldo Emerson's quote, 'Do not be too timid and s

[wakingupat30]

The Experiment

Giving up my car for a month.

Two weeks ago my car shut off at 10pm while visiting Houston. My key got locked into the ignition and I couldn’t turn anything on. Luckily, we have AAA and they came out and jumped my car without any issue. I was promptly told my battery is very old and its time to replace. No big deal. That is only $80, right? Sure, if it were only $80 that would be fine. But that is $80 on top of the $1500 worth of work my car needs. I immediately called my husband and told him “I want to get rid of my car!”

My 2005 Chevy Cobalt has been a great little car, but it is nearing its end. Kelly Bluebook values my car between $1400 and $2400. So clearly it is not worth the repairs. But I am also not ready to get a new car yet. Mostly, I don’t want the added monthly payment. Right now, we are a two car family with zero car payments. So, to me, the only options seems to be, get rid of the car! (Maybe a little dramatic, but I do that sometimes)

To see if we can actually live with one car, we are pretending my car doesn't exist. It is parked in our garage, and for 30 days, I will not drive it (only if absolutely necessary). And over those 30 days I will be keeping track of the amount of money spent and saved. At the end of the day, that is what I am most interested in. I will also keep track of any other benefits that will come with it, like reducing my environmental impact and health benefits of walkings or biking, though this was not my first intention (secondary benefits of saving money by going green).

Let the experiment begin!

[nickcasares]

20 Things I Learned From a Whole Foods Cleanse

Last month I experimented with whole foods diet that promotes detoxification and cellular regeneration. I was originally introduced to the concept of nutritional cleansing by my good friend, Scott Ohlgren, who is an expert on the subject of whole foods nutrition. Scott has over 30 years of hands on insight and has coached thousands of people through whole foods cleansing programs. 

For this experiment I followed Scott's 28 day program. The following are my personal takeaways from the experience. 

1. Cleansing is hard

Adapting a whole foods diet is not a trivial undertaking. It's not rocket science and the program spells everything out step by step, but staying motivated, focused and committed takes perseverance. It's much like starting (or stopping) any habit. Hard in the beginning but easier as time goes on. 

2. I am chronically dehydrated

I drank exactly one gallon of water per day throughout the cleanse. Initially this felt like a lot of water intake but over time my body adjusted and I found myself actually needing a bit more. I noticed a couple of interesting things. First, I slept much better than I normally do. Second, I began to actually crave water first thing after waking up. Staying hydrated is just good nutritional sense and the gallon per day is something that I've adapted to my regular routine.

3. I am addicted to sugar 

The program calls for no intake of artificial or processed sweeteners so my sweetener choices were limited to high quality agave, maple syrup, honey and agave. For the most part I abandoned sweets during the cleanse and deferred to fresh fruit to deal with cravings. However, I could tell even through the last day that my body hadn't let go of it's addiction to sugar. 

4. Eating out of boredom

Once I got past the first week and my body adjusted to a new diet I found myself reaching for food when I really wasn't hungry. Some quick self evaluation revealed that I was doing this out of boredom.

5. Our body is designed to tell us exactly what we need

Since there are no calorie restrictions or timing requirements for meals I had to rely on my body's intuition to tell me what and when to eat. Over time I began to recognize my body was actually asking (sometimes begging) for a particular food. In a macrobiotic diet there's a concept of "energetics" - that food carries different levels of energy and part of a good diet is learning to identify what type of energy the body needs. Scientific debates aside, I do believe there's some truth to this idea and I found myself eating according to intuition throughout the cleanse.

6. Conscious eating promoted conscious living

This one is pretty simple. By paying more attention to my eating habits I was more conscious in other areas of my life as well. This was a somewhat unexpected and really positive side effect.

7. Green juice is amazing

Prior to starting the cleanse Scott hooked me up with an amazing Kempo juicer. I've juiced here and there but never with any regularity and usually more along the lines of fruit or sweet veggie juice. Scott highly recommends green juice during the cleanse so I incorporated about 16oz of green juice each day (cucumber, celery, kale, apple, lime and ginger). The restorative benefits of juicing blew me away and I'm definitely keeping this aspect in my diet.

8. Detoxing sucks

One of the biggest benefits of the cleanse is detoxing the body of built up gunk in the lymph and digestive systems. This part is not fun but it really proved to me that my body was actually undergoing a regenerative process. Throughout the cleanse I had periods of 1-4 days where my body was detoxing and I had very low energy, congestion, headaches and mood swings. The light at the end of the tunnel is that with each bout of detoxing my body would rebound with a burst of energy. Diet detoxification is highly disputed in the medical and scientific communities and my view is strictly experiential.

9. A body takes time to adapt to new fuel sources

Before starting the cleanse I was working out hard 4 times per week and eating a fairly high protein diet (mostly through supplementation). For the first two weeks of the cleanse I was entirely unable to exercise. Not because I didn't want to but because I literally could not find the energy. Several of my onlooker friends tried to steer me toward needing protein and wanted to blame my low energy on the vegan-esque nature of the cleanse. What I realized toward week three is that my body was just adapting to a new fuel source. By the last week of the cleanse I was back to working out and my strength levels had returned despite a lower caloric intake. Side note - I have a sneaking suspicion that the average protein requirement is overestimated. 

10. I am chronically under slept

I slept a lot during the cleanse. My regular routine affords me 6-7 hours per night but during the cleanse I was regularly getting 9-10. My routine has evened out to about 8 hours a night but the amount of restoration I felt from extra sleep during the cleanse reminded me of how under slept I really am.

11. I have been disrespecting my eating ritual

In western culture we have a tendency to shovel food down our throats as quickly as possible. While this might be a time efficient way to eat, it's not the best way to eat. I slowed my eating ritual down during the cleanse to really focus on the nutritive value of each meal.  One benefit is that I had stayed more in touch with my body's intuition and could better match caloric intake to appetite. A second, perhaps less tangible, side effect is that I just had a better sense of respect for the process of nourishing the body. Life is sacred and food is necessary for life. There's a worthwhile connection there.

12. The kitchen is a sacred place

Nearly every meal was prepared at home during the cleanse. I'm no stranger to the kitchen, but I did need to re-organize my pantry and stock up on some different staples to better support meal preparation. As time went on I found myself really enjoying the prep time in the kitchen and I established a daily ritual of preparing the kitchen to make food (cleaning up, prepping tools, organizing staples). Much like it feels good to take care of one's work tools I had a similar experience in the kitchen.

13. Coffee is harsh

I've been a heavy coffee drinker for years. I am was totally addicted to caffeine and I actually enjoy the taste of a good cup of coffee. During the cleanse I limited coffee  intake to one small cup per morning and substituted green tea through the rest of the day. After the initial stages of detox I began noticing that coffee was tasting (and feeling) really harsh on my system. The high acidity and strong caffeine content were much more apparent than they'd ever been. Toward the end of the cleanse I started eliminating coffee altogether. I won't say I've given it up completely but coffee is definitely much more of an occasional thing now.

14. A low animal protein diet is good

Outside of the occasional egg or a small bit of salmon I completely gave up animal protein during the cleanse. So far it feels amazing and I don't plan and going back to steak and chicken anytime soon. There are just too many other ways to get high quality protein in the diet. As I mentioned earlier, I think most people overestimate their protein needs. 

15. Food affects mental clarity

This one surprised me. I didn't realize how much my diet was affecting my mood levels and mental clarity. Since the detox fog has lifted I feel much more clear on a day to day basis.

16. Dairy isn't good for humans

My judgment here is strictly personal and empirical. I feel so much better when I don't eat dairy. I had actually given up regular dairy intake about 3 months before starting the cleanse. I'm not really sure why, I just had a feeling that I didn't need (or want) it in my system.

18. Sweating is good

Scott recommends using (light) exercise and/or a dry sauna to encourage sweating throughout the cleanse. The key idea behind this is that sweating releases toxins. I worked sweating into my regular routine and I do feel like it made a difference in my progress.

19. People are giant petri dishes

We all have different biochemical compositions. Sure, there's a lot we have in common but we're also individual. I consider cleansing a piece of my personal whole health puzzle. Discovering and maintaining health is a conscious, on-going process. We should embrace health experiments and look forward to personal understanding.

20. Taking care of oneself is underrated

One of Scott's key pieces of wisdom in the first few days was "be kind to yourself". I really took this bit to heart and made time to take better care of myself during the cleanse. Whether that meant shutting off the workday earlier, saying no to social situations or clearing space to just "be" it made a big difference in my ability to appreciate change. 

Conclusion

Overall, it was an immensely positive experience and I highly recommend Scott's program. I didn't have any particular ailments I was trying to address but I sleep better, feel better taken care of, have a more thorough understanding of my health and lost about 7 pounds.