Cooking/Food Log.

Coming off what amounted to a month of indulgence, eating and drinking whatever caught my eye - mmmm, tasty cold beer - during three weeks in the US & London plus another 2 weeks over the holidays, I felt the need to hit a hard "reset" button, both physically and psychologically, to kick my ass back on track in the New Year.  So from Monday to Friday last week I did a liquid/modified juice fast.  [Made much easier by my Xmas gift/juicer - thanks much Spence, if you're reading this.]  Every day the staple was a large serving of fresh juice, mostly tomato and cucumber based, with a dash of salt and whatever other fresh veg I happened on.  Supplemented by canned and boxed juices, only 100% juice, and mostly V8.  Plus water, naturally.  Modifications included coffee w/milk or coconut milk, as I had no intention of dealing with caffeine withdrawal while juice fasting, and one night I buckled to craving and had some coconut milk sweetened with sugar free chocolate syrup.

Saturday I continued with the juice, plus some protein shakes and clearing out the fridge of the last couple diet sodas I had on hand.  Think I've finally got the diet soda monkey off my back as well, as they were, after a week of not drinking them, extremely underwhelming on the satisfaction front.  Have no urges whatsoever to pick up any more.  Sunday I added in some protein bars and some whole food - eggs, cheese and salsa.    

Overall, quite satisfied with how it went.  Worked out my willpower muscles a bit, got some focus back and reconfirmed something I proved to myself playing around a bit with the intermittent fasting protocol last year - the fact that most "hunger" is bullshit.  Those of us coming from the developed, Western world have not a fucking clue what we're talking about when we say "I'm hungry."  99.9% of the time [I've done the math] 'hunger' is nothing but habit, addiction, psychology and cravings.  It's nonsense.  

Anyways, now prepared to go forward into 2012 more focused on my improving myself and continuing on the path of improved diet and exercise, performance, appearance and aesthetics.  Standard protocol from here is 6 days a week on a primal/paleo/low carb plan, 1 day a week [optimally 1 meal, but we'll see how that plays with social events, etc.] indulgence/free/carb re-load.

The Mrs was eating mostly leftovers this week, but I did throw together a handful of dishes and drinks, earning my keep and such.