Chicken Week, Day Four and Our Weird Homework
June 27, 2009
The main reason that we’re only allowed chicken and an all-too short list of condiments to go along with it during the first week of transition is primarily to guard our gall bladders from having an adverse reaction to trying to process certain ingredients (fats). Essentially the gall bladder shuts down during the fast and while we take medication to help prevent complications, it would be a gall bladder attack and surgery waiting to happen to go from a total liquid fast to a beef burger overnight.
The other benefit I’m appreciating to this weeks’ limited food list is that it’s forcing me to think creatively and simply about food with little more than chicken, spices and a few other ingredients (pickles, non-fat mayo, mustard, etc) to draw from when putting “dinner” together. That’s why I’ve been going with international themes, relying on spices and some different table settings to set the mood. Tonight was Dinner by the Ganges. I stove top grilled the chicken with a curry dusting and then made a couple “dipping sauces” that included spices that are unique to Indian food…garam marsala (yum), vindaloo (hot), and curry..always great. I just added those in varying combinations to a base of non-fat mayo and/or yellow mustard and we were set to go. I’m actually having fun trying to come up with different international themes to wrap around three ounces of chicken but so far so good…and I think I might already have a direction for tomorrow’s dinner. You’ll have to stay tuned for that!
During this first week of transition we were given two different projects for homework. The first is that we weigh ourselves FIVE TIMES a day but before we weigh we have to guess what we weigh. We then write the time we weighed, our guess, and the actual numbers on the scale. The point of the exercise is to see how weight fluctuates during the day and from day to day (the average person’s weight goes up and down about three pounds per week), to recognize how the numbers on the scale affect our mood, and then to take the power away from the numbers on the scale but instead be more consciously aware if we’re eating healthy and living actively from day to day.
The second homework assignment is that each of us is to go buy 5-10 dollars of our favorite food and have someone else prepare it for us. They are then to offer it to us by putting it on a plate and setting it in front of us. We say “No, thank you.” They say, “No really go ahead. I made it for you.” We say again, “No, thank you” and then we pick up the plate and take it, putting the food down the garbage disposal. The point is learning how to reject food and to not always eat it just because it’s available. Honestly, this was a hard exercise for me; not because it was hard to say no to the food but it was hard to basically throw 5-10 dollars worth of food away when so many people are in want. Of course, to keep things in perspective, the fact that people were going to bed hungry never stopped me from eating enough food to feed them and myself.
Oh, and what was my food? Two eggs fried in butter with melted cheese on top. We have to do it one more time next week and I can already tell you it will be a “double-double” and fries from In-N-Out. This week we were to do the exercise immediately after we’d eaten dinner and were still satisfied from our meal. Next week we’re to do it before dinner when we’re hungry. I hope I get an A+.
Posted in Liquid Fast, Weight Loss
