Ten Days In: Report on my Fast from Bread

My Tenth Day of Fasting from Bread

It is the tenth day of my fast from bread -- from all grains, actually.  

This is not the same thing as my other fasting.  In this blog posting, I'll be talking about 2 different fasts that I'm currently doing.  (1) Since I learned of Michael Mosley's report of the research on longevity I've been doing a total fast twice a week (usually Monday and Friday).  While I continue to fast twice a week, I am now also (2) fasting from bread, even on those days when I eat.  For the last 10 days I have attempted to eat no grains, and only raw fruits and veggies as well.  This means, I avoid all animal products, including eggs and dairy, and I avoid all caffeine and salt and sugar.  

And no alcohol.  (I had to add that last one.  It only occurred to me after writing most of the rest of the blog.  It never occurs to me to drink alcohol anyway, so I don't even consider it as something for me to give up).

Societal Pressures

I haven't entirely succeeded on the raw diet.  Last Saturday I attended a wedding, where the vegetarian meal I was served had cooked vegetables, over a bowl of rice soaked in soy sauce.  I scraped off the rice that was sticking to the veggies, since I didn't want any grain.  I wouldn't have eaten any of this veg, if I could have avoided it socially, but I was seated next to the mother of the bride, and I didn't want to offend her too much.  I pushed around the rice so it looked like I had eaten some but was just being picky.

I wasn't the only one who left food on their plate.  I noticed the meat eaters had left most of their vegetables on their plates when they were finished.  Incidentally, why do meat eaters get more veggies than vegetarians?  Seriously.  I would have been far happier with their plates, but without the meat, than I was with what I was served.  I also noticed that these same meat eaters were not sated by their huge slabs of blood-red beef and chicken.  Within an hour, they eagerly helped themselves to bowls of candies set in the foyer, filling bags with sugary mints and gooey jujubes.  "How could they still be hungry?" I wondered.

Even worse, the salad I was given was drowned in oil.  Again, I wouldn't have touched it at all, except that the next chair was the groom's new mother-in-law, and she was paying for the catering, and I didn't want her to think that I wasn't being fed.  That salad didn't appeal to me in the slightest; but that should come as no surprise to those who know me.  I usually will order salad with no salad dressing, I always did.

One other thing I should mention, since it represents another societal pressure.  I've had to lie to my mother-in-law.  On mother's day this year, I had to work, but my wife visited her mom, her mom had a cake, and so she sent home a piece for me.  I was asked on the phone by my mother-in-law if I ate the cake.  I evaded the answer, and said, "Oh, right, you made that cake.  Thanks."  A little white lie.  Of course, I didn't eat it, I didn't even see it.  My wife gave it to my brother-in-law.  She knew I wouldn't have eaten it.

There will be other weddings, this summer.  I won't be able to realistically and slavishly follow this diet forever.  There has to be some flexibility in social situations in any diet.

How much fruit?

Other than that social episode, I've been able to follow this fast fairly well, although it remains a learning process for me as to how much food I am actually eating.  The amount of fruit I consume seems outrageous, to someone who has never eaten that much fruit and veg.

Still, it apparently is not enough.  Douglas Graham tells us that the amount required to sustain someone who is active and athletic is substantially more than what we in the western world are accustomed to eating, when it comes to fruit.  We actually have to train ourselves to eat enough raw fruits and leafy green vegetables, since we are not used to that amount of bulk.  We are instead, more accustomed to fat.

Raw whole food eaters say about 30 bananas a day is the appropriate amount of calories for a typical man who needs 2000 calories/day.  This gives you an idea of what might be expected, in terms of volume.  Broken up into the standard 3 meals a day, this is about 10 bananas per sitting.  Very few of us who were brought up on a western diet of high fat, lots of grain, would be able to conceive of doing this.  And so, one must transition into this volume of fruit.  But remember that 3 meals a day is just a convention -- and one largely invented for meat (and other cooked food) eaters.  If you ain't cooking anything, eating a banana is just a matter of peeling it, whenever and wherever you are.

The idea of a meal just changed.

WTFructose?

Although I still drink vegetable juices, and like them as a transitional diet modifier, I don't recommend fruit juices or smoothies.  One often hears the warning about eating too much fruit, that one's triglycerides will rise too high, because the liver has trouble with the high amounts of fructose in fruit.  Many slow-carb diet plans warn specifically about too much fruit, and fruit juices in particular.  For example, Timothy Ferris (author of "The 4-Hour Body") says you can have some fruit once a week, but no more than that.

Of course, Douglas Graham promotes the whole fruit, because the fiber of fruit can temper the release of the sweetness into the bloodstream.  Graham also says that triglycerides are only a problem in someone who eats a high fat diet, and this is not the case with raw vegans who eat primarily a fruit-based diet that is very low in fat.   He says the studies on raw vegan whole food eaters have simply never been done.  All studies about triglycerides done so far make the assumption that everyone eats a typical high fat, western diet.  All he can do is point to the anecdotal health of many athletes who have tried this diet.  

While this doesn't seem terribly reassuring, he makes a fair point.  Because of the well-known dangers of triglycerides adding to one's chances of increased cardiovascular disease, one ought to take this as a profound warning to those transitioning into this diet; you cannot eat a primarily raw fruit-based diet and continue to eat fatty foods like meat, eggs, dairy and processed oils.  Graham advises the use of whole fruits, not juices.  He doesn't like nuts and seeds, which contain a lot of hidden fat, and are often the staple of a  raw vegan diet.  And he even cautions against the overuse of fatty vegetables like avocados, olives and coconuts.

In his book "The 80-10-10 Diet" Graham gives an example of some of the non-whole food raw vegan recipes and diets and salads and analyzes the fat content of them.  In some cases, he says, the fat content of this diet can be far worse than that of a meat-eater's.  But (he maintains) you'll do all right if you stick to raw, whole foods, and the foods that you would eat if you found them in the forest -- meaning fruits and primarily leafy green vegetables (but no, or very little nuts and seeds, which are high in fat, and of course absolutely no cereals, no sugar or salt, and no processed oils).  If you can do that -- and perhaps not everybody can (I'm still not sure I can) -- you are virtually guaranteed to eat far less fat. 

Woah, Candida

It may not be easy to eat that much fruit, for other reasons: fruit contains a lot of natural sugar, and when one begins to eat this much, the candida in the bloodstream blooms and gives us trouble.  Douglas Graham suggests that the candida are doing us a favour: since the body's cells cannot consume that amount of sugar, the yeast take care of it and systemic balance is restored, without causing undue stress on the pancreas.  But here's the thing: the only reason our own cells can't use all the sugar is because we have eaten too much fat to begin with: the fat lines our arteries and other blood vessels, and pervades our body, blocking the glucose from entering the cells properly.  Our bodies do their best to clear away the glucose, but when it can't get into the cells fast enough, the candida take what we can't use.  The usual remedy for candida flareups would be to go completely off anything sweet, especially fruit, and make up those calories with more fat -- but Graham says that would be a terrible mistake.

Still, some transitioning has to take place.  If one can't go cold turkey into the 80-10-10 diet, because of candida flair-ups, or other problems, one should not abandon hope and return to a high fat diet.  Graham always said that this ratio he proposes is a target, a direction, not a recipe.  I personally didn't have problems with candida when I began this fast from grains, but realize that I've been fasting twice a week on my standard lacto-ovo-vegetarian diet for about 6 months, and have lost some weight.  Now, before this 10-day fast from bread and my undertaking a raw diet, my weight seemed to have stabilized.  I hadn't lost any more weight for the past couple of months (except for a few pounds during a fast day, which was likely water, and which I gained back again when eating the usual bread fare; see this blog entry for details).  If I had to suggest something for someone who was having a candida problem and unwilling to try this mostly-fruit diet, I would suggest trying what I did.  Or if you found twice-a-week total fasting difficult, you could drink nothing but green vegetable juices on those fast days, twice a week.  

Then, like me, you could try a 3-day fast from bread, and see how you feel; and if you feel better, you are almost half-way to a full week away from bread; try that.  And if that makes you feel better, try 10 days without grains on a raw diet.  And if that seems possible to you, then consider a month.  And if that's okay, then consider Douglas Graham's challenge of trying the raw bonobo diet of fruits and leafy greens for an entire year.

If even the prototypical exorphin junkie can do it, you can do it too.  But let's take this one day at a time.  I've only managed 10 days, so far.  And I still call this a fast, not a diet.

How Much Better Do I feel after 10 days?

Here are a few things that I've noticed.  Warning: I mention a couple of nasty things.

• I'm losing weight.  I thought that I had finished losing weight, on my bi-weekly fasts, but on this raw mostly fruit diet, I continue to lose pounds.  Now I have no idea where I'll end up.  I might end up being quite skinny, if this keeps up.  I'm starting to think about doing some weight training again, to stress my muscles to build some strength.  I may have to rethink my bi-weekly fasting.  Douglas Graham doesn't recommend it -- although he does recommend periodic water fasts of lengthier duration (I think I've heard him mention as much as 23 days of fasting from everything except water, somewhere).
• Some people wonder if I'm sick.  Most people who lose as much weight as I've been losing are in fact sick and full of cancer.  No one asks me directly, but my wife gets approached, and my co-workers get approached; people who remember me overweight (but I was never obese) are asking: "Is he all right?"  Actually, I feel fine.  However, on a fast day, my face can look quite gaunt, the lines fairly deep, the wrinkles more noticeable.  I force myself to drink water on a fast day, but over the day the loss of water is substantial, and it is most noticeable on my old wrinkled face.  When I eat fruit, the lines on my face are less noticeable.  I have had people tell me I ought not to lose any more weight.
• Mango fibers get stuck between my teeth, when I nibble the fruit from the rind.  I'm going to have to floss more.  This suggests to me that the claims that raw dieters have no teeth problems is not completely accurate.
• The base of my spine may be developing skin problems -- again.  I remember when I was a vegan for a year, when I first became a vegetarian, and I developed something like psoriasis.  Coccyx, elbows -- these were the spots that became raw and itchy first, as I recall.  If it is happening again, I will have to stop the fast right away, and return to some egg or dairy products.  Is this raw spot (no pun intended) on my spine an early indication of a developing deficiency?   Or is it just a bit of "yoga burn" from my last yoga session?  I'm not as padded on my ass as I used to be.  I guess I'll have to wait and see if its a nutritional deficiency.
• I feel the cold more.  A cool day causes me to be quite chilled.  Is this because my metabolism has changed?  I definitely don't burn as hot as I used to.  I like to sleep naked, and oftentimes under the blankets I'm quite cold now, especially in my fingers and feet, whereas before I was quite hot.  I may have to consider wearing pj's.  This is a concern for me; I was thinking that, if I cleaned up my capillaries, my bloodflow would be better.  But my extremities are not as warm as they used to be.  Does that mean they are less perfused?
• Some people don't like it when one alters one's diet this drastically.  Everybody wants to get their nose into my business, and tell me I'm crazy, especially those who normally wouldn't give me the time of day.  I suspect this is one of the things that makes us human.  It is a primate thing that defines us.  We share food.  When one of us breaks from the usual fare, one is immediately classified as an outsider.  A suspect.  A traitor.  
• I don't wake up with a bad taste in my mouth, but wake up with fresh breath.  The one exception to this, during these 10 days, was the morning after I ate all that salt and oil at the wedding.
• My poo is greener than ever before.  I suspect that this is the green juices I've been consuming.  There is a substantial amount of fiber in it, but it is quite different in texture than the fiber I've been eating with my whole grain breads.  It is not ripping up my insides when it passes.
• I can bounce upstairs without any ache in my legs.  I could always bound upstairs, but there was always a tiny ache in my femur.  I've already mentioned in a previous blog, after only 3 days into this fast, that my hips don't hurt; now I notice my legs don't hurt.  I'm not talking about muscular aches, which come and go, but rather deep bone aches that I was not even aware of, until it went away.  Curious that these larger bones feel better: it makes me wonder if these are the bones that the body was drawing upon for its calcium?  The raw food gurus all say that calcium levels are depleted through the ingestion of grains and cooked foods.   It makes sense that the body would scoop some calcium from its largest store in the larger bones first, if there was a need for calcium because the bran was drawing it from the body through the bowels.  Ever wonder why so many elderly people fall and end up hospitalized with fractured hips?  Ask yourself whether the fracture is the result of the fall, or the cause of it.  Years ago, I stopped running because my knees hurt.  I'm now thinking about running again.
• After working all day in the hospital, when I come home I don't have boogers in my nose if I've been eating a lot of fruit all day.  I think my bloodstream is better hydrated, my body is not all dried up.  It used to be, there was a lot of stuff in my nose that had to be cleared out.  I've tried many things to keep the nares free of stuff, because I hate to have impeded airflow.  I'm sorry to have to report that fingers seem to be the best choice.  (Don't worry, I'm a nurse, I also wash my hands.  A lot.).  I've noticed my coworkers are often stuffed-up when they work on our unit too.  It seems to be quite a toxic environment.  We all do our best to keep hydrated, but it is so very, very dry.  Is it all the more dry for those whose food is generally cooked (dried out), and laden with salt and fat?
• My spine feels more flexible.  I suspect that this is due mostly to the better hydration of my internal organs, perhaps because of the loss of visceral fat around those organs.

My son says that some of these healthful effects I mentioned to him may be little more than the placebo effect.  He also added, "but don't forget, the placebo effect is real."  I wonder if he thinks I expected to feel better, on this diet.  But in fact, I had no idea that I would.  I rather suspected I would be hungry all the time, and never satiated without bread.  I suspected I would be weaker, not stronger.  I thought that 3 days would be torture, bread free.  I thought 7 days would be torture without bread.  I thought 10 days was only doable after I completed the 7 days.  I'm still not sure about a full year on this diet, but I'm starting to think it might be possible.

My brother-in-law says what's the point of fasting and avoiding foods you like?  What's the point of life if you are not enjoying it?    This is the same argument of a person who is never able to buy a house or any other major purchase because they are always renting and spending their money on frivolous things that distract them.  Never able to put money away to be able to afford a down payment on the big purchase, they can't see beyond the present moment.  I hasten to add that this is certainly NOT a description of my brother-in-law; I've seen him ridicule those who have no self-discipline in buying things that aren't needed, but who can't afford important stuff.  But he doesn't see the same lack of self discipline when it comes to eating.  Here's what I mean: let's imagine that your old age is your big purchase.  You have to save something to be able to afford it.  So you avoid purchasing too many little things -- candy, bread, cooked foods, meat and dairy -- until you have enough health stored so that you can have the coin for when you get to the point of your big purchase -- when you arrive at old age.  Listen to me: people are living longer now, and you definitely don't want to live the second half of your life without your health.

I do enjoy life.  I'm learning to avoid bread because clearly I'm addicted to it, and I suspect that it is draining me of life.  I wish to experience more life.  I'm trying to save some health.  I see so many people with chronic diseases who linger on into old age, debilitated.  I'd like to avoid that scenario, if I can.

I still occasionally crave my bread.  I may always crave it, I don't know.  For now, these moments pass quickly when I eat a piece of fruit, or drink some fresh vegetable juice, or eat some celery or lettuce.  I suggest others try the same thing: eat some fruit or veg first, and then if you are still hungry, then and only then, if you are transitioning into this diet like me, eat some bread as a last resort.  Or better yet, some steamed rice.  But stay clear of the fats you want to put on these cereal carbs for taste.  Keep as close to the 80-10-10 diet plan of 80% carbs, 10% each of fat and protein.  Don't get sucked in to eating fat.  Try to avoid cooked, salted or otherwise processed foods -- and that pretty much means all cereals, and all those oh-so-clever vegan recipes that use dehydrators and blenders.

For now I am calling this my fast, rather than my diet.  I'm clearly not sure whether it is going to be completely sustainable for me.

What I actually eat, while on this "fast from bread"

The book "The 4-Hour Body" by Timothy Ferris makes a couple of interesting suggestions, about dieting.  "Take a snapshot before opening your mouth," he writes.  That becomes a way to measure your progress, and any measurement will have positive effects on your choices.  I have just finished taking a picture of each bread that I made for the last 4-5 years, and posting it on this blog, so this should be a fairly easy thing for me to do -- take a picture of everything I eat -- at least for one day.  

I chose today, as today represents for me a goal reached that twelve days ago I would not have thought possible for an exorphin junkie to reach.  It's also not a very active day for me.  I can relax and take as many photos as I need without pressure to do other things.  I can use this photo record to determine how much fat is in my diet, and how many calories.  I won't do this on a regular basis, it is far too time consuming.

Today is Tuesday, the 10th day of my fast from all bread and grains, on a raw diet inspired by raw food guru Douglas Graham, author of "The 80-10-10 Diet."  Note that I'm not too worried that I failed to implement all of Graham's suggestions.  I still drink fresh vegetable juice.  I still drink water.  I still drink hot herbal tea.  I eat a whole avocado if I want to.  At least I'm trying to eat low fat, with a target of 10%.  

At each sitting, I eat until not hungry.

Breakfast ~0500

A glass of green juice, made from the following veggies.  This amount of veggies made 2 glasses, and the second glass was refrigerated for my lunch:

• 1 full stalk of Kale
• 1/3 of a celery, about 5 stalks
• 3 med carrots
• 1 cucumber
• all the petals of 1 artichoke (which doesn't give much juice, by the way)

In addition to the juice, I ate these fruits:

• 6 guavas (never eaten guavas before.  They have  a lot of seeds, not that much food value.  Probably a fair amount of fat.  Texture of pears, when you can find a bit of seedless flesh)
• 1 banana
• 2 mangos (these are cheap right now, so they must be in season somewhere.  I love mangos, and took one to work this week, even though they are somewhat messy to eat.  One of my co-workers said she "hates mangos" and I was astonished.  "I've never met anyone who doesn't like mangos" I told her.  Mangos are like the prototypical fruit that humans evolved with.  See "The Nature of Things" TV series on "The Fruit Hunters, part 1" to learn that there are over 600 varieties.  I only see two varieties in my local grocery store, ever -- if I'm lucky.)

And in addition to the juice, I also drank:

• 1 glass of water

MidMorning ~1000

• 4 apricots
• 1 apple
• 1 glass water
• 1 glass cold lemon-ginger tea (made yesterday)

Lunch ~1230

• 1 glass of vegetable juice.
• 1 Romaine lettuce heart
• 1 red grapefruit
• 1 banana

MidAfternoon ~1600

• ~8 strawberries, with the mushy parts pared out (these were cleaned thoroughly but although I began with 10 of them, I stopped from eating the last two.  They weren't organic, and to me they tasted off - bland, unripe, and too much like chemicals.  I tossed some out)
• 2 apricots, in place of the strawbs that I tossed
• some hot licorice yogi herbal tea

Dinner 1730

• 1 Romaine lettuce heart
• 1 tomato
• 1 avocado
• 1 mango
• 3 cups of hot herbal tea

Snack 2200

• 1 banana

Weight Update:

A couple of blog entries ago, I commented on my weight fluctuation following a fast, and determined that it must be all water, and that the fiber in the bread bran that I was eating, or possibly the salt, was drawing water from the cells of my body to join it in its pass through the colon.  I was now curious about my weight after 10 days of fasting from bread, following a day of total fasting.

As usual, I did a total fast on Monday.  My weight is now somewhere around 170lbs, not 180lbs as reported just 10 days ago.  I'm not doing this for weight loss, but the weight loss still seems to be happening.  Not sure yet where it will end up.

	Fast Day 1	Commentary
am weight	172	After 10 days of mostly raw fruit and veg, my starting weight seems to be a couple of pounds less (remember, 10 days ago, I said my weight was 180lbs, or slightly less)
pm weight	169	Even though I continue to push myself to drink on a total fast day, I still lose a bit of weight in water.
	Following Day	(This is the day that this blog is about, the 10th day of my raw food fast)
am weight	168	Overnight I've only lost a pound, far less water/weight loss than I used to on the bread diet.  I think it shows that the fiber from the fruit I am eating is far more hydrating than the bread and cooked foods which used to dry me out.
pm weight	168.5	After eating everything listed in this blog in one day following my fast, I have regained about 1/2 a pound, over the day.  I've eaten until I didn't want any more food, at each sitting, and have snacked on fruit during the day.  I'm not hungry.  I can fall asleep without craving bread.

Here is the full tally of things I ate this day.  I have had to struggle through the databases at the usda for this info, and I might have made several errors, but its the best I can do.

Quantity	Food	Calories, Carbs, Proteins, Fats (each)	Calories, Carbs, Proteins, Fats (total)
1	apple	Calories=72; Carbs=19.06;Proteins=0.36;Fats=0.23	TotalCalories=72; TotalCarbs=19.06;TotalProteins=0.36;TotalFats=0.23
6	apricots	Calories=17; Carbs=3.89;Proteins=0.49;Fats=0.14	TotalCalories=102; TotalCarbs=23.34;TotalProteins=2.94;TotalFats=0.84
1	avocado	Calories=34; Carbs=2.22;Proteins=0.63;Fats=2.85	TotalCalories=34; TotalCarbs=2.22;TotalProteins=0.63;TotalFats=2.85
3	banana	Calories=105; Carbs=26.95;Proteins=1.29;Fats=0.39	TotalCalories=315; TotalCarbs=80.85;TotalProteins=3.87;TotalFats=1.17
1	grapefruit	Calories=(52x2)104; Carbs=(13.11x2)16.22;Proteins=(0.95X2)1.9;Fats=(0.17X2) 0.34	TotalCalories=104; TotalCarbs=16.22;TotalProteins=1.9;TotalFats=0.34
6	guava	Calories=37.4; Carbs=28.3;Proteins=4.7;Fats=4.4	TotalCalories=224.4; TotalCarbs=169.8;TotalProteins=28.2;TotalFats=26.4
2	romaine heart	Calories=(2X20)40; Carbs=(0.33x20)6.6;Proteins=(0.12X20)2.4=;Fats=(0.03X20)= 0.6	TotalCalories=80; TotalCarbs=13.2;TotalProteins=4.8;TotalFats=1.2
3	mangos	Calories=124; Carbs=31.01;Proteins=1.70;Fats= 0.79	TotalCalories=372; TotalCarbs=93.03;TotalProteins=5.1;TotalFats=2.37
8	strawberries	Calories=((4+6)/2)5; Carbs=((0.92+1.38)/2)1.61;Proteins=((0.08+0.12)/2) 0.1;Fats=((0.04+0.05)/2) 0.045	TotalCalories=40; TotalCarbs=12.88;TotalProteins=0.8;TotalFats=0.36
1	tomato	Calories=22; Carbs=4.78;Proteins=1.08;Fats=0.25	TotalCalories=22; TotalCarbs=4.78;TotalProteins=1.08;TotalFats=0.25
1	water	Calories=0; Carbs=0;Proteins=0;Fats=0	TotalCalories=0; TotalCarbs=0;TotalProteins=0;TotalFats=0
5	herbal tea	Calories=0; Carbs=0;Proteins=0;Fats=0	TotalCalories=0; TotalCarbs=0;TotalProteins=0;TotalFats=0
2	vegetable juice	Calories=?; Carbs=?;Proteins=?;Fats=?	TotalCalories=?; TotalCarbs=?;TotalProteins=?;TotalFats=?
-	-	GRAND TOTALS:	TotalCalories=1365.4; TotalCarbs=435.38;TotalProteins=49.68;TotalFats=36.01

Notes on this table:

For calories: https://www.ars.usda.gov/SP2UserFiles/Place/12354500/Data/SR25/nutrlist/sr25a208.pdf
For carbs: https://www.ars.usda.gov/SP2UserFiles/Place/12354500/Data/SR25/nutrlist/sr25a205.pdf
For protein: https://www.ars.usda.gov/SP2UserFiles/Place/12354500/Data/SR25/nutrlist/sr25a203.pdf
For fats: https://www.ars.usda.gov/SP2UserFiles/Place/12354500/Data/SR25/nutrlist/sr25a204.pdf

For grapefruit, I doubled it, because the database only provides amounts for 1/2 grapefruit.  For lettuce, I'm guessing there are 20 leaves in the romaine hearts.  For strawberries, I take the average of the two berries provided in the database.  Unknown how many calories, carbs, proteins and fats are in my juice.  No info on guava in the database.  Guava info in my table comes from nutritiondata.self.com

You can see by the daily total of calories that, without knowing what's in the vegetable juice, I am a bit low on calories.  I should have almost 635 MORE calories to reach 2000 calories on this day, and I doubt very much whether the vegetable juice provides that much.  Had I managed to eat that quantity of leafy greens that I put into the juice, perhaps it would have.  But frankly, eating that much leafy bulk would have added a long time for meals.  Perhaps cooking was invented by humans as a way to save time chewing all that raw veg!

Because I'm not eating enough to sustain my weight, the extra days of fasting are going to cause my weight to drop even further -- and that, of course, is what I'm seeing.

I did not use Graham's Appendix D in my efforts to figure out the ratios of this day's meal, which succinctly explains the complicated Atwater method of calculating the calories per gram of each macronutrient.  Instead, I used the usual formula, i.e. that Protein is about 4 calories/gram, fat is about 9 calories/gram, and carbs are what's left over (100%-protein%-fat%).  

With that method, today's food gave me 61.7% carbs, 14.55% protein, and 23.7% fat.  So I'd have to do a lot better to hit Graham's ratio of 80-10-10.  No more avocados or guavas; fewer mangos.  I think it also shows that hitting these targets is going to be pretty challenging, even for a raw vegan.

I'm not sure how long I can keep it up, or even if I should, for any length of time.  Or is that just the junkie in me talking, and saying to myself, "how nice it would be to have a whole wheat bread with cheese right about now?"

I'm going to keep this fast up a bit longer, and see if I can hit the target of 80-10-10 ever.

Notes to Myself

• While I wrote this on the 10th day of the fast, it took me some time to get together the data on the foods that I ate, to determine their fat and calorie content.
• I really like Romaine hearts.  I can buy a bag of 3 that are organic.  I can wash an entire heart, leaf by leaf, without tearing it apart for a salad, and shake the excess water off it.  I can transport it like this to work in a bag.  I can nibble away on those leaves and make it a meal.  Who cares if my co-workers are laughing at me?  "Plates?  We don't need no stinkin' plates."
• Follow the breath.
• Is this a blog about bread?  Or is that changing?  Is this becoming my diet, or is it just a fast?
• Here's a YouTube video about someone who challenges the healthiness of the 80-10-10 diet