40 Day Detox

Inca red quinoa - same pack that I have

Woohoo! My Body Fat percentage finally crossed the 17.0% threshold. This morning it dropped 0.4% to 16.9%! My weight dropped 0.6kg to 67.0kg, my Body Water rose to 57.1% and my Body Muscle rose 0.2% to 43.2%. The exercise last night followed by salad, vegetables and a handful of almonds really did the trick. Not only that, since last night I’ve been feeling really energised. I feel great. 

I started my day with a hot lemon juice drink. I then fried some red quinoa (also known as Inca Red Quinoa) in hemp oil, and then boiled it for 20 minutes. Red quinoa, takes a bit more work to prepare. It’s also rarer to find compared to white quinoa which is more commercially available. Red quinoa comes out crunchier than white quinoa. Despite Inca Red’s rarity I do prefer the texture and taste of regular quinoa. I’ve decided to spare the almond milk as a cold beverage treat and instead used coconut milk today with blueberries in my quinoa breakfast with agave nectar. 

For lunch I had Urid dal with some almonds just before going to the park to do a 20 min HIIT session on the cross trainer. 

While I was waiting for dinner I ate a banana. 

Meat Free Zone?

My family came around to break their fasts at my house today. My father-in-law had given my wife some money to treat them during Ramadhan. Normally I would have served them meat without any potential issues. This time I did wonder for a bit whether to cook and serve meat or not. A few days ago my wife requested Fish and Chips. She’s generally been eating vegetarian while I’ve been on this detox, but think she was missing her meat. So I bought her some. As my wife had already eaten fish in the flat it seemed hypocritical if I turned around and said I’d only serve them vegetarian food. My dad swayed my doubts towards cooking meat by calling me and saying that as the family are fasting they will not feel satisfied with just a vegetarian meal. I personally think this perspective of theirs is just in their mind. But my family do tend to become carnivores during Ramadhan. 

The main thing that seemed a problem to me was the fact that I’m the one who normally makes lamb chops, chicken tikka or tandoori chicken for my family when they come. I wasn’t sure how I should feel about making and serving them the meat. I guess as I’m considering the possibility of going back to eating meat after the detox, it’s a bit more understandable for me to do so.

Chicken tikka

I decided to make chicken tikka for them. At first I suggested to my wife that I would prepare the marinade and that if she wouldn’t mind handling the meat i.e. washing it, cutting it and covering it with the marinade I was going to mix. She agreed. So while she washed and cut the meat I made the marinade. By the time we were both done, I had noticed that I didn’t feel particularly repulsed by the dead meat. Actually I have to admit I felt a desire to eat it. It actually looked nice. Also I’m very particular when it comes to preparing food for other people. I’m a bit of a perfectionist, and since I am the one who normally prepares this dish I wanted to make sure that marinade was put on properly on each piece of chicken breast. So at the end of the day despite all the herbivore versus carnivore thoughts in my mind I decided to coat the chicken breast pieces with the marinade myself. It turns out I did good, well in the eyes of the carnivores I did. In the eyes of herbivores I no doubt committed an unforgivable sin. One of the dishes that got the most praise from my family was the chicken tikka. The other dish that got praise was my wife’s urid dal. 

Organic British plums from my parents' garden

While my carnivorous family devoured meat for dinner I had whole grain basmati rice, urid dal, vegetable curry with salad and black Turkish olives. For afters I had a couple of Iranian and Tunisian dates and a bowl full of organic British plums from my dad’s garden. These plums are small but so much sweeter than what you’ll get in a supermarket. With my meal I drank fresh carrot and apple juice. They were organic British apples also from my dad’s garden. 

Before going to bed I had a glass of almond milk. Gorgeous.