When times are good and you have plenty to celebrate, then you should, and not hold back, because to do so, would rob some of the joy from the experience. And instead of killing yourself over the inevitable weight gain that comes from eating too much and exercising too little, stop for a moment, re-connect with your body, and then take positive steps to get back on track.
Today, I did just that. After 10 days of living without worries about what or when I ate or drank, it is now time to stop. I felt that my body didn’t feel the same anymore, and I was missing that special feeling I get when everything is just right—energy, body feeling, weight, flexibility. I wanted to get back in touch with my body. That starts with getting my weight back to what I consider the correct level.
Thankfully, a lot of the weight we carry is food waste, especially after a period of over-indulgence. First step? Detox cleanse.
I drink hot filter coffee with a ton of hot pepper mixed into it. About 1 tablespoon per litre. This spiced coffee delivers a kickstart message to the gut to shift things along, because the heat in the pepper irritates it enough to kick it into high gear.
Then, a massive run. Indeed, I had been trying to work my way up to a distance run, but had never come close to running all the way, so I settled on a compromise—doing the entire 28 km circuit, but only beating my personal distance record by a bit, and allowing myself to walk for the remainder if I needed to. And indeed, I made 21km of run without stopping and then ran-walked the remaining 7km.
Then, back home, tons of water, more spiced coffee, and some very sour, unsweetened homemade kombucha to chase the coffee into the gut.
As all of this physical workout and liquid does its thing, I begin going back to a gut-focussed diet of pro- and pre-biotics. Vegetables, fibre, that sort of thing, but only slowly. Intermittent fasting and easing my way into fasting. I will radically cut down the food intake and while I wait for my body to heal after this long run, I will spend two days just focussing on stretching—in the morning when I get up and before I go to bed, and on getting my body back in balance. I will not start eating “normally” again until I am firmly 2 kg below my cruising weight (to compensate for food in the system). That will likely take 4-5 days.
During that time, the only thing I will eat will be fruit, organic, and very watery—watermelon, tomatoes, other melons, and some lettuce salads with only the simplest homemade vinaigrette.
And then, I will be able to enjoy being in my body again. And I am sure she will look forward to having me back. The body is a temple. Self-love begins with your gut.
Glad to hear you are taking such good care of yourself, after a little period of indulging. Please tell me more about hot coffee and pepper… I have never heard of such a thing. What is the coffee to pepper ratio, and what benefits do you get from this?
Hot pepper stimulates your gut. When you get a shot of it into you, your colon becomes irritated by it, and moves to push food through much faster…having food waste ferment inside your gut is not a good thing. This is why cultures that have very high consumption of hot peppers, capsaicin, have low rates of stomach and colon cancer.
I posted a recipe for my morning coffee, a spicy brew I drink every day, very early on in my blog. You would use about 1 teaspoon of ground, dried hot pepper per quart of liquid…I like to use peppers that are hotter–so pil-pil, chili de arbol, cayenne, peperoncino…because it is nice to feel that kick. Also, some healthy ingredients like turmeric, are more easily absorbed by the body when there is pepper present (black pepper is said to be best).
If you like coffee, do give it a whirl. There is nothing yummier in the morning than a piping hot cup of filter coffee that has been made with freshly ground beans, spices, and prepared like a bullet coffee–with a shot of collagen, MCT oil, and ghee…
Thank you for this information, my friend! I just realized that I am not always seeing your responses to me. I think it is because instead of hitting reply to my comment, you must post your comment as a new thread (so I don’t get a notification). If I haven’t responded to comments you have left me, I do apologize! I will try to go back and find ones I may have missed.
Hmmm…still new to this. I usually hit the “leave a reply” link on the WordPress interface. This time I hit the “reply” text within your message. We shall see what happens, but oddly, it might be a setting on my computer, as each time I post (and I just wrote two replies to you) it has asked me to log in again. And my VPN is off. Hmm.
I got this notification! Smiles at you.