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Forums => Fruity Journals => Topic started by: monkey on September 19, 2016, 06:47:17 AM
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WED14SEP2016
it’s just over 4 weeks since i decided to try to go fruitarian again. after a period of 1 year being fruitarian, about 3 years ago now, i’ve struggled to get back to this diet. mostly, i think, the reasons have been psychological, rather than physiological. it’s just too easy to eat comfort foods when i’m feeling a bit down. this time i’ve decided to take a slightly different approach. i’m sticking to all organic fruits, and vegetable fruits, and abstaining from any water. i’m also, to date, avoiding anything dried or cooked. i started with just black grapes. i did 2 weeks of that and then decided to add a bit of variety by including apples, oranges, courgettes and tomatoes. i’ve also, now, added avocados and nectarines, though these have come from an organic supplier as they aren’t currently available in any of the supermarkets i’ve tried. sadly, the variety of organic fruit in supermarkets has substantially declined since i was last fruitarian. at the moment i’m just taking this on a day to day basis. i’m not really sure what i want to achieve, though i do recall that i used to sleep far better when i was on this diet previously. i think my main motivation is simply to be happier with my diet. and, certainly, the happiest i’ve ever been, diet wise, was as a fruitarian.
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Dear Monkey 💖
Thank you very much for joining us here and sharing your experiences.
Wishing you all the Best on your Fruitful Path 💖
Love and Peaches,
from Anne XX 💖
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SUN18SEP2016
my all organic stance has slightly slipped. i’ve succumbed to some non-organic avocados and lemons, mainly because of difficulty getting them organic. but i’m still going to try to eat organic fruits, and fruit vegetables, wherever possible. i particularly like avocado and lemon juice mixed together. hence the temptation, i guess. however, i’m going to try not to eat too many avocadoes, as i’ve found in the past that they can be quite addictive.
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SAT18MAR2017
since my last post here my life has changed dramatically. towards the end of last year my father had a fall. this left me caring for my mother. as my father is now home again i'm caring for both of them. needless to say, my diet took something of a backseat to all of this. i just didn't have the time or the energy to keep strictly to a fruitarian diet. however, now things have become more settled i'm once again trying to get back to a fruitarian diet. mostly i'm eating red grapes, yellow nectarines and avocados with lemon juice. i'd have to say that i still find this diet quite challenging on my very limited budget. and good fruit is still hard to find, hence my rather limited selection.
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TUE04APR2017
since my last post here i've felt the need to drink water with lemon juice. possibly this is just a consequence of eating too many avocados. if i were eating more juicy fruit, i'm sure this wouldn't be necessary. i'm trying to broaden the variety of fruit that i eat, though mainly it's much the same as previously. i've also been considering whether or not i should supplement. i have to say that i'm completely undecided. rationally i think that perhaps i should. emotionally i'm less convinced. so, at the moment i've done nothing about it. i guess the thing that's stopping me most is that i've found it so easy to slip back into being fruitarian. i just don't feel the need to supplement at the moment. and i wouldn't want to do it long term anyway. so, i guess i'll just wait and see if the need arises.
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FRI07APR2017
i had some cherries and raspberries recently. these are quite expensive for their weight. nevertheless, a nice change from my usual fruit. i'm sure i'm spending well over my £50 per week budget. i think it's nearer £70 per week, or £10 per day. 4 avocadoes are £1 each. 6 nectarines are £2 for 3. red or black grapes are £2 for 500g. so, that's £10, excluding lemons.
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WED12APR2017
since my last post, i've realised that trying to be fruitarian on a budget is just adding to the risk of failure. it creates a psychological pressure to eat as cheaply as possible. a mistake i made on a previous attempt was to eat too many vegetable fruits, namely tomatoes and courgettes (zucchinis), which aren't very nutritious. at the moment i'm avoiding vegetable fruits for just that reason. i'm also not trying to eat organically, primarily because of availability but secondarily because a lot of organic produce is now ironically inferior to non-organic. for me, just at the moment, i think it's more important to succeed at being fruitarian than have the added issue of trying to be organic too. perhaps later, when i'm confident that i've succeeded in that goal, i'll aim to be organic too.
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FRI14APR2017
i'm continuing to expand the range of fruit that i'm eating. i was pleasantly surprised to find that i could eat pineapple without it being too acidic. i also now realise that a partial reason for this acidity is due to a lack of ripeness. and i've found that the end of the kitchen knife that i broke the tip off is handy for digging under nectarine stones, as it doesn't dig into the stone. i'm thinking about doing a wet fast one weekend. i don't want to rush into this, as i feel that i want to ease myself back into being fruitarian as much as possible. nevertheless, the temptation is certainly there. at the moment i'm drinking boiled tap water, which isn't ideal. in theory boiling removes any chlorine and fluorine present. i should definitely buy some low residual mass spring water, however, lugging it home is a bit off-putting. i'm having to carry quite enough shopping as it is, as i now shop for my parents too.
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TUE18APR2017
it's now a month into my latest attempt at being fruitarian. oddly enough, i feel quite confident, after all i did it for a year previously. as something of a consequence of deluging my avocados with lemon juice i've become very accustomed to the taste of lemon juice now, so much so that i've found that i can easily drink undiluted lemon juice. i must admit that i always thought it was odd to have a fruit that couldn't be eaten in its pure and unadulterated state. perhaps it, in fact, can? i intend to find out! so far i've only done this using a single lemon. my intention is to try drinking a 250ml glass of undiluted lemon juice.
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SAT29APR2017
the latest addition to my fruitarian diet is freshly squeezed orange juice. i'm drinking about a litre a day.
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THU18MAY2017
it's now 2 months into my latest attempt at being fruitarian. so far it's been really easy. i can't say that i'm suffering from any cravings for comfort foods. indeed, i really enjoy eating just fruit. nevertheless, it does strike me that i ought to mention detox. i can't say that i've had any severe detox symptoms this time, possibly because i've not built up many toxins since my last period of being fruitarian. the most unusual thing that i've noticed is that occasionally my phlegm has blood in it. and not just a bit. it's bright red. i'll guess this is coming from my lungs. quite why, i've no idea. the most annoying detox symptom is the cramps that i get in my legs. these can be rather uncomfortable, though they are relatively infrequent. i've not had any skin rashes this time, like i did previously, only a small slightly yellow area just above my right armpit, which has gone now. and that's it, so far. i have to confess that the reason that i've put off drinking a 250ml glass of lemon juice is that i'm a little concerned that it might cause severe cramps in my legs. however, having written that, i decided i really ought to do so. 4.5 quite large lemons yielded 255g of lemon juice. i decided to try to savour it, rather than just gulping it down. the flavour is quite intense. it has a slightly oily taste and a warmth to it a little like whisky. all in all, not an unpleasant experience. finally, i should add that i've lost quite a lot of weight. i'll guess about 20Kg. that's not unusual, as last time i lost a third of my body weight and went from a 36" to a 32" waist.
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MON22MAY2017
yesterday i ran out of avocadoes that were soft enough to eat. in desperation i bought 4 large fuerte, rather than hass, avocadoes that were very soft. i have to say that i'm not that inspired by the fuerte. it simply lacks the rich flavour of the hass, and even these vary quite significantly. i've found that the ones that have the best flavour are the darkest green, a scarab green, which is almost black. also, they have a more greeny yellow flesh, rather than the creamy yellow flesh of the fuerte. i've been pondering, a little, the ideal avocado to lemon juice ratio. usually, i just fill the stone hole with lemon juice but stones vary in size so much that this is hardly consistent, especially for very small stones, and i do like plenty of lemon juice with my avocado. perhaps there is no ideal here. nevertheless, i do find that it help to try to achieve some balance of flavours. this seems to me to be somewhere in the medium to large stone range. i really doubt i'd enjoy this diet anywhere near as much without being able to eat avocadoes, they really are that essential.
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THU25MAY2017
i've been thinking about why my previous attempts at being fruitarian haven't lasted. in particular, why after a year of being fruitarian i stopped. undoubtedly, a significant factor at that time was social eating. i used to think that the occasional non-fruitarian meal, in the larger scheme of things, wouldn't really matter. i now think that this just leads to sliding back into old dietary habits. it also seems to me that the longer one is fruitarian the more one gets a taste for fruit. deviating from a purely fruitarian diet, even occasionally, seems to diminish that development. also, no doubt, confidence and determination play large parts. without the confidence that a fruitarian diet is adequate one is always worrying about whether one is getting enough vitamin B12 or calcium or iron or whatever. and without determination one is so easily led astray. i remember that when i first tried to become fruitarian i encountered a lot of criticism from my family and friends. it's just not possible to weather such criticism without the determination to keep going. fortunately, i don't have that criticism now, though i don't have a number of friends that were critical of my dietary choice in my life anymore either. by and large, it seems my family have tired of telling me how inadequate my diet is, with the exception of the occasional side swipe.
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SAT27MAY2017
it's hot here. really hot. just the kind of weather for enjoying sweet juicy refreshing fruit. now, my recent musings over my diet have led me to think about supplements. when i was previously fruitarian i was taking a high quality multi-vitamin. this time i've decided not to supplement. ultimately, i just don't feel i ought to need supplements if a fruitarian diet is an adequate one. however, i do think that supplementing can be very helpful when transitioning to a fruitarian diet, especially if doing so from a significantly less refined diet, for want of a better expression. part of the reason for this is that it takes time for the body to rid itself of toxins and regenerate, and this is the time when supplements can be beneficial. but after such a time they shouldn't be necessary. when i last looked at this issue i found an utterly baffling number of opinions, primarily on the internet. the subject of vitamin B12, in particular, is quite scary, with people telling you that you must supplement or risk nervous system damage. my own opinion is that provided you're aware of the symptoms of vitamin B12 deficiency, you can quite happily not supplement until such symptoms arise, if ever. i actually believe that the body does have the ability to create and absorb sufficient vitamin B12 for its needs, however, this isn't apparent because most people have lost this ability through their dietary choices. that said, i do suspect that the way we fail to re-cycle our own waste is not ideal. if we used it as fertiliser to grow our own fruit, that fruit would absorb the vitamin B12 that we produce in our gut but don't absorb and we would then consume it. my dream is to have a smallholding sufficient to meet my own needs, and do just this. maybe one day.
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WED31MAY2017
just out of curiosity, i tried on a pair of 30" waist trousers yesterday. i was a little surprised to find that they fitted. this prompted me to weigh myself, as i don't usually take much interest in my weight. 72Kg. so, my guess that i'd lost about 20Kg was about right. possibly 24Kg. in the space of 10 weeks, this seems to me to have been fairly rapid. i know there's still some fat left on me, so i imagine this will drop further. possibly by another 10Kg. it's worth noting that i've lost this weight whilst eating between 4 and 6 large avocadoes pretty much every day. i think the critical part of this weight loss is simply consuming the nutrition necessary for the body to burn the fat. that's what a fruitarian diet does very well indeed.
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FRI02JUN2017
a few people have now mentioned that i've lost weight. too much weight. one seemed to think that i might be starving. i'm certainly not. so far, i'm taking all this in good humour. i know i now look a little on the skinny side, however, that's how i used to be in my younger days. anyway, i feel fine, so i'm not remotely concerned about this weight loss, especially as i expect to loose another 10Kg. hopefully, these people will get accustomed to the thinner me. perhaps if the weight loss had been more gradual it might have been less alarming to them. i guess it's a reflection on modern western society that most people have a very distorted idea of what being healthy actually looks like. i had a very enlightening conversation with a dietitian that came to see my mother not that long ago, because she's struggling to eat adequately. said dietitian just wanted me to get my mother to eat more fat and protein, despite the fact that her diet already has way too much of these in it. and, i might add, she's on anti-cholesterol medication. my protests that what she really needed was more nutrition were met with aloof dismissal. said dietitian knew best and wasn't going to give any consideration to what an ignorant person like me might have to say. yet, in reality, said dietitian had no idea whatsoever, and was just peddling the conventional wisdom without any actual understanding of whether it was correct. perhaps it's a bit much for me to expect an admission that the advice given was non-sense. but what really struck me was the complete inability to enter into any sort of dialogue. people don't like admitting that they haven't a clue what they're really talking about, dietitians included. and that's why, more often than not, should you challenge them in anyway, all you get back is silence. there's nothing, or next to nothing, behind their claims of expertise. it's all an illusion.
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WED07JUN2017
just of late my provisioning has gotten a little out of control. i've been buying fruit very much on a whimsical basis, probably because of a desire to be instinctive about my eating, and, not too surprisingly, some of it has been getting over-ripe and going to waste. now, it has to be said that i hate wasting food, and not just because i've paid for it, it's one of those ingrained attitudes. consequently, i've been scavenging what i can. however, a few days ago i went much to far and ate quite a lot of over-ripe pineapple. this act of folly led me to get a burnt mouth, mainly the lips. i'm not quite sure what it is that does this. i suspect it's the alcohol from the fruit fermenting. that said, i'm not going to do this again, if i can help it. so, i'm trying to organise my fruit storage better. really, i need a bigger fridge, in order to keep fruit for longer in better condition, especially during the summer months. but the other problem is simply visibility. i buy fruit, put it somewhere and then i sometimes forget that i've got it, until i find it again in a rather degraded state. very frustrating. at the moment i only have one window sill for displaying my fruit. i'm trying to optimise this with fruit trays that can be stacked. i've sort of done my avocadoes this way. i've got a 30 avocado capacity, in other words plenty to provision for ripening. i intend to keep this topped up on a daily or bi-daily basis. and, on the subject of avocadoes, i've been reminded of late how difficult it is to shift avocado stains from clothing. you really have to wash it off immediately with cold water. failing that, when it dries it leaves an ugly dark brown stain. the problem i find is that i don't always realise that i've got it on my clothes until it's too late. i'm trying to get such a stain out of a pair of buff stone coloured trousers. after more washes than i can now count, it's still there. aaagh!!! i'm trying lemon juice to see if that'll shift it, since the commercial stain remover that i have has, so far, failed. and that brings me on to preparation of said avocadoes. i used to just cut them in half, take out the stone, fill the hole left with lemon juice, mix it in with a spoon and then eat it. however, mixing it in the avocado skin has proved to be rather haphazard. the beauty of this is it minimises washing up, as there's no bowl to wash. but post my latest experience, i'd rather it was a bowl than clothes that i can't get clean, so i'm now using a bowl. i suppose, for completeness, i should mention that my favourite place to eat my fruit is in the bath, as there's nothing for the fruit to get on. this may sound a bit weird but it works for me. i can relax in a nice warm bath and really enjoy eating my fruit.
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SUN11JUN2017
my weight is still drifting downwards. i'm now 69Kg, which in 12 days is a loss of just over 1.5Kg per week. i'll try to check my weight fairly regularly now to see where it levels off at. certainly, i've still got quite a bit of weight to loose. i'll guess about 7Kg. so, at this rate it'll be about a month before it's gone.
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TUE13JUN2017
i've been trying to reduce my avocado consumption a little, not least of all because of my very tight food budget. but also, i do suspect i'm not getting an adequate balance between them and other fruits. now, i know that their fat content is having no meaningful affect on my weight loss, as i'm still fairly rapidly loosing weight, however, what concerns me a little is that i've never heard of another fruitarian that relied so heavily on avocadoes as a staple of their diet, whereas i have heard of fruitarians that are a little wary of avocadoes because, allegedly, too much fat affect the uptake of nutrition. so, i'm down to 4 a day instead of 6 to 8. this is still rather a lot, i think. i must admit that i've always found avocadoes to be slightly addictive, though i really don't know why. i certainly like sweet and juicy fruits as well. there's just something about avocadoes that really hits the mark for me. it's summer now, or what passes for summer. and i've started to notice my nose twitching as the pollen levels increase. so, i hope that i won't get hay fever too badly this year, as being fruitarian usually reduces the symptoms significantly.
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SUN18JUN2017
it's now 3 months since i went fruitarian. and, apart from a fairly substantial weight loss, nothing particularly dramatic has happened at all. i now weigh 67.5Kg. exactly 1.5Kg less than last week, as i predicted. i will confess that with the high pollen counts and high temperatures my poor nose has been dripping like a tap. obviously just 3 months on this diet hasn't been enough to protect me from the worst of hay fever. i will add that sun light is actually a powerful detox agent. so, perhaps, combined with all the fruit i'm eating, there's an element of that here. now, i've been sort of contemplating just how long it will take before i can say that i've 'made it' as a fruitarian. i would have said 1 year, however, i did that last time only to lapse. as such, maybe 2 years would be a better target to aim for. of course, i know why i failed last time. stress in my personal life was the main factor, coupled with the perceived need for certain comfort foods. but possibly the biggest factor was that i wasn't as confident then, as i am now, that fruitarianism was, for me, 'the way to go'.
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MON19JUN2017
it's been another very hot day here, and despite not having gone out yet my poor nose is twitching badly. i suppose it'll be interesting to see how bad my hay fever is next year, when i'll have been fruitarian for 15 months, however, for now i'm just going to have to grin and bear it. i managed to get a pair of open sided trainers from a charity shop for £9 recently, so i'm trying them out whilst the weather is good. in theory a bit of fresh air will be good for my feet. in practice i'm not so sure it'll make much difference, however, i'm willing to suspend my disbelief and just see if this is an agreeable experience. this is actually a product of having read 'destination eden' by mango modzac. i won't, however, be taking all my clothes off - the world isn't quite ready for that yet!!!
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TUE20JUN2017
my experimentation with open footwear has brought a rather unexpected result. i'm now rather too aware of the surrounding air temperature of my feet, particularly around chiller cabinets in supermarkets. now, you might wonder what a fruitarian is doing around a chiller cabinet in the first place. the truth here is that i buy pre-squeezed fresh orange juice. i know that i really ought to squeeze my own, however, i've never got around to buying a hand squeezer. so, i'll really have to do that some time very soon. the weather is continuing to cause me problems. i really need to wait until the cool of the evening to venture out. now, life oughtn't be like this. i ought to be able to enjoy this lovely sunshine. but, alas, i can't at the moment. maybe next year, when i'll have substantially detoxed. i'm getting impatient to loose the last of my excess fat. there's not much of it now but it clearly needs to go. i want to see how much weight i actually put on, in terms of actual muscle, after i get rid of this fat. i've always had very poor musculature. indeed, i have the muscle weakness form of dyspraxia, courtesy of my ASD (autism spectrum disorder) to which it's comorbid. and that, of course, brings me on to whether 3 months into this diet my ASD is any better. i'd have to say that, at the moment, i'm just not sure. possibly it is but it's difficult for me to form an objective opinion. there aren't any obvious signs of improvement, just the suspicion that i might be a little more verbally communicative than usual. i do know that last time i was fruitarian i found myself involuntarily smiling at things. that just didn't happen previously.
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SUN25JUN2017
my weight is now 64.5Kg. somewhat less than i'd anticipated, though there can be a fair bit of variability in weight measurements. possibly eating less avocadoes has resulted in me burning more fat. i've also taken to eating cherry tomatoes. these, i find, are a nice change from sweet fruit. i don't actually have much of a sweet tooth. i'm more partial to spicy foods, which are obviously out, given that i'm following a fruitarian diet. now, i took the plunge a day ago to buy a juicer. i wanted a hand press, however, i couldn't find one that i felt was suitable. so, i ended up buying a food mixer attachment, as i already have the food mixer. i'm not convinced this was the most ecologically sound decision that i've ever made, however, my rationale hinged around wanting to juice the eating apples that i'll have very soon as a result of a fairly productive apple tree in my back garden. there are a couple of other apple trees that are produce cooking apples. these are quite useless to me, as they can't be eaten raw as they're much too sour. so, my intention is to juice the eating apples. a hand press may have struggled with that. i'm also intent on using this to juice fresh oranges in order to stop buying pre-squeezed orange juice. i'll be curious to see if it still has a slight tang to it, which i suspect is coming from the zest of the orange. i'll avoid squeezing that by just squeezing the orange segments themselves.
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SUN02JUL2017
my weight is now 63.5Kg. i'm expecting it to level off at about 62Kg, so that will probably happen next week. at the moment my life is unbelievably stressful, mainly with family problems. i'm finding it very difficult to cope. everything has become very uncertain indeed. keeping a journal here just isn't a priority at the moment. the next couple of weeks will be critical.
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SUN09JUL2017
my weight is now 62Kg. this is where i thought it would drop to based on my previous experience of being fruitarian, however, judging by the amount of fat still left on me, i actually think it will drop further still. i'll guess that i could easily loose another 2Kg yet. now, i feel that i must emphasis here that weight loss isn't my intention. it's just something of a side effect. i'm only really keeping a close eye on it because i don't want it to go too far. my intention is better overall health. and, on that subject, i noticed recently that the hearing in my right ear had improved significantly. both my ear drums are perforated, however, my right ear drum has about a third of the drum itself missing. this shifts the balance of what i hear significantly to the left. that shift now appears to have disappeared. whether the right ear drum has healed over, i can't say but i guess it's possible. and now to my tale of woe about the fruit press that i recently bought. this is, or was supposed to be, an attachment to my food mixer. but, alas, it doesn't. it turns out that the model of my food mixer is too old and there is, and was, no such attachment ever made available. to cut a very long story short, i've ended up buying an adaptor, which still doesn't get me where i want but is a step closer. hopefully, i'll be able to modify said adaptor to actually do the trick here. strangely enough, my mind is also toying with what modifications i'd need to make to my mincer attachment in order to use it for juicing, after all it has the necessary screw to provide for pressing. blocking the mincer holes would undoubtedly press the juice out of the fruit. it's just the juice and pith separation that might be a bit tricky. and, because of this little fiasco, i've ended up buying a hand operated fruit press too, which works well enough even though i've a few qualms. it's undoubtedly intended for oranges, rather than lemons, which means that i have to top and tail the lemons in order to get them into the jaws. and the lever handle is offset and outside the base, which means the top has to be held stable as pressure to the lever handle is applied. and finally, i've had to grease the rack and pinion, as i was getting swarf off the pinion onto my working top, probably because it's made of relatively soft die cast metal.
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SUN16JUL2017
my weight is 62Kg again. i'd have expected another 1.5Kg drop, based on passed weeks, however, obviously not. i'd still say that i'm carrying some fat, however, perhaps that's a consequence of having a diet that's high in avocados. my life has also been very stressful over the past few days. consequently, i've not exactly been restraining myself in terms of eating them. i bought some sweet peppers a few days ago, which made a nice change. i'm also drinking about 1.5L of freshly squeezed orange juice a day. so, overall, i think my food consumption is increasing, as might be expected now that i've used up most of my fat reserves. this is stretching my food budget, which is only £50 per week, even though i buy as much discounted fruit as i can. i have to admit that any pretensions of being organic have very much succumbed to this reality. it just isn't possible on such a meager budget. and i'll just add that my hand fruit press is working well. i still have my qualms but it's far more efficient than trying to grind the juice out. i've also had a fairly good look at the modifications that i need to make to the adaptor for my food mixer. these seem straightforward enough. it's just a matter of finding the time to do them. and finally, one of the lemons that i squeezed had a seed in it that appears to be sprouting, so i'm trying to coax that into life. if i'm successful, i'll plant it in my garden and hope for some lemons!
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SUN23JUL2017
my weight is now 61.5 Kg. i suspect this measurement might be a bit spuriously high, as i got a reading of 60.5Kg but i couldn't reproduce it. it seems that sometimes my scales don't zero properly. i've not written more here because this weekend has been particularly taxing in terms of caring for my elderly parents. the truth here is that i fell asleep whilst trying to do so.
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SUN30JUL2017
my weight is now 59Kg. this is consistent with last weeks measurement being high, as i suspected. i'm starting to wonder just how much lower my weight can go before it starts to increase again. at the moment i'm still seeing about a 1.5Kg per week drop. i must admit that even i'm beginning to think that maybe i've lost too much weight. my 30" waist cargo pants are distinctly loose. and that's with having my belt at 29" too. i think i'm at most 28" around the waist at the moment, and possibly less. i'm keeping a very close eye on my food budget, as i know that i'm going over-budget and i quite simply can't afford to do that too often. i did say that budgeting isn't the way to go fruitarian and it isn't, however, the reality is that i have a very tight budget that i can't easily change.
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THU03AUG2017
over the past week or so i've had extremely itchy skin. initially, i thought it might be due to nettle stings, as i've been clearing out the hedge line and it was only my arms that were affected. but when it spread to my legs it was clear that wasn't the case. having looked on the internet, the most likely cause is some form of deficiency, possibly vitamin B12. consequently, i've had to take the reluctant decision to supplement. as such, i've been taking a vitamin B12 supplement since this monday. i've also ordered some multi-vitamins, as it could be due to some other kind of deficiency. so much for having a 3 to 5 year vitamin B12 buffer (if, indeed, it is that)! oh, and my weight has slipped to 58Kg now. and i need 2 new holes in my belt to get it down to 27". eek!!!
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FRI04AUG2017
i've read on the internet that itchy skin can be caused by too frequent bathing. now, i must admit that i like to have a long hot bath at night in order to relax. and it does seem that this makes the itching much worse. the strange thing is that this isn't something new, per se. so, why now it might be affecting me, i can only guess at. possibly being fruitarian has made me more sensitive to the chlorine in tap water. it sounds far fetched but that's all i can think of at the moment. if supplementing doesn't resolve this, i'll have to give a lot more thought to other possibilities, such as this one. also, just to be completely honest, it could be that i've been binging on avocadoes too much and too long. i've read that too many avocadoes can affect the ability of the bowels to absorb nutrition. i did sort of imagine that mixing an avocado with lemon juice effectively broke down the fats in the avocado so that they weren't so indigestible and prevented them coating the bowel with a fatty deposit. perhaps this is just wishful thinking on my behalf. i do like my avocadoes, and being mildly autistic will certainly make giving them up, if that's what i have to do, difficult to say the least. oh well, we'll see. a month on the multi-vitamins should tell me whether it's a deficiency or something else. i'm beginning to wish that i'd been more cautious and supplemented to start with. i guess i was just a little too optimistic. it does now seem that it takes much longer to become adapted to a fruitarian diet than i'd expected.
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SUN06AUG2017
my weight is now 57.5Kg, so it's still falling at the same rate that it was previously (about 1.5Kg per week). and whilst there's still some fat left on me, there's really not a lot at all anymore. it really has to hit bottom in another week or so. beyond that, my life has become insanely busy caring for my elderly parents. i'm not actually finding the time to eat regularly anymore. i only had 2 avocadoes yesterday. i now have the multi-vitamins that i ordered, so i can start taking them next monday (tomorrow). i did give some thought to persevering with the vitamin B12 alone, however, i think it's more important to cure this condition that necessarily waste time trying to discover the exact cause. i've read some fairly dire things about leaving it untreated. i am, however, beginning to doubt that it's just a vitamin B12 deficiency, as it's now a week since i started supplementing for vitamin B12 and i can't say that i've seen any significant improvement.
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SUN13AUG2017
my weight is 68.5Kg. that's a gain of 11Kg in just one week. and there's a good reason for that. i've fallen completely out of the fruit tree over the last week, the reason being that i've been extremely stressed by both my parent's being in hospital at the moment and have been eating non-fruit comfort foods. i'm actually quite surprised at just how quickly the weight has gone back onto me. anyway, hopefully this week i'll be trying to keep to my fruit diet, at least that's my intent.
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MON14AUG2017
i was really quite tired when i wrote my last journal entry, hence why it lacks a little depth. my lapse has been quite interesting in many ways. firstly, nothing seems to taste quite as nice as i seem to remember. secondly, i really notice how floury everything tastes, even curry sauce. thirdly, how dry it is. fourthly, how bloated it makes me feel. and fifthly, how much more uncomfortable it is to pass stools. it'll probably take a couple of days for all the non-fruitarian food to pass completely through me. and, i rather imagine that's where most of the weight gain has come from - indigestible food in my gut. fortunately, my stress levels have come down a lot now, as it look like both my parents will be home from hospital fairly soon.
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FRI18AUG2017
well, i've been struggling to get back into the fruit tree of late. i just don't have the necessary enthusiasm, it seems. i could kick myself, really. i've been much too ambitious in terms of being strictly fruitarian and i haven't paid enough attention to getting an adequately balanced diet. and now i'm starting to doubt my ability to do just that. so, at the moment being fruitarian is on hold until i get a bit of confidence back. sad but true!!!
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SAT19AUG2017
today i was pondering the mystery of my itchy scritchy scratchy skin and it sort of struck me that it might be diabetes. my father is diabetic and i do take after him in many ways. so, it could be a genetic pre-disposition to not being able to metabolise sugars well. this could seriously threaten me ever getting back into the fruit tree again, should i happen to be correct. at the moment the multi-vitamin hasn't cured it, though it's early days for that, and nor has a liquid iron supplement. so, i'm currently thinking diabetes could well be a plausible explanation, especially as i've noticed certain symptoms that i appear to share with my father, such as rather puffy extremities. for example, my feet and calves have been particularly swollen of late.
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SUN20AUG2017
my weight is 73Kg. i'm quite literally piling it back on, now that i'm off my fruitarian diet. i'm sure this can't be healthy. i spoke to someone i know that has type 2 diabetes. he confirmed that he gets swollen feet due to it. so, i think that confirms what i suspect. as such, i'm already trying to think of ways to get back into the fruit tree, well, as best i can. i guess the most obvious step to take in the short term is to cut down on sweet fruits and rely more on vegetable fruits. also, i think that continuing supplementing would perhaps be beneficial for my overall health and might even help increase my insulin production.
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SUN28AUG2017
my weight is now 77.5Kg. i've still not got back to a fruitarian diet and, in the short term, it doesn't look like i'm going to. my GP has done a few blood tests and tells me that i'm low on iron and protein. apparently, i've got edema (swollen feet) because of this. the good news, however, is that i haven't got diabetes. i guess i have to be brutally honest here. i'm not going to try to get back to being fruitarian until i've found a sustainable way to avoid such problems. and that might well mean not being too purist about this and eating nuts and seeds, as i used to do. certainly, i think that, at least during transition, a multi-vitamin is essential, and a complete one at that too. it's a great pity that this particular attempt at being fruitarian has so blatantly ended in failure. however, i've been honest here about my experiences and perhaps that'll be of some benefit to someone.
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TUE12SEP2017
sadly, my mother passed away nearly 2 weeks ago now. i knew this was coming. nevertheless, it's impacted my life very severely. it was the spectre of this event that had forced me to take comfort in my favourite junk food. and now that it's finally come to pass i just don't have the will for dietary refinements anymore. perhaps in the future that'll change, though i don't think it'll be until at least next year now. whether i'll post on this forum again, even if i do have another try, is debateable. being the only active member, it's not been of any support to me. in fact, this has been a distinctly lonely experience.
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SUN05NOV2017
it's been quite a while since i last posted here. my mind has been on other more pressing issues, such as my father breaking his leg and having to have a half hip replacement. diet wise, i'm back to being lacto-ovo-vegetarian, which seems to be the safe option for me. i haven't really figured out exactly why being fruitarian didn't work very well for me this time, though i think that i tried to do too much too soon and probably wasn't getting a sufficient balance of fruit either. oddly, i'm just not eating any fruit at the moment. i seem to only be able to do this on an all-or-nothing basis. the edema has settled down quite a bit, though i'm not sure it's entirely cured. anyway, i've not got any plans to go fruitarian again just at the moment. it's something that i'd still like to achieve but that dream seems to have largely slipped away now.
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SUN26NOV2017
i finally got back to see my GP this week. my blood tests have revealed low vitamin B12, low folate (folic acid - i did say that i didn't think that i was likely to get pregnant any time soon but that little joke fell on deaf ears) and low iron. so, no real surprises. the low iron was just sheer negligence on my behalf. my GP wanted me to have vitamin B12 injections. now, for someone that hates needles, this isn't the kind of thing that i'd submit to willingly. so, i've promised to try to be more diligent about taking a multi-vit. and anyway, i'm not exactly dying ... yet.
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TUE01JAN2019
it's disappointing to see that there have been no contributions to this forum since i was last here. my life has changed substantially since then, in as much as my father has now passed away. i've since started what must now be my third serious attempt to go fruitarian, though i must admit that at 55 years old i feel i'm getting a bit past this sort of thing. this time i'm going back to my non-purist approach, which worked so well for me originally. so, basically that means using a daily multi-vitamin at the moment. after three weeks my weight is 80.0Kg. i still believe this is possible, however, having failed in my previous attempts i'm under no illusions as to the difficulties ahead of me.