The rise at 5 am, the ice bath, and a vegetarian diet: I year led a healthy lifestyle
A Life / / December 19, 2019
Aytkenhed Decca (Decca Aitkenhead)
Guardian journalist and author of All At Sea.
In early 2017, I could not break away from the bed. January has just begun, and the New Year's promise to again go to the gym I have not held back because of a nasty flu. I had to ask friends to look after the children. When they arrived, I made my way to the front door on all fours. They took one look at my pathetic figure, clinging to the battery in the hallway to gently rebuke me and advise better care of their health.
I did not carry quite so harmful way of life, but never really thought about health. By nature I am quite lazy and I like to eat. And up to 40 years Health supported itself. From time to time I went to the gym, I watch your weight, and it is done without smoothies with spirulina and discount card health food stores. I even had no idea that one day, this approach will no longer work.
After heavy chemotherapy in 2015 I won excess weightAnd one name was left of my immune system. Influenza was the last straw. It was time to take drastic measures. I needed help. I found a small company Detox-Fit, which provides the services of a personal trainer and nutrition specialist. Only they do not just offer a healthy diet, and exclusively vegan.
Earlier, I did not think about the treatment of animals. He liked to eat meat, and vegan considered idle chatter. Then I wondered: Do I eat properly, without becoming a vegan is impossible? Why not just listen to your body? For most it is a reasonable solution, but not for me. My body needs a regular at the bar, two breakfast "Mars" and a chocolate bar to boot.
Owners Detox-Fit look like the sample physical ideal, and I decided to take a three-month experiment with a personal trainer and a vegan diet. Just in case, I took part in Challenge magazine Women's Health, and made a photograph prior to the test. Such Challenge has always seemed to me very effective.
Nothing is more motivating to stay away from the refrigerator, as a foretaste of photos "after".
At the end of January 2017, I started three or four times a week to engage with the coach. Rory Lynn used to be a professional rugby player. He dispelled all my prejudices about personal trainers. Previously, they always seemed to me a symbol of lifestyle.
I've never been attracted to the idea to pay someone for something to yell at me in the gym. So I engaged myself, almost 25 years doing the same exercise. They is not particularly different from what makes the most visitors of any gym: some approaches to power simulators, a treadmill and some drygane legs in the air at Jane style Funds. And I had no idea that all of this - almost a waste of time.
In workout with Rory did not have anything like this. I plunged into a new unknown world: Bear and gait burpeeTurkish ups and Russian twist, gluteal bridge on one leg and walking crab. There was something like a movement of everyday life: the ups on the platform, throwing the medicine ball on the mat, walking back and forth with a heavy load.
When these exercises demonstrated Rory, they seemed simple and even fun. But when they began to do, I already was on the floor in an attempt to catch his breath after a few minutes. "When we go to a fitness machine?" - I asked plaintively. It turned out, never.
But the big surprise was not the case. Train almost sickeningly with Rory was a lot easier than most to stick around the gym. By temperament I do not usually inclined to hand over control to others. And for me it was a complete surprise, as it's easier to do when everything decided for me. The difficulty because to force myself to come to the gym and then not get away from there in 20 minutes. Because of this, all the training you fight with them. But when you have a coach, you can just forget about it.
Come when the coach says and do what he says. There does not need any willpower.
Imperceptibly accustomed to me and others healthy habits. I started to get up at 5 in the morning and start the day with a 15 minute cold bath. It advised me one, too, the last chemotherapy. They are believed to enhance the immune system. The first time I cried the whole house. Soon I realized that I need to get into an empty bath and slowly pour the water. I would not call it an enjoyable experience, but the feeling when compared with taking drug class A. Sometimes buzz persists until dinner.
Massage dry brush is also great help to feel alive. It is useful for lymphatic drainage and elimination of toxins. It's very simple: within 10 minutes massaging the whole body dry brush and start to glow after a few days.
I was waiting for another surprise. Veganism is not complicated, and makes life easier. Omnivorous diet - it is an endless argument between your inner angel and a demon. Everything that you eat requires decisions. And so you need to take only one solution - there is no animal products. Then about food almost think. Advertising appeals to eat something harmful cease to operate. Fast food can be plenty to tempt you, you will no longer succumb.
If you eat only plant-based foods, likely to eat something very harmful reduced as much as possible.
Vegetables, seeds, legumes and fruits are becoming an integral part of the diet. No longer need to think how to cram them into your diet. Of course, it is possible to overeat popcorn or French fries. But such a meal, as opposed to fried chicken or cheesecake, do not create an artificial way to trick your senses and make you eat more and more. Therefore, from her not so much harm.
vegansOf course, more difficult to go to cafes and restaurants. It helps me Happy Cow app. Almost anywhere in the world it is establishments with a vegan kitchen. Even in the American town of Spokane, where the first place donut Krispy Kreme, Happy Cow found me fresh bar with vegan rice dishes. In Melbourne, I'm using it stumbled upon an amazing place called Lord of the Fries, which sells vegan "chicken" steaks and burgers with "bacon". And in London I was able to satisfy the need for fast-food restaurant in the Sanctuary. They have a frittata without eggs and amazing french fries with "fish" in the menu of tofu that tastes like cod.
Price: 299 rubles
Price: 279,00 ₽
Veganism is not gave me any trouble, while friends are not invited me to visit.
I did not want to put them in an awkward position. I naively believed that it is enough to ask them not to cook anything for me alone. It turned out my fear of harass - nothing compared to the panic of the hosts at the thought that their guest will eat one bread and lettuce. For me, prepared a delicious vegan dish. And although it was amazingly delicious, I felt uncomfortable.
Previously, I always thought, why vegans do not eat away the fact that they give, and the next day, just to return to your diet? But I believe that they will be secretly pleased to eat something harmful. I thought I would have felt in their place. Not just compassion led to veganism my animals, I thought I would not survive if the tear and eat something cold.
But here I was waiting for another surprise. When I am looking at the meat, I have no desire to eat. And not because of the damage to my body, but because of the thought that had happened to him before it got to me on a plate.
As soon as you start to think, where does the meat, you know, that is, its unacceptable.
Of course, a sandwich with bacon still seems to me delicious. But keep at home a couple of slaves would also be very convenient, but no one in their right mind would do that.
After three months, I could not go back to the old way of life. We Rory Sports Challenge extended until the end of the year. Over time, my only claim to a healthy lifestyle has become a tendency to complacency. My former careless attitude to health disappeared. I even started to enjoy a new lifestyle.
By the end of the year I lost 18 kilos, pumped up muscles, whose existence is not even suspected, and for the first time in many years again felt physically strong. Photos with the results for the Women's Health magazine to do was much more pleasant. But the major change came when I come to terms with his new "I". At first I was uncomfortable to admit that I'm a vegan, but now I like it.
I like that I am no longer a partner of the horrors that lie at the heart of modern Western diet. I like to treat yourself and the world more seriously.
Now I only worried about what it all lead. Recently to visit my friends came from Los Angeles. They are always fanatically cared about your health and quite critical of my food. I previously wrote to them that dinner is vegan gluten-free kitchen, and asked if they had still some nutrition preferences. Frankly, I do want to impress them. What else can be the preferences except "vegan" and "gluten-free"?
"Now we eat only foods that are suitable to us by blood," - said my friends. When I otsmeyavshis, I was not myself. Is it waiting for me? If next year I will be writing about nutrition on blood type, please, somebody make me a Big Mac.
see also🥦
- 5 myths that hinder us to form good habits
- Personal experience: why I gave up coffee and how it changed my life
- Proper nutrition: the best articles on how and what to eat