I survived 7 days fueled only by raw fruits and vegetables, no sugar nor salt

Strawberry picking to kick off our fruitarian life

My 12-year old boy loves to cook and he's very good at it. He can whip things up without a recipe and produce delicious salads, entrees, and desserts. He either sees or tastes something he likes and can mimic it. He and his dad are the kitchen dream team.

Sadly, obesity is an issue with my boys. Hubby experimented with many diets but the only 1 that really worked was group interventions. After 7 successful years, he grew tired of its restrictive nature and gained all 120 lbs back.


Hubby detests exercise but during his lean years, he swam a mile 3 times a week, and completed two 5Ks. He ran once before each race to train.

Watching them eat like there's no tomorrow is painful. Sometimes, my son would come home from school and make himself a hefty burger - that's just afternoon snacks. On other occasions, he would make a 'small' sandwich after dinner.

No amount of dissuading seems to work. We've tried enforcing a cut off time for eating, and weighing and measuring food but all failed. And getting them to walk/run is always a battle that I always lose. I am helpless and desperate. 

Shredded baby bokchoy with avocado

onion dressing, topped with yellow

cherry tomatoes and asparagus.

So when hubby introduced the fruitarian way of life, I decided to support him by adopting it myself. It wasn't an easy decision. First, I thought it was ridiculous to live on raw fruits only. Then I learned about fruitarian marathoner Mike Arnstein who ran Boston 20 times in a row while living on 30 bananas a day.

On Monday, June 6, we started our journey. I committed 1 week to eating unlimited amounts of raw fruits and vegetables, no salt nor sugar, no seeds nor beans. My son agreed to trying it for 5 days.

First day was easy. I had mangoes, persimmons, grapes and strawberries all day. For dinner, hubby and son made zucchini squash spaghetti with tomato avocado dressing. 

Second day, I mourned the loss of salt. All became better after binging on grapes.

It's day 7 and I'm contemplating if I should go further or stop. I'm still learning but here's a few observations:

PROS

Aimed for 1600 daily average calories.

1. My weight dropped like a brick. Lost 4 pounds in 7 days. I'm physically active as usual but this is the first time I've lost this much weight in a week.
2. What you see is what you get. No hidden ingredients. 
3. Save at least 30 mins every meal because there's no cooking involved.
4. It promotes mindful eating. I can't just eat a cookie and say I'll burn it off later.
5. This forces us to be more creative with food. Have you ever tried shredded baby bokchoy, avocado, chopped onions, and yellow tomatoes, and asparagus? It's good.
6. I'm surprisingly not craving anything.
7. It doesn't feel overly restrictive because I am allowed unlimited amounts of fruits and vegetables.
8. My son has been eating properly. Although we discovered that he's been taking the regular school lunch, I'm happy that he's not eating double dinners anymore.
9. I seem to be thinking more clearly. I'm winning all my online games.

CONS

No problem with activities
except on 7th day (June 12).

1. I pee more often. Not good for racing. However, this could be a plus because it tells me that I'm not dehydrated. 
2. I'm constipated.
3. On the 11th mile of my bike ride this morning, I almost blacked out. Not sure if it's related to this diet, the heat, my hypothyroid, or all of the above.
4. I ran a very easy pace this afternoon but I felt exhausted as if I sprinted.
5. I'm not meeting my recommended goals for calories, calcium, iron, and protein. Even with beans and nuts in my diet. Yes, I cheated (shame).

With all these observations, I've decided to continue being a frugivore for another week or 2. The fatigue I felt may be due to my dramatic weight loss and hopefully, that will stabilize. I want to see if this will improve my race performance as some have claimed it does. Stay tuned.

Would you eat 30 bananas a day? I can't but I can eat a variety of fruits all day.

Resources

1. Fruitarian Basics, http://www.nomeatathlete.com/fruitarian-diet/
2. Forum, http://www.30bananasaday.com/
3. About runner Mike “The Fruitarian” Arnstein, http://www.thefruitarian.com/