Writing about a diet seems like a basic bitch thing to do, so I'm doing it.
What is the Standard Process Diet?
The Standard Process diet is part cleanse, part elimination diet. For a month, you take a ton of pills containing mysterious herbs that make you poo weird, and you also drink twice daily shakes and eat whole foods. You stay away from legumes, nuts, grains, refined foods and sugars and caffeine.
The cleanse is 21 days. Once it's done, a healthy habit has been formed that usually lasts for months.
I first learned about the diet from my vegan ex, who had done it when converting to veganism. We did it under the guidance of a nutritionist, and I watched in amazement as over the course of a month, his eyes turned from brown to green. I'm not sure why that happened - perhaps the increased chlorophyll intake?
I try to do the diet once a year. Over the year I get addicted to sugar, processed foods, alcohol and caffeine. I do the diet as a reset. After day 11, I find that I sleep better and feel that pure energy that I used to have as a kid. Sometimes I can even keep up the healthy living for a few months after the cleanse.
The Biometrics
This time around, I'm going to be starting with some biometrics. I took a ubiome sample a week ago, so I'll be looking at my microbiome before and after the cleanse.
I'll also be getting a Dexa scan on Wednesday to check out my body composition, and follow up with another one after the cleanse.
Finally, I'll be tracking my weight and sleep daily with the Withings scale and sleep tracker, and tracking my exercise with Runkeeper, and my mood with iMoodJournal. Richerd, who has a totally different body type than I do, will also be tracking his biometrics as we do the cleanse together.
I have no idea what I'll learn from this, if anything. Honestly, I think that most people who are really into biometrics and "body hacking" are wankers who have too much time on their hands and severe OCD. I guess I'm joining the wanker club...
The Recipes
There are a ton of websites with recipes. I'm copying most of what this blogger made for her cleanse. I made the avocado chutney today and it was delicious.
Other Habits
I'm taking the next 21 days to work on building a few other habits that I hope to keep up:
Run before work
Morning sun salutation
Play violin at night (it helps me sleep better)
Write at night
Publish something every day, either here or on Hackster