Wake up at 5 am, ice baths and a vegetarian diet: how I led a healthy lifestyle for a year

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

Journalist and writer Decca Aitkenhead shared her personal experience.

At the beginning of 2017, I could not leave the bed. January has just begun, and I could not keep my New Year's promise to go to the gym again because of the strongest flu. I had to ask my friends to look after the children. When they arrived, I crawled to the front door. One glance at my pitiful figure, clinging to the radiator in the hallway, was enough for them to gently reproach me and advise me to take better care of my health.

I did not lead a completely harmful lifestyle, but I never really thought about health. I am quite lazy by nature and love to eat. Until the age of 40, health was maintained by itself. From time to time, I went to the gym, watched my weight, and completely dispensed with the spirulina smoothie and health food discount card. It didn't even occur to me that one day this approach would stop working.

After a difficult course of chemotherapy in 2015, I gained extra weight, and only the name remained of my immune system. The flu was the last straw. It was time to take drastic measures. I needed help. I found a small company, Detox-Fit, that provides the services of a personal trainer and nutritionist. Only they offer not just healthy food, but exclusively veganism.

Previously, I did not think about the attitude towards animals. She loved to eat meat, and considered veganism empty chatter. Then I wondered: Could I eat right without becoming a vegan? Why not just listen to your body? This is a reasonable decision for most, but not for me. My body regularly requires two Mars bars for breakfast and a chocolate bar to boot.

The Detox-Fit owners looked like a physical ideal, and I decided to experiment with a personal trainer and a vegan diet for three months. Just in case, I took part in the Women’s Health magazine challenge and took a picture of myself before the test. Challenges like these have always seemed very effective to me.

Nothing motivates you to stay away from the fridge more than the anticipation of an "after" photo.

At the end of January 2017, I started working out with a trainer three or four times a week. Rory Lynn used to be a professional rugby player. He dispelled all my prejudices about personal trainers. Previously, they always seemed to me just a symbol of a lifestyle.

I was never attracted to the idea of paying someone to be yelled at in the gym. So I did it myself, doing the same exercises for almost 25 years. They weren't much different from what most people in any gym do: a few sets of strength machines, a treadmill, and some kind of jerking in the air like Jane Fonda. It never occurred to me that this was practically a waste of time.

There was nothing like it in training with Rory. I plunged into a new unfamiliar world: a bear gait and burpees, Turkish climbs and Russian crunches, a gluteal bridge on one leg and a crab gait. Something was similar to the movements from everyday life: climbing the platform, throwing a medicine ball on the mat, walking back and forth with a heavy load.

When Rory demonstrated these exercises, they seemed simple and even funny. But when I started doing them, a few minutes later I was already lying on the floor trying to catch my breath. "When are we going to move on to simulators?" I asked plaintively. It turned out never.

But that was not the main surprise. Working out almost to the point of nausea with Rory was much easier than wandering around the gym herself. By temperament, I am usually reluctant to pass control over to others. And it came as a complete surprise to me how much easier it is for me to study when everything is decided for me. The difficulty is to force yourself to come to the gym, and then not sneak out of there after 20 minutes. Because of this, you struggle with yourself throughout the entire workout. But when you have a coach, you can just forget about it.

You come when the coach speaks and you do what he says. No willpower is needed here.

Somehow, imperceptibly for me, other useful habits have taken root. I got up at 5 am and started the day with a 15 minute cold bath. This was suggested to me by a friend who also underwent chemotherapy. They are believed to improve the functioning of the immune system. The first time I yelled at the whole house. Soon I realized that I needed to get into an empty bathtub and gradually pour water. I would not call it a pleasant experience, but the feeling afterwards is comparable to taking Class A drugs. Sometimes the buzz lasts until lunchtime.

Dry brushing is also great for making you feel alive. It is useful for lymphatic drainage and elimination of toxins. It's very simple: for 10 minutes you massage the whole body with a dry brush, and after a few days you start to glow.

Another surprise awaited me. Veganism does not complicate at all, but simplifies life. An omnivorous diet is an endless argument between your inner angel and demon. Everything you eat requires decisions to be made. And so you need to make only one decision - do not eat animal products. Then you hardly think about food. Promotional calls to eat something harmful cease to work. Fast food can seduce you as much as you want, you will no longer succumb.

If you eat only plant-based foods, the likelihood of eating something very harmful is minimized as much as possible.

Vegetables, seeds, legumes and fruits are becoming an integral part of the diet. You no longer need to think about how to cram them into your diet. You can of course gorge yourself on popcorn or fries. But such food, unlike fried chicken or cheesecake, is not artificially created to trick your senses into eating more and more. Therefore, there is not much harm from it.

Vegans, of course, find it more difficult to go to cafes and restaurants. Happy Cow app helps me. It finds vegan establishments almost anywhere in the world. Even in the American town of Spokane, where Krispy Kreme donuts are in the first place, Happy Cow found for me a fresh bar with vegan rice dishes. In Melbourne, I stumbled upon an amazing place called Lord of the Fries, which sells vegan chicken schnitzels and bacon burgers. And in London, she was able to satisfy the need for fast food at the Sanctuary restaurant. They have egg-free frittata on the menu and amazing fries with tofu "fish" that tastes like cod.

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Veganism did not give me any trouble until friends invited me to visit.

I didn't want to embarrass them. I naively believed that it was enough to ask them not to cook anything for me separately. It turned out that my fear of causing inconvenience was nothing compared to the panic of the hosts at the thought that their guest would eat only bread and lettuce. An exquisite vegan dish was prepared for me. Even though it was delicious, I felt uncomfortable.

Before, I always thought: why don't vegans eat what they give and then just go back to their diet the next day? But then I believed that they would secretly be happy to eat something harmful. It seemed to me that I would feel so in their place. Since it wasn't compassion for animals that led me to veganism, I thought I wouldn't worry if I broke off and ate something meaty.

But here another surprise awaited me. When I now look at meat, I do not have the desire to eat it. And not at all because of harm to my body, but because of the thought of what happened to him before it got to my plate.

As soon as you start thinking about where the meat comes from, you understand that it is unacceptable to eat it.

Of course, the bacon sandwich still tastes good to me. But keeping a couple of slaves at home would also be very convenient, but no one in their right mind would do this.

After three months, I could no longer return to the old way of life. Rory and I have extended the sports challenge until the end of the year. Over time, my only complaint about a healthy lifestyle was the addiction to complacency. My previous careless attitude to health has disappeared. I even started to enjoy the new way of life.

By the end of the year, I had lost 18 kilograms, built up muscles I never knew existed, and for the first time in many years felt physically strong again. Photos with the results for Women’s Health magazine were much more pleasant to take. But the main change came when I came to terms with my new self. At first I was uncomfortable admitting that I am a vegan, but now I like it.

I love that I am no longer an accomplice in the horrors that underlie the modern Western diet. I like to take myself and the planet more seriously.

Now I'm just worried about where this will lead. Recently some friends from Los Angeles came to visit me. They were always fanatical about their health and were quite critical of my diet. I wrote them in advance that there would be a gluten-free vegan kitchen for dinner and asked if they had any other dietary preferences. To be honest, I wanted to impress them more. What other preferences can there be besides "vegan" and "gluten free"?

“Now we eat only foods that are suitable for our blood type,” my friends answered me. When I laughed, I felt uneasy. Is it really waiting for me too? If I write about blood type nutrition next year, please, somebody order me a Big Mac.