I think I'm 13 or 14 days after the end of my 22 day fast. As I mentioned in a previous post, I had to refeed on a quicker schedule than recommended to be ready to eat certain foods by the 18th. I maintained mostly raw vegan for 11 days and continued to eat mostly vegan (as I had been for almost a year and half) until a few days ago. My plan has been to break my veganism and slowly incorporate any kind of food I like, as long as I eat healthy and in small amounts.
My problem has been with protein. Lately, all I crave is protein, especially in the evening after work. Tonight I couldn't get rid of the craving and wound up eating 9 shrimp and, after a bit, a chicken breast. This was my whole dinner--no sides, the shrimp were just defrosted pre-cooked, and the chicken breast was eaten dry.
This wasn't my first meat eating. I've been having small amounts of lean meats (fish, chicken) for a little bit, but the protein cravings are getting intense. I want to eat a salad for dinner with a little protein, but all I want is the meat.
Why am I feeling such a strong need for so much protein? How much should I be eating in one sitting so soon after the fast?
I quickly looked through some of your old posts in the alternate layout and I see one of your goals was to reset your taste buds - a noble aim - but it doesn't seem to have worked in your case.
I notice you have been eating salt and oil. These two products form part of what's known as the "halo effect" that processed eating substance manufacturers use to make eating substances addictive. The third component is sugar.
In my opinion this addiction is often worse than nicotine addiction and unlike cigarettes there are no health warnings around to help guide you. Instead there are TV adverts and glossy posters around, and supermarkets are full of eating substances in colourful packaging just reaching out to you saying "buy me, I am food, I taste great"
You might want to have a look at the two videos below. The first shows how I see "semi ordinary" people, which you referred to in an earlier post.
The second explains a but about eating substance labeling, and the speaker Jeff Novick broke a non disclosure agreement with Kraft Eating Substances in 1992 to reveal what the people who who get us to digest their garbage get up to behind the scenes in order to make us digest it.
Two days ago I accidentally bought some processed eating substances. I thought they were real food, namely raw cashew nuts, however they had been modified to contain 3 times the uk Govt's recommended daily amount of salt (my RDA is zero apart from what I get from plants). They also had oil, other chemicals and transfats, something which I normally don't go near. Because I hate wasting things I ate the nuts, but I regret that now.
Then yesterday I felt under social pressure to dine at a place most people would run from, and I ended up having scrambled egg on toast, but that had margarine - I forgot to say unbuttered bread. 20 mins after the meal I felt that tiredness you get after eating. It may be normal for some but I have not had that for about 5 months. I became aware of the blood pumping in my veins when I stood up. Because I am familiar with the work of Caldwell Esselstyn and others, I knew what was going on inside me. It'll take me a few days to recover from that, but I will. In fact I have learned a lesson from it, namely not to do it again, although I have not quite figured out how as eating together is part of a social thing where I work and the only cafe there only serves crap. However I like the people, and the work.
I'll have to figure it out and so will you. But in order to change, you'll need to understand lots of things about food, and do a lot of reading. I would suggest to you what Dr Fuhrman tells people. Learn to eat properly before you fast. That's my 02 cents anyway.
Here are the videos. Enjoy
(edit)
The edit was to remove the word food from where the stuff described is not really food.