the original food diet: the final stats

The results are in! 40 days of the original food diet will certainly change your body.

At least it did ours.

My husband lost 16 lbs. in 40 days- eating as much as he wanted to eat. He lost 3 inches in his waist!

I can't say how surprised I am at the results of this diet! I always liked the idea of eating real food. I was excited to see how my body would change. But I didn't expect change to come so easily after the initial two weeks.

Here's a summary of how I felt and changed:

Body: I lost about 4 lbs. in 40 days. I feel like I might have lost some muscle tone by this point- but I feel as strong as I used to be. I challenge myself to do heavier weights just out of curiosity, and I can do them. I've lost a inch or so off my waist and hips, and I can see more muscle definition. So even if I lost muscle, I guess I didn't need it!

I have a very steady amount of energy. I'm surprised at how good I feel when I exercise. I was sick and could barely walk on Monday, and by Tuesday, I was exercising normally again. I didn't feel the residual exhaustion of sickness that I usually do.

Skin: I was probably the most excited to see how this diet would change my skin. It's hard to see changes in your own body that happen so slowly, but I feel like my skin is softer, and some of my facial redness is fading into a more even skin tone. My acne has not completely gone away {depending on the time of the month}, but it is far better than it used to be.

Hair and nails: My hair growth has slowed down, as has my nail growth. Before this diet, I consumed some type of animal protein with every meal, and my hair and nails grew crazy fast. They've both slowed down but not stopped.

Mind: I feel happy about this diet, more than ever. I love that I don't have to worry about how much I eat, and how easy it is to eat vegetables at home. Eating out is very different and more difficult, so we can really only eat at one or two places. {eating out on this diet is a post all it's own!}. 

We generally call ourselves vegan now, because that covers what we don't eat. But I'm finding out that we fall closer to raw food vegans, even though we cook our food, because we don't eat processed food. :)

The decision: We've decided to stay with this diet indefinitely. We really, really enjoy eating good foods. Everything tastes better than ever- and we've lost our addiction to artificial sweeteners and fake carbs. Our bodies have changed {my husband's, dramatically so!}, and for now we couldn't be more excited about a diet.

I'll keep you posted on how we feel over the next few weeks as well. I have a feeling that the changes will continue! :D