Day 16 - I threw in the towel!

I have to admit that eating an apple for the first time in weeks was a pretty delicious and enjoyable experience. I certainly missed fruit over the course of this experiment. Although I'm back to eating it I'll try not to gorge myself on it. Something I'm REALLY excited about is that I'm going to start including something that has been of great benefit to my overall health in the past, but I excluded for the purposes of this diet because it's not technically in line with the rules of the experiment. It's basically a living food multivitamin powder called Garden of Life Perfect Food Raw Organic Green Super Food. I love it because it's by far the best tasting one of these super green food powders I've sampled (I personally like an earthy green taste that's not overwhelming). Plus, it's had great effects on my energy, skin, digestion and hair health in the past. I highly recommend it if you're looking into getting a super green food product. And Amazon has the best price I've seen it for by far (other than a crazy clearance sale I lucked out on stumbling upon at Whole Foods one time). It costs almost double in every store I've ever seen it.

So I figure the best way to wrap up this experiment is to list the changes in my body and mind that came and went. Some were negative and some were positive, but I have to say that for the most part the negatives seemed to go away with time and especially so long as I got enough carbohydrates from veggie and drank enough water. If I try another extended meat and veggie only diet I'll be sure to plan my meals out more strategically and definitely avoid fasting. Well, at least in the beginning days.

1. Super Sense of Smell 

I feel like a bloodhound... My sense of smell increased immensely and I can detect some scents I never even knew existed. My take on this is that it's probably closely related to fact that eating this way has done a lot to clear up my sinuses. Side Note: This makes for better tasting (or sometimes worse) food. "Bland" is now "delectable".

2. No More Dandruff

My dandruff became nonexistent. I used to have horrible dandruff and was losing my hair at a very fast rate. Although I learned to control the dandruff pretty well with a variety of methods, nothing has ever eliminated it better that a perfect diet. All meat and veggies went beyond that! 

4. Whiter Teeth

My teeth became significantly whiter and stronger feeling that before. My oral health just felt over much improved. I believe if I were to add in a topical regimen for regeneration of tooth enamel and cavities that I would see some great success.

5. Clearer Skin

My skin has smoothed out over my entire body. That means less acne, less keratosis pilaris (a.k.a. chicken skin), overall better complexion and generally stronger feeling, less sensitive skin. I attribute this to reduction in inflammation and diminishment of allergic reactions to foods and environmental triggers. I even think my skin has ended up looking a little younger as well, but that's difficult to be objective about. However, I strongly believe that over time a good healthy, meat and veggie based diet would allow your skin to age at a much slower rate. *I should note that I went through a few inflammation flares in my skin as I transitioned into the diet, but everything stabilized and I saw much improvement in my skin compared to before the diet.

6. Joint pain and Stiffness Lessened

This has been a really cool effect. My joints feel like they're moving more smoothly and any dull pain that I tend to have in my joints has more or less gone away. This tends to happen when I eat well in general and the pain comes back if I eat sugar or highly processed foods so it was a surprise so to speak, but it's been warmly welcomed!

7. Clearer Mind & Feeling of Grounding

I just feel GOOD. I'm thinking and speaking more clearly, processing information more quickly, problem solving more efficiently. The list goes on. With the exception of feeling like my body is stressed out if I don't get enough carbs I'm feeling very solid in my cognition and emotional health.

Now onto some of the negatives I'm noticing and why I'm happy to going back to eating some fruits!


1. Increased Hair Fall

Now, although my dandruff disappeared my hair seemed to be shedding a little more than normal (normal being when I'm eating well and avoiding sugar, processed foods and grains and starchy veggies for the most part). This could have been part of cleansing process and thus a start kick to the regrowth phase in the hair follicles which would force the old unhealthier hairs out AND/OR it could have been a result of a slight raised cortisol level and could have a been a bad thing. I feel like it was more like the first scenario. I hope to have some hair benefits over the next few months due to this diet, but we'll see what happens!

2. Felt Very Stressed At Times

If I underestimated how many veggies to eat with my meals I would pay the price with a stressed body. It manifested in the form of restless legs, tense muscles and irritability. All it really took was good management of my macro nutrients (proteins, carbs, fats) to avoid running into this issue. I'm feeling much better now!

3. Needed Much More Water

I suppose this goes along with the decreased carb intake. Taking in a balanced amount of carbs will help your body to retain water and less is needed. I had no issue drinking a lot of water because I have a good filtration system at my apartment which even filters out fluoride (thyroid disruptive) which most filters do not.

4. Low Periods of Energy

I did hit some fatigued times throughout the experiment. Once again, I attribute this to a low carb intake. In particular, beginning the diet with some intermittent fasting probably wasn't a great idea and made it more stressful going through as I depleted glycogen stores from my muscles and liver very quickly.

So there ya have it! It's a wrap! Thanks so much for reading! I truly hope this helps you in some way with your diet and lifestyle. It can be a confusing time when trying to adopt an ideal diet for your health as there is a lot of conflicting info out there on what the perfect human diet actually is. My intent was to document how an "extreme" diet as the all meat and vegetable diet could affect a regular person in day to day life.


If you have any questions, comments, links to other helpful sites or anything else of value to add please comment below!!!

Be well!

-Rob