A visit to Banana Island

Hi everyone,

I apologies for not writing sooner, I still have three recipe posts on the back burner in draft form! This past week has been a blur of dealing with paperwork and catching up with friends and family. I promise they will get there this week!

I want to announce that I will be spending a week on Banana Island. That is Sunday 16-23 Feb. Yes, starting today. I, like all fruit lovers have been so excited about summer and the beautiful bounty it brings. My house becomes a cornucopia of colour filled with bananas, mangoes, peaches, melons, figs, berries and jackfruit. There is also the horrific swarm of fruit flies that follows however, I've  seemed to have solved that problem with my little friend apple cider vinegar. I have been planning this trip quite a while ago, but since it is summer I couldn't give up the opportunity to each my weight in mangoes.

Quality mangoes are now starting to wane and the price of stone fruit is slowing creeping back up so I feel that now is the right time to venture into the land of mono-meal cleansing.

Banana Island is an exercise promoted by the author of the "80 10 10 diet" Douglas Graham. The rules are simple:
An individual must sustain themselves on bananas and leafy greens for a period of time, by which allowing the body to gently cleanse itself rather than devoting time to digesting a multitude of different foods.

Here is a video interview explaining it.

To summarise:

What

• Eat bananas every meal with additional leafy greens, cucumber and celery

Why

• Cleanse digestion and detoxify
• Transition into the high carb raw vegan lifestyle
• Overcome emotional eating and psychological difficulties through mindfulness
• Revisit the bedrock of natural eating

I have chosen to take on the Banana Island for the primary reason of healing my digestion. I transitioned to a high carb cooked vegan lifestyle in mid 2012. I sustained periods of 100% raw mostly with interludes of cooked vegan food; mostly cooked starchy vegetables and my weakness for sushi and the occasional cocktail. I felt the best I had in my life, I had energy, my chronic acne was clearing and I felt emotionally grounded despite battling crippling anxiety. Slowly the benefits started to plateau, my skin fluctuated, my digestion suffered and my stress levels began to rise as my post graduate studies came to a close. I got a contract job straight out of university and was thrown into 16 hour work days. The stress became a tsunami despite having strong coping mechanisms. I knew my body needed to make the complete change. 

 It was not until July/August 2013 that I decided to go completely 100%

raw vegan. I did not transition cleanse, I simply stopped eating cooked foods. This went fantastically for quite a while. I lost the bloating, my skin issues subsided and I got my mojo back at work. Once again I coasted for a while on the good vibes of raw food. My contract ended and I was thrown back into the world of job hunting which was a difficult adjustment. Stress once again reared its ugly head and my health was compromised.

I practiced mindfulness frequently and I consider myself quite resilient in that regard. Despite this, the physiological symptoms of stress, specifically digestion are almost impossible for me to control. I decided at the start of 2014 to undergo a seven day juice cleanse to 'reset' my body. I found the entire escapade highly successful.  There was a three day period of horrific detoxing, but I emerged happy and relaxed. I now regret not extending the cleanse to 14 days because upon ending day seven I still had a coated tongue and a few digestive complaints. I was physically wrecked and starving so I discontinued juicing after a week.

I have had a few more close encounters with stress and emotional demons due to some unexpected issues this year. It has effected my sleep and eating patterns so rather than jump on board the juicing wagon again, which can be very expensive, I have bought my ticket to Banana Island.

My aims for this trip are to heal my digestion once more and to face my inner demons by addressing the manner in which I deal with stress once and for all. I plan on keeping a progress chart depicting my physical and emotional well being charting my nutrient intakes, physical and emotional changes as well as advice through my own trail and error of this initiative.

I have established these guidelines for myself so that I will complete the seven days and get the maximum payout for the trip. I am only allowed bananas, leafy greens, celery, cucumber, cinnamon and carob. I  realise that carob is not conventionally apart of the Banana Island manifesto. I don't wish to turn this into another dogmatic orthorexic ventures into obsession over perfecting the diet. That defeats the purpose of the trip. I added carob to ensure that I will complete the week because I quickly grow to hate the taste bananas. I have also set myself not to eat after 7pm. Previously, my partner and I would go to the gym after work, which would always ensure that dinner was on the table at 9:30 and we would have to be in bed by 11:30.  Both my partner and I have found that our sleep quality deteriorated and our digestion worsened. Finally, I am setting myself the task sleeping at least eight hours a night. No more binging on Gossip Girl and Harry Potter fanfiction until the early hours of the morning. This is probably going to be harder for me that monomealing. With these perimeters in place I think I will stay in the right mind frame to deal with any challenges thrown my way.

Those who follow me on instagram may want to kill me for the 50 banana pictures to come but I will attempt to keep it both light hearted and interesting.

If you wish to join me for a few days I would adore the companionship. For those who have visited Banana Island before I would love to hear advice.

Thank you to everyone for all your support in the coming week

Peace, Love, Happiness (and Bananas)

Kaitling