Today marks the completion of 3 weeks of my surviving on just vegetables and fruits. In few more days, I will join back the society I used to be part of. Half-inspired by this TED video and remaining half by Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead, this is one of the most extreme experiments I have taken up, though not the most difficult one.

There is not much more to the actual contents of the program than what I mentioned in the first line. In the one month, the only thing I had other than vegetables and fruits is salt. There is one exception, which you will find out as you read.

As I am nearing the completion of the program, I thought I’d capture and share my key learnings:

  1. Discipline makes us very unsocial — There are several moments during this program, when I have had to participate in events — both business and friends — and not consume any drink or food that was part of the event. I had the determination to not give in, but I did not have the energy to explain to people what I am going through. Even worse, even after knowing it, well-meaning people would continue to persuade you to break your rules. Very hard.
  2. Eating healthy is EXPENSIVE — Did I mention expensive? It is super-expensive. Over the last 3 weeks, my produce spend was more than my usual spend on groceries + produce. And I wasn’t even shopping organic.
  3. It makes you love vegetables — During the last 3–4 trips to my supermarket, I did not go to any aisle other than produce. Can you imagine that? I have consumed vegetables I didn’t know the names of. At a point, I started feeling intimate with vegetables.
  4. It makes you gross-out at the things we eat — No, I am not quitting junk food. I do like the things we all eat — including the unhealthy stuff. But just how unhealthy are they?
  5. Staying at home is easier — In other words, it makes traveling difficult. It is very hard to find food compatible with the program. I did end up breaking the rules for 1–2 days, when I found nothing to eat and had no intention of starving to death. What I ate were just salads, but the average salad has more “processed” food than you think. At the height of it, a very famous fresh juices chain store had no more than one item that could be made from fresh produce alone. What a shame.
  6. Most things we deem “necessary” are over-rated — This includes coffee, rice, meat (“But how do you get your protein?”) as well as self-induced “necessities” like soda, alcohol etc…

I look forward to completing 4 weeks as I had originally planned. When I am done, I am happy to get back to normal life — but I would have equally enjoyed doing this, plan to do it again. I am happy to help you create a plan to reboot yourselves.