Banana Island Cleanse

I decided instead of trying a 2 week  challenge like going veggie or gluten free that I would give a one week cleanse a try.

Now I have seen a lot of water based cleanses and to be honest they do not interest me from a blogging prospective.

What? You lost 2 stone by drinking nothing but lemon water and not eating for 2 weeks?

Well who would of thought that starving yourself would do that to you!

This is one of the reasons Banana Island appealed to me.

Not only the supposed benefits like more energy, better digestion, better skin hair and nails, more alertness, natural weight loss, more balance mood and better sleep but you can have unlimited calories as long as they come from bananas.

The rules are you can eat as many bananas as you want and drink as much water as you want.

Day1:

I felt some of the benefits almost straight away, energy levels high, feeling focused and had the best poo I have had in months. I went to work, went to the gym and felt really energised all day.

I can't top weeing though, I am drinking a lot of water partly because my mind is focused on detoxifying my body that and bananas are around 75% water. Oh well better out than in!

 I only managed 18 bananas which is about 1900 which is quite a bit of a calories short fall from the recommended daily calories for a man at 2500kcal. If I keep this up I certainly will lose weight!

Day 2:

Struggled to get out of bed, to be fair it was 5am but I can't help but wonder if it was because of the increased melotonin from all those bananas. I didn't feel refreshed as if I had slept well and deep.

I made the decision to stray off the cleanse and eat something else.

I had started to dread meal times and this is only the second day..

I still had the benefits from the day before, increased energy and focus but the thought of gorging on more bananas actually had an effect on me emotionally so I ate a chicken sandwich.
I have had a bad relationship with food in the past and I don't want anything like that to start up again.

I am still going to continue as best as I can with the cleanse, however I am not doing this cleanse to punish myself, I am doing this cleanse to see if it lives up to it's promises.

If I feel the need to eat other foods I am going to be honest about, in case you were wondering I didn't even feel better for eating it, I just felt guilty.

I feel that I would done better with the cleanse if I had been vegetarian for a sustained period of time, but hey ho lets not dwell on my chicken sandwich eating shame and move on with our lives.

I ate 19 bananas, still not enough calories. I am finding that eating greener banana is easier for me as they are no where near sweet and have more bite to them.

Had loads of energy and went along to a Out Door Fitness UK session near Kirkstall Abbey but this will of just created an even bigger calorie deficit!

Day 3:

Slept really well last night but woke up full of energy but not wanting to eat anything, after being up 3 hours I decided I had to get something inside me so I smashed in 5 bananas.

Smashed another 5 bananas before heading to a speed friending event to help raise awareness for Autistic Spectrum Disorder, full of energy, feeling alert and positive and even received compliment on how fresh I looked, although that might just of been my newly loped off mullet.

 It's seems the bananas have given me massive diarrhoea, how embarrassing!

I am going to see how I am tomorrow, if I haven't improved by tomorrow then I will sadly have to stop the cleanse. So 10 banana in total today.

Day 4:

I have still have the trots so that is the end of my cleanse!

 I decided before I began that I would stop if I had any ill effects on my health and I feel being to scared to trump in case you pebble dash your Calvin Kleins as a ill effect

Even though I am I haven't eaten any bananas today I am still in am amazing mood, in spite of having to stay with 100 metres of a toilet I might add!

I find myself singing to myself, smiling at silly things and generally being an absolute delight to everyone I encounter.


So would I take a trip to banana island again?

To be honest probably not and the main reason is I either didn't need to ween myself off my addiction to high calorie fatty foods or break my emotional attachment to certain foods, cliches like eating chocolate when you are feel sad etc.

At no point in the cleanse did I feel like I was starving myself, I didn't feel hungry but I didn't feel satisfied either, like I am not hungry but I could eat as long as it didn't mean more bananas!

Will I eat bananas again?

Yes I will, for a start I have a shed load left over from this cleanse and my mother did not raise me to waste food, I just need to wait for my bowels to calm the funk the down!

My attitude towards food has shifted as well, I have had issues with seasonal effected disorder in the past and I think instead of sitting in the dark and listening to Dido I will see if grabbing some bananas will boost my mood and get me out of my funk.

I am not saying bananas are a cure for depression, I am no where near qualified to make a claim like that but for me my bouts of SAD have vastly improved since I started making positive changes in my lifestyle through diet, exercise and taking inspiration from the people in my life so banana may well help me get through the darker months.

My thoughts on the actual cleanse are if you love bananas give it go and see how you feel.

 I did terrible in comparison to other people who I have read about/

They had upwards of 25 bananas in their first day, admittedly they were making 10 banana smoothies for breakfast but the thought of that makes want to throw up a little.

The other people who I have read about doing the banana island cleanse were vegan which is probably why they didn't start pooing out for internal organs.

If you decide to undertake a cleanse such as this please consult your doctor first and do your research.

I had countless people telling me how bad bananas are for you and that I will have a heart attack from all of the potassium

 For starters I was probably quite deficient in potassium and from what I have read you would either have to eat over 300 bananas in 30 seconds or have serious issues with your liver/kidneys for that to happen.

There is about 1g of protein in a banana and almost no fat so if you are trying to build muscle this isn't going to do you any favours unless you can getting those bananas smashed in without throwing up.

Cleanses are no substitute for a healthy lifestyle, it is your choice whether or not you attempt a cleanse but they are not sustainable in the long term and any weight loss etc will soon disappear once you come off them if you return to your old eating habits and lifestyle.

So to finish this post I
would like you all to pray for me to have a solid poo!