I ended Banana Island on Sunday morning. I did it for 6 days + 1 breakfast this time! For more about what Banana Island is and why I did it, view this post.

I felt that it's more difficult than how I remembered it to be! :/ Well, maybe not the last couple of days, but the first 3 days were hard. I attribute it to my months of unhealthy (unhealthier-than-usual) eating prior to the start of banana island. I often felt like I wanted to eat salty things. I didn't feel that way when I did 3 days of banana island previously! :( I just got easily sick of the sweetness. I was craving fries (specifically those very crispy fries from About Animals in Taipei) for the first couple of days, but during the last few I wanted tomatoes, celery, mushrooms, seaweed and other natural sources of sodium... That's an improvement at least.

Somehow, in recent months, bananas at room temperature kinda repulse me. So I more-or-less had frozen bananas (blended into 'nice cream') for most meals. I thoroughly enjoyed it all. ^^

I ate a whole lot more medjool dates this time than previously! I consumed about 1.5kg of it, when previously I probably had less than 200g (in 3 days). It probably accounted for at least 1/3 of my caloric intake. They are DELICIOUS. And those from Mustafa are perfectly soft, chewy, sweet and huge.

However, it was hard to keep my caloric intake up and reach at least 2500 kcal. :( That was my aim, but if I had enough then I didn't force it. I counted my calories using Cronometer. I weighed my bananas and dates this time so I'm more accurate! I believe it's because of the leftover food in my digestive system from before...

But maybe it's because of a lack of physical activity. Mostly because I was engrossed in reading (recently bought a pile of good books from a thrift store) for a large part of the duration of Banana Island. I also didn't really feel like exercising (and I didn't, other than Bikram yoga on the weekends). On hindsight, exercise is really important and I should have at least gone for a 1 hour walk in the morning on the treadmill in the gym (that's what I did previously) to kick-start my metabolism and digestion! I'll not neglect this component next time!! Here's a good video by Durianrider about Cronometer and the importance of fitness/sleep (at the very end).

Hydration - Somehow I didn't really drink much water this time. My pee was hardly ever clear. I kept on forgetting to drink water =_= Also, I think I lost a negligible amount of weight. Which is surprising because I expected to lose some water retention.

On most days, I had bananas, medjool dates, organic cinnamon and raw carob, but I added in organic spinach at dinner on 3 or 4 days.

Despite this Banana Island experience being not so fruitful (pun intended), I did experience some benefits! I feel more drawn towards healthy, unprocessed, whole foods, as compared to packaged junk which I found really hard to resist before this. I'm also having more raw breakfasts - usually a smoothie or nice cream. My digestion seems to have picked up. It's still not as efficient as I remember it to be, but hopefully continual healthy eating will improve it! :)

Here are some photos of what I ate.