By Lee Davy

How Much?

The Liver Cleansing Diet - Week One Dr. Bréne Brown is a researcher, writer, professor, and a member of the research faculty at the University of Houston Graduate College of Social Work, where she has studied a concept she calls Wholeheartedness. During her research on the attributes that we associate with ‘being feminine,’ it showed her that the most important qualities for women are being thin, modest and nice. As a male I believe I am fortunate to have escaped the pressures of remaining thin. I guess I have always been one of those lucky people who can seemingly eat whatever they like, without getting fat; also as a male nobody seems to care anyway. But as age catches up with me, and my life becomes ever more sedentary, I find myself growing a little potbelly. In the past I have tried a few diets in order to shift this ridiculous little mound, despite knowing that a few sit-ups would do the trick. None of them have worked. The Liver Cleansing Diet (LCD) really interested me because I honestly had no idea how influential a good working liver was for the well being of the human body. My body felt like it needed a service, and with the promise of lost weight thrown in for good measure I couldn’t wait to get started. People say that diets don’t work because you are denying yourself something. A continual challenge: humans versus food. But in my experience it is money that causes me to stop dieting and not my penchant for Dulce de Leche ice cream. After recently going through a divorce I now live with my parents. I am very fortunate because I don’t contribute to the food costs. I eat whatever my mother serves me and I am grateful for that. So I had that all familiar feeling when armed with my LCD book, and renewed enthusiasm for change, I headed to the supermarket to listen to the sounds of barcodes being scanned. I spent £102.36 on a menu that would last me a week. £409.44 added expenses on my monthly budget. The LCD and I had gotten off to the wrong start. I was very excited when my first day started. For breakfast it was gluten free muesli with almond milk. Now I had drunk almond milk before - during an eight-week stay in Las Vegas where I discovered Whole Foods  - and I really liked it, but this time it tasted different. At first I thought it was the muesli but I have since realized that it is the almond milk that I can’t seem to find a palate for. Next it was the dreaded veggie juice. I eat vegetables but I am not a big fan, hence the lack of excitement. I used my sister’s old fruit juicer and it sounded like a chainsaw. This would become a problem because I couldn’t juice at certain times of the day without waking the entire street. The end product was too thick and I couldn’t help think that I was drinking vomit. I downed it though, and my mother laughed at the pained expression stretched over my face. As the week wore on I had some successes, some failures and some self-improvements. My girlfriend advised me to remove the herbs; red onion and orange from my veggie juice and instead add lime. I put an entire lime into the chainsaw and you should have seen my face wince when I drank it! The spicy seafood salad was delicious, the chicken kebabs tasteless, and overcooked, and I was constantly snacking on dried fruit and nuts. Then a revelation! I made myself leek and potato soup and my mother said, “Bloody hell Lee. You could feed the five thousand.” She was right; of course, by the time I had divided my soup into portions I had enough to last me a fortnight. I had overspent on my food by buying stock to feed a family of four instead of just feeding myself. Another interesting observation was the taste of the soup. It was pretty tasteless and after talking to my mother about it we realized that it was because it didn’t contain salt. As there was no salt mentioned in the ingredients I decided to soldier on without it. I am not sure if this is right, or not, but I diet without salt seems pretty healthy to me. So that was the end of my first week on the LCD. It was certainly interesting, but I was happy and excited to head to the supermarket to see if I could save some pennies during week two.

The World Doesn’t Make This Easy

The Liver Cleanse Diet - Week Two It’s quite incredible how your mind takes control of your body, convincing you to believe in illusions. Take butter for example. Did you know that I have never been able to eat unbuttered-bread with my soup? My mind was resolute on the matter and there was no changing it, strange then, that after two-weeks on the Liver Cleanse Diet (LCD) how I no longer use butter or margarine, and do not miss it in the slightest? Goodbye butter and margarine: hello olive oil and balsamic vinegar! It’s not just butter and margarine that are proving to be a fallacy. Why don’t I miss meat? Why don’t I miss milk in my tea? Why don’t I miss cakes, chocolate and sugar? Aren’t diets supposed to drive you insane? Pushing your deprivation to the limits? I don’t feel deprived at all. Instead I feel liberated, invigorated and happy. My son was coming of age. It was his first day at the big school and so I thought I would treat him and took him to his favorite Italian restaurant: Prezzo. When I looked at the vast array of options on the menu I picked out two that I could eat: a Salmon and Avocado Salad and a King Prawn starter. I ordered them both and turned down the opportunity to celebrate in the feast of a desert my son had smeared all over his face. It was the first time that I had dined in a restaurant since I started the LCD, and I was angry that there wasn’t a healthier choice. I was angry that there was literally no choice at all. I guess there just isn’t a market for it, a thought that makes me even angrier. From a financial perspective, Week Two could not have been more different than Week One. If you remember I spent £102.36 last week and this week I managed to survive on £51.12. It has suddenly dawned on me that not only will this diet help add years onto my life, it will also remove pound signs from my budget. Before starting the LCD I was a take away fanatic. Chinese, Indian, kebab or pizza, it didn’t matter what it was as long as it was quick and easy. Take away my take away, and you take away the ability to spend a lot of money. After the restaurant episode I largely stayed at home, the highlight of my life being the Salmon and Basil Loaf, a wonderfully simple, delicious and inexpensive dish. At the end of the week I had to travel to Paris and Malta on a work trip, a trip that I was dreading because of the diet. It turned out to be every bit as problematic as I had foreseen. I booked myself a seat on Eurostar where they supply you with a free meal.  Of course it was a free meal that I couldn’t eat. The waiter was great though - he understood my dietary constraints – the kitchen just had nothing to offer me! One of the biggest problems that I encountered in Paris was shopping for food in the local supermarket. I had rented an apartment, in advance, so I could prepare my own food (something that would not have happened in a hotel), but having everything in French was a problem. Choosing tomatoes is a fairly easy thing to do irrespective of language; after all a tomato is a tomato. But trying to find the right type of bread, almond milk, whole wheat pasta, brown rice, etc. was a much more difficult prospect. As the second week came to a close, I started to realize that I was living in two different worlds. There was the organized world of my home. A kitchen fully-fitted with all of the mod cons needed to live on the LCD. Then there is the outside world. A place that couldn’t care less if you wanted to eat healthily. There are no options in this world when it comes to food; I see that now. People laugh and joke about fast food restaurants like McDonald’s but I’m starting to see that the world is just one big takeaway restaurant. The sad thing is it is us - the consumer - who are driving this supply and demand.

The Liver Cleansing Diet in Paris

The Liver Cleanse Diet - Week Three I spent the entire third week of my Liver Cleansing Diet (LCD) in a Parisian apartment just a stone throw from the Champs Elysee. As I alluded to in my Week Two diary I was able to stock up on foodstuffs from the local supermarket, but one problem that I did encounter - being away from home - was a lack of kitchen equipment. I didn’t have a single veggie juice when I was in Paris because the apartment that I was staying in didn’t possess a juicer. My partner and I did consider buying a portable one, but decided against it at the last minute believing that we could just buy veggie juices on the Champs Elysee. It seems that the second most expensive piece of real estate in the world forgot to open up a shop that sells veggie juices. It would be remiss of me to visit Paris and not eat in the local restaurants. One night we headed to a restaurant next to the Seine and I decided to order sardines and a salmon and avocado salad (which incidentally seems to be the only thing I can find on restaurant menus that I can eat). The waiter brought the sardines over to my table and pulled off the plate cover with an exaggerated, “Voila,” to reveal a tin of sardines! I couldn’t believe it. I could have bought a tin myself from the supermarket next to the apartment. My partner and I were laughing so hard when I saw a mouse run across the room. Not wanting to make a fuss, I called the waiter over and whispered in his ear. “Excuse me sir, but I just saw a mouse run across your restaurant floor.” “See that over there,” he said pointing outside of the window, “That’s the river Seine,” and then promptly walked off. The next night I decided to try a Thai restaurant and got into an argument with the owner over my refusal to order white rice with my vegetable curry. She thought I was crazy when I said I didn’t want rice, but even crazier when I asked her for brown rice. Why don’t these establishments have brown rice and whole-wheat pasta? There was even a specialized pasta shop outside of my apartment and yet it didn’t have whole-wheat pasta as an option. It was during my stay in Paris that my partner introduced me to lentils and I loved them. It was a good job that I did, because my partner made me a different lentil dish each night! The other foodstuff that I had fallen in love with in Week Three was dried figs. They were great for snacking on and much more satisfying than a chocolate bar for instance. From a financial perspective I spent £70 on groceries and ate in restaurants on a couple of occasions. I have to take into consideration that there was two of us eating, and so it still has to be counted as a financial victory. I know the last time that I was in Paris I spent hundreds of pounds dining in restaurants, so once again the diet has proved to be positive on the pennies. Last but not least I need to mention the toilet. Yes, I’m sorry, it’s not the greatest topic in the world, but one I feel that I must cover. Before I went on the LCD I had problems cleaning myself after going to the toilet. But since I have been on the LCD I have no problems at all. Two wipes and I am clean. The other thing that I have noticed is the smell, or more pointedly the lack of one. It now seems so obvious, but the foods that I have cut out of my diet were obviously not very good for my number twos, and that’s a great thing. Especially after eating a bowl of lentils every day!

Where is That Potbellied Pig?

The Liver Cleansing Diet – Week Four I didn’t decide to take the Liver Cleanse Diet (LCD) because I wanted to look good. Actually…I think that’s a lie. We all want to look good right? We all have a little bit of narcissism about us. As I look in the mirror I like what I see. My potbelly is diminishing and my cheeks seem a little more refined. Staring into the mirror on a daily basis means you miss the subtle changes. But the photographs don’t lie. Chubby ones and thin ones they tell the truth and you know it. Today, when I look in the mirror I am reminded of the photo I have of my time in Cannes, the one with the refined cheekbones. One of the reasons people give up when trying to introduce a new habit into their lifestyle is because they don’t see tangible change. I am here to tell you that you need to be patient. If fat loss is what you seek, then the LCD will deliver. For me it started to rear its beautiful flatter stomach during week four, for you it may vary, but I can assure you it’s a question of when not if? When I started this diet I assumed I would suffer some terrible cravings. It has taken me until week four to waiver, and even then it was only a subtle wobble. I opened the fridge and my Dad had bought some black pudding. If you are not familiar with the term, it’s dried pigs or lambs blood mixed with god knows what else. We eat it in the UK with our fry-ups. The cholesterol filled breakfast of champions that contains more oil than Kuwait. It was the first time I had seen a food type and thought, “I would love to have some of that.” I moved it to the back of the fridge, closed the door and dug into some yoghurt and fruit instead. On Thursday, I spent time with my son. I am finding life difficult as a divorced father. I am never sure what to do with my sparse time with the little man who means so much to me. I have told him about my diet but I think he relates it to the divorce. He keeps asking me why am I changing all of the time? I think he wants his old Dad back, and because of the divorce cannot understand that I am improving for the better. I am also very mindful of how dangerous my sons diet is and how I am responsible for it, never more demonstrated by the fact that I decided to take him to KFC for dinner. I didn’t order anything for myself, but did find myself pinching a few of his fries. This diet really has got me thinking about the diet of my son. But at 11-years of age is it already too late for him to change? That question seems ludicrous but right now I can’t get him to eat much more than pizza, super noodles and scrambled eggs, let alone lentils, almond milk and quinoa. Two food highlights to speak of. Since my decision to stop drinking alcohol a few years back I have realised that I am sugar sensitive. I thought stopping sweets for eight weeks would be tougher than it has been, but I have managed with ease. One of the reasons is being prepared. I always have a good stock of natural yogurt, fruit, nuts, seeds and honey in my kitchen. This provides me with all of the sweetness I need. Another great recipe that I used this week was scrambled tofu. It was absolutely delicious and recommended to everyone trying the LCD. From a financial perspective I only spent £44.35 on groceries this week. It is great to see the amount continually decrease after my first initial worry that the diet would cost me an arm and a leg. I have been shopping primarily in Lidls, which is the cheapest supermarket in town. Only seldom do I have to go to a more expensive supermarket to choose the more specialised items such as bread, tofu and certain herbs. It is the visits to the more expensive supermarkets that really bumps up the price. I finished the week on a little bit of a downer. It was the first time that I started to allow negative thoughts about the diet to enter my mind. I still feel very alone and isolated with all of my family refusing to hardly taste the foods that I cook, let alone eat with me. Or maybe it was the handful of French fries that I had from KFC? Damn those pesky fries.

Don’t Wait Until it’s Broken

The Liver Cleansing Diet – Week 5 “You don’t drink, you don’t smoke and you exercise, so why on earth are you on a diet to help your liver? Your liver should be pristine?” It’s the one question that keeps cropping up and it’s starting to annoy me. Why do human beings insist on breaking things before they decide to try and repair them? What ever happened to good, solid preventative maintenance? My decision to stop drinking alcohol, over three-years ago, has no doubt improved the functioning of a liver, that at one point must have been at the freshold of conking out. But why does that mean I should bombard it with dairy products, sweets and deep fried food instead? Why do people want to wait until they suffer from cirrhosis of the liver, before changing their diet at the bequest of their doctor? If I have learned one thing from this diet it is this: - YOU HAVE TO MAKE A FUNDAMENTAL CHOICE TO TAKE CARE OF YOUR LIVER Imagine that I complete the eight-week course and then go back to the way I was before. Sure, I have given my liver an annual service. But is that really good enough? I want more than that. I want my liver to love me because I have loved it. Now stop asking me that bloody question please! On this occasion my friend raised that bloody question while we were both at the cinema together. He ordered popcorn and I had come prepared with my own bag of fruit and nuts. If you are taking the Liver Cleansing Diet (LCD) then you certainly need to be prepared. If you aren’t, then you either starve or submit. It’s all about basic risk assessment really. On Thursday night I spent the evening with my sister and she ordered a Chinese take away. I ended up having a few more fries dipped in curry, followed by one piece of prawn toast. Like I said, it’s all about risk assessment. Stuff your kitchen with the wrong types of food and you increase the risk. I continue to feel sorry for myself this week. The fact that I am on a special diet makes me wonder if it is linked, but I don’t think so. It is the second week that I have succumbed to the might of the French fries. I am only talking a few fingers full, but the lack of indiscipline is adding to the mood. I am not craving or feeling like I am missing out. I just see them in front of me, reach and grab. A bad habit I suppose. I spent Wednesday having high tea in a very posh hotel in Mayfair, London. It was a surprise for my girlfriend’s visiting family from Los Angeles. I drank the tea, but couldn’t partake in the scones and cakes. The hotel found it very difficult to find me an alternative to suit my diet, yet again the lack of choice annoying me to the extreme. In the end I picked on an unsatisfying salad and pinched two rosy red apples on my way out of the door. Whereas I had difficulties finding food in Paris it was much easier in London, the vast array of health foods suddenly shining before my eyes. I even found a restaurant that served brown rice! So edamame, vegetable dumplings with brown rice it was. The rest of the family just watched, as they were all still full after their cake and scones. Later that evening we ate in Jamie Oliver’s Union Jacks in Covent Garden. There were so many wonderful dishes I wanted to try but alas none of them fitted in with the diet. In fact, there wasn’t a single vegetarian offering on the menu. I settled for mussels and trout from the tapas section - settled being the optimum word. On the Saturday I was in Cardiff all day. Once again I found myself eating in restaurants and once again I was shocked and dismayed by the lack of a LCD choice. It is so irritating to have to settle for dishes you don’t really want to eat, because they are the only things you like to have on the menu. So far, unless you live in London, a restaurant life is not one for the person on the LCD. In terms of costs this week I spent £42.98. Once again the most expensive items are the specialty items such as brown rice and multi seed bread. I am also mindful that grocery costs were low because I ate out a lot this week spending much more money on things I didn’t really want to eat.

The Color Purple

The Liver Cleansing Diet – Week Six If I never left the house this diet would be so simple. I have a great system set out when I am at home. I wake in the morning and make my water and lemon. I turn on the blender, wake up the whole street, and make my veggie juice before eating some muesli with almond milk, or devouring some eggs. Into the afternoon and I always make something that I can spread over multiple days like a vegetable curry, or red lentils with artichokes. Having ready-made meals in the fridge is a godsend on this diet, because I don’t have to think. Then in the evening I will make myself something special from the wide list of recipes in the Liver Cleansing Diet (LCD) book before snacking on fruit and yoghurt in the evening. Then I leave the house! This week I am once again in London and so it’s once again restaurant food. I didn’t start the week very well. I was in a tapas restaurant where I ate whitebait that had been deep-fried and also a very small piece of toasted white bread containing crab and salmon. I am sure the LCD demons will not smack my wrists too hard for these minor transgressions. I am learning though. Distraught as I am with the meager offerings found in the UK and European restaurants I searched ahead for special eateries. On Monday, I chose a restaurant called Raw 42 and I was really excited to eat there because it is from the same people who created Noma, a restaurant in Copenhagen that has been voted the worlds best at www.theworlds50best.com. I had tried to get seats at Noma on numerous occasions without much luck so I was desperate to try Raw 42. So what did I think? Argh!!!! Once again, despite choosing the restaurant in advance, I left disappointed. The whole menu was plant-based foods and everything they did was edible under the rules of the LCD, but no matter what I ordered they didn’t have the food in stock. Why have it on the menu if you don’t stock it, and if you run out of stock then fire someone please! The next day I ate in a vegan restaurant called Vitao. It was a buffet style lunch and everything on show was compatible with the LCD. It was great to have such a wonderful choice, but once again I came way rather unsatisfied. Now it’s important for you to note that the disappointment is not because I cannot eat foods such as steak or fries. I have eaten in fabulous vegan restaurants such as Real Food Daily and Cafe Gratitude, whilst visiting Los Angeles, and the food was out of this world. It’s just that these two choices sucked. I guess there are good and bad restaurants and the vegan restaurants are no different. My train home from London was late and so I sat down at Yo! Sushi to grab a bite to eat while I waited. I asked the waiter for brown sushi rice and he looked at me stupid. Please can someone create a sushi restaurant where we can eat brown rice instead of white? Edamame beans and miso soup it is then. A revelation this week! I decided to add beetroot to my veggie juice after watching a veggie juice video on the Internet and BOOM! My veggie juice now tastes delicious. I don’t know what it is? But it just appeals to me much more. It tastes fruitier and the wonderful purple color is much more appealing that the lime green effect. Either way, veggie juices are now insanely delicious, easy to make and great for you. I have also stopped thinking about the taste of almond milk. It just tastes of ordinary cows milk. If you persist then the taste will become delish. From a weight loss point of view people are really starting to comment on the way I look. Not only that but I can really notice the change in myself when I am naked. Not only has my face thinned, but also my arms appear to be skinnier. Most noticeably is the loss of my potbelly. It has completely gone now and none of my jeans fit me anymore. The tight t-shirts that I once loved, and haven’t worn for years, are now out and the baggy clothes shipped off to Oxfam. So much of my stuff doesn’t fit me that I am worried this diet is going to cost me a fortune purchasing a new wardrobe!

The Africans Love Their Meat

The Liver Cleansing Diet – Week Seven Now that was what you call a challenge! Have you ever visited South Africa? Well I have, just this week in fact, and I doubt there is a single person who lives there that has a fully functioning liver. I was not prepared for this trip. I had not carried out any research and it really caused me to struggle. Heading to South Africa is one thing, but being confined to a hotel and casino is another thing entirely. I am a poker writer and so I was spending seven days working at the World Poker Tour (WPT) in the Emperors Palace Hotel and Casino in Johannesburg. Thank god for almonds and walnuts! That’s all I had packed in terms of food - about five bags of almonds and walnuts. When you are on the Liver Cleansing Diet (LCD) one of the biggest risks you run of eating something you shouldn’t is between meals. The times when you just wanted a little nibble and used to grab a bag of crisps or a piece of chocolate. When I am working at a poker tournament, time is of the essence. Basically, I don’t have any and if I am not prepared then I will starve. This will be true of anyone working in an office type environment. But when you work abroad then it is more difficult to create a packed lunch to suit your dietary requirements. You need to be inventive and organized. For the first few days I really struggled because South Africa has such a wide variety of meat. The breakfast bar was full of the stuff, but it did have soya milk. So I would have soya milk and muesli followed by an omelette. My plan was always to stuff myself in the morning so I wouldn’t be hungry for hours thereafter. I would always take a rucksack down with me and fill it with fruit and hard-boiled eggs. I was literally stealing my lunch! On the last day I decided to treat myself and wandered around the casino in dismay. The design is very similar to the Venetian in Las Vegas and there were plenty of restaurants, but they all focused on meat. I eventually settled on a Portuguese style restaurant and started to order a plain salad and still water. I then realized that I was in week seven and could eat chicken! I had spent all week struggling to find anything vegetarian when I could have been eating chicken all along! Winner, winner chicken dinner! I ordered the biggest piece of chicken you could imagine and gorged on it. It was delicious and a great way to end my time in South Africa. If you do travel abroad, when you are on the LCD, then please remember to order your special air meals at least 24-hrs in advance. I always make this mistake, but flutter my eyelids on the plane to get a meal that suits my diet. Most airlines have every dietary angle covered, and although we don’t yet have a LCD specific diet, a vegan or vegetarian diet will suffice. In addition, always make sure you pack some snacks in your carry-on. You need to order your special meal in advance and can do this online. If you are scared of using a computer just ring them. But make sure you do it 24-hours in advance. You also get your meal served before everyone else which is nice. From a financial perspective I didn’t spend anything on groceries because I was abroad. The casino food was free of charge as well, so I ate for free - lucky me. But I do want to spend some time talking about cost. The LCD really does give you the opportunity to reduce your food bill. Not only does the LCD relieve stress on your liver, but it also reduces stress brought on by over spending. Your grocery bill will drop immensely and even when you eat out you save money because you are less likely to eat starters and deserts. On a personal note I have to talk poo again. Sorry I know, but it can’t be avoided because it is such an important part of the value the LCD can bring to your life. I have a phobia of breaking wind. Unless you are my girlfriend, or son, I cannot break wind in front of you (lucky them). Over the years this has caused me to have a few problems as I become a giant air ball. But with the LCD whenever I break wind it doesn’t smell. I can now break wind whenever I like, I feel lighter, less bloated and smell wonderful. Not like those pesky meat eating South Africans!

The Final Curtain

The Liver Cleansing Diet – Week Eight The final week was a breeze. I spent £58 on groceries, which was slightly higher than normal, but that was mainly due to me buying some vitamins and flaxseed from the Holland and Barrett store. This diet would have been so much easier had Whole Foods had a store in South Wales. So how did I find the eight weeks? It was a great experience. When I was at home it was fun and easy as long as I was organized with my shopping expeditions. As long as I had stocks of the right food available then it was easy to get up and cook. Nothing on the diet took very long to make, and in the end, despite the Liver Cleansing Diet (LCD) containing a diverse range of options, sameness became the key to success. Making a delicious soup to last you several days, having the same veggie juice each morning and snacking on the same fruit and nuts became the key to my success. The LCD is a change in habit and there is no better way than to change a habit than to install simple routine. Dining out was a totally different experience. The world is trying hard to catch up with the correct dietary habits, but it is slow and needs a kick up the arse. The amount of times you find yourself choosing a selection simply because it is the only item on the menu you can eat is astounding. It becomes annoying and very irritable. If you can avoid eating out whilst doing the LCD then do so, unless you are fortunate enough to live in an area that offers diversity. London and Los Angeles are two places that immediately spring to my mind. From a cost perspective it has been a nice surprise. The LCD book doesn’t cover cost, and why should it? We are talking about taking care of our liver, not our bank balances, but bank balances it does take care of. When you consider that a lot of people suffer from varying degrees of stress due to financial reasons, then this is a great way to help ease pressure on both your liver and your heart. It’s funny how I was so scared I would go broke in the first week, only to realize in the coming weeks how important it is to cook in batches to avoid waste. From a health standpoint I have no idea if I am healthier or not. Maybe I should have done some tests before I started and then retaken them once I had finished? Hindsight is a wonderful thing. But I didn’t and only have my own feelings to share with you. I feel great. Better than ever in fact. I also feel like I have built up a relationship with my liver. I have taken care of it and it has taken care of me. I would feel terrible to let it down so I don’t think I am going to stop. I might not be as strict, but why stop now? It’s important to make a fundamental choice to look after your liver and to do this, you do it for life. There is no need to be so rigid. But make the staple of your diet LCD friendly at least during the week, and maybe let your hair down a little on the weekend? Another health benefit that I seemed to accrue during the LCD was good clean skin. I have suffered from acne in one form or another all of my life. Admittedly, as I have aged my skin has become much better, but at the age of 37 I am still prone to a stray spot or seven. The LCD seems to have cleared up my skin completely, with no spots in sight during my eight-week stint. Why didn’t the doctors tell me this when I was a distraught teenager? Hey! Distraught teenagers! Get on the LCD! The weight loss is something else entirely. But I have been worried about the comments I have been receiving. It started off with comments like, “Wow you look great what have you been up to?” To, “ Wow you look skinny what have you been up to?” When people approach me with the latter I know they believe I am looking unwell. So be careful. If you look after your liver, it will respond in kind by removing your fat. If you don’t have too much (like I didn’t) then you could end up looking a little too skinny. But as a close friend once said to me, “It’s how I feel that is important.” And I feel great. Last but not least I must talk about the toilet. The LCD has really changed my toilet habits. Prior to the diet I could no longer use ordinary toilet paper and instead had to rely on toilet wipes. This was because I had real difficulties wiping after going to the toilet. I would smell terribly as well. Both when breaking wind and when going for a number two. The change in diet means I am in and out of the loo in minutes, I am clean in just a few wipes and I rarely smell. This was something I never expected when I started the diet, and yet it was something I have been searching for my entire life. I have had my challenges in the past eight weeks. But I travel abroad a lot and I doubt everyone will find it as difficult as me. That being said I enjoyed every minute of the diet and now have a different mindset when it comes to eating, and a much stronger bond with my liver. Like I alluded to earlier, I am not going to stop eating the types of food that Sandra Cabot recommends in the LCD. It has become a habit and a great and healthy one at that. I end by saying a special thank you to Sandra Cabot. Every now and then someone walks into my life and makes an everlasting impression. Sandra is the latest person to do that. Who knows how many years she may have added to my life? Lee Davy is a writer from Ogmore Vale in South Wales. You can follow his views and opinions through his blog at needyhelper.com/what-to-do-next/ or on Twitter @Chingster23.