SUN06AUG2017
my weight is now 57.5Kg, so it's still falling  at the same rate that it was previously (about 1.5Kg per week).  and whilst there's still some fat left on me, there's really not a lot at all anymore.  it really has to hit bottom in another week or so.  beyond that, my life has become insanely busy caring for my elderly parents.  i'm not actually finding the time to eat regularly anymore.  i only had 2 avocadoes yesterday.  i now have the multi-vitamins that i ordered, so i can start taking them next monday (tomorrow).  i did give some thought to persevering with the vitamin B12 alone, however, i think it's more important to cure this condition that necessarily waste time trying to discover the exact cause.  i've read some fairly dire things about leaving it untreated.  i am, however, beginning to doubt that it's just a vitamin B12 deficiency, as it's now a week since i started supplementing for vitamin B12 and i can't say that i've seen any significant improvement.

FRI04AUG2017
i've read on the internet that itchy skin can be caused by too frequent bathing.  now, i must admit that i like to have a long hot bath at night in order to relax.  and it does seem that this makes the itching much worse.  the strange thing is that this isn't something new, per se.  so, why now it might be affecting me, i can only guess at.  possibly being fruitarian has made me more sensitive to the chlorine in tap water.  it sounds far fetched but that's all i can think of at the moment.  if supplementing doesn't resolve this, i'll have to give a lot more thought to other possibilities, such as this one.  also, just to be completely honest, it could be that i've been binging on avocadoes too much and too long.  i've read that too many avocadoes can affect the ability of the bowels to absorb nutrition.  i did sort of imagine that mixing an avocado with lemon juice effectively broke down the fats in the avocado so that they weren't so indigestible and prevented them coating the bowel with a fatty deposit.  perhaps this is just wishful thinking on my behalf.  i do like my avocadoes, and being mildly autistic will certainly make giving them up, if that's what i have to do, difficult to say the least.  oh well, we'll see.  a month on the multi-vitamins should tell me whether it's a deficiency or something else.  i'm beginning to wish that i'd been more cautious and supplemented to start with.  i guess i was just a little too optimistic.  it does now seem that it takes much longer to become adapted to a fruitarian diet than i'd expected.

THU03AUG2017
over the past week or so i've had extremely itchy skin.  initially, i thought it might be due to nettle stings, as i've been clearing out the hedge line and it was only my arms that were affected.  but when it spread to my legs it was clear that wasn't the case.  having looked on the internet, the most likely cause is some form of deficiency, possibly vitamin B12.  consequently, i've had to take the reluctant decision to supplement.  as such, i've been taking a vitamin B12 supplement since this monday.  i've also ordered some multi-vitamins, as it could be due to some other kind of deficiency.  so much for having a 3 to 5 year vitamin B12 buffer (if, indeed, it is that)!  oh, and my weight has slipped to 58Kg now.  and i need 2 new holes in my belt to get it down to 27".  eek!!!

SUN30JUL2017
my weight is now 59Kg.  this is consistent with last weeks measurement being high, as i suspected.  i'm starting to wonder just how much lower my weight can go before it starts to increase again.  at the moment i'm still seeing about a 1.5Kg per week drop.  i must admit that even i'm beginning to think that maybe i've lost too much weight.  my 30" waist cargo pants are distinctly loose.  and that's with having my belt at 29" too.  i think i'm at most 28" around the waist at the moment, and possibly less.  i'm keeping a very close eye on my food budget, as i know that i'm going over-budget and i quite simply can't afford to do that too often.  i did say that budgeting isn't the way to go fruitarian and it isn't, however, the reality is that i have a very tight budget that i can't easily change.

SUN23JUL2017
my weight is now 61.5 Kg.  i suspect this measurement might be a bit spuriously high, as i got a reading of 60.5Kg but i couldn't reproduce it.  it seems that sometimes my scales don't zero properly.  i've not written more here because this weekend has been particularly taxing in terms of caring for my elderly parents.  the truth here is that i fell asleep whilst trying to do so.

SUN16JUL2017
my weight is 62Kg again.  i'd have expected another 1.5Kg drop, based on passed weeks, however, obviously not.  i'd still say that i'm carrying some fat, however, perhaps that's a consequence of having a diet that's high in avocados.  my life has also been very stressful over the past few days.  consequently, i've not exactly been restraining myself in terms of eating them.  i bought some sweet peppers a few days ago, which made a nice change.  i'm also drinking about 1.5L of freshly squeezed orange juice a day.  so, overall, i think my food consumption is increasing, as might be expected now that i've used up most of my fat reserves.  this is stretching my food budget, which is only £50 per week, even though i buy as much discounted fruit as i can.  i have to admit that any pretensions of being organic have very much succumbed to this reality.  it just isn't possible on such a meager budget.  and i'll just add that my hand fruit press is working well.  i still have my qualms but it's far more efficient than trying to grind the juice out.  i've also had a fairly good look at the modifications that i need to make to the adaptor for my food mixer.  these seem straightforward enough.  it's just a matter of finding the time to do them.  and finally, one of the lemons that i squeezed had a seed in it that appears to be sprouting, so i'm trying to coax that into life.  if i'm successful, i'll plant it in my garden and hope for some lemons!

SUN09JUL2017
my weight is now 62Kg.  this is where i thought it would drop to based on my previous experience of being fruitarian, however, judging by the amount of fat still left on me, i actually think it will drop further still.  i'll guess that i could easily loose another 2Kg yet.  now, i feel that i must emphasis here that weight loss isn't my intention.  it's just something of a side effect.  i'm only really keeping a close eye on it because i don't want it to go too far.  my intention is better overall health.  and, on that subject, i noticed recently that the hearing in my right ear had improved significantly.  both my ear drums are perforated, however, my right ear drum has about a third of the drum itself missing.  this shifts the balance of what i hear significantly to the left.  that shift now appears to have disappeared.  whether the right ear drum has healed over, i can't say but i guess it's possible.  and now to my tale of woe about the fruit press that i recently bought.  this is, or was supposed to be, an attachment to my food mixer.  but, alas, it doesn't.  it turns out that the model of my food mixer is too old and there is, and was, no such attachment ever made available.  to cut a very long story short, i've ended up buying an adaptor, which still doesn't get me where i want but is a step closer.  hopefully, i'll be able to modify said adaptor to actually do the trick here.  strangely enough, my mind is also toying with what modifications i'd need to make to my mincer attachment in order to use it for juicing, after all it has the necessary screw to provide for pressing.  blocking the mincer holes would undoubtedly press the juice out of the fruit.  it's just the juice and pith separation that might be a bit tricky.  and, because of this little fiasco, i've ended up buying a hand operated fruit press too, which works well enough even though i've a few qualms.  it's undoubtedly intended for oranges, rather than lemons, which means that i have to top and tail the lemons in order to get them into the jaws.  and the lever handle is offset and outside the base, which means the top has to be held stable as pressure to the lever handle is applied.  and finally, i've had to grease the rack and pinion, as i was getting swarf off the pinion onto my working top, probably because it's made of relatively soft die cast metal.

SUN02JUL2017
my weight is now 63.5Kg.  i'm expecting it to level off at about 62Kg, so that will probably happen next week.  at the moment my life is unbelievably stressful, mainly with family problems.  i'm finding it very difficult to cope.  everything has become very uncertain indeed.  keeping a journal here just isn't a priority at the moment.  the next couple of weeks will be critical.

SUN25JUN2017
my weight is now 64.5Kg.  somewhat less than i'd anticipated, though there can be a fair bit of variability in weight measurements.  possibly eating less avocadoes has resulted in me burning more fat.  i've also taken to eating cherry tomatoes.  these, i find, are a nice change from sweet fruit.  i don't actually have much of a sweet tooth.  i'm more partial to spicy foods, which are obviously out, given that i'm following a fruitarian diet.  now, i took the plunge a day ago to buy a juicer.  i wanted a hand press, however, i couldn't find one that i felt was suitable.  so, i ended up buying a food mixer attachment, as i already have the food mixer.  i'm not convinced this was the most ecologically sound decision that i've ever made, however, my rationale hinged around wanting to juice the eating apples that i'll have very soon as a result of a fairly productive apple tree in my back garden.  there are a couple of other apple trees that are produce cooking apples.  these are quite useless to me, as they can't be eaten raw as they're much too sour.  so, my intention is to juice the eating apples.  a hand press may have struggled with that.  i'm also intent on using this to juice fresh oranges in order to stop buying pre-squeezed orange juice.  i'll be curious to see if it still has a slight tang to it, which i suspect is coming from the zest of the orange.  i'll avoid squeezing that by just squeezing the orange segments themselves.

FRUITARIANISM - THE PATH TO PARADISE by ANNE OSBORNE (ISBN 978-0-646-50585-5)

this is a really beautiful book that is bursting with the author's infectious enthusiasm for the fruitarian diet.  i particularly liked the chapters on individual fruits, which give the reader the  the opportunity to discover these for themselves.

this book is also very notable for the author's advice on child rearing with a fruitarian diet.  so far, i haven't come across anything remotely similar.  and the illustrations included just add to what is a really lovely ambiance.

i was lucky enough to get my copy directly from the author.  it has to be said that this book is rare and many people that sell second hand books ask silly money for it.  if you can get a copy at a reasonable price, grab it with both hands and don't let it go.