Kevin Rebooted After He Realized He Spent More Time in the Drive-thru Than His Own Kitchen

Name: Kevin W.
Age: 49
Location: Grafton, Ontario, Canada
Reboot: 28 Days

How did you learn about Reboot with Joe?
I seem to be in the minority, in that I didn’t watch FSND until after I’d already started juicing. Needless to say, watching it on my first weekend gave me the incentive I needed to follow through with the ambitious program I’d designed for myself.

What inspired you to do a Reboot?        
I had a work event, and needed to buy a new pair of dress pants because nothing I owned fit me anymore. I’d grown to hate clothes shopping because I didn’t like how I looked in anything, and so I put it off to the last minute. I had to go to 3 different stores to find something that fit, and ended up with a pair of ”Grandpa Roomy-Bottom” trousers with the patented ”Elasto-Flex Waist for Mature Men”. To add insult to injury, they were pleated, because that’s all they carried in that size. That was the day I realized that I’d been spending more time in the drive-thru than in my own kitchen, and it was time to come up with a plan to learn how to eat better.

How did the experience go for you?
I’m the kind of person that learns by doing, so I came up with a plan to experience all of the healthy eating philosophies I’d heard about, and do the research as I went. I decided I would begin by exercising regularly for 4 weeks, then Reboot for 4 weeks, then eat raw for 4 weeks, then eat vegan for 4 weeks, and finally add locally sourced, organic meat products to my diet for 4 weeks. I figured I’d take the best from each philosophy, custom design my own healthy living philosophy. Today is my first “vegan” day, and I can honestly say that I’ve loved every minute of the experiment so far! The best exercise equipment anyone can get is a Border Collie puppy! We started out walking 3 kilometres every morning, and are now up to about 10k every day – jogging at least 4k of that. Juicing was a breeze for me – although I quickly realized that I’m not a ”recipe” kind of guy, and tended to just make stuff up as I went along. I found it easiest to make 3 quarts of juice every evening – one for dinner that night, one for breakfast and one for lunch the next day. That way I only had to clean up once a day, and there was no rush getting ready for work in the morning. I really made a point of getting lots of kale and spinach into my juices, and ginger, fennel and grapefruit became my favourite ways to make the juices tastier. I also suck at “green juice”. Mine were almost always “brown juices” – because I could never resist adding a bit of this or a bit of that – but once you learn to ignore the colour, it’s all good! When I moved on to the ”raw” phase of my plan, I decided that Mondays and Thursdays (my 2 busiest mornings) would continue to be juice days for me – I make 3 quarts the night before and then I’m good to go!

How much weight did you lose (even if that wasn’t your goal!)?
I’m still a work in progress, and how great I feel is actually more meaningful to me than the weight loss, but I’m still dazzled by how much weight I’ve dropped. I was 240 pounds/109 kg (40” waist) the day of the fat pants incident, and managed to get down to 226 pounds/102.5 kg with exercise and eating better. After 4 weeks of juicing I weighed in at 196 pounds/89 kg, and 4 weeks of juice and raw food diet brought me down to 185 pounds/84 kg (34” waist).

Did you have any notable health or physical improvements?
I’m amazed by how much better I feel and how much more energy I have. My blood pressure is no longer a concern, and my skin just somehow looks clearer and brighter. Is it weird that my eyes seem to have changed colour? I thought they had, but when someone else pointed out that my eyes seemed much darker than they used to be, I had to wonder if they really have changed!

What was the toughest part about the Reboot experience?
I made a couple of really nasty tasting juices, but I forced myself to drink them and carried on. I was never hungry while juice fasting (or while eating raw either, for that matter!), and I guess I was really lucky because apart from a slight headache on the third day, I had no real negative side-effects. Considering how bad my diet was and the amount of coffee I drank every day, I honestly expected some kind of withdrawal symptoms, but I really didn’t have anything worth mentioning.

What habits have you maintained and kept a part of your everyday life?
I’m still not finished the entire experiment in eating, but there are definitely components of the three phases I’ve completed that have become part of my regular schedule: I exercise every single day, I have 2 ”juice days” every week, and even though I’m really excited about the options a vegan diet offers, I’m going to be having at least one raw meal every day.

What is your lasting impression of the Reboot experience?
The experience to date has been positive in every way – in fact, my sister just started following my plan based on the success I’ve enjoyed so far! I’ll have to see what my new eating habits look like at the end of the experiment (and six months from then!), but I’m seriously considering making this an annual exercise – juicing in July, raw in August, vegan in September and being active and exercising all year round!