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New week! 18 y
The Plan for the fast & for tomorrow
A new week starts tomorrow. And with it, my *real* fast. What I did last week was merely a preparation for the fast I start tomorrow. During the next 14 days I will have:
-water--namely, Smart Water, which is distilled water with added electrolytes. The best type there is, in my opinion
-E & Selenium probiotic complex (New Chapter brand)--no synthetic stuff here, you get vit. E & Selenium directly from a probiotic complex
-slippery elm bark tea--helps heal psoriasis; probably every other day
-Magnesium Citrate--one 150 mg capsule every day
-vit. C (sodium ascorbate)--approximately 1 ... read more Day 6--evening 18 y
Working out feels good!
Just came back from the gym--and it feels soooo good! I weight trained 20 minutes (I only do 1-2 intense sets for each muscle group, with no rest period), 15 minutes on the treadmill and 50 on the elliptical. I burned about 600 calories (if the machines are right...), plus whatever I burned while weight training.
Exercising is always refreshing to me because in addition to the ”high” it gives me, my mind switches into ”meditation” mode and I find myself pondering the meaning of life, how good it is to give and receive love, how we are all perfect beings, and other such thoughts.
I’m ... read more Day 6 18 y
Decided to accept the Greek restaurant dinner invitation
Ok, have decided to make today a partial fast day and will eat tonight. I got an email from the student council I am on to check if I am going with them for dinner tonight at this Greek restaurant or not. At first I was about to reply and say no, but then I thought better about it. This is the fourth time since school started in September that I would be eating out. Plus it’s a Greek restaurant, they are supposed to have healthy food, and Greek food is very similar to my home country’s cuisine, so it would be a taste of home. Plus, if I choose not to go it would be out of fear that I will ... read more Day 6--gym & Tai Chi 18 y
Day 6--to eat or not to eat
Slept in until 11 am :)
I don’t have that empty feeling I usually had when I didn’t eat anything, so it must be the juice I had last night, as it was quite late (9:30 pm) and I have a slow digestion. I know it’s kind of ridiculous to say the juice is still not well digested after more than 12 hours, but that’s how I feel.
The plan for today is: go to the gym for an hour; clean my room, it’s full of all kinds of papers that need ordering; study for my microeconomics exam next week; write two pages about Tai Chi for my Tai Chi class.
I was checking out the menu for tonight at my din ... read more Slippery Elm Bark for Psoriasis 18 y
I will take slippery elm bark every other day, it helps heal psoriasis
I have read this is very beneficial for psoriasis healing because it helps the digestive track (coats it), and in psoriasis there is usually a problem with the digestive system, and/or leakage of digested matter toxins into the blood (as per Dr. Pagano’s book on psoriasis).
So I will be having slippery elm every other day--1-2 teaspoons with a cup of warm water. It is like porridge, taste is ok. It does contain a few grams of carbs (I read hopinso’s comment about ketosis--thank you), so I hope this won’t hurt the ketosis process too much. Plus I think the slippery elm will make the fast ... read more Day 5--evening 18 y
Day 5 was much better than day 4
So I made it through the day ok. I definitely felt bloated after last night...
Towards the evening an interesting thing happened. I took a nap from 5 until 6:30. Dinner time in the dining halls is between 5 and 7. the college also has a cafe, fast-food style, that is open all the time, and where I ususally get my water--they have Smart Water (which is distilled water enhanced with electrolytes) and I love it. They also have Odwalla juices, which I like as well, they are the best alternative to raw juicing, which I can’t do because I don’t have a juicer and even if I did, I wouldn’t have ... read more Day 5 18 y
Day 5--guilt time...
Woke up at 2:30 pm after stayng up late to write that international finance paper. I’m feeling drowsy right now, probably due to not enough sleep and eating that dinner last night. I’m also experiencing the whole guilt thing that was bound to come up at some point. I had to weigh in this morning to see the ”damage”, and sure enough, up to 148 I was. I know most of that is caused by the bloat the dinner caused me (carbs and all), and right now I just want to go to the gym and exercise it off.
I’m also wondering whether adding a probiotic vit. E supplement would be bad during fasting. It ... read more Fasting For Weight Loss 18 y
Great article about how you can use fasting to "manage" your weight, and how to eat after the fast
By Ron Lagerquist
Clearly, fasting is an effective way to lose unnecessary body fat, but once the fat has melted away restoring a youthful physique, how do we keep it off? Should a fasting regime be practiced to maintain weight loss? The answer is a simple one. Never use fasting as your primary source of keeping weight off. The secret is to learn how to fast healthy and eat healthy. You fast to lose weight, than you eat in a way to keep the weight off. That’s balance. Let’s learn how.
First you must understand when I say weight management I do not mean the endless seesaw actio ... read more The Health Benefits of Water Fasting 18 y
Excellent article which explains what we all want to know: exactly *what* happens in the body during a water fast
By Stephen Harrod Buhner
Fasting is an exceptionally ancient, and powerful, approach to healing many common disease conditions. It allows the body to rest, detoxify, and to heal. During fasting the body moves into the same kind of detoxification cycle that it normally enters during sleep. It uses its energy during a fast, not for digesting food, but for cleansing the body of accumulated toxins and healing any parts of it that are ill. As a fast progresses the body consumes everything that it can that is not essential to bodily functioning. This includes bacteria, viruses, fibroid tumors ... read more Therapeutic Fasting 18 y
This is what I will read every evening for motivation! Especially the "high on hunger" part ;)
by Lonny J. Brown
Although nowadays the common response to illness is usually to ”take something,” it may be advisable to try the opposite. Therapeutic fasting is an excellent self-healing practice. It induces metabolic changes that are inherently cleansing and repairing. The organs empty and rest, conserving energy, promoting the elimination of waste and accumulated toxins, and making cell regeneration much more efficient.
Overeating, lack of fiber, bad food, and not enough exercise result in poor assimilation of nutrients, cell starvation, and an accumulation of bacteria that can e ... read more Dr. Cinque's Facts about Fasting 18 y
Article about the benefits of fasting.
Definition: "Fasting is the complete abstinence from all substances except pure water, in an environment of total rest."
These are some of the benefits of fasting, according to Dr. Ralph Cinque, who has experience with full-time therapeutic fasting supervision since 1976.
Health Benefits of Fasting
1. Fasting initiates rapid weight loss with little or no hunger. Once the ”ketosis” of fasting sets in, it becomes quite easy to go without food. Most people are surprised at how little desire for food they have while fasting.
2. Fasting promotes detoxification. As the body breaks down its fat reserves, it mobilizes and eliminates stored toxins.
3. Fasting gives the digestive system a much-needed rest. After fasting, both digestion and elimination are invigorated.
4. Fasting promotes the resolving of inflammatory processes, including painful inflammat ... read more Benefits of water fasting 18 y
I will post a few articles on water fasting, for self-motivation
What is Fasting?
Fasting is a period of abstinence from all food or specific items. Fluids are consumed in sufficient quantity to satisfy thirst and physiologic requirements. During the absence of food, the body will systematically cleanse itself of everything except vital tissue. Starvation will occur only when the body is forced to use vital tissue to survive. Although protein is being used by the body during the fast, a person fasting even 40 days on water will not suffer a deficiency of protein, vitamins, minerals or fatty acids. In the breakdown of unhealthy cells, all essential subs ... read more Day 4--evening 18 y
Day 4--brigadeiros...
I can’t believe this happened--I ate dinner again today!! It’s the third time already. This is what happened: I came home around 5, after working at my campus job all day. I had to stop at an event of the Portuguese Club, of which I am a member (I want to learn Portuguese). I had to return a DVD to them. They were having a traditional Brazilian dessert: brigadeiros.
I only ate a few, and they were so sweet...After I left the event I immediately drank 10 oz of water, to at least ”dilute” all that sugar in my stomach, because the slower it’s absorbed into the blood the better..After ... read more Day 4--morning 18 y
Day 4--weight loss stats
Yesterday I was feeling very tired and ”low” when I came back from classes, and I thought that it’s more than lack of sleep--that it was also caused by the fast. But then I took a 1-hour nap and felt completely refreshed for the rest of the evening! So I was ”blaming” the fast for nothing lol.
I slept 6 hours and now I have to go to work, I work all day on Fridays at my campus job (career development center, great place). I don’t feel completely rested, I could have used a few momre hours of sleep, but it’s ok. And I woke up without any of thos eheadaches I sometimes get during a fast. ... read more Day 3 18 y
Day 3--nothing but water
So I will consider today day 3--even though I started on Sunday, I ate dinner on Monday and Wednesday, so I will consider Sunday and Tuesday as fast days, which makes today day 3. It would be too disheartening to say today is day 1 after almost 5 days of not eating anything! lol
It’s almost final exams time in the ”college world” and I have a ton of school work to do. For today I had to finish a 6-page paper for my microeconomics class--a business proposal that had to be as real and feasible as possible. My idea was a European foods store. It’s funny that I wrote about this while fastin ... read more My story--part 2 18 y
About my weight problems, hypothyroidism, and my first experiment with raw diets
Ok, so here is the rest of my story.
In addition to my skin problem, from about 13 years old I started to slowly gain weight. Up unti puberty I had been skinny, like most kids (in my country at least). No weight problem at all. I gained probably 1 kg each year (~2 lbs.), so at 19, when I came to study in the US, I weighed 60 kg (132 lbs), at a height of 5’ 5’’. I was not overweight, but I was definitely about 5-6 kg above my ideal weight of 54-55 kg and had self-esteem issues seeing how good-looking my skinny friends were. I did not considered myself ugly, I had always been praised for ... read more My story--part 1 18 y
My long story: how I became interested in natural healing therapies, and how I developed my skin conditions (bumps and psoriasis).
Hello! Thanks for reading my blog. Hope you are having an excellent day!
Now some background info that will help you understand who I am and why I am doing this fast. It is a lot about me, and it is also the first time I ever put my story in writing and in public. I am doing it both for myself, to help sort out my feelings about myself, and for other people who might relate to my story. This is a very detailed and intimate story, and it is long, because I want to bring to light all the feelings that have been sort of covered up as I have never really told anyone the whole story.
I am ... read more |