- Preparing for a Juice Fast by andib
18 y
3,414 2 Messages Shown
Blog: Nature's Sunshine / Clean Start Cleanse
I recall a line from the movie "Beyond Borders"... I didn't really like the movie that much but I recall the line "Did you ever just have the cold?" and it really struck me how different our lives in America must be from most other places in this world. There are so many places in this world where people are still living day to day and their pressing thought is their own survival. It would certainly keep the mind and body active, wouldn't it?
Here in America we are raised to be in complete comfort all the time and if we are not we will run to the nearest doctor to prescribe us the latest 'feel good tonic'. This has been going on for so many years here that we don't even think about it any more. We are gluttonous is every way possible. If we are tired we drug ourselves with sugar and caffeine, or worse, illegal drugs. If we are sick, we send our significant others to the nearest convenience store for a bottle of nyquil so we can drift off into oblivion while our cold runs its 3-day course, if we are hungry we eat loads of carbohydrate-laden, dead and empty food, we saturate ourselves with hours of mind-numbing entertainment from the TV and Video Games. If we are cold or hot we crank up our central air heating and air conditioning units while we sit in our comfortable homes on our cushy couches and complain about the weather.
Stress eats away at our minds and bodies, not because we work too hard, because we don't know how to relax. After a long and boring day's work at a meaningless job that really accomplishes nothing, we go home... plop down in front of the tube with a can'o' budweiser and some chips and vegetate. I'm just as guilty of some or all of it as anybody, anywhere, at any given time, in America (so trust me, I'm not putting anyone down but myself).
My point is this, we are a slave to the whining wants of our body and mind. It's like a spoiled 2 year old. It doesn't really know what it wants - it just wants. and we usually satiate it with the easy thing - a drive thru rather than a healthy meal, a TV sitcom instead of a good book. We are so temperature sensitive from living in our climate controlled boxes that if/when the weather does change dramatically from global warming, as they are predicting it will - and already has, what will become of us?
We've completely confused want with NEED, and that is where I want to start fasting. I want to remind my body that it only WANTS the pizza and beer and chips, etc, etc, etc. But I can CHOOSE to give it what it needs instead. It's the most incredible feeling to be strong enough to acknowledge those wants and yet choose not to comply with the temper tantrum of the 2-year old body. I quit smoking a year and a half ago and I remember the 2-year old stomping its foot and demanding that I give it what it wants but I chose not to. Right now I haven't had a sip of soda for 7 days and the 2-year old is really stomping its feet but I won't give in. I want self-control, I want to choose rather than be a slave to my childish wants and desires.
After my fast, I intend to dramatically change my diet. I haven't decided exactly how yet, I don't think I can go completely vegetarian - I think I will still choose to eat fish, I am researching some different diets. I don't actually want to be on a "diet" in the sense of the word for losing weight, I just will choose not to eat certain things that are bad for me and I need to set some clear limits with myself as to what those things will be.
This is getting long, so I'll sign off for now. Any help, advice, or experience anyone has to offer is welcome here. I am reading all of your fasting blogs too.
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andib
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- "Did you ever just have the cold?" by andib
18 y
2,271
I should clarify, in case you haven't seen the movie and therefore have no idea what this is about, - it is a line from the movie "Beyond Borders" - They are in Ethiopia, treating sick and dying children and he asks her "what do you do when you get a cold?" she replies "take cold medicine" he says "Did you ever just have the cold?" she says no.
It's a strong point he makes. There are people all over the world who are very used to suffering and we Americans are so entrenched in our "feel good" mentality that we will not let ourselves suffer. Not through a 3-day cold or a relationship breakup or a boring evening, we medicate, we eat, we make ourselves "feel better" no matter what, at the expense of our lives - in the end all those toxins swimming inside will kill us - or cause us much more suffering necessitating much more drugging.
it's a vicious cycle
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andib
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