Iron Rules & Flexibility

Date:   2/13/2016 3:48:55 AM ( 8 y ago)

Ah... my blog... its been awhile...

Day 20 today of phase 2 - so I've been on this fast for a total of 41 days now, not bad and I'm not stopping any time soon.

My last entry had me eating a little for a few days around my period, and going back to the full fast - that was day 14, I felt a bit crap day 15 after drinking a juice that I think took on the very raidshy flavor of the glass jar I put it in, which had housed a green juice made with some old leftover bok choy that imparted said flavor - it was not good and I felt sick after (not off just ugh bad flavor) and ate a few spoons of avacado and rice - literally like 3 spoons full with a tiny 1/8th of an avacado - that helped, day 16 I ate a small amount again - a little cauliflour and another few spoons of avacado and rice, and day 17 & 18 less, having only a few spoonfulls of rice each day, I started getting headaches on the eve of day 17 and they lasted for 4 days - so I did a bit of research and it looked like I was deficient in Iron after a heavy period while fasting - so day 19 I made some mince - ground beef with a little seasoning and corn and onion and ate a little on toast - headaches gone, today I haven't had any food - I have some of the leftover ground beef in the fridge in tupperware - I think I'll continue to eat it every other day to up my iron and when its gone if I feel better just stay on liquids. Today was an all liquid day, and I've been counting my caloric intake along with this fast lately - again of the mind to keep it low and to alternate some very low days with days that creep up a little higher - having said that, all days are very low even compared to a trad diet - generally I'm consuming somewhere between 450 cals and 900 cals - the beef day was a 1200 day but one of the only ones I've had other than the days I was in the city and ate the chicken and rice. So the last half of phase 2 has had me taking a little food - though its been very small, I haven't had any problems with consuming that and small amounts are all I would want to consume - my ground beef meal consisted of one think slice of wholegrain toast and maybe 1/2 cup or 3/4 cup of the mince.

So I learned something about iron on this fast, and having learned that - I think in future, I will try to have some red meat around that time of the month anyway - I'm not doing this to make myself ill, and when I start getting headaches like that its my body telling me to listen. My mother gave me some advice (the 1950's gen women seem to be a lot more educated sometimes on what someone should have to keep healthy as much as I don't always subscribe to that viewpoint, she had something worthwhile this time :) She told me about the benefits of eating liver - something I never do unless its a pate and that has become really rare just through living with a vegetarian - she told me Goose liver was the highest in iron, & I know from some medical tests I had done last year my iron has been kind of low in general as I don't eat much meat these days - very little red meat, so I think I might order some delicacy like Foie Gras pate and when I go back to eating try and have a serve on bread once a week - I'm sure I'd enjoy that and it would get my iron soaring up again. I have been having a lot of spinach in my green juices, but she pointed out that we don't absorb the iron in vegetable sources very well which explains the headaches - looking online, I found sites which also verified that info - well I'm born in the year of the Tiger, I guess I need to remember that :) Grrr!

& where am I going from here? Ah - I seem to have reached a bit of a floaty place in my fasting goals - as I've progressed into phase 2, deeper and deeper in this fast of 2016, I've had things come up, some days I started getting too floaty - when I say floaty, what I mean by this is that I became low energy, and my mind became unclear, my short term memory was acting funny and I think when you hit that phase in the fast you should have some thicker drinks for a couple days or eat something small etc - then I had the headaches - --- in light of all this, I don't feel so confidant that I'll manage with strict liquids for any length of time and I'm taking it now day by day - seeing how I am. Today was great, it's 8:30 now, I've had only liquids - no headaches, my energy has been really solid and I don't feel floaty - I've had a great deep yoga session and a bath & just rocking it. I might just try and go alt days for the next few - tomorrow have a slice of toast with the beef mixture again then the day after another day like today and repeat that - than if I'm feeling good, I'd like to try another string of liquid days but I'll go with my feeling. At any rate, I'm in no mind to stop the fast completely - even on the days I've had some solids, I've been mainly drinking fresh juices and water and tea, etc. I finished the part of a bottle of milk thistle pills an old tenant had left behind a few days ago and started taking one Amla 25 pill each morning with my charcoal drink and dandelion t - its a tibetan liver cleansing formula, I've got a pkt of 30 so I'm going to take one each morning till they're gone to help the cleanse along.

It's good not to feel floaty or headachy today - Its good to feel really solid and strong. Strangely I weighed in 1 LB heavier today than I did last time I weighed myself which was Phase 2: Day 7 - I have shrunk though so figure that one out (lol evil scales) my clothes are looser and I can see a little less in the mirror - I haven't been doing any weight training or much yoga though I had a good session today so I can't really account for it being muscle gain due to activity - I guess it could be that there is a little more matter in the intestinal tract - overall though I would say I've continued to lose - not at a very fast rate now, even with the food I should be losing as my daily caloric intake is nowhere near maintenance... Again, none of this means much, I've seen similar things in past fasts - the thing to do is to keep going, working with my capacity - I wanted to do at least 3 phases of 21 days, so tomorrow is the end of phase 2 and the following day I'll begin the 3rd and perhaps the final phase of 21.

On a spiritual note, I'm reading a lot of Rumi - bought myself some great books, amongst which was a big 3 volume set of the complete Mathnawi translated - reading this a little everyday and its helping turn my mind to the sacred and to contemplating how to live more in my wisdom and not be constantly pulled and provoked into reaction by hostile people and our often heavily armored environment. I started a journal to that effect today, with the goal of finding ways to be more skillful, more mindful. I want to turn my attention more and more to being the person I feel I truly am, to finding the skill and patience, humility and inner strength to avoid conflicts and tangles. I live with someone with a great deal of childhood trauma and anxiety disorder, instead of feeling upset about how difficult this is, I'm going to make a strong aspiration to use it as an opportunity to further my progress by using the obstacles as fuel for great resolve and the creation of this skill set. It's not with ease I contemplate this, but with a passionate wish to drive out those things in myself that let me be snared time and again into that kind of unbalanced frustration, anger and conflict. Practicing silence helps - and there are other tools in my tool kit - mantras, humor, finding ways to sidestep and pacify - I can't talk about all of them - I do feel if I can grow in that direction that it is a great growth towards realizing something of my own ideal. Its difficult but very important to me, something I think the journal can help me to focus on rather than being caught unaware and unprepared for these situations until I can develop better skills in the face of them.

A little of my deeper thoughts - More soon,
may the universe flow with your practice
and may the road rise up to meet you
good luck all you readers, in what you're doing :)



 

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