From Telethon to Triathlon

I was just on the phone with my oldest son in Austin, discussing family plans. During the conversation, I mentioned I was getting ready to do the Incurables Program. My son was familiar enough with it from when I had done it before, but since he and his wife are runners now, very into fitness, and are mostly high raw vegan, he asked some intelligent questions. He became very supportive and encouraging.

Let me address some possible concerns.

The high-intensity juice fast and therapeutic herbal program that I am customizing now and posting here only lasts about 60 days. For 60 days, I will not be eating any solid food, so that my body can consume about 4-5000 calories per day, but it does not have to use energy to digest this food. Digestion and absorption will be easy. The goal of the first 60 days is to do a massive detox. I will consume high quality protein during this fast. Most of the protein will come through the 3-4 Superfood shakes, which can contain ground flax seeds and a couple of Brazil nuts.

The focus of the first 60 days is to rid my body of toxins as fast as possible through daily colon cleansing, 12 liver flushes, 4 kidney flushes, 2 kidney stone/bad calcium flushes, daily coffee enemas and a high enema every other day, and a continual blood detox. Another focus is getting the circulation going- just getting blood to the area- through 8 Cold Sheet Treatments, daily hot and cold showers, daily skin brushing, daily massage and foot reflexology, and daily exercise. Finally we have the herbal program focusing on tissue and nerve regeneration.

The exercise I do for the first 60 days won't be much. First of all, I can't move very well as some of my muscles are quite weak. I will attempt yoga stretching and body weight bearing exercises. I will push a walker around my neighborhood and the local track. When I did the IP the first time, I couldn't walk from my front door to the curb in my suburban neighborhood due to the pain in my legs. By the end of 30 days, I was walking nearly a mile. At the beginning of the IP last time, I couldn't do a curl with my biceps, even with no weights. At the end of 30 days I could do three and I could see my biceps working in there.

I have decided that my goal- that long term dream- is to do a triathlon. This is absolutely pushing the limits of my faith in God and myself. But I have two men, at least, with muscular dystrophy who have done exactly this. One is Ryan Levinson, who has FSHD, and one is Ken Mierke, who has peroneal muscular atrophy. These guys just didn't let that diagnosis stop them, and I believe this is exactly what Dr. Schulze is talking about.

Read a bit of Ken Mierke's story:

"As a high school student, I weighed 230 pounds (at 5’8”) and had a 43 inch waist. I played on the varsity football team, but couldn’t jog once around the field with the team for warm-up before practice without stopping. A quarter mile was just too far. I slept endlessly and was exhausted all the time. For some reason girls weren’t asking me for dates. I tried every diet I could find, mostly with great short term success, but the weight always came back. I came from an overweight family. I thought that I just had to accept that this was a part of me. I was kind, intelligent, and successful in many areas of my life, but fat. Lots of good, but that one part hurt so deeply and that negativity even carried over into the good parts.

During my college years, I decided that there had to be a better way. I studied exercise physiology, nutrition, biology, and psychology, partly as a career path, but even more so to figure out how I could lose weight and keep it off. That was more important to me than a career. I lost weight slowly, but have gotten leaner than I ever thought possible. I now race at 155 pounds.

Shortly after I started to lose weight, I decided that I was going to do a triathlon. This wasn’t a crazy event like an Ironman, but a regular (Olympic) distance triathlon. When I excitedly told my friends, all but one laughed. They weren’t trying to be mean or to mock me, but they sincerely thought I must be joking. I have a mild form of Muscular Dystrophy and none of them could picture an obese Jerry’s Kid finishing a triathlon. I couldn’t jog slowly once around a high school track, but I was going to do a triathlon? They underestimated the human capacity for change. While those reactions from my friends cut to my soul, they also provided inspiration. I was going to show them. I did. I did it."

Ken Mierke is one of the most famous running/triathlon coaches out there.

http://www.fitness-concepts.com/index_files/Page620.htm


Once I finish the initial detox, which, I assume, my body will let me know when that is, I will begin to build lean muscle mass and gain strength. I believe I will remain raw vegan for quite some time, but I will be adding "enough" protein to my diet in the form of pea protein, nuts, seeds, coconuts, avocadoes, etc.

It will be hard. I have to get out there on that track and walk around the entire 1/4 mile when my legs are absolutely killing me and my muscles are stiff with cold weather. I've got to swim, and I hate swimming, but it's some of the best upper arm exercises out there. I have to drink nasty tasting stuff and smell like garlic. I have to give myself enemas and convince my kids to help me with the Cold Sheet Treatments.

But is it worth it? Absolutely. There is one key word. One word that unlocks to door to healing muscular dystrophy.

Start.

Big hugs,

Donna




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