Re: Day 24 of my water fast

Hi nothingbetter,

what a tremendous achievement! i'm so looking forward to hearing the changes this has done to your normal health after the re-feed.

you wrote: 'I feel like when I resume eating, I can resume with self control and eat for nutrition and not for taste.'

i know that feeling and the amazing sense of independence from food - even had to fight back the occasional fluff of superiority at this revelation on my 14th day of distilled water only - most amusing.

but beware.

the present level of fasting neurotransmitters and hormones are doing all the talking at the moment, helped by a dormant desire memories. its when everything returns to normal levels that you will know for sure whether this new found freedom can be maintained.

there is a hunger hormone called ghrelin (think gremlin hehe ;-). it reactivates when you eat again. its released from 2 places; the upper fundus of the stomach and the vesicles of their brain neurons. its a form of growth hormone so it is an ancient v-e-r-y hard to resist program. at the moment its in abeyance, easy peazy. it works in synergy with serotonin, dopamine and leptin and therefore influences thinking. all these appetite motivators and modifiers are snoozing at the moment (with one eye half open ;-). when they re-awaken it will be like stargate locking in, you'll be thrown into another world *IF* you don't hang on for dear life to what has sustained you these past weeks, your *purest intentions* for the health of your body. if you can't resist their powerful pull, then all your unswerving determination will be washed away by a torrent of hormones and neurotransmitters ...and we shall be seeing you here again one day to begin the drama all over again.

now, i have discovered that any dissociation from the senses allows the old faulty psychological habits to creep back in much easier. in one of your sentences i spied one. its embedded in how you will now "eat for nutrition and not for taste". i too used to think taste was one of the culprits but it isn't, on the contrary, and now my overeating is diminishing more each day (and i had it real BAD).

i have discovered dissociation causes distortion and so i have allowed taste to return to the healthy role it is meant to play in normal satiation. i now welcome the sense of taste with open arms each time i eat an by giving myself this permission to *get enough* taste from my 2300 nutritious cals each day the nagging need to overeat is (gradually ;-) fading. it also helps to only eat what you really really like. french women know this well.

i've been learning that if i surrender to the intelligence of the body (instead of the psyche - which got me into this mess) something utterly marvelous happens. i come to my senses! :-) and the only thing that robs me of this exquisite ability is the normal tendency for the mind to day dream. thats when i lose contact with (dissociate from) the magical sensations of the senses. so i am learning a form of reverse meditation.

if i do allow day dreaming to dissociate me from the body then the psyche turns the senses into something less intense, less enchanting, less beneficial, like making the taste of food an emotional comforter (which i wouldn't need if i hadn't lost the plot) or an enemy for the psyche to play battle games with.

so i'm learning to 'stubbornly' keep returning attention to the sense-ible sense experiences of the healthy body and when it works its as tho every molecule comes ALIVE and the brains natural awareness of this actual world starts marveling at what the senses can 'actually' experience and how innately intelligent they are.

may be heaven is in being the wonders of the earthly body.

bon appetite