Swan Song, or, "I'm So Glad We Had This Time Together..."

Well fellow lefties, this is it. Tomorrow later afternoon I sit in traffic for 2 hours to make my way back to foggy and hopefully not looted Oakland (the basketball team won the championship and when Oakland parties, let's just say that it can become a free for all). I will be glad to have my own bed again (although I can't remember how clean I left the house...). Don't get me wrong - this Sleep Number bed has been fabulous. I wonder if I'll be lonely when I get home, just like my kids who spent a month a summer camp and came home and complained the house was too quiet and there was nothing to do. After being surrounded by people these last two weeks, I figure my house will feel a little big.

No big lecture notes today - went to Katie Mae's cooking demo in the morning and took a very long walk downtown to buy some salt free spice with another jailbird. It was lovely to escape and lovely to have a change in scenery.

My hives are pretty bad and the docs and I are speculating why. We are doing a leaky gut test as well as a blood test to see if maybe I am allergic to any contaminates on food or just around. Spending money like it is going out of style, but worth it, I think, to rule out more causes.

I will miss some of the people here and hope we keep and touch and know that the interest will wane in a while. Very interesting bunch of characters, all on their own health journeys.

Ate a stupidly big breakfast (pic below) and an equally stupidly big lunch (pic below)




shouldn't have eaten so much but it was good and I was actually hungry. I practiced eating slowly and really chewing my food thoroughly. I usually inhale my food so this is a new and difficult thing for me. And when I get home I will try to stop eating standing up in the kitchen, and will put everything more than a portion in containers in the fridge before I sit down to eat. I think that will help with overeating.

Was reminded of some other lessons.

* You know the old one, don't judge a book by it's cover? It really is true - I hope I retain that one.

* Everyone has a story and each one's story is interesting, not only to him/her, but also to me.

* Learning to really listen, not just fake it, is one of the most important things ever.

* Sleeping with a stuffed animal and homemade quilt can be more important than you know.

* This one sounds like some Hallmark card - a smile, a touch on the arm, a nod when someone is talking, compassion and empathy with your eyes - these are some of the greatest gifts you can get or give. I burst into tears while on the receiving end of that these last week. Kindness like that kills me.

Thinking of going to TN and have questions? Feel free to PM me and I am happy to set up a time to chat on the phone with you. Very worthwhile experience on many levels.

Thanks for hanging in there with me - was nice to see your Likes and Comments.

Over and Out!

Susan

P.S. I hope I reported the lectures accurately and apologize if I got things wrong!!!

Not Quite What I Expected, and Let's Klap for Dr. Klaper

Yesterday I had 4 fruit and celery juices. Today I was allowed salad without dressing for all meals as well as raw fruit but no citrus. I had gotten quite ecstatic about my VFB before coming here, often starting with a huge salad every morning. Somehow this didn't do it for me. Remember that my taste buds are reset. Some of the salad I ate tasted bitter to me - couldn't eat the cucumbers because they kept a bit of peel on them. Mostly ate the jicama. Tomatoes didn't taste good. I pretty much choked it all down without an appetite. Isn't that weird? I'll have to ask the intern about that tomorrow. Lunch was the same - I ate because it was important but I wasn't hungry and didn't love the food. So weird. For dinner I made a salad and had some steamed veggies. I included some steamed purslane (maybe an acquired taste) with steamed asparagus (that was yummy) and I ate some brussels sprouts that were fine. Please understand, I am not criticizing the food - but I guess it will take a while before it all tastes good to me. I had a couple of pieces of fruit - the peach was good, the plum too bitter. Weird, huh. And not quite what I expected.

Skipped yoga this morning - wasn't motivated - slept miserably last night. Went to Dr. Klaper's class which was wonderful, as always. He answer the questions that were posed and here are my notes. Let me preface them by saying that Dr. K is fond of people not eating breakfast - waiting till noon and not having VFB unless you have them late, but ONLY for weight loss. You can read the details below.

Happy reading!!


Dr. Klaper - 2nd lecture

Fasting is a profound state of the body. We are the only animals that can live off fat stores - chimps can't do it. Probably an ancient mechanism due to people not always having sufficient food stores. After days of not eating, the body has to become very efficient with the stores it has. We know that wounds heal faster during a fast - same with infections.

We see remarkable benefits from fasting. In America, because we are rich and foolish enough to have at our disposal this food stream that has been adulterated, it hurts us. Use a car as an example. What if you put diesel fuel in your non-diesel car - what happens? Your car has developed a disease from the wrong fuel/food. Diesel is oily - so is our food. Whereas the mechanic can fix the car, our doctors just give us drugs for symptoms. Fasting fixes most of these problem, partly because we are stopping the toxins and the body can clean itself up.

The fast is a blip in your life. It depends upon what you do after the fast as to what effect the fast will have had. Fasting is a mid-course correction to get you back on track. So most of the benefit is from giving the body a break from the toxins.

Everything changes on a fast. The microbes in the gut, chemistry of all secretions, tears - all change. Microbes in the gut change hourly. They put out molecules and dopamine and other things so that your thoughts can change your microbes and your microbes change your thoughts. Foods that we eat change the food that we eat.

Parasites live at the grace of microbes around them - it is surrounded by billions of microbes. You can starve out the parasites and so a fast can get rid of the parasites by removing its food source. So not irrational to get on a good probiotic after a fast - VSLs - about an hour before you eat so they can get through the acid, or late evening. You want a non-dairy probiotic. Also, chew the food up really really well. There is air in the food - and when you are eating, if you swallow the air, you will be burping or farting and make you gloated. Not so much from the beans. So slow down your eating and chew really well.

We have to mechanically break down the cell walls with our teeth. An added benefit to chewing well is that you force the air out of the food. Put the fork down!!!!

First 48-72 hours of a fast, you are burning off glycogen throughout your body. After that you release ketones into your body. The body does't want the blood sugar to go too low. You are also burning a little bit of protein from blood and maybe 5 grams a day from muscle - turns it into glucose. You aren't losing muscle tissue, and as soon as you start eating, you get it right back. So don't let that deter you from doing a fast.

What does happen is that in muscles you have mitochondria - a long fast (more than 2 weeks) will have more of a muscle effects. It is a part of the mitochondria that causes it and it all comes right back. From a 40 day fast you need to assume it will take 3-4 months to get back to where you started.

Livers do extremely well during fasts - no liver damage.

Skin tone will sometimes decrease because majority of weight lost in the early days of the fat is water. This is water out of the muscle. As you start to eat again, water returns to the tissue. If under the skin you had a lot of fat, and if you do a long fast, that fat gets burned, the skin won't be stretched as tight. In some people the skin will be looser. To fix, eat good food and do normal exercise, get Vit C into your body, lots of watery food likes soups, and let the skin get fixed naturally over time. For some people who lost boatloads of weight, after a year, then go see a plastic surgeon, not that big a deal. But usually the skin tightens up after a fast.

Are there specific foods that build muscle?? Elephants don't need protein shakes. See you tube on Frank Medrano - fabulously ripped and vegan. People say you need 100 grams per day. No one needs this and it will destroy your kidneys. The protein is in the beans, lentils, chickpeas. Each day have 1-1.5 cups of legumes. That will give you 30-40 grams of protein, and when you add the other foods - potatoes, veggies, etc. - you'll end up with 75 grams which is more than enough.

When a woman is pregnant there is lots of estrogen in the bloodstream. After the baby she often has hair loss when the estrogen recedes. While late in pregnancy, her hair is gorgeous. The hair follicles eventually regrow. Thyroid levels can cause hair loss and take iodine. Have sea veggies in your salad twice a week - Wakame and Arame (green seaweed). Make sure they are organic - you don't want those that are harvested from open ocean. Don't eat Hijiki. Iodine tablets have too much iodine. Over age 60 a lot of women will lose hair because of the loss of estrogen.

Detox - in our fat tissues we all have remnant molecules of any crap we have EVER eaten - mostly from restaurants. These are contaminants. If they build up to high levels, they interfere with chemical reactions in your cells. A fast is like taking your cells to your car wash, running pure water through your cells. It cleans you on a cellular level and are released through the bile or the urine. The food will also detox you - it is high water food that you run through your tissues and it will detox you. You finally break through the other side and wind up cleaner. We breathe them in, we get them in drinking water. So just the wonderful food will help.

Intermittent fasting - Dr. Longo has found that with his rats with breast cancer, he gave them all chemo. He fasted the rats for 5 days before the did the chemo and those rats did much better. Fasting really bumps up the anti-cancer fighting mechanism in your body. 2 ways to do this: can fast for 48 hours on juices. Gives your intestinal track a rest and you detox.

The one thing that fasting can't do is really help with weight loss - weight loss happens based on the food that you eat after the fast. But while you sleep, the body is burning carbs and fat 50-50 mix. As soon as you get up in the morning and you have oatmeal or toast, the body starts burning it instead of fat. So breakfast is irrational for weight loss. You want to keep the mechanism going. Breakfast is NOT the most important meal of the day. Wait till you get hungry and that's when to start eating. You will then keep burning fat until you eat. If you wait to eat until noon every day, you can burn an extra 3-400 calories each day. They also say to stop eating by 6-7 pm and then be done! Takes about 4 hours for the insulin to work and then you will be back in fat burning mode. VFB won't give you the same benefits - will slow down the weight loss a little.

If you are not hungry, don't eat, even if you are thin - just wait!!!

When you get up in the morning you have plenty of glycogen from meals 2 days ago to go work out, do yoga, take a walk, do laundry. You don't need to replace this glycogen first thing in the morning. Eat 10 potatoes a day - great for you!

Soy problems are a fraud - paid by the meat industry who felt threatened. Soy products are protective. Buy organic. You don't have to eat soy. As for GMO, don't eat edamame unless it is organic because we don't want our bodies keeping the chemicals. Not such a big deal to eat non-GMO tofu, but only buy organic edamame.

Metabolism - great after a fast for a few weeks. What matters is the food you eat after the fast.

Ayurveda - lovely theory about body type - there is some truth in it. Includes milk products but lots of good common sense principles, but Klaper objects to the dairy in the plan.

Gluten? If you have Hashimotos, it appears that gluten has leaked out of the blood stream and react with your blood tissue so it is pretty standand to eliminate gluten for them.

That's All Folks!!!

Food, Glorious Food... Sort of.

Ok - this post will be a little disjointed as I am staring it in the morning so as not to miss the flavor (get it? flavor?) of my day. They just brought me my first juice which is the real start of re-feeding. Room service - I'm still in bed at 8:40 in the morning. Beautiful pink juice, 12 ounces with a straw. I took a sip. Thought I would gag. Don't get me wrong, it is really delicious, but my taste buds haven't had anything for more than a week. I know it has celery juice in it - I can taste that and really like it. But maybe it is mixed with strawberries or watermelon (yes, I love those, too) and it is so so so so sweet that I'm not sure I can choke it down. But as I drank it, it became more and more palatable till I started to enjoy it. Can't wait until I can chew something! Yesterday I saw a huge box of gorgeous tomatoes in the kitchen and fantasized about sticking my face in it and gorging. Better than fantasizing about Cheeze-its! (my downfall)

Went to a cooking demo by Cathy Fisher this morning. Some of you may follow her online. She is delightful. Still can't taste the food but I can maybe learn something. She made Pizza Pasta and a to-die-for cabbage salad with chickpeas. Again, one of these days I will post the recipes I got here. They serve almost no pasta here at True North - it is a rare treat. I haven't eaten pasta in forever. Here they used a gluten free ancient grains pasta. Cathy makes the food look beautiful with seemingly no effort. I am so bummed that I won't be here long enough for another cooking demo so I can taste her food. :(

Second juice of the day - celery and apple. SO. DAMN. GOOD!!!! Heaven. And so sad when I finish each one. Wonder what time I get my next one...

Later... I've been out all afternoon and MISSED my 3 pm juice! Found it when I got back to my room, and moments later they brought me my 5 pm juice. I'll try not to guzzle.

Went to a fitness lecture by Dr. Isabeau which was interesting. Skip the recap below if you aren't into that kind of thing.

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Dr. Isabeau

Exercise - if you have an old injury, if exercise isn't being used as a first line of action, you are not getting what the science tells us is the right kind of care. Additional things may be needed, but exercise is felt to be one of the most potent tools for chronic injuries. Different from acute (new) problems. We call something chronic when you have had it for a couple of months. Acute is within a few days.

Doctors prescribe things they believe that will turn out to be wrong over time. The understanding through science keeps changing. Doctors have to be willing to change their advice as they learn more.

Exercise is really good medicine. There is an overall mix of activities that we should do each week (but this list is not customized - it's an overview of what we should aim for.)

Exercise while fasting - none. You can stroll around but nothing that feels demanding, that makes you out of breath, that makes you dizzy, that makes you work muscles hard. You can stretch on the floor, but no elliptical and no weights. With up to a 3 day fast, it's okay to exercise, but probably tone it down. Short/intermittent fasts combined with exercise can be very beneficial. As soon as you are eating solid food, you should do some exercise every day of varied kinds. Very strong argument to exercise in most cases. Yoga, taking a 30 minute walk, lifting weight, riding your bike.

Sometimes our ability to exercise is related to what we did yesterday.

It will take about the length of the duration of the fast to get back to normal. So I fasted for 8 days, and I should expect that it will take me about 8 days to get back to normal.

New topics in exercise - Interesting issues in sequences in exercise. Not just aerobic, not just stretching, we need a mix of it all. So in what order? Most applies to going to the gym. Interesting studies on this. Answer is that it doesn't matter that much, however there is a best practice. At a gym, people usually do cardio and strength training. Select first the one you feel you are the most deficient in, the one you aren't as good at, the one you don't like the most. You won't have much time or motivation to do the harder things if we do the stuff we really like first. When people are good at everything, it doesn't matter on the order unless you are a performance athlete. You can also mix it up. Don't have to do the same thing, same order, each time you workout.

In the course of a typical week, all of the elements need to be part of your life. You get to play with those ingredients throughout the week. You need some kind of exercise daily to get in your minimal dose. If you want to build muscle, don't do strength training on consecutive days for the same muscles. Work for 2-3 sessions a week. Benefits of exercise only develop during the recovery period.

Running over walking? The more vigorous our exercise, the more benefit you get. Running or brisk walking are better than strolling. There is benefit to window shopping. But we can't think that window shopping makes us adequately fit.

Exercise and aging? We think and studies are strongly saying that exercise is great brain medicine. Best brain fertilizer. What we do or don't do acts as brain fertilizers or pruners. We want fertilization, not pruning. Brains get thicker and bigger or smaller with holes. We want dense, thick, heavy brains. In brain scans doctors can see the impact of all kinds of things on the brain. With exercise, you can see more connections and pathways in the brain. You also see new brain cells grow in a portion of the brain, tied into emotion, executive function, appetite!!! This is different from what we used to think.

Two forms of exercise that seem to be the most potent brain fertilizers, although everything helps. Number one - high intensity aerobic activity that gets you out of breath - that makes you gassed. This is for a short period at intervals. Sudden and marked increase of these growth inducing chemicals in the brain. They are formed outside the brain (BDNF). Really developed in the muscles - it can cross the brain barrier - not many chemicals can do that. Low intensity is also good, but not as effective.

I should do this on my rebounder every couple of days!!!

Other activities are things we find challenging to our balance and patterns. Examples would be learning a new dance step, new aerobic workout, weight lifting with heavy loads. Other examples are walking or running on rough terrain.
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Let's see - other thrilling things. Had lovely, intellectual, two-sided interesting conversations with some folks today. Probably because I have some new glucose in my system I was up for it. Very nice people here - I will be sorry to leave them.

Did at least 20 laps around the courtyard today - maybe more. Very nice to be moving again. Thinking of taking a shower - you know you ought to when you can smell yourself! (TMI???)

Lastly, I didn't sleep well last night but I kept coming up with curriculum ideas and tweaks, so as soon as I got up this morning I wrote them all down. I worked for at 4 hours today. Someone said my creativity was helped along by the fast - I'll take that explanation.

Wish we could all give AJ a huge hug - not sure it would really help, but isn't it awful that we all feel so helpless to comfort her???? Hope everyone had a good lefty day!

Dr. Goldhamer talks for 2+ hours!!! Tushie in distress, but worth it!

No post yesterday - nothing to report. I laid low the whole day as it was a tough day for me. I got to have a little broth tonight which was wonderful. Evidently I get 4 veggies juices tomorrow. Took a yoga class today that was on the 2nd floor - just about died getting up there.

Anyway, I know what you are really interested in is Dr. G, so without further ado, here are my highlights. This is long so feel free to give up at any time.

~ high blood pressure is actually a disease of inflammation - so different from what my doctor said (we don't know). What works to fix this? weight loss, veggie high fiber diet, alcohol reduction, exercise, sodium reduction. A vegan low fat, low salt diet and exercise combined, and the best is water only fasting.

~ Every hospital in the country uses fasting. Medicare has a program to cover fasting for rapid weight loss for surgery.

~ Fasting vs starving: When you have depleted your reserves and breakdown organs. You have to have adequate reserves to do fasting. Even a skinny guy can fast for 70 days. Women are fat storing devices and have estrogen which stores fat. Males lose weight much easier - they lost 5% more weight. Important when people fast that they rest -- otherwise you use too much glucose.

~ Stages of fasting
1. Gastrointestinal - 6 hours
2. Glycogenolysis - 24-48 hours
3. Gluconeogenisis - 14 days
4. Ketosis - from 72 hours on

~ By end of 2nd week of fasting, majority of energy is derived from metabolis of ketone bodies. (yeah, I took notes fast, not sure I get all of this now)

~ Induces metabolic and hormonal changes. You will live longer on a water fast than on a white bread fast.

~ Juice fasting means you are ingesting 600 calories of sugar - reduced caloric intake - not as effective as water fasting by a long shot. But you might experience a little ketosis. You burn fat but the juice provides enough calories that you don't have to restrict you energy. You will lose the same number of calories as with water fasting. That's because of metabolism changes with water fasting which don't happen with juice fasting. Juice fasting takes longer.

~ You can't tell what the response to fasting will be - sometimes takes 2-3 fasts.

~ Weight loss averages one pound per day. Everyone that fasts loses weight. Getting rid of sodium in the body - fasting is fabulous for this. Detoxification - so many contaminants, most of which come from food, usually animal foods. Many accumulate over your lifetime. Fasting can eliminate them. Toxins produced by the body - intermediate effects of living, like things like cholesterol. Fasting detoxifies the body faster than anything. Regulated by the body very effectively.

~ Prolonged fasting can rejuvenate old HSC from the toxic effects of chemotherapy. It can profoundly reverse aging of the immune system and enhance cancer treatment. HSC = hematopoietic stem cells. It might be that if you fast a cancer patient first, and then give chemotherapy, the treatment is much more effective. You got a protective effect because the cancer cells are more vulnerable and the healthy cells are protected. In all likelihood, you don't need the chemo after this, but that study will never get funded. This was with people fasting for 4 days. The medical establishment considers that long term fasting. TN will be collaborating on a study using patients here to find out more information.

~ All dreadful diseases - you manage them, you don't get cured, even after fasting - it you start eating wrong again, boom!

~ Cancer cells can't adapt as well as regular cells to fasting. Fasting alone is often not sufficient to resolve cancer - probably chemo afterwards or surgery or radiation help afterwards.

~ There is a fuel created when you fast - provides antioxidant and rejuvenative benefits enhancing antiviral immunity. Great impact on immune system.

~ Fasting can increase life span - in rodents it protects against diabetes, cancer, heart disease. In humans it reduces obesity, hypertension, asthma and arthritis. It delays aging.

~ Enzymes are induced by fasting - they mobilize fat, carb and protein as well as the detoxification process.

~ Every time you fast you are pounding these systems into actions. You continue to detox even after a fast. These enzymes get the rotten things out of your body.

~ When people exercise regularly their nervous cells are protected. Same impact from fasting. BDNF - a chemical. We always want to be increasing BDNF. It can regular appetite and helps people post-fasting not overeat. You recalibrate. After a fast it lasts, but we don't know for how long. With these tests they only fast people for 4 days so we don't know much.

~ We get insulin resistance from fasting. In Diabetes, you have plenty of insulin but it doesn't work. What causes this? The diet that makes you fat causes insulin resistance. The resistance goes away as you lose weight even thought you are still fat.

~ Juvenile onset is different - your immune system destroyed your own cells, usually caused by cow milk because of genetic vulnerability. With kids never exposed to cow's milk you have very little incidence of that. No medication that reduces insulin resistance - have to use exercise and fasting.

~ Fasting increases Leptin, insulin sensitivity, cellular stress resistance, cellular stress adaptation, increases autophagy (where blood cells eat the bad stuff), normalizes gut microbiota and stimulates B-cell immunity, and reverses all major abnormalities of metabolic syndrome.

~ Gut leakage - We have a tunnel through our body starting with mouth and ending with anus. Food goes through your body. We have a screen in our gut - microbial membrane mesh that is supposed to be small enough to keep stuff out of your body. If the mesh becomes damaged and inflamed by free-radicals (caused by things like smoking and alcohol, eating heated fats, fried foods, sugar and oils in baked goods, etc.), then you get leakage.

~ We have a system that does things automatically - we want to balance out this system - lots of things do this - meditation, yoga, psychology, etc. Water fasting has great impact on this - like a reboot.

~ Great impact of fasting is taste neuroadaptation - the good food tastes better.

~ TN Navigator - will be doing 2 types of studies, including Lupus, to show changes. How can you get people to stay healthy as opposed to just get healthy. They are bringing in all kinds of new equipment to do non-invasive testing and will follow the results with tons of patients. They also want to see what kind of support is needed to keep people engaged. And they want to find the most likely people to be successful. They will enter people into TN Nav studies for 20 years. Looking at long term success. Got some pretty serious funding for this and hired a new employee to do this. And a new website going up written for laypeople on fasting. Will also post some webcams and information - will go live soon - mostly free, some paid services. Also acquired more buildings and developing a fitness park and meditation garden. Jeff Novick will be working with them.

Those were the highlights I manages to get down. He talked at length about their plans for the future, about what they know and don't know and how they will be finding out.

Tomorrow? Cooking demo with Katie Mae in the morning and lecture with Dr. Isabeau in the afternoon. Hoping I can go to both with my JUICE!!! How y'all doing? Left of the red line? Stay strong my friends!!!

Misery Loves Company

Ok, I admit it, yuck! Had a miserable night last night. Hives are back, pounding heart, endless hot flashes. So discouraged. Doc came in this morning and told me my blood sugar was low so they pricked my finger (hard to get blood out of a skinny starving corpse) and it was a little better. Blood pressure also isn't stellar. I kvetched - after 4.5 years of being plant based, why am I not having better results? He said because I am detoxing from the other decades of crap I lived on. Good point.

On the bright side, I have lost 10 pounds that I certainly didn't need to lose quite so fast. Was down to 121.4 this morning and I'm 5'7" which is pretty damned svelte, if I do say so myself. I'll post a pic of me today below which I will not sub in as my profile pic because I am in love with the hippo. I wonder if some magazine called something like Hives Today or Dermatological Quandaries needs a skinny model. Nausea is bad and having trouble drinking as much water as I need.

Saw Doug Lisle this morning who spoke for about 1.75 hours and only stopped because they had to set up for lunch. LUNCH!!! I can barely remember lunch. How do people do this for 40 days?? Anyway, back to Dr. Lisle. He talked about some things that I wasn't interested in (people asked some strange questions) but here are some of my takeaways:

~ We are systematically designed to eat 3-5 pounds of food a day. When you choose calorie rich foods, you will automatically overeat. We want to eat well so that we can live until we die - high functioning.

~ Human motivation and behavior change - if you set the bar too high, you trap the human motivational system into a sabotage loop. Watch the video Continuum of Evil. Sometimes you can't take change like this too fast and you have to screw up - this will make you stronger in the long run. Don't strive for perfect days.

~How to make partners vegan? DO NOT tell them that they should do this for their health!!! Tell them this is something that is making sense to you now and you are going to see how it goes. After you've been doing this for years, the partner will see how well you look, how good you feel, and might slowly come along. Confrontation does not work. Going slow is the fastest way to get there. Anything else sets up a defense mechanism.

~ You can only regulate WHAT you eat, not HOW MUCH you eat. Yes, we can regulate quantity for a short period of time, but not permanently. You can get people to overeat by giving them calorie rich food, and likewise to under eat, but having them eat raw foods. But ultimately you are best eating the food you were designed for.

~ Long lecture on anxiety that I loved. Very complicated. Take away? When you are having an anxiety attack, instead of doing the commonly suggested deep breathing, tense up your large muscles and hold your breath as long as you can. Then let the breath go and relax. Do it several more times. This will drain off adrenaline which will end the attack. All your systems are screaming for you to run from the perceived danger. But in all likelihood, there isn't any, so try this. (I will, I will!!!)

~Remember that the center of our diet is eating the starch. Fuhrman's way of eating mostly veggies and salads gets people antsy and kind of hungry. They then drift toward concentrated foods and overeat -nuts, crackers, etc. Instead, eat those starches.

~People should work on their environments, not on themselves. Dr Lisle says nothing will get him to cook - he just won't do it. So he changed his environment. He hired a college cook to spend 5 hours a week cooking in his house. He has no idea what he will come home to each night so it's a great surprise. He couldn't change himself, so he changed his environment. Can't get yourself to exercise? Hire a personal trainer to knock on your door at 7:30 several mornings a week. (Clearly I must be made of money, or I used to be made of money before I came here. Now I'm broke!)

~ You don't have to be perfect to do well. Every time you do something right it's a victory. Do something wrong? Not the end of the world. Healthy and unhealthy behaviors go in streaks (YES, THIS IS ME!!!!) Our lives are run by memory circuits. Memories can be stimulated by proximity and triggers. If you eat a Snicker's bar today, you are more likely to have another tomorrow (YES!) because they are hot in your brain. The next day, if you didn't eat one, you are slightly less susceptible. But the memories are still close at hand, just a little less hot. The hardest part is the day after the candy - you just have to grit your teeth and not do it so the urge lessens as the memory lessens. Perfection is not the goal.

There was lots more but like the other guys, he talks fast and he is so damned smart and knows everything on everything (talked about physics and chemistry and biology and everything in between!) so there was only so much I could digest with my foggy brain and write down. I'm going to watch his video on the Continuum of Evil. If I find the answers to happiness and health and maybe romance, I'll let you know.

BTW, one of the interns came in to check on me mid-day (off schedule) because she knew I wasn't feeling well. I live alone so don't have anyone to take care of me, so acts like this just make me fahrklempt (on the verge of tears) because of the kindness. Lovely people they have here!

Ok - here is my pic.
In the mirror, looking at myself, I look really skinny. This pic doesn't look so bad to me. And no Spanx!!!

This afternoon went to a lecture by a naturopath, Dr. Veress. Her lecture was very medical and technical and a bit hard for me as a layperson to understand. But I took copious notes anyway. It was all about fasting and what happens to your body. Maybe I'll post it in the files in case someone is interested. Not positive I got it all down right.

Anyway, that's my story and I'm sticking with it. This is long enough. Hoping I feel less nauseated tomorrow. Gotta get down another 2-3 glasses of water - ugh!!!

Today's Fantasy

Before I get to my fantasy, a little recap of my day. Felt lousy when first getting moving, but I had blood tests at 8:10 so I had to get moving which was good. Maybe get the results tomorrow. Went to a restorative yoga class at 10 which was lovely. One of my primary complaints is that my back feels really tight from all the sitting around and hunching over my computer or book. I can't get the kinks out but that class felt good. Took a delightful shower, dried my hair, put a little make up on - looked more human that I feel! I have to ask a friend to take a pic of me - at the moment I am so skinny that I don't recognize my body. I'll post it when I get around to it - I stink at selfies.

The highlight today was getting to attend a Chef Bravo cooking demonstration. For those of you who have his book, Bravo, you know that the recipes are often long and complicated. So I tend to drool over the pics and descriptions but I don't cook from it. Good news! He is working on a new book with recipes of 5 ingredients and just a few steps. The recipes that he demonstrated today were all quite simple and fast to put together. That was a great surprise. The aromas from the food were delicious. He made Blueberry and Lime Truffles, Heirloom Tomato Soup (eaten hot or cold), Curried Beet Salad, and Apple-Mustard Dressing. People who got to taste were loving it all.

Chef Bravo recommended Chili God's Hot sauces - there is a red and a green. They aren't on Amazon and they aren't sold anywhere near me. But I guess the little market next door carries them so I may be stocking up. The green sauce is completely clean and the red sauce only has a small amount of sugar - both salt free! I found their website but it is sorely lacking - don't know if you can order from them.

Anyway, Chef Bravo was delightful and I loved the presentation and can't wait to eat some of the food. And I'm definitely going to buy his new cookbook when it comes out.

Nothing else going on today. But I thought I would post some pics of some of the food for you to enjoy. BTW, when I get time and energy I will write up the recipes that I am collecting and see if I can upload them to our files section so everyone can enjoy. Stay strong and to the LOTRL friends!

What an interesting journey this life is

Thought I would start out by sharing some pics of the courtyard. There are roses and irises and herbs growing all over the place. I did some laps last night because I just needed to be moving. I walked incredibly slowly but I picked some basil and rosemary and crushed them and smelled them as I walked. It was lovely.

The last two pics are of something called a Garden Tower and if you have endless funds you can buy the set up kit for about $500. You can see chard and fennel and tons of different plants growing in it. It is incredibly cool and made me want to break off some of the chard and kale and stuff my face. Alas, at the moment I have way too much self control but that didn't stop me from wanting it!

This morning was rough like last morning. Lots of pounding heartbeats which I am told is normal. I also asked about electrolytes and was told that while they do go down, our bodies have plenty stored to care for us. They do bloodwork every week here and that is one of the things they check for.

Having a reason to get out of bed is good (besides having to pee and get more water). This morning I went to Cathy Fisher's cooking demonstration. She made oven fries and homemade ketchup - that took no time at all!! And also a creamy broccoli soup that she likes to leave chunky. It looked wonderful. I have never made broccoli soup but now I am inspired. Cathy is a dear person - I have to remember that when I buy something that she has on her Amazon store that I should do it through her site. If you don't know it, here is the link - http://www.straightupfood.com/blog/. Many of her recipes are very simple - just food thrown together, which I think is great for us on this journey. And they are all UWL compliant!!!

I'm kind of hungry today - maybe it's the cooking demo or just the normal progression of this process. The desire to eat only lasts a minute or two, but it's there.

One of the cool things about being here is hearing the stories of the other people. I talked to one man today who claims that he has the cure for cancer - he owns a biotech company and is utterly convinced that he has the cure. Hopes to start clinical trials next February. That would be amazing!!! Everyone talks about how much they will follow this when they get home. I have talked to very few people who plan on being completely compliant. I can't judge them but going through this discomfort and then going back to eating meat? I couldn't do that!!!

Discovered they have bottled fizzy water in the kitchen and that I can go in and get some. Ramses Bravo told me where they were and that I can help myself. I wanted to kiss his feet and have him autograph my bottle, but you will all be glad to know that I just said thanks and comported myself with dignity. :)

They are doing a bunch of blood tests on me tomorrow which will cost me a small fortune. Sigh. I'll let you know how I do. Tune in tomorrow for another episode of As the Water Churns....