Day fortytwo

Today I weigh 232.0, a weight loss of 1.8 pound from yesterday. My waist is 45.5 inches, a loss of 1/2 inch.

I am extremely flaky and stupid right now. My emotional maturity is very low. I cannot seem to form sentences very well. I am retyping a lot for example.

This will be my last short term fast. Next time I fast, it will be the real deal. I have dropped some weight and made some progress. But I need to do the whole enchilada to see the results I need. Further, it is possible that going to a residential fasting center may be the best approach. That way I can fast in a supported environment without being a burden to anyone else.

I have investigated Alan Goldhamer's fasting clinic in California, which is the only surviving fasting center that I know of. (Not really true, but I do not like the look of the others I have found on the web. Let's say his is the only one that I trust.) The costs are modest. You need to pay a $500 admission fee, and then the cost is about $130 per day. Since this is physician supervised, it would be covered under insurance, or through my FSA. I could fast for about 2 weeks for around $2,500.

I will investigate this further, and report back here what I decide to do. Ruth is willing to help me fast here at home (although that is a significant burden to her) but I am definitely comfortable here. At a minimum, I am discovering that I will need to take the time completely off. Working while fasting just does not work. You need to focus on the work of fasting, not on something stressful.

Symptom wise, I am totally going nuts. My skin is extremely flaky right now. I am having tons of itching. I feel like bugs are crawling all over my body. My arthritis is way down though. That has been the main effect so far. Arthritis is very much reduced.

My plan was to get my blood drawn today. However, Ruth has asked me to refeed a day early on this fast as she has a special surprise for me for Valentines day (which is Thursday) and will need for me to be "at full strength". Given that that sounds like great fun, I am strongly encouraged to do this. I have agreed to start refeeding tonight at 12:20 a.m. Given that, getting my blood drawn is probably a waste of time. If Dr. Sharp told me to refeed, I would already be ready to do that.

I will go down to the health club and sit in the sauna a while, so that I can calm down my skin. My son will need to go with me, in case I pass out. I am very faint. Walking for any distance causes me to have big white brightly-lit areas in my central vision, and I become very dizzy. I have almost passed out three times in the past 24 hours. Not good. So I need my son, who is very strong, to help me in case I pass out in the sauna.

Having said that, if I do not scale off my skin I will go completely nuts. As I sit here, I want to claw my skin off.

Of course, yoga is completely out of the question. I could not do the standing series at all. I would definitely pass out. I frequently become faint while doing yoga anyway. In the state that I am now in, that would be extremely stupid. I am not even going to try.

So my updated plan is to refeed starting tonight at 12:20 a.m. I will start out with high moisture fruit like watermelon, mango, cantaloupe, honeydew, and the like. I will add steamed zucchini and summer squash on the second feeding. Then I will introduce higher fiber content vegetables like broccoli and brussel sprouts. All prepared simply by steaming. Nothing raw, and nothing with any added oil or spices. I will work on that later.

Second day I will begin to add salad greens and raw vegetables, continuing to eat fruit. By 48 hours from when I started, I will be back to eating nuts, whole grains, and legumes. Those will be the last things I add back in.

I will of course keep you up to date on my progress.