Monday, February 4, 2008

Day thirtyfive

Tough day today. I am in the process of getting a vasectomy (at the age of 53, more children being very inappropriate). This killed the vast majority of today, waiting in the waiting rooms of UNC Hospital, being poked, prodded, bombarded with radiation, and having my bodily fluids collected and analyzed.

In the process, I waited from 9 a.m. until almost 1 p.m., and became ravenously hungry. I had previously consumed a blended salad with banana, kiwi, blueberries, spinach, ground flaxseed and soymilk. (I am presently consuming another one of these.) My wife kindly met me for lunch at a local Chinese place called Red Lotus. Red Lotus is here.

I know you are now reacting with total indignation. What could I be thinking? Chinese food? It can't be good.

Fortunately, Red Lotus is different, and fairly unique, in this regard. We both had the red Thai curry with tofu. This is a completely vegan meal, and aside from some added salt is also completely ETL compliant. It comes with brown rice and a vegan wonton soup. The only part of the meal that might be considered non ETL compliant would be the soup which contains pasta. Aside from that, this meal was excellent.

Symptom wise, my arthritis has almost completely resolved. I have very little pain in my body. My wedding ring, which I could not even wear at the beginning of the year, is now very loose.

I still have a lot of flaking and scaling on the skin though. I am hopeful that the fast at the end of this week will peel off another layer.

In that regard, my plans are to begin fasting on Thursday night at midnight (Friday morning in other words), and continue until midnight Tuesday night (Wednesday morning). That's 5 days or 120 hours, midnight to midnight. During this period, as usual, I will consume zero calorie clear liquids. As a new procedure I will introduce a refeeding period of 1/2 the length of the fast, rounded off to the day. In this case, I will refeed for 2 days. During this period, I will consume only fruit and high-moisture content vegetables. On day 1 of refeeding, for example, I will eat watermelon to start, followed by steamed zucchini 2 hours later, and so on. By day 3, I will reintroduce beans and grains.

After this, I will wait 4 weeks and then consider another fast of 6 days. Depending on what happens on this fast.

The idea is to gradual acclimate the body to fasting. My philosophy on fasting is a little different. I intend to maintain as close as possible to my normal activities while fasting. I have been told to only rest, but I find that my energy level is quite high, and there is no reason not to continue to do something. Otherwise, I simply get bored out of my skull. If I feel like it, I will exercise lightly, for example. Yoga would certainly be a possibility, as well as light cardio. Something like walking. I will of course refrain from extremely strenuous activities. I will also push a lot of water. I like the combination of seltzer or mineral water with lemon juice. This gives me enough of a mouth feel and taste that I don't get completely deprived, and also keeps a good urine flow going.

I have completely read the book The China Study. A very eye-opening book. More on this later.

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