Day thirtyone

A full month was passed last night at midnight. This is surely a milestone.

I was 240.4 this morning. I reached a new waist of 46 inches.

I did not eat breakfast this morning. This is rare for me, but Dr. Sharp has put me on a protocol which requires me to take a supplement 45 minutes before eating. I got kind of a late start this morning nutritionally, so by the time I was ready to eat it was almost time for lunch.

In that regard, I had lunch with Ray at Whole Foods. This consisted of many roasted vegetables, pineapple, brown rice, and chickpeas.

Bringing you up-to-date on last night, I had dinner with my wife Ruth and my daughter Jeanae at a place called Town Hall Grill in Southern Village. This is a classic vegan diet war story. I went into this restaurant with great trepidation. It is not regarded as the most healthy of places. The clientele is largely sports-oriented folks. They have a special on beer on UNC game nights. Their normal fare is burgers and fries. Lots of pizza and hot wings as well. A sports bar in other words.

I took a look at their menu and noticed a lot of healthy ingredients in many dishes. Not any single dish was very healthy. But assembling the pieces would work.

I worked with the server, saying "I want a salad with field greens, roasted bell peppers, granny smith apples, tomato, and a balsamic vinaigrette." This was from other dishes on the menu. I made up this salad in other words. Similarly, I asked for roasted vegetables (not using butter as the oil) and a side of brown beans.

All this worked. I got a healthy meal. It was fairly pricey (I think I spent about $15, including my drink), but it worked. I was able to eat a healthy vegan meal in this otherwise unhealthy place.

Admittedly I have not attempted this in McDonald's, Wendy's, etc. I have not darkened the door of a place like that in years.

Later on, Ruth and I had fruit, consisting of pears, apples, and a blood orange.

After lunch today, I shared a blended salad with Ruth consisting of strawberry, cherries, banana, flaxseed, frozen spinach, and flaxseed.

I am presently on a con call. When this is complete, I plan to finish whatever work related email I need to get done. Then Ruth and I will go to yoga tonight, followed by dinner somewhere.

As I think I have already said on this blog, I am planning to do a 5 day fast from February 8 to 12. More on that later.

Day thirty begins

Bringing you up-to-speed on the health diary. Yesterday, I went to the office, worked out, did not do my expense reports. Bummer.

Had an interesting conversation with my boss. He is also having some health challenges. It will be cool if he gives the program a try. I hope he does.

I did 30 minutes on a Precor. Light cardio workout in other words. Then came home after work and went to a school-related event with my daughter. Later we came home and I made dinner.

This was a somewhat successful dinner, but there are some things that could be improved.

First, my son had criticized me for making my food too consistent. Granted, I caught him making a meal out of hamburger helper the other night. Not exactly vegan. But still, I took the comment to heart. So I decided to break out somewhat.

My friend Ray had made a soy chicken pizza. I decided to try the soy chicken product. (Ray's dish can be seen here.) I got inspired by this recipe, I guess, so I got my own soy chicken and tried to make a spaghetti dish. I also picked up some brown rice and spinach pasta in the form of spaghetti.

The sauce was a whole onion, five or six cloves of garlic, and fresh sage, rosemary, and thyme. Sauted in a little olive oil until the onion was soft. Added a whole fresh tomato chopped fine, half a yellow bell pepper, two cans of organic no salt added stewed tomatos and a small can of tomato paste (not strictly ETL compliant because of added sugar; I need to find an alternative to this). Finally, I added two packages of soychicken. Simmer until done, about 30 minutes.

Everything was fine except the soy chicken. It had a funny sort of tangy flavor to it. I thought it was OK, but my wife absolutely hated it.

The pasta was nice though. Boiled up just like normal spaghetti.

This dish seemed to make me kind of itchy too. Not sure on that one. I loved the sauce. My wife suggested a nice addition: pineapples. I will try that next time, omitting the soy chicken this time.

Today, I have had a blended salad for breakfast and am making some soup for lunch. Basically, this is a blended soup consisting of the leftover adzuki bean soup I had made last week. I blended it and added a container of Imagine low sodium vegetable broth. It is now heating in the crock pot.

Jeanae fainted three times this morning. We are trying to get her to a doctor. Not sure what is going on with this kid.

More later.

Day twentynine continued

Lunch with the Cisco guys was cool. For some reason these guys love me. I need to figure out how to replicate this experience with other customers. They are completely gaga over the talk I gave there a few weeks ago. Still talking about how this was the most useful lunch and learn at Cisco -- ever. Weird but very cool.

For lunch we went to Doce. I have spoken of this restaurant before. It is one of a wave of new, healthy fast food restaurants that I see cropping up. Doc Greens and Green Tango are in the same genre.

As folks become more educated about the health advantages of vegetarian eating, I expect that there will be more and more places like this, replacing the ubiquitous McDonalds, Wendys, Taco Bell, Hardys, Burger King, and the like, all of which I regard as anathema. I would rather die than eat in one of those places. It has been years since I set foot in any of these very questionable establishments.

Basically, I regard them as in the same league as your local strip club. Sleaze and grease are similar commodities in my book.

Those who own them are worthy of our condemnation. They are contributing to the decline of our society. They must die and they will.

Along with many of their customers.

At any rate, for lunch I had black bean and corn salad, a large green salad with romaine, melon, tomato, cucumber and golden raisins with balsamic vinaigrette, roasted vegetables and greeen beans. A very healthy and satisfying lunch.

I intend to do a light workout today. I must file my expense reports. I will face this. I hate it more than anything I can think of. I would far rather get my teeth drilled than do my expense reports. But whatever. It must be done and I will do it.

Exercise first. Then work. Yeah, that's it.

Oh, and one more thing. I started reading the section of The China Study by T. Collin Campbell that discusses why we aren't hearing more about this form of diet and how it affects your health. This is a very annoying thing to read, believe me.

It is exactly as if there were a nefarious conspiracy by the drug and food industries to suppress the information. The practical impact is identical. The difference, though, is that this activity is being conducted in full view and is perfectly legal.

For example, in 1976 Sen George McGovern conducted a series of hearings to determine the recommendations of the US government regarding diet and nutrition. The end result of these hearings was a report recommending that folks increase their consumption of fruits and vegetables and limit their consumption of animal products.

Pandemonium ensued. The report was eventually withdrawn. Sen. McGovern and 5 other US senators lost their seats in the next election as a result of intense lobbying on the part of the food industry.

A few years later in 1980, a report by a National Academy of Sciences committee labeled the McGovern report as being as fraudulent and fallacious as the treatment of cancer with Laetrile.

Hmmmmm.

The fox is definitely in charge of the hen house. The US dietary recommendations currently recommend daily consumption of dairy products and meat. These are part of the major food groups you absolutely need to eat each and every day.

Everyone knows about the studies on diet and nutrition proving the efficacy of vegan and vegetarian dieting for health, but decide to ignore these inconvenient facts. All in the name of profit.

In the process, as I have pointed out before, the trillion dollar pharmaceutical industry reaps huge profits selling us lifestyle drugs to treat the host of health issues that inevitably result from these dietary recommendations.

I will keep reading. My next books are the Ornish tomes on reversing heart disease and diet. I will let you know when I get to that.

More later.

Day twentynine begins

Cool stuff is happening.

My weight today is 238.6. This indicates that I am in fact losing weight. Despite the fact that I am basically eating like a pig. And having a lot of fun doing it.

My waist is still 47 inches, though. Apparently, I am losing weight in other areas than my waist. That's kind of a bummer, but my son, who has trained as a sports trainer, told me that most folks lose intra-abdominal fat last. That's because it is the stuff your body most wants to hold onto.

Of course, that's the stuff with the greatest health impacts too. Kind of perverse.

Whatever. I'm losing weight. I am definitely not losing muscle. Therefore I am losing fat. It can't hide forever.

After the Blue Corn Cafe yesterday, Ruth and I attended Bikram. Another awesome class. I worked very hard in this class.

After that, I went to my Doctor's appointment last night. Thank goodness Dr. Sharp is open late. Otherwise, I couldn't fit it in. Too much stuff going on.

As I wrote previously, I am strongly incented financilly to work with Dr. Sharp instead of Dr. F. While Dr. F. is the originator of this approach to diet and nutrition (standing on the shoulders of others, of course, like Dean Ornish, Nathan Pritikin, etc.), he is hideously expensive, and his services are not covered under insurance. My cost to do the program would be at least a thousand dollars, straight from my pocket. I can do the same thing with Dr. Sharp for a minor personal expense.

The other issue is one of scalability. If it is true that this approach to diet and nutrition is in fact the cure for all known human diseases (at least the diseases of affluence that are the plague of this century for Americans), then more and more folks need to know about it. How will they find out? One obvious pathway is through their local physician.

As an alternative practitioner, Dr. Sharp is obviously batting for the same team. His clinic, Plum Spring Clinic, is a leader in this area in treating disease in an alternative manner. Working with me, Dr. Sharp will be able to see the results of using this approach to nutrition. If it works, which seems likely, that would be great for everyone. This same model, reproduced a thousand times in a thousand different locations all over the country, is how this practice could become much more common.

Dr. F. does not seem to appreciate this reading the discussion forums on his web site. He reacts with great skepticism and suspicion when one of his members indicates that they intend to work with another physician. Yet he has a chapter in the Fasting for Health book which covers the technical details of supervising fasts, and is intended to be read by health practitioners. I must admit I find this bewildering.

The bottom line is that Dr. F. is no longer responding to me. Instead, Dr. Sharp has agreed to help me. I have a plan to fast again in about 1 1/2 weeks, starting at midnight Thursday night and ending at midnight the following Tuesday. That's five days or 120 hours. I will have a blood draw on Monday to determine what my electrolytes are doing. If my potassium is low, I will refeed immediately. This will be my first fast with physician supervision.

Dr. Sharp also diagnosed a yeast and protozoa infection in the small intestine, which is apparent from my tests run on 12/12/07. He indicated it is possible that this has resolved due to my dietary changes, but it is unlikely. We could treat this with a pharmaceutical like nystatin, but he prefers to use a gentler approach. He prescribed oil of oregano 45 minutes before eating, accompanied by warm water and magnesium. Basically, he is using this combination as a snowplow to move these organisms out of the small intestine prior to my introducing food into the system.

I started this program this morning, and will advise you of how this is going. I am also continuing to take the other supplements Dr. Sharp prescribed, i.e. vitamins B and D, selenium and a vegan omega 3 supplement.

Symptom wise, last night was better, I did sleep soundly for at least part of the night. I have some itching in the crotch area. I am somewhat scaly.

I have a lunch meeting at Cisco I must prepare for. More later

Day twentyeight continued

Today Ruth and I had lunch at Blue Corn Cafe. I have talked about this place in this blog. As usual, this place did not disappoint.

We both had the sweet potato and black bean stew. I have raved about this before. An awesome vegan dish.

This time I had one spinach and one roasted veggie enchilada, both with red sauce. All vegan. All very light. I added some salad greens, omitted the white rice and added two kinds of beans. What they call refried beans are really pintos. They are vegan and have no added fat. The other beans are the black beans. Both are exceptional.

Blue Corn Cafe deserves consideration by anyone who wishes to dine in a casual atmosphere at modest cost while eating very healthy. It can be found here.

More later.

Day twentyeight begins

I had an extremely rough night last night.

I tried something my friend Jodi suggested: A skin lotion called Curel Natural Healing. This had an odd effect.

First, it made my skin kind of sticky. Second it made it seem like it was sealed off. Like it was not breathing.

The most important effect, though, was that it made the itching stop.

Now that may sound like a good thing. Here's the rub, though. I had general, overall itching. This could be compared to the sound of a fan in a room which drowns out other sounds. Since the fan's noise is pretty constant, it can be ignored. Eventually, you come to regard it as part of the background.

If you turn off the fan, you hear every little sound. The creaking of the house as it settles seems painfully loud. You wake up every few minutes.

This is what I experienced with itching. The sensation of a part of my body needing to be scratched became much more pronounced. As a result, I was up pretty much all night long.

Bummer. Not sure what to do about this. My wife thinks I should go back to using a topical steroid for now. I have Dr. F.'s permission to do this. I may resort to that tonight. I cannot handle two sleepless nights in a row.

Diet wise, I had a blended salad with spinach, blueberries, cherries, banana, ground flaxseed and soymilk. I also had a small bowl of granola (admittedly not completely ETL compliant, due to a bit of added sugar) earlier.

My wife and I are planning to have lunch at Blue Corn Cafe. I will report on that later.

I am also facing some work challenges. My assistant is in India, many hours out-of-sync with me in terms of time zone. There are things we need to get done.

More later.

Day twentyseven continued

OK, just kidding about only one post. I should point out that I weighed myself this morning and weighed in at 240.4 pounds. That's actually really good news. I was beginning to think I am gaining weight. Not so. This is probably a reasonable weight from the fast. I have not gotten down to the approximately 238 pounds from right after the fast, but some regaining is normal. You become somewhat dehydrated while fasting. You regain this water weight when you begin refeeding.

Bottom line is that I am still losing weight. I just need to keep going. Tomorrow is four weeks and 2/3 of the way through the initial six week period that I set when I started this process. I have lost 18.5 pounds in four weeks. That's over 4.5 pounds per week. Pretty cool.

My long term plan is to continue the diet for another 2 weeks. During that period I should continue to drop weight. At that time, I will kick out another relatively short-term fast, possibly for 4 or 5 days.

In the meantime, I am feeling stronger. My workout today was completely awesome. I can tell that my body is responding to exercise much better than it used to when I was eating meat. I am getting a lot more benefit from the exercise. I think the yoga is part of that as well. My body is more open. My posture is better. I am very alert and aware of myself and my surroundings.

More later.

Day twentyseven

This is probably the only post I will get to do today, it being Sunday and a very busy day. Bringing you up to date, I did go to Bikram yesterday -- sort of. I went to the noon class which is Naeda's daughter Alyssa. This is not a typical Bikram class. Compared to Naeda's class, it is much, much easier. I still got a good sweat. Alyssa is more of a typical yoga instructor. Bikram yoga is a very demanding form of yoga, athletically. Her yoga was relaxed, laid back, slow and a very nice change-of-pace from the normal Bikram fare.

Afterwards, I had lunch at Whole Foods consisting of a variety of tofu, tempeh and seitan dishes, steamed broccoli, brown rice, chickpeas and the like.

I then came home and crashed. When Ruth came home, she decide to take me out to eat at Nana's of Durham, one of our favorite restaurants. I have described their vegan fare before in this blog, and as usual it was excellent.

We arose this morning and I had some fruit (a banana and half a blood orange). For lunch we went to The Loop in Chapel Hill which was kind of sketchy. I had a couscous veggie salad which was OK, but not great. Later, Jon and I went to the gym and worked out.

I then made dinner. I have been working on an adzuki bean dish all weekend. This was made as follows:

2 pounds of adzuki beans from the bulk section of Whole Foods.
2 entire containers of Imagine low sodium vegetable broth.
4 carrots chopped into 1 inch lengths.
1 entire onion chopped into large pieces
5 cloves of garlic crushed
3 entire ears of corn, with the kernels cut off
2 Tbsp Braggs Liquid Aminos
3 Tbsp garam masala
3 Tbsp cumin

Put the whole thing in a crock pot and set it to high. Let it simmer for a few hours, stirring occasionally.

I simply turn it off at night and turn it on again in the morning. I add liquid as necessary (more broth in my case). It gets better day by day.

I combined this with roasted vegetables (corn, asparagus, broccoli, and shitake mushroom). These were prepared in the same manner as yesterday. See that blog for more information. I also made a big salad with romaine lettuce, black seedless grapes, blood orange, asian pear, tomato, and red bell pepper.

Here is a photo of what the dish ended up looking like:



It was, needless to say, very tasty.

I am presently very slightly itchy and have a bit of dry skin. I am still having some scaling, but the psoriasis is not bothering me much.

My plan is to help Jeanae with her homework and relax for the rest of tonight. Tomorrow I have some work I need to get done for my job. I also have a Doctor's appointment tomorrow with Dr. Sharp. I will let you know how that goes.

More later.

Day twentysix begins

Last night Ruth and I went to Ray and Debby's for dinner and such. I brought a roasted vegetable dish consisting of eggplant, onion, asparagus and corn. This dish can be seen as a side on Ray's vegetarian cooking blog.

Making this dish is extremely simple. Cut up the eggplant into 1 inch cubes. Cut the onion into large chunks. Cut the corn into 1 inch long sections. Cut the woody ends off of the asparagus. Place everything into a large bowl.

Obtain (if you can) the bag of roasting herbs from Trader Joe's. Otherwise, obtain fresh oregano, sage, rosemary and thyme. Put about 2 cups of these herbs (picked off the woody stems) into a blender or food processor with about 1 Tbsp of olive oil and a couple of tablespoons of garlic (we use organic in the jar) and a few tablespoons of balsamic vinegar. Blend until a thick paste is formed. Add to the vegetables and stir with a wooden spoon until the vegetables are thoroughly coated. Pour the coated vegetables into a large roasting pan and roast in a 400 degree oven for about half an hour until the vegetables are tender.

The eggplant is particularly choice. For variations, you could add portabella mushrooms, zucchini squash, broccoli or pretty much any such vegetable.

We ate the dinner at Ray's house last night. I also had half a large apple and almond butter. I ate half of the muffin, which I regret. As a result, the psoriasis kicked back up. I have a lot of itching and discomfort this morning. Also, my weight is 244.4, up slightly from yesterday. Possibly my weight will decline a bit if I go to the bathroom later.

Ruth and I are sharing a blended salad with peaches, strawberries, blackberries, banana, soymilk, spinach and ground flaxseed.

My original plan was to go to Bikram this morning but Ruth does not have to go into work until noon, so I would miss out on being with her this morning. So instead I will go to the gym while she is working. Too cold to ride the bike today. But I definitely need some exercise today. Maybe Jon is available.

More later.

Day twentyfive continued

My weight is still 242.6. My waist is still 47.

At least I am not gaining.

I am presently consuming a large salad, left overs from last night. See that post for details on that meal. I am also having an apple with almond butter.

I am making a dish for the dinner at Ray and Debby's house tonight. This is an adzuki bean with mushrooms and various other vegetables. It is looking good so far. My oven does not work, bummer. I was going to roast some vegetables as well, but may not be able to pull that off.

Symptom wise, my skin is very soft and pliable. I have very little pain in my body. My energy level is great. I am a bit tired from Bikram yesterday, and I am definitely not working out today. Aside from that, not too bad.

My plan for this weekend is to continue to diet in the strictest manner possible. Nothing from an animal will pass my lips. Everything I eat will be a whole food, plant based product. As much fresh fruits and vegetables as possible. I will attend Bikram tomorrow, getting Jeanae to go with me if possible.

More later.

Day twentyfive begins

Slept like a baby last night. Had some kind of meaningful dream which hovers on the edge of memory. Fragments only can I remember.

Oh, well.

This morning I am having a blended salad consisting of banana, strawberries, blackberries, peaches, spinach, ground flaxseed and soymilk.

I will not work out today. Between Bikram on Tuesday, cardio on Wednesday, and Bikram on Thursday, I am physically tired. I need a rest day. I will either bike or do yoga tomorrow depending on the weather and my daughter. She is getting interested in yoga and may want to go to the class tomorrow morning.

I have not weighed today. I would say my diet yesterday was moderate. I did not overeat, neither was I hungry. That is definitely a sustainable diet for me. Be interesting to see where my weight is today.

My goal is around 170 to 175. At 72 inches tall, that would put me at or close to my goal weight according to the ETL book. I have not been that weight in almost 20 years. Having said that, the last time I was there, I was on a very similar diet to the one I am now practicing, even including fasting. I used to fast regularly. I did not know why. My body simply demanded it. I suppose I was more in tune with my physical self then. I was also practicing a macrobiotic diet, which is extremely similar to the ETL diet in many respect.

More later.

Day twentyfour ends

I called Dr. F.'s office today to make an appointment for a phone consultation. My assumption was that this would be covered under insurance in a similar manner as an office visit.

Big disappointment.

The cost to talk to Dr. F. for 45 minutes is $360. Ouch! That's all out-of-pocket. No insurance coverage at all.

Since I am planning on a 14 day fast after about 60 days of staying on the ETL diet, I investigated the cost of that as well. Michele, a very helpful individual in Dr. F.'s office assisted me with that. To start a fast you need a phone consultation, at the costs shown above. Then you need to talk to Dr. F. on the phone every 2 days. A "cluster" of three short calls costs $240. For me to have Dr. F. medically supervise my fast would then cost about $840, give or take a couple of hundred bucks.

For me to have Dr. Sharp do the same thing in Chapel Hill would cost me a single $20 co-pay, plus probably nothing for the phone calls every couple of days.

Hmmm. Let's see. $840 vs. $20. Hard to decide. Hard to decide.

Bottom line is that I am very financially incented to figure out a way to work with Dr. Sharp. My next appointment with him is on Monday. I will let you know how that goes.

Diet wise, I had a bowl of black beans, a huge salad (red cabbage, romaine lettuce, tomato, black seedless grapes, red bell pepper, raw almonds and balsamic vinegar), and some fruit (apple, more black seedless grapes and blueberries) for lunch. Later I had more black beans. Those suckers are awesome! We then went to another Bikram yoga class, followed by dinner at Whole Foods. Lots of different types of tofu and tempeh, brussel sprouts, steamed broccoli, brown rice, chickpeas, grapes, pineapple.

All with lots and lots of purified water.

I feel terrific. I am in my post Bikram state. I am enjoying the diet very much. I am full and very satisfied. I feel deliciously tired. I expect I will sleep like a baby.

More later.

Day twentyfour begins

My weight this morning, post BM, was 242.6, up three pounds from my last weight, but still 16.3 pounds less than my low weight.

Not sure why I am gaining weight back, post fast, but perhaps that is to be expected. Dr. F. says you become slightly dehydrated while fasting. I am probably gaining that water weight back.

I am still happy with a 16 pound weight loss in 24 days.

I plan on calling Dr. F.'s office today to make a phone consultation. I am not really getting any response from him on the website. I have uploaded my test results to an ftp site, and have been pestering him to read them. But he is not responding to me.

Perhaps if I make a phone consultation, I will push this forward. I really would like to know his opinion on the testing Dr. Sharp conducted in December.

This morning I have had another blended salad consisting of cherries, blueberries, banana, spinach and soymilk.

More later.

Day twentythree continued reprise

Three posts today. Cool.

Catching up on the food diary, I had lunch with my friend Ray at Whole Foods. I ate white navy beans, black beans, brown rice, steamed zucchini, steamed cabbage, melon and grapes. It was great.

Later on I had a bowl of black bean soup at home. Then I made some acorn squash. I am now having a blended salad consisting of cherries, blueberries, banana, spinach and soymilk.

Delicious.

I am quite full and satisfied. I do not miss meat at all. I do miss some desserts, but the blended salads and things like acorn squash (which is quite sweet) plus fruit makes up for that nicely.

I see now that I can eat like this forever. My health has dramatically improved. I have very little, if any, pain in my body. I have no swelling. The psoriasis is very low.

In terms of physical activity, I worked out today at the office. 30 minutes of light cardio on a Precor EFX 346. I plan to do yoga on Thursday. And possibly Saturday morning as well.

I feel fully recovered from the fast. I still have psoriasis but it is definitely growing less of a problem. I will need to do some more fasting to completely eliminate the issue, but that is possible, as I have already demonstrated.

This is going to work, in other words.

Once that happens, where does this leave me? That is the question I am starting to ask. I now know that the medical, pharmaceutical, and food industries are lying to the public. Going into a grocery store is now a strange experience for me. I see many toxic products being sold. I see many people that I know are going to die a long, agonizing death as a result of purchasing and consuming those products. I was almost one of them.

How to get the word out? That is the issue.

This blog is certainly one way to do that. Please let anyone you know who could benefit from this information know about the blog. Point them to Dr. Fuhrman's website. Also to the book The China Study by T. Collin Campbell. You may be saving their life, as Ray probably did with me.

More later.

Day twentythree continued

In the book The China Study, T. Colin Campbell discusses a study that was conducted during the 50s in the context of the Korean War. 300 deceased servicemen were autopsied. In the process their hearts and circulatory systems were dissected and closely examined.

These were men in their 20s who were in excellent physical condition. They were consuming Army food, a variant of the SAD.

77.4% of them had advanced cardiovascular disease.

That's how long we have been knowing about this.

The level of ignorance on the part of the American public with respect to research that has been going on for more than 50 years now is nothing short of amazing.

As I have said before on this blog, we are digging our graves with our knives and forks. The profit oriented food industry has been selling us a high-fat, high calorie processed food diet, while making massive profits in the process. The profit oriented pharmaceutical drug creates lifestyle drugs which you are intended to take for the rest of your life, also making massive profits. And then the profit-oriented medical industry sells us cardiac bypass, angioplasty, and other expensive, invasive and danger medical interventions for heart disease. Again, making massive profits in the process.

All of which is virtually 100% wasted money.

A simple lifestyle change to a low-fat, plant based, whole food diet will result in reversal of heart disease on the part of virtually 100% of the people who are willing to follow the program. It benefits everyone.

Except the profit oriented food, pharmaceutical and medical industries. They lose out big time.

It is possible that this information is being suppressed? It is certainly available for those who look. But it is also not being promoted very heavily. An obvious solution to an problem which is costing us a trillion dollars (yes, I said trillion) and constitutes the leading cause of death should be big news.

But it isn't. No one in the popular media is talking about this. You have to pull Mother Earth, The Independent, Alternative Health and the like to read about the health benefits of the ETL diet.

Weird.

There is definitely something going on here. T. Collin Campbell says he will cover this in Chapter 6. I will let you know what I learn then.

More later.

Day twentythree begins

I slept very well last night. I figured things out as well.

I need to file my expense reports. I figured that out. I know where my receipts are. I basically organized the whole thing in my sleep.

Similarly, I did a lot of my work in my sleep last night. I should probably charge extra for that.

This morning, I feel pretty good. My crotch is itching slightly. Scaling activity is way down. My pre-BM weight was 239.4, post-BM maybe a pound or two less. I have not measured my waist.

I have been reading some amazing stuff in TCS (The China Study). I will post on that later.

Day twentytwo continued

I weighed out today at 236.4, a new low weight. This is a loss of 22.5 pounds from my high weight of 258.9. I am maintaining a pound a day rate. Cool!

My waist is still 47, though. No change there. I am losing weight in other parts of my body, I guess. My wife tells me that my face looks much thinner.

Having said that I would like to lose some of this weight off of my waistline. You know, the dangerous intra-abdominal fat. I guess that may take some time.

For lunch today my wife and I went to Blue Corn Cafe. This place did not disappoint. We had the black bean and sweet potato soup. This was an amazing soup. Lots of tomato flavor. Black beans. Very crisp and fresh corn and carrot. As well as sweet potato. We also had guacamole (which we had to make ourselves from the avocado and salsa they provided as theirs has sour cream) with plain corn tortillas. Then we shared the vegan fajitas. Again, no dairy or animal products at all. Excellent black beans. Really nice salad. Grilled squash, pepper and onion.

This was a most excellent meal.

After that we attended a Bikram class. I suppose I was still a bit weak, as I had trouble with becoming faint. However, I finished the class and then we went to Whole Foods for dinner. We had Aloo Matar (potato and pea curry) on brown rice with steamed zucchini, and pineapple and grapes.

Later we had another blended salad consisting of spinach, frozen cherries and banana with soymilk and ground flax seed.

I feel very full and satisfied. I find that I am not very tired although it is after midnight. But I must rest anyway.

Symptom wise, my skin was pretty itchy before Bikram. Afterwards, as usual, that was completely relieved for several hours. It is now ratcheting back up again. I scaled an enormous amount of skin off during the class. Huge amounts of epithelial bundles were coming off of all my lesions. I probably lost half a pound in skin alone. I was making a mess there on the mat.

The aftermath of the fast is obviously still being felt. I was told this would happen. I need to assess where I am and figure out a strategy for going forward. I am hoping Dr. F. will respond to my two recent posts and we can work together on that.

More later.

Day twentytwo begins

I ended my fast last night at 12:02 a.m. completing a 96 hour water only fast (including zero calorie clear liquids) successfully.

By the end of the day I was feeling somewhat better, as I said in my second post yesterday. After I ate my first meal (consisting of a blended salad of blueberries, mango, banana, frozen spinach and soymilk) I was extremely itchy. It was very difficult to sleep. I probably slept about 4 hours, and I may go back to sleep soon. However, I would like to at least say that I finished the fast, and I am still on the diet. Yay!

This morning I am consuming another similar salad, substituting blackberries for blueberries.

My plans are to take it fairly easy today. I will work from home, read email, do some technical work, and otherwise relax. If I am feeling up to it, I may go to the Bikram class tonight. Let's see how it goes.

More later.

Day twentyone continued

I crashed. Slept for 2 hours. Dreamed about unhealthy food again. Big, juicy porterhouse steak, coooked medium rare. Shrimp. Big honkers. With cocktail sauce. Big fat crabs, already shelled for you. Barbecue pork ribs with sweet, spicy sauce. Desserts by the bucket. Ice cream. Chocolate cake. Cherry pie. As well as big juicy fattening American hamburgers. You know the kind. Like on the Carl's Jr. TV commercial. Thick, juicy, with so much fat dripping off them you can't hardly eat them.

You get the idea. Everything you can't eat on the ETL diet. In spades. Dangled before me by my dreaming mind. Once again.

I don't know why my mind keeps doing this. It's like it wants to torture me or something. I guess I have a stronghold about food. God knows, I have been heavy most of my life. The training of youth. I talked about that before. One thing for sure: In my family growing up food meant comfort. Food meant pleasure. Food meant love.

I am feeling a bit better though. The inflammation is way down from this morning. I discovered the trick to fasting after my last post. If you don't want to feel queasy with a sick, sour stomach, belching constantly, just drink water. Lots and lots of water. I use Polland Springs mineral water. Orange flavored, but with no sweetener at all. I do not like sweeteners. The carbonation may not be that great for me. But compared to what I have been eating for years, it's a walk in the park. It certainly qualifies as a zero calorie clear liquid. Anyway, I simply process the glasses of water one after another. I am always sipping it. Once one is empty, I make another. This seems to be flushing things out.

Ruth and I going to the store and I am going to get her something to eat.

More later.

Day twenty-one begins

My body is totally pissed at me.

Wow! I feel like death warmed over.

OK, here are the details. Yesterday I consumed nothing but water and zero calorie clear liquids (I had several cups of decaffeinated green tea). Aside from that nothing passed my lips. When I went to bed last night, the level of itching was skyrocketing. I was having lots of trouble in the area of my crotch. We will not go into too much detail about that. Nasty. As well as generalized itching all over my body. The "internal sunburn" feeling was back.

I took a long hot shower which helps calm things down a bit. Then I went to bed.

I became extremely queasy somewhere during the night. Sour stomach. Lots of burping toxic gas. I woke up at 6 with mouth tasting like I have been eating poop, a nauseous sour stomach, and tons of psoriasis activity.


Other symptoms are a rapid heart rate, feeling very weak, and a shaky, shivery feeling inside.

Not fun. Having said that, I regard it as an actually hopeful sign. Another layer is being peeled off. The beasties which are infesting me are dying of starvation. In the process they are releasing toxins. Their little brothers are feeding on their rotting corpses. All of which is great for me long term.

It just doesn't feel that way right now.

I would say that Bikram today is unlikely. I know my limits. I will probably hang around the home base, do as much as possible to take my mind off of my misery and otherwise work on fasting.

I am now 13 hours away from the end of a 96 hour fast. My fast ends tonight at midnight.

I weigh 237.2, a loss of 2.8 pounds from yesterday. My waist is still 47 inches flat. I have lost 21.7 pounds in 21 days, an average of over a pound a day. Amazing.

Oh, and today is three weeks. Half way through the initial six week period we targeted at the beginning of this process. Cool!

I am considering the structure going forward. A pattern is emerging. My first fast was three days. There was a gap of two weeks between that fast and this one. This fast is four days. That argues that I should wait three weeks and then fast for five days. Get it? Anyway, I will consult with Dr. F. on this plan and get back to you.

More later.

Day twenty continued

I heard from Susan Powter today. Awesome.

For those who do not know about Susan Powter, she was a major force for health and fitness during the later part of the last century. Her book Stop the Insanity was a bestseller. She was a familiar face to those watching TV during that period as well, selling a weight loss and nutrition approach which was amazingly effective. Basically extremely similar to the approach which has panned out to be the one which actually works: Low fat, whole food, vegetarian or near vegetarian combined with sensible exercise.

Granted, this simple, common sense approach has been drowned out by all of the craziness like Atkins, South Beach, Sugar Busters and the rest of that crowd. All of whom have left us with a legacy of obesity, diabetes, heart disease, cancer, and the rest.

Anyway, regardless of what you may have done in the intervening period, just remember this: Susan was right. The processed food crap which we consumed (including myself!) like Atkins diet food replacement bars and shakes, as well as the same for South Beach and so forth, were simply another form of corporate deception intended to keep us where we are today: enslaved. Enslaved to pharmaceutical drugs. Enslaved to a dietary system which is based upon the consumption of toxic and dangerous processed and animal products.

Yes, I have come to know and understand at last that Susan was right all along.

If you are reading this blog (and I am hearing from many who are), then please consider the approach I am discussing: Low fat, whole food, vegetarianism. Read Susan's book. Read Dr. Joel Fuhrman's Eat to Live. Or Colin Campbell's The China Study, or John McDougall, or Dean Ornish, or Nathan Pritikin.

Any of these guys are great. If they embrace the reduction of animal products and fat in your diet and a dramatic increase in whole, natural plant-based nutrition in as near as possible to the raw, unprocessed state, then they have my support.

The ones who are completely screwed up in my view: Atkins. South Beach. Abs Diet. Eat Right for Your Type. The Zone. Sugar Busters. All crap. All total lies. Don't buy them. Don't believe anything these charlatans are telling you. It will lead you down a path which leads to a long, lingering death.

Anyway, bottom line: Susan was right. And she was right way back in the 80s. Which goes a long way back in this field.

More later.

Day twenty begins

My weight this morning is 240 flat. My waist is 47 inches flat. Both are new lows for CY08.

I slept fairly well considering I am fasting. I have some stiffness in my hands. The psoriasis is about the same. I am less itchy though.

My plans today are to continue to fast, relax, and possibly go to church later this morning. Jon said that he wanted to work out today. If so, I will keep it extremely light.

Aside from that, just hanging out and relaxing. Fasting is pretty hard work after all.

In terms of sensation, I feel a hollow in my gut, and I am a bit weak. On the positive side, my mind is extremely sharp. I am able to see very clearly. My tinnitus is completely gone, and my hearing is also very sharp. Other senses are also acute. I am not sure why fasting does this to me, but it is a definite effect. It is similar to the experience of being high on marijuana without the giddiness or euphoria. The experience of listening to music is heightened for example, similar to a THC high.

I am now over half way through the four day fast. I have fasted with water or zero calorie clear liquids for 57 hours at this point, out of 96. That leaves 39 hours remaining.

More later.

Day nineteen continued reprise

Three posts today.

I was thinking about my journey in the area of health. It is certainly been interesting. When I had lunch (at which I of course ate nothing) with my friend Ray on Friday, this was one thing we discussed. I also exchanged emails with Jodi my friend in Cary on this subject.

I was raised by parents who were completely clueless about health and nutrition. Maybe even more than most people. My parents were both rednecks. They met in East Texas during the depression. WWII was the only reason either of them became educated. My father was drafted into Patton's Seventh Army and chased him all the way across Europe, never firing a shot. He was released from the army with many years of GI bill. He used those benefits to educate himself and my mother. Both of them eventually earned degrees from East Texas State Teacher's College (Now East Texas State University) in Commerce Texas.

The education they received still taught them nothing about health or nutrition. They both ate an incredibly unhealthy diet as a variation on the standard American diet. As a result they both struggled with their weight their entire lives. All three of their children did as well.

I well remember my mother's cooking. Talk about comfort food. She could make incredibly palatable meals, without question. Meat loaf. Chicken fried steak, with creamed gravy. Mashed potatoes, of course also with gravy. Baked ham with red eye gravy.

And, of course, hamburgers. We called them momma burgers. Served up thick and juicy with lots of cheese. Nothing else on them but mustard.

My mom used to tell me that this was good for you. "A hamburger is a complete meal," she would say. "It has everything you need. Meat, dairy and grains." They actually thought this diet was healthy.

She made incredible desserts as well. Cherry pie, pound cake, and so forth.

I was a butterball my entire childhood. I was teased incessantly as a fat kid. I was the constant butt of bullies.

My father struggled to maintain his weight. He was a fighter pilot in the United States Army Air Corps (later the US Air Force) and fought as such in Korea and Viet Nam. He was always overweight and dealing with that issue. He would "go on a diet" in order to lose weight to get down to his target. We went on them too. All kinds of fad diets. Eggs and grapefruit. Oh my God, do I remember how I hated that diet.

By the time my father retired from the Air Force, both of them were overweight and very unhealthy. My mother was also a heavy smoker all her life.

Perhaps it is no surprise that both of them died early.

As a form of rebellion, I suppose, I began to become athletic and healthy. Strangely, my father deeply resented and never supported any form of athletic pursuit. If I joined Little League he would not come to a single game. Needless to say, I was terrible. During all my school years I was hopeless in terms of athletics.

When I went to law school that began to change. I joined ROTC. I went to boot camp. I got in shape. I began to jog (this was the period where jogging took off). Eventually, after a lot of weight fluctuation, in the 80s I learned of macrobiotics and became a vegan vegetarian. This was partly the result of the influence of Susan Powter who was my friend at that time. She mentored me in the area of diet and nutrition, and eventually I became a professional aerobics instructor as a result of her training and guidance.

At this point, my parents' health caught up with them. My father was feeling poor. He had lost some of the use of his left side and thought he had had a stroke. He went to Wilford Hall Medical Hospital in San Antonio, Texas for a check up. My mom was also feeling unwell, and asked to be examined as well.

They were both admitted to the hospital with acute cancer. My father never left the hospital. He died after a few months.

From Susan Powter, I learned of the book Recalled by Life by Anthony J. Sattilaro. This book recounts the experience of a medical doctor who was the CEO of a major hospital in Philadelphia. He was diagnosed with multiple cancers, and pronounced terminal. He went on a macrobiotic diet and eventually overcame cancer. I purchased this book for my mother. (I had no hope for my father at that point.) At this point, I was on the diet and was extremely healthy. I was teaching aerobics daily, and weighed in the 170s. I was convinced that she could overcome cancer if she would stop smoking and go on this diet.

For those not familiar with macrobiotics, it is extremely similar to the ETL diet in many respects. It is a strict vegan, extremely low salt and sugar diet. It does have a lot of religious aspects. But the end result is the same.

My mother adamantly refused to read the book or consider the diet. She continued to smoke and eat the SAD until she died 11 months after my father did.

I must admit I was angry about this. But there was nothing I could do about it. I judged my mother very harshly for failing to make a simple lifestyle change in order to ensure her health.

Ironically, a few months after my mother's death I faced another personal crisis of my own. One reason I had been able to become so healthy was that I was working in an extremely supportive and creative environment. I was a software developer for ATip, Inc., a think tank / IT entrepreneurial company headquartered in the Infomart in Dallas, Texas. This company was very willing to allow me to consume brown rice and beans with steamed vegetables for lunch. I was allowed to be whoever I wanted to be.

Eventually all good things must end. ATip went under, pulled into insolvency by the Pizza Inn bankruptcy at that time. I was out of work and desperate. For a period of time I lived on food which I obtained from Shell service stations by running up my Shell credit card, the only form of credit I had. Needless to say, this was the purest form of crap. All processed food. Processed sandwiches. Chips. Soda.

I got a job in the legal business. (I am an attorney by training.) I was working for a telecommunications company in Garland, Texas. This was as unsuportive an environment as you can imagine. I was expected to eat steak, prime rib, and all the rest. In fact, the pressure to heavily drink alcohol was also very high. (I am a reformed alcoholic.) I did not succumb to the pressure to drink, but I did go off the macrobiotic diet and eventually began to gain a lot of weight.

Eventually this job blew up too. I continued to rock along at various levels of overweight for another decade. We moved to Alaska, one of the unhealthiest states in the US. There, I ate lots and lots of sourdough pancakes with reindeer sausage, Mexican food, and all the rest. When we moved to California, I had an IT job again, but I continued to eat in a very unhealthy manner. I began to work out, but my diet was total crap. Again, lots of Mexican food, Chinese food, Sushi, and the like.

My weight continued to rise until it hit a high of 287. That was in 2000 at the point that we had moved to North Carolina. At that point, I began to have lots of pain in my feet. I was seeing a chiropractor at the time who suspected diabetes, and had me purchase a blood sugar monitor. Sure enough, my blood sugar after eating was about 200, well into the diabetic range.

At that point, I had a choice. This choice was laid out for me carefully by my chiropractor. (In many ways Dr. Goode was an amazing jerk, and we eventually left his practice. But I have to admit that he did me a great service in this case.)

Dr. Goode I had two choices:

1. Go to a medical doctor. I would be prescribed insulin and Glucophage. These would control my blood sugar. But I would be on them the rest of my life. In the process, I would be allowed to consume the SAD for the rest of my life as well. This would be a short life though. Even controlled, diabetics have 10 times the risk for all of the diseases that plague our country. I would die by the time I was 60 without question.
2. Go alternative. Dr. Goode knew of an acupuncturist who practiced in Chapel Hill. Amazingly, this man, named Dr. Zen Chen, specialized in treating diabetes, and had great success in doing so. I would be cured in 2 years.

I went alternative. I went to see Dr. Chen and he prescribed a vegan low fat, low salt, and low sugar diet, consisting of all natural, whole foods.

Sound familiar? You would think I would be getting a clue here. But as usual, I am amazingly dense.

Once again, I lost over 100 pounds, landing in the 180s. I was fit and trim. I was working out regularly.

I don't know why I didn't simply stay there. It would have been so easy. But no, I had to go off the diet again. I backslid into the SAD, and began to eat animal products. This was due to work pressures once more. I had taken on a traveling job involving lots of international flying, almost all in business class. I would have a plate of steak and potatoes stuck in front of me. And of course there was always dessert. And alcohol. This time I did succumb to the pressure to drink, and began to drift back into alcoholism.

In February of 2007 I had a serious wake up call. I will not go into the details of all of that, but I stopped drinking at that point. However, I had begun to develop autoimmune disease. My wife was deeply concerned and researched various alternative ways to address the issue. My weight had spiked back up to almost 260. I tried many different means to address both the weight and the autoimmune disorders. Atkins. South Beach. Sugar Busters. The Abs Diet, and all the rest.

I remained stubbornly sick and heavy.

As I said in my first post, I really owe my current progress to my friend Ray. He may have saved my life. He sent me Dr. Fuhrman's November 2004 newsletter on autoimmune diseases. In this newsletter, he outlines an approach to deal with issues like mine.

As you know if you are reading this blog, I am now on a road to recovery. I have no doubt that this will work eventually. I have already seen huge changes. I am losing almost a pound a day. My psoriasis is vastly improved.

I suppose the difference this time, as opposed to the other two times that I addressed my health in this manner, is that I now have the scientific basis for understanding the process of my body in respects to diet and health. I never had this before. Unfortunately, neither did my parents. This basis has been afforded to me by the privilege to read Dr. Fuhrman's books, as well as books like The China Study. These are giving me a basis for belief in the effectiveness of this approach, which I lacked. I never really believed in macrobiotics. It didn't make sense to me. Too much of it was steeped in Eastern mysticism and religion. In the same manner, I was ambivalent about Dr. Chen. An ancient Chinese man in his 80s who is less than 5 feet tall and weighs less than 100 pounds was a strange example to me. His English was terrible. It was amazing that I followed his recommendations at all, given how different he is from me.

Ray is like me, though. I understand him very, very well. He has faced his health challenges too. He is intellectually honest enough to research and understand the processes of his own body. I respected what he had done in his own life, and I wanted to do the same in mine. I respect him highly.

This is a very long post, and I apologize for that for those who may be reading. But that is my story to this point. It has been an amazing journey. Now, at the age of 53, I finally understand what is making me sick and how to fix it. I only wish my parents had had the same privilege.

More later.

Day nineteen continued

It's snowing. Awesome. I love snow.

I attended the Bikram yoga class today. It was great. I was slightly faint during the process of straightening up after bending over. Otherwise, I felt fine. I was very tired afterwards though. I took Jeanae to lunch at Whole Foods (at which I had a cup of decaffeinated green tea and purified water), and then came home and crashed. I slept about 2 hours.

I had a difficult time going to sleep. My mind is very active after yoga. I can feel my consciousness moving from place to place within my brain (visual cortex, auditory cortex, temporal lobe). I seem hyper aware of my body. I can feel every hair on my skin. I hear every sound. I focus on the strange colored display that either my eyes or my brain show me when my eyes are closed in a dark room. An interesting wavelike action of colored concentric circles, moving slowly and gently across the center of my vision.

Eventually, I resorted to relaxation exercises. I have used these for years to overcome pain in my body. You may be aware of this maneuver. You relax your feet, then your shins, then your thighs, and so forth, until you end up centered on the space between your eyebrows. Once that is relaxed, your entire body feels like it is floating.

Normally, I fall asleep far before then. This time, though, I actually did relax my entire body multiple times (I start over every time I move). I came to an incredibly relaxed state, similar to what I have been able to achieve when hypnotized. (Yes I have had hypnotherapy several times.) I then drifted into a deep, healing sleep.

I was awakened, as usual, by itching. As I warned you, the effect of Bikram on the skin is temporary. However, if you can get complete relief from incessant itching for even a few hours by engaging in an otherwise healthy activity, that's a win. I woke up completely at about 3 p.m. this afternoon with a nagging, annoying itching on the posterior aspect of my scrotum. This is a particularly nasty and annoying area of my body. Since it is usually covered in clothing and folded into other parts of my body, it is fully involved with psoriasis. Since I have been on the diet, this activity has been reduced somewhat, but it is definitely not gone.

Finding further sleep impossible, I arose and discovered to my delight that a steady wet snow is falling. It's sticking too. Wonderful! Like I said, I love snow.

Presently, I feel pretty good. The queasiness of the last fast is not present this time. If I did not know that I was fasting, I would think I was just a bit hungry. I suspect that will pass.

I did dream about food again, though. As you may recall, the last time I fasted, I had many dreams about unhealthy food. This time it was chocolate. I love chocolate. I have not touched the stuff (other than a few bites of a vegan chocolate mousse Ruth got at Whole Foods) since the dietary changes began on 1/1/08. I guess I still miss it.

My friend Ray told me of the spiritual benefits from eating and fasting in this way. Basically, you overcome your carnal desires through the exercise of discipline. In the process, you become stronger and better able to withstand temptations, not only from food, but also from other areas of your life. Things like lust, impatience with other people, sloth, procrastination, and the like. By being in control of your diet, you become psychically stronger. In the process you become a better person.

I don't know if that is happening or not. It is way too subjective a process for me to evaluate any such spiritual progress I may or may not be making. But I certainly do know that my subconscious mind is dealing with letting go of addictions to things like chocolate and red meat which have burdened my soul for many years. Hence the dreams of things like dense, rich chocolate cake. Lindt truffles, etc. All dangled before my eyes by my dreaming subconscious mind.

More later. For now, I will relax for the rest of the day, maybe watch a movie, drink some water, read The China Study, and continue to fast.

Day nineteen begins

I am now 36 hours and 36 minutes into a 96 hour water only fast.

My weight this morning is 242.6. This is a new low weight for 2008. My waist is 48 inches flat.

Symptom wise, I have vastly less itching than I did when I started the fast. Not none, but way, way less. I guess the itching is not simply dry skin due to cold weather. There is something else going on. There is an internal "burning" sensation to the itching as well. It feels similar to a sunburn but driven from the inside, not from the outside. It is like my skin is being injured from within my body.

Anyway, that sensation is much less.

Lesion wise, there are some interesting developments. There is a lesion on the medial aspect of my left ankle. It is almost gone. All scaling activity on this lesion has ceased. The same is true of a rather large lesion on the medial aspect of my middle toe on the same foot. I had a lot of cracked and irritated skin on both feet. This completely healed. I cannot attribute this to anything but diet and fasting.

Also, you might remember that psoriasis attacks and destroys your nails. Mine are very disfunctional. I have six completely involved toenails and I had two fingernails with activity. Note I said two. I now have one. My ring finger on my left hand had a dysfunctional nail. This was related to a biking injury in late 2005 in which I broke the metarcarpal of the pinky finger on my left hand. Psoriasis is related to either repeated injuries (which can be quite mild, like scratching) or serious injuries. When the accident happened my entire hand and lower arm on the left side became psoriatic. The left overs from that accident have been that two of my nails on that hand became quite naughty. Well, now the ring finger on the left hand has a completely normal nail again. I can see some very slight activity, but I know what to look for. The casual observer would see nothing abnormal about this nail at all. That was definitely not true a few days ago. And it is certainly not true of the pinky yet. But I can see some improvement there as well.

I also am seeing a dramatic reduction in lesion activity on the genitals and in the crotch area. I have to admit that this is very, very welcome. If there has been any reward to the denial of foods that I loved to eat, it has been the payoff of reduction in lesions in the crotch. You have no idea how excruciating it is to go around with your butt crack in a state of constant irritation, begging to be scratched, while you have to maintain your daily activities. Particularly working. I have had to go to work, and to even give presentations to fairly large groups, all the while the the thing foremost on my mind was how bad my crotch area wanted to be scratched.

Of course scratching solved nothing. It just fed the disease, making it worse. The fact that I am now scratching way, way less (due to a reduction of the internal level of irritation) is now feeding the healing process in the same way that it previously fed the disease process.

I still have flaking and scaling going on in some areas. The navel for example. The backs of my ears. But I am making progress here.

Diet wise, of course, I have had nothing but water or zero calorie clear liquids (things like decaffeinated green tea) for the past 36 hours and change. That will continue for another 2 1/2 days. I will break my fast on midnight Monday night.

Note that I am now at a new low weight. I have moved beyond the little plateau I was on in the past week. Great!

My plans today are to attend a Bikram yoga class this morning. Yes, I know. Dr. F. does not recommend hot yoga while fasting. I respectfully disagree. He is afraid of damage to the kidneys. However, this class is not that hot. It is around 100 degrees. I regularly go into saunas at 180 degrees. This is basically like standing in the sun on a Florida day. I think I can certainly do that while fasting. In any event, my kidney function is excellent, and I am hydrating to beat the band. I probably consumed over a gallon of purified water yesterday, and I will do that again today. I am going very often with great healthy activity down there. And I will certainly hydrate heavily during the class.

The Bikram class as I have said before is terrific for the skin. Everything scales off and the irritation settles down. Granted the effect is temporary, and I am not claiming that it will cure psoriasis. But I suspect it speeds up the process of detox. I probably sweat a couple of quarts at least during this class. I saturate one bath towel completely. It is great for your skin to sweat when you have psoriasis. That's for damn sure.

I will also relax, read The China Study, and be with my daughter, Jeanae. She is going through some tough times and she needs me this weekend.

More later.

Day eighteen continued

I had lunch with my good friend Ray today. Ray also has a new blog, which is quite nice. It is here. Please check it out.

The discussion centered somewhat on the book The China Study which I am now reading. More information on this book can be found here. This is another mind blowing, paradigm shifting book as I have said before on this blog. The implications of the China Study include:

• The writers of such books as the Aktins Revolution, The South Beach Diet and the rest are either grossly incompetent (in that they have failed to read and consider the China Study, certainly the most important research study on human nutrition ever conducted), or they are cynically lying in order to obtain profit (in which case they are evil). One wants to grab them by the throat, shake them, and ask them what they were thinking.
• The threat of the standard American diet dwarfs all of the other issues which we constantly debate. This includes alcohol, cigarettes and illicit drugs, which are minor issues compared to the SAD issue. I would say that global warming, global terrorism, and so forth, serious as they are, are minor issues compared to the threat to our society of the SAD. The reason I say this is that the effects of the SAD will be felt much more quickly and in a more pronounced manner than either of the other issues are likely to be.

We are in the crucible. We must decide, one by one, as individuals to cease to destroy our health with toxic products such as dairy and red meat. Even fish and chicken are not safe. We should be shouting this from the rooftops. The science is extremely clear.

My fast continues. I am feeling fine. Much better than I did on the last fast at this point. I think my body is adjusting to this.

My plans are to continue to fast until midnight Monday night (96 hours). I will let you know how that goes.

More later.

Day eighteen begins

Wow. I missed a day. Sorry about that.

OK, getting you up to speed here.

After leaving my planning meeting, Jon and I worked out. Back and biceps. He killed me. I like that behavior. Ruth and I then had dinner at Whole Foods consisting of a huge salad. It would be difficult to include all of the items in this salad. Many greens, lots of kinds of tofu. Other legumes as well. Many fresh vegetables. Lots of fruit. You get the idea.

Later I made a blended salad smoothie consisting of a half bag of frozen spinach, banana, cherries, and soymilk. That was it for day sixteen.

Yesterday, I had a bowl of oatmeal with soymilk and fresh apple for breakfast. For lunch, I had another huge salad consisting of field greens, carrot, tomato, celery, cucumber, pinto beans and balsamic vinegar. This was at the Cisco headquarters in RTP where I was attending a sales meeting. Cisco seems to "get it" with respect to vegan dieting more than most companies I have visited. At least, this was an excellent salad.

Later, Ruth and I attended another Bikram yoga class. I am finding that Bikram yoga is getting easier. I still tend to become faint when straightening up from the poses where you are bent over. And of course, I sweat a lot. Otherwise, it is becoming more flowing and natural. I feel more flexible. Getting up and down is easier.

And, of course, the sweating does wonders for my skin. I feel wonderful after the class.

Following the class Ruth and I had dinner again at Whole Foods. Since I was planning on fasting, I ate a bit heavier than usual. This was brown rice, chickpeas, tempeh, sietan, steamed zucchini and fresh grapes. I drank three huge classes of water as well. Later Ruth and I had a large smoothie which contained almost a pound of fruit apiece. Mango, pineapple, strawberry, blueberry, banana, among others.

I began fasting at midnight last night. I am now fasting.

My weight this morning was 247.4. Still not less than my low weight of 245.8. I will probably see some weight loss during the fast, though. I will let you know on that.

Symptom wise, I have a bit more swelling today, probably due to the heavier diet I ate yesterday. I may do a light workout (probably walking) later to see if I can release some of that. Otherwise, things seem to be working fairly well. I have not eaten anything today, needless to say.

More later.

Day sixteen begins

I am in another planning meeting today, so this will probably be my only post today. Yesterday afternoon, Jon and I worked out. Chest, triceps and forearms. As usual, Jon drives me very hard. I am sore today, but that is a good thing.

If my meeting gets out early, I will try to work out tomorrow as well. More on that later.

Last night I hosted a dinner at Nana's in Durham. As before, this was an excellent place for a person on a vegan diet. I had a beautiful salad, a vegetable plate with grilled bokchoy (amazing!), sauted beets (which I am surprised to find that I like), and spinach. For dessert they made a no-sugar-added sorbet with passionfruit and mango. Berries on the side. They included a cookie, which I did not eat.

More or less ETL compliant.

Weight wise this morning I was 246.8 pre BM. Post BM maybe a pound or two less. I have probably reached a new low weight, but I could not confirm that this morning.

Symptom wise, I continue to have lower activity on psoriasis. The pace of change is slowing, though. I have extremely dry itchy skin. My arthritis remains low. I am able to use both hands well. I have very little pain in my body. My swelling is also very low.

My plan is to continue the diet today and tomorrow and then fast from Friday to Monday of next week. All weekend long in other words. More on that later as well.

Day fifteen

I am in a planning meeting today, so my post will have to be short. Last night I slept fairly well. I was a little disturbed by arthritis pain, though. I had itchy dry skin this morning.

I have gotten into the "blended salad" approach of creating smoothies. I am adding a couple of cups of chopped spinach to my smoothie. I almost do not notice the taste, it is hidden by the blueberries or cherries. I am still using soymilk as the base, but may experiment with other options later.

Small moves, after all.

Later I ate an apple. For lunch we went to Doc Greens. There I had a vegan vegetable soup (a little salty but otherwise fine) and a large salad consisting of field greens, grapes, strawberries, apples, tomato, cucumber, carrot, purple onion, and slivered almonds. Only balsamic vinegar for dressing. It was quite nice. Next time I might add avocado to add a bit more fat. It was very light.

Right now, I feel pretty good. My inflammation is very low. My skin is dry and itchy but the lesions are still shrinking and certainly less painful.

Since my meeting has ended early and I do not have any commitments until 6 tonight, I will probably go home, grab my workout stuff, and head to the health club.

More later.

Day fourteen continued

Today was a good day. I heard from my tax advisor in CA that the FTB tax liability has been satisfied. Awesome. That is a very, very long story, but suffice it to say that a huge burden has been lifted off of our shoulders.

For lunch, Ruth and I shared some bean soup, and I made us a salad smoothie later with lots and lots of frozen spinach. I have now gone to the store and loaded up on chopped frozen spinach for this purpose. Helps to get that one pound of greens in. We also had some more of the squash I made yesterday.

I attended another Bikram yoga class today. Sweated buckets. I got far less tired than last time. I also did more and with less effort than before. Yoga is like water on rocks. Eventually, your body adapts.

Later, Ruth and I went to Whole Foods for dinner. I tried all of the various kinds of tofu, tempeh and so forth, some of which were great. I also had a steamed sweet potato, brussel sprouts and a large salad consisting of field greens, tomato, bell pepper, cucumber, and so forth. Balsamic vinegar for dressing. The check out person said "Very healthy!" when I checked out.

I feel pretty good right now. The dry cold weather is playing hob with my skin, causing all sorts of dryness and itching. However, the psoriasis is way down, and the arthritis is definitely going away.

It is amazing to me that all of these years I have suffered for the sake of eating 24 ounce porterhouse steak, barbecue brisket, rotisserie chicken, ice cream, cheese and so forth. I would have so totally been vegan all along had I known I could feel this good.

The world needs to know this. The forces of the world which are keeping this information away from the public must be overcome. My current book is called the China Study. This is another mind blowing book on why we are all dying of various chronic preventable diseases. The number one preventable cause of disease is consumption of animal products. The cost of animal based diet on society dwarfs the costs of cigarettes, tobacco and alcohol combined. This is a story which has not been told, and needs to be.

More later.

Day fourteen begins

Two full weeks. Yay! We are getting there!

Ruth and I had dinner with Ray and Debbie last night. This was an ETL adventure. I modified the lentils recipe by blending the leftovers (making something I have come to know as a dulse). Ruth and I had a bowl of this for lunch. Then I added some cannellini beans, an entire bokchoy, and two heirloom tomatoes. This was teamed up with a large green salad made of field greens, apple, pear, strawberry, yellow bell pepper and tomato. For dressing I used balsamic as usual.

Ray and Debby brought grilled tofu with Thai chili curry and black bean soup.

It was a feast.

Oh, and I forgot. I made dessert. This was my first adventure in the area of dessert.

I took and entire squash (what I thought was a turban squash, although I may be wrong on that one) and baked it in a pan with a few inches of water at 200 degrees for several hours until the skin was soft and pliable.

I then removed the squash meat from the skin, and discarded the skin. The the meat I added a pear, two small apples and some grapes all cut up fairly small. I added about 2 cups of pomegranate juice as well. I mixed this thoroughly and baked it at 350 degrees until bubbly (about 30 minute).

It made a hearty dessert, but not too sweet. No added oil. A little sugar from the juice. But very similar to other dessert recipes I see on Dr. F.'s site.

Today I am feeling great, although my skin is still itchy. My lesions continue to shrink and heal. The pace of scaling has slowed.

I intend to provide Dr. F. the test results from Dr. Sharp's testing in PDF form today. Ruth and I will also attend a yoga class this afternoon.

So far today, I have had a smoothie, similar to what I have described in the past, but at the suggestion of Jodi, my friend in Cary, I have started adding greens. I added about a cup of frozen spinach to this mix, and it worked fine. I will continue to add more greens until I reach my limit.

We are presently having a bowl of fruit consisting of grapes and pears.

More later.

Day thirteen begins

Almost two weeks now!

I am still losing weight slowly. My pace has slowed down. I will be happy with 2 to 3 pounds per week at this point.

I had a smoothie last night similar to my other smoothies. I am now eating a bowl of oatmeal with a little soymilk and a spoonful of flaxseed. I like the nuttiness of the flax.

I slept very well last night. My lesions continue to clear.

Ruth and I decided to be lazy today. We are not going to either yoga or church. We are just sitting around computing, reading books, and talking. I will freshen up the lentils for lunch later. We will also have a large salad. I will try to get to the gym at some point today.

Basically, I am taking today off. Not off the diet, but off of anything other than health and relaxing.

I have been reading the book The China Study. This is another political manifesto, similar to the fasting book by Dr. F. It points out again what is screwed up in our society and why we are dying from within.

Unless there is a radical change in the way we live, our society is doomed. That's for damn sure. Given the exponential rate of increase in chronic lifestyle diseases of all kinds, and given the potential for health care costs to completely bankrupt our economy, we are facing a potential crisis which could make the Great Depression look like a walk in the park. I don't think the potential for this crisis has been recognized adequately in the books I have read so far.

The band aids being proposed by the politicians, pundits and policy makers do not address the basic issue: Health quality and disease prevention. Making the health care system (which is of course a misnomer) more available does not begin to address the problem. We will wipe out the profit of our entire economy and go into a cash flow loss position if health care costs continue to rise unabated. At that point it is simply a matter of time before the economy simply collapses.

We are talking major social and economic upheaval here.

I am still struggling with how to behave in the light of this information. It certainly boggles the mind that we as a society have not woken up to the implications of the findings described in the China Study and Dr. F.'s books. (As well as Dean Ornish, MacDougal, Pritikin, and the rest.)

In a previous post, I promised to describe the theories on the causes of psoriasis. Here goes.

First, if you go to a medical doctor, especially a dermatologist, he or she will tell you "We have no idea what causes psoriasis. There seems to be a genetic component. Diet may be a factor, but we have not been able to show anything consistent. We can treat the symptoms, but there is no cure."

These are all very ignorant statements. We have many theories on what causes psoriasis, and all of the probably have some validity. Diet is certainly a factor. Yes, it does run in families. (My father would have died of psoriasis if cancer had not gotten him first. And my son Samuel has it as well.)

First, is the "leaky gut" theory. In this theory, unfriendly bacteria and other microbes (most notably the fungus candida albicans) infest the gut and cause it to become less effective. There is a barrier in the small intestine that allows only nutrients to cross into the blood. Nutrients include things like sugars, lipids and amino acids. They do not include entire strands of protein. However, the infestation of the gut causes this barrier to become less effective. At that point, particles of intact food pass into the blood. This includes partial strands of protein, containing hundreds of thousands of amino acids in a chain. These are recognized by the body as being foreign invaders and antibodies are formed against these proteins. Later, the body attacks any similar looking proteins. If the proteins are contained in organs of the body, then the body attacks these proteins as well. This can include skin cells, in the case of psoriasis, joint cells, in the case of rheumatoid arthritis, and so forth.

Next is the glyconutrient theory. This states that all cells are coated with a set of glycoproteins (a protein base with a sugar on top). These glycoproteins form a communication network whereby the cells communicate with the immune system. The cells are able to send various messages to the immune system, such as "restore me", "I am under attack", "I am fine", "leave me alone", and so forth. In an autoimmune disease, this pathway breaks down. The message of "I am under attack" goes through, but the message "I am fine" does not. As a result, the immune system commences to heal a cell, but then does not stop doing so. This leads to the "repeated injury" syndrome whereby an area of the body that suffers a repeated injury (including fairly mild injuries) becomes subject to an autoimmune disease.

I have tried treating psoriasis with both of these theories with minimal effect. Dr. F. endorses the leaky gut view but believes the solution is to heal the gut. In the meantime, sending proteins across the leaky pathway that have minimal resemblance to your own tissues (in other words animal protein) helps to stop the antibody creation process. This seems to be working in my case.

Fasting will eventually heal the gut by causing the infestation to die. I saw some of that during my fast in which I had a huge increase in symptoms and toxic bad breath. I will probably take another layer off in my next fast.

More later.

Day twelve continued reprise

Three posts today. Coobers!

Ruth and I had dinner. I did research on the internet for healthy vegetarian restaurants. The name which kept coming up on every site I visited was the Blue Corn Cafe on Ninth Street in Durham.

This place did not disappoint. I explained to the server (a nice young man named Dylan) that I could not consume any animal products whatsoever, and wanted everything very light in terms of oil. He recommended the vegetarian fajitas, which he promised would be light. They provided avocados instead of guacamole (their guac contains sour cream) and I made my own guac with a little salsa. The fajitas were grilled zucchini and yellow squash, onion, tomato, and mushroom. The sauce was very light. They had excellent vegetarian black beans. I mostly went without any tortillas, but had them bring corn instead of flour (a huge savings in calories). There was a green salad included in the entree as well. The total cost for this meal for both Ruth and I was less than $40. Which for a nice date night dinner is a bargain.

I will continue to research low fat, salt and sugar vegetarian restaurants in the area. This is a good part of the world for this type of cuisine. Ruth and I should be able to eat out frequently without deviating from the diet.

I feel great. My lesions are shrinking. I am not very itchy. My level of inflammation is extremely low. I have slight stiffness in the right hand, and almost none in the left. My mental clarity is extremely sharp. I have great energy.

I am considering my next fast. Ruth is going to Florida to visit her mother next week from Thursday to Sunday. My plan is to fast for four days at that time. I will ask Dr. F. if it is too soon to do so.

More later.

Day twelve continued

I ate another pear with valencia peanut butter and a brown rice cake. Later I had a bowl of lentils (see post from earlier today) and a large salad similar to last night.

I then went and rode a 15 mile light mountain bike ride with Ray and the rest of the biking group. It was a beautiful day. I got home, showered and crashed. I slept about an hour. I am now hungry. Ruth is getting off of work, and we are planning on eating dinner together. I am researching good vegetarian restaurants in Durham.

More later.

Day twelve begins

Bringing the food diary up to date, after I got home last night, I had a thin brown rice cake with a small amount of Arrowhead Mills valencia peanut butter on it. I also ate half a pear. Later, I made a pot of lentils as follows:

1 whole onion chopped fine
4 celery stalks chopped fine
3 large carrots chopped fine
5 large cloves of garlic, crushed
1 bag of frozen spinach
1 Tsp garam masala
4 large sprigs of fresh rosemary
1 Tsp cumin
1 Tsp olive oil
1 bag of dried lentils
1 container of vegetable broth (I use Whole Foods 365 brand organic)

Place all of the veggies in the pot and add the olive oil, garam masala, rosemary and cumin. Saute until the onions are clear and soft. Add the remaining ingredients and then simmer until the lentils are tender.

Takes about 45 minutes. Completely delicious. No added salt, and very little fat.

I also made a big salad consisting of romaine lettuce, red endive, red bell pepper, red grapes, heirloom tomato, and raw almonds. Added a dressing of balsamic vinegar. Again, delicious, no added salt and no fat at all.

I ate one bowl of the lentils and two servings of salad. I am pushing on salad now, rather than the more caloricaly dense legumes. I figure I can maintain fullness and satiety while reducing my calories that way.

Later I made a smoothie consisting of banana, frozen cherries, frozen blueberries, ground flaxseed, Natrol Factors green supplment and soymilk. I made the same smoothie this morning as well.

I slept very well, although I was bothered a bit by arthritis in the night. Thsi morning, I have plenty of energy. I weighed in at 245.8, down significantly from yesterday. My waist was 49 inches flat. I also measured blood pressure this morning at 124 over 72.

My plan is to ride the bike today at 1 with Ray and the biking group. Should be a nice day, although a bit cool.

I have some medical stuff to follow up on. Dr. F. is interested in reviewing the test results from Dr. Sharp. I am very open to this. It is great to get many sets of eyes on this problem.

More later.

Day eleven continued

I weighed myself and was a whopping 249.8 pounds. Yeah, I definitely pigged out yesterday. Everything I ate was on Dr. F.'s unrestricted list, but I really, really over did it. 3 pounds of fresh fruits and vegetables for lunch may be a bit too much. Lots of legumes are in there too. I suspect that it is the legumes actually that are the trigger for weight gain. They are calorically dense after all. Yes, they are very nutritious, but they contain way more calories than, say, lettuce.

That was pre-BM, though. Post-BM, I was 248.4, which is better, but still higher than yesterday.

We will eat a bit less today.

Waist was 48.5, which is a bit less. I may be gaining some muscle. Yoga for a week will do that.

I will readily admit that Bikram yoga is the most demanding and physical workout I have done in years. Mountain biking for three hours will make me feel similar, but Bikram only takes 90 minutes to achieve the same state. It is a killer workout.

Areas that are probably developing are the shoulders, legs and lower back. These areas get worked very, very hard in Bikram yoga.

One issue I am having is gas. Lots of legumes yesterday is causing me to have this issue in spades. Kind of unpleasant.

My plan to day is to focus on green leafy vegetables. I have had a smoothie and a bowl of oatmeal so far today. I will be going down to the office shortly. At that point, I will have one of the salads at the EMC cafeteria. I may also have a piece of fruit. I plan to work out lightly on a cardio machine there as well.

More later.

Day eleven begins

I attended another Bikram yoga class last night. I had a good time in this class. Once again, I probably sweated a gallon of water, and this scaled off all lesions. The lesions are growing smaller and the pace of scaling is slowing down. I am still quite itchy though.

I had difficulty going to sleep last night but slept very well once I had done so.

Backing up, for dinner last night I had steamed broccoli, fresh grapes, brown rice, chickpeas and a product called TVP (texturized vegetable protein). My wife makes a face with this stuff, but I think it tastes fairly nice. A lot like meat. For one who misses eating meat, it is a nice change. Later I had a smoothie consisting of soymilk, banana, cherries, ground flaxseed, and a green food product from Natrols. I had this for breakfast as well. We also ate a bowl of fruit with blue berries, strawberries, kiwi and banana.

I ate a lot of food yesterday. It will be interesting to see what my weight is today. Other than brown rice, everything I ate yesterday was in the unlimited category on the ETL diet.

arthritis is at a low to moderate level, certainly nothing like what I was experiencing before the diet. I have a low-level headache, and I am feeling a bit stressed. Probably that's my job. I have lots of deadlines boring down on me right now. If I could afford to simply take a few weeks off to heal and diet, I would do so, but I am saving that time for my fast in a few months. Thus, I still need to be productive right now. It is a challenge to do so, I must admit, as much as I am concentrating a lot of energy on health. However, my energy level is very high, and I am avoiding caffeine entirely. This tells me that I should be able to handle the demands of my work while not compromising on health or diet.

More later.

Day ten continued

The appointment with Dr. Sharp was interesting.

There was a bit of disagreement on the part of Dr. Fuhrman with Dr. Sharp's use of the LEAP test. Dr. F. regards this test as virtually worthless. He said you could run the test five times and get five different results. This caused me to view Dr. S. with some suspicion.

In my conversation with Dr. S. this morning, he basically agreed with Dr. F., but was somewhat less extreme. He agreed the test is only about 50% accurate. The thing he was going for, however, was not specific food sensitivities, but the number of food sensitivities present. This lets him know the amount of "leaky gut" (I will explain this in a later post) activity going on.

In my case, the number is very low. He did produce some interesting results. I am low in vitamins B and D, short chain omega 3 fat and selenium. The vitamin D deficiency, in particular, may be very involved in psoriasis. Dovonex, a topical cream used for treating psoriasis, is a vitamin D derivative. He sold me some supplements to address these issues. He had the vegetarian form of EPA fats, which was nice. His supplements were also reasonably priced.

I asked him about ETL and fasting. On the diet end, he was extremely supportive and impressed with my results so far. He said fasting was controversial. His office does lots of elimination diets, and usually sees good results from doing so. He also said that detoxification is an energy-intensive process requiring calories and amino acids, so how would that work when fasting? On the other hand, he admitted that there have been many studies performed which showed amazing results from fasting. He had never heard of Dr. F. I referred him to the fasting book, and he agreed to read it, and made an appointment with me for 4 weeks from today. At that point, I will be further into the diet, on supplements, and we can discuss whether Dr. S. would be able to medically supervise me on the fast.

Of course, Jodi indicated that Dr. F. would also do so over the phone. So I probably have a source for medical supervision of my fast either way.

Overall, I was quite pleased with the appointment. I am on the diet and going forward.

I had lunch with my friend Ray. I ate almost 3 pounds of fresh fruits and vegetables (including some legumes) with no oil or added sugar. In other words, all the stuff which Dr. F. says you can have an unlimited quantity of. The only dressing was balsamic vinegar. It was great, but cost over $20. I feel absolutely terrific after eating this meal, though. Not too full, but definitely satisfied, with great energy and mental clarity.

More later.

Day ten begins

I slept very well last night. I had some more interesting dreams, but I will not go into that right now.

I made some killer pinto beans, and Ruth and I had those before going to bed last night. Dr. F. allows unlimited consumption of this sort of thing.

My beans consisted of a bag of dried pinto beans soaked 24 hours. I added a container of vegetable broth, a whole onion chopped. four cloves of garlic, an entire bokchoy, garam masala, and cumin. There was no added salt in these beans. I cooked them for about 3 hours. They were amazing. The cost of this entire dish was about $4.

We ate very well off of them last night, and have at least that much left over. That's 4 meals at $1 per meal.

I weighed 246.6 this morning. I have not measured my waist. Symptom wise, my lesions are beginning to heal in some places. My inflammation is moderate. I have a little stiffness in my hands. I am slightly itchy.

I am noticing a benefit to the diet in terms of emotional state and mental clarity. I seem to be sharper. I have more energy. I am not drinking any caffeinated beverages, so that may be part of it. I worked out yesterday for 30 minutes on a Precor EFX 346 (interval 11/13), and found it very easy. I was much less tired after doing this than before I went on the diet.

I have a doctor's appointment with Dr. Sharp this morning at 9:00 a.m. I need to get there.

More later.

Day nine continued

I feel pretty good today. I have minimal inflammation. The arthritis is way down. My forehead is still smooth to the touch. My scaling is slowing down. Some of my lesions are even healing.

Pretty cool.

For lunch I ate a salad consisting of field greens, carrots, tomato, purple onion, yellow squash, zucchini squash, chickpeas, cucumber and red bell pepper. I added a sprinkling of sunflower seeds. I used balsamic vinegar as a salad dressing with no oil. The yellow and zucchini squash, purple onion and some of the tomato were lightly marinated and had some oil. Aside from that, the salad was oil free.

I drank purified water with lemon juice all day. No caffeine today.

For dinner I made a spaghetti squash with a sauce consisting of tomato sauce (organic from the can), onion, garlic, and bokchoy. I also added some fresh oregano to this sauce. Spooned that over the spaghetti squash. Delicious! Completely fat free and ETL compliant. No added salt either.

Most excellent.

I have been haunted by a dream I had last night. We lived in a beautiful house right by the sea. One day, for no particular reason, we decided to flood the house with water. We took a hose, put it in the upstairs family room, and turned it on.

I looked around and saw all of the lovely things in the house. Furniture, musical instruments, electronics, and so forth. I realized that they would all be destroyed by the water. I decided to save as many of them as possible.

When I came outside, I saw my front porch was filled with lots of suspicious looking people lurking about, most of whom I did not know. I saw one guy who was my neighbor. Although I did not know, like or trust this guy very much, at least I knew him. I asked him if he would watch my stuff for me while I brought it out of the house. He said sure.

I commenced to carry all of the valuables out of the house and put them in the care of this man. On my last trip out of the house (to recover my wallet and cell phone), he was gone and so were all of my things.

I got the police and came to his house. I called his number from my cell phone, and he answered. I asked about my stuff, and he replied "What stuff?" When the police began banging down his door, we caught him in the act of destroying my Taylor guitar (irreplaceable one-of-a-kind 25 year anniversary special).

I woke up.

Interpreting this dream has been a background task of my mind all day. Near as I can tell, the house is my body. All of the lovely things are my health. The ability to perform music has been robbed from me by arthritis, for example. The water hose was food, diet, and the unhealthy lifestyle I have led. For some reason, in the dream, it never occurred to me to turn off the hose. Instead, I was focused on saving the beautiful things, while the house was destroyed.

The suspicious people lurking outside were the medical industry. The man I knew was my doctor, who I view with deep suspicion. By following his advice, I entrust the beautiful things (my health) into his care. But in the end, he steals my health from me and destroys it anyway.

I think that's pretty close to the correct interpretation, near as I can tell. What is happening in my mind is that I am struggling with the process of turning off the hose. That is the painfully obvious step that was required to save not only the beautiful things in the house, but the house itself. I am just now beginning to understand what is required to turn that hose off. This blog is about that process. The process of saving my health, and ultimately, my life.

More later.