David’s Fasting Adventure

Outcomes of this fasting experiment

If you cast your thoughts back to Day 5 of my blog, I had put down that two of my key reasons for doing this experiement were to:

1. Cleanse my body of any unwanted toxins which had built up over time
   
2. To see what was possible with my body and to see what would happen with no food.

I checked the scales this morning -10.1kg

This morning I weighed in at 62.7kg and I started at 72.8kg which is a loss of 10.1kg in 19 days.  My outcome for this experiment was not to lose lots of weight and I decided that I didn’t want to lose any more.  As a result, and with the peace of mind that I’ve achieved my outcome for this experience, I decided today would be my last day of water only.

So you haven’t eaten for nearly three weeks, what would you like first?

How about a Bentonite clay and Psyllium husk cocktail?

For my last day of water fasting, I had one final cleansing experiment to do.  Over a 6 hour period, I had a mixture of bentonite clay in water one hour, then on the next hour, a psyllium husk and slippery elm mixture, then the next hour the clay again and repeated this 6 times in total.  It felt as if there was a weight in my stomach, and I was a little concerned that I’d overdone the husk drink which can cause constipation!

Bentonite Clay is an effective detoxifier with substances that absorb toxins from our alimentary canal. Bentonite clay can never be absorbed by the body, so it’s not poisonous at all. When we take bentonite clay with psyllium Husk, the clay does the important duty of absorbing all toxic substances from our mucuous linings – it’s like a magnet that attracts toxins. Psyllium husk then finishes the job by pushing all these nasty substances such as mucoid plaque out of our body.

Bentonite Clay, it’s all negative

The reason bentonite clay is so effective in what it does is because it has a negative charge, and most toxins in our body have a positive charge. Since opposites attract it makes bentonite clay so useful in binding to toxins.  Bentonite clay can absorb any toxic substances imaginable including:

- impurities
- harmful bacteria
- poisons
- pesticides
- pathogens
- parasites etc.

It does this without posing any nasty side effects in us, because as mentioned before, it can’t be absorbed by us.

Back to Northey St, the organic markets

I was like a child in a candy store this morning at the markets and bought heaps of fruit and vegetables – I mean HEAPS!  This included oranges, lemons, limes, apples, 6kg carrots, a 9kg watermelon, beetroots, kale, 2 bags of guavas and a handful of other delicious items.  I can’t wait to get juicing tomorrow and watermelon is on the top of my list.  FYI, an organic watermelon that size only cost $18 which I thought was very reasonable.  Back to my friend Don Tolman, he apparently fasted for 90 days on watermelon and watermelon juice alone!  

P.S. that is definately not my intention right now – can’t wait to eat.

Decisions about the rest of this fast

Tomorrow I’ll explain about what I’ll be doing for the rest of the fast and also for those who are interested, the result of the clay and psyllium husk cocktail party!

admin Fasting, Health, Vegetables Bentonite clay, Fasting, losing 10kg in 19 days, Northey St, psyllium husk

I used an external microphone for my new video camera today and it didn’t work.  As a result, I ended up with a recording with visual only and no sound.  I couldn’t have you watching without hearing, so I dubbed my own words (I should have used a Chinese accent as I felt like I was in a kung fu movie!), and also now have my movie maker tool working so added a bit of Earth, Wind and Fire to the video (I gave a guided tour of my veges so thought that was appropriate).  If I have more time I’ll start creating other funky videos.

Lemons – one of the wonder fruits

Lemons are an amazing fruit.  They are great for energy, for killing intestinal parasites such as roundworms and for dissolving gallstones.  In addition, they are the only fruit in the world which contain ionic fluid which is also found in the liver.  As a result, when you consume lemons, you are helping clean and repair your liver.  In fact, you can apparently regrow your whole liver by consuming a cup of freshly squeezed lemon juice ever day for 90 days.  If you have liver problems, I recommend giving this a go as you have nothing to lose and a new liver to gain!

Another thing about lemons is that they are yellow, and curiously the liver produces bile which is … yellow.  All yellow fruits and vegetables are good for your liver.

Papaya or Paw Paw

Seeing as I have them in my garden, a little about the wonderful papaya.

It is another amazing fruit full of vitamin A and C as well ac calcium, iron, potassium and beta carotene amongst others.  It has great digestive properties and when consumed, it helps with your immune system as well as with colon health.  If you rub the fruit (just the flesh in the skin when you’ve eaten the rest) and leave it for a short while before washing off, it digests impurities on the skin and leaves you with healthy soft skin.  It helps prevent rheumatoid arthritis due to all the Vitamin C as well as protects against emphysema.  It tastes delicious with lime and the seeds are very hot and spicy (like pepper) if you eat them and crunching and eating a few is a good thing.

Organic or non-organic?

By now you probably know that eating organic is a better way to go, but if you don’t buy organic, it’s important to wash your fruit and veg in apple cider vinegar (see an earlier post with the apple cider vinegar bottle.)  I just found this website which has the Clean 15 – Foods you don’t have to Buy Organic, and the Dirty Dozen, 12 Foods to Buy Organic.  You may find it worth a glance so you know for future reference and explanations of what to look for is also given.  I was surprised to see carrots in the dirty dozen!

For Quick Reference, here are the lists:  The Clean 15 – foods you dont have to buy organic:

1. Onions
2. Avocados
3. Corn on the cob
4. Pineapples
5. Mangoes
6. Asparagus
7. Sweet Peas (in pods)
8. Kiwi fruit
9. Cabbage
10. Egg plant / Aubergine
11. Papaya
12. Watermelon
13. Broccoli
14. Tomatoes
15. Sweet Potatoes

The Dirty Dozen, 12 foods to buy organic – there are actually 15:

1. Meats & Milk
   
2. Coffee beans
3. Peaches
4. Apples
5. Peppers / Capsicums
6. Celery
7. Nectarines
8. Strawberries
9. Cherries
10. Kale
11. Leafy greens
12. Grapes
13. Carrots
14. Pears
15. Potatoes

Time for bed.  Have a great weekend!

Stop Press – can you believe this!?  The first Depressant Drug for people who are too happy!!!!!

By the way, it’s apparently not for real (TheOnion apparently makes things like this up) … be careful what you believe!

admin Fasting, Health, Vegetables Fasting, in the garden, Lemons, Liver, Papaya, Paw Paw

Cooking isn’t eating!

Very fortunately for me, cooking isn’t eating!  As a result I’ve been making some lovely foods in my amazing Oscar juicer and inviting friends round to eat them for me.  I made a delicious raw chutney the other day by using the mincing attachment and throwing in onions, green tomatoes, green apples, garlic and chilli and then once it was minced I added organic sultanas and apple cider vinegar.  

Whatever you do, use Apple Cider Vinegar!

 A quick side note on apple cider vinegar – whatever you do, consume it!  It is one of the oldest, most powerful healing home remedies for allergies and fantastic for your body in so many ways.  This is not the case with other vinegars which are not very good for you at all.  If I remember correctly, it has been reported that people who consume an eggcup full (mixed with water if you can’t handle the taste) per day, have overcome allergies such as from irritants such as pollen, a wide range of foods and animals.  Swap your vinegar and make sure this is getting into your body.

In addition to all these wonderful things, if you don’t have access to organic fruit and vegetables, simply fill the sink and add a cup of apple cider vinegar and wash them all for at least a minute to remove the pesticides and chemicals.  It’s amazing as I did this the other day and although they looked lovely and had been rinsed, the vinegar showed up a white residue on the apple skins which I actually had to scrub off.  In experiments the chemicals transfer to the liqued off the fruit.

Back to my cooking

Other amazing dips I’ve made recently include: spinach, cashew, macadamia, almond, home grown basil & oregano dip and tonight I’m going to create my egg-plant dip ( I roasted them with salt and a bit of olive oil last night) and try the rice noodles too – leftover rice mixed with water through the noodle attachment.

The final most delicious (I’ve been told) chocolate style bliss balls ever I created for Allie last night when she came over and that was:  soaked cacao beans, cashew nuts, macadamias, almonds, walnuts, dates and sultanas.  After creating a poo-like substance, I rolled it in puffed brown rice and coconut – apprently it was to die for!  On the note of Allie, one of my best friends in Brisbane, a big shout out to her for completing a 7 day water fast recently and it was a pleasure to prepare these dishes as sheis  now re-educating her body with amazing Wholefoods.  She’s looking great now and lost heaps of weight too.

What do you do when you spend a day at home alone?

I think it’s very interesting to see what people do when there’s nothing they have to do.  I’ve had a little while off from work so the novelty of watching DVDs or completing a few items from my never ending list of Things To Do have gone.  Today I spent the day reading the book Wink by Roger Hamilton and highly recommend it for an inspirational and worthwhile read if you’re not sure what you want in life or would like more clarity.  As a side-note, did you know that pre-1930 words had a multitude of different meanings, and the word want is one of them.  Want used to mean lack.  Next time you say you want something, perhaps rephrase it in a way which suggests that you already have it and are searching for more i.e. I want to be confident = I’m learning to be more confident (which illustrates that you already have some confidence).  Consciously this may not make a big difference, but unconsciously, this makes a huge difference.  Check out hyperdictionary.com as it often has the old meaning as well as the current meaning.  Check out he words such as Passion & Love – if I remember correctly, they have some interesting meanings.

So I read a book, had a snooze, had a bath, did some washing (so I could use the water from my bath again), stood in the sun, planned my day for tomorrow and am about to make rice noodles and egg-plant dip

Going Sailing

What a lucky boy I am … a good friend of mine, Michael Schiffner is having his birthday next month and he phoned me from the Byron Bay Blues and Roots festival today to see if I was interested in joining him and a total of 10 friends on a catamaran sailing around the Whitsunday Islands for 9 days next month.  Just by chance I don’t have any courses to train that week so I said yes!  I even managed to get my flights to Townsville (where we pick up the boat) for only A$15 each way as I used my frequent flyer points.  

Quotes of the day: ”Listen carefully, opportunity often knocks lightly”  and

“Many people wander along in life and trip over amazing opportunities.  Then they get up, dust themselves off and continue walking along in their sleep.”

admin Health, Opportunity Apple Cider Vinegar, Fasting, Organic, Oscar, Sailing, Wink

Today is the last day of juicing, and I’m feeling great.  Just posting this before work as I weighed this morning.  Very interesting I think.

This is a chart of my daily weights and measures taken each morning.

I’ll write more this evening.

It’s this evening, in fact it’s nearly morning again!

No issues with energy or hunger today.  I put the ease of success of this whole process down to the fact that I’m committed to the fast and unless I’m feeling ill or dangerous, I can’t see any reason not to continue.  I was on my feet training for about half the day, and half the day seated (it was Advanced Excel so I had to be at the computer) and in the evening was sitting down playing poker at a local pub in the city and that’s where I felt a cramp begin in my left thigh.  I thought this was related to the fasting, but after a facebook chat with Fiona, a friend of mine who runs yoga, breathing, dancing and energising experiences , she explained something which shed some interesting light – more about that later…

How do you get rid of immobilising back pain which has been there for 13 years?

I’m not sure I have to say this, but please realise that all I enter in this blog is my opinion based on my experiences and what I’ve witnessed or learned.

Did you know that on an energetic level, if something happens to any part of your body, there is a lot more to it than just the actual physical ailment. A simple example is that an issue with your voice could mean that you’re not saying something you really want to, or a problem with your neck could illustrate a disconnect between your head and heart.

Lower back pain is often related to support … whether emotional, family or financial.

In 1994 when I was at university in Birmingham, I was racing a friend on my rollerskates and I twisted my lower back.  That lead to about 2 months where I couldn’t straighten my back and looked like an old man.  Sophie, my girlfriend at the time, even slept on the floor so I could have the bed and did her best to help minimise the pain (thanks Sophie!)

The pain did reduce when I was travelling across and around Australia and New Zealand around 1998-2001 but it did come back, and to be honest, if I walked anywhere for more than 5 minutes, I’d be looking for where I could stop so I could sit or lie down and stretch – I felt the pain on a daily basis at 5/10 and sometimes as high as 8/10.  Only a few close friends knew about this as I never really shared it as I didn’t see it as their issue and those of you who know me, know that I’m far too much of an optimist to see the negative so just kept it quiet.

When I settled in Brisbane, a combination of good food, keeping healthy, movement, regular chiropractic care from the excellent Dr Stefan Becker in Brisbane (now a great friend) AND paying off all the debts I had, led to me ‘fixing’ this problem.  Within two months of paying off all my debts (which hit A$85,000+ at one point) my back pain disappeared and with continued maintenance has not returned.  I believe that at some level, the feeling of not being able to support myself financially at that time, caused the pain to stay with me.  I never accepted that I’d be like that forever, and as a result I no longer feel that pain.

So David, what’s this got to do with cramp in your left thigh and how could I use this information to help issues I have?

Well … when I told Fiona about my cramping today, she asked where the issue was and after I explained, she gave her interpretation: “… ok my interpretation and analysis is that the sides of the thighs are where your gall bladder lines are in Chinese medicine… chi lines… and these deal with family issues.  In addition, the left hand side is usually to do with female – mothers or sisters.”

Let me just say that that struck a loud chord with me from a conversation which took place two days ago and I know that I felt a slight twinge in my leg back then too – quite spooky really.

Action steps for you …

1. NEVER EVER accept the way something is if you don’t want it to be true for you.  It has been proven time and again that the mind is more powerful than the body so make sure you keep that on your side first.  Ask yourself the question, What do I want instead? and consistently focus on the answer.
2. Just Do Something … no matter what it is, realise that you are in control of the way you feel in relation to all that happens to you – how would you like your life to be?  One step a day, and you can get anywhere.
3. Listen to a doctor but trust your intuition and your body more.  Remember the medical industry won’t make money if you’re healthy and is also based on illness not wellness.  If you want to be rich, you don’t study poor people.  If you want to stay healthy, learn about healthy people.  Another thing, Nothing tastes as good as being healthy feels.

Ok, time to dismount again off that high horse of mine.

I’m not sure if anyone out there is even reading this, but I know I enjoy putting it together so hooray for having fun!

admin Fasting, Health 28 days, Back pain, Cramp, Fasting, Sophie Agapios

Weighing in

I was up and at the organic markets today just after 9am to buy my stash for the next couple of days. I decided to add watermelon, ginger and parsley to my juice till the end of my juice section as I felt like it.   I have to admit that it’s quite strange as you’d think that not having food would have negative effects in some way or form, but other than the occasional 1 second headache, nothing has really changed. 

Regarding my weight, this has been the progress so far:

• Day1   72.8kg
• Day2   71.6     -1.2
• Day3   71.3     -0.3  -1.5
• Day4   70.8     -0.5  -2.0
• Day5   70.5     -0.3  -2.3

Now that my body is getting used to the fact that not much nutrition is coming in, I think the weight loss may slow down a bit … we’ll see.  I do also have my fat, water and muscle measurements and will graph them after 7 days.

Why am I doing this fast?

Our Toxic bodies: Our bodies are pretty toxic compared to what they used to be like hundreds/thousands of years ago.  This makes sense as we have a lot more chemicals around us.  Also, we have more illnesses, allergies, colds, cancers and other physical problems.  Trillions of dollars are spent on healthcare every year and with that kind of investment, shouldn’t the frequency of these things be reducing?  Younger and younger people are getting illnesses they really shouldn’t have, and our food is one of the primary ways we get anything in to our bodies.

Recently I heard a story about a woman who completed a 14 day water only fast and then had a mixture of bentonite clay and psyllium husk at the end of it which would sort of enclose and scrape out the inside of her colon.  Next day she passed a big poo.  They analysed it and found the equivalent of 4 teaspoons of mercury inside it which they worked out was the result of a mercury based medicine she was given when she was a teenager to help with period pains!  (on a side note, it was reported that Elvis had as much as 60 lbs (27kgs) of undigested meat in his colon when he died – that figure is likely a bit exaggerated, but even if it was half that, that’s huge!)

I know that I am a relatively clean living person, but I have spent time living in cities and know that some of the chemicals that may be in my body, don’t need to be there so this fast is a big spring clean for my body-temple.  Check out this National Geographic article on our toxic bodies … if you dare!

What else is possible?  I have to say that I’m also curious to know how my body responds to this kind of behaviour.  The freeing feeling already of knowing that skipping a meal isn’t going to kill me and that the amount of food and frequency we eat isn’t quite as important as we may have thought.  Just consider if we all fasted for 1 day per month, certain industries may be quite heavily hit financially which may be one of the reasons it is not highly promoted or discussed.  In addition, in my opinion there would be less illness, and who do you think would be financially affected by that?

There are other reasons too, but I think that’s probably enough of me on my high horse for today so I’m off to bed ready and pumped for the week ahead.

If you’d like to know about specific things, let me know and I’ll add anything about that I know.

Saying of the day: Live with the forsight of hindsight.  If you know you’ll look back and not like something you’re going to do, then don’t do it!

admin Fasting, Health, Uncategorized Fasting, Organic Markets

The Ox and the Gorilla eat protein

Today was a fun day.  My best friend’s sister was married on the Gold Coast and I was the MC so had a role in co-ordinating things. The day went really well and it is now just before 2am and I’m back at home. Still feeling great and not tired. I’ve heard that the first 3 days of fasting are worst, but personally, I didn’t notice much. From here on out, energy levels apparently start to increase and the mind clears up as well as an improvement in the ability to smell and taste (!) also happen.

It appears we’ve been mislead about protein. Many of us believe that protein is required for us to grow big and strong and we need that from meat, however have a think about that for a moment.  An ox can weigh  anything up to 650kg and it is full of muscle.  It can draw carts, plough fields and carry huge loads.  Its made from grass.  Some people say, ‘Well, they’re not like us, they’re designed differently,’  and that may be true, so lets take a gorilla which is much closer to us in design. They can grow to 200kg and they’re made from … leaves and fruit. 

By that rationale, realise that we don’t need to eat meat to get protein … all we’re doing is getting second hand protein from the animal which has consumed vegetables, grasses and fruit to create it’s own protein.  Just a bit of food for thought to illustrate that we can happily surivive on a vegetarian diet if we want to.  Apparently, if we do choose to eat meat, that’s fine, just make sure that you get it through your body within 72hrs as that is when the cadaverines (toxic residue formed during putrefaction of animal tissue) can affect you.  To get the food through more quickly, just eat lots of fruit and vegetables with your meat.

I’m off to the organic markets early tomorrow so better be off to bed.

Origin of Word of the day: Protein – from the Greek Sea God Proteus who could change into whatever he wanted to.

admin Fasting, Health Fasting, Gorilla, Health, Ox, Protein

I recently took part in Don Tolman’s ‘Bootcamp for Brains’ on the Gold Coast, Australia.  Don has some great ideas about health, the mind, the healthcare industry and he focuses primarily on using ancient wisdom in today’s world.

He talks about foods being clearly designed to show us humans what they’re good for. Some examples are:

Walnuts – look like a brain, two hemispheres and full of Omega 3, 6 and 9 – great brain food.

Celery – looks like a bone, breaks like a bone and is 21 % sodium – the same as a bone!

Avocado – looks like the womb or cervix, is great for balancing female hormones and shedding excess weight (especially after giving birth) and takes 9 months from blossom to ripened fruit!!! (he has a list on his website if you’re interested: Don Tolman Wholefoods

Anyway, as a result of going along, I realised that the health implications of a fast were massive compared to the apparent fear we have that we’ll starve to death. So I thought I’d put it to the test.

Two days ago I moved on to juices only (carrot, apples, beetroot and lemon predominantly) and will continue this for 1 week. After that I’ll do 2 weeks on water only and then finish off with another week of juices to get my body used to food again.

I’m making a short video each day to let you know how I go if you’re interested and you can see and hear about the results I get.

I’ll explain more about fasting and the reason it is confusingly considered a strange or unhealthy thing to do in this day and age.

Word of the day: To fast – meaning, to Make Strong.

admin Health 28 day fast, Davinator, Don Tolman, Fasting, Health