I'm more hungry today than I was yesterday. I am feeding this by talking about food, recipes, looking at cookbooks and hanging out with eaters. I had enough just a bit ago as I felt my body reach a more nauseating level of hunger; and so I walked away to retreat to my room. Talking and listening are getting a little harder. Hunger distracts me in waves. It reminds me of pain I would feel during my numerous Colorado Trail Races, it would come and go. Like pain hunger is not a comforting feeling and luckily it is not constant.
The conversations here are stimulating, they revolve around food, hunger, and health. It's nice to be around like minded health concsious folks who are dedicated to getting well through lifestyle change mainly found in the diet. I feel lucky in the sense that if I didn't have RA I would not have been motivated to make this huge change. I am working on embracing this and for me that looks like embracing health and healing and change.
I live in a little pod with 2 other women. I share a bathroom with one and the living space with all three. There is a kitchen with nothing in it, no cooking allowed in there. There is a coffee pot that sits on the counter, cruelly reminding me of my biggest weakness, essentially my heroine. It's there to make hot water in case cold or room temperature water get boring. My one roomate has RA as well, she is from Norway. She travelled here to fast for 14 -21 days because she has been on a slew of RA meds that haven't worked for her. She's optimistically giving this a try, she's a wonderful lady.
The fasting rules are clear. There is no cooking in your kitchen. No showers or baths as your fainting risk goes from good to great. No leaving the premises because they don't want you fainting in public and cracking your face open. No use of any products while water fasting such as toothpaste, body creams, perfumes, scented shampooos/conditioners or soaps. The point of a fast is to get things out not put them back in. By refraining from all products your body can gain the optimal beneftis of the fast without any interruption.
Not everyone fasts on water. Some do a juice fast and others just eat a no SOS (salt, oil, sugar) vegan diet while here. This is the diet I followed with several cheats before I came. Ironically I fell into the Paleo trap for quite some time prior to being a vegan. It's interesting to learn the benefirts of this diet and the detriments of a Paleo one. I always was weary of eating all that meat, turns out my instincts were right on. Mainly we get all the protein and fats we need from vegetables. Do the research and you'll understand. Which leads me to the word research. We have a plethora of educational DVDs to watch on diet, health, nutrition, psychology, you name it. We also have daily optional lectures. Today Dr. Lisle spoke, PhD in Psychology, very smart dude. He was able to answer my question on correlation is not causation and how research is manipulated to benefit many merchants. He talked today about DNA and genetic makeup and wiring; some hard to follow with this hunger distraction and other stuff resonated so well. Education is power and if I want to be successful with this diet I need the knowledge to help me succeed. This place feeds you knowledge.
I would like to keep track of my daily physcial assessment so here it goes. In December of this year I was 165 lbs. Since eating the vegan and no salt, sugar, oil diet I dropped down to 155 lbs on average. Before leaving I was 152.5 on Wednesday on vegetables and fruits for 1.5 days. On Thursday I weighed 148.8 and today 147.5. I have not weighed in the 140s in forever and although my goal here is not weight loss it's kind of fun to see this body change. Weight loss is obviously inevetible with a water fast but when I go back to eating my goal is to maintain a healthly weight. My BP is 106/69, heart rate 50 and temperature 97.9 today. I'm a little hunger crampy but not nauseous. I get an occasional head rush upon standing and my brain is struggling to find creativity to write this blog. Oh I almost forgot to comment on the whole reason for me being here, my PAIN. Everyday my pain is less and less and my range of motion in my fingers increases. Earlier this week I could barely move my thumbs due to the pain and swelling. Today my thumbs are pain free and my hands don't throb. My feet are less swollen and easier to walk on without limping.
I'm tired of writing now. More tomorrow!
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