Whoa! It’s been 7 months since my 40 day fast!

My goodness where does the time go? I’m not quite sure exactly what I’ve been doing but one thing’s for sure…I’ve been busy. It’s been quite an amazing journey post fast and if you’re still reading this, I want to say thank you for your support, well-wishes, comments and love – at times I’ve felt like a new bride being showered with grains of gratitude and inspiration from you. This fast has shown me so much about myself and every day since then is unfolding in possibilities I didn’t know existed. The book is on it’s way!

So what have I been up to? Attempting to live my message of clean, pure  simplicity in everything I do I guess. This has lead to many things:

1. Moved from one mountain to another (Tamborine Mountain to Springbrook) – sigh, surrounded by nothing square and nothing but green – talk about the ultimate in simplicity! I walk 50 metres and there spread out before me is the most magnificent mountain view! Puts everything in perspective for me, reminds me how small I am and how short my life really is. I love it. See picture.

2. Easily maintaining a 80 – 90% living food diet – how simple is it to grab a capsicum, rip it open with my bare hands and chomp down… or just munching into a tomato and a handful of olives… Yum! Even now, looking through raw food “cook books” makes me drool whereas other cook books have no fascination at all for me. Do still love roast potato and yam though slathered in butter. Hard to imagine life without those.

3. Cut down on social activities and networking functions – to be totally truthful (don’t hold back now Susan!), I was never really much of a social bunny but I think I’ve been kinda hibernating and licking myself in the dark. Back on the shelf now though folks so watch out! I also used to go to every single networking function I could but for simplicities sake I’ve become more choosy about what I give my time and energy to: I’ve become more choosy about the relationships I want to develop and grow and those that show less potential. (This may sound a lil harsh – after all, we’re all special but you know how some relationships are just plain easy and flowing and other just aren’t and don’t? That’s what I mean about being more choosy.)

4. Rebranded and transformed my business - the clarity I have gained about mistakes I have made is incredible! I feel like I’m starting again but with a lot more knowledge and experience behind me. From the outside my work probably still looks like a “hobby” but I always did have to play by my own rules and I now it seems all the pieces of the puzzle are falling into place. One big change was the realisation that working with stress and anxiety is 100% reactive – people don’t seek help until a major crises has happened or they’ve seen something about themselves they really don’t like. I decided I wanted to create something where I could focus on prevention and actually go out and directly find clients – Health and Wellness Programs for businesses with staff  is what it looks like. Have a squiz at www.susanliving.com. I’ve also realised there are certain things I excel at that I really haven’t been doing – speaking and running workshops for one. So more of that on the way too. I also want to create a community of people interested in health and wellbeing – it doesn’t look like much yet but head on over to  www.susansfoodforthought.com - I’ll be blogging away daily shortly with my journey on another fast (Good God no! Not 40 days this time! I think that was a once in a lifetime thing…) which I’d love to share with and (hopefully) stimulate as I fearlessly disclose and entertainingly educate.

Phew! Is that it? I’m sure there’s more but that will do for now.

Oh! Almost forgot! But what about Charles I hear you ask? What happened to him? He is also maintaining the 80 – 90% raw diet too – he loves it and has HEAPS less physical health issues and HEAPS more energy since the major diet change. As for weight loss – he is still working on it. He’s done up one extra belt buckle (which is BRILLIANT!) and is slowly figuring out how he can maintain weight reduction (not losing weight only to find it again). I was a bit of a driving force with making his story so public and in hindsight (what a marvelous thing that is) I should have perhaps left it in his hands. I’m glad he is doing this the right way for him rather than being obsessed with one diet after another – I don’t think that’s good for the body at all – I’m learning so much! You haven’t heard the last of his story I’m sure..

Till next we see each other in the flesh or online, I wish you vibrant health worth celebrating and a long life lived with great joy and your mental capacities fully intact!

Charles’ Weight Loss Story: 1

My husband was 77 kg when I met him. He was doing 2 hours of Ashtanga Yoga daily and swimming in the ocean regularly and had a part-time physical job.

Then we got married and as inevitably happens, things changed.

As the weeks expanded into years, his waistband followed suit and expanded along with time.

He says it’s my fault. He gave up his yoga and stayed in bed to cuddle me instead. He left his role as full-time carer for his sons and part-time fruit and vegie delivery biz and went back to a 40 hr / week desk job in IT. He started drinking beer to relax at the end of a long day.

I don’t really mind. I love him regardless of what he looks like. Sometimes he’s a bit heavy in the bedroom but that’s about it (I heard this described once as “it’s like having a closet fall on top of you with a key stuck in the lock!”).  He’s the most beautiful man I’ve ever known. I don’t really mind but he minds and that bothers me. Being overweight affects his energy, his focus, his confidence, his self-esteem, his clothing choice, his libido and his ability to move freely (if you get what I mean).

His health has been affected in other ways too:

• return of nagging neck and shoulder tension
• chronic allergic reactions (to just about everything I reckon) – sneezing/hayfever like symptoms
• several (too many) colds, flus etc every year
• sever arthritic pain that wanders around his body on different days affecting different joints
• indigestion
• dry, itchy, inflamed scalp condition
• flatulence
• burping

As some of you may know, I’m an acupuncturist by trade but I can’t treat him! Treatment seems to make him worse. He doesn’t respond well to it. Even when he gets a massage he is sick as a dog for 2 days after!

Charles also says he feels like a fraud. Here’s me always rabbiting on about health and I’m married to a fat man! He doesn’t feel comfortable representing me and my business because he doesn’t appear to be a vibrant and glowing testimony to health.

So here he is, I took this photo on the 17th May 2009 (I had to really convince him about the photos – I told him they were good PR!) The journey begins… (the pics were removed recently)

 

The Not So Normal World: Part Three

Cravings are fascinating things. 

They tell us so much about where our body, mind and emotions are at at any given moment. I think they tell us how healthy we are. I think they tell us how well we listen to the messages we are presented with each moment. Cravings can tell us when we are in balance and cravings can tell us when we are out of balance.

Even cravings for “bad” things tell us clearly what we need (and it’s usually not what we think…). A craving for alcohol (or some other mind-altering substance) for example can be a very clear message that we need to give our mind a break from thinking (and alcohol may be the easiest/cheapest/most accessible or the only way we know how to do that). If we are lucky enough to find another way to give our mind a break from thinking, we usually find that we crave alcohol much, much less.

I’m not really talking about the pros and cons of substitution when dealing with cravings or addiction, I’m talking about seeing beyond the manifestation of a particular craving to what’s really underneath and finding a way to satisfy that deeper need.

I had a really stressful day yesterday. At one point I started thinking about sugar. I couldn’t get it out of my head. The interesting thing was that I didn’t actually want sugar – I thought about chomping down a Cherry Ripe or slurping on a sweet cup of tea and there was no real urge or desire to go and do it. There was merely this circular thought – “I need sugar. I need sugar. I need sugar” and it didn’t have much power. I thought about what was really going on.

1. An emotional need to feel OK or to have someone else make me feel OK

2. A physiological need for more glucose in the brain (the brain is the biggest user of glucose in the body)

3. A habitual need to eat something that made me feel (slightly) better in the past

I debriefed with my husband for the emotional need but I was still thinking about sugar. I had some apple juice from a carton (not something I would usually consider – fresh made is SO much better). Still thinking about sugar. I went home. Still thinking about sugar. I began to come  up with alternatives to sugar that would give me the sweet/comfort taste I wanted but without the processed stuff. I got home and roasted a plateful of potatoes. 45 minutes in the oven. Not too bothered by the thought of sugar anymore. Yum. Very simple sugar. Lots of it. Not thinking about sugar anymore.

Since ending my fast I have watched my cravings shift. The first few weeks I wanted  nothing but fat – avocado, olives, oils and LOTS OF IT! My body was screaming for fat to repair itself and I gave it to it by the bucket load! This past week, fruit has been looking more appealing to me and so I’ve been eating it again. Fascinating I tell you! I love it. 

I think these green smoothies are really helping me to slow down the pressure of cravings too. They are giving my body and mind massive doses of micro nutrients. In the past, I NEVER would have been able to stop myself from having a block of dark peppermint club chocolate when I was feeling stressed out. I never would have been able to see the craving so clearly, see it for what it is and find an alternative. Not a substitute but a simpler response to my body’s needs.

How about you? What food cravings do you experience? How do you usually deal with them? 

 

As an aside, I’ve been enjoying writing this blog so much (and loving all the fantastic feedback!) that I’ve decided to continue it. As many of you know, my husband Charles is overweight and together we want to blog about his journey with weight loss! He has been bravely enjoying my renewed interest slash obsession with nutrition and living food and been coming along for the ride (yes, green smoothies and everything!) and all the books say raw food is the simplest way to lose and maintain weight loss. How exciting! Stay tuned for more…

: )

The Not So Normal World: Part Two

Three Things I Have Discovered Recently

1.  I have stretch marks on my tummy! Seen commonly with puberty, rapid weight gain, pregnancy and as I have recently discovered, rapid weight loss. I first noticed the red, bruise like marks radiating out from my belly button about day 27 of my fast and I thought they were part of the funky rash thing. Didn’t think much more of them. They didn’t go away. I thought perhaps I had burnt myself by snuggling a hot water bottle too much but an off-hand comment from my husband about pregnant women and the penny finally dropped. Look! Stretch marks!!! I’m shocked!!! I was not expecting this at all… (I attempted photo evidence but the camera on my phone didn’t do them justice. Ask me to show you when you see me. Does my face not say it all???)

2.  I can no longer do a handstand in yoga. Not that I could ever free balance but I’ve never had a problem getting my legs up before. Tried today for the first time in ages – a total flop. Literally. My handstand will return in time, I know but it’s so fascinating to see how much body’s changed!

3.  Green smoothies are amazing! I’ve been hearing about them for years but the thought of whizzing up handfuls of spinach has never really turned me on before. I probably couldn’t think of anything worse. I’ve taken the plunge though and Charles and I have been blending on daily basis. Combinations of organic kale (the best anti-aging veggie there is), dandelion greens (so bitter but very, very good for the liver), lettuce, chili (great source of vitamin C – just enough to add a kick), banana, oranges and apples or anything else we have in our fruit bowl or in the fridge that’s green and leafy. Sure, the first day or so took a bit of getting used to but green smoothies taste surprisingly good. They taste clean and pure and simple. Almost like food the way humans are meant to eat it. They say green smoothies are excellent for pretty much everything really – any condition you may have. I am most interested in the detoxification, craving-ending and energy-boosting aspects of drinking my greens every day and I feel pretty darn good! When I first started looking into making this a part of my health and happiness mission, I thought it would be a hassle and take a long time but I have found it so quick and very, very easy to clean up the blender, knife, glass and cutting board afterwards – convenient even (it takes me less than 5 minutes to make a smoothie for two). Check this out if you wanna give it a whirl yourself: The Green Smoothie Challenge I reckon it will make a HUGE difference to your energy and health!

As you guys know, I’ve been madly devouring books on nutrition for the past 2 months and here’s a quote I came across yesterday which rang true for me because I want to feel incredible every day of my life. I want to be around until I’m at least 110 with my body and my mind vibrantly intact. I want to celebrate and squeeze every last drop out of this gift of life I was given when my Mum and Dad came together decades ago. I want to be HEALTHY and I want to do what it takes easily and joyously to be so. I reckon you do too or you probably wouldn’t have read this far : ) Here tis. Tell me what you think.

 

“The greatest value of the raw-food diet is it’s transformative value. To a great extent, when you take up the raw-food diet, you become a new and different person. You don’t just stay the same old person only a little healthier. You become, to a great extent, a new being with new interests, a new philosophy and outlook on life, new goals and new desires. You become more of your essence, your true natural self. You become a person who is more a part of the one great life of Nature and less of the confused human world. You become less “of the world” and more “of the Earth”.
Joe Alexander

The Not So Normal World: Part One

It’s SO GOOD to be moving my again – feeling the tingle of warmth in my body and the breeze against my face as I take deep breaths of pristine air. Moving, stretching out my limbs, working up a sweat, feeling that really good muscular soreness the next day, feeling so incredibly energised! My legs get very heavy when I have to climb up hills and I have to walk slowly  sometimes – I guess there’s been a fair amount of muscle wastage while my body was breaking down amino acids (protein from my muscles) to survive but that will change.

I hadn’t realised I missed walking and moving so much! For the last 4 weeks of my fast I was couch-bound and pretty much all I did (and all I could do) was the bare minimum walking (more of a shuffle really) and climbing stairs while gripping tightly to the banister and slowly hauling my shaky body up. Exercise is amazing! Especially when you can stride it out in magnificent national parks every day. I hardly ever see anyone else walking – just the tourists on the weekend. I guess it’s that whole taking it for granted when it’s so close to home thing. I think our bodies are made to walk. It’s the most natural and body-friendly repetitive action there is. I heard once that simply walking (not necessarily power walking but even just strolling) for 45 minutes a day will increase your life expectancy by 17.5 years. Not bad hey?

My energy has been absolutely amazing too. I feel incredible. Charles keeps telling me to tone it down a bit – he said he’s never seen me so bright in the 4 years he’s known me. I knew that time would unveil changes I couldn’t see during the last weeks of my fast – I was feeling pretty crappy for a lot of it and I guess I needed time to recover, to regain my strength and to integrate the knowledge gained. It seems so easy for me now to make the right choices in my food, to make the right choices in my business, to make the right choices for my family and my body. So effortless. Magical almost. And very, very simple.

I love food. I love living food. I love growing my own sprouts (buckwheat sprouts taste great with avocado and a bit of salt and pepper!). I love how I just can’t seem to hold on to any negative emotion at all. I mean, I’m not enlightened (yet) but when the odd moment of annoyance or anger arises it seems to slip away before I’ve even really noticed it’s there. It’s like I don’t have the energy to stay upset about anything at all or I have too much energy to bother getting upset at all.

Life is good. I was actually crying about it the other day. I was listening to some beautiful music and had tears of gratitude for the gift of life I’ve been blessed with, the sheer magnificence of being able to breathe. Sigh… Yes, I’m a sap and I cry at sad movies but I feel like I’m softer, my heart is softer, my mind is softer, my defenses are softer.

I’m very aware of my physical being and how it responds to not only the food that I feed it but to the world around me. Some rather gentlemanly fellow in a rather large 4 wheel drive banged into me in my car yesterday. Rather inconvenient really. It was a pleasant interaction, no problems but a great observational experience of watching the stress response with utter clarity in my body. Often the physical stress response is accompanied by a psychological stress response too but not for me this time. I was rather awake to my senses, my heart rate increased for about 40 minutes afterwards and I could feel it beating in my chest, my hands were shaking and didn’t stop for 30 minutes, I had to keep taking deep breaths – cortisol and adrenaline are powerful stuff! (These are our main stress hormones responsible for the “fight” or “flight” physiological response to stress) Rather cool indeed. I found this rather cool diagram too.

Anyone know of a good (i.e. cheap) smash repairer?

Break Fast Day Seven

Tuesday
I’ve been having an amazing weekend of experimentation with food in my body. I am learning SO much it’s incredible. I feel like a different person. My life seems so much simpler now and  I’m looking more and more at ways I can keep it this way, more ways I can achieve what I need to and want to with the least complication and more ways I can love fueling my body with foods of beauty that do nothing but give to my physical energy, mental clarity and emotional stability. I also love just eating one food. Chomping into a tomato or two for morning tea and eating ALL of it (not cutting out that little bit where it hangs off the vine) Having a handful of olives and munching on those. Eating five plums. My body loves the simplicity of it! One food = easy digestion.

I love tomatoes. I really love olives. I haven’t been sticking to the doctor of divinity’s strict dietary guidelines but I’m OK with that. Everything in moderation including moderation after all right?  So me forging ahead, ever the maverick, I disovered the following:

1. I had a coffee (why do I do these things to myself?) Crazy. Manic. Could NOT stop. Poison in my body. I drank it black (they say that’s the healthiest way to consume coffee) and very weak at about 9.00 am and did not sleep that night. Crazy. One interesting thing was that I did not feel anxious in the mind at all – just a very noticeable speeding up of my physical activity. Not going to that one in a hurry again. 2. I went out socially on Friday and had 2 beers! I thought one would have send me totally tipsy but I didn’t even feel it! I thought that was because my liver must be so clean and efficient that it processed the alcohol immediately. Usually I feel very small amounts of alcohol (like one or two sips and I’m tipsy!) and I’ve always put this down to my liver being rather deficient due to years of abuse and neglect so a very surprising response. 3. I had a small piece of organic meat on Saturday. It tasted good but just sat in my belly like a big, immovable log. A bit uncomfortable. I hadn’t felt uncomfortable in so long from food in my belly that it gave me a big message – uh uh – not ready for that, don’t eat that again. No problem. That slight discomfort after I ate it also reminded me of what I generally felt like pretty much after EVERY meal before I fasted. I think everything I was eating my body was having a hard time with. I hadn’t seen that quite so clearly before apart from acknowledging how well the fruit was sitting with me. Very easy to eat and it always felt good in my belly. 4. I had one and a half avocados on Sunday – so yummy in my mouth but my tummy did not like that either and sent me painful cramps for about 3 hours afterwards. Avocado is such an amazing fruit and almost like a staple in vegetarian and vegan diets and I love them. However, years ago when I was following the blood type diet, I stopped eating them because they are supposed to be “bad” for people with O type blood. Maybe it was too early to eat all that fat. Maybe I just had too much. Maybe it would’ve been OK if I had just eaten it alone (without having it with tomatoes and olives). Maybe. Maybe. Maybe. 5. I ate some chocolate. Yuck. My body did not like it at all. What a revelation!!!! This alone is life changing! I much prefer the simple sugar from a banana or some other unrefined source.

So back to simplicity this week. Lots of fruit, tomatoes, olives and ooooh, I think I’m gonna eat some yummy rocket today too! Integration continues and my mind is loving the new ideas that are sprouting. (I’ve got some fenugreek sprouts growing and they should be ready by tomorrow – they’re gonna taste so good with my tomatoes and olives!)

Break Fast Day Three

Wednesday
One of the most interesting things I’ve noticed recently is how differently my body responds to fruit sugar (fructose) than to regular sugar (sucrose). Prior to fasting when I was having one cup of REALLY sweet tea a day with maybe some other cookie or chips through the day, I would feel good or “up” for a little while afterwards followed by a quite noticeable “down” or energy slump. Not anymore. Even though I’m only eating fruit at this stage, my energy and focus is absolutely consistent. It’s amazing how much you can get done on a couple of kiwi fruit! In fact, I seem to have lost my taste for sugar altogether – I made a cuppa this morning and put 1.5 tsps of sugar in it (that’s very conservative – formally it would have been three). I took one sip – BLECH! Gross! No WAY was I gonna drink that! I tipped it down the sink.

I really like this new change. How amazing would it be to break all psychological ties to sugar as a comfort food! My friend Lisa, from I’ve Got Life says – sugar is devoid of all nutrients other than energy and acts like a drug in the body. It’s going to feed a whole colony of organisms in my gut that I probably don’t want to reestablish at this stage. Besides fruit is sweet enough!

I am amazed at how drug-like and addictive sugar is – the more you have it, the more you crave it, the more you have it, the more you need of it to get the same effects. This fast has really cleaned me out and woken up my taste buds and what used to taste good to me (ie. sugar and tea) tastes crappy now. I like it. 

I was feeling quite down yesterday (maybe it was the kiwi fruit) and I had hair cut and colour and a great conversation with my hair dresser. I really wouldn’t consider myself a girly-girl (ie. I’m really not into handbags, shoes and makeup) but it made me feel so good – looking after my appearance in that way after having almost totally neglected my reflection for the past 40 days was rather liberating. 

Yesterday, kiwi fruit – a bit more on the BM side of things – I reckon kiwi fruit work better than prunes! After the overpowering sweetness of the grapes, I chose some really hard kiwi fruits and the slight tartness was very welcome in my mouth. My tongue went a bit furry like the skin after a while though. Couldn’t find any info on the DoS for kiwi fruit. Hmmm… what’s furry on the outside? What does that picture look like to you? It’s so beautiful. Anyway, they are very high in vitamin C and potassium and may contain an enzyme that reduces cholesterol and improves circulation : )

Today, pears. Not all that satisfying. Hunger hasn’t been a problem for me at all but pears just aren’t doing it for me. I’ve been thinking about food ALL DAY. There’s a luscious and very ripe tomato sitting in our fruit bowl and a gorgeous avocado in the fridge. I keep thinking about how good they would taste just chopped in a bowl with a little salt. Yum…. Shhhh tummy!

Pears – the most valuable source of alkaline healing and cleansing minerals: potassium, sodium. calcium, magnesium, iron and manganese. They say that having a more alkaline internal pH is the best way to prevent all sorts of degenerative and inflammatory conditions and you get an alkaline pH by eating lots of fresh fruit and veg, not much meat, and avoiding coffee and alcohol and licit and illicit drugs.

Pears have HEAPS of sodium in them which 1. is essential for the production of saliva which promotes carbohydrate digestion and 2. it’s also required to ensure proper elimination of carbon dioxide waste from the lungs. Pears are good to eat before a meal coz they improve digestion and they target the health and function of the womb and cervix of the female – they look just like these organs! Very cool : )