Journey Through the Healing Chart

Hello everyone.

I have been thinking about this for a long time and finally have decided that now is the time to jump right in. For the past couple of months, I have been intrigued by two charts that I have seen. One was presented by Joe Best from The Best Transformation on YouTube. He presented a chart that categorized the vegan doctors / gurus in a scale from healing diets to athletic diets. Unfortunately, he has recently taken the video down that had that chart so I have requested that he put it back up. I will let you know when/if he does.

For now, I have been presented with another chart that uses diet alone to categorize rather than names of doctors with their suggested diets. It actually breaks down into greater detail the steps on what would be the healing end of Joe’s presented scale. The detailed scale looks like this:

Though I don’t have huge health issues, I have been looking at breaking the hold that food can have on us; the feeling that we have to eat this right now. I watch people around me suffer intense cravings and not be able to stay away from junk foods at events. Food seems to call us to it and have more power than it should ever have over us. Though I have stopped craving foods for quite some time, I wanted to prove to myself that the hold of food is gone. I also have been suffering from bad acne again and have no doubt that it is linked to the vegan junk I was still eating. So as I said previously, I jumped in.

Now, if you are looking at the chart above, there is a dark green level at the bottom that has many foods I do not consume as a vegan. I will not be hitting that level. I am vegan, have been vegan for over a year, and plan on staying vegan for the rest of my life. That level may as well not be there whatsoever.

Looking at the chart again, you will notice the top level is water fasting. I am actually taking this chart one step further and going to be starting with two days of dry fasting. Dry fasting is where not only is food not consumed, but water is not consumed either. Yes, it is risky and not something you can do long-term. In fact, depending on where you live, I wouldn’t recommend more than 3 days at the most. Definitely research this one for yourself before you attempt this as this is the most risky stage of a fasting stage/detox.

So feel free to join me on this journey or simply stand by and watch my progress. I will try to log about each day, what my experiences are and how I’m feeling. I am continuing to live life as normal though my workouts may be lessened in the beginning depending on how I feel. I will discuss how I deal with social situations while I go through each of these phases and hopefully my experiences can advise you on a healing journey you may want to embark on for yourself.

Please remember that I am not a doctor but am simply sharing my own experience. Not everyone reacts to the same things the same ways. My journey is based on my own research, and a simple desire take a new journey with my health to hopefully end up in the best health I have ever had.

Acupuncture: My First Time!

So, yesterday I went to the chiropractor for my weekly visit. I didn’t mention anything to her about how my week had gone as far as my bones and problems. She was so excited telling me about the school her son had managed to get into with an amazing teacher and a sport’s program that allows her son the extra movement he needs. 

Then she got to my neck, shoulders, and ribs, and her face dropped. She asked me how my week had been. And I had to tell her that my rib had been popping significantly more than usual, possibly more than ever, and that I had been waking up at 4 in the morning without fail, even though I would go to feel without feeling stressed or thinking of anything. Let’s just say, I’ve never seen someone look at me with such concern (aside from my mom of course). 

Sorry for the blurs on this picture, but there was honestly no better picture that described my chiropractor’s look yesterday.

The chiropractor uses a tool she calls the “Thumper”. It basically gives a little kick to areas where smaller bones exist and it helps to put the little bones in place. I have NEVER had her use it on my ribs before, but it was bad enough that she did. In fact, she continued to comment how even my neck looked tighter and how everything was (and really get this) WORSE than the FIRST time I ever walked in her clinic! Woah.

So she asked me about acupuncture. To be honest, I never thought I would ever do acupuncture. The thought of having tonnes of needles in me just is not a vision I wanted to live. But my chiropractor recommended acupuncture and upon consideration, I agreed if it would help. So instead of booking a later appointment, she went next door and arranged for an appointment right then. Talk about being serious!

The acupuncturist went through everything in great detail, expressing that it is NOT PAINFUL, but would feel–if anything–like a mosquito bite initially and then should feel like nothing. She also explained some precautionary things, but it made total sense to me. Key point? Don’t move when the needles are in you! Makes total sense, eh?

So we got to the process. She put needles in my neck, my shoulders, my back, and my ankles. To be quite honest, I hardly felt most of them. The ones I felt the most were in my ankles, but I have incredibly non-fat feet. They are very thin and boney. And even so, only the one in my ankle seemed to bother me a little, the other ones were no big deal.

These needles are the same width as a piece of hair!! So tiny!

And my acupuncturist? Amazing. She continued to ask if I was ok, if everything felt ok, if I ever felt sick, etc… She was there every step of the way and made me feel like I was in amazing good hands. 

I basically laid there, face down, breathing and relaxing. She even encouraged sleeping! But my face was fairly squished in the bed. I’m assuming the massage bed was fairly new because the material around where your face goes was pretty stiff. So no sleeping, but I was able to relax with a heat lamp making sure I was warm.  She even took great deal afterwards to massage the right places after she removed the needles (painless) and makes sure you get up slowly and carefully to make sure your body is handling the process properly. 

Basically the position I was in for the 20-30 minutes. I think I may line it with something more “cushy” next time.

Boy did I feel tired afterward! And I slept like a baby last night! 

It’s something I’ve been so scared of for so long, and yet it was not painful at all and helped me so much. If you have any problems (I was treated for stress and lack of sleep), you should definitely try it. It’s so worth it. Just watch that the clinic you go to is sanitary, they use new needles each time, and the person knows what they’re doing and can answer any questions that you have.

Have you ever tried acupuncture before? What were your thoughts?