Water Fasting w/ Lemon – Healing Journey Day 5

Journal:
Today was my final day of water fasting, but I did it with a twist: I added the slices of one lemon to my water. Why would I do this? I figured it would be a good transition between water fasting to juice feasting while also giving extra motivation the final day of no eating with a beautiful taste. Lemons also have the most minimal calories so it is almost like I’m consuming nothing anyways.

Let me tell you, that first taste of lemon water was absolutely divine! I have never had better tasting lemon water. It was so satisfying and just simply amazing.

When I woke up this morning, I actually felt like a fairly normal human being for once! I cannot describe how nice it was to wake up not feeling absolutely worn out and tired already. I actually slept off and on all night, waking up every couple of hours. I was expecting to be extremely tired this morning. However, my stomach was not burning and didn’t start burning until later though much milder than the previous day. My limbs were not cold even though I didn’t have the heater on and I was not as tired as I thought I would be; I was fairly wide awake. It was honestly the most amazing feeling after days of not feeling good at all. I hadn’t had any lemon water by this point so I’m not sure why the change happened, but I will honestly say that I have never been so thankful to feel good.

So as mentioned, the stomach burning did happen shortly after I got out of bed. It wasn’t near as bad as before, but still something noticeable. Honestly, it was so mild I barely noticed it throughout the day. But in the very first part of the morning, not only did my stomach begin to burn a little (again probably from my body metabolizing fat stores), but I felt a little weak walking around. What fixed that? The blessed lemon water. Again, I cannot tell you what the little flavour and tiny calories of lemon in my water is doing for my body. I did not even squeeze the lemon into it. I simply sliced up a lemon, put it in my water bottle, and kept refilling with water as I ran out. I feel more stable and stronger when I walk though I can still tell I’m looking for opportunities to sit when possible and my energy is not back to where it should be. Still, the improvement is huge!

I got through my work day fairly well, though once again, about half way through the day, I was still looking for any opportunity to sit down and limit my walking. Of course, as the day went on, the lemon began to lose its strength of flavour. But something is still better than nothing!

After I got home, I had energy enough to actually sit upstairs and have a conversation with my housemates which was awesome. I did end up coming downstairs to my part of the house and decided just to lay down and watch some YouTube. Partly to rest my body, and partly because it was a hot day and I wanted to wait for the heat to die down before I ran any errands. I probably laid down for about an hour watching YouTube videos and then somehow fell asleep.

I did not feel so good when I woke up. My stomach was hurting again and almost felt like my stomach muscles were cinching just not to the level of being “pinched”. It was a dull but constant pain and not a sharp pain. I got a touch of the same acid reflux/heartburn feeling that I had yesterday and though I tried to use the washroom with the same proper posture I used yesterday, there was no success. My energy literally felt like it was drained from my body while I slept although I continued to drink lemon water after I woke up.

I made myself get changed for the gym and made it out to my car. I was taking many deep breaths for the rest of the night. I had to go to the store to buy a cable to tie my dog outside as he chewed through his soft leash and there are gaps in the fence that he can easily fit through. The cable is 15 feet long and he’s a miniature dachshund so that is tons of room for him to go through almost the whole backyard. But after I was done going through the store, I felt winded and awful. Still, I made myself drive to the gym.

After I got to the gym parking lot, I knew I had to make a choice. I could either force myself to go in and do a small cardio workout and risk the chance of feeling even worse than I did, or just go home and see if I could sleep it off. I decided to go home and try to sleep it off.

I think today has truly been the weakest and most uncomfortable I have felt yet. It is not pleasant though I think it is so weird how good I felt in the morning to how awful I felt towards the evening.

At this point, I’m kind of nervous about how my body will react to the introduction of juice tomorrow. I am excited that it’s the closest to “food” that I will have consumed in 6 days, but at the same time, with the way I feel, I’m not sure what my body’s reaction will be. I only pray that it is a good reaction and that it will help my energy come back.

In total, though it felt like I drank more, I only had about 2L of water today. I did savour the lemon flavour.

Review of Symptoms:
Acne is noticeably better today. No new pimples again and instead of being a brighter red, they are starting to pale-down. That is something to celebrate. Stomach burning has gone down significantly becoming almost unnoticeable. Waking up feeling refreshed and “normal” was a treat. Sleep was lacking as I woke up every couple hours throughout the night. Something odd that I noticed was the veins in my hands are much more visible. I have pale skin to begin with, but I can see many more veins than usual. Stomach cramping in the evening. Energy zapped in the evening.

Weight at the end of the day = 180.8 lbs (down 1.8 lbs in 24 hours, down a total of 8 lbs in 96 hours)

Total Calories = ~15-20 calories

Persimmons – My Favourite!

Have you ever had a persimmon before? Did you fall in love with them as much as I did? If you’ve never had a persimmon, you’re missing out!

The first time I ever had a persimmon, I was in a RV of a youth group leader for breakfast. She had this strange, orange fruit that was hard. She sliced it up and told us to give it a try. It was different, but it was good.

Fast forward to today, and I can’t get enough of them! I would even dare say they are my favourite fruit! But enough about me, on to the persimmons.

As the picture shows, there are two types of persimmons: Hachiya and Fuyu.

The one that gets eaten while hard is the Fuyu. It’s smaller in height, and almost does resemble a small pumpkin. The flavour is sweet and very good. Go ahead and eat the peel on this one!

The Hachiya should be eaten when it is almost jelly on the inside. It should be very soft to the touch, and even some black on the peeling is good. The last Hachiya I ate had half of its peel turn black, but the inside was so delicious that I almost cried I didn’t have more. It was so good. And no, I did not eat the peel. Black peel is not my thing.

Seriously people, if you’ve never had a persimmon before, go buy one right now and try it. You won’t regret it! Check out the some of the health benefits below!

Farmers Do Not Love Their Cows

I apologize that the title of this blog sounds hateful. I can assure you I don’t have farmers. For 2 years of my life, my family had our own farm. My best friend in university’s family had a beef farm, and for two years, my hairdresser and her husband had a beef farm. I don’t hate farmers in the least. But here is an argument I was part of this week.

Now, normally, I’m not such a vocal person. I’m not the kind of person who just looks for a fight or who believes everyone should think the same way I do. In fact, because of my Christian beliefs, I believe that God has given everyone the gift of free choice, and so I am not someone to take that away. Of course this gets bordered when it inflicts pain on others, but that’s a whole other topic. The fact is, in Exodus, God gave permission to eat certain animals, one of them being cows. So if you want to eat beef, I may not agree with it, but you have total right to do that. So that’s not where this argument is coming from.

What I saw this week was a picture of an almost frozen calf in a farmer’s truck. This is a typical appearance. In my two years of farming, we were up in the middle of the night to help our animals sometimes. I get the work it takes. I see the dedication farmers have. But the caption of the farmer is how much they cared/loved their cows. That’s where I had a problem.

Now, this world has problems enough with understanding what love really is. All too often we see people throwing around the “love” word without really meaning it. People date people and still keep their own needs above their partners. People get married, and stop caring for each other. This is an awful view of love. There are so many terrible views of love. One of the pure views of love that are left in the world is when I look at mothers who truly love their children. They will do anything to protect them and give them the best lives possible. That’s what love should be. Fighting for the one you love, willing to die for that person, that’s love.

Now, I know we are talking about animals and not humans, and many people do not consider them on the same level, so that’s fine. Let’s go with that. But love, in no sense of any manner, means killing the thing you love. Think of a child’s favourite toy, or an adult’s favourite car. You love that toy/car. If that object were to “die”, you would be incredibly upset and angry. These objects aren’t even alive. Yet the cows are. (This also goes for pigs/sheep/chickens, etc…)

So these ALIVE things that farmers are claiming they “love” are raised to be killed. Does that still seem like love to you? Is it caring to kill them?

I had someone tell me that ranchers and farmers are different. That’s cool. I can see they are different. That’s not a big deal to me. The ranchers say they are animal rights activists and they do what they can to give the cows the best lives they can. Well, although it does seem like a very nice gesture to give an animal the best life possible for their short lives, do you think they would call it a “good life” to live for a couple years then be killed? Would you call it a “good life” if you were raised to the age of 2 or 18 (2 year old cow = 18 years as a human) to know you would be placed with a bullet between your eyes and then cut apart for others to eat? Would you call that loving? Is that caring? Knowing you were only born to be food? I don’t think so.

I think there is such a disconnect in this world! It’s crazy! If you are willing to put all that care into an animal, taking a cow into your home to warm them up, saying that you “love” them, well, I will agree you are acting that way. But why do you stop loving them? Why does it change from this seemingly “love” feeling to a feeling of “get on my plate! Die!” Is that how you feel about your dog? Is that how you feel about your cat? Is that how you feel about your children? They’re only worth loving for so long before you get rid of them and don’t care what happens to them?

Some of you may be wondering why I have such a big deal over a simple word. But here’s the reason, people are not owning what actually happens. Sure, the cow may have a “good life” before its death date. But here’s what happens to this “beloved animal” on it’s death date. It gets taken on a usually overloaded cow trailer where they are not given water or anything of substance on the way to slaughter. Once they get to the slaughterhouse, they become terribly frightened. They hear other cows expressing their fright and just as a dog has amazing senses in the personality of humans, cows are no different. They can sense fear and know something is wrong. The “beloved” creatures are as scared as a child in the dark except darkness is easy to fix, death is not. So not only are they unloaded to this terrible place, many people abuse these animals while they are still alive, fighting with creatures who are only scared and reacting as such. Do you go in and punish your child for having a nightmare? These cows are LIVING their nightmare and being punished for it.

When the time comes to be killed, a bullet is put between their eyes. Now, according to government regulations, it’s ok if they’re not killed by that bullet as long as they are stunned and unable to move. Now, I don’t know about you, but it’s almost like a totally functioning person in a coma. These people, when out of the coma, are able to tell you things that people said because they were totally there, just not in control of their body. That’s how these cows are except they can’t tell you what people are saying, but they can tell you about the hooks that were painfully shoved through their legs. Would you like to be alive with hooks piercing your body? I’m going to guess not. Of course, the hook is not enough to kill the cow. So the next step is being sliced open down the middle of their bodies and through their neck. Mmm. What an awesome feeling while you’re still alive. So humane. Such a “loved” and “cared about” animal, right?

So here’s the thing. If you can accept what you do, and you have no problem saying cows are just money to you, that you don’t actually love them and don’t care about the violence you put them through, then by all means that’s at least not hypocritical. Again, I don’t agree with it and think it speaks volumes about the kind of person you are, but I at least appreciate the honesty. But if you advertise to the world that you are such a caring and loving person to these animals, you are so hypocritical and maybe even lying to yourself! I’m asking farmers and ranchers to take responsibility for their actions. You’re not really an animal rights activist when you’re still sending them to a bitter death. So that’s the part I have a problem with. Accept the realities of your job. Don’t just pretend that you’re doing something good for them because for all the good you did before, I guarantee the cows would choose a little less cozy life in exchange for keeping their lives. Nobody wants to die, not even animals. They are alive, they have thoughts, they are just unable to communicate to us the way we need to understand. So start thinking and accept what the truth is. That’s it. If you choose to continue to eat meat, like I said, that’s your choice. But know where that meat is coming from and what that animal is going through to get to your stomach when the world over knows a vegetarian/vegan diet is a way to thrive. You don’t need meat, you don’t need dairy products. But make your choice while being educated and not hiding the truth.

Know the truth, own your choice.

Day 3

I am paying for what I did last night. I never want to eat that much deep-fried food again.

I woke up in the middle of the night as dry as the desert. My mouth was so dry and I craved water. I did not get in near enough water yesterday, possibly not even half as much as my goal is. I feel awful.

I chugged down some water and realized as I was laying in bed trying to fall back asleep that I had pains from my neck to my lower abdomen. Greasy food… I strongly dislike you. My body is paying for my stupidity.

After I got up and made lunch for my husband, I took a 4L jug of water, and started drinking. My goal is to have the 4L finished today. My usual goal is only 3L, but I think I owe it to my body, especially after all that unhealthiness last night to give it some extra water to flush the nastiness out. Ugh… hopefully you’re sensing how awful I feel.

After drinking about 1L of water to start off my day, and waiting about a half hour, I ate my breakfast. Today, my bananas from the Organic Box were ripe and ready to be eaten. Remember, when you eat bananas, they shouldn’t just be yellow. They should have lots of dark spots on them. That is when they are the best ripeness. I attempted to eat 6 (I know it would even be awesome to eat 10) but because I’m still getting used to eating so much, I could only get in 5. So a 5 banana breakfast it is!

I had to run to meet a lady at a different mall today. It was good. Got there on time. Found her. Everything went smoothly. But I decided to take a quick run to the health food store there to get some hairspray that I needed. Of course, I walked by the food court, really wanted some Korean potatoes, but since I’m trying to do raw foods until 4 p.m. each day, I continued to walk by. Instead, I picked up some Solar Raw kale chips with my organic, cruelty-free hairspray. Oh they are delicious! You could never guess it’s not cheese on them. Almost completely organic, and the Solar Raw brand is a farm that grows all their own organic products using solar power! Love it! Look up the brand and see for yourself! The only thing was, they are so rich that I could only eat a small handful. I will be snacking on these later (or tomorrow).

As a late lunch, I put together a massive salad. I used some 50/50 Organic Green Mix, 1 organic raspberry (unfortunately one had moulded and spoiled a whole bunch of other ones), organic blueberries, three sliced organic strawberries, some organic cucumber, a yellow rainbow carrot, dried cranberries, sunflower seeds and soya nuts. For a dressing, I mashed 2 small avocados with a teaspoon of vegan cream cheese (not my favourite, so masking it with other things) and salsa. Oh so delicious, and very full!

After my husband came home, he suggested going out for frozen yogurt. It’s a hot day, our first “hot” summer day, so I said, “Let’s go!”

They had two vegan flavours today: blueberry sorbet and peach sorbet. I totally forgot how flavourful sorbet was! So sweet and fruity. Yum! Of course I put some fresh fruit toppings on it, as well as a couple candy embellishments as a treat. This is a late snack/supper. I’m still very full.

We went to the gym, and I had a good workout. I focused on different variations of squats, push-ups, and some planks. I did a variety of stretching, my chiropractor’s exercises, and 25 minutes of quick-paced walking. It all went very well.

For supper, I finished off the little bit of kale chips my husband left, ate 3 mangos, and then sat around with my husband trying not to fall asleep (sometimes I’m a night owl, sometimes I’m not). However, my husband mentioned that he wanted pizza, so we ordered pizza, non-cheese breadsticks (for me), Coke Zero, and Cinnamon Sticks. I was so proud of myself that I did not even look at the pizza (cheese, chicken and beef), and I didn’t even take one gulp of that Coke Zero! Not that Coke is not vegan, but of all the chemicals that are inside that thing. I did eat my cheese-less breadsticks with marinara sauce (normally would be so unhappy that there was no cheese on them… talk about cheese-addicted!), and I ate a couple of the cinnamon sticks (could have definitely gone without these). But overall, not bad with all the temptation around me!

Just before I went to bed, I finished my 4L of water. Definitely the most I’ve ever drank in a day, and I was so happy!