Nov 13, 2009 - Counting days and laying low

It looks like my last day of water-only will be Nov 20, since back to work I go Nov 30. This should be enough time to really put a dent in the arterial blockage and get more blood flow. I am continuing to experience improvement in blood pressure and heart rate. The improvements are slow, but promising. I am optimistic.

It's still a bit monotonous, day in and day out, but doable. I really have no appetite, but I look forward to eating really good food when the time comes - I'm building my catalogue of favorite recipes. I look at my boredom, discomfort and sometimes long days this way: If a person with cancer can endure weeks of chemo and radiation, accompanied by the usual nausea and associated sickness, get poked and prodded, lose all their hair, get body parts cut out, get so weak and miserable they can't stand up, AND afterwards live with a compromised immune system with chemo residue AND cancer still lurking in the body, I can put up with this mild discomfort. It's all perspective, so I've got it easy.

So here's where I am today:

Weight: 126.8
BP: 140/90
Temp: 96.9
Pulse: 60-68 (depending on the day)

To put this weight in perspective, I wrestled in the 123 pound weight class as a sophomore in high school and I think I might have been an inch shorter. Funny, I sure felt stronger back then for some reason!

The rate at which I am losing weight seems to be slowing, so I doubt I'll blow away with the first fall breeze. I do find it difficult to stay at a comfortable temperature. A temperature difference of 5 degrees has a much more pronounced effect on a fasting body that has an internal temp of 97 degrees. I am the most comfortable just lying in bed under the down comforter - now that's perfect!

I walk 10-12 laps daily in the small courtyard here. It'll make you dizzy if you walk too fast - not because you're fasting, but because the inner court is small and surrounded by two levels of apartments, so the view is essentially the same on four sides. It would be great if True North was plopped out into the middle of a nice country farm setting surrounded by some of those farsical 'happy' cows of California I hear so much about on tv, away from the bustling noise of town, where you could really unwind the mind as well as the body. The center is doing well, but a change in venue would make for an irresistable retreat.

But it serves the purpose where it is located. People come in, heal, and leave changed. You can't beat that. Many get off their meds, and return to a drug-free life. Some reduce their meds substantially. All return home empowered with life-saving information so they can maintain a lifestyle that, Lord willing, will carry them healthily into their last days, whenever that is, juxtaposed to the likelihood that they may wither slowly between periods of illnesses, existing in quiet anxiety and fear, lying awake at night wondering when the next bout of this or that will strike (and hoping they have enough insurance to cover it), and whether or not they'll survive it. Sadness.

One must be pro-active and pursue good health. Basic principles of proper nutrition and lifestyle have been forgotten and overidden by the bombardment of advertisements for so-called food products that are designed solely to stimulate the senses rather than to satisfy. They have no interest in satisfying you - profit lies in that percentage of over-consumption that begins just above the satisfaction level. That, to me, sounds like the very foundation of gluttony. When the chip maker says, "Bet you can't eat just one", they are absolutely right - it's the perfect seduction. Who can resist, but the one who knows the truth and avoids that first chip altogether. One hundred eighty degrees is the only direction you can turn.