I’M SLIM AGAIN
THE BREATHTAKING JOURNEY FROM XXL TO M
no pills no gyms no diets
by Alex Romano
translated by E.Pototsky
SMASHWORDS EDITION
* * * * * * *
PUBLISHED BY
Alex Romano on Smashwords
I’m slim again. The breathtaking journey from XXL to M
Copyright © 2009 by Alex Romano
All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.
This is a work of non-fiction. Names, characters, places, brands, media, and incidents are used by the author as examples only. The author acknowledges the trademarked status and trademark owners of various products referenced in this work, which have been used without permission. The publication/use of these trademarks is not authorized, associated with, or sponsored by the trademark owners.
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Discover other works of Alex Romano at Smashwords.com
Life 2 www.smashwords.com/books/view/13645
I, inventor www.smashwords.com/books/view/13652
The book is also available in print on the author’s page www.naturemethod.com
DESCRIPTION:
The book discloses an improved and most winning Natural Formula of rejuvenation and weight loss, it is a scientific way to become slim, healthy, and young again. It contains 3 unique diaries, a detailed history of 4 month procedure, and 18 truly golden why-and-how sections. The method improves body, mind, and destiny, it guaranties your weight loss because it is based on neither pills, nor gyms, nor diets; it is totally natural, and its extreme power is in your own body. The Method allows your body to use that power making you as healthy, young, and beautiful as never before.
ISBN 978-1-4523-7634-9
Alex Romano
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INTRODUCTION
From 250lbs to 150lbs in 4 months – it was a great adventure, an exciting and breathtaking voyage from dangerous illnesses to perfect health, from the upcoming senility and infirmity to the second youth, to high energy and optimism. Hurray, I am slim again, I’m much younger and happier again. It wasn’t too difficult: no torturing procedures, nothing of medicine, no special measures, and of course, no doctors. Exactly as the cover page says: no pills, no gyms, no diets. Sure, I had a significant inducement to begin with all this, my disease was severe, and I simply wanted to stay alive.
Well, a common obesity was also a ruthless health problem. Obesity upsets millions of people in the world, destroying destinies of most of them. Fat problem is a good reason to try the Slim Again method. Besides, it costs nothing and it requires no hard working. To help you avoiding typical mistakes, I explain them all in this book. Many people assisted me polishing the technique, and eventually my contacts with a big group of specialists allowed me to determine the best way, the most reliable one.
The technology is actually a combination of well known schemes and formulas. Nevertheless, it is the most perfect combination ever. It was tested by thousands of different people of all ages and all possible health conditions. Now I give the method to you, my dear reader. The Method truly solves human health problems, it does the job perfectly, smoothly, and quite naturally.
Sincerely yours,
Alex Romano
PART ONE
MY FIRST FASTING
With thanks to my family
and my best friend Philip
day Zero 250lbs
AGONY AND DECISION
Technically, I am dead. My lungs are like two old sacks with holes and breaches. The fourth doctor said I had two months left. Maybe three. I knew it even without him. For the latest weeks my temperature was 102F to 106F day and night. I felt like a drunkard, my mind was full of fog – almost nothing visible...
I hate coughing. I cough like a horse thirty times a minute, hardly able to speak. It is worse in the night, it suffocates me, and my every breath produces awful sounds. Though the worst thing is slime. I cough it out, a lot of it, constantly, sometimes with blood. Horrible! Just horrible!
In fact I have always been a very healthy man. The largest health problem my body had was an ordinary flu once a year. Though evidently a trouble was treacherously growing in me – obesity. I remember myself slim and thin in my 30th, but then something had changed, the organism had begun gaining weight.
This year was definitely the nastiest. In January I decided to try a milk diet (as stupid one as all other diets of the world are). The diet promised some weight loss in a month or two. Actually, I used to consume everything of milk, mounts of cheese and curd, vast lakes of yogurt and any other dairy I could obtain. I devoured pounds of this stuff from morning till midnight. Naturally, due to that crazy ‘new diet’ my body immediately started swelling rather rapidly. Eventually, I turned into a really fat man. Then the process had started accelerating: I had to buy bigger cloths almost every month.
To overcome the trouble I bought a pair of heavy sporting weights, two nice shining dumb-bells with six disks on each. Spending an hour a day, exercising up to the total exhaustion, I managed to force my arm muscles grow visibly. However, the scales’ display was showing me bad numbers day after day.
Besides, my heart had begun aching. And additionally, there was a temper problem, a sort of aggression and intolerance. The stronger was my muscular system, the more savage and brute I was. Soon, I had to put the weights and exercises aside. Without delay, the milk addiction returned. With both the sugar and meat dependences. Shortly, I ate dairy produce, cakes, pies, eggs, fish and meat dishes as well as other eatable products together with bread, sausages, hamburgers, chicken and... anything else.
In May the cough had begun.
The first doctor examined me, charged, and prescribed some pills. The cough increased.
The second doctor (in June) examined me much deeper, charged me harder, and prescribed five more types of costly tablets. The cough turned intolerable.
The third doctor (in July) tested everything. I had to waste eight days for all sorts of examinations. He pondered a lot, charged me a lot, and then prescribed twenty antibiotic shots a week together with more expensive pills, mostly antibiotics as well. The cough simply passed into devilishly terrible barking. The slime was disgusting. My life turned into hell.
The fourth doctor (in August) did nothing. Absolutely. He just charged me. And said, I had two or may be three months left. In other words, recently I had been condemned to death. No doubt, it was the last point. There was no choice, I had to do something right on the spot. Fortunately, there was no urgent work at the moment, a sort of vacation period with some spare days plus a good Internet access. So, the first logical step was to search and read. And soon I discovered I wasn’t alone. There were thousands and thousands of people looking for health solutions. As well as many other ones who had already found their ways to escape. First, I needed more knowledge, and I’ve got heaps of books and articles.
The Internet was full of methods, of hundreds of them. Mostly unscientific ones, kind of quackish voodoo or something. That never helped. It was clear that only very few people had really understood the problem, and only some of them possessed serious ideas or suggestions. All the rest, at least 95% of everything I could see there in the Internet, were just repetitions of multiple errors of other people, mistakes that were merely results of lack of knowledge.
Very soon I had a good collection of scientific information gathered in my computer. Biology, chemistry, biochemistry, medicine, microbiology, anatomy, and macrobiology. In two weeks, after a complex research, I knew perfectly well that neither diets nor exercises, nor ‘magic’, nor herbs were able to help me. My body required a powerful scheme, perhaps a shock, a revolution. And the only factual revolution that could be applied there in my case was the abstention from food.
In no time I contacted around fifty persons who owned vast experience on the subject of natural curing, people who managed to get rid of their maladies by practicing different techniques of fasting. Obviously, a mere abstention was not enough, a fasting was always just a beginning, and there were other important steps towards health. Thus, the only rational decision was to study and do experiments. Since the official medicine had actually refused of helping me, fasting was my latest opportunity to keep staying alive. That is why yesterday (yes! it was just yesterday!) I entered the fast.
Yesterday evening I said to myself that it would be a try. Nobody would press me down. I was absolutely free to begin or stop the procedure at any moment. At the nearest supermarket I’ve bought two pounds of ham, cans of marinated peas, large buns, and sweet nut butter, and I ate it all up at home together with yogurt, honey, and white chocolate.
This way the first fasting of my life had begun.
JUST A NOTE
Today (years after the days of this diary) people ask me why I do that, why not to look into other methods instead, maybe less dangerous or deeper researched ones. The answer is pretty simple: I have done it already searching for various possible solutions, remedies, procedures, and ways out. And there was a hope that doctors and drugstores would assist me. No success, no result!
Another answer, perhaps the best one, is that I believe in natural powers of my own body. I believe that fasting is one of the keys to open the door of healthiness and wellbeing. I let the organism do anything it wants, and I give it as much freedom as it is able to operate with. That is the point.
Once again, according to my doctors that day, at the moment I had begun writing those lines of diary I had just two months left. Probably, three. True, it is hard to see now what a miserable fool I was spending four months and much money stupidly trusting the official medicine, physicians, and drugstores. The four months wasted for nothing. The only ‘good help’ I had from doctors was that clear confirmation of the evident fact that I was dying.
And maybe another right answer why I do it is that I am strictly against any kind of ‘magic’ or other ‘supernatural’ trash like that. There is nothing there beyond the Nature. I see it. I had the only way to save my life, and that way led me back to my body, to its natural power and natural needs.
Well, possibly it sounds too pompously. Okay, I’d try to say it in other words: I wanted to live. Thus, I did the best for my body. Of course, trying to keep away as far from the official medicine, doctors, physicians, and drugstores as possible.
day One 250lbs
NOTHING SPECIAL SO FAR
I have seen something in the night, like a mirage, it was just nerves obviously, so, I decided to stay in bed for two hours more, up to 10 a.m. It is Sunday, a warm sunny morning, a nice starting line of the experiment.
My cough is as usual, irritating and annoying. With high temperature and constant buzz and din in the ears. My mood is bad. Do I want to eat something? I think I don’t. Just thirsty. Though, water doesn’t help much, I want some beer instead. Well, not now.
This fasting is almost nothing to my wife. She has accustomed to numerous attempts of my self-curing ‘systems’ and ‘formulas’. Thus, a fast or not, it was crap and trash to her.
However, the beginning wasn’t as easy as it seemed. We leaved the city for a nice suburb to spend some vocational hours there. At the dinner time my wife Natalie, my son Daniel, and me went together to a local mall’s food floor. There were about fifteen small restaurants there. I would prefer something Chinese or Mexican. But today I had to change my habits. For 50 cents they gave me a bottle of cold mineral water in the nearest shop, and that was my ‘dinner’. It was awful, bitter, and plainly disgusting. In fact, I wanted a hot chaulafan badly, or at least a chaufarin.
Strange, but mineral water helped me to quench the cough temporally, so I could even argue with my wife for awhile. Though very soon I could tolerate the vapor and smell of hot dishes no longer. It was a sort of torture looking at beefsteaks, rissoles, and ribs everywhere around. I grabbed the bottle and walked off to the lobby and then to the balcony. There were few people and almost no meat odors.
In some minutes the bottle was empty. I obtained another one, it was the most carbonated water they produce there in the town. It hissed and sputtered at all sides when I opened it. But it gave me an unexpected pleasure. Thousands of microscopic carbon gas beads perfectly imitated a real food. I sensed something perceptible in my mouth. And unlike pure mineral water, the carbonated water had a rather good taste. Therefore, I gulped two bottles more of it while my family had their common dinner at the local restaurant. So, I had that delicious water, fresh air, and a lot of sunlight at the balcony, all for me.
Now it is about 10 p.m. Maybe it was a good idea to write the diary at nights, after all the ‘adventures’ of days.
What I feel now at the moment? Nothing special, speaking the truth. I still desire to eat something, anything, though the wish is not as intemperate and exasperate as it was some hours ago. Looks like waves – first goes a wave of hunger, I feel like a wolf aspiring to devour a sheep immediately (two sheep, to be exact). Then the wave recedes. Though never completely. In other words, a want of food is permanent, but sometimes it provokes a barbarous attack, and a bit later it transforms into a normal wish. The body asks for a bite of anything eatable. Instead, it receives water. And then water. And water again.
In total, I had more than six pints of it. I knew there was no danger with such quantities. So, I had never hesitated drinking.
It will be my first night of fasting in my life. But it seems to me that I have enough strength and willpower to win it through. Besides, I am really exhausted, I desire to sleep. My first day is over. So far, I am the champion.
day Two 244lbs
NIGHT PAIN AND WHITE TONGUE
Last night I had a liver problem, actually it was pain, though not usual one. As if a hundred of thin needles were there prickling me from inside. Well, not too hard, anyway. It lasted for about three minutes only, then stopped, and later the pain came back again. The periods of pain had been repeating three times and after that they disappeared.
Today I called some friends and told them about that. Parallel, I searched in the Internet. Soon, there was enough information. In fact, the liver has no nerves, it is unable to hurt if there is no tumor there. The pain is mostly in the gallbladder and bileducts around it. Usually the ducts are partly blocked with different sediments and calcination. So, at the moment the liver ‘decides’ to clean itself up actively, it pushes more bile out through those microscopic tubes. If they are blocked, the pressure grows, and it hurts. It is funny, but the liver cleans itself just like a common jet printer. The printer washes its printing head with ink pushing it forcefully through microscopic ink channels. The liver washes its bilious system with bile pushing it slashingly through micro bileducts. The results are very similar: both the printer head and liver work much better after cleaning.
There are certain evidences that my liver used the opportunity of fasting to wash out some dangerous toxins it had inside. It is a common thing actually. Sometimes, people give too much of urgent works to their livers, so there is no time to get rid of poisoning stuff accumulated there. And if there are some hours without food, i.e. with no work for the liver and digestion system, the liver tries to unload itself as rapidly as possible. It hastens, pushing the bile hard, and the ducts may be under high pressure at such moments. Sure, there is no danger there. But some pain is inevitable. Fortunately, it is temporal. In my case it was over in several minutes.
Due to the cleaning, the next morning I was as fresh as almost never before. Just like a kid. My temper was unbelievably good, I smiled, and was ready to do a lot, to work hard, to walk, run, … anything. It was a weird feeling of high energy. However, there was a horrid taste in the mouth. A bitter one. As if I swallowed a piece of fir-tree bark or something like that. It was bile. Well, just some milligrams of it, perhaps. But the taste was awful. Another novelty was discovered in the bathroom. I was looking at the mirror while brushing the teeth, and there I noticed that my tongue was white. Okay, not completely white, though covered with thin white fur. Since it was for the first time, I googled for an explanation. Not because I was too scared by the fur, but mostly because it was interesting: I had so many different reactions during my second day of fasting. Soon it was clear that the fur was normal and positive. In fact, it was a sort of slime. Its purpose was to take other toxins out of the body.
The subject of toxins is huge. But to understand it shortly, it would be right to say that there are only two types of toxins in the organism. The first one is more or less natural, it concerns to remnants of food. Any internal food processing ends up with some toxins that should be taken out. It is normal. Another type of poisons is a group of chemical stuff that was never food. Well, there could be pills or drugs, or more often – additives. We all know them, usually they are listed on backsides of packed, bottled, and canned products we buy at supermarkets. People eat them up willingly and happily. Especially body killers like Е-121, Е-123, Е-240, and carcinogens Е-103, Е-105, Е-121, Е-123, Е-125, Е-126, Е-130, Е-131, Е-142, Е-152, Е-210, Е-211, Е-213-217, Е-240, Е-330, Е-447, and sure most popular allergens Е-230, Е-231, Е-232, Е-239, Е-311, E-312, E-313, and no doubt, people are very fond of eating liver destroyers like Е-171, E-172, E-173, Е-320, E-321, and E-322.
Even if there were no chemicals in the product (though the truth is, a chemical-free commercial food never exists), toxins are inevitable because of common kitchen processing. While frying and boiling, most of molecules of initial products change and alter, so eventually toxic levels of cooked meals are much higher than of crude ingredients.
Shortly speaking, liver and kidneys are always busy, they have quite a lot of tasks, mostly urgent ones. Though kidneys and liver are not strong enough to conquer all the wastes and garbage a modern person consumes, so many other parts of the organism have to participate in that cleaning operation as well. Human skin, for instance, is a very good cleaner. When sweating, it takes out enormous quantities of toxins. Same with the tongue, mouth, and throat. There are effective mechanisms of slime and saliva production there. Saliva not just lubricates tissues, as many people think, it also accumulates poisons of different nature and helps ejecting them, thus avoiding frequent intoxications of the body. The intestine can do similar jobs as well, it generates a special slime, so if the tongue is white, that means the entire intestine is covered like that up to the latest inch.
That is why I had my tongue white today. And this explains the awful taste in my mouth. I have learnt earlier that usually those effects occur later, after the first three or four days of fasting. Since I had them on the second day, evidently my body was full of toxins, poisons, and wastes. The strangest thing of the day was that I didn’t want to eat. Even when my wife and son had their dinner. And then in the evening, when they had supper. I was pleased to see that my brain was calm and rational, sensations were stable and totally normal. And I needed less water than yesterday. Thus, in sum, this day was much better than the day before. Sure, I had to endure several short waves of appetite, some two minutes each. Though it was not a problem quenching them with several gulps of cold carbonated water.
I worked rather hard today, then we had a long promenade at the nearest eucalyptus forest. The weather was hot, though it didn’t bother me. All day long I was fresh and alive just like in the morning. And amazed by the fact. Just once, there in the forest, my head started swimming, it lasted a minute or two, with a bass sound and black stars flashing before my eyes. But very soon everything came back to norm, so I even had no time to get frightened.
Throughout the day there always was a bottle of water in my hand. My advice is to do like that while fasting. Water is the helper Number One. Sometimes the thirst is really a torment, it comes quick and unexpected. However, even a single sup is capable to terminate it in a second. Same with appetite. Nevertheless, as far as I know from my friends and specialists, the appetite attacks heavily, it happens that even a pint of water is not enough to calm it down. Anyway, a bottle of water in hands of a fasting person is a must.
As to my coughing, it was absolutely usual. Nothing has improved so far. Though it is too audacious to expect results after just two days of fasting. It will take longer, for sure. Another odd fact was that today’s lavatory routine was regular, exactly as two days ago. I do not ponder on that 'phenomenon', though at any rate it is strange.
Briefly, the day was good, it looked like there was no fast at all. Now I see that water fasting is not as complicated as the majority of people think. Well, I am not sure of the future, although tomorrow everything will be fine, no doubt. There is no exhaustion, no tiredness. Nothing troubles me, and actually I do not worry about the fast. I know I can do it. And I will.
day Three 242lbs
TOOTHBRUSH AND SHOPPING
Yesterday I was too excited, evidently. I wrote too much in the diary. Okay, today I will try to describe the fasting process more objectively.
Almost the way it had happened the previous night, this night was problematic. Same pain in the liver. Why it never comes at daytimes? It awakens me at around 2 a.m. and then I sit and wait for more pain or other troubles. Though in 15 minutes I sleep again. And nothing occurs till the morning. It seems the liver has its own peculiar rhythm. Well, it's okay.
The tongue is much whiter than yesterday, though I have managed to wash it easily with a new toothbrush. With warm water and brush, and with nothing more. Three minutes later the tongue was pink.
The most remarkable point was that I felt much better after the procedure of tongue cleaning, I was rather normal – usual temper and usual problems and thoughts, though when the tongue was clean my internal state (or something I consider as the internal state) had improved remarkably. So, I would recommend such cleanings to fasting people.
Though one of my friends I was in contact with in the morning said I would better forget of toothbrushes temporally. And sure, of toothpastes too. He insisted that many fasting people had teeth problems after common brushings. Serious problems, definitely. Up to pain and dentists. He said that teeth had their special technique to protect them.
Fortunately, I have one good dentist as my old buddy, I called him, and he was kind to spend 20 minutes of his time explaining me the matter. Once he had two naturopaths as his clients, thus, he had some experience. And he confirmed that Mother Nature was wise. Human teeth have at least one million and five hundred thousand years of their history. While the toothpaste is less than sixty years old. Then how human teeth had been protected during those one million four hundred ninety nine thousand and forty years?
In fact, teeth had no problem at all. The mouth fabricates a special 'paste', a transparent 'paint' that covers the teeth if there was no other cleaning. Besides, there is no boiled or fried food in the nature, all fruits and vegetables are crude and raw there, so a mere eating of them cleans the teeth perfectly. The dentist said that a fresh apple consumed in the morning does the cleaning job much better than the best toothbrush ever.
Though he added that I should never say that to other people because it could be dangerous – toothpaste companies would kill me for that. Well, I think it was a joke. Maybe…
In other words, I ceased to clean teeth since that moment and put the toothbrush away to the closet.
The main difference of this day was that I felt thirsty every minute. I had to drink a lot. Actually I consumed water by little sups, though very often. Once I ran out of water, and it was hard. So, I bought more bottles and had at least two of them everywhere.
Today was a day of house shopping, we had to go to different commercial centers to buy the things we had listed before, so it was hot, squashy, noisy, and very annoying in general.
My strength had lessened obviously. In the third mall I had the only idea in my mind – to escape somehow, to get back home and sleep there for at least two hours. In fact, some minutes were really difficult, I was ready to sit down right at the pavement and take a good nap there. For a moment I had almost lost consciousness, again I saw black spots around, but in no time it improved and I returned to my usual state. Though anyway I still was worn out up to the limit.
After the shopping my son asked if we would go to the zoo, because I had promised that a week ago. So, we went there. The zoo was not too far from the city, nonetheless, it had almost killed me. Thanks gods, there was a good refrigerator with very cold carbonated water in it. I devoured almost a gallon (at least it seemed to me like that), and eventually I could manage to survive for two hours more.
Back at home I was ruined. I thought I would stay in bed for the rest of my life. Though it took just half an hour of napping, and then I was fresh and active again. The recovery was amazingly quick and complete...
Later in the evening the cough had become dreadful. I coughed with blood. Several water gulps didn’t help. I had to go out of the house hoping to calm my coughing down with slow walking. And I came back rather tired again. After about 20 minutes of TV watching, i.e. of sitting motionlessly and staring at the large flat glass, the strengths came back almost entirely, so I could even play with my kid. Then I got back to work (where actually I am now working and writing this diary).
I calculated that I had about 7 pints of water today. Well, perhaps up to 8 pints in total. However, since my dangerous level of water consumption is 18 pints, I do not worry about it. If the body asks for a drink the only wise decision is to allow it drinking as much as it wants. Nevertheless, tomorrow I will try to diminish the consumption a little.
The problem (if it is correct naming it like this) is that most of my friends in societies of fasting people had difficulties and troubles during the first days. What I feel, sense, and experience now is not a trouble actually. Just some little disturbances, perhaps. On the one hand, I am happy I am moving rapidly. But where are the promised complexities and complications then? It is strange. Is anything wrong there with the procedures, I mean, with my fasting? Definitely, this week will answer the question.
Why and How #1
SUPPRESSING THE APPETITE
ENTERING THE FIRST FAST PROPERLY
NOTE: normally all beginners have hundreds of questions and doubts, their knowledge is insufficient, so, they ask a lot. It is good asking and learning. The problem is that other beginners often try answering such questions, thus, most of their advice are totally wrong. I write the Why-and-How sections of this book some years after completion of the Diary. Since then I have accumulated huge experience on the subject including fasting, raw food, curing of diseases, and naturopathy in general. These Why-and-How chapters are correct and best answers to important questions of novices.
Suppressing the appetite is, perhaps, the most common and complicated difficulty of fasting people. First, to overcome it, one should understand the nature of the phenomenon of appetite. Unfortunately, in many books authors repeat same errors, they explain the sensation of appetite as a reaction to low level of glucose in blood.
As a matter of fact, the glucose percentage is a signal only, it is a switch that activates an array of other reactions, mostly psychological ones. A human being is not a robot, his behaviour is complex, it depends on genes, culture, education, environment, habits, experience, temper, age, health, knowledge, and many other different elements of mind and body conditions. That is why people react differently, think differently, behave differently.
No doubt, human organisms are dissimilar as well. Thus, what is hard and tedious for one body is good and pleasant for another one. Activating a set of appetite reactions does not mean that a person will rush to the kitchen immediately. There is no pre-programming for that. Because the appetite is just a wish, it is not a command. Then the individual decides freely and independently what to do next, to listen to the appetite and obey the wish, or to put it aside and forget it. Eating is always deliberate. A desire of food is just a desire, it is never a rule, it is never a law.
In other words, appetite is controllable. The trick is that it produces waves, it is not as stable as it seems. The first wave of appetite is always very high because the aim of it is to lead directly to the instinct of eating. This instinct is extremely ancient, actually it is a pure animal thing, nothing human is there at the moment. Thus, the signal of appetite may bypass the mind ‘controller’. That is why it is always recommended to wait for a minute. Just a minute! This way never allowing the animal instinct to control your will.
Shortly, it is a matter of exercising the mind. It is easy. The minute the first wave rises (i.e. the first wish of food comes) must be the minute of pause. The wave may be high, though it is always short, it ends up in some seconds usually.
Of course, the wish of eating won’t disappear completely. But it becomes tolerable and reasonable. The instinct can be changed for thoughts, for comprehension. Then the person may ‘argue’ with the wish thus altering it, or at least postponing its fulfillment.
How they do that technically? Well, the key is the word ‘later’. You should never say ‘never’. When the appetite’s wave comes it is wise to ‘suggest’ the body to eat later. Doesn’t matter when exactly. Just later. It gives a pause, the time needed for the instinct to vanish. Then, a minute or two later it will be very much easier to restrain the appetite’s attack because the wave is no more, just the remnants of it. And it is a good time to be prepared for the second hit.
The best preparation is water. Keeping a bottle of good water not far from hand is highly advisable, actually it is a must. The body is 75% water. We should never forget the fact. Water is the most important and vital element of all living beings. So, giving water to the organism is always good and natural.
Sure, there is no way to substitute food with water. However, it is the best way to postpone the food eating procedure for hours, or days, or even weeks (and sometimes for months).
Shortly speaking, at the moment you feel the appetite’s wave rising, first you say ‘later’ to your body. You say: ‘I will give you a tasty meal, but not now, a bit later’. Or something like this. Or you may specify it saying ‘in an hour’, or ‘in the evening’, or ‘tomorrow’. Please try to convince the body that it is true. And it should be the truth! When I say to myself that I will eat tomorrow that means I have no choice, I am really obliged to eat tomorrow at any rate. Please never deceive your body. Otherwise, it will be too hard (or impossible) to control its wishes. Usually, after several tries, the body begins to obey, it believes you, and it waits for food patiently.
Thus, the appetite is an instinct initially. It acts rapidly and violently. Fortunately, its strokes last for a minute or two only, well, for up to several minutes, though not for too long anyway. So, all-in-all, it is not a big problem.
The real difficulty is that the moment the instinct acts the consciousness may bend to it and behave cleverly and cunningly. Usually it starts persuading and reasoning you, it coaxes you to eat something, just a little byte, a fresh and very salutary food, a fruit maybe, or a salad, or… anything. It treacherously assures you that a byte is nothing, that it is good and healthy for your body, and that your organism will be happy having it.
Besides, it induces you that tomorrow you will begin with a new fasting again, and a single day delay means nothing, and anyway you must better organize yourself for the procedure, and… so on and so forth. The consciousness, i.e. your mind, is very smart, it ‘knows’ how to cheat you. And usually it manages doing that eventually.
Is it possible to entrap your own foxy mind and outsmart it? Of course, there are many effective ways to do that. And the simplest one is water. Yes, water and water again. Please do not try to insist, never do it coercively, never apply force. The more you are emotional the easier to prevail over you. Instead, just drink water. Well, listen to your thoughts, though keep on drinking water. Till the wish of food is no more, or at least it is too weak to outwit you.
Definitely, it seems too easy and not true. How could that be? The body demands for food, it applies all tricky ways possible. Then you just ingest mineral water and that’s it. The organism is conquered, and it agrees to stay without meals for as long as you want.
Okay, it is not that easy. However, it works perfectly well. Anyone may test the method right now. Just stop eating. And wait for the appetite. Sure, better to wait for nothing special, better to do what you were going to, the routine. When the appetite appears and attacks, say the magic word ‘later’, repeat it, and try to explain to your body (to yourself, of course) that the meal will be two hours later, or five hours later, whatever. And begin drinking water. Then drink even more of it when your mind starts cheating you making you to open the refrigerator.
Keep a bottle of water in your hand. Always. And sip it. The higher is the temptation the more water you drink, this is the rule. There is no guaranty you will succeed. Commonly, the technique needs several attempts, it needs an experience. Though anyway, it really works, and eventually you will learn it. Maybe in a day or two. Or perhaps in some weeks. It depends on you only. However, it is positive, and after taming patiently of the instinct the attempts of abstaining from food will get much easier results.
day Four 240lbs
BILE AND FIRST CRISIS
I was sleeping like a log. Early in the morning (hooray!) there was the first complication. Though it is not easy telling about it now. People usually try to conceal their physiological side of life, me too. Nevertheless, the main subject of my diary is health. Speaking differently, the subject is body and its functions. One of the most important functions is digestion, no doubt. And the final phase of digestion is… you know… wastes. Yes, I have to mention it, sorry. For the first time in my life I could see human bile. It was mine. At least 2oz of it. Actually more. Awful? Sure, it was! Not an appropriate topic for dinnertime, I suppose.
My first reaction was negative. I thought something was wrong inside. Though in a minute I was talking with an old friend, a former doctor, and the information was good. Or better to say, rather normal. Nothing special was there with the bile. He said, since there was no pain in the liver (at least not much of it because I have slept with no interruption this time) then the only evidence of the bile was that the digestion system had began cleaning itself up from different slime and toxins. Besides, the bile was quite common, that was good for me because it meant my intestine was not damaged too heavily, and the cleaning was mostly superficial so far.
Certainly, I calmed myself down and thanked the friend. My fear was groundless, I was happy again. Basically because I knew that it was the real beginning of chain of fasting effects, so much expected ones.
There were three appetite attacks today. The first one in the mid of day. My body got weak and powerless for a while as if there were no bones inside, I felt almost paralyzed, I had to sit down on the grass (it occurred in a little park in suburbs). I called my wife because I needed to talk to someone. There I was sitting for some minutes, trying to think of something funny, distracting myself from the crisis. I knew that it was normal, it was just a short-term low-glucose reaction. However, I knew even better that my body was full of glucose. The actual problem had the following base: the organism commonly wishes to get sugars (i.e. bio-chemical energy) from outside, it used to that way of getting energy with no effort, directly from sweet and starchy food. At the same time a human body has lots of different stocks of sugars in all their possible forms. Of course, those sugars should be processed first. And that means hard working for the body.
Well, we know that human body is utterly lazy. It prefers living easily, sluggishly, slow, and lumpishly. And it avoids efforts at any rate. The body merely hates working, both internally and externally. Thus, getting free sugars from food is the best choice. But when somebody presses his own body down and forces it to obtain the needed energy from internal stocks, there could be a series of unpleasant and rather aggressive reactions. Today I had one... plenty of it. Thanks to my knowledge (and to my wife too, she talked to me all those minutes helping me to think of sheer nonsense instead of fainting) I managed to overcome the crisis quickly. So, the second time I was ready for a repetition, I called nobody and was just sitting on the bench till I was sure everything was over. And yes, it was over in three minutes. Well, possibly in five. I called this ‘appetite attack’ though I sensed no appetite at all. Maybe I should name it ‘the- body-wanting-free-sugar’ instead.
As to the real appetite, i.e. a desire of food, it wasn’t unbearable. On the contrary, the smell of meals in restaurants seemed repulsing. Especially of fish. My kid likes fried fish, and shrimps, and oysters, and other ocean food. Today he had it. But sitting near the dishes and smelling them was utterly disgusting. No, I didn’t want vomiting, not that hard. Though I did all I could to leave the table as soon as possible.
I wanted sugar. Some sweet food. Sweet warm milk with honey. Or a cake, a soft and fragrant one. That was true. So, I gulped water and looked in the window, and talked to my wife, and.. I did the best to distract myself from sugar. Eventually, I succeeded. Now it is night, it was the fourth day of my first fasting. I consider it a victory. My cough is same as before, maybe a bit worse. Though I feel no pain in the chest. And the temperature is nearer to its normal level.
Another effect of fasting today: I experimented a little with my muscles refusing of elevators. The flat is on the fourth floor, eight flights of stairs. On the third floor I understood the actual weight of my body. For the first time. More exactly speaking, it was the weight of my excessive fat, I could sense it even without touching. A very much weird sensation, I must say. More than 90 pounds of fat. Just thinking of that made me sick…
After that there was a little war somewhere in my liver, with pain and something like a crawling motion there. Then it disappeared with no consequences.
Later in the evening I noticed that the tongue was almost pink, the white fur was thin and with no awful taste. Who knows, perhaps it will come back tomorrow. I would prefer seeing my body continuing with its cleaning-off-toxins operation. But I know I cannot help it. The body is unquestionably wiser than me, and now it is absolutely free to do what it wishes.
By the way, my water consumption is lowering. Today I had just five small bottles of carbonated mineral water. I think it was the exact quantity my body needed. Though tomorrow I won’t limit it, of course.
Right at the moment I feel neither thirst nor hunger. Actually I do not want to sleep either. However, tomorrow I must do a lot of things, and having a good deep rest this night would be wise and reasonable.
day Five 237lbs
FERN FOREST AND NASTY FOOD
Again my sleep was unusually bottomless. In the morning I felt as if I was born anew. No trace of night dreams. Looked like triggering a time machine – I went to bed at midnight and then, almost immediately, there was morning. Seven hours of my life had been converted into some 7 seconds. I knew that most naturopaths claimed great improvements of sleeping. Usually they sleep less though deeper, they get much profound refreshment each time. So did I last night.
And again there in the bathroom some strange things had happened. Water. It poured down from me. (sorry, sorry, sorry) Plenty of it. I had to ignore it, because searching in the Internet and asking for an advice would be too ridiculous. I thought that since I had neither pain nor internal tension there was nothing to worry about.
My body temperature had changed for better again, it was almost normal. Same with the cough. Well, I’m still coughing too often, though not as hard as two or three days ago. The cough seems more superficial now. And there in the chest I sense nothing bad, no pain, just nothing. I know it is too early to be happy with this, the cough is able to come back at any moment with its new terrible strength. However, the improvements are visible, and this fact gives me a great hope and optimism.
Today I am weaker than before. My legs are heavier, my movements are slower, and even my words are stertorous and stodgy. Every now and then I looked for a bench or a chair. Walking was torturing, staying was tiresome. In the afternoon I had to go rather far from the city, to a small village of Sachatamia, in the famous fern forest. In fact, it was a kind of jungle, wet, odd, and wild. I could not restrain myself from going there by foot despite my exhaustion. There were several sand pathways sloping down to the river. Soon I was in the “Jurassic Park” movie – everything looked like the earth some ten millions years ago. And I would not be surprised if a giant dinosaur would come out from behind the enormous ferns…
Shortly speaking, I was delighted walking there in the mystery forest, breathing the ancient air and hearing thrilling creaks of weird jungle birds. When I came back to the tourist station I was happy. Amazingly, my body was happy too. It wasn’t tired, just a bit maybe…
Later I had to endure another liver pain, it happened in the mid of the day. It was unexpected, as always, and really keen. I almost screamed. Though, exactly as before, it vanished within some five minutes without a trace. I palpated my liver… okay, I tried to palpate it, and for sure I discovered nothing special there. That pain was different, not like needles but a single long sharp nail hammered right into my side. I was glad the liver shocks were short. Otherwise I would have to think about termination of my fasting.
To continue experimenting with the procedures today I replaced carbonated water with another drink – mineral water from high mountains. It was not carbonated. I did not like its taste. Again, something bitter in the mouth, obviously it was bile. Nonetheless, I continued drinking that pure mountain water and I take it right now writing these lines. So far I consumed 6 pints of it. Though tomorrow I will buy a dozen of bottles of carbonated water again. It fits me better.
Another new experience – trembling. If I sit almost motionless for long, let’s say for half an hour, my legs begin vibrating. It is not visible, just sensible. I sense the muscles pulsing frequently, though weakly. What is going on there inside my legs I have no idea. Perhaps it is just a nervous reaction. I consider it as a reflection of some inside processes, some special works the body does on fasting. I am not concerned about it, it is okay, I just note it in case the trembling would grow harder.
At last the appetite has evaporated entirely. There is no thought of food in my mind. What I want is just water. I feel thirst rather often, perhaps twenty times a day. Though I can say I have forgotten of meals and dishes. All right, not absolutely. Of course, I see eating people around me. First of all, my own family. But I look at it at a quite new angle.
The idea is that all the food those people consume looks disgusting and smells abominable. It is really hard breathing near the plates, and even harder talking to people after their dinner. They stink like dead dogs. Well, I respect everybody, I truly love my wife and son, but… something new is there, something that I do not like to think about.
It would be better for me to ponder on this problem later, when my fasting experience is big enough. At the moment I prefer drawing an intermediate conclusion that my negative attitude towards common kitchen food and eating people is merely a temporal external effect of some internal changes of my organism.
day Six 235lbs
ANGER AND DISGUST
Today was a bad day, undeniably. First, in the morning I was weak, feeble, and old, I felt sick, unhealthy, and angry. In fact, annoyed and aggressive. There were argues and quarrels (I did at the supermarket), and I could not help it. Everything looked provoking, everybody behaved aggravating and offensive, with ugly smiles and vile stench. That lasted till the midday.
Then it got worse. My cough had returned. And it was the hardest coughing I had ever had in my life. With slime, pain, and much blood. Water was almost useless, everything was useless, nobody could help me. On the whole, it was really dreadful.
To make the things worse, my liver started to revolt again. The pain was impossibly keen. Besides, I was in the street, hundreds of people around passing by, some of them asked their stupid questions, perhaps they wanted to help me, but I was utterly rude in return, immeasurably brute and absolutely impolite. The aggression was at its highest level.
Soon the cough had begun fading away. And the anger too. And in about half an hour I was okay, a normal person. At least apparently.
Now I understand that it was another crisis, a psychological one. Some of my friends have experienced similar symptoms during their first fastings. Not all of them, of course. It depends on the nature of person, obviously on his latent internal world perfectly masked by the common life environment.
Thus, my conclusion is the following: I have a portion of that ‘secret wild animal’ that lives more or less peacefully in most of us till the moment it is unleashed by circumstances. My circumstance was fasting. The organism did something inside me, evidently in my brain too, repairing various small disorders there (well, it is just my opinion, certainly), and there was a short circuit… or something similar. In any case, I am happy it had ended with no problem and fairly quickly.
In the evening I perceived that drinking water was irritating my throat. Very deep in the mouth, behind the tongue, there was a little swelling, a bulge not too big though rather painful. Later I determined two swellings instead of one. I saw them in the mirror – two red bids. The moment I write these lines they look bigger and hurt me every time I swallow. And the body temperature is fairly high again.
Generally, it is similar to angina. Maybe my immune system gave a breach, maybe just a tiny mechanism of the immunity had been spoiled temporally, but the fact is the fact: I have got both the sore throat and fever.
I had to return to pure mineral water because I needed it warm. To make it simpler the water was in the bottles, and I warmed them up in the microwave up to about 90F. That made it easier to drink.
Today this water seems sweet and pleasant. It is a sort of relief, a facilitation for the throat.
I was so much occupied with the cough, throat, temperature, and liver that I completely forgot of food. During the day there was not even a minute I wanted to eat something. Not even a single wish.
I confirm it: the appetite cannot survive through the first six days of water fasting, it disappears totally. Well, I must say that looking at eating people was even more irritating than yesterday. Meals seemed not just awful though very much sickening. All eating people too.
Though, when the aggression crisis was over, I turned commonly calm and looked at people devouring nauseous food quite coolly. Just two or three times I was close to vomiting (at the restaurant where I had to stay till my wife and son had their dinner), but somehow I managed to overcome the disgust and execration.
The only good (or bad?) news of today is that my tongue is pink again. Though my wife Natalie said my breathing had a strange smell, something inhuman.
Okay, I agreed. Maybe I am not entirely human indeed after six days of fasting. I don’t care.
Besides, in the evening despite the high temperature and angina the irksome noise in my ears had begun fading away. So, this small problem is not as bothersome now as it always was. I hope very much the noise won’t be back tomorrow.
My water consumption keeps on diminishing. Today – just 5 pints. And really, I have never wanted for more.
The fasting goes almost smoothly. I sense its curing power, and the improvements I see in the mirror are encouraging. I will continue. Anyway, there is no other option.
day Seven 234lbs
THE FIRST DRY DAY
I had to make a decision. The angina, or whatever it was, had changed for a much worse thing. It ached and nagged a lot, and the fever was never diminishing. Both the swellings in had got bigger, both are red as cherries. And swallowing even warm water turned out a big painful problem.
To cure it properly I read ten or twelve different articles in the Internet. Though I knew it: the real solution for a fasting person is a dry day, i.e. a waterless fast. It works rapidly. At least, many people have reported that.
Thus, in the morning I sipped a half pint of warm water from one of the bottles and the ‘dry era’ had begun.
In general, there was nothing special. Only at about 11 a.m. the thirst had become appreciable. But struggling against the thirst was easier than against food temptations on the first two days of this fasting. I just said to myself that tomorrow the pain in the throat would be no more, and I would have as much water as I wanted. That soothed and lighted the thirst successfully.
Another hope was to conquer the cough ‘emergencies’ more efficiently with the help of this dry day. It is true that a waterless fast is able to cure many different diseases in just several days.
Though, it is true as well that such fasting is dangerous. And most specialists do not recommend it, especially if it lasts for more than three days in one go. I learnt it from my friends, but my intention was a day only.
Shortly speaking, I managed with it very fruitfully. No, the sore throat is still the sore throat. However, the red bids are smaller now. And they have changed their red color for reddish pink. (I forgot to say that it is almost midnight now, I write this page after all the escapades of the day).
I also think that the ‘dry period’ has helped my lungs as well. Because I cough just “superficially”, or better to say, facilely. There was no blood and almost no pain in the chest.
The day was generally good. After 3 p.m. the thirst had converted into a daydream of water. My imagination offered me some pictures like drops of water, a river, a glass of water, a waterfall, and so on. Not too often, though from time to time I dreamed of tomorrow. Of water.
Though it wasn’t thirst actually. My mouth was never dry. On the contrary, I sensed enough water in my body. It is hard to explain how could I feel that, but it is true – I knew very well that the tissues and internals had good water stocks there.
And there was no trace of fear of the luck of water (like that dreadfully paralyzing terror some people get in deserts). Why to bother of water? It is always near me in the city. I could buy it at any shop, at a gas station, or in a restaurant.
But I didn’t. Not because my will power was that extraordinary firm. It wasn’t. I just did not want to drink preferring to dream of water, of the tomorrow water, to be exact.
By the way, there at that restaurant (a good Mexican food place, in fact) I went to the rest-room, and there I had, well, I’m very sorry though it is important, a regular ‘big deal’ unexpectedly. Could not believe it, because it was the seventh day I lived without even a grain of food. But as far as I knew, it was a norm. It was an obvious sign that the digestion system worked correctly. Later it will hibernate, though not today.
In the evening I committed an inexcusable error. A sin, I would say. First I had a wrong idea that my breath was too strong. So, I decided to clean the mouth with a liquid my wife used for that purpose. It was awful and very much bitter. I managed to spit it all, no one drop of it remained in the mouth. But soon I was poisoned. Or to be precise, my stomach was intoxicated with the chemicals. It had awakened rapidly, and then it started wambling and rumbling.
Then, a quarter of hour later, all the intestine was activated. Very soon I got sick. That hell had lasted for about an hour till the body had settled down. I am sure I will never touch that horrible liquid again, moreover Natalie said I had nothing bad with my breathing.