fasting journal

I haven't posted anything about the fast since I started fasting, but suffice it to say it only lasted two days (Friday evening to Sunday evening). It is really hard to go without food even if I am not hungry, and I will need some more practice (perhaps fasting a couple days every month) before I'm ready to do the full course. Here's what happened during the two days I fasted:

Jan. 20 Friday evening -

Drank the senna leaf tea (a laxative) before going to bed. Has a subtle taste and not very strong.

Jan. 21 Satuday -

Had two bowel movements first thing in the morning. I prepared the saline wash (sea salt + 1 qt. warm water) for me and Rocky. He drank his in one go, although I had a hard time drinking mine. I could drink half of it and the rest I have to drink a few swallows at a time - otherwise I'd feel like vomiting. We had to make the hot water in the coffee maker, and the slight coffee taste in the water made it worse.

About half an hour later the salt water started coming out the other end. Yes, I was pooping water, along with some other stuff that washed out with it. It's not like diarrhea; you poop normally and water comes out instead of solid stuff (the water does not get absorbed by the body since the salt content is the same as blood). I guess the saline wash works! I had to run back to the bathroom a few times, probably since I didn't drink my water all at once. After that I made lemonade enough for the day for two of us. Was not hungry all morning so didn't drink much of the juice.

In the afternoon, we went to the Cerritos Library to "study" (I played my DS mostly). Rocky teased me about food every time we drove by a restaurant, although my will power was still working at this time, so I wasn't too tempted. Got really hungry at the library and the juice would only keep me satisfied for maybe half an hour at a time.

After we went home to Rocky's place, Rocky insisted on watching Food Network. They were making lamb on Iron Chef America and it was too good!! By dinner time I was hungry for real food, and I made up my mind to give up the fast. When I told Rocky, he was like, "I was just joking around." I got pissed and told him if I gave up on it today the next time I'm fasting by myself! I cried and threw a fit, and he kind of toned it down after that and convinced me to wait 'til tomorrow to see if I still want to give it up.

Jan. 22 Sunday -

I felt better in the morning. Still wanted to eat, but the urge wasn't as bad. Had a BM in the morning with a little poop, then did the saline wash. It went down slightly easier this time, but I still had to drink it a little at a time. We watched Food Network in the morning (it was a cake contest) until I said it was making me want to eat again. We went for a motorcycle ride and then I went home to take care of my chores. On my way home I decided I didn't want to miss the Chinese New Year festivities nor make Rocky miss them, so we would stop the fast and try again after the we return from our Big Bear trip in February. We went to a Chinese dumpling restaurant that evening and had dumpling soup and fried rice. I was so happy to eat food again!

Some impressions afterwards:

If nothing else, having fasted for two days really made me appreciate food. I appreciated good food like anybody else, but I never appreciated eating quite like this. I enjoyed the anticipation of looking forward to a meal, the act of sitting down at a table and waiting for the food, the act of eating, and the flavors and textures of the food. I am also a pound lighter than when I started the fast (this is after 5 days of eating again). Rocky said that he has more energy, and his gym routine (he runs 6 miles per session, 3 times a week) feels easier than before.

While fasting I realized how often I think about food, and I start to notice these thoughts because I'd be thinking about food when I can't eat. Around meal time I would start thinking about what to eat or to cook (if my parents or someone else isn't cooking), and being indecisive I end up spending waaay too much time thinking about food. I catch myself doing it now, and I try to make my food choices more quickly so that I'm not thinking too much about what to eat.

In any case, this was a fruitful if not entirely successful attempt at fasting. Will journal about the next try when I do this again late February or in March.

quote of the day

Unmasking Truth

All judgments, opinions, inerpretations disguise the truth. They
are all forms of trespass. As long as you are judging someone, you cannot see the truth about that person. What you see is just a mask.

Only when you take your own mask off can you see behind the masks others wear. That's when you see who people really are. That is when you see others as God sees you.

- Paul Ferrini

fasting (take two)

So tonight my fasting officially begins. I am so ready to do this, although last night I was reminded that Chinese New Year starts next week - and I can't eat! It's the time of year when Chinese people stuff themselves on delicious season foods (kinda like Christmas), and I was asking my Mom to make this red bean rice cake when I remembered. The past 3 months at work I've been communicating with suppliers in China to rush orders out before everything closes for 3 weeks during Chinese New Year, but I hadn't thought anything wrong with fasting during CNY. LOL go figure. Anyway I'm not willing to delay this any longer, so I'm doing it anyway. At least I won't pig out and get pissed at myself for eating so much.

Basically the cleansing diet goes like this:

1. drink 1-quart of saline wash (sea salt + warm water) each morning to wash out your digestive system (or herbal laxative tea if saline wash cannot be taken)

2. drink a special lemonade recipe whenever you're hungry, between 6-10 10 oz. glasses per day depending on level of activity. The lemonade recipe can be found at various places on the Net by googling "Master Cleanser recipe."

3. drink an herbal laxative tea each night (including the night before the first full day of fasting)

4. mint tea can be taken if desired; no other food or drink should be consumed whatsoever.

I was inspired to start my own Master Cleanser diet journal after reading this one: Lemonade Diet Journal. It's interesting to read someone else's story and how the diet affected them. I'm reading Kevin Troudeau's book Natural Cures at the moment, and although the book is not very well referenced and I don't quite care for his tone, it's interesting how he says the food we eat are filled with toxins and chemicals that make us addicted to them. In the journal I linked, the woman says she stopped desiring meat and other foods she used to like, and n fact thought they were gross when she ate them. She also started craving fresh fruit and vegetables and became a vegetarian without intending to. I think that is very cool, and if I stop craving meat and junk foods after this, good riddance I say.

new digital camera!

My new digital camera arrived today! I have been researching for a camera for so long and been so frustrated (kinda like my cell phone search) because there aren't many good budget cameras out there. I was looking at 5 megapixel cameras at first, and the good ones go for $300-400 with taxes and shipping. I wanted something that is ultracompact, between 4-5 mp, has good picture quality, great battery life, SD card compatible, and a big LCD screen -- not like I'm asking for the world. Anyway, most cameras that fit this description cost more than I'm willing to pay. I dropped my expectation to 4 megapixels and decided on the Sony DSC-S90, which is a very nice camera that comes with rechargeable batteries and a very big screen (2.5") for its price range. My only frustration was that it only uses Sony's memory stick pro, which is their proprietary memory card that costs twice as much as an SD card with the same capacity.

Shortly after I ordered it (on a Sunday), my brother came home and I discussed it with him. He doesn't like Sony electronics (says they're unreliable) and the memory stick of course. So I did some more research and went with the Canon A520, which was $10.00 more than the Sony. The A520 is bigger than the Canon Elph cameras that I originally wanted (but decided against after reading numerous complaints that its LCD screen is defective), but still smaller than I thought it would be. I will try it out more once I get my rechargeable batteries, but I am so ready to start photoblogging!

fasting rescheduled

Okay, so much for starting when I said I would start. I mentioned starting the fast to my aunt last night at dinner, and she suggested that I should start on Friday night so that I have two days to get used to it before having to work on Monday. I saw her point but was reluctant to delay it for another week. And then she mentioned that I would be more likely to keep up with it if Rocky and I did it together - which I was also reluctant to do because I was thinking he'd back out on it by Friday. But then he promised he would do it - and my aunt would hold him to his word. So I will start the fast next Friday night instead.

i love my new phone

So I switched from T-Mobile to Cingular so I can talk to Rocky for free (about 90% of my 1000 monthly minutes were spent talking to him). After much frustrating research (frustrating because almost every phone has some glaring flaw or another), I decided on getting a Sony Ericsson Z520a. It is a charming yet sexy phone, and the screen, interface, and menu options are waaay better than my old Nokia 3595. I am waiting for my Bluetooth headset to arrive, and then I will be talking in style.

fasting

I was recently introduced to a cleansing method called "The Master Cleanser" or lemonade diet, developed by a man named Stanley Burroughs. It is basically a fast that includes consuming nothing but lemonade (a special recipe)and water for 10+ days. My aunt Phoebe went through this fast after being introduced by her friend, and although she didn't experience any drastic results, she felt that it gave her a new perspective on life by observing how often people think about food. After reading the booklet that describes this cleansing diet, I am quite fascinated by the promises of healing from the fast. The special lemonade recipe is supposed to break up the toxic chemicals/minerals/etc deposited in various parts of the body and allow them to pass out of your systems, thereby curing or begins to cure any number of diseases. I know from a couple of Chinese doctors that my body retains too much water, which causes me to be overweight. I am very excited to see if this fasting will help.

After being inspired by a Master Cleanser fasting journal online, I've decided I will document my fasting as well. I will start the fast this Sunday and shoot for 13 days of fasting. May do more if I feel like it by the end of 13 days.

christmas at disneyland

So here's my second post of the year! Haven't been doing much lately besides work, but the Thursday before Christmas I took a day off to go to Disneyland with Rocky (my boyfriend). We got in around 8:20 a.m., and it was a good idea to go early because fewer people were there. We were able to hit 5 or 6 rides in the first two hours - the average wait was between 2 to 15 minutes (for more popular rides). That was quite nice because when the lines got longer in the afternoon, we just chilled and waited for parades and stuff.

My favorite ride this time was the redecorated Haunted Mansion. I don' t know if they've done this last year too, but it was entire redecorated with a Nightmare Before Christmas theme. It was cute and very awesome to see the ride almost completely changed. I also loved the snowfall after the 50th anniversary fireworks. The fireworks itself is already a sight to behold (saw it when I was there in July, quite impressive), but afterwards the snowfall on Main Street was just unreal. Even though it only lasted five minutes, it was gorgeous to see the snow (at least what looks like it). It was like my most perfect Disneyland visit ever.

new year's resolution

Following my boyfriend's suggestion, my new year's resolution is to write something in my journal or on my blog every day, so I can keep up with my writing at least a little bit. My other new year's resolution is to get a new job, although first I have to figure out what I want to do with my life before I seriously start looking. Today our boss asked us to prepare our goals and plans for 2006 to present at the team meeting tomorrow. I was like, uh, my plan is to get the heck outta here as fast as possible. Yeah.

So I've been reading this new spiritual book series called "The Right Use of Will" (also name of the first book). I've been thinking about writing about it, because the books are very thought-provoking, but it took me two months from the reading of the first book to get myself to write anything down (that's meant to be read anyway). The concepts in these books are really quite different from what I'm used to reading in spiritual and self-help books, and its ideas are not quite easily articulated to someone else because there are layers upon layers of complexity. I am fascinated by this series, but like most of the Amazon reviews for this book, it's not something I would whole-heartedly recommend to someone else. You kind of have to be willing to look at the things in life you don't want to look at.