After the Fast

I know that it has been over a week since we Sacred and Fit participants completed the seven day gradual fast. We ended the Fast just in time for Thanksgiving. What a contrast from our 2 days on Raw Food, 1 day on liquid, 1 day on Fresh Juice, 1 day on liquid and 2 days on Raw Food- gradual fast.

 One residual effect of the gradual fast was my new appreciation for raw foods. So on Thanksgiving, our family enjoyed, a raw pumpkin pie, nut loaf with herbed gravy and macaroni and cashew milk "cheese" sauce. OK, I'll be honest, not everyone at the table enjoyed the vegetarian, vegan and raw food fare. Some just said "Pass the turkey." However, I must say that you do feel different when you  gorge yourself on Healthy food. Instead of feeling sleepy and stuffed, I felt energized and satisfied.

At our Sunday conference call, there was a clear need for suggestions on how to actually prepare and execute the gradual fast. So, I've begun work on an "Un"cook book- The Sacred and Fit Gradual Fast- Suggestions and Recipes.  I certainly invite your raw food or fresh juice suggestions. We learned from one Sacred and Fit member about carrot and beet juice!

The most important thing about the Fasting week is what happens after the gradual fast. No matter if you were able to do all seven days or just two days, the intention that you had remains the most important thing. Significant breakthroughs are possible when you bring a strong desire to make a change, coupled with a dedicated time of prayer and mediation while giving your appetite a rest.

I'll be sending more recipes in the coming days so that you can begin to incorporate some of the Fasting recipes into your regular life. How about making a meal of fresh juice or dedicating one day a week to raw foods. Any positive change is step in the right direction, no matter how small.

Basic Breakfast Smoothie
Frozen Organic Fruit (found in the freezer section- strawberries, rasberries, or magos)
1 Banana
1 C, Almond milk, soy milk, organic milk or water
For more protein-
1/4 c soaked Chia seeds (optional)
1 scoop of favorite Protein Powder
Add more liquid to get to the right consistency

Place all in blender and blend on high, then medium then high to get everything smooth.
Pour into a smoothie cup with lid and drink while driving to work.
Rinse out the blender top with running water to make clean up easy after work.

(I drink and drive between 8:30 and 9:00. When I add the protein, I don't get hungry again until 11:00 or so. Then it's time for an apple or pear until lunch).

Next time- make your own salad dressing for the lunch time salad.

Week 5 Day 6 Ending the Fast

Yesterday I ended my rawfood fast. I didn't intend to do it but I didn't want to be the only one at the table with my State Senator not eating.
You see, I'm on a Board that planned this big dinner to schmooze with the state legislators. It has been planned for a year, so I had to go. I knew it was going to fall during our Gradual Fast week so that is one reason that I started my own Raw Food Fast nearly 3 weeks ago. I wanted to end tomorrow with all of you but when I was sitting there at the table, and realized that it wasn't buffet that they were bringing plates of steaming food over and that I had no choice, I just ate along with everyone else.

This is not the best way to end a fast.

Coming off of a fast is just as important as starting one....gradually. Sacred and Fit employs a method that is supposed to not shock your system and not deprive you of eating but to focus much more of the intentionality of fasting and the healthy beneifts of giving your digestivie system of break on easy to digest (liquid) and highly nutritious (raw) food.

So, when you come off of the fast, please be gentle to yourself. You may notice as I did that cooked foods are much too salty or sweet. You may want smaller portions. You may also notice that your appetite has changed. What you used to like, you may not want so much now. Just let your body be your guide.

For the last weeks of the program, the aim is to begin to create a more permanent type of lifestyle eating plan. This plan could include smoothies or raw food on a regular basis. I have a friend who eats only one full meal a day but has a breakfast juice and smoothie and a dinner juice and smoothie.  There are many ways to add some of the components of the fast to your lifestyle eating plan. Another choice is to eat one raw food meal a day or to fast one raw food day. There are endless choices. The goal is now that you know you could eat only raw food for at least one day, how could you use this knowledge and incorporate into you regular lifestyle.

Of course, fasting on a regular basis is a good idea for health and spiritual reasons. In the Sacred and Fit curriculum, it is recommended that you repeat the entire 8 week curriculum 5 times within the year and fast for at least 40 days total within that year.  You will find that each time you do the 8 week curriculum you will get better and better at Meditating, more proficient at writing in your journal and more effective at managing yourself during the Fasting week. It is almost impossible to do everything right on the first go round. It is not MEANT to do everything right on the first go round. You are creating a new way of living for yourself. This will take more than a couple of months.

So congratulate yourself on the work you've done, so far. The loss of the weight is a good thing but the changes on the inside are what I'm most proud of for you.

Week 5 Day 6 Fasting with Intention

I am out of town this week but still attempting to do a version of the Fast. It is so good to know that my intention is the most important thing. I have packed a big bag of raw food but without a refrigerator I've been forced to eat the huge salad. The almonds actually starting sprouting!!!! so I ate them too. It's ok, Nweena Kai, says that's the best way to eat almonds, soaked and allowed to stay moist for a day or so to sprout. So, tonight I am taking myself out for more salad but I will turn in early in order to get my prayer/meditation time in. 

I usually have that time in the morning, just before dawn...but during this Fasting Week, I'm attempting to have prayer and meditation in the morning and in the evening. At both times I begin with quieting my mind by focusing on my breathing. I find that it is much more difficult to quiet my mind in the evening than in the morning....where it is hard enough!  Meditation is a practice, like any other. The more you do it the better you get. What I appreciate about meditation is that it can allow you to pray with real integrity. What is praying in integrity? This is what I mean....

The Bible instructs us not to pray amiss...not to pray selfishly or out of fear. When I quiet my mind, I can more easily determine what my true feelings are. If am feeling selfish or fearful, I can deal with those emotions before I actually begin to pray. How do I do that...I use my Morning pages to purge myself of all the clutter that tries to fill my mind on a daily basis. Sure, I could pray to "not be afraid" but once I start writing anything and everything that comes to mind..what will show up are the REASONS that I am afraid in the first place. Once that is out of the way, I can pray, the right way, in Faith.

The Bible says that praying in Faith will generate results. I have several things that I am praying for during this Fast and I want results. I've learned that if I want to see breakthroughs...then I have to do the soul work to get myself out of fear, out of selfishness, into peace and into faith.

As you are drinking much of your meals for the next two days, notice your emotions. Use this time for introspection and get to the root of the issue. Forgive who there is to forgive....even if it is yourself. Determine to bless your enemies, every time you think of them. Say their name and then ask God to richly bless them with an abundance of good things.  Give thanks in the midst of a bad situation. Be thankful for the job, even if it is not fulfilling.  Stop resisting what is and trust God.  WHATEVER is in your life is for your good. Be thankful now while the new situation is coming.

I wouldn't be able to tell you this,if I hadn't done each of those things myself. I know they may seem hard but that is why you are fasting..."Not by might, not by power but by my Spirit....."

Week 5 Day 3 Becoming a (temporary) Raw Foodist

By the end of the second day of the Gradual Fast have completed two days as "Organic Raw Vegans" according to Nweena Kai, author of "The Goddess of Raw Foods" a (un)cookbook on eating raw. This is what she says on page 16.
   "The organic raw vegan diet is a simple diet and surprisingly an even simpler lifestyle once you learn how to integrate it into your life. The organic raw vegan diet is a diet made up of organic, live or raw, unprocessed, uncooked, fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds and sprouted grains. We use organic foods because the diet is mainly a detoxifying diet that also properly nourishes and sustains the body, mind and spirit, therefore eating organically eliminates the unnecessary pesticides and toxins that food contains and thus keeps your body and mind free of toxins. Also foods that come from depleted and toxic soils will thus further deplete and add toxins to the body. An organic raw vegan diet supplies the body with all the essential vitamins, nutrients minerals, enzymes and protein that it needs to thrive and flourish. Most raw foodists have stronger bodies that people who eat a mostly cooked food or meat-based diet. The food is so nutritionally dense because the nourishing vitamins, nutrients, enzymes and minerals are still intact in the food and they have not been cooked or processed in anyway, thus destroying them."
   
In preparation for this week, I have actually been on the Raw Vegan diet for the past two weeks. I have noticed no ill-effects. In fact, I feel more awake when I'm awake.--It's hard to describe, but I do have more energy. I can eat whenever I'm hungry so I seem to nibble all of the time but I actually feel BETTER after I eat. I can actually feel the energy that I've gained from the food. Not once have I felt sleepy after eating. My goal is to eat this way for an entire month to see how it feels. Because I will be out of town and away from my kitchen, I won't be changing to liquid foods or raw juice but I will be increasing my prayer and meditation time to more than 1 hour per day, as part of my intention for this fast.

Enjoy the rest of this day.  Today you are drinking your food and giving your digestive system a little rest. You are creating a better, healthier and more peaceful life from the inside out.

Week 5 day 2 Hungering and Thirsting after Rightouesness

The verse for this week is Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness for they shall be filled.  In the Aramaic, the words "those" is the world "layleyn"  This is what Neal Douglas Klozt writes about the world "layleyn." 
  "The oldest roots of the Aramic word "layleyn (to those) go back to an image of one watching by night, waiting by lamplight for something (specific) to happen. According to the word's most ancient roots, this kind of desire creates a vortex of possibility that draws in the object of the heart."  Douglas-Kltoz goes on to explain that the actual grammar of the word connotes possession, as if the thing is already possessed or is being directed toward the person who is desiring it.

In your prayer time this week, consider yourself a "to those." Consider that the thing desired is now rushing toward you, seeking you out and plans to overtake you.

As you are eating your raw food today, and doing all of the things necessary to feed yourself, just don't think of how inconvenient this is or difficult but think about the thing you most desire being placed a fast-moving stream of light and being sent directly to you.

Week 5 Day 1 The Gradual Fast

As you know, the fast is the pinnacle of the Sacred and Fit curriculum. We have been preparing ourselves for this by:
1. focusing on an intention;
2. identifying an area in which there is a need for a breakthrough- a persistent problem that won't go away,
3. a willingness to release, change or shift a way of thinking.
4. a written 7 day meal plan
5. Vegetables, fruits, nuts and seeds, juicer, blender
6. A journal to record your insights.

The Sacred and Fit suggested meal plan for the Gradual Fast is
Sunday- Raw food
Monday- Raw Food
Tuesday- Liquid Food
Wednesday- Fresh Juice
Thursday- LIquid Food
Friday Raw Food
Saturday Raw Food

Raw Food is defined as anything that is not cooked nor has been cooked--nuts, seeds, fruits, vegetables,
Liquid- Anything that you drink and don't chew
Fresh Juice- Juice that is made from your own juicer
Of course 8 glasses of water

Week 4 Day 4 Generating a joy-filled life from a peaceful mind

I used to think that one of the greatest benefits of reaching an ideal, health-affirming weight would be not having to think about weight anymore. When I consider all of the moments that I have handed my brain over to thinking about the size of my thighs or what makes my butt look big or degrading myself because last year’s jeans are too tight or this year’s jeans are too tight, or wanting to be thin or feeling bad that I’m not thinner…when I add up all of those moments, I wonder what else I could have been doing with my mind.   I wonder what God would have me be doing with my mind?

  I’ve since concluded that the purpose of my life and therefore my mind is to be a full expression of my God given abilities and to be joyful, creative and inspired.

Practicing a peaceful mind is an invitation for joy and a platform for creativity as well as an opening for inspiration.  It is unlikely that joy, creativity and inspiration are going to force their way between thoughts of self-denigration.  The good news is that I don’t have to wait for the weight (ha ha that rhymes—wait for weight!). I  don’t have to postpone the cultivation of a peaceful mind until the conditions are right. In,fact, the cultivation of the peaceful mind will itself generate changes in the outward conditions. As I accept myself as I am with love and compassion, I am then free to create the conditions that will bring the things that I want.

This is not some hairy fairy wishing. I’ve witnessed this phenomenon and more importantly, I have experienced it in my own life. As I make my peace my priority, then conditions around me change to bring more peace. 

This is what I believe is the meaning behind the third Beatitude.

“Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth.”  KJV  

“Healthy are those who have softened what is rigid within; they shall receive physical vigor and strength from the universe.   One Aramaic Interpretation

As we make changes on the inside, the outward environment will change. That’s the good news. The flip side is the bad news. The current environment reflects current  beliefs and attitudes.  Where it looks like outward circumstances are  immobile, or chaotic or lacking it may be because the thinking that connects those circumstances to your life are also immobile chaotic and lacking. What are you believing that is “rigid within?” This Beatitude invites us to soften it.

Changing any thought is simple…but not easy.  It means learning, unlearning and relearning. In your brain it involves changing or re-establishing synaptic pathways that have gotten stronger due to frequent use.  It’s like veering off an interstate highway and trying to drive down a hiking trail.  Takes work. There will be resistance. Obstacles will have to be dealt with. But it can be done.

Sacred and Fit employs Lectio Divina because it is a contemplative meditative practice.  Meditation is the single most effective vehicle for changing thoughts because the focus is not “trying” to change thoughts but to be fully engaged in one single thought…the Beatitude at hand. While you are engaged fully with the verse, your mind is not wandering, not judging or assessing, not worrying or fretting.  While you engage the Sacred and Fit curriculum, it may look like you are eating quietly or concentrating on your exercise but you are actually participating in a powerful revolution of your own life, one thought at a time.

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Paradigm Shifts

I read a book many years ago about Paradigm shifts. The author was talking about Scientific Revolutions and had concluded that based on the history, no matter how much evidence there was to support a particular theory, if the scientific community wasn’t ready to accept it then it wasn't accepted. In fact, a whole generation of scientist usually had to die off before the new idea could flourish. What kind of new ideas?

How about Copernicus’ radical idea that the earth moved around the sun, when it looked to anyone with eyes that the sun was moving. It was proved later with the technology of the rudimentary telescope that the earth was, indeed, moving but many scientist in Copernicus day, fearing persecution by the powerful Catholic church, refused to support the evidence.

Or how about Ignaz Semmelweis, a 19^th century physician who had a ludicrous suggestion that physicians  should wash their hands before attending to the mother’s in the maternity ward. He collected data showing that when physicians visited the mothers after coming from the morgue more mothers died.  It was decades before the germ theory proved him right. However, many deaths occurred in the meantime.

So, it will seem strange to you that there are people in this country who only eat raw food. That’s all. Nothing exposed to heat higher than that of a light bulb…104℉. The diet is made up primarily of nuts, seeds, fruit and raw vegetables. However, I caution you, not to judge these people to harshly but instead look at the evidence… Here’s a link below.

This is the week we begin to prepare for fasting. It is also our week to prepare for our own paradigm shifts.  Fittingly the verse for this week is

“Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth.” (KJV)

Or the Aramaic Translation that I will be using-

“Healthy are those who have softened what is rigid within; they shall receive physical vigor and strength from the universe.

View trailer for "Simply Raw"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bzdhBo4pbgE

View entire documentary "Simply Raw"
http://www.56.com/u23/v_NTAwODkwODQ.html

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Week 3 Day 5 It's about Time

Dr. Phil once recounted a story in which Oprah urgently summoned him to meet with her and “her girls.”  Oprah sent her private jet to get him and a few hours later, Dr. Phil was in Oprah’s living room to answer the urgent question.  As recounted in the book, “The Time Paradox,” the dialogue went something like this:

Oprah: Dr. Phil, we need you to tell us why we’re fat.

Dr Phil: You interrupted my dinner with my family and flew me hundreds of miles to ask me that?

Oprah: Yes, it troubles us deeply.

Dr. Phil: Hmm, I see. Well, there’s a quick answer. I can probably make it home for dessert. You’re fat because you want to be.

The Girls: We’ve been talking about it all weekend and we can’t figure it out ourselves. So, we really need you to tell us.

Dr. Phil: Oh, so you want the honest answer?

The Girls: Yes, we are ready for it.

Dr. Phil: Okay, you’re fat because you want to be.

Oprah: No really, You can tell us. We can take it.

Dr. Phil: Oh now I see. You want the whole truth…Okay, you’re fat because you want to be.

In the book, Drs. Philip Zimbardo and John Boyd point out that there are two languages being spoken in the dialogue above. The languages are the different Time Orientations.

Dr. Phil comes from a Future-Oriented perspective in which what is most salient, when Oprah is deciding to eat the doughnut, is whether it is good for her in the long run. Dr. Phil wants Oprah to see that she should be thinking about the future consequences of her actions at the moment of decision. By not doing so, Oprah is "choosing" to be fat. Future Oriented people are cognizant of the consequences of their decisions. In fact, the future goal is more important to them since present actions, in their view, are always influencing the future in some way.

Oprah and “her girls” come from a Present-Oriented perspective where the choice is not to be thin or fat but to enjoy the moment of eating. The most salient thought is “the doughnut tastes good right now.” Present-Oriented people focus on the experience, the thoughts, sensations, pains and pleasures of the present moment. The problem is that the constant attention to the taste-good-in-the-moment food and little attention to what-is-the-cumulative-effect-of-these-extra calories?” has the unintended but predictable consequences of weight gain. So in the conversation above, both parties were actually talking in their language of time.

In the book, Zimbardo and Boyd report the result of 30 years of scholarship on psychological time. Unlike clock time, psychological time varies according to culture, person and situation. Furthermore, the authors believe that one’s attitude toward time is “largely learned, and that you generally relate to time in an unconscious, subjective manner.”  According to Zimbardo and Boyd, achievement requires a future orientation but future-oriented people run the risk of achieving for achieving sake and not really enjoying life. On the other hand, present oriented people do take the time “to smell the roses.” However, they are less likely to eat well or exercise as preventive health measures.

What is most helpful is to have some of both: to realize that the current actions DO have future consequences and at the same time enjoy the life that you are living right now. 

Sacred and Fit is about bringing mindfulness to eating in the present but the reason to be mindful is to change future health outcomes. So, while healthy eating may be about time, it is also about balance.

As we’ve said before, Health is not the absence of disease but the presence of wholeness and balance.

[You can take the short test to learn your time orientation and get tips on how to incorporate different time orientations into your life at www.timeparadox.com]

Week 3 Day 2 Change and Self-rule

Change is hard. We all know that. We read about all of the benefits of being at a healthy weight and we know what to do about it….but sometimes you just want what you want.

In Sacred and Fit you are learning to want your health just as much as you want a deeper relationship with God. In fact, the goal is to equate your health with a deeper relationship with God.  This requires some doing because AFTER

 you choose to establish the link in your mind between God and your food

and you have made a firm decision to commit to being healthy,

and you truly are ready to believe that this is God’s will for you

and you are willing to  love and honor yourself enough to be conscious of your health on a daily basis

…then the REAL challenge starts, self-rule.

 Actually, there will be self-“rules.”  These are the rules you will place on yourself. Your own list of do’s and dont’s. You already have certain rules that you have established. You don’t kill. You don’t steal. You don’t commit adultery.  You may have rules about your house. You don’t leave dishes in the sink over night. Or you don’t leave your bed unmade.  We all have rules. We have our own rules about our finances and spending habits, our own rules about our commitments to others, our own rules about our commitments to ourselves.  Even if are rules are rather loose, (some people don’t mind an unmade bed) we all have our limits.

All people with specific dietary habits have rules. People who are on medications that have to be taken with food, will schedule their meals around the medicine. Vegetarians don’t eat meat.  Vegans (pronounced Vee gun) don’t eat anything that comes from an animal including milk or eggs. Raw foodists eat like Vegans PLUS they don’t eat anything that has been heated more than 118 ℉.  What they all have in common is that they eat by their own rules. 

Last week we began establishing the ground work for our personal and permanent rules of engagement around food.  Once we establish and practice the basic ground rules for at least six weeks, then it becomes easier to strengthen or modify the rules that are already in place. This is very different from “dieting” where entire new sets of rules are established for each new diet. When you get off of the diet, there goes the rules.

The first and most important set of rules is associated with our minds. The Lectio Divina helps us to become mindful of eating.  We are learning to associate eating with thinking of a scripture.  We give our minds a task. We remember to eat because we schedule our eating. We eat more purposefully. We are aware of what we are eating. We are conscious of eating for nourishment and for no other reason. This is the groundwork for permanent change- engaging the mind, first.

This week the third Beatitude is also about engaging the mind…for that is where there is “rigidity” that needs to be softened. The rigidity that most needs softening are all of the beliefs and practices that have produced the problem with weight in the first place…they hide behind statements to yourself like, “I can’t do it” or “I’m too busy” or “I deserve a piece of cake” or “I’ll exercise more tomorrow to make up for it.”

 The Lectio Divina begins to “soften” the mind and slowly, by slowly put in a new tape…. “I can do this.” “I’m not too busy to take care of myself because my health is my priority.” “ Actually I deserve an apple instead of a piece of cake.”  “I’ll exercise today and tomorrow.”

Just like Shug said to Celie. “You are your most important thing”

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Sacred and Fit^© -Every life is sacred. Each body a temple.