Exercise Begins in Earnest

Now that I have lost nearly 60 pounds, I have the ability to run, climb and do calisthenics like I could fifteen years ago. Fifteen years ago, I was lazy and procrastinated, avoiding exercise and opting to do less healthy things. I smoked, I drank and I partied. I was 29 and the world was at my fingertips. Nothing could go wrong. Or so I thought.

Fast forward five years, eight years, fourteen years and I grew in size until I was nearly 270 pounds and suffering from all kinds of weight related ailments. I had high cholesterol, high blood pressure, all the early signs of diabetes, a fatty liver, irritable bowel syndrome and more. I was getting sicker every day and one day, I realized I could not pick up my daughter without a lot of pain in my shoulders, elbows and wrists. Was I getting arthritis? Who knows, several months later, I was introduced to a product called LifePak Nano, a antioxidant rich supplement that would more than meet my missing vitamins, minerals and antioxidants. But what happened next shocked even me. My symptoms that I thought were an early onset of arthritis went away after only six weeks of LifePak Nano. I could not explain it. The distributors who sold it had no explanation and the company said we could not say that it cured or got rid of my symptoms, but all I know is that I could pick up my daughter without pain.


Fast forward 18 months into my LifePak Nano, and around 12 months into my AgeLoc Vitality consumption and my whole world fell apart prompting me to make a choice to change myself forever. To make myself into the best man I could ever be. To do something so shocking that not even people who didn't know me could ignore what was happening to me. I decided to transform myself into a health and wellness enthusiast, and make that my business. I realized that all the while I had been trying to sell health supplements, I had remained fat and unhealthy. Who in their right mind would ever purchase health supplements from a man who, while taking them, remained unhealthy? No one serious about their health, that is for sure.

So I fasted. I lost weight, and I began to exercise. A little at first, and more and more each day. I didn't let myself become discouraged. I pushed ahead, one day at a time. I have to admit, I've been a tad obsessed with my body fat. Getting rid of it. Making it go away, and seeing parts of my body I don't think I've seen since I was eleven years old. My sides are almost clear of fat, my belly (stubborn fat) is still retaining, but other places are virtually fat free. My face really is showing my fat loss in a startling way, even to me.

On the 18th of December, I jogged for the first time in many years. I mean really jogged. It was the first day of pure juice and I had energy, plus, I was much lighter than I had been having had lost nearly 40 pounds by that time. I jogged, worked out with my hand weights and did calisthenics. I increased my reps gradually, and continue to do so. Five days ago, I began climbing the stairs in a condo complex that will soon be a part of my past. I decided to take this opportunity to climb the stairs every single day until I leave. At nearly 700 calories per session, I'm looking to really slim down. I leave my old home on the 29th of January, never to return. From now to then, I have approximately 18 more days to climb these stairs. Given that I've already climbed them for 5 days, that will be a total of 23 days of stairs at 700 calories a day for a grand total of 16,100 calories or almost 5 pounds. That added to my daily calisthenics and reduced calorie diet and I should be able to lose up to 10 pounds in these next few weeks. I would like to see myself at around 180 pounds (81 kilos) by the time I move on to the next chapter of my life. My rebirth!

One surprising part of my calisthenics routine is that I can now do nearly five full pull ups, twenty pushups, fifty crunches and countless jumping jacks. I'm able to do exercises that even when I was 29, I was unable to do due to drinking and smoking way too much. Its been over ten years since I stopped both, and now, I have my lungs back, my liver back and I am quickly gaining my health back. Every day, I progress a little further. And every day, I come one step closer to my goal.

I would like to note that none of this would have been possible without the supplements I've been taking. My 24 day water fast would have ended in days had I not had LifePak Nano, AgeLoc Vitality, Marine Omega and Bone Formula from Pharmanex to replenish vitamins, minerals and other essentials for my body while it was getting no external sources from food. Also, when I started exercising, the pain of long dormant muscles being taxed again would have been too great too endure had I not had this amazing product from Pharmanex called OverDrive which helped to reduce the painful aftereffects of strenuous exercise.

Because these products have done so well, I now believe that I have a very legitimate sales pitch to anyone who wants to be free from food addiction, free from their hunger which has them trapped. Free from feeling like they can never change and free from the depression of being fat.

Fat people try to exercise, but most lose hope because of how difficult it is to exercise while fat. My solutions is to get thin first, then, when the fat is gone, exercise like there is no tomorrow and you will never have to look back.

Juicing to Perfection!

At the end of my 24 day pure liquid fast (with Pharmanex supplements), I introduced calories to my body in a very slow, and thought out manner. I didn't have any food in my refrigerator because I hadn't been eating for over three weeks. Any fresh food went bad after the first week and I threw it away. So I went to the store and bought a lot of veggies and fruit.

The day before my hunger started, I had gotten my last wisdom tooth pulled and was put on antibiotics. I'm thinking it was the antibiotics which made me get hungry, because it was only 28 hours after I started taking them that I had my first sensation of true hunger... the feeling of thirst that could not be quenched by water or tea.

I had thought ahead about what I would do when my hunger returned and purchased the Jack LaLane Pro Juicer a week prior. It had arrived only four days prior to my hunger. I washed and assembled the juicer the same day I received it and began to read the manual. It was a simple enough device and it would also allow me to use the rind to make chutney or salsas, and the recipe book that came with it even had a few recipe ideas for sauces using the rinds. I was ready.

The night I ended my water fast, I juiced a carrot, tomato, one sprig of broccoli and half an apple. Then, I watered it down to a ratio of 75% water, 25% juice and had my first glass of calories after 24 days of almost zero calories. I drank slowly, nursing my first glass for over 35 minutes. It did not take long for my digestive tract to start waking up, grumbling alive and making all kinds of funny sounds and movements. In less than an hour, I was running to the restroom to have my first movement in 24 days. Water... mostly! Two more glasses of watered down juice that night and five or so more trips to the restroom and I was back in the calorie game.

The next morning, I woke up at 3:30 am and wasted no time at all getting back on food. I juiced two small oranges, two medium carrots, a quarter cup of blackberries, one half a cucumber, two stalks of celery, a half a cup of grapes and two small Roma tomatoes and drank it undiluted. This added up to a total of 275 calories and it was magnificent. The most amazing tasting liquid I had ever tasted. This time, my gut was far more quiet and within a couple of hours, I had more energy than I knew what to do with... so I put on my sweats and took off to the park to go jogging before church. I made it around 0.6 miles before I got tuckered out and had to head back to the house, but at least I was feeling the urge to get out and exercise.

That day, I went shopping and purchased a whole lot of fruit and veggies and proceeded to have two more glasses of home made juice. My total caloric intake for that day was 600 calories.

I made another juice blend which I called "Afternoon Push"

Afternoon Push - 286 calories

1/4 head cabbage
1 hand cilantro
1 small Roma tomato
3/4 cup grapes
1/4 cup blueberries
2 med carrots
2 med radishes
1/6 head cauliflower
1 small apple
1/2 cucumber
1/8 tsp raw garlic

This one had some push to it with just enough sugars to keep me going in the afternoon. The issue with juicing was that while I was not eating solid foods, the rind was going to waste. Sure I could have frozen it, but my busy schedule made little time for this luxury. So I tossed it. Sad really, but at the time, there was little else I could do. This also meant that juicing was an expensive way to get calories. Especially with fruits, so I tried to add more veggies and less fruit. I cut out blackberries, blueberries and grapes since they were the most expensive. I added beets and more carrots and tomatoes since they juiced very well.

The next six days went well. I made several new juicing recipes, one of my favorite being my dinner juice I called "Restful Peace";

Restful Peace - 276 calories

1 cup grapes
1/2 cucumber
2 medium carrots
1 small Roma Tomato
1/8 cup cilantro
2 stalks celery
1/2 head iceberg lettuce
3 cups spinach
1/4 cup blackberries
1/2 beet and greens

My ratio of fruit to veggie began to edge towards 80% veggies, 20% fruit and by the end it was 90/10.

My Juice fast ended with a fresh steamed talapia with garlic and rosemary. I ended two days before Christmas because I'd be going to a relative's house and it would be a little weird bringing a juice and standing alone not eating and just drinking juice... so I joined them for a Christmas afternoon meal and celebration. The next week, I fasted for three more full days before slowly reintroducing food into my diet. The most food I eat per day now is around 1500 calories and if I get to that point, I feel overly stuffed like I ate way too much. Most days I'm eating less than 1000 calories and don't feel like I am suffering at all.

The trick I learned is that we need a way to reset our appetite center and the only way I could find to do that was to stop eating entirely. I don't really know how long it took me to break my food addictions, but I can say that when I started consuming calories again, I was not craving all the garbage I had craved before. Some sites say it takes only three to seven days to reset the appetite center of our brain. I can't say for sure, but after 24 days, I had managed to lose nearly 40 pounds and a lot of cravings that had kept me fat for so long. I was finally free... and I am never going back.

A Journey into the Unknown

My life had just recently experienced a seismic shift of such enormous proportions that my emotional state could not process it properly. My mind was reeling and I did not yet properly appreciate the changes that were headed my way. My wife had left me in a very sudden and shocking way. We were divorced and she was already in another relationship and I still was stuck right in the middle of our old relationship. I was dumbfounded. I had seen it coming for quite some time, and yet like all the people before me in similar positions, I ignored the gigantic grotesque misshapen statue of that mutant elephant in the room. I managed to look around it and never right straight at it. I allowed myself to be blinded by my own unwillingness to take a closer look at just how bad things had become.

I was knocked back on my heels and presented with only two possible life choices to make.

One choice would lead me down a dark and ugly path; a path without light, without hope and ultimately, one that would lead to my demise.

My other choice would take me on a journey down a path of light, of hope, of change and of renewal and rebirth. I chose the latter.

The implosion of my old life killed the man that I that I used to be. Unfortunately, it was not a quick and painless death. Instead, it was long, drawn out and excruciatingly vivid. It was like being awake with no anesthesia during a major operation and not being able to stop it from happening. I was watching my old life literally come apart at the seams. It was as if nothing that was made over the last 15 years of my life had any substance. The bond that held everything I held dear together quickly crumbled before my eyes in less time than I could have imagined possible. Were all my efforts of the past so utterly worthless that everything I had built could crumble away to nothing in less than a month? Evidently so!

So shocked was I at the rapid collapse of my farce of a life that I forgot to eat food. A day went by and I was still not hungry. I kept drinking water and taking my supplements, but I did not have any desire to eat food. By the third day, I was wondering when hunger would come. I still struggled to try and put back the thousands of tiny pieces of my life that lay scattered around me like so many pieces of a jigsaw puzzle, but to no avail. That life was gone and no amount of effort, begging or even praying would restore that old life.

Several days later, I was still not hungry. But I did have a new understanding of what I was doing. I was fasting. At this point, I didn’t see what all the fuss was about. I had heard about fasting before. Gandhi fasted when the British wouldn’t leave India, and some IRA prisoners fasted in Northern Ireland for some reason that I never paid attention to. But for some reason, the act of fasting was always revered as something extreme and something to be admired.

I was fasting and so I began to record. I know I started at about 245lbs. I was fat. I was heavy and I was in very poor health. By the third day, I had lost a lot of weight. I was around 230lbs. I had lost 5lbs a day in a three and a half day period. I was impressed and I still was not hungry.

So what was fasting? How was I still not hungry seven days into this fast? My mother was convinced it was adrenaline. I looked up fasting and tried to explain why I was not hungry. I looked for answers everywhere and came up blank. Not only was I not hungry, but I wasn’t tired, I had plenty of energy and I still went to work 8 hours a day, 5 days a week and had more energy than all of my coworkers. What was happening to me? Seven days into the fast and I had lost another eight pounds. People worried that I was losing weight too fast or that I was jeopardizing my health, but I felt absolutely great and full of energy. I now knew that the supplements I was taking were the real deal. They not only seemed effortless to digest while not eating food, but with a little help from a natural laxative tea called Senna, their minute amount of matter passed through my bowels one time during my entire 24 day water fast.
By the 14th day, I was becoming well versed in the art and the science of fasting and was really starting to see the difference in my fat loss. All the authorities on the subject could only give their opinions on why I had not experienced any hunger the entire time. I thought that maybe my mother was right and that the extreme nature of my divorce and my emotional state after had kept me from feeling any hunger. I knew that I would need to test that… but not while I was in the middle of my fast.

I called a Naturopathic doctor to set up an appointment by day 19 or 20 because I was a little worried about my health in spite of how good and energetic I felt. Everything I read about fasting told me I should not have all this energy, and that I should be taking naps in the day and quickly running out of what little energy I had. But that was just not the case. I was so full of energy that most people would not have believed I was not eating food if it were not for the fact that I was losing so much weight.

Finally, at the end of day 24, the beginning of day 25, I felt the sensation of true hunger. Something I had never experienced before, or at least something that I had never recognized as hunger before. It is a sensation like thirst, but one that cannot be satisfied by drinking liquid. I broke my water fast by juicing some carrots, apple, orange and tomatoes and watering them down to about a 25% juice, 75% water ratio. That very night, only mere hours after ingesting the first real calories I had ingested in 24 days, my bowels awoke with a lot of grumbling and me running to the toilet to evacuate them again and again. It was exhausting work waking up my digestive tract. This was the end of my water fast and the beginning of my juice fast.