Journey Continues at True North Health Center

i've decided to take one more "extreme" step into my year-long food journey and experiment with water-only fasting. through Engine 2 Extra via a webcast with Dr. Alan Goldhamer i heard about True North Health Center in Santa Rosa, CA and immediately started researching. i read The Pleasure Trap by Drs Goldhamer and Lisle, and read the section on fasting twice. And after much thought i finally decided i wanted to do a fast.

so here i am now for just shy of three weeks. this is my second full day and my second day of fasting. i came in on monday night, got checked in, the grand tour, and shown to my room. a few minutes later a couple of doctors came by to check my blood pressure, heart rate, temperature, and weight. all was good. i weighed in at about 156 that night with regular clothes on. they showed me to the dining room where i made a salad to eat. they have a salad bar that's available 24/7 to those who are eating.

yes, you can choose to come here and eat while learning more about nutrition and living in a peaceful environment. or you can choose to fast. or you may not be a candidate for fasting right away because of illness or medication, but you are still welcome here to learn and eat healthily and get help from great doctors who don't want you taking medicine. all the doctors here believe in improving your health through nutrition, not meds.

so yesterday i woke up rather early. i went to the bathroom, weighed myself, got dressed, made my bed, and just hung out in my room working on the computer and watching tv. around 9am a doctor came in and took my vitals. BP 125/68, HR 48, TEMP 97.6, WT 154. he agreed i could start fasting and left. at 2pm i met with Dr. Sultana, one of the MDs here on staff. we discussed my exercise-induced asthma, acne, and food addiction. he measured my height and did a simple exam, asked a lot of questions, and typed a lot of info into the computer. he agreed i could start fasting and could continue to fast for 12 days. he, as well as Dr. Goldhamer, feels i will have success with fasting.

at 6:30pm i went to a lecture by Jim Lennon. he's a funny older guy who's been a vegan for 35 years. he talked about how i am the CEO of my company (my body) and i should take all necessary steps every single day to live as such - meaning, i make the rules and i should follow them. as the CEO i make the rules of how my company is going to run and if i wouldn't allow an employee to eat junk food or meat in his office, i shouldn't either.

we made a list of excuses/problems/concerns/stumbling blocks. then we made a list of strategies to succeed in spite of all those things. and then we made a list of whys - why do we want to succeed in eating healthy. and the why of that. and the why of that. until we got to the innermost core of what we really want. i wrote down as my last why, "because if i can control my health then at least i have that, if nothing else (no friends, no partner, no family), at least i have my health."

what that means is, i can control my health and i want to control something. that may be good or bad, i don't know, but at least i know i can control that. does that mean i'll never get sick? no. but at least i am taking steps to prevent illness as much as possible. i'm making conscious efforts every day to not allow any more junk in my life. my mind has enough junk in it, which i try to control through prayer and positive thinking, but my body is controlled by my actions. the more i act to please my tongue, the more chance of getting sick, getting fat, feeling yucky, feeling tired, developing disease, etc. BUT, the more i act to please my body as a whole, the better i feel, the better i look, the chance of getting sick or developing disease goes down, and i feel in control of ME. I AM THE CEO OF ME!

so anyway... here are some videos of my journey at True North so far.

INTRO:

Day One:

Stay tuned for more updates about my journey over the next 17 days! Visit www.HealthPromoting.com for more info about True North, fasting, and a health promoting lifestyle.