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mediaevalmusereads · 8 months ago

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The Gilded Wolves. By Roshani Chokshi. Wednesday Books, 2018.

Rating: 2.5/5 stars

Genre: fantasy

Series: Gilded Wolves Trilogy #1

Summary: It's 1889. The city is on the cusp of industry and power, and the Exposition Universelle has breathed new life into the streets and dredged up ancient secrets. Here, no one keeps tabs on dark truths better than treasure-hunter and wealthy hotelier Séverin Montagnet-Alarie. When the elite, ever-powerful Order of Babel coerces him to help them on a mission, Séverin is offered a treasure that he never imagined: his true inheritance.

To hunt down the ancient artifact the Order seeks, Séverin calls upon a band of unlikely experts: An engineer with a debt to pay. A historian banished from his home. A dancer with a sinister past. And a brother in arms if not blood.

Together, they will join Séverin as he explores the dark, glittering heart of Paris. What they find might change the course of history--but only if they can stay alive.

***Full review below.***

CONTENT WARNINGS: blood, antisemitism, imperialism, suicide, violence, animal cruelty

OVERVIEW: This book has been on my TBR pile for a while, so I decided to clear out my backlog and pick it up. The premise was intriguing, and I tend to like fantastical stories set in the past. Unfortunately, I did not enjoy this book as much as I wanted to. While the world was vibrant and interesting, the writing and plot progression left a lot to be desired, so this work only gets 2.5 stars from me.

WRITING: Chokshi's prose is fine at a sentence level. It's not hard to read and contains some fairly lush descriptions, especially of Forged ("magical") objects. I genuinely enjoyed some of the settings and the objects were creative and enchanting.

The main problems I had were more macro-level. For one, Chokshi tends to overwhelm the reader with worldbuilding details, making her world so complex (and sometimes convoluted) that it's difficult to get a handle on all that's happening and how things relate to one another.

For two, there are a lot of moments when telling takes precedence over showing. Not only are a lot of character dynamics established in the past and off-page (thus requiring the author to tell us that Séverin and Tristan are like brothers, for example, before we are given any flashbacks), but when big emotional things happened, Chokshi would frequently have to pause and give the reader context info for why the thing was important.

For three, a lot of the humor fell flat for me and made the characters read quite young. Maybe they are young - it's hard to tell. One character is definitely 16, another is not yet 19, but it's hard to tell for the rest, especially since they do "adult" things like own hotels and headline a cabaret.

PLOT: The plot of this book follows a group of 5 misfits as they work together to pull of a heist in an alternate-history, fantastical 1889 Paris. Séverin - a prominent hotelier and heir to the extinct House Vanth - leads a group of extraordinary individuals to recover a treasure that will not only set them up for life, but will restore him to his rightful place as House patriarch.

While I like a good magical heist, I often felt like I was being pulled in too many directions with this plot. Not only was I supposed to immerse myself in the magic and history of the world, but each character had their own motivations which required additional worldbuilding that existed on the periphery of the story. I also wasn't quite sure how all the plots of the plan were fitting together with the lore of the world, and part of that may be my own confusion but part might also be all the complexity and details of the worldbuilding. There were multiple moments when the worldbuilding seemed to be inserted so that certain details conveniently explained certain things (for example, people don't make noise going down the laundry chute because they have special bells made by Zofia). There also seemed to be very few real limits on Forging, so it was hard to build suspense when literally anything could happen.

Also, I felt like this book was trying to say something about colonialism with several of its plot points, it ultimately, the book as a whole didn't end with a strong message. At times, I felt like it made some good points - portraying Europe as plundering all the magical knowledge from the rest of the world, for example, was reflective of the wealth extraction that happened primarily during the 18-19th centuries. The book also acknowledges some difficulties about being mixed race and navigating structural racism. But mostly, it seemed like the heist had nothing to do (thematically) with anything like fighting colonialism or giving power to marginalized people. I'm just not convinced that this book wanted to engage with the topic of colonialism as deeply as I would have liked, even though colonialism was very clearly built into the world.

CHARACTERS: This book has 6 prominent characters: the 5 misfits and their ally, Hypnosis.

Séverin is the heir to the fallen House Vanth and acts as the strategist in the group. He makes plans, leads everyone on "aquisitions," and employs them at his hotel. While I could understand Séverin's motivations, he was also hard to connect with because I felt like I was told more about him than I was shown. He felt more like an archetype than a person, which is a shame because his background could have made for some interesting critiques regarding who has access to power amongst the French elite. I also think his clove-chewing habit got repetitive and his relationships with people mostly developed off-page.

Laila is a baker/dancer who can "read" the history of an object by touching it. She is also looking for something (I won't spoil it) that will potentially take her away from the group, but for the time being, she's devoted to helping them. While Laila was sweet and fun, her backstory didn't seem to drive her to do much like ally herself with more connected people or drive more conversation/thought on what it meant to be someone like her. Her relationship with Séverin also didn't so much develop as it did remain awkward, and I wish more was done to show the two growing closer emotionally.

Enrique is a historian who wants to join a community of intellectuals who reject him because of his mixed parentage. He's also bisexual and has some romantic tension with multiple characters, but I wouldn't go in expecting a prominent queer romance (mostly because the romance is barely present). I liked his brilliance and his awareness of race, but he also could have developed more to make his arc more interesting.

Zofia is an autistic Jewish-Polish woman who was kicked out of school after an arson incident. She's a brilliant engineer with Forging affinity, and she designs a lot of the group's gadgets. I probably liked her the best; her perspective was charming and she had real challenges to overcome on-page, like being able to navigate social situations and feel like a valued member of the team. Whether or not she is good representation is up for debate; I don't think she's offensive, but she's also perhaps not quite as nuanced as some would like.

Tristan is a botanist with Forging affinity and is perhaps the most under-utilized character. Of the 5 members of the crew, he is the only one who doesn't get POV chapters, and his main functions seem to be 1.) Being protected by Séverin, and 2.) Getting hurt. Tristan has supposedly been with Séverin for years and the two are like brothers, but we don't really feel that emotional intimacy so much as we're told about it. His inventions are sometimes useful, but most credit goes to Zofia; I wish he had gotten to use his abilities more on-page and in a way that truly helped with the heist.

Hypnos is the patriarch of House Nyx and originally forces Séverin to help him locate an artifact, but he quickly becomes something akin to an ally or member of the group. He mainly uses his power and influence to get the team the resources they need, and he's very flirty and charismatic. He's generally fine; since he's not a main character, I wasn't as bothered by his lack of depth. He had enough.

TL;DR: The Gilded Wolves is notable mostly for its imaginative world and likeable character archetypes; however, the plot and lore is rather convoluted and clashes with the heist-style narrative, and a lot of key character relationships are developed off-page.

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onthecue · 5 years ago

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Road to RPm: How to be a BLEPP Passer

The Board Licensure Examination for Psychologists and Psychometricians (BLEPP) started in 2014. It’s safe to say that this is one of the relatively new national exams in the Philippines.

Through the years, only more or less half of the total number of takers are successful in passing the Psychometrician board exams. Here are the results:

2014 - 1,290 out of 3,283

2015 - 2,061 out of 4,466

2016- 3,690 out of 7,312

2017- 4,957 out of 8,701

2018 - 4,035 out of 8,453

I placed these numbers not to scare future takers. I just want everyone to have an idea on how tough the exam is. So you can get the picture, the board exam is not easy as it seems.

I passed BLEPP 2018. For someone who is in the helping profession, I would want to extend my knowledge and help fellow Psychology majors who would want to take the Psychometrician licensure exam.

Knowing that you are here, searching for tips on how you can attain your goal of being an RPm too says a lot about your determination. Keep that up and I’m pretty sure your name will be on the list of passers too!

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS (FAQs):

1. What are the subjects included in the Psychometrician Board Exam?

The Psychometrician board exam is composed of four (4) subjects namely, Psychological Assessment (40%), Theories of Personality (20%), Abnormal Psychology (20%), and Industrial Psychology (20%). However, there are news that additional subjects will be added in future examinations. This isn’t confirmed yet for BLEPP 2019 so you can calm down a bit. Just a bit.

2. What is the passing grade in order to become licensed?

You need to attain a general average of at least seventy-five percent (75%) for all subjects, with no grade lower than sixty percent (60%) in any of the subjects.

However, there is what we call a conditional passer. These are the examinees who attain an average of 75% but they have a grade lower than 60% in any of the four subjects. What's the catch? Conditional passers may retake the subject(s) within the next two years and they must obtain a grade of at least 75% in order to pass the licensure exam.

But of course, that’s not THE GOAL. Aim to completely pass all subjects and become a board passer. If you can, go the extra mile and even top the board exams!

If you have any questions, kindly send a Tumblr ask, I would gladly help you out if I know the answers.

MY TIPS ON HOW TO PASS THE PSYCHOMETRICIAN BOARD EXAM:

Disclaimer: These tips helped me a lot but it doesn’t mean that it will certainly work on you too. It will still depend on your personal preference and your learning style.

1. Have a study schedule and STICK TO IT.

Set a goal. Since there are four subjects, I allotted at least one month per subject. I started reviewing as early as June 2018 so I had ample time to review. By October 2018, I had around a month for a refresher and to reread.

I had daily and weekly goals to meet. This helped me a lot because I wasn’t only organized with my review but it helped me to feel accomplished once I see my progress on paper. It felt great to tick off topics on my to-do list. It was reassuring for me.

What if you don’t meet your goal? Of course there will be days when it’s harder to study, especially during the rainy season. There are days when you’ll be distracted and you couldn’t focus. Don’t be afraid to adjust your schedule as needed. But refrain from always doing this and putting off your goals for tomorrow. We all know that each hour of studying matters! “Bukas na lang” and having a lot of excuses won’t help you pass the board exam. Make sure to make up for your backlogs and delays.

It’s better to study in advance than to cram. Besides, you will feel more confident when October comes. Imagine if you are still halfway through the coverage and it’s already October first. I swear, that will be terrifying! SO STUDY IN ADVANCE.

2. Fix your body clock.

On the day of the board exam, you will need to wake up VERY EARLY. If you are nocturnal and you are more productive at night, you will have a hard time to focus during the board exam if you do not fix your body clock. Trust me, I’m a night owl as well.

Why is this important? If you stay up all night studying, your body will be used to waking up late and feeling sluggish during the afternoon. It will be hard to wake up and arrive on time for the exam. For me, it was a challenge to train my mind to be ready for the first exam at 8am and also make sure to fight that after-lunch-siesta sleepiness for the afternoon exam at 1pm.

So my tip is to fix your body clock. While reviewing, I woke up as early as 5am. My study schedule was from 6 in the morning up until 8 in the evening only (breaks included of course!) But it’s still up to you, whatever works for you. That’s just my study tip.

3. Reward yourself!

As mentioned, I only studied for around 12 hours. After a day’s worth of studying, I make sure to reward myself IF I FINISH MY DAILY GOAL OR TARGET. I watch my favorite tv show to unwind or eat my favorite comfort food or go out for a drive and get milktea.

This is important too. Remember that too much of something is always bad. Rewarding yourself will keep you sane, make you feel motivated to accomplish your review goals, and to of course, free your mind of the fears and doubts!!!

4. Choose only one to two reference books per subject.

There are a lot of books available that would help you, but it will be too overwhelming if you study too much books per subject. I will list down below the books that helped me throughout my review.

Psychological Assessment and Theory by Kaplan & Saccuzzo

Psychological Testing and Assessment by Cohen & Swerdlik

Abnormal Psychology: An Integrative Approach by Barlow & Durand

Theories of Personality by Feist & Feist

Industrial and Organizational Psychology by Aamodt

Sikolohiyang Pilipino by Pe-Pua

These were the main materials that I used. I finished these books from cover to cover. These books were recommended by the lecturers in the review center that I enrolled in, RGO.

I also used some of the powerpoints that our lecturers provided as well as the review booklets and drills that were given to us.

5. Enrolling in a review center or self-study?

It’s a case to case basis. Remember that not everyone who enrolled in the review center passed the BLEPP! Enrolling in a review center is not a ticket to those three letters! I would like to believe that this greatly depends on you. Sure, enrolling in a review center has its advantages. You’ll have test drills and review materials. Some lecturers are also kind enough to give a copy of their powerpoint presentations. You’ll also be motivated to study because of a supportive community of fellow Psychology students, review center staff, and your mentors.

But there’s a downside. It was honestly overwhelming and draining to sit from morning til the afternoon, from 8am to 5pm. For someone with a short attention span like me, after two hours, I was honestly zoning out already. It’s hard to pay attention the whole day for lectures.

Another downside is that you will feel pressured, especially when you see your friends’ progress with the review, reading, and results in the test drills. You MIGHT compare where you are and what you’ve accomplished, which leads me to another tip.

6. FOCUS ON YOURSELF but surround yourself with positive people and have a support system!

COMPETE WITH NO ONE ELSE BUT YOURSELF. Don’t compare your progress with anyone else’s. Trust your pace and focus on your own review. It will cause you additional pressure if you compare with the people around you.

Don’t hangout with those with negative vibes. “Hala babagsak ata ako.” “Ako rin.” Remember, our mind is a very powerful place. Feed it with the right fuel. Stay with people who will motivate you and who will not bring you down.

7. Think positive. Be optimistic!

I’m not gonna lie. My BLEPP journey was not easy. There were nights when I felt like giving up. I also doubted myself if I will make it. I shed a lot of tears during that five months of review. My mantra all throughout is: “Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you'll land among the stars.”

I didn’t take the exam with the goal of just passing. I wanted to have decent results, to top the board exams if I can. I didn’t have a mindset that’s mediocre, similar to this: “Kapag pumasa ako edi good, kung hindi okay lang.” Why is that, you ask? Because I want to pass the exam. If I give myself the assurance that it’s okay for me to fail, even if in the back of my mind that’s not my goal, and that’s not what I want to achieve, the universe won’t pave a path towards my success. Law of attraction!

So set that goal, claim it. You will pass and all your actions, thoughts, and everything else will be circling around your dream of being an RPm. Believe that you can and you are halfway there.

8. Know your learning style or what works best for you.

In my case, I’m a visual learner. So the use of flashcards (i made my own using index cards), writing down key words, drawing to understand certain concepts, and reading while using colorful highlighters really helped me!

9. Believe in yourself and don’t listen to your demons!

Your motivation will wear out at some point. You will start to doubt yourself. You will begin to question why you wanted to take the exam in the first place. You will feel like you will fail. These are just some facts.

Don’t be afraid. Just pray, trust in the Lord, and His plans. So what if you don’t make it? What are you afraid of? Being judged by others? Being reprimanded? Remember, you can always take the exam again. Passing on your first or second, or third take won’t really matter. What will truly matter is what you do with your license. Just strive, do your best, and believe that you will become an RPm.

10. Apps that helped me.

Forest - The first app that I used is called Forest. It helped me to stay away from social media and to get rid of distractions! It’s also for a good cause because you can plant REAL TREES once you get a certain amount of coins. Stay productive. Help Mother Earth as well.

Tide - This app helped me to stay calm. The “breathe” option where it guides me to take deep breathes was effective in letting go of my anxious feelings! The “sleep” option helped me to fall asleep faster at night when I need to doze off already and it gave me good sleep because of the relaxing music that the app has. Also, the alarm that this app has helped me not to wake up feeling shocked (unlike the usual alarms in our phones!) The alarm increases in volume so you won’t wake up feeling so surprised because of the loud, nerve-wracking alarms. I hope you got what I was trying to say. Haha!

Headspace - Once I get up every morning, I allot a few minutes to meditate and clear my mind. So I can be ready for an exhausting day of reviewing. It also helped me to think more positively and to get rid of my fears, doubts, and whatnot!

Spotify - Studying with music really helped me remember things better and to stay focused. I highly recommend the Deep Focus playlist on Spotify! If all else fails, listen to Oceans by Hillsong and other Christian songs.

11. On the day of the exam:

Make sure you bring everything you need! (Especially your pencils and NOA)

Bring a jacket.

Make sure that your scantron won’t get crumpled, WET, or tampered!!! PROTECT YOUR ANSWER SHEET AT ALL COSTS. Keep it neat and tidy.

Manage your time well especially for Psych Assessment.

Make sure not to spill your drinks. I brought water and coffee (in case i feel sleepy) and drink away from your paper.

You may use the questionnaires as scratch papers. You can mark and write on them.

Make sure to READ THE QUESTIONS CAREFULLY. Some questions are meant to be confusing. Make sure that you know what they are asking for! (Be aware of the double negatives and look out for the words like “except”, “all but one” etc.

When in doubt, stick to the basics. Go back to the roots and basics of Psychology.

It’s better if you bring food to eat. Imagine that there will be thousands of takers. There will be long lines in the nearby restaurants.

Use your lunch break to rest. Don’t talk to your friends and discuss answers! It might ruin your confidence.

It won’t hurt to follow some superstitious beliefs! What’s there to lose right? I wore red underwear. I entered the room with my right foot first. I broke one pencil (donated the others) after the last exam and I never looked back on my seat once I passed my paper! But of course, your success won’t really be based on these but it gave me some sense of comfort and extra boost of luck, I guess.

PRAY. The Lord is with you. Trust His plans and remember that he answers prayers only with three ways: Yes, Not Yet, and I have something better in mind. Stand firm in faith.

12. After the exam, wait patiently.

I know it will be the most anxious-filled days. You will think that your nervousness will be gone after taking the exam but no. Your anxiety will still be through the roof! Remember to pray. Know that you did what you can. Be proud of yourself because months of studying wasn’t easy. Be proud of yourself too because not EVERYONE had enough courage to even try to take the board exam and that alone is already an achievement.

Those are what helped me to become a Registered Psychometrician. If you have questions and if want to ask for reviewers, don’t be afraid to message me through my Tumblr ask or Twitter DMs . I would be glad to help. I already have a Google Drive with compiled readings/powerpoints available for sharing anytime!

Good luck and do your best! Ora et labora.

#BLEPP #BLEPP2019 #BLEPP2020 #BLEPP2018 #BLEPP2017 #Psychometrician #RPm #Psychology #RoadtoRPm #BLEPPpasser #boardexam #study #studyblr #studyblrph #BLEP

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roastedlizlow · 6 years ago

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I actually meant to save a post like this for my 3-year anniversary of writing Code:Realize, but I am most definitely going to forget, since that’s in a few months, so I’ll write it now. Forgive me if these seems a little bit messy; it’s quite an emotional (in a good way!) topic, and I’m a tad bit foggy headed from this dreadful but light head cold.

Basically, this is gonna be long, and rambly. Thank you personal blog for giving me grounds to do this. Absolutely no one asked for this, but you know, I’m in the mood to cry.

My name is Pita Pan, some may know me as Lizzy, I started writing with Code:Realize characters on December 21st, 2015, just after completing the first game. This was back in my senior year of high school (I remember playing routes during breaks at school). This was back under my first Rp blog on this site, and the character I picked up for writing was Arsène Lupin, our poster boy gentleman thief, a man who is very dear to my heart.

I’d like to say Code:Realize and the people I met thanks to it were what really got me into otoge for the long run. I’ve made friends that have improved my life, made every day just a little bit better...

...and I’d like to credit picking up Lupin to a lot of where I am now, writing wise.

If we’re getting technical, my first posts as Lupin were Dec. 22nd. CR was not the first otoge I rped, I opened my first rp blog (a multimuse) writing a few characters, inclusive of some Hakuouki characters (namely, but likely not surprisingly, Heisuke). I actually talk about Hakuouki’s involvement in why I’m into otoge here, but I think if I hadn’t played Hakuouki, I’m not sure I’d have even been aware of Code:Realize. I sure as heck wouldn’t have written it. Of course, while I connected to some of the people there, in the Hakuouki fandom, I ended up feeling closer to the CR ones.

There were a lot of little, behind the scenes details that make this period of time very special to me. I quickly found that I got along with the other CR rpers that gradually popped up -- we were, by all accounts, a tiny, tiny fandom, which isn’t, necessarily, shocking news, considering it’s an otoge fandom.

Anyway, writing skill wise, I wasn’t exactly where I am now (at all actually). Writing with these people made me want to get better. Better at writing Lupin, better at writing in general. I was motivated to reach a point where I felt comfortable with writing, as comfortable as I felt communicating with the other muns.

While I could find many excerpts to display what I’d like to consider my growth, even in writing Lupin, I’ll leave it at linking my AO3 compilation post, and then showing a small excerpt of something from my Lupin blog that I haven’t finished yet. My Lupin is terribly rusty, but that’s what I get for my frequent breaks.

There is not much certainty in how this happened, this attachment. Perhaps it had been searched for, perhaps it had been destined. Fated encounters, meticulously planned meetings… regardless of how things began, there’s no denying the fact that it is because of him that things could work out.

It is because of them that everything has worked out so far. Lupin has found every member of their team pivotal in their plans. They all bring something to the table; making it so the great gentleman thief can accomplish even more.

A man of the streets, a harbinger of justice, taking from the corrupt so that the swept aside may, perhaps, have hope in the world. Tirelessly he decides to work, late nights amount to all this. The rescue of a young lady in distress, one who deserved to live as what she’s always had in her, human.

There’s so much more to them than just being a band of misfit thieves fighting for her truth and what’s right. There’s so more to them than just trying to save

There is no chance of them failing. There is no way they won’t have people to come back to.

About a month after I began writing Lupin, I decided to pick up Victor Frankenstein. Us CR rpers were talking, you see, and we wanted to interact with a Fran, but there existed none. My love for the sweet alchemist came out, and I rolled up my sleeves and I decided to write him myself. I moved Lupin to his own blog the next month.

Fun enough, I didn’t make Impey’s blog until a year after I made Fran. I think I’m rather known for my love for bouncy red-heads, and I have referenced my work on Impey’s blog more often than not, but he, initially, hadn’t been my priority. It’s messy when I say this, but my ‘favorite’ Code:Realize boy has never been clear. At some point, I think I said it was Lupin, at another, Impey. I tend to say it’s Fran now.

Anyway, I love these boys, a lot.

I’d like to think I’m more comfortable writing Fran too, now, from where I was when I started writing him in January 2016. A fairly... comparable example is this AU thread, which I’m currently working through reviewing so I can write a fic based off a cleaner version (it’s got a lot of work to do..!).

He clicks on the light and puts on his glasses, watching his shaky hands, in hopes of stabilizing them, in hopes of reminding himself that that is the past, and the now, should hopefully be better. At least, he wishes it would be. Deep breathes he forces himself to take, and once he steadies out enough, he writes in his journal yet another log. Even if he wants to better the world now, he must never forget what stains him, he can’t let himself abandon it.

More likely than not, his light-brown hair will once again be matted from hours -- days -- of focus, work, stress. Already has fate played him deeply, but within the grip of his cycle of grief and faux hope, Issac Beckford, the guide of London’s amazing advancements, extended his hand, promising Victor sanity, safety, and the tiniest of reparation for his great sins.

Alchemy is supposed to help people, his thoughts circle around as this as he decides to just rise early for the day. No use trying to sleep again, when he knows what plague is in store. He dresses, heading over to his personal lab, provided by Issac to give him the space he needed, and seclusion he thought he deserved. He turns on the circulation so that the fumes don’t ruin him, and puts on a mask so the reactions don’t crumble him, and his green eyes glaze over his work, watching the fizzing, the bubbling, the spilling.

Code:Realize really helped motivate me in writing. I rp’d before it; I wrote fanfics before it. But I really picked up more after working with the rpers of that fandom.

A few of the people I met there are some of my closest friends now! They mean so, so much to me. We entered into other rp fandoms together (collectively, Collar x Malice, but also Ozmafia and FE!), but naturally, things were not tied to solely rp. We yell about otoge together, we fuel each other to go pushing forward. They help keep me company during some of my shakiest moments.

I hope we can stay friends, even longer.

I want to continue improving in my writing. I want to keep writing. I’ve been focusing more on my OCs recently, and on series that aren’t CR, but I still adore it to pieces. It’s simply special to me. The world, the story, the characters, all of them inspired me to keep moving.

Because of CR, I gained much more footing in my interest in otoge (I played Norn9 before CR, but CR is the one that stuck with me, more than Hakuouki too. I’m not even certain I finished the entirety of Hakuouki before CR). Now, I’m an absolute fool with a huge backlog (but I’m happy!). Otoge, I’d say, really gave me something to ground myself in. I’ve always loved reading. I’ve been writing for years. But the inspiration that I’ve gotten from otoge is outstanding.

I think CR is one of the games that also helped settle in some of my current favorite seiyuu too.

CR may not be ‘categorically’ my favorite, but it’s important to me, to who I am now. I remember the day I bought the game. A few weeks after launch, I found a pre-owned copy at a GameStop, and I bought it with the money I got for my birthday. What was pretty much a birthday present changed a lot!! Code:Realize is just so, so important to me!

If you read this little (long) love ramble, thank you. I really love to talk about my interests, and I know I don’t get into specifics of characters and why the three that are so difficult to distinguish bias between are my faves (although, if you think about it, they may still reflect well on my types...). I think being able to talk about Collar x Malice a bit made me want to do this more, even if if just seems like a bunch of chatter.

Everyone, I sincerely hope you will continue to support my writing, my love for otoge, and myself.

#roasted and toasted (and not boasted!) even lizlow's gotta give a lowdown; rambles #whoo this is messy but check it (i'm emotional)

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contradictoryenigmas · 4 years ago

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2020 Postmortem: 10 Questions

2020. A year that did not go as planned. Okay, I am massively downplaying just what a complete shitshow it was. The best way I can describe is that episode of Seinfeld where George declares it to be the "Summer of George", only to have him in a hospital bed towards the end, disappointed that it didn't work out.

When I started writing this year's 10 questions piece, I wasn't sure how it would form considering most of the year was spent at home, trying to survive. But the result is the longest 10 questions to date. Guess I had a lot to get out there.

Author's Note: If you are new to this or want to take a look back at previous pieces, you can click on the links here: 2017, 2018, and 2019.

What made up your body of work this year? Which parts are you most proud of?

I should start with one of the major elephants in the room. Since March 12th, I have been working from home. The day before, all of us at work got an email from the home office in the United Kingdom saying the offices there and in the U.S. would be closed for a time to protect employees from the growing spread of COVID-19. Many of us thought we would be back in the office in a month or so. Oh boy, how wrong we were considering later that day, news would come out that Tom Hanks and his wife contracted the virus and the NBA would suspend their season after a player tested positive.

Not being in an office has some significant downsides for me. For one, it was the place where I interacted with people outside of close family. Now, the only real interaction I do with co-workers is either over email or Microsoft Teams, mostly dealing with work stuff. I worry this long period of isolation will hurt my social abilities, which to be fair were at negative levels when I had started this job last year, but were improving. The other is losing the separation between work and home. Since coming home and spending time in my room as an office and place to rest, my anxiety and feelings that I should be working started to come in. Some of this was alleviated by me setting some ground rules such as having a hard stop. But those feelings are still there and likely hampered efforts to try and relax.

Most of my work for the year was spent on three big projects that would set the course for the future of the company. Having this on the back of my shoulders added a bit of anxiety and drained me of a lot of energy. Every day, I found myself crashing in bed to take a quick nap so I could regain some energy.

That brings me to writing. 2020 I was hoping to get back to writing in a big way. Not only with automotive stuff, but doing some more with this blog and launching a new project. But with everything that has been going on this year, a lot of these ambitions had to be shelved. A lot of this stems from not having any energy or motivation to either start and/or finish various pieces. There would be moments where a burst of energy comes on and could I belt out a quick review or news story, but it was rare. At the end of this year, I have a bit of a backlog of new car reviews to get up. But at least I'm not pushing myself to the grindstone and getting them out. This only results in shoddy work and I feel quite bad.

For the personal blog, this is going to be the first and last piece for the year. It wasn't for the lack of trying. Several pieces currently sit on my laptop that are in varying states of completion, but again, I lacked the energy or motivation to go forward.

There are a couple of pieces I want to call out,

Afterthoughts: A Car In Troubled Times: This was written after my Grandfather passed away in June (not from COVID). With this and everything going on in the world, I wrote about how the car became a place where I could escape the world for a bit and work out various thoughts and feelings.

Quick Drive: 2020 Lexus RC F: My last new car review of the year and man what a car. I loved the throaty V8 engine and the grand touring nature of the suspension. I think the last line sums up my feelings about this car,

"It brought me the joy which sometimes is all you need a car to do."

What were your top 5 moments of the year?

Getting back to reviewing vehicles on a somewhat regular basis

Saving enough money to move forward on finding my first apartment

I know that's only two, but I really can't think of anything else from this landfill fire of a year.

What are you really glad is over?

THE YEAR! (cymbal crash)

Okay, that was obvious, so let go a bit deeper.

The mess of the 2020 elections are mercifully done. A lot of us knew this was going to be very different, but I don't think we knew how much it would be. Just look at the first debate between Joe Biden and Donald Trump. Then election day rolls around and seeing the collective sadness rear its head as the first ballots are being counted, even though we knew that the mail-in ones were still waiting in the wings to be tallied. It took a few days, but the sense of jubilation when the results were leaning towards Biden was not all that surprising, considering the mess of the past four years. Whether or not this gets better remains to be seen.

How are you different today than you were 365 days ago?

I touched on this with the first question, but loneliness has been a big issue. Not being able to interact with people outside of my own family has brought back memories of some of the dark days of depression where I wouldn't talk with anyone. Thankfully, I'm not fully returning to these ways. But I can't help but worry that my socials skills will be back at a negative level. Twitter and Instagram have filled in some of the missing social aspects, but I can only use it so much before feelings of "Fear of Missing Out" and not being able to interact in person. Also, the deluge of various events such as the killing of George Floyd and the election meant I had to turn off social media at times to allow time to process and work out various feelings.

My mental health has also taken a bit of a stumble. Various aspects of my ADHD have started to come back in force with procrastination, distractions, fear of rejection, and warped perception of time to name a few. There has also been a large amount of stress and anxiety to work through because of the year. I think it's a bad sign when your anxieties have their anxieties to deal with.

To top it off, it has been hard to find something to keep my mind occupied for longer than five minutes. I look at the number of books and video games currently sitting on shelves or stacked in the closet waiting to be open, or the various movies and TV shows I have in queues for various streaming services and my own media server. Yet, they are left untouched. I drift towards scrolling through various social media outlets or watching the same YouTube videos. I've been trying to figure out why these are my go-to and not the items listed above that would give the same pleasure and stimulation, but also open some new windows and ideas. I haven't fully figured it out yet, but I do have some clues and ideas as to why.

On the flip side, I'm very lucky that I am still employed. That may seem like a put-down, but out of my close family, I'm the only one who has stayed employed throughout the year. My mom's last day of school was the day I started working from home, and she wouldn't return until the start of the new year. Both my dad and brother had furloughs at their respective jobs during the late Spring.

I have been slowly messing around with some projects that I've been wanting to do. These include expanding my media sever collection to include music, cataloging various media so I stop buying duplicates, and starting to explore various interests that I had when I younger.

Getting back to reviewing new cars has been quite enjoyable. Despite having a backlog that will not be finished till sometime in February or March, it has been fun again to figure out a vehicle's high and low points.

Is there anything you achieved that you forgot to celebrate?

Nope.

What have you changed your perspective on this year?

Two things come to mind. First is that I don't need a firehose of information. I was subscribed to several sites through RSS and had many people I was following on Twitter to see what was happening. But this massive flow of information was only making my anxiety and stress worse. For the past month, I have started to unsubscribe to a number of newsletters and RSS feeds, along with culling down my Twitter following list.

Second is that I need to slow down. What I mean by this is I need to take my time and not focus on trying to finish everything as fast as possible so I move on to the next thing. There is something about taking a moment to breathe or letting things play out to a point to where you can jump in and provide a different point of view.

Who are the people that came through for you this year?

My therapist came through this year, transitioning from in-person visits to doing chats either through Zoom or on the phone - depending on whether or not either of us run into technical issues. They have been really helpful just listening to whatever was on my mind that week, and point out possible thoughts and directions to chew on to get me into a better place.

There is also a large number of people I interacted with that made the lockdown and isolation a little bit more bearable. Too many to list here, but I would like to say thank you to all.

What were some pieces of media that defined your year?

Casiopea, Mint Jams: There is a person who I follow on Twitter that brings up Casiopea from time to time. This Japanese jazz fusion band has been around since 1976 and produced a number of albums. I had them in the back of my mind for a time to check, but wasn't until the fall when I started listening to Mint Jams - their seventh album (and I believe second live album). I immediately fell in love with the band after hearing the first track Take Me. Something about this brings absolute joy and pleasure. Since then, I have bought the CD and started to dive fully into the discography.

youtube

Yakuza Like A Dragon (Playstation 4): I don't know how to describe a game where one minute you're beating up criminals and the next minute you're trying to figure out who is urinating in a river. It seems ridiculous, but that's Yakuza Like a Dragon in a nutshell. There are moments of complete absurdity that is intertwined with tender and heartfelt moments as you interact with your compatriots. I'm currently on chapter five and finding new stuff to do such as a Mario Kart knockoff and running my own business, while trying to figure why I was betrayed by a father figure. It's chaotic and beautiful at the same time.

Zero 7, Simple Things: This album was the one I would play if I was feeling down or needed a reminder to slow down.

youtube

Growing Collection of Face Masks: If I am going to wear face masks to protect myself and others, I might as well have some interesting ones. Currently have around twenty masks that I wear and wash, all of them with some distinct pattern or fabric to have them stand out. I'm likely going to be buying a few more in the new year because I'm really like wearing them.

Honorable Mentions: Ghost of Tsushima; Animal Crossing: New Horizons; Paper Mario: The Origami King; Tatort - German Crime Drama; Motorweek's Retro Reviews on YouTube; Newton and the Counterfeiter by Thomas Levenson; x + y: A Mathematician's Manifesto for Rethinking Gender by Eugenia Cheng (currently reading, may appear in my 2021 10 Questions).

What will you be leaving behind in 2020?

This one hurts but it is the "old normal". I remember listening to a podcast about a couple of months after starting working from home and one of the hosts brought up that the old normal isn't coming back. We need to take time and mourn the loss. I didn't know what to make of this at the time, but it really started to sink in as this mess slowly continued throughout the year.

Think about how much has changed in your day to day routine. For example, I don't leave the house unless I really need to get something from the grocery store, taking the dog for a walk, or going for a drive to clear my head. A lot of places I would have normally gone are either only allowing pickup or closed down. I haven't seen anyone outside my family since March and have seen only a couple of relatives since then.

No one knows what comes after the virus is at a state where all of us can resume some sort of 'normal'. Will our favorite places still be around? Is virtual learning going to be the next step for schools? Are we going to watching new movies over streaming services and not at a theater? Will online shopping take over as the main source of getting goods?

There's a lot of unknowns that will not have an answer for quite some time. But I have started to mourn that the old normal is gone. As much I hate it and don't know what's next, I know that I have to ready myself in some fashion.

What do you hope to accomplish in 2021?

Unfortunately, a lot of the stuff I want to work on in the coming year depends on what happens with the rollout of the vaccine and containing the virus. There are a few things I have marked as priorities.

Moving into my first place: So I never have talked about this publicly except to a few close people, but I'm really looking forward to moving out and into an apartment. Originally I was planning to do it this year, but then everything came to a screeching halt. This proved to be a blessing in disguise as I was able to save a bit more money so that I had two months of rent and the security deposit. I have a few places in mind and the goal is to move in before the end of March. That will give me enough time to figure out several items such as insurance.

Writing: I feel like this is something I mention every year. Some progress is made, but not as much as I would like. This past year, I was hoping to branch out by doing more with this blog and starting a couple of projects that had been sitting around for a while. But none of those things happened. Next year, I have some maintenance items to do for the personal blog. I don't know if I'll have anything worth writing about at the moment since my brain is currently recovering from a pile of mush. As for the projects, I'm hoping to launch one sometime in the next few months. The other is going to sit on the sidelines still as I still need to work out some items with that.

Keeping Records: I always think that I remember 'x' and I don't need to write anything down about it, and it turns out I do forget. Yeah, I'm wanting to change that for this coming year. Primarily, I'm doing this for any vehicle I review because it might be months before I start writing, and have forgotten key parts I wanted to mention. This is also something I want to do with books, video games, and music as a way to remember what I enjoyed throughout a given year.

It would be at this point I would end this postmortem with some pithy note about 2020 getting kicked out and 2021 hopefully being a massive improvement. Except that feels quite insincere. We have various vaccines rolling out, but it remains a massive question as to how fast and whether or not enough people take it. There's also the toll on mental health that is only going to get larger not only from those working in hospitals but in other fields. I could go on with other items, but you get a general idea.

#2020 #postmortem #reivew

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earlgreytea68 · 8 years ago

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how do you stay motivated while writing? when do you take time to write?

Tbh, writing is literally my favorite thing to do. I just love to write stories. The best is when I can block out a whole afternoon on a weekend and just sit and write. It’s lovely. Of course, that’s best when the characters are really talking, but when it *is* like that, there is nothing better. So I don’t usually need to be motivated to write, because I am happiest when writing something and feel at loose ends when I’m not writing.

At the same time, I don’t really get tired of writing but I do get tired of writing the *same thing.* Almost always at some point in a long story, I’m like, “Grrr, this is boring, I would like to start something new.” In those cases, my motivation comes almost entirely from all of you. :-) I don’t usually post as I write, but I do usually like to have a backlog of stuff to post, so that I don’t go too long without posting, and that means that I have to get stuff done and keep stuff going. So that can motivate me.

I am not a person who is motivated by stickers the way some people are. Like, I know lots of writer friends who give themselves a sticker if they write a certain number of words in a day, etc. That doesn’t work for me and just causes me to resent the obligation to write those words. Instead, I try to carve myself time to write every day, instead of worrying about word count. If I’m too busy and writing doesn’t happen, then it doesn’t happen. I don’t like to stress myself out about it. But I almost always write for at least 15 minutes a day. For me it’s in the evening, after I get all my other obligations done but before I start winding down for bed. I find that it helps to reset my brain a little bit, so I prefer to have that time to live in my own little world.

When I was a lawyer and lived my life in six-minute increments (lawyers bill in six-minute increments, so you track every six-minute chunk of your day), my therapist told me that I had to schedule my free fun time with the same rigidity and dedication with which my work day was scheduled, in order to make sure that that stuff didn’t get lost. That turned out to be a genius piece of advice, and my free time is meticulously blocked off and protected. I usually just block it off as “free time,” so that I don’t feel like it becomes another obligation on my schedule, but it is convenient to have that chunk blocked off. If I feel like writing during it, I write.

If I do need to motivate myself to get something written, I am much better with food rewards. Like, “If I finish this, I can go buy myself a chocolate croissant!” etc. Chocolate croissants are a very effective reward for me.

I hope this is helpful!

#Anonymous

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troytlepower · 5 years ago

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2020 goals!

Hoo boy, it’s been a long time since I’ve posted anything here, eh?

2019 wrapped up with the birth of our first child, Atticus. Ramping up to the birth, the time in the hospital, and the lack of sleep since then has left me feeling pretty wiped out, creatively, so I haven’t written or drawn or done much at all on that side of things lately.

What I have been doing is watching a lot of TV, listening to a lot of podcasts, and playing a lot of video games, all while my son sleeps on my chest. In that pursuit, I listened to an episode of the “And Sometimes Rob” podcast where Rob and his wife went over their list of 2020 goals (and talked about how goals differ from resolutions) which really inspired me to make my own list… which includes blogging/journaling more!

I made my list on, I think, January 3rd… and haven’t really done much with it since (thanks to the sleep deprivation), but this morning I’m getting ready to start working after being awake since just after midnight and I thought, “hey, why not write a blog post about your goals, so that there’s some semblance of accountability for them?”

So, with that, here are my 2020 goals, in no particular order at all:

Anchor bookshelves!

I know that Atticus won’t be crawling for a while, but I still want to get our shelves fully anchored to the wall, because safety.

Reduce video game collection!

This is kind of nebulous… I want to keep my NES, SNES, and N64 cartridges (because I think the idea of playing home console cartridge games with the kid will be cool someday), but I’ve got a huge collection of DS games and PS2/Xbox/GC discs that I don’t think I’ll ever really go back to. Some of these I’ll just trade in for new games, but the rest I’ll put up on eBay.

Go through the storage unit!

My wife and I have had a storage unit for years now, and I suspect there’s a lot of stuff in there that we really, really don’t need. We’ve made small excursions into it’s depths before to either retrieve or remove certain items (like those disc-based video games), but I really want to take a weekend to empty it out, go through everything, and then either repack it or just get rid of it.

Read 12 books I already own!

This is the first of a few “backlog” goals on this list… I’m a sucker for picking up random books from thrift stores, which has left me with a bunch of books that looked interesting but I haven’t read. I suspect I’ll bounce of several before I find 12 to follow through on.

Read 12 comics (graphic novels or story-arc collections) I already own!

The nice thing about this one is that I know I won’t totally bounce off of these, because at least the art will be engaging!

Watch 10 new “films”!

I’m not sure what to call the class of movie I’m referring to here, but basically, I want to watch some movies that are outside of my normal sarcastic-but-optimistic-action-comedy wheelhouse.

Sell the Subaru!

My wife’s poor car has problems, so it’s gotta go. We were all set to try to sell it last fall but didn’t get it done with all the baby stuff going on.

Cook 12 new recipes!

I love cooking, but sometimes it’s hard to motivate myself to find new things to cook, so we end up falling into dietary ruts. I’m hoping that pushing myself to find new things will help with variety.

Ride 200 miles!

I absolutely love biking. I’ve got a road bike that I bought nearly a decade ago that is great, even if it’s nowhere near the new hotness… but last year I didn’t ride it even a single time. That ain’t gonna fly in 2020!

Get under 200 lbs!

My weight has fluctuated a lot in the past few years… I lost something like 50 pounds before my wife and I got married by doing a keto-based diet, then packed most of that back on when we stopped. I’m sitting around 215 right now and would love to get into and stay in the 190-200 range (though less than that would be just fine, too!). I don’t want to do an extreme diet again, so this one is mostly about being more mindful about what I eat and staying active.

Illustrate a kids’ book!

I’ve had so many ideas for this over the years, and I never have the discipline to just sit down and do it… I’d really, really like to have a book I made to read to my kid by the end of the year.

Learn 5 new Ukulele songs!

I know a few chords on the ukulele, which lets me strum a few songs, but I’d like to really learn to play some things… I’ll probably pull something from The Beatles first!

Check on ADHD and Anxiety!

I used to take medication for ADHD and I hated it. I’ve never been diagnosed with any anxiety disorder, but I know I have issues there. I’d like to talk to someone about both of those things and see if there might be a treatment plan that could help me cope better than I do on my own.

Get my tooth fixed!

I’ve got this tooth that sucks, and I hate it.

Meditate 100 times!

I started doing a bit of meditation last year, but never really made it a part of my routine. It helps with the anxiety I mentioned above, so I really want to make it a common practice.

Get a tattoo!

This is actually part of a Christmas gift to my wife from a while back, but we’re finally going to do it!

Keep “The Best Animated Shows Ever… So Far!” going!

I love making this podcast because it gives me an excuse to chat with my buddy, MC, and I really want to make sure that keeps happening. We had to drop off after Atticus was born, but I’m hoping to get back to full-on production soon.

Draw or Design 100 times!

This is, like, twice a week.. shouldn’t be too hard, right? Especially if I’m trying to make that book happen!

Journal or blog 100 times!

Hey look, I’m doing it!

Work on meal planning!

This is another nebulous goal, but a really important one with there being a child in our lives. We’re trying to make sure we think at least a few days ahead about what we’re going to cook for dinner to ease up on the stress of last-minute shopping trips.

Beat 12 backlog games!

There’s a lot of games that I’ve enjoyed but haven’t finished, and I want to take the time to see some of them through!

So that’s it, my 21 goals for 2020! I think most of these are pretty attainable, as long as I stay focused on them.

If you’re reading this and have ideas about films I should watch or ukulele songs to learn or anything else, let me know! I’d also love to hear what your goals are!

Let’s make 2020 productive!

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artsoccupychi · 6 years ago

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I Went Fasting Without Food for 40 Days | Here’s What I Learned

I’m completely fascinated by the process and benefits of fasting without food. I’m talking about “eating absolutely nothing for a long period of time.” (With water, it’s called “water fasting,” or without water, it’s called “dry fasting.”) And, I’ve always felt that when Christians, Muslims, and Jews quit fasting routinely, we lost something important. After all, some sects in those religious traditions used to fast, at length, for weeks at a time.

Fasting Without Food | Beneficial Things I Discovered

In this article:

Fasting-Mimicking Detox

Why I Didn’t Do My Water Fasting at Home

What It’s Like to Fast at Siddhayatan

Should You Try Water Fasting?

What Are the Side Effects of Fasting Without Food?

What Does Research Show the Benefits of Fasting Are?

Is Fasting Without Food Good for Weight Loss?

How Can I Get the Benefits of Fasting Without Actually Fasting?

Who Shouldn’t Fast?

What I Learned From Fasting Without Food

Fasting-Mimicking Detox

Now, my research into fasting—including doing it myself 4 times in the past 2 years (for 12 days, 9 days, and 7 days twice, and some shorter fasts in between)—has less to do with spiritual fasting or purification and more to do with the health benefits. I developed what qualifies as a fasting-mimicking detox, five years ago, which 13,000 people have now done. (By “fasting mimicking,” I mean you can eat three times a day, but food is completely prescribed to achieve similar benefits to fasting.) And, I do not honestly believe that most people can or will do what I just did. (Go completely without food for a week or more.)

In fact, I’m not sure they even should. More on that later.

Let’s talk about what crazy, slightly disgusting and simultaneously amazing things happen in the human body when you fast for a long period of time, why I keep doing this, what I get from it, and why you might want to consider doing it.

Why I Didn’t Do My Water Fasting at Home

I have very little self-discipline. I’m not a biohacker, constantly using technology on myself, to experiment. I’ve never run a race longer than a 10k and don’t plan to. And, I don’t have any self-denial fetishes. I don’t just do every hard thing, because it’s a challenge.

Besides being raised Mormon, where we fasted Saturday night to Sunday night one Sunday every month from the age of 8, I have absolutely no reason why fasting for 40 days would be easy for me.

I’m one of those people who, if something hurts, or I’m hungry, everybody around me is gonna know about it.

In fact, I knew I couldn’t do it at home.

I would start with the best of intentions, I’m sure. I might even last a whole day. But, the fridge would be right there 100 steps away. My car would be in the garage. I live just 10 minutes away from food, really good food.

No, wait, it’s worse than that. There’s a Thai restaurant literally 3 minutes away from my house.

My willpower is nothing when I get ferociously hungry. I’m a vegetarian, and very frankly, I’d eat a t-bone cooked rare if I got hungry enough – maybe even a hot dog. (I suffered actual pain writing that.) So, I flew to a spiritual retreat in Texas run by Hindu monks and nuns to fast. It’s called Siddhayatan.

What It’s Like to Fast at Siddhayatan

Siddhayatan is in Nowhere, Texas. Truly, it is miles from anything, and you cannot use your Uber or Lyft app from there to sneak out and get food in a moment of weakness.

It’s insanely cheap, maybe the cost of a Motel 6.

It makes sense, considering they’re feeding you nothing, and you might be sharing a bathroom, or staying in a room with no drywall, and only a naked lightbulb is your form of light.

I could go to True North in California where they’ll “medically supervise” me, and the lodgings are really nice.

But heck, while I’m facing all my addictions, might as well face my addiction to upper-middle-class luxuries.

I take a sliver of soap and a towel. (Correct, the Hindu ashram does not provide a towel or washcloths.)

I take a $100 Uber from the airport, where you can actually get a ride. You can Uber to the ashram, but not back to the airport.

Later, I’ll have a private car company drive me back. But, you can’t just call them when you’re freaking out and wanting food. You can schedule them to pick you up tomorrow.

So, this saves me from my freakouts. I mean, freakouts are by definition short-term.

You see how it’s the perfect place for water fasting for 40 days? Temptation is completely removed.

Also, you “can” have a meal there if you find you aren’t doing well in fasting without food.

You would have to be in a serious crisis to just drop in for lunch, though. First of all, that would be embarrassing.

You’re supposed to give them a heads up because this is the most frugal place you’ve ever been.

The monks and nuns (dressed all in white) make a homemade vegetarian Hindu meal three meals a day, but they make just enough for the exact number of people they have there doing the yoga, meditation, silent, and spiritual retreats.

(You, the water faster? No soup for you. They didn’t plan on you crashing the meal.)

So, besides being embarrassing to fail to ask well in advance if you can eat a meal with everybody else, you might actually be causing everyone they did plan for to not get enough to eat if you just crashed a meal.

I know, it’s really Dickensian.

So, my point is, your food cravings are not easily indulged at this place. And for me, that’s half the battle.

There are the actual hunger strike and physical weakness itself—sometimes even symptoms from long-term fasting without food (I’ll get to that)—but the constant temptations you’d have at home are removed.

I know a guy at home who recently fasted for 23 days. He went out to lunch and coffee with people, the whole time, and just abstained.

I guess some people are motivated or more self-disciplined than I am.

I almost lost my mind watching Netflix on my laptop during my last fasting.

(Do you know how much food they show, on most movies and TV shows? No, you don’t. You notice this kind of thing only when you’re fasting.)

So, some people might have an iron will and be able to fast at home, but I am not one of them.

The total isolation at Siddhayatan is hard (I like being around people!), but it’s also helpful.

Should You Try Water Fasting?

Now, if you’re thinking about this for yourself, there are a few caveats.

One, there is no medical supervision here. No nurses or doctors. They have people fasting here all the time, without serious incident, but people have actually died from prolonged fasting before, or so I’ve heard.

I mean, the odds of you dying from fasting are probably about as high as you dying from taking most over-the-counter medications or driving in a car.

That is pretty low.

But, when I interviewed Valter Longo, Ph.D., a fasting and longevity expert and author of The Longevity Diet, he did cite two deaths he knows of from people fasting for a length of time, one of them with diabetes and one with multiple sclerosis.

While Longo recites the many incredible health benefits of fasting, including rebuilding myelin sheath and regenerating insulin-producing capacity of the pancreas—long-term benefits, not just short-term, after the fast—I imagine he doesn’t want the liability of people at risk fasting for long periods of time, due to his recommendations.

Frankly, neither do I, in an age of litigiousness.

This seems ridiculous, given that millions of people have fasted, accidentally due to lack of food, or on purpose, for literal millennia. But, here we are in 2018 where most Americans have never gone a whole day without food, and some tell me they’ve never even skipped a meal. I think we’re more in need of fasting than any culture in the history of mankind.

So, here’s my onerous disclaimer: if you undergo a water-only fast or dry fast longer than a day, don’t say that I told you to do it. Please do it under the supervision of a trusted functional medicine practitioner.

This blog post is about my experience, is not medical advice, and does not substitute for competent medical care.

What Are the Side Effects of Fasting Without Food?

Hunger and Energy Fluctuations

It goes without saying that you’re really insanely hungry the first few days. Then, your body and mind settle in.

Some people describe having lots of energy. Most don’t! Generally, the longer you fast, the more your cravings for food subside, but so does your energy.

Your spirit will stay higher if you’re “doing the mental work” of challenging yourself with the task of confronting your addictions, congratulating yourself on your progress each day (or hour), reminding yourself of the health benefits, and staying positive.

If you’re smart, you don’t take a laptop with a huge writing project and deadline, like I do. (Every single time, a single mom’s gotta work!)

If you can afford the time off from life, you can just lie in bed and take short walks now and then, but not do much of anything unless you feel like it.

That said, you know yourself, and some of us do better when we’re as productive as energy allows.

I think fasting without food would actually be harder for me if I were like everyone else at the Siddhayatan retreat and didn’t work at all.

On about day 4, I start to have periods of not feeling hunger. One of the nuns told me that this is my body and mind “accepting” the fast.

Muscle, Tissue, Organ, and Fat Cleanup

But, I also, in each of my last 3 fasts, start to have lower back pain on day 4. Since I never experience this at home, I researched it, and I believe it is—don’t be scared now because this is going to sound scary—my kidneys backlogged with broken-down muscle tissue, possibly compounded by over-drinking water (which is easy to do when that’s all you can have).

Yeah, your muscle breaks down a little bit. This may sound like a bad thing.

But, if you’re a weightlifter and your trainer has you believing that all your nutrition habits should be geared to just one thing—preserving and building muscle mass—let me share a revolutionary concept, well, two of them.

One is every time you lift weights, you’re tearing down muscle fiber. And, as it builds, that’s how your muscles grow.

And two, your muscle needs cleanup, just like your organs, joints, or even every cell! If a tiny amount of your muscle breaks down, it was the body tearing out the parts that needed rebuilding anyway.

Don’t overattach, as the Hindu monks would tell you.

Remember, the fasting process doesn’t want to break down a healthy muscle. It’s strong, and it is serving you well.

As you deprive your body of food, it’s nasties like bacteria, cancer, and yeast that are gobbled up like crazy, and belly fat!

Fasting Without Food Is Different For Everyone

My friend Katie Wells, who has one of the most popular wellness blogs online, “The Wellness Mama,” recently water fasted for 2 weeks and found that after the first three days of weakness and hunger, she was insanely productive.

She cooked for her family of six children and just went abstaining from food.

As I mentioned before, if I was at home cooking for my own children, I lack confidence that I wouldn’t cave and throw in the towel, after a day or two, promising myself, “I’ll start again tomorrow.”

Total isolation and removal from food temptation, like I get at the Texas ashram, is very beneficial to me (also a little lonely).

Fasting without food gets you “up close and personal” with all your addictions. You know how you need a coffee to wake you up? (Or, in my case, you like it as a pick-me-up while you’re working, in the afternoon.)

Well, you can’t have one. You can’t have a glass of wine (or three) on Saturday night, you can’t snack, and you can’t even have a cup of tea.

And, this becomes an interesting deep dive into your soul, where you learn how addicted to stimulation, in general, you are.

What will you do with that knowledge? I think even the awareness is helpful towards managing addictions and moving through them to a healthier place.

I think that if you can soldier on and do your work and tend to your family, the time will pass more quickly than if you do what I do:

Sit around in bed, mostly, working on your laptop and watching movies. P.S. Try not to watch movies about food.

When I was hitting a wall, in my most recent 7-day fast, on day 3, the nuns told me about some of their other water fasters.

The longest? An older man fasted for 40 days without food. Pretty Biblical, right? They said he would pretty much lay in bed the whole time and was very, very weak.

But, the woman who stayed in my room before me had come for a 30-day fast, brought her dog, and planned to confront her emotional eating problem.

She ended up extending two more days. (Wow.)

Another woman came for three weeks and walked 10 miles a day.

Like I said, fasting is different for everyone. In fact, while each of my long fasts has had similarities, my process, struggles, and epiphanies are different each time, too.

What Does Research Show the Benefits of Fasting Are?

There are a host of health benefits that result from giving your body and your digestive system a break.

Anti-cancer Benefits

I was first handed a bibliography of books on fasting by Thomas Lodi, M.D., when I was on a worldwide research tour of 19 clinics, studying non-toxic cancer treatment.

Lodi feels that fasting for 30 days is the best thing a cancer patient can do. Those books on fasting are found in the References section below.

Some disagree. In fact, Valter Longo, Ph.D., who specializes in fasting and in oncology in his research, feels that fasting while doing chemo is highly effective, protective of healthy cells, but he says that in both animals and human studies, he’s never seen fasting alone turn cancer around.

And, I think it’s clear that when a patient is in Stage IV and cachexia has set in, where the body is metabolizing muscle to feed cancer and stay alive, fasting may be a very poor idea.

But, Dr. Lodi maintains that the evidence shows it to be a powerful cancer preventative and treatment adjuvant.

With quite a bit of cancer in my family, my primary reason to fast, periodically, is cancer prevention.

Anti-diabetes Benefits

One study shows fasting to be regenerative for insulin production, as the pancreas repairs itself during a period with no food. And, the results weren’t short term: months later, they remained.

This is especially true when the person fasting begins “refeeding” on a plant-based diet. (Longo says the evidence is clear that the plant-based diet is best, for longevity, with small amounts of wild-caught fish as well.)

Several studies in Longo’s book cite turning around Type II diabetes, though Longo feels that a “fasting-mimicking diet” is preferable and less risky. Those taking insulin should not go without food for a long period of time.

Our 26-day detox qualifies as “fasting mimicking.”

You’re eating three meals a day, but all the food is easy to prepare, high in fiber and micronutrients, and the detoxer is eating no processed food, no animal products, and no highly allergenic foods.

There are periods of significant calorie suppression, which Longo’s research shows to be powerful in increasing stem cells, increasing human growth hormone and disease reversal.

Having guided 13,000 people, now, through our detox program in the past 5 years, I agree with Dr. Longo that many people are simply too toxic to do a full-blown fast, with no food at all.

(Some feel great the whole 26 days, but others struggle, even with eating three times a day on the detox, as they come off their caffeine, alcohol, sugar, salt, and other addictions.)

However, with rare exceptions, anyone can do our 26-day detox protocol, Longo’s “fasting mimicking diet,” or “FMD” five-day monthly protocol.

Autophagy Benefits: Cleaning Out for Better Rebuilding

At the water fasting retreat I did in 2016, I met a man named Eric.

His reason to fast was that a practitioner told him to do it for 20 days, to burn out a severe candida overgrowth.

Eric had been a heroin addict for many years, and he’d been hospitalized for the effects of his drug use, where he contracted MRSA that required a month of antibiotics. And, as you likely know, antibiotics usually lead to gut issues.

His were extreme. Absolutely anything he ate bloated his otherwise flat stomach to looking like he was 8 months pregnant. He was miserably sick, and desperate.

He was desperate enough to stop eating for 3 weeks.

However, contrary to Eric’s belief, arriving at the retreat, the primary benefit of fasting isn’t ketosis, although you are definitely in ketosis after a day or two.

Eric was after “ketosis,” where the body burns ketone bodies in the brain for fuel, which is all the rage currently with practitioners.

(I predict the obsession with ketosis, which is actually the body in crisis, will eventually go the way of the dodo.)

I explained autophagy to Eric, which is far more interesting to me.

It is literally defined as “self-eating,” because when the body has no other fuel, it feeds its cells and does cleanup work by metabolizing cancerous growths and breaking down yeasts, mold, fungi, viral, bacterial, and many other aberrant cells and growths.

Longo’s research culling epidemiological studies, as well as centenarian studies and his own research with various populations, points to not just the “self-eating” phenomenon of autophagy burning out aberrant cells first (not muscle mass, my friends, not unless that muscle needed replacing) but also the efficacy and power of the rebuilding process, which happens after the fast.

Amazingly, 3 weeks of water fasting rectified Eric’s desperate situation, and a few months after finishing his fast, he texted me that he was still feeling great.

Neurological Benefits

Not only does fasting help our bodies, but it also benefits our brains. New studies show that fasting may actually ward off neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s and even improve our memory and mood.

Dr. Longo cites a study showing that fasting contributes to stripping down and rebuilding the myelin sheath, an exciting possibility for multiple sclerosis patients.

Other studies reveal a correlation between fasting and improved neural connections in the hippocampus (the part of our brain that plays a critical role in memory). It has also been shown to reduce the number of amyloid plaques—the proteins associated with Alzheimer’s.

Fasting has also been shown to increase the brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) that contributes to the growth and maintenance of the brain’s nerve cells and has an anti-depression effect.

Mark Mattson, a professor of neuroscience at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, explained in Johns Hopkins Health Review how fasting produces changes in the brain.

When you eat, glucose (or sugar) is stored in your liver as glycogen. Once the glycogen is used up, in about 11 hours, your body starts burning fats that are converted to ketone bodies.

It is these acidic chemicals that actually produce positive changes in the structure of synapses—or the gap that transmits information from one nerve cell to another. These cells have been shown to transmit signals to and from the brain at speeds of 200 mph.

When we constantly eat, our bodies don’t have a chance to produce these ketones. It’s interesting to note that exercise has similar positive effects on the brain.

Immune System Regeneration Benefits

The results of yet another study conducted by Professor Longo and his colleagues at USC surprised even them, deeming the unexpected outcome “remarkable.” The research consisted of asking a group of people to fast for two to four days on a regular basis for a period of six months.

What surprised the researchers was this: fasting caused the immune system to regenerate. They believe that the body, put into a state of low reserves, does what it can to save energy.

The result is that a lot of damaged immune cells, along with glucose, fat, and ketones, are broken down. The depletion of these immune (white blood) cells results in stem cell-based regeneration of new immune cells.

Another one of their findings was a noticeable decrease in the production of the enzyme PKA, a hormone that has been associated with an increased risk of cancer.

The reduction in PKA allows the stem cells to switch into regeneration mode, ultimately rebuilding your entire immune system.

It’s pretty incredible.

Anti-aging Benefits

Researchers from the Department of Medicine at the University of Virginia found that fasting for just two days produced a 5-fold increase in human growth hormone (HGH).

This hormone that diminishes as we age is associated with muscle and bone growth as well as sugar and fat metabolism. It has also been shown to significantly reduce the symptoms of congestive heart failure.

In addition, clinical findings showed a decrease in cholesterol and triglycerides as well as inflammation which, as we know, is associated with a number of chronic diseases such as arthritis, Alzheimer’s, cardiovascular disease, and high blood pressure.

Asthma Benefits

In another study conducted by Mark Mattson’s team, participants with moderate asthma cut their caloric intake down to about 1/5th or 20 percent of their normal consumption every other day for eight weeks (this would be an example of a “fasting-mimicking diet”).

The result? The symptoms associated with their asthma “improved significantly.”

Is Fasting Without Food Good for Weight Loss?

Fasting is great for weight loss. But, then again, that’s not a great primary reason to fast. I’ll explain.

First of all, there are much, much easier ways to lose weight. Faster isn’t always better.

Second, you will gain back some or most of the weight you lost, and that’s a good thing.

You have to understand that fasting is a two-part process.

There’s the first period where you aren’t eating. As discussed before, your body is breaking down old cell parts, tissues, and fat stores, and healthy cells are consuming dead cells for fuel and so that they don’t swamp the filtering organs like the kidneys.

But, there’s also the “refeeding” process. That’s where you give the body very healthy fuel, after your fast, to rebuild the broken-down tissues.

Because “you are what you eat,” then you want to eat lots of the cleanest foods possible, that is, nutrient-dense, organic plant foods, including greens, vegetables, nuts and seeds, fruits, and legumes. And, if you eat animal products, eat very clean ones, and sparingly.

So, one of the first parts of the body to break down is fat stores, especially belly fat, according to research literature cited by Longo. But, as you may know, fat cells don’t disappear.

They only shrink. So, if you go back to your old ways of eating, you can fairly easily rebuild those belly fat deposits.

You’ll have to end your fast with a commitment to eating mostly plant-based whole foods if you want the belly fat not to return.

Some people respond to the idea of fasting with this: “That’s a terrible idea because you’ll lose muscle mass!”

This seems to be a vestige of the protein-obsessed fitness industry, who thinks that (a) anything that builds muscle mass is good (not true!) and (b) anything that decreases muscle mass even to the smallest degree is bad (also not true!).

Remember, any muscle tissue that your body breaks down in the fasting process (a) needed to be broken down and metabolized anyway, which is hard on the kidneys but great for your stripped-down and rebuilt lean muscle, and (b) will be the first to be rebuilt, along with healthy organ tissue, like pancreas, kidney, or liver.

I recommend if you fast and you’re interested in weight loss, you should not weigh yourself before and after.

You’re going to lose how much you lose. And, in the “refeeding” process, you will gain some of the weight back. (You need to.)

Just trust the process, don’t make weight loss the primary goal, and focus on the health benefits.

Start with a “fasting-mimicking” diet, like our 26-day detox, know that you’re giving yourself an amazing health reboot—with some loss of fat stores being an inevitable result and some increase in human growth hormone and stem cells—and congratulate yourself on your wins, as you think about taking it a step further, potentially, later.

How Can I Get the Benefits of Fasting Without Actually Fasting?

Like Dr. Longo, I wouldn’t tell any first-time faster, someone who has never done a committed detoxification protocol or a long-term (4+ days) fast without dipping a toe in the water first. Here are some ways to do that:

1. Longo’s Own 5-Days-a-Month “Fasting-Mimicking Diet” Is a Place to Start

That’s one idea, and you can read about it in his book The Longevity Diet. (In his program, you’re eating plant-based meals, of 800 to 1,200 calories a day.)

2. 26-Day Detox Protocol

A second option, as I’ve mentioned, for a hard reboot of the body’s digestive system and a lot of breakdown of old material and eliminations of chemicals in organs and fat deposits, our 26-day process is highly effective, based on the research and practice of the “greats” in the field of human detoxification.

These include Dr. Max Gerson, Dr. Bernard Jensen, Dr. Ann Wigmore, and Dr. Richard Anderson, among others, who have influenced my own 20-year dive into how the body purifies itself, and now to nurture it, in that process.

3. You Could Skip Lunch or Dinner Each Day For An Extended Period of Time

Eat only two meals and an approximately 100-calorie snack (like an apple or a small green smoothie).

And, this is my suggestion: significant evidence shows breakfast to be very important, especially as brain fuel if you work for a living or go to school. Children critically need breakfast, as this study and others show. So, skip lunch or dinner rather than breakfast.

4. You Could Do Alternate-Day Fasting

You fast one day a week, or every other day, to slow the process and shorten the refeeding cycle.

5. Dr. Bryan Walsh is An N.D. Detoxification Practitioner and Feels That No One Should Undergo a Fast Without a Sauna

And, I agree with him. There is such a flood of chemicals and metabolic waste coming through; a daily sauna session would be more than helpful.

The ashram has not invested in one. (I’ve offered to help.) Virtually, all other places I’ve been worldwide, who treat disease holistically, offer infrared sauna sessions.

Having one at home is potentially one of the most useful things you can invest in for your health. Make sure it’s a low-EMF sauna using untreated cedar wood.

Fasting, or even a fasting-mimicking diet, will be massively assisted by daily sauna sessions.

6. Coffee Enema

I think a coffee enema would be very helpful as a daily practice throughout a fast. (Not allowed at the ashram either. They don’t want any potential messes in the residential rooms.)

The caffeine in the organic coffee is instantly taken up by the hemorrhoidal vein to the liver, which not only produces a lot of glutathione (the master antioxidant) but also dilates the liver bile ducts, to release a lot of toxicity into the lower colon.

This allows it to release immediately, rather than recirculate over and over through the blood.

Our detoxers who do this optional but encouraged practice report quick and highly reliable relief from headaches, constipation, and many other symptoms of detoxing (called Herxheimer reactions).

This practice was pioneered by Max Gerson, MD, about 100 years ago, and I personally have used it with astonishing results in my own detoxification experiments and working with 13,000 detoxers, over two decades.

Dozens of holistic clinics around the world employ it, as well, especially for cancer patients to help eliminate tumors breaking down. (For example, this Swiss clinic of biological medicine I take my readers to each summer for a liver detox.)

Who Shouldn’t Fast?

People with renal (kidney) damage shouldn’t fast. (I aborted my last fast 2 days earlier than planned when kidney pain cropped up. However, I’d had annual testing the month before and knew my kidneys to be in perfect shape.)

Pregnant and nursing mothers

Children (In fact, children shouldn’t do severely “time-restricted eating” or “intermittent fasting” that involves skipping breakfast, either, according to this study.)

People with significant diagnoses shouldn’t fast without recommendation and supervision by your functional medicine practitioner.

People with diabetes

(If it were me, as noted earlier, I’d start with one of the options in How Can I Get the Benefits of Fasting, Without Actually Fasting before jumping right into a long water fast.)

Obese people are most likely to fast, and I’ve read of some fasting for 8 weeks or more. Obesity itself presents an enormous risk of death, and so do possibly even more extreme solutions like gastric bypass.

But, those with extreme fat stores are also storing more toxins, as fat attracts chemical toxicity. So, likely, all the risks of long-term fasting are much higher for obese people.

They should be under very close medical supervision. Because while it may be tempting to think “go big or go home” with the long water fast, the risk of cardiac arrhythmia and renal damage or hyperacidity is also higher.

What I Learned From Fasting Without Food

As I strip down broken parts and bits of organs, fat stores, and muscles and tissues, a similar process occurs in me, emotionally and mentally.

I break down, a bit, and rebuild.

And, this is why the spiritual seekers and mystics fast, for even longer periods of time than I do to allow spirit triumph over the body, for a time, and to bring the mortal body low, to humble it, so that only the spirit is strong.

For many, fasting is a way to humble oneself to be more capable of giving thanks and worshiping divinity.

For me, too, it’s my shield against living in a world where I have to breathe cadmium and arsenic in the air, occasionally, despite my significant efforts, eat genetically modified foods and refined foods with carcinogenic chemicals added, and drink water with plastics or antibiotics or fluoride in it.

In my weakness, I also learn how strong I am. I discover that I can do hard things and that I can mentally overcome the weakness of the flesh.

Amazingly, while my most recent 7-day fast was the hardest, I think it was also the most emotionally cathartic.

I learned how my brain, deprived of fuel, affected the way I view others. I decided to observe it rather than judge it.

Basically, I was mad at everyone and everything, for two days, as energies and matter moved through me—another reason I’m glad I was at an ashram far from home.

This PubMed article explains why adrenaline is increased in many who fast for several days. (This also explains why I had a resting heart rate of 78 when my normal is 55, and in the last few days of my fast, I felt my heart pounding in my chest.)

I was working on my laptop, and occasionally phone, and I found that things I would normally take in stride provoked a surprising amount of irritability and flashes of anger. It lasted two days, and then I woke up, peaceful, the last morning.

My awareness was heightened. I thought a lot about my weaknesses and addictions, and I stared at them without shaming myself. I was just observing.

I realized—without even tea, or chewing gum, to entertain my mouth and my senses—how many times, during any day, I do something to increase or decrease my energy, my anxiety, or my ability to rest.

It’s not like I’m taking depression meds, sleeping pills, or painkillers or street drugs.

But, I do drink coffee to power through an intense afternoon of work, and I do drink wine to lubricate a stressful social engagement with strangers.

I do jumping jacks next to my desk to manipulate my energy, and I play sports every morning not just because you’re supposed to break a sweat, for your health, but also for the adrenaline rush and endorphins I draft on, all day.

It is an interesting and useful exercise to fast for a week or two, where all these tactics are off the table. And, I have nothing to rely on except my mind.

And, I find that my mind is strong enough to conquer difficulties. This is good to know, because if we know one thing about life, it’s that we will face serious challenges in the future.

The main thing I accomplish, then, when I fast, is strengthening my body and mind.

Next: I made two Facebook Live videos during my most recent water fast, answering viewer questions and giving more detail. Watch them here:

How do you plan to start fasting without food? Share your thoughts in the comments section!

Up Next: 10 Amazing Treatments By Europe’s Biological Medicine Doctors (You Can’t Get From Your U.S. Medical Doctor)

Resources:

Longo, Valter Ph.D. The Longevity Diet. Avery. 2018

Wells, Katie. My Experience with Water Fasting & Why I’ll Do It Again. Wellness Mama. 03/2018. https://wellnessmama.com/345549/water-fasting/

Sugarman, Joe. Are There any Proven Benefits to Fasting? Johns Hopkins Health Review. 2016. http://www.johnshopkinshealthreview.com/issues/spring-summer-2016/articles/are-there-any-proven-benefits-to-fasting

Wu, Suzanne. Fasting Triggers Stem Cell Regeneration of Damaged, Old Immune System. USC News. 06/2014. https://news.usc.edu/63669/fasting-triggers-stem-cell-regeneration-of-damaged-old-immune-system/

Hartman, ML. et al. Augmented growth hormone (GH) secretory burst frequency and amplitude mediate enhanced GH secretion during a two-day fast in normal men. The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism. 04/1992. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1548337

Johnson, James B. et al. Alternate Day Calorie Restriction Improves Clinical Findings and Reduces Markers of Oxidative Stress and Inflammation in Overweight Adults with Moderate Asthma. Free Radical Biology and Medicine. 03/2007. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S089158490600801X?via%3Dihub

Grantham-McGregor, S. Can the Provision of Breakfast Benefit School Performance? Food and Nutrition Bulletin. 06/2005. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16075563

Zauner, C. Resting energy expenditure in short-term starvation is increased as a result of an increase in serum norepinephrine. The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. 06/2000. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10837292

Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links that help support the GSG mission without costing you extra. I recommend only companies and products that I use myself.

Editor’s Note – This post was originally published on April 19, 2018, and has been updated for quality and relevancy.

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#infrared saunas #healthy

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because3am-blog · 7 years ago

Text

Preceding My Conclusion..

Sooo.. A short while ago a dear friend of mine suggested I put pen to paper. Someone I admire, and perhaps friend feels like a belittlement of this individual's meaning in my world, she has in fact been instrumental in my life as of late, and helped firmly fix a smile to my face during a rather turbulent period; alas I digress. I believe she lives firmly in the delusion of my intellect, the blessed fool, however, nothing ventured and all that! As to what I should write I haven't the faintest, I think beyond my humility (remember I said that), the firm belief that what I have to divulge is of little consequence, I have never felt the pull to write for lack of topic and motivation. Yet here I am, at least I suppose this could indeed prove useful as a backlog, a point of reference, proceeding my probable institutionalisation. So to you, the reader, my condolences, I can only imagine the misfortune that bestows you to end up with either the time or the inclination to humour my pen (or buttons, it is like 2017 after all, why do we even still have pens, surely we're beyond such a primitive medium of expression)! Maybe, this, right now, is one of those grounding moments in life, you, and at great haste, should take a minute to reflect, and forge a different path forward? You're right, it's not my place to say.

The only thing I feel I could possibly impart with much grounding in use, would be a glimpse of the world through my eyes, novel huh? But perhaps, I like to question things, actually everything, and maybe this could evoke a thought in you, or maybe better yet you have an answer for me? I have always appeared as a well disguised alien to many of my peers, my family especially, for reasons unknown I struggle in equal measure with a childish inability to accept the world in the condition it is in and the inability to invoke change in any capacity. Fundamentally I appreciate change starts at home, but it never seems enough, and that alone in itself is a struggle. But to my eyes (dazzlingly blue, in case you were wondering) we have fallen, almost unknowingly, into an experience of mediocrity. Perhaps it is with the advent of technology, perhaps with our busy urban lives, or could it be some sort of Palio deficit, where we have moved so far from our roots as a species we have lost track of our senses. Most likely it is my own pessimism coming into play. But I cannot shake the belief that we, here and now, are not living well, at least not to what we deserve. Allow me a minute to explain.. (Please also refer to my previous comment on humility). Life, whatever it is, is a sensory experience. We can get into all kind of long debates on its meaning, or purpose, or even its tangibility. I confess to knowing almost nothing on many of these matters, and all of the above topics could never be bought into the realm of scientific scrutiny and quantified as such, so each and every person should and will have their own personal relationship with these questions. But as to its application, that is where we do get a degree at least of authority. So it's on the up! And yet we appear so frivolous with it? I think my mind started pondering this issue when discovering the amount of people who cannot remember what they did, yesterday, last week, a month ago. And you know what, I couldn't remember either. And these are people young, people with quick lively brains, eager and waiting to pour in memory's, to catalogue your adventure, and hopefully, with any luck, to enjoy and relish in when old age arrives. In plato's republic a particular line has always stayed with me, it is within Socrates dialogue with an elder, on ageing, it's toils and blessings... "To the man conscious to himself of no unjust deed, sweet and good hope is ever besides him". But what of the man who is not conscious of the majority of his existence? Regardless of good or bad, morals and ethics, what if you, and I, are living unconsciously. If I cannot remember now, what happened last Tuesday, in 50 years I stand less chance still. And at what consequence comes of this. On one hand I would muse that you cannot learn or grow or develop without appreciation of the effect (or affect, does anyone really know the difference?) of the events occurring in your life; and that's important. Alas I do not feel I have the patience now to further explore why this is the case ((however I can thoroughly recommend the book Descartes error (Damasio Antonio) for anyone who cannot persevere any further into this text without an informed perspective on the importance of cognitively processing experience, it is quite possibly explained even chapter 1, go wild, catch you soon!)). But fundamentally, I think it is more prudent to focus on the fact that if you are not readily absorbing your days you are probably not using them correctly. And you don't get many, really you don’t. For all that I have forgotten, I can remember with great certainty what happened on Thursday 21st of November two years ago. On that day I parted with someone more dear to me than I believed was possible, for one reason or another our union came to an end, and as if it was yesterday I can recall the feelings and emotions and memories with better resolution than a Sony super HD 4K 10578479479 megapixel display with full Dolby surround sound. And you know what, I'm glad of that. It is a moment in my life so bleak, yet so meaningful, and I carry daily the things learned from that. But shouldn't every day be that way? Obviously by this I do not mean heartbreaking and depressing, but vivid! We seem to have coloured our days in mono. We no longer seem to relish in taking in the full splendour of each moment. We no longer notice birds in the sky, absorb the smell of the air after a heavy rainfall. (Should my aforementioned friend ever stumble upon this I am sooo going to get a comment about my needing to partake in some kind of late night adult activities, perhaps she'll be obliging?) We take the company of our dearest for granted. We no longer listen to music, at least little further than as a mild distraction from the peripheral noise of the world going about around us, or indeed our own thoughts, let's keep those dragons at bay huh? We take no comfort in the luxuries of necessity, cooking a good meal at the end of the day, tending the garden. Without another paragraph on what it is (I feel) we do not seem to appreciate I will resolve my point. It appears we are allowing ourselves to be distracted from the beauty in the world, and if we do catch a glimpse of it not nourishing ourselves on every morsel of it, but by what, if our days are so forgettable. And the pessimists in us hold on so closely to our worries and woes, we stress fitfully on matters yet to even come into fruition. I forbid the realist within a voice. Of course these phenomena can be easily explained away. But they do not have to be, what probably feels like ages ago, I attested the fact that this is one realm we can gain at least some purchase. So of late, I have been endeavouring to absorb as much of my life as I can. Not just the good, the bad too. It almost seems taboo in our sociocultural mindset to feel negative, even with negative feelings seeming to be the predominance of our days. It is appreciated that you will 'get over' whatever grievances come your way with haste and as little fuss as possible. And whilst I agree it is best to rid yourself of upset sooner rather than later, I do not believe it advisable to skate over feelings to the comfort of escape. The most sobering moments in my life have bought about great changes in my outlook, given me an appreciation of aspects of life I might have otherwise overlooked, and above all reinforced a courage within. You learn you can cope with a lot more than you expected, often better than expected. And with that courage comes the ability to navigate life confidently, freely, openly. I still have a long way to go down that path, and am far from the authority on living a life free from the restrictions of fear, but all progress is progress. I guess what I am getting at is that there is benefit to be had from all that comes your way, if you do indeed take note of it, and apply it to your advantage. If you're happy feel really really really happy, if you're sad feel really sad, love unconditionally without fear or strings, give of your heart, what benefit becomes anyone by exerting half measures of emotion, it's the only medium we have to appreciate life! I have again fallen away on a tangent. Apologies. I resume. So in an effort to absorb experience, I have spent the time to reason with myself the parts of life that make me happy, the aspects I aspire to, and at heart keep those as the focus of my days and see what benefit my way come. One thing I will give myself credit for is the ability to wonder, my brain is both my biggest asset and my greatest daemon. I have to know all things about all stuff, because what how why and when and who. Apart from sports, sports are just rubbish! Anyway, with my nice concise introduction over.... I hope you gleam I am not as pretentious as my words may suggest, I know I am as useless at life as everyone else, probably worse, and I make no claim to possess anything other than my own thoughts and beliefs; which will vacillate with the weather! And use these words as an attempt at maintaining my focus and even maybe drawing in yours.

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ds4design · 8 years ago

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How to Read a Book a Week (52 Books in 52 Weeks)

You're reading How to Read a Book a Week (52 Books in 52 Weeks), originally posted on Pick the Brain | Motivation and Self Improvement. If you're enjoying this, please visit our site for more inspirational articles.

New year resolutions are something that I don't share publicly. The goals I write down are personal and most of them won't be applicable to others. However, I did identify one resolution that I think can be helpful. For the past few years, I've stacked books on top of books (virtually) based on recommendations I've received from friends, podcast guests, and my personal discoveries. The problem was: I've never made the time (and priority) to set up the right systems to read more books. Now, I'm laying out a public challenge to you and myself called 'The BAW (Book A Week) Challenge'. The goal is simple: read 52 books in one year (one a week; four a month). *Note: Yes, this is published in March so if you want to participate it can be 48 books. If you just want the list of books that I'll be reading, you can scroll down. If you're interested in participating, read on.

How I'm approaching the reading process

1. Picking 1-3 areas of my life that I want to most improve or optimize This year, with the goal to find more balance, I've decided to pick diversified topics most important in my life: Health & Wellness, Wealth & Business, Biographies. You can decide to go deep in one topic, and just read books on business, or just on health. Personally my ADHD will drive me nuts, but whatever floats your boat! 2. Create a list of books you want to read Scour the web, browse through Amazon, take some of my suggestions -- do whatever you need to get as many recommendations as possible. Make sure it's from a diversified circle of people or source, so you can get a diversified group of books. Try to go beyond 52 books if you can. 3. Categorize them into the 1-3 areas

If you have more than 2+ topics, you can either:

Read 4 books a month on one topic, then 4 books on the next. Or...

Diversify by reading books on each topic every month (this is my approach)

Have a free for all section

This gives you the freedom to either choose a book that is not related to the topics you chose, or read another book around your chosen topic. For me, these are topics around psychology, philosophy, relationships, history, fiction books, and more.

4. Go through your book list and start adding books in the order that you're interested in What usually works for me is to select topics that I can immediately apply in my life. Otherwise, you feel forced to read something that's not directly applicable. Another tip to keep in mind is to do some back research on the length of each book. For example, you wouldn't want to cram in multiple 400-page books in the span of a month. Unless you're a reading machine, then all the power to you! And last but not least... 5. Put the rest on your backlog The backlog is there in case you run into a book that you lose interest in (which happens more often than you think). I've found that it's rarely a good idea to finish a book for the sake of finishing a book. If you're not vibing with the author, drop it and move on.

My last $0.02

Take the time to study the process of reading faster. If you're going to be reading 100,000's of words, taking a few minutes to increase your reading speed can save you a massive amount of time.

Measure how fast you currently read using this free test.

Check out these free resources (or research on your own) on how to read faster:

Blog post on Tim Ferriss, Blog post on Rype, Blog post on Mark Manson

Try repeating the test again, and practice until you see some improvements

Audiobooks can speed up your 'reading' MUCH faster. If you can retain non-fiction books in audio format, then this option is highly recommended. Although for certain books that involve more visual representation (such as bodybuilding or nutrition books), I prefer reading them.

Check out Audible or Audiobooks.com

Even though I've resisted Kindle for awhile (I've always liked the tangible feeling of books), adopting it into my life has been huge. I no longer have to carry around books when I travel, and I can bring one tablet that contains all of my books.

If you slip up and forget to read a book (which will happen), keep going. The real purpose of the challenge is not to read 52 books in 52 weeks, it's to develop the habits, time management, and reading skills to read more books. As long as you end up reading more books than you normally would, you've already won.

Without further ado, here's my book-a-week reading list. Use and share it as freely as you please.

January

Health: Becoming the Iceman by Wim Hof

Wealth: The Ultimate Sales Machine: Turbocharge Your Business with Relentless Focus on 12 Key Strategies by Chet Holmes

Biography: The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon by Brad Stone

Free for all: The Art of Thinking Clearly by Rolf Dobelli

February

Health: The New Encyclopedia of Modern Bodybuilding : The Bible of Bodybuilding by Arnold Schwarzenegger

Wealth: The Sales Acceleration Formula: Using Data, Technology, and Inbound Selling to go from $0 to $100 Million Hardcover by Mark Roberge

Biography: Benjamin Franklin: An American Life Paperback by Walter Isaacson

Free for all: Getting Everything You Can Out of Everything You've Got by Jay Abraham

March

Health: The 4 Hour Body: An Uncommon Guide to Rapid Fat Loss, Incredible Sex and Becoming Superhuman by Tim Ferriss

Wealth: Breakthrough Advertising by Eugene M. Schwartz

Biography: Titan: The Life of John D. Rockefeller, Sr. Paperback by Ron Chernow

Free for all: Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman

April

Health: The Bulletproof Diet: Lose up to a Pound a Day, Reclaim Energy and Focus, Upgrade Your Life Hardcover by Dave Asprey

Wealth: Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion by Robert B. Cialdini

Biography: Creativity, Inc.: Overcoming the Unseen Forces That Stand in the Way of True Inspiration by Ed Catmull

Free for all: Killing the Rising Sun: How America Vanquished World War II Japan by Bill O'Reilly

May

Health: The FastDiet: Lose Weight, Stay Healthy, and Live Longer with the Simple Secret of Intermittent Fasting by Michael Mosley

Wealth: Smart Pricing: How Google, Priceline, and Leading Businesses Use Pricing Innovation for Profitability by Jagmohan Raju

Biography: Grinding It Out: The Making of McDonald's Mass Market Paperback – August 2, 2016

by Ray Kroc

Free for all: Poor Charlie's Almanack: The Wit and Wisdom of Charles T. Munger, Expanded Third Edition Hardcover – 2005 by Charles T. Munger

June

Health: Ending Aging: The Rejuvenation Breakthroughs That Could Reverse Human Aging in Our Lifetime by Aubrey de Grey

Wealth:The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right by Atul Gawande

Biography: Sam Walton: Made in America by Sam Walton

Free for all: Thank You for Being Late: An Optimist's Guide to Thriving in the Age of Accelerations by Thomas L. Friedman

July

Health: The Book of Joy: Lasting Happiness in a Changing World by Dalai Lama

Wealth: Who by Geoff Smart

Biography: The Hiltons: The True Story of an American Dynasty by J. Randy Taraborrelli

Free for all: Lying by Sam Harris

August

Health: The Story of the Human Body: Evolution, Health, and Disease Reprint Edition by Daniel Lieberman Wealth: When I Stop Talking, You'll Know I'm Dead: Useful Stories from a Persuasive Man by Jerry Weintraub

Biography: All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque

Free for all: The Effective Executive: The Definitive Guide to Getting the Right Things Done by Peter F. Drucker

September

Health: The Happiness Hypothesis: Finding Modern Truth in Ancient Wisdom by Jonathan Haidt

Wealth: How to Build a Real Estate Empire

Biography: Victoria: The Queen: An Intimate Biography of the Woman Who Ruled an Empire by Julia Baird Free for all: Our Country's Presidents: All You Need to Know About the Presidents, From George Washington to Barack Obama by Ann Bausum

October

Health: Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

Wealth: Compelling People: The Hidden Qualities That Make Us Influential by John Neffinger

Biography: Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World by Jack Weatherford

Free for all: Tao Te Ching by Lao Tzu

November

Health: The Men's Health Big Book of Food & Nutrition by Joel Weber

Wealth: The Advantage: Why Organizational Health Trumps Everything Else In Business by Patrick M. Lencioni

Biography: The Autobiography of Malcolm X by Malcolm X

Free for all: The Gift of Fear and Other Survival Signals that Protect Us From Violence by Gavin de Becker

December

Health: Meditations by Marcus Aurelius

Wealth: Pitch Anything: An Innovative Method for Presenting, Persuading, and Winning the Deal by Oren Klaff

Biography: Kon-Tiki: Across the Pacific in a Raft by Thor Heyerdahl Free for all: The Complete Story of Civilization: Our Oriental Heritage, Life of Greece, Caesar and Christ, Age of Faith, Renaissance, Age of Reason Begins, Age of Louis ... Revolution, Age of Napoleon, Reformation by Will Durant

The Backlog

Health & Wellness Mindset by Carol Dweck Siddhartha by Hermann Herse Paradox of Choice by Barry Schwartz Business & Money

The Fountain Head by Ayn Rand

Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand

What They Don't Teach You At Harvard Business School by Mark McCormack As a Man Thinketh by James Allen Small Giants by Bo Burlingham Disrupt You by Jay Samit Becoming a Category of One by Joe Calloway Biographies The Churchill Factor by Boris Johnson Muhammad Ali: His Life And Times by Thomas Hauser Empire State Of Mind: How Jay-Z Went From Street Corner To Corner Office by Zack O’Malley Greenburg Churchill: A Life by Martin Gilbert Other Tao Te Ching by Lao Tzu A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson On The Shortness of Life by Seneca Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari What If? by Randall Monroe

You've read How to Read a Book a Week (52 Books in 52 Weeks), originally posted on Pick the Brain | Motivation and Self Improvement. If you've enjoyed this, please visit our site for more inspirational articles.

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artsoccupychi · 7 years ago

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I Went Without Food for 35 Days. Here’s What I Learned.

I’m completely fascinated by the process and benefits of fasting.

I’m talking about eating absolutely nothing for a long period of time. (With water, it’s called “water fasting”–or without water, it’s called “dry fasting.”)

And I’ve always felt that when Christians, Muslims, and Jews quit fasting routinely, we lost something important.

After all, some sects in those religious traditions used to fast, at length, for weeks at a time.

Now, my research into fasting—including doing it myself 4 times in the past 2 years (for 12 days, 9 days, and 7 days twice)–has less to do with spiritual purification, and more to do with the health benefits.

I developed what qualifies as a fasting-mimicking detox, five years ago, which 13,000 people have now done.

(By “fasting mimicking,” I mean you can eat three times a day, but food is completely prescribed to achieve similar benefits to fasting.)

And I do not honestly believe that most people can or will do what I just did.

(Go completely without food for a week or more.)

In fact, I’m not sure they even should. More on that later.

Let’s talk about what crazy, slightly disgusting and simultaneously amazing things happen in the human body when you fast for a long period of time.

And why I keep doing this, about every year.

What I get from it. And why you might want to consider doing some form of fasting.

Why I didn’t do my water fasting at home

I have very little self discipline.

I’m not a biohacker, constantly using technology on myself, to experiment. I’ve never run a race longer than a 10k and don’t plan to.

And I don’t have any self-denial fetishes. I don’t just do every hard thing, because it’s a challenge.

Besides being raised Mormon, where we fasted Saturday night to Sunday night one Sunday every month, from the age of 8, I have absolutely no reason why fasting for a long period of time would be easy for me.

I’m one of those people who, if something hurts, or I’m hungry, everybody around me is gonna know about it.

In fact, I knew I couldn’t do it from home.

I would start with the best of intentions, I’m sure. I might even last a whole day. But the fridge would be right there. 100 steps away, max.

My car would be in the garage, with food just a 10-minute drive from food. Really good food.

No, wait, it’s worse than that—there’s a Thai restaurant literally 3 minutes from my house.

My willpower is nothing, when I get ferociously hungry.

I’m a vegetarian, and very frankly, I’d eat a t-bone cooked rare, if I got hungry enough. Maybe even a hot dog. (I suffered actual pain, writing that.)

So I fly to a spiritual retreat in Texas, run by Hindu monks and nuns, to fast. It’s called Siddhayatan.

What it’s like to fast at Siddhayatan

Siddhayatan is in Nowhere, Texas. Truly, it is miles from anything, and you cannot use your Uber or Lyft app, from there. To sneak out and get food, in a moment of weakness.

It’s insanely cheap, maybe the cost of a Motel 6.

Which makes sense, considering they’re feeding you nothing, and you might be sharing a bathroom, or staying in a room with no drywall, and a naked lightbulb your only form of light.

I could go to True North in California, where they’ll “medically supervise” me and the lodgings are really nice.

But heck, while I’m facing all my addictions, might as well face my addiction to upper-middle-class luxuries, as well.

I take a sliver of soap and a towel. (Correct, the Hindu ashram does not provide a towel or washcloths.)

I take a $100 Uber from the airport, where you can actually get a ride. You can Uber to the ashram, but not back to the airport.

Later, I’ll have a private car company drive me back. But you can’t just call them when you’re freaking out and wanting food. You can schedule them to pick you up tomorrow.

So this saves me from my freakouts. I mean, freakouts are by definition short-term.

You see how it’s the perfect place for water fasting? Temptation is completely removed.

Also: you CAN have a meal there, if you find you aren’t doing well, fasting.

You would have to be in a serious crisis to just drop in for lunch, though. First of all, that would be embarrassing.

You’re supposed to give them a heads up, because this is the most frugal place you’ve ever been.

(You, the water faster? No soup for you. They didn’t plan on you crashing the meal.)

So besides being embarrassing to fail to ask well in advance if you can eat a meal with everybody else, you might actually be causing everyone they did plan for, to not get enough to eat, if you just crashed a meal.

I know, it’s really Dickensian.

So my point is, your food cravings are not easily indulged at this place. And for me, that’s half the battle.

There’s the actual hunger and physical weakness itself—sometimes even symptoms from long-term fasting (I’ll get to that)—but the constant temptations you’d have at home are removed.

I know a guy at home who recently fasted for 23 days. He went out to lunch and coffee with people, the whole time, and just abstained.

I guess some people are motivated or more self-disciplined than I am.

I almost lost my mind watching Netflix on my laptop, during my last fast.

(Do you know how much food they show, on most movies and TV shows? No, you don’t. You notice this kind of thing only when you’re fasting.)

So, some people might have an iron will and be able to fast at home, but I am not one of them.

The total isolation at Siddhayatan is hard (I like being around people!) but it’s also helpful.

Should you try water fasting?

Now, if you’re thinking about this for yourself, a few caveats.

One, there is no medical supervision here. No nurses or doctors. They have people fasting here all the time, without serious incident, but people have actually died from fasting before. Or so I’ve heard.

I mean, the odds of you dying from fasting are probably about as high as you dying from taking most over-the-counter medications. Or driving in a car.

That is, pretty low.

But when I interviewed Valter Longo, PhD, a fasting and longevity expert and author of The Longevity Diet, he did cite two deaths he knows of, from people fasting for a length of time, one of them with diabetes, and one with multiple sclerosis.

While Longo recites the many incredible health benefits of fasting, including rebuilding myelin sheath and regenerating insulin-producing capacity of the pancreas—long term benefits, not just short term, after the fast–I imagine he doesn’t want the liability of people at risk fasting for long periods of time, due to his recommendations.

Frankly, neither do I, in an age of litigiousness.

Which seems ridiculous, given that millions of people have fasted, accidentally due to lack of food, or on purpose, for literally millenia.

But here we are, in 2018. Where most Americans have never gone a whole day without food, and some tell me they’ve never even skipped a meal.

I think we’re more in need of fasting, than any culture in the history of mankind.

So here’s my onerous disclaimer: if you undergo a water fast or dry fast longer than a day, don’t say that I told you to do it. Please do it under supervision of a trusted functional medicine practitioner.

This blog post is about my experience, and is not medical advice and does not substitute for competent medical care.

What Are the Side Effects of Fasting?

Hunger and energy fluctuations

It goes without saying that you’re really insanely hungry the first few days. Then, your body and mind settle in.

Some people describe having lots of energy. Most don’t! Generally, the longer you fast, the more your cravings for food subside, but so does your energy.

Your spirits will stay higher if you’re “doing the mental work” of challenging yourself with the task of confronting your addictions, congratulating yourself on your progress each day (or hour), reminding yourself of the health benefits, and staying positive.

If you’re smart, you don’t take a laptop with a huge writing project and deadline, like I do. (Every single time. A single mom’s gotta work!)

If you can afford the time off from Life, you can just lie in bed, take short walks now and then, but not do much of anything unless you feel like it.

That said, you know yourself, and some of us do better when we’re as productive as energy allows.

I think fasting would actually be harder for me if I were like everyone else at the Siddhayatan retreat, and didn’t work at all.

On about Day 4, I start to have periods of not feeling hunger. One of the nuns told me that this is my body and mind “accepting” the fast.

Muscle, tissue, organ, and fat cleanup

I also, however, in each of my last 3 fasts, start to have lower back pain on day 4. Since I never experience this at home, I researched it, and I believe it is—don’t be scared now, this is going to sound scary—

–my kidneys backlogged with broken-down muscle tissue. Possibly compounded by over-drinking water (which is easy to do, when that’s all you can have).

Yeah, your muscle breaks down. A little bit. This may sound like a bad thing.

But if you’re a weight lifter and your trainer has you believing that all your nutrition habits should be geared to just one thing—preserving and building muscle mass—let me share a revolutionary concept. Well, two of them.

One, every time you lift weights, you’re tearing down muscle fiber. And as it builds, that’s how your muscles grow.

And two, your muscle needs cleanup, just like your organs, joints, even every cell, does! If a tiny amount of your muscle breaks down, it was the body tearing out the parts that needed rebuilding anyway.

Don’t overattach, as the Hindu monks would tell you.

Remember, the fasting process doesn’t want to break down healthy muscle. It’s strong and it is serving you well.

As you deprive your body of food, it’s nasties like bacteria and cancer and yeast that are gobbled up like crazy. Oh, and belly fat!

Fasting Is Different For Everyone.

My friend Katie Wells, who has one of the most popular wellness blogs online, “The Wellness Mama,” recently water fasted for 2 weeks, and found that after the first three days of weakness and hunger, she was insanely productive.

She cooked for her family of six children, and just abstained.

Total isolation and removal from food temptation, like I get at the Texas ashram, is very beneficial to me. (Also a little lonely.)

Fasting gets you “up close and personal” with all your addictions. You know how you need a coffee to wake you up? (Or, in my case, you like it as a pick-me-up while you’re working, in the afternoon.)

Well, you can’t have one. You can’t have a glass of wine (or three) on Saturday night, you can’t snack, you can’t even have a cup of tea.

And this becomes an interesting deep dive into your soul, where you learn how addicted to stimulation, in general, you are.

What will you do with that knowledge? I think even the awareness is helpful. Towards managing addictions and moving through them to a healthier place.

I think that if you can soldier on and do your work and tend to your family, the time will pass more quickly, than if you do what I do:

Sit around in bed, mostly, working on your laptop and watching movies. p.s. Try not to watch movies about food.

When I was hitting a wall, in my most recent 7-day fast, on day 3, the nuns told me about some of their other water fasters.

The longest? An older man fasted for 40 days. Pretty Biblical, right? They said he would pretty much lay in bed the whole time and was very, very weak.

But the woman who stayed in my room before me had come for a 30-day fast, brought her dog, and planned to confront her emotional eating problem.

She ended up extending two more days. (Wow.)

Another woman came for three weeks, and walked 10 miles a day.

Like I said, fasting is different for everyone. In fact, while each of my long fasts have had similarities, my process and struggles and epiphanies are different each time, too.

What Does Research Show the Benefits of Fasting Are?

There are a host of health benefits that results from giving your body and your digestive system a break.

Cancer benefits

I was first handed a bibliography of books on fasting by Thomas Lodi, M.D., when I was on a worldwide research tour of 19 clinics, studying non-toxic cancer treatment.

Lodi feels that fasting for 30 days is the best thing a cancer patient can do. Those books on fasting are found in the References section below.

Some disagree. In fact, Valter Longo, PhD, who specializes in fasting and in oncology in his research, feels that fasting while doing chemo is highly effective, protective of healthy cells, but he says that in both animals and human studies, he’s never seen fasting alone turn cancer around.

And, I think it’s clear that when a patient is in Stage IV and cachexia has set in, where the body is metabolizing muscle to feed the cancer and stay alive, fasting may be a very poor idea.

But Dr. Lodi maintains that the evidence shows it to be a powerful cancer preventative and treatment adjuvant.

With quite a bit of cancer in my family, my primary reason to fast, periodically, is cancer prevention.

Diabetes benefits

One study shows fasting to be regenerative for insulin production, as the pancreas repairs itself during a period with no food. And the results weren’t short term: months later, they remained.

Especially when the person fasting begins “re-feeding” on a plant-based diet. (Longo says the evidence is clear that the plant-based diet is best, for longevity, with small amounts of wild-caught fish as well.)

Several studies in Longo’s book cite turning around Type II diabetes, though Longo feels that a “fasting mimicking diet” is preferable and less risky. Those taking insulin should not go without food for a long period of time.

Our 26-day detox qualifies as “fasting mimicking.”

There are periods of significant calorie suppression, which Longo’s research shows to be powerful in increasing stem cells, increasing human growth hormone, and disease reversal.

Having guided 13,000 people, now, through our detox program in the past 5 years, I agree with Dr. Longo that many people are simply too toxic to do a full-blown fast, with no food at all.

(Some feel great, the whole 26 days, but others struggle, even with eating three times a day, on the detox, as they come off their caffeine, alcohol, sugar, salt, and other addictions.)

However, with rare exceptions, anyone can do our 26-day detox protocol, or Longo’s “fasting mimicking diet” or “FMD” five-day monthly protocol.

Autophagy benefits: cleaning out for better rebuilding

At the water fasting retreat I did in 2016, I met a man named Eric.

His reason to fast was that a practitioner told him to do it for 20 days, to burn out a severe candida overgrowth.

Eric had been a heroin addict for many years, and he’d been hospitalized for the effects of his drug use, where he contracted MRSA. That required a month of antibiotics. And as you likely know, antibiotics usually lead to gut issues.

His were extreme. Absolutely anything he ate bloated his otherwise flat stomach to look like he was 8 months pregnant. He was miserably sick, and desperate.

Desperate enough to stop eating for 3 weeks.

However, contrary to Eric’s belief, arriving at the retreat, the primary benefit of fasting isn’t ketosis, although you are definitely in ketosis after a day or two.

Eric was after “ketosis,” where the body burns ketone bodies in the brain for fuel, which is all the rage currently with practitioners.

(I predict the obsession with ketosis, which is actually the body in crisis, will eventually go the way of the dodo.)

I explained autophagy to Eric, which is far more interesting to me.

It is literally defined as “self eating,” because when the body has no other fuel, it feeds its cells and does cleanup work by metabolizing cancerous growths, and breaking down yeasts, mold, fungi, viral, bacterial, and many other aberrant cells and growths.

—but also the efficacy and power of the rebuilding process. Which happens after the fast.

Amazingly, 3 weeks of water fasting rectified Eric’s desperate situation, and a few months after finishing his fast, he texted me that he was still feeling great.

Neurological benefits

Not only does fasting help our bodies, it also benefits our brains. New studies show that fasting may actually ward off neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s, and even improve our memory and mood.

Dr. Longo cites a study showing that fasting contributes to stripping down and rebuilding the myelin sheath, an exciting possibility for multiple sclerosis patients.

Fasting has also been shown to increase the brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) that contributes to the growth and maintenance of the brain’s nerve cells, and has an anti-depression effect.

Mark Mattson, professor of neuroscience at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, explained in Johns Hopkins Health Review how fasting produces changes in the brain.

When you eat, glucose (or sugar) is stored in your liver as glycogen. Once the glycogen is used up, in about 11 hours, your body starts burning fats that are converted to ketone bodies.

It is these acidic chemicals that actually produce positive changes in the structure of synapses–or the gap that transmits information from one nerve cell to another. These cells have been shown to transmit signals to and from the brain at speeds of 200 mph.

When we constantly eat, our bodies don’t have a chance to produce these ketones. It’s interesting to note that exercise has similar positive effects on the brain.

Immune System Benefits

What surprised the researchers was this: fasting caused the immune system to regenerate. They believe that the body, put into a state of low reserves, does what it can to save energy.

The result is that a lot of damaged immune cells, along with glucose, fat and ketones, are broken down. The depletion of these immune (white blood) cells results in stem cell-based regeneration of new immune cells.

Another one of their findings was a noticeable decrease in the production of the enzyme PKA, a hormone that has been associated with an increased risk of cancer.

The reduction in PKA allows the stem cells to switch into regeneration mode, ultimately rebuilding your entire immune system.

Pretty incredible.

Anti-aging benefits

Researchers from the Department of Medicine at the University of Virginia found that fasting for just two days produced a 5-fold increase in human growth hormone (HGH).

Asthma benefits

The result? The symptoms associated with their asthma “improved significantly.”

Is Fasting Good for Weight Loss?

Fasting is great for weight loss—and then again, that’s not a great primary reason to fast. I’ll explain.

First of all, there are much, much easier ways to lose weight. Faster isn’t always better.

Second, you will gain back some or most of the weight you lost, and that’s a good thing.

You have to understand that fasting is a two part process.

There’s the first period where you aren’t eating. As discussed before, your body is breaking down old cell parts, tissues, fat stores, and healthy cells are consuming dead cells, so that they have fuel, and so that they don’t swamp the filtering organs like the kidneys.

But there’s also the “refeeding” process. That’s where you give the body very healthy fuel, after your fast, to rebuild the broken-down tissues.

Because “you are what you eat,” then, you want to eat lots of the cleanest foods possible:

That is, nutrient-dense, organic plant foods, including greens, vegetables, nuts and seeds, fruits, and legumes. And if you eat animal products, eat very clean ones, and sparingly.

So, one of the first parts of the body to break down is fat stores, especially belly fat, according to research literature cited by Longo. But as you may know, fat cells don’t disappear.

They only shrink. So if you go back to your old ways of eating, you can fairly easily rebuild those belly fat deposits.

You’ll have to end your fast with a commitment to eating mostly plant-based whole foods, if you want the belly fat not to return.

Some people respond to the idea of fasting with this: “That’s a terrible idea, because you’ll lose muscle mass!”

This seems to be a vestige of the protein-obsessed fitness industry, who thinks that (a) anything that builds muscle mass is good (not true!), and (b) anything that decreases muscle mass even to the smallest degree is bad (also not true!).

I recommend if you fast, and you’re interested in weight loss, that you not weigh yourself before and after.

You’re going to lose how much you lose. And in the “refeeding” process, you will gain some of the weight back. (You need to.)

Just trust the process, don’t make weight loss the primary goal, and focus on the health benefits.

Start with a “fasting mimicking” diet, like our 26-day detox, know that you’re giving yourself an amazing health reboot–with some loss of fat stores being an inevitable result, some increase in human growth hormone and stem cells–and congratulate yourself on your wins, as you think about taking it a step further, potentially, later.

How Can I Get the Benefits of Fasting, Without Actually Fasting?

Like Dr. Longo, I wouldn’t tell any first-time faster, someone who has never done a committed detoxification protocol, or a long term (4+ days) fast without dipping a toe in the water first. Here are some ways to do that:

1. Longo’s own 5-days-a-month “fasting mimicking diet” is a place to start. That’s one idea, and you can read about it in his book The Longevity Diet. (In his program, you’re eating plant-based meals, of 800 to 1,200 calories a day.)

2. A second option, as I’ve mentioned, for a hard reboot of the body’s digestive system, and a lot of breakdown of old material and eliminations of chemicals in organs and fat deposits, our 26-day process is highly effective, based on the research and practice of the “greats” in the field of human detoxification.

3. Third, you could skip lunch or dinner each day, for an extended period of time. Eat only two meals, and an approximately 100-calorie snack (like an apple, or a small green smoothie).

And, this is my suggestion: significant evidence shows breakfast to be very important. Especially as brain fuel if you work for a living or go to school. Children critically need breakfast, as this study and others show. So skip lunch or dinner, rather than breakfast.

4. Fourth, finally, you could do alternate-day fasting, where you fast one day a week, or every other day, to slow the process and shorten the refeeding cycle.

5. Dr. Bryan Walsh is an N.D. detoxification practitioner and feels that no one should undergo a fast without a sauna.

And I agree with him. There is such a flood of chemicals and metabolic waste coming through, a daily sauna session would be more than helpful.

The ashram has not invested in one. (I’ve offered to help.) Virtually all other places I’ve been, worldwide, who treat disease holistically, offer infrared sauna sessions.

Having one at home is potentially one of the most useful things you can invest in, for your health. Make sure it’s a low-EMF sauna using untreated cedar wood.

Fasting, or even a fasting-mimicking diet, will be massively assisted by daily sauna sessions.

6. I think a coffee enema would be very helpful as a daily practice, throughout a fast. (Not allowed at the ashram either. They don’t want any potential messes in the residential rooms.)

The caffeine in the organic coffee is instantly taken up by the hemmorrhoidal vein to the liver, which not only produces a lot of glutathione (the master antioxidant), but also dilates the liver bile ducts, to release a lot of toxicity into the lower colon.

This allows it to release immediately, rather than recirculate over and over through the blood.

Our detoxers who do this optional but encouraged practice report quick and highly reliable relief from headaches, constipation, and many other symptoms of detoxing (called Herxheimer reactions).

Who Shouldn’t Fast?

• People with renal (kidney) damage shouldn’t fast. I aborted my last fast 2 days earlier than planned, when kidney pain cropped up. However, I’d had annual testing the month before and knew my kidneys to be in perfect shape.

• Pregnant and nursing mothers shouldn’t fast.

• Children shouldn’t fast for longer than a day.

(In fact, children shouldn’t do severely “time restricted eating” or “intermittent fasting” that involves skipping breakfast, either, according to this study.)

• People with significant diagnoses shouldn’t fast without recommendation and supervision by your functional medicine practitioner.

• People with diabetes, on insulin, shouldn’t fast.

(If it were me, as noted earlier, I’d start with one of the options in How Can I Get the Benefits of Fasting, Without Actually Fasting. Before jumping right into a long water fast.)

But those with extreme fat stores are also storing more toxins, as fat attracts chemical toxicity. So, likely all the risks of long-term fasting are much higher for obese people.

They should be under very close medical supervision. Because while it may be tempting to think “go big or go home” with the long water fasts, risk of cardiac arrhythmia and renal damage or hyperacidity is also higher.

What I Learned From Fasting

As I strip down broken parts and bits of organs and fat stores and muscle and tissues, a similar process occurs in me, emotionally and mentally.

I break down, a bit. And rebuild.

And this is why the spiritual seekers and mystics fast, for even longer periods of time than I do.

To allow spirit triumph over body, for a time. To bring the mortal body low, to humble it, so that only spirit is strong.

For many, fasting is a way to humble oneself to be more capable of giving thanks and worshiping divinity.

For me, too, it’s my shield against living in a world where I have to breathe cadmium and arsenic in the air, and occasionally, despite my significant efforts, eat genetically modified foods and refined foods with carcinogenic chemicals added, and drink water with plastics or antibiotics or fluoride in it.

In my weakness, I also learn how strong I am. I discover that I can do hard things. That I can mentally overcome the weakness of the flesh.

Amazingly, while my most recent 7-day fast was the hardest, I think—it was also the most emotionally cathartic.

I learned how my brain, deprived of fuel, affected the way I view others. I decided to observe it rather than judge it.

Basically, I was mad at everyone and everything, for two days, as energies and matter moved through me—another reason I’m glad I was at an ashram far from home.

This PubMed article explains why. Adrenaline is increased in many who fast for several days. (This also explains why I had a resting heart rate of 78, when my normal is 55, and the last few days of my fast, I felt my heart pounding in my chest.)

I was working on my laptop, and occasionally phone, and I found that things I would normally take in stride, provoked a surprising amount of irritability and flashes of anger. It lasted two days, and then I woke up, peaceful, the last morning.

My awareness was heightened, I thought a lot about my weaknesses and addictions, and I stared at them. Without shaming myself. Just observing.

I realized–without even tea, or chewing gum, to entertain my mouth and my senses–how many times, during any day, I do something to increase or decrease my energy, my anxiety, or my ability to rest.

It’s not like I’m taking depression meds or sleeping pills or painkillers or street drugs.

But I do drink coffee to power through an intense afternoon of work, and I do drink wine to lubricate a stressful social engagement with strangers.

I do jumping jacks next to my desk to manipulate my energy, and I play sports every morning not just because you’re supposed to break a sweat, for your health–but also for the adrenaline rush and endorphins I draft on, all day.

It is an interesting and useful exercise to fast for a week or two, where all these tactics are off the table. And I have nothing to rely on except my mind.

And I find that my mind is strong enough to conquer difficulties. This is good to know, because if we know one thing about Life, it’s that we will face serious challenges in the future.

The main thing I accomplish, then, when I fast, is strengthening my body and mind.

Next: I made two Facebook Live videos during my most recent water fast, answering viewer questions and giving more detail. Watch them here:

Resources

Longo, Valter PhD. The Longevity Diet. Avery. 2018

Wells, Katie. My Experience with Water Fasting & Why I’ll Do It Again. Wellness Mama. 03/2018. https://wellnessmama.com/345549/water-fasting/

Wu, Suzanne. Fasting Triggers Stem Cell Regeneration of Damaged, Old Immune System. USC News. 06/2014. https://news.usc.edu/63669/fasting-triggers-stem-cell-regeneration-of-damaged-old-immune-system/

Grantham-McGregor, S. Can the Provision of Breakfast Benefit School Performance? Food and Nutrition Bulletin. 06/2005. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16075563

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