Fasting, Veganism, and Cravings

Video Transcript:

Hi, everybody, it's Saturday. I'm Cindy, and this is Saturday with Cindy. How are you? Well, I'm back again and I have read and listened to all your requests and I hear you wanna know more details about the fasting retreat and my fasting experience. So, I would tell you, I actually made a few videos while I was out there, but they were so slow and long and boring that it would have put you to sleep because one of the main things about fasting is you don't do anything.

So, if you're not gonna eat, if you're gonna just have water, you need to be overseen by professionals, doctors, medical doctors. And they need to keep track of your blood pressure, how many times you urinate in a day, your hydration levels, and, you know, they have to check your blood every week, etc., etc., especially if you're dealing with a challenging health issue.

These guys have been doing it for 40 years, I think. There's three medical doctors, interns, and many other professionals in the area of health and well-being who are on the premises every day. And they have people working around the clock if anything happens in the middle of the night. But basically, it's very uneventful.

Fasting is not just not eating, it is resting. So, you bring books, you bring videos, you bring warm clothes because you'll get cold no matter what. And you'll lie around a bunch and you end up not even reading the books because you can't even do that. And you just let your body heal itself, rejuvenate, rebuild, whatever it needs to do, you basically get out of the way so your body can do it. 

So, a typical day is, you wake up, you lie there, you kinda feel maybe a little achy from lying down too much, maybe you do a little bit of gentle yoga, and you kinda drum in your fingers too especially the first few days because you're used to eating. So, your body is ready, and it's something to do, and something to think about, and something to plan. So, all that's gone. You just drink some water and then you drink some more water. In a little while later, you drink some more water. So, it's really not very interesting.

So, that's what I did. First, I was beating myself up because I thought I wouldn't be doing this if I'd eaten really well over the last three years, and I can't believe what a weak person I am, and I have no discipline, and why can't other people eat healthy all the time? And I start. You know, I'll have a cup of coffee, and then I'll have a slice of pizza, and then I'll have a piece of cake, and then all of a sudden, I am eating the SAD diet, which stands for the Standard American Diet, S-A-D. The SAD diet. 

We take in so many calories and so much stuff that has no nutrients in it whatsoever. And then we coat it with toxins, MSG, salt, oil. I know the oil thing is a big deal. Everybody thinks that olive oil is good for you and now coconut oil is good for you. Essential fatty acids are good for you, but you know what? I'm not gonna go into that because the docs, the people that study this and do this and really have accurate records of how these things affect the anatomy of the human species, they're the ones who can talk about it.

So, let's go back to a typical day. So, you wake up and if you're not fasting yet, you're just eating the vegan diet that they offer with no SOS: salt, oil, and sugars. You head down to the dining room at 8:00. And you sit and you go to a buffet, you pick up what you want, they do want you to eat nothing but raw fruits and vegetables for three days before you start your fast to make sure that your bowels have moved that you are eating the freshest, healthiest, most nutritious food until you stop eating food. And to allow whatever you had eaten up until then to leave your system as much as possible.

Now, the toxins are stored in your fat and if you have a lot of fat weight on you, you will notice that it's on the outside of your body. It takes a long time for the fat to get in and around your organs. And it's because your body's smart and it knows, push it away, store it on the outside, so it doesn't upset the vital organs. And in that is where the toxins are, that have collected in your body. So, as you fast, they start melting away so the toxins are leaving your system. And you can have what they call "fasting crisis."

So, I had one and basically what it means is you're detoxing faster than your body can handle it. So, all they do, is they slow it down with some juice for a day or two. And then when your body is able to filter all that out then you can go back to the water and that's what I did. So, I water-fasted for 13 days then I did 2 days of juice, I think on the seventh and eighth day. And basically, what that means, it would be like somebody handing you a couple bags of garbage to take out to the garbage can. And you walk it out, you dump it, you put the lid on, and you came back in, and then maybe they hand you another one.

But if they just dumped 20 bags of garbage on you, it would be a huge mess and you'd have to deal with all kinds of things that will take a very long time to finally get it all out to the garbage can. So, my body was dumping more garbage into my system than my system could handle and what happens is it inflames different areas. So, at the base of my spine where all these nerve endings are grouped together in a little cluster, the tissue around that became swollen and put pressure on the nerves and then that caused pain throughout my lower torso, down the front and the backs of my legs. I could not rest, I could not lie comfortably because this nerve pain was going on. It was awful. 

And I'm really bad about asking for help. I tried to bite the bullet, you know, I think, "Oh, well, this is happening because I was...you know, I ate so badly, so it's like some kind of weird punishment." Went through all that for a couple of days, couldn't sleep, I was a wreck, went to the doctor in tears and he's like, "Oh, no problem, we'll just put you on juice a couple days." I was like, "Really, that's it? That's all you're gonna do?" And then I kinda must have looked like I was down in the dumps because he said, "It doesn't mean you failed, you're still fasting, we're just slowing it down."

So, this goal-oriented, success-oriented attitude that we all grow up within our society even affects you while you're fasting. You know, you start counting the days, "I've fasted five days, six days," and, you know, people tell you, "Oh, I'm on my 26th day." And then you're like, "I wanna do 26 days, I can do that." Psychologically, it's fascinating. And for everyone, it's very, very different. That's the way it was for me. It's so fun, I was there for three weeks. I was actually there a little longer than three weeks. 

So, new people come and people that have been there a while leave. So, you get to actually observe other people going through their transitions. And there was this one woman, oh my God, she arrived, she talked all the time. She would ask a question, she would never wait for the answer, she interrupted. She was kind of...she was puffy and she was very feisty, very defensive, and very skeptical. Then I'm thinking, "She came all this way, she paid the money, she obviously did her research, she's a very intelligent woman." 

But she just fought tooth and nail the whole way. But on the fifth day of her fast, all of a sudden, I noticed she was quiet, she was soft, she was a little sparkly, she was more open and as the days went by, she...her personality changed, or what I thought was her personality, but really what it was is that her body was irritating her and disturbing her. And as things started easing from the fast, everything lifted and she just became delightful. And that happened with a lot of people, and me too, I'm sure, it would be very interesting to hear the other people's observations about me. 

So, what else? I really wanna give you a sense. So, twice a day, after breakfast and after lunch, the doctors give lectures, and man, you learn so much. And they really dispel the alternative health myths, gallbladder flushes, colonics, different herbal remedies. They really know the truth about that stuff and they set you straight, they give you very detailed descriptions of anatomy and what's happening. So, you really understand why vegan with no SOS is a health-promoting diet. And why animal products and animal by-products, and animal flesh is not health optimal. 

They don't go into the political stuff, they do not go into the moral stuff. There are people that choose not to eat animal products because raising cattle is probably one of the most devastating things to our environment. And the way they treat animals in commercial farms is...you see a film about that, and you could be a steak lover. It's really hard to swallow it once you've seen that. But they don't go into that, they really talk about the human body, how it functions, what the food is about. But they address why we crave oil, salt, and sugar.

Our brains are hard-wired to go after that. Our brains are exactly the same brain that we had when we were cavemen. And it took us days to get the calories that we needed, and we burnt calories going and getting our food. So, we're hard-wired to go after the most calories in the most efficient way. Well, now, we can pick up the phone, how many calories does that take, and we can order billions of calories to be delivered to our front door. So, we do it. That's what we do. So, it doesn't mean you're not disciplined, it doesn't mean that, you know, you don't love yourself and care about your health. 

It's that you're fighting millions and millions of years of behavior that we've always had. So, it's really helpful to understand that 100%. So, you can say, "Ah, there's my primitive hard-wiring telling me to go after this, and go after that." Before I do that, I think I'm gonna eat a big pile of steamed kale, and some brown rice, and I'll sauté some onions to put in there to make it taste flavorful and then after, I eat a really health promoting diet. If I'm dying to have that stuff, maybe I'll consider it. And then of course, once you've eaten, you're fine and you're good to go up until the next meal.

But it is a constant thing that you have to be aware of. And if you do fall off the wagon, they don't beat you up for it, they don't tell you you're crazy, you're nuts, and you know you should do this, blah, blah, blah. They go, "We understand and guess what? Your next meal can be the healthiest meal ever." So, they've got a behavioral psychologist there who also gives a lecture about all of that. Really gives you a good understanding of it. So, you're getting an education, you're lying around in your room, on your bed, on your couch, on the lounge chairs down in the courtyard. 

I love to go in April because it's not too hot and it's not too cold, and it's really wonderful to just lie there and be around people who are eating and after a while, the food doesn't affect you at all, you could sit there with people eating anything and everything, and you just...you're unaffected by it. Takes some people five or seven days to get over the sense of hunger, but actually, they teach you that hunger is not really felt in your stomach, it's felt in your throat, and that none of us really know what true hunger is.

So, I think we can all attest to that, but it's common to say I'm hungry when maybe your blood sugar has dropped and you're craving some of the stimulants that you have in your diet. So, that's a big part of what fasting is. So, you start out eating raw food the first three days, and you can do it there, or you can do that at home. I did it at home so I could take advantage of being there and start fasting right away. I fasted 13 days, 2 days of which was juice, watermelon, and celery juice, apple, and celery juice, I think I had a carrot and celery juice as well. 

You get 4 16-ounce glasses of juice a day when you're juicing. And it's between you and your doctor and entirely what your goals are, and how you feel day by day. And if you wanna break your fast, they support it 100%. They might encourage you to continue but they would never muscle you into it so to speak, bulldoze you into it. They're real pros, they really know what they're doing, and they understand what the patient is going through, psychologically, emotionally, even spiritually, and physically. 

So, that's about it, I think. Let me know if you have any other specific questions. You can write to me on Facebook, you can write to me below, I try to address all the questions that come up or I may collect them all and do another Saturday with Cindy addressing each of them. If you have any questions about BOOM!, Boom products, please write to customer service info@boombycindyjoseph.com. All the information is on the website, so snoop around, there maybe something there you don't know about. I always encourage people to watch demo videos, etc. 

So, the other subject I'm gonna speak on is Italy. Everybody wanted to know about my vacation in Italy. So, it has been planned and booked for over six months. I don't think I have ever done anything in my life that far ahead except pregnancy. I tend to live my life pretty spontaneously, and usually, don't make plans more than a month ahead. A group of friends, and myself, and my fiancé all had staying at a villa in the countryside of Italy on our bucket list. 

So, we decided to make it happen. We're going to the Spoleto Valley in Umbria. We're staying in a 400-year-old stone farmhouse that has been renovated, has a gourmet kitchen, a swimming pool, four bedrooms, four bathrooms, and there are little villages scattered throughout the valley, and we're going the first two weeks of July and apparently, it's during the time of their music festivals and the small villages, and many of them are medieval with stone walls are lit with torches during this time. So, it's just gonna be crazy beautiful. The fields are gonna be filled with wildflowers, and the couple that own the house give you lots of information. 

They have lived there off-and-on for many years so they know all the local groceries, and the little farms, and the guy that, you know, has the truffles as down this lane, and the lady that makes fresh pastas up that lane, and it's just gonna be spectacular. I'm really, really thrilled about it. So, if you wanna know more details on that, let me know. And don't forget, July 27th at Union Square in San Francisco, I would be leading the first pro-age revolution public gathering. And we are gonna show the world that we are not afraid to state our age loudly and proudly, that we are celebrating our age. And we're gonna dance, and sing, and speak through the bow horn, and show all the shoppers running around Union Square in San Francisco how much fun you can have in your 50s, 60s, 70s and beyond?

And if you are 20, 30, or 40, you're gonna show the world how excited you are to get older. I'm gonna be 63 next year, and I'm celebrating it. So, that's what the Pro-age Revolution is all about. All right, I will see you next Saturday, I hope you liked that one. Bye.