There are volumes about the medical benefits of fasting, going back thousands of years if I believe what I read. A few weeks ago Spring sprung in force, bringing wet days mixed up with hot sunny ones, a boat load of pollen and my seasonal cough. NO! I remember thinking. NOT AGAIN. So weary of the hacking and flemm and mucous and all that entails, I couldn't bear to even think of it. So I jumped on Google and took a ride down allergy lane hoping for some new age miracle that had been posted since my last trip a few years ago.
Part of the problem is that for the last 15 years I've been taking my Orenda Immune so I had forgotten how bad it was before. I had run out, forgotten to reorder, and made the fateful decision to wait for my next auto ship a month away. A two edged sword that was. Yes it reinforced how essential the Immune is for everyday health, but also that it could mask an underlying continuing immune challenge.
Hence the Google Trip. And the very first item that popped up for treating allergies was fasting. My query had coincided with a new popular diet, although at the time I didn't realize that. I started by doing a two day water fast. It wasn't difficult; I drank lots of water and my determination had put in a rare appearance. And I stopped coughing. Just stopped. As I began to eat again the same two villains raised their heads way above the rest of the pack when it came to instigating congestion- dairy and bread. It would start in the back of my throat and by the time I laid down to sleep the coughing would start.
A list of my favorite foods has always included Mac n Cheese, Grilled Cheese, Buttered Toast, and on and on and on. I know it bothers me, but no matter how many times I eliminate those from my diet they always sneak their way back in to my menus. What to do. And that's where the new fasting regime can into the picture. "You should go talk to R, she's been fasting for weeks and feels great." Come to find out it's not just her, it's lots of others in the office getting good results. The idea is that you confine your eating to an eight hour period each day, followed by a 16 hour fast. This gives our body the time it needs to kick in the immunity work; getting rid of carcinogens, repairing damage, overall cell health and benefiting from their protective nature. There are many articles on why this is important, and how our immune system works so have fun searching them out to read.
For two weeks I've been aiming to incorporate this style of eating into my life. Some days it's hard. This morning for example. Week days have a schedule so it's easy to skip breakfast, and weeknights are okay because I know I need to start my 16 hours. But weekends...when the rest of the family is having potatoes and eggs it's a bit hard to refrain from adding your own breakfast plate to the foray. So maybe lunch was at 10:30 instead of noon today. But I know not to beat myself up, and that I can reset tonight. My eight hours will be 10:30 - 6:30 instead of 11-7 or 12-8. No biggie.
So after popping the last five tater tots left over from their breakfast (we were down to one hash brown patty) I went ahead and prepared my lunch. Earlier in the week I had cooked some white rice, and roasted some veggies; throwing those in a bowl to heat up was quick and easy. I can't go down the tracking for nutrition road again, but I do sometimes check in to make sure I'm not eating crazy. this is an easy site for figuring that out: Meal calculator
C is up, gotta run.
No comments:
Post a Comment