Sacrifice

This morning is especially hard. I am so hungry and thinking of cravings! Earlier this morning, I came close to making a spin through Hardee's drive-through while I was out doing errands.

But, I turned the wheel to the left instead of the right. I almost caved in. In the book, "As A Man Thinketh" by James Allen, he emphasized that to have good results, you must sacrifice but to have the best results, you must sacrifice much.

I am choosing good results for now. Raw vegan during the five to eight hour time is best results. I'm not there yet. It's just too much for now, but I do want to eventually get there.

Still, sacrifice is pain either way. You must give up what you love in order to have or to do what is right and good.

I have an hour and a quarter to go before I can break today's fast. I'll be doing cleaning until then.

How I'm Doing

Fighting that morning hunger is the worst part of daily fasting. However, you get over it with just a few days' time. Have you had a hard time with this? Did you overcome that hunger during the fast part?

I had a chiropractor's appointment yesterday, and mentioned my knee when he asked what problems I am having. I didn't think it had anything to do with alignment, but he helped my knee pain. It's not gone completely, but it was better all day. In the hip joint, the femur - thigh bone - was out of the socket just slightly, causing the muscle to be weak and the knee to be wrong, and all the way down to my foot. When he got that back in its place, I had more strength in the muscle and felt much better. I think the way I sleep pulled it back out or something, because the pain came back during the night.

I'm still going to keep to my plan of raw vegan 'til the pain is gone, though, because I KNOW the weight has something to do with the pain, not to mention all other things wrong with me: Diabetes II, high cholesterol, high blood pressure (only slightly high), upcoming early death. hm 

So far, I'm loving daily fasting.

Knee Pain and Diet

In addition to eating Fast-Five-to-Eight (heh), I am going to try an experiment.

I'm going to eat raw vegan until my severe left knee pain goes away. The last time I went to my medical doctor, he said that I have arthritis and when it gets so bad that I can't stand it, he'll do something about it.

Well, it's to that point, and being one who will do nearly anything to avoid any more surgeries, I am going to see how long it takes to take away the pain, thus reversing whatever's wrong under the skin, of my painful knee.

I'll be doing this by eating a raw vegan diet. I've done this before on Alissa Cohen's 100-day challenge. Here is her web site. (I don't think she does the challenge now, though.) I lasted all raw for four days. However, in those four days, all joint pain went away except the worst one, which was my left elbow.

I have big hopes that this will happen again. I'll be letting you know!

G-R-E-A-T Video about Intermittent Fasting

Oh - Look what I found! This is one of the best and easiest to understand videos about intermittent fasting I've seen. I've never heard of the Bulletproof Coffee recipe before. But, since I'm not a coffee drinker, it's not for me anyway. But you may be interested to see what he says about this near the end of the video in the question and answer section here.

Fasting and Exercising

Daily fasting is so very difficult for me to keep at.

I've been looking at a lot of youtube videos of intermittent fasting lately. I've learned something new: exercising and hunger go together like a hand and glove. It's a good thing to do your strenuous, or even moderate exercise after a few hours - say, over a half a day - of not eating. I don't know the scientific reasons, but I heard it from several alternative doctors, that it made sense to me.

The ideal suggestion was to do your walking, running, aerobics, about mid-morning, THEN after cooling off and shower, go eat your break-fast about noon. This kind of hunger-exercising is apparently good for the brain.

I think this scripture also tells us, if we can see it, that fasting is good for the brain:

Isaiah 58:8 (speaking of the fasting that the Lord chooses):

"Then your light shall break forth like the morning,
Your healing shall spring forth speedily,
And your righteousness shall go before you;
The glory of the Lord shall be your rear guard."

That first line, I'm now convinced can refer to clear thinking, because when you fast you can think more clearly, and it is like a light has broken forth. You just have to experience it.

Go to youtube and find videos on intermittent fasting and exercise. There are many I couldn't see them all, but this one is the one that introduced this concept to me at first:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xyNTTY2zyrw

Anna

Luke 2:36-38:

Now there was one, Anna, a prophetess, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was of a great age, and had lived with a husband seven years from her virginity;  and this woman was a widow of about eighty-four years, who did not depart from the temple, but served God with fastings and prayers night and day.  And coming in that instant she gave thanks to the Lord, and spoke of Him to all those who looked for redemption in Jerusalem.

Lessons from Anna:

1. Anna, a woman of 84 years, fasting daily. So you see, daily fasting is not necessarily unhealthy. (I used to think she had been a widow for 84 years, but I don't think that now. If you do, you may be right about it. Either way, Anna was an old woman.)
2. Her daily prayers and fasting was not for the service of others, though it did serve others to pray for them. No, it was for the service of God.
3. She was blessed to know that Jesus was the one to bring redemption because she knew God. Daily prayer, being in the temple around the public reading of the scriptures, with holy people who shared her faith and, of course, fasting - these things brought her close to the God of all creation.
4. No doubt, she was a woman held in high honor, being a prophetess; this simple woman who fasted and prayed daily.

Not so bad, really

I looked back at the November 4, 2014 post (next to last one) and I realized how far I have actually come. I HAVE been doing my daily fasting.

Somewhat.

I have lost 17 pounds and have gotten a little better control of my blood sugar. When I went to the doctor in February, it was a normal 103. I was shocked when I saw that. The doctor was very pleased. I had lost 24 pounds since August, when I had last seen him. My blood sugar number for the six month test was down to normal range, too. He was pleased.

So, really, I've not been doing nothing as I had thought. At least some improvements have been made.

The thing now is to keep going and to make more improvements. It's one of the most difficult things to do: changing bad habits. But, it can be done.

One day at a time.

Fasting and Dresses

Daily. Fasting.

The problem with daily fasting is that it's so, DAILY.

I begin again.

Also, I saw this picture, which will remain anonymous and if anyone knows this person, I will remove it. It's just a picture I saw online and snipped it. It made me more determined to wear dresses. Is it a man or a woman? It's a woman, but, you would have had to convince me if I hadn't seen the whole page. I admit, if it were a picture of me, you might wonder the same thing. I'm more determined than before to wear dresses!

What's more, I have noticed with myself and observing others that with the habit of wearing pants, it's easy to forget how to sit and stand like a lady - feet together, knees together. It's a bad habit and I don't want it anymore. Today, I begin my month of sewing for the Spring and Summer, and get back to Fast Five. Or Fast Eight.