Monday, March 26, 2012

Diary of my first Water Fast

Fast Diary March 2012:

In an attempt to remove stored toxins from my body I tried a water only fast. I set a goal of 4 days.

My body weight at the start was 65.5Kg (quite low as I did plenty of work that day, ate only fruit and 2 or 3 pieces of rye bread for breakfast, then grapes for lunch and a few pecans, grapes for tea.)

Day 1 peed often, light colour. No bowel motion. I was regular through the preceding week, pH of saliva about 7 or more just now. ph of the mineral water I'm drinking is 6.0 or slightly higher.
Feeling empty and hungry by midday or so. This was a Sunday, we went for a drive to Kinbombi Falls and Goomeri. No problems, but I was getting tired by afternoon, went home and slept from 6pm til 9pm.

Day 2 Up early, feeling nauseous on and off. Vomited at 6.30am
Vomited again at 7.15am. Watery but with tinge of yellow colour. Not much fluid.
Measured my Pulse, 77 resting, bit higher than normal.
Slept after that, woke up feeling better, at the shop all day and handling the public ok.

Day 3 morning now. Switched from mineral water to tank water only. Mild bouts of nausea this morning but no vomiting again since yesterday.
Slept ok. Supposed to be going out to do a job today.
my weight loss is 600 grams so far.
Will be cautious with eating when coming out of this, don't want to spoil any benefits after the effort put in.
Pulse is 66bpm, vigorous beating through the night on about that rate. Heart is thumping, Blood pressure may be high, no monitor so can’t check.
Have only peed, pale colour still as from the beginning, no bowel motion.
Off and did the job OK, not running, walking.

On the first day i was hungry by midday, not since then really much. Just feel empty and slow.
Did the 3G antenna install in manumbar no probs then at the shop til 5. Into bed at 6pm though.
1.4kg lighter now. Pee has been light coloured right through. Smell different under the arms and my breath smells.
Heart is still thumping, will look into a bp monitor.

Day 4: Up early at 3am, pulse on 68bpm still thumping, have a slight temperature, dull head. Watching tennis. Rested at 5am again then up and felt sick, vomited.
Its Ok but 4 days will do me for this time. Worked all day at the shop, walking slowly and with much effort. The dull head stayed all day. I can see my pulse in my peripheral vision, thumping.
Weight loss is 2.3Kg now.

Break-Fast Day 5:
1 small slice of watermelon for the first meal last night. Tasted really good too. Slightly nauseous soon after but didn't want to lose it, that soon passed.
Temperature started to subside, heart still thumping.
Another small slice at 5am.

Squeezed one of our grapefruits and had half a glass at 6, nice. Tiny bit of mango a bit later, also nice. Ursula reckons its the best mango she's had for a long while.
Then 4 small grapes. That's all til later.

My body is happier now it has something to work with! Feeling brighter and ready to go! Down to 62 kg now, still dropping, 3.5 less than the start.
Pulse 66, not so thumping now.

My left wrist is like new, I can play the guitar just fine, no pain. My right shoulder, arm and elbow are vastly better. I can throw a tennis ball to doggie over-arm without any pain. Could not do that at all before, only under- arm.
I know these benefits may fade in time, but I'll tackle another fast in due course now I know the benefits first hand.
Ate only grapes or watermelon today in small single portions.

Day 6 and on: Weight kept dropping, down to 61.6 Kg so about 4Kg less than the start. Continued to eat only fruit for a few days before trying nuts.

A small bowel motion today, dark brown with a pale stripe.
Day 7 had a normal bowel motion.
Day 9 a large one.
Weight is still at 62Kg so 3.5 less than the start.
I notice I move much easier, get up from a chair easier, bend and squat easier and have no joint pain.

After only a 4 day fast the benefits are significant. I will try another perhaps longer fast in a couple of months time.
Thanks to Malcolm for talking me into it and Ursula for caring and monitoring me closely.

Now its two weeks later. I've eaten mostly fruit and nuts. Ursula bought some gluten and wheat free bread which suits me better now, I have 2 small slices for breakfast, along with fruit and some nut butter and honey. I'm having no wheat, meat or dairy products. My weight is now at 63Kg.

Thursday, December 22, 2011

Around the farm in 80 minutes





In my ongoing crusade to defeat the lorikeet bird menace around here I've launched the hawkbirdscarer again. This year I've purchased a 2 metre x 1 metre weather balloon and a cylinder of party gas to lift it 60 metres above the patch. According to the maker this will keep something like 30 acres free of pesky birds.
It likes calm conditions only so early mornings is good but once the breeze gets up it has to be retrieved. The balloon has a self destruct button built in so that if it escapes it can't cause an aviation hazard!
Check it out!

Friday, November 18, 2011

Lychee netting




We managed to build some tunnels over the younger lychees and covered them with fruit fly netting. Mateus came up and was a great help and a willing off-sider.
With Ursula and the wwoofers Lisa and Felix helping too we got it done in a few hot mornings and cooler afternoons.
Mateus and I also managed to resurrect the big irrigation sprinkler in an archaeological dig worthy of Time Team (it had fallen over after standing for 20 years and was buried in legume and grass in the bottom papaw patch). The Deutz engine went like clockwork after 3 years, and the pipework took only an hour or two to re-connect.

Friday, October 28, 2011

OK


Hello again, back from radio silence...

Bought a blu-ray of the film 'The Big Blue' and we watched it with the new Denon amp sound - fantastic!

Sunday, March 15, 2009

Perth trip







We flew over for 6 days to visit Eileen and Craig - we were looked after and didn't even have to build and paint rooms! thanks you two! 
We had a beaut holiday, browsed around Fremantle and cruised up the Swan to Perth city.
Had a wonderful day looking at the majestic trees of the south west. Went to Pemberton to climb the huge Karri called The Gloucester Tree and on to Walpole-Nornalup National Park to the Valley of the Giants! 
Walked the treetop walk through the whopping Red Tingle trees - a fantastic day! Well worth the 900km round trip - thanks to Craig for nearly all of the driving!

The house is coming along great, kitchen and bathroom all done. It'll be a winner when all finished. 

Christmas 08



My best Christmas present this year was a phone call and email from Cassandra! 

Liz and Mateus helped with the mango crop which was greatly appreciated. Mum only dropped these two for the whole season...
 
That was our lychee crop in total, other than what the birds ate, which wasn't much this year as most others were small under-filled fruit.
And the wifi shirt from Mars and Kerstin is a beauty - lights up more bars as you get closer to the AP.

Thursday, August 28, 2008

Mango van!






We had a visit from Liz and Mateus in their van! Which powered up the mountain no worries at all! If the road was all intact we could easily have driven right up and round the mountain patch.

The mangoes are flowering happily here - and see the foggy morning yesterday!


Friday, July 04, 2008

Hobart visit






We flew direct from Brisbane - that was great. Could see the familiar shape of Tassie (!) from the air as we approached the north east corner - from 11,000m the horizon is a long way off.
Stayed at the Old Woolstore Hotel - not bad - all built within the walls of the store with the huge old sliding hardwood doors still in place and the saw tooth roof line.
Standing around in the foyers are bails of merino wool, prize ribbons from woolclassing and even an olden day wood and steel woolpress or cleaning machine or something.

We did the on-foot Hobart - walked for miles over the few days.
There are starfish on the bottom of the boat harbour! Took the tourist bus to the top of Mt Wellington (we were the only passengers) and walked down for two hours via the stone tracks. That generated nicely noticeable calf muscles for the rest of the holiday! Its beaut on top at 1270m - there was frost in the shade on the ground even at midday. The shrouded tower is a transmitter protected from clumps of ice forming and breaking or crashing down.

The winter solstice festival was on if you looked for it. We liked the fact that there were not many signboards or billboards around at all. The Hobart connection with Antarctica was being celebrated and that was very interesting. We had to have a second visit to the museum to try to get through a bit more of it.
The penguin and albatross candle lit night parade was good.

We went looking for a bit of winter and we got some!