Ph miracle and macrobiotic 7 day cleanse – The process.

I made it through the seven days! Damn it was tough! Hardest thing I have ever done in my life.

Here’s how I went about it; firstly had to transition into it, over 2 months, cut out all sugar, including fruit sugars, then all dairy products, including eggs, next all wheat product, then fish and seafood. After two weeks of full vegan ism, went for the fast. I was pescatarian anyways so didn’t have to deal with meat withdrawal.

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I found the abstention surprisingly easy. I took chromium supplements to ease the cravings. One of the hardest parts was deciphering the ingredients in store bought products. I soon realised most contained unhealthy ingredients, even the ones you would expect to be healthy. I soon found that all supermarket products had issues and I needed to shop in a health food store. The local one in Manchester’s city centre seems overly expensive and the staff mostly unpleasant. This meant travelling to Chorlton to ‘The Unicorn’ This co-operative offers much better value and friendly staff.

oatcakes

I found bread the most difficult thing to stop eating. I went through a lot of oatcakes! The ones made with olive oil are scrumptious!

Macrobiotic theory also played a part in choosing which foods not to eat. Basically no deadly nightshades due to their oxalic acid and solanine content.

Soon I was ready for the full 7 day fast.

Supplements I took during fast:

Multi Vit
Vit B Complex
Ester C Capsules
Chromium
Magnesium
Zinc
Vit A
Vit E
Starflower oil
Selenium
Hemp oil
Soya lecithin
5-Htp
L-Tyrosine
Olive leaf extract
Black walnut hulls
Nac
ProbioticsBEB48F396F8D7CA41015E1808CD2F0

During the fast I drank a lot of water – 3 litres a day, with pH drops to alkalise the water. Also vegetable juice made from just green veg and barley-grass and wheat-grass. I started off diluting the raw juice about ten parts, but this soon became undrinkable, made me nauseous, I found the veg juice neat was much more palatable.

I found juices mixed tasted unpleasant, but on there own were good. The humble Cucumber or courgette became my best buddies.cucumber-or-zuchini

It was tough, after day three severe fatigue set in, lots of toxins being released from stored fat and my bloodstream. Headaches, dizziness, general malaise.

Day five was weak as a kitten, at some points couldn’t lift my arms. energy levels 5-10%

Getting strong food cravings, for mainly comfort foods from my childhood, fried breakfasts, Steak and kidney pudding, chips and gravy, peanut butter on toast, toast in general. These foods haunt me. Toast dipping into a fried egg in plum tomato juice is the king taunter. Am severely craving this.

Day six things started to improve, most of the toxins removed. 15-20%

Day seven, just waiting for that first taste of food. A round courgette. Never has anything tasted so good! 30-35%

One amazing point – all of my excess body fat has completely gone. My stomach is washboard flat.
At age 39 I was finding it very difficult to shift a lil paunch that had appeared.

Next two days were difficult too, very weak, dizzy etc.

Three days later am starting to feel more normal. 50-55% energy levels.

Today is the fourth day after the fast and am up to about 60-65% energy levels.cucumber-500x500

Next stage is a strict 5 week alkaline diet.

For breakfast this morning had organic broccoli, kale and spring greens with garlic hemp oil and tahini sauce. Gorgeous! Am really enjoying my vegan diet, each meal is a delight. I have discovered roasted hazelnuts and almonds OMG! With my taste buds reset these treats are ambosiac!

Organic broccoli stems taste so sweet, like chocolate! broccoli

Ph miracle and macrobiotic 7 day cleanse – The process.

Day 52 – Fireworks and alcohol advertising.

Watched fireworks in Manchester on way home from shops. Christmas lights switch on. The pyrotecnics were not as good as last year, when the fireworks were synched to the music amazingly well.

Usually I dislike fireworks, they seem like a great waste of money to me when lots of people worldwide are living below the poverty line.The blatant advertising was quite shameful. Advertising an alcohol product at a children’s event seems very wrong to me. Get’em young strategy I guess.

We have a huge problem with alcohol in this country.

Shouldn’t alcohol advertising be banned? The same as smoking? Instead we have Manchester City Council taking sponsorship from an alcohol company at a childrens event using very subtle  programming techniques that have a huge impact on young minds.

Ten whole minutes of over the top pyrotechnics to the amazing backdrop of Manchester’s town hall. For the finale we have the alcohol company’s logo projected onto the town hall in huge lights, while the big screens show an attractive woman and the company’s logo and bottle. The alcohol company was advertising a certain brand of champagne. The fireworks were specifically designed and timed to look like a cork being popped.

The young minds will associate alcohol and this company’s logo with celebration, having a good time and excited states for a long time to come.

There was an estimated 20,000 people in attendance.

This is truly insidious.

This makes me very angry.

Someone should do something to stop these big company’s.

We will look back on these days, on these adverts and think, how stupid we were as a society to let these big evil companies manipulate us in these ways.

What can we do about it?

I would like to know who was responsible for this.

Shame on them.

Day 1 – Lead-up, rough itinerary and first session.

Start at the beginning

Yesterday I spent the day reading up and re-familiarizing myself with pranayama, (breath control). I have practised Pranayama on several occasions over the past 7 years and become accustomed to its raw power. No other exercise effects your total self quite like the breath of life.

The last time I practised for several weeks and then had to stop as I felt I had become just too open. I was experiencing very unusual perceptual abilities. I could see why most yogin retire to an ashram in which to open and expand the system, as doing so in a busy modern city can de a difficult endeavour. Opening the higher chakras whilst being surrounded by people deeply rooted in the materialism, inebriation and the guttural thought forms of the lower energy realms can be a trying procedure.

Practicing the eight limbs of yoga intensely for a prolonged period hones the mind and system to such a degree that all the senses sharpen, including the sixth and higher senses. The ability to directly read people’s minds, bodies and energies can become a hindrance in a tough, masculine city such as Manchester where people rarely pass on a smile to strangers, fear and self consciousness completely absorb the majorities attention. Sense withdrawal skills become handy when traversing the city streets so as to remain unaffected by the hordes contagious energies.

I reread Goswami Kriyanandas instructions, it’s always a pleasure to read his beautiful style of writing and I also read “The science of Pranayama” by Sri Swami Sivananda which was a first for me and provided some interesting new insights into Pranayama.

Pranayama always comes with strong warnings and the strict instructions to never push to hard. Slow gradual progress is the most important rule.

Pranayama should ideally be practised four times a day, though this is usually too difficult for most people. Last time I settled for twice a day, at noon and at midnight but this time I feel I shall attempt the full four sittings and if it gets too much I can always drop it down to two.

My rough plan is to practise at:

  1. Sunrise; roughly 6:30 am
  2. Noon
  3. 6:00 pm
  4. Midnight

The sunrise session shall be simply Pranayama followed by asan (sitting in a meditative posture).

Noon session will be preceded by physical Asana (yoga poses), starting roughly at 11:00 am.

6:00 pm session will be simple Pranayama and sitting asan.

Midnight will be Pranayama followed by sense withdrawal, concentration and meditation. Though I will always go with my feelings whilst practising and this is a very rough guide.

Window view

I set my alarm for 6:30 am. I usually rise between 9 and 11 am so it was quite a shock this morning to be so rudely pulled from my dreams. For 5 minutes I wrestled with the idea of going back to sleep and forgetting my practice, but soon found it in me to jump up, brush my teeth and found myself sitting on my Indian woolen blanket at 6:40.

I took it slow the first session. It felt nice to be back in the blanket. The motor memory of  previous Pranayama sessions came back to me and I only required some brief revision to recall the procedure.

I decided to start with:

  • Deep abdominal breathingDerga-shwasa-prashwasa
  • Inhalation/exhalation extension
  • Easy breath – Sukha-purvaka
  • Vitalising breath
  • Bellows breath – Bhastrika

Wow! Bellows breath is powerful!

I  sat with eyes closed in The prosperous pose for 5 minutes. A short time but you should begin slowly.

I have had a terrible manflu for the last two weeks, so much mucous came out, it was unbelievable. I am over the worse now and decided to go ahead on the auspicious autumnal equinox day.

My nasal passages were a little dry but overall the session went very smoothly. I read for a while before falling back asleep till 11:00 am. I need to re-programme my body clock over the coming days.

At 11:00 am I did some sun salutations followed by an hours yogic warm ups and stretching, culminating in handstand, head stand and scorpion. I have not done any physical practice in over 2 Months as before my flu I had a bad fall from my mountain bike which left me on crutches for several weeks. My right leg is still very sore and I cannot manage the full lotus posture or leg bounces properly. I took this first session very slowly and gradually.

I then performed the same pranayama as earlier except I missed out the vitalizing breath as I wanted to do the full Pranayama session without getting up or opening my eyes. This procedure allows me to kill two birds with one stone as it combines the breathing exercises with sitting asan. In total I sat for 13 minutes. We now approach my third session of the day so I must leave it there..

An inspiring thunder storm shook Manchester today, I saw it as a good omen for my forthcoming months of experimentation,

Namaste.