Back onto solid food...

Well, here we are, Month 1, Day 8. I feel very successful with the fasting this past week, and I am intending to ease back onto solids with as much success. Today I've had a glass of kombucha and 1/2L of green smoothie, a couple pieces of fresh pineapple (maybe 3/4c) and a small piece of watermelon (1/4c). I have another 2L of smoothie; likely I will drink 1L and save the other L for tomorrow. I also have a small green salad prepped but am hoping to hold off until tomorrow for that.

I broke my bathroom scale the other day; it unfortunately got water damaged (I was careless). It's not recovering at all. I was hoping once it dried out it would come back, but alas. I've had it for nearly 6 years, though. But I'm missing obsessively weighing myself throughout the day, LOL. Yep, I admit it; chalk it up to having an unbalanced past with food. I find it fascinating how my weight fluctuates throughout the day: lightest in the mornings, heaviest in the evening. Why does this happen? Does gravity pull our weight down throughout the day or something? There doesn't seem a logical explanation, imo.

Tai chi class yesterday was great. It was my fourth class of the week, as well as practicing twice at home alone, so by the end of the week I was feeling nice and limber. It was an instructor intensive, so there were about 50 instructors participating. At one point I was asked to demonstrate the moves we were working on in front of everyone, and the introverted side of me just shrieks in horror at such a request, but I also see a great deal of value in pushing through my own insecurities. The opportunity for personal growth when putting yourself in safe, but unfamiliar situations is huge; I'm not about to let my ego's fears run my life.

I think there has been huge benefit in fasting this past week. Not focusing on food has reminded me that when I am eating, I tend to eat for comfort, tend to eat too much. So portion control is something I must be conscious of moving forward. Also, just eating mindfully and not unconsciously, not just reaching for whatever's in front of me. Making conscious food choices that support my health. Also, I think fasting has allowed me to go deeper, for greater introspection and self-reflection. When not distracted by the digestion of food, my mind is less cluttered and it offers a chance to consider more esoteric and philosophical things, to really focus on where one is headed in life, on what one wants out of life, and the purpose of one's life, and so on.

Fasting has been a very healing experience this week. I've enjoyed some great conversations with my husband and we've been able to work further on resolving some lingering concerns in our relationship. It's a slow process, but we are growing so close and our relationship is soooooo much more than it was before I went raw, before I went vegan. We're both pretty blissed out at this turn of events. I really think that fasting has allowed me such amazing personal growth. I'm very grateful, and I'm really looking forward to fasting the first week of next month, and every month in 2012.

Namaste'