Eating my First Meal and Two More Bailout Stories

The doctor broke my fast this morning! My blood pressure was settling in around 105/75. (It had been averaging 130/90 with medication before the fast.) Since yesterday the pressure dropped to 90/60. That level itself is not critical, but the sudden drop is - one of the classic signs to end a fast. Some fasters have 80/70 as their relatively stable and safe level.

So far today I've had four fist size servings of scrumptious watermelon which is not one of my favorite foods. The crummy mouth is already clearing up. What an amazing phenomenon our bodies are when we get out of the way and let nature takes its course. I'm not giving up my regular doctor for acute and traumatic illness, but I'm certainly learning mother nature's amazing recuperative powers first hand.

Two of our younger fasters have "bailed out." One is the daughter who brought her mother here for an acute type of very painful arthiritis that I don't understand, and the other is an English teacher who came for cosmetic reasons (weight loss). The first was really doing well until her boyfriend arrived from San Francisco and said she looked too "skinny."

The teacher lost some fat from her butt and that was enough for her. She's an avid reader and did buy a number of books on vegetarian nutrition so she may continue to get health benefits when she returns home. The other's boyfriend doesn't realize how much long term grief he's caused his girlfriend by not supporting her. Ignorance and narrow mindedness seem to be the bane of human existence. Why do we have to wait until we are chronically or critically ill to take care of ourselves? I guess that's the "nature" of human nature.

In retrospect it's unfortunate that I caved in on a vegetarian life style we tried as a family when my children were teenagers. I didn't have the will power to stand up to all the outside pressures we and they especially were under for being "weird." Both kids really rebelled, and I finally gave up. The price they will pay will be a significantly reduced life expectancy and increased chances of cancer and heart disease.

Fuhrman has two young daughters he's raising following his ideas. Even as fanatic as he is, their are challenges. Due to the TV barrage of junk food commercials, he let's them have a junk treat at the end of the day if they done their veggies. The doctor's nurse was at a party several weeks ago with Fuhrman's family. She told me his two children spent a lot of time at the buffet stuffing down junk food.