April 15th 2017 ( My very first journal entry, and introduction)
My Background in terms of Lifestyle
Between the years 2005 to 2011 I had some minor detox and juice-fasting experiences while I was still living in San Diego, California. Around the year 2005, I geared my food intake towards whole foods. I quit putting sugar in my coffee in 2011. I thought I had a pretty healthy life style overall. I was exercising regularly, never missed a day of work. I never had any major health issues.
After a job loss in early 2016, I decided to take this opportunity to make changes in my lifestyle. Soon after the changes took place, I started to feel a constant improvement in my well-being.
During the five years prior to 2016, I was working the hardest I could for a software company located in Geneva, Switzerland. I was drinking eight to ten cups of coffee a day. I wouldn’t consume much alcohol during weekdays, but on the weekends, there would be at least one day I’ll have six to eight glass of beer, or finish a bottle of wine by myself. I would eat lots of red meat and seafood. Being of Turkish origin, I adored Turkish dishes, especially the meat specialties from the south-eastern region of Türkiye.
While living in the US, I was pretty much only eating Mexican food. It reminded me a bit of Turkish cuisine. I absolutely loved it. Back then, I was thinking that Mexican and Turkish food were pretty healthy, since both cuisines had some home-style approach to prepare food. I grew up in the French part of Switzerland. I also used to have a great appreciation for the continental European Cuisine, and traditional Swiss dishes. I never felt like I was in excess. I was just thinking that, this is how normal people eat, drink, and work.
Today I can easily say that, my previous life-style wasn’t the healthiest for me. I was so focused on working and doing a good job, that I did not realize that I actually had an extreme life-style. My extreme life-style was sustaining itself in an artificial way, thank to simulators such as caffeine, different types of sugars, alcohol, and macro-nutriments. In reality, my system was near exhaustion, but I wasn’t trained to read the signs that were showing me that I wasn’t doing that well. It took me to witness a constant improvement in my well-being, to realize that I was probably not doing that good to start with.
In 2016 my attempt to a healthier life-style begun. I’ve only been keeping a journal since April 2017, but the adventure started early April 2016. Since then it has been a terrific journey that I’ve been pursuing everyday with a great amount of joy.
The Turning Point
Late march 2016, I ran into a video of Thierry Casasnovas. This was the turning point in my life in terms acquiring a healthier way of living. First impressions can also be wrong sometimes. During the first five minutes of the very first video I watched of him, I just thought the guy was crazy. The video was called something like “40 days of dry-fasting”. After getting used to the character, his message and the way he would break things down to the science of physiology started to make a lot of sense to me. To this date, I must have watched over a hundred of his videos, and I don’t miss any new one that comes out. I learned so much from him. I just love the guy now. He is truly intelligent, and has a great talent to convey concepts. His videos are commercial free. When I watch them, it feels more like having a friend over.
The Change
I had gotten laid off from my job a couple months earlier. I was getting unemployment money while looking for a job. I thought being between jobs, was the perfect time to invest in my health. When I look back, I have to admit that my approach to change was more radical than it needed to be. With the knowledge and the experience I have today, I wouldn’t be as extreme at the beginning, but rather embrace change in a more progressive way. Especially in regards to change in diet. I started to eat 95% raw, stopped drinking alcohol, stopped eating bread, stopped consuming dairy products, stopped eating cereals. All at the same time!
I started to buy mainly organic produce, from an urban farm named “Ferme de Budé” in Geneva Switzerland. The actual farm was located at 10 minutes of walk from where I used to live. In a surreal setting, squeezed in-between tall apartment buildings, the farm had an acre of land to produce organic food. People working there seemed to have the right vision for sustainability. They also carried, produce from alike-minded other local farmers from the region. This place meant heaven on Earth for my new life-style. The best part was that I could walk to go get fruits, vegetable and honey that was produced few hundred feet away from my living environment.
Juicing
I started juicing, with a slow juicer I had purchased when I was still employed. I used to do some juicing before. It’s just that I did not know what I was doing. Thank to Thierry’s videos on juicing, I was able to get my act together, and understand the basic principles of juicing, such as a red juice should look red, and a green juices should look green . And not end up with a brownish thing, that tastes like nothing, and everything at the same time. I also started to use garlic, curcuma, and ginger in all of my juices. Some of the juices were delicious, and gave me such a high level of energy, that I had the impression that I was literary drinking the sun. Later on I started coming up with my own recipes. If you want to know more about how I juice here’s a post of mine specially dedicated to juicing.
Incorporating Exercise and Dry-fasting
I signed up to a gym, and started to swim in lake Geneva all year around, by pretty much any types of weather. In addition to all these changes in my life-style, I started to practice dry-fasting. Got started with 36 hours and went all the way up to 5 days and a half (my current record: 9 days of dry fasting 216 hours and 42 minutes as of October 2017). Amazing things started to happen. I started to feel better day after day. There were times when I would feel a bit depressed and low in energy, but overall I had the feeling that I was moving towards something very positive. I had lost 13 kg/28lbs in a very short amount of time. I did the 95% raw diet for 8 months. Later I made the decision of eating 95% raw at home, and once in a while allow myself some cheat-cooked-meals when going out. After a year that’s where I am at. I do at least a 36 hour dry fast a week. I do the warrior diet daily, and occasionally I try to do longer fasts. Next, I’m going to try to fit in 3 time 36 hour fast into the week. I also have been doing some morning Yoga daily since November 2016.
Over the course of a year, all the these little changes are starting to make a great difference in my life. I used to be the kind of person whose brain wouldn’t function before having the first coffee of the day. Today I do pretty much an entire working day without eating nor drinking anything. Not only I feel good, but I am in fact being way more productive than I used to be with stimulants.
This was my very first journal entry For a Better Monday. Access all journal entries…
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I AM NOT A HEALTH PROFESSIONAL. I would like to make it very clear that I am only sharing my own experience on this website, and have no intention to give any specific advice on health. Please read the disclaimer section for more information.