Stop Cheating

I've been expanding my diet and living life as if my ulcers are already healed. It typically takes about a year or a little longer for the ulcers to heal so clearly since I’ve only been on the healing diet, or a version close to it, for only three months, it is probable that the ulcers have not healed. 

It seems like a long time to heal, I agree. But if you think of having a sore on the outside of your body always exposed to wet, unclean, acidic environment  filled with toxins, then you can get a better understanding as to why the healing takes so long.

After being on the healing diet since mid-September, I’ve been feeling great and it’s been easy to just began eating things like hummus, cooked foods, some acid vegetables, and some irritants like onions and garlic and an occasional sulfide free half glass of wine. Additionally, I’ve increase my activity level with snowboarding every weekend for the past three weekends and have had many business lunches and dinners that make it difficult to follow a strict diet.

I’ve also been experimenting with my dehydrator making zucchini, sweet potato, and butternut squash crisps as well as veggie burgers and banana cookies.

Add all of this to working a few extra hours due to our fiscal year end, and the added stress of not having enough time in the day to complete everything I want to complete. This has lead to reducing the time I spend meditating, and relaxing, which is very essential to healing.

All of this has been cheating my healing process and I have been feeling that something is not quite right again. It’s very hard to explain, but recently I have had some discomfort in my gut. It felt a little like menstrual cramps, but not exactly. But it wasn’t the bloated feeling that I had in Europe when my symptoms began six months ago. Ultimately, it just doesn’t feel right. Additionally, I’ve had some gurgling going on in my gut and my bowel movements changed by becoming looser as well as more frequent.

I’ve not been fatigued and still have a good amount of energy, but I know something has not progressing the way that it should. So I’ve committed to stop cheating for 30 days on all accounts.

I stopped cheating just two days ago, and all of the symptoms I mentioned above are almost gone again. In discussing things with Dr. Azar, my holistic gastroenterologist, we agreed to 30 days of a strict healing diet, meditation, exposure to the sun and outdoors, and as much rest as possible. On January 10, I return to my medical gastroenterologist, Dr. Sigmon, for a follow up in which I will get some blood work done. After the results are in, which will be right around the expiration of the 30 day commitment, depending upon the results, I will begin adding foods slowly to my diet and eventually, I will be able to get to a diet much more relaxed.

Ultimately, these are the things I intend to do over the next 30 days to ensure the healing is expedited and that my blood work comes back with positive results.

1. I’m going to follow the very basic diet as prior described in my blog, including bringing my lunch to work so that I can avoid having to eat out at lunch. I’ll begin making sure to schedule my business meetings during business hours, not during meal times.
2. I’m committing to spend more time in the sun. I already get a good amount of sun on the weekend, but Monday, Tuesday, and Thursdays I will sit outside at the Piedmont Town Center (where I live) after work as long as the sun is still remaining, and I will eat my lunch outside instead of in my office. All of this is dependent upon the weather of course. If I begin to do this, my vitamin D will improve, as well as it will reduce the business of my mental state, both of which are essential for healing.
3. I will ensure that I get 8 hours sleep whenever feasible. I have been getting only 6 hours some days.
4. I will meditate at least 30 minutes a day. Clearing the mind and body of the day to day stresses, and focusing upon the things we are thankful for is extremely beneficial to healing. I don’t want to waste energy with any negativity as that energy could be used for healing.

Not only do I need to follow the proper diet, but I also need to make sure that my body has the time and energy to heal.

Stress is very bad on the body. Your body only has so much nerve energy to radiate. Let me explain. Nerve energy is radiated from your Solar Plexus. It is a mass of nerve substance that is often referred to as abdominal brain. It is located just behind the pit of the stomach and it receives and distributes nerve-impulses and energy to all of the respiration, circulation and digestion organs, which is referred to as the Sympathetic Nervous System. The Sympathetic System controls the automatic mechanisms of the body such as the beating of the heart, contraction and dilation of the arteries, the actions of the gastrointestinal tract, the contraction of muscles and the control of the secretion of our glands.

When you are stressed, worried, feel guilty, are sad, or have any other overwhelmingly negative emotion, your Solar Plexus contracts. When you are at peace and happy, it expands. The more your Solar Plexus expands, the more nerve energy that is radiates. This is essential to healing! Therefore, meditation and quite time helps your mental state so that you can keep your Solar Plexus in an expansion mode.

A good analogy would be compared to a computer that has so many programs running that none of them work efficiently, so you have to reboot your computer in order for any of the programs to work properly again. In addition to sleep, this is what meditation and the quite time outdoors is intended to accomplish.

Also, your body heals and recharges nerve energy most efficiently when you sleep. When you get tired and need to go to sleep it is because you have nearly run out of nerve energy. When you sleep, your nerve energy is recharged. Have you noticed when you are ill that you are more tired than normal? It’s because you are using up your nerve energy more quickly on the healing. So a good amount of sleep is essential as well.

It’s 9:42 p.m. at the moment. I’ve already walked my dog, Rusty, for the night and I’m heading to meditate for about 20 minutes and then will be going to sleep for the night. I don’t have to awake until 6:00 p.m. so I’ll be getting my eight hours tonight!!

Good night:)