Timewaster's Guide Archive
General => Rants and Stuff => Topic started by: Chimera on January 30, 2006, 12:08:28 AM
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So I thought you all might enjoy this. I'm going to be unavailable for a week--no laptop, internet, or phone--while I go to a health clinic in San Diego and eat grass. Yup, I'm being kidnapped by hippies. (http://www.optimumhealth.org/)
*Kidnapped* is a little strong, I guess. Since my mom and I are paying to go. It should be interesting, though. No technology, no makeup, no perfume--just focusing on health and nutrition and how the body works. All the food, though, is organic, raw food, so all I'll be eating is green leafy stuff. They don't have stoves--nothing is cooked. Yum. Sprouts again!!!
I wondered if we were going to be forced to all wear the same thing--like these generic muumuus or something. Apparently, though, we get to wear our own stuff--all comfortable and casual, something that we can exercise in and wear all day while we attend classes. Individuality, huh...I guess it's not completely a hippie/cult colony. :D
All joking aside, I'm actually quite excited about this. I've been feeling so awful, and this to me is a better solution than another bought of horrible antibiotics or surgery or something like that. The doctor who recommended it is really one of the few doctors who has helped me with my health problems. And he felt that getting rid of the toxins in my body (apparantly I'm quite toxic) ;) could clear up a lot of my health problems. In the two times I saw him over the weekend, he helped me go from complete agony to bearable pain. So, even though it's hard to get to him as he is in St. George, I think I'm just going to have to make it a priority to keep in touch with him and do check ups.
So, I know it's weird. But if it helps, I won't complain. I'll let you all know in a week if I survive the grass-eating. ;)
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You'd be surprise what drastic change in lifestyle can do for health problems, even for a week.
Much of holistic therapy is looked at skeptically by modern medicine, but there's a lot of truth in the basic concepts.
Good luck. I hope it goes well for you.
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Much of holistic therapy is looked at skeptically by modern medicine, but there's a lot of truth in the basic concepts.
I've found more relief from chronic health problems through holistic medicine than any other way, so I'm with you on that. Which is why I am looking at this experience positively. And I'm hoping to get some knowledge from the classes that I can apply to my everyday life, even when I return to "the real world."
Thanks for the best wishes. :)
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I think what strikes me most about this thread is the misrepresentation of hippies.
so... let us know how it went!
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ya, be careful what you say you all most gave the impression that Hippies have anything meaningful to add to society.
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Just a note before anyone gets excited, I didn't say that it was a tragedy they were misrepresented. It was just striking.
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Just a note before anyone gets excited, I did mean to say Hippies don't contribute to society. They want to save the world, but all they do is smoke pot and smell bad.
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And make music.
Some of which is very, very good.
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And make music.
Some of which is very, very good.
Stop with the crazy talk man!
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I hear that you run the risk of this kind of thing by living in California.
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Ohi. Yeah, I've heard of that place. Good luck with all the grazing, Chimera! I hope you find that "golden bridge" of which they talk so fondly! Sure hope the traffic's not to bad. ;D TWG will be so much the funkier when you come back--assuming they actually let you leave the place when the week's up. ;)
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I eagerly await the results of the hippie experiment.
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Next time we see Chimera she'll be wearing a tie-dyed sarape and a pair of tiny green sunglasses. Sounds cool.
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Wait, so when you say you are going to be eating nothing but greens, does that include hemp?
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So no meat whatsoever? Boy am I glad I'm a (wannabe) beatnik and not some yuppie hippie. Losers. =P
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You know, studies have proven that slight cooking helps release nutrients in vegetables. Steamed broccoli is better for you than the raw stuff. (you know you spend too much time on Wikipedia when you nearly end your post with "~~~~")
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Hey, where's Chimera? Shouldn't she be back from Sprout Camp by now? I don't know about you guys, but I'm worried. Those hippies might've decided they liked her too much to give her back to us!
Edit: Um, this is a rather ominous sign. If these ads are any indication, we'll never see our dear Chimera again!
Vegetable Raised Gardens
Create many shapes and heights Grow more vegetables in less space!
Sprouting Supplies
Manual and Electric Sprouters and Organic Sprouting Seed
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She probably had some sort of epiphany concerning the quality of our company.
Darn epiphanies.
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Nah, can't be. What's more wholesome than TWG? No empty calories here, I dare say. But we are rather carnivorous... hmm.
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You know, studies have proven that slight cooking helps release nutrients in vegetables. Steamed broccoli is better for you than the raw stuff. (you know you spend too much time on Wikipedia when you nearly end your post with "~~~~")
Althought cooking the dark, leafy greens does denature the leutine and xeoxanthine, making them essentially worthless. You have to eat the stuff raw to get the benefit of those antioxidants.
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You mean steamed spinach isn't good for me? Aww. I loved steamed spinach! What about Popeye?
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Popeye eats it straight out of the can, boy. No cooking for him. Though I don't suppose you can call from a can reall "raw"
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yeah cooked in a pressure cooker and then canned isnt exactly raw
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I'm back! I'm alive!
Actually, I've been back for over a week. But I've been super busy. I wanted to have time to write about my experience and report it to you, and there never was time, so I stayed away because I knew I'd be tempted to waste time (hence TWG). I want to tell all who are interested about it, because there was so much that was positive about the experience. But I'll have to do that sometime in the near future on my LJ and provide a link, because it'd be much too long. And then only those who are really interested will have to read a long post about it.
In short, I am eating a lot more raw vegetables and trying to make veggies my main food staple, and it seems to be helping. However, I have not become a vegetarian. I lost weight while I was there, and I don't have any weight to lose currently. No matter how you look, being under 100 pounds is a bad thing. My blood sugar also crashed. So, to make sure I don't waste away and my energy can stablelize, I put protein back into my diet. That also seemed to be a good move. And I have successfully cut sugar out of my diet. I have been sugar-free for a month now. Go me! :)
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Welcome back, Chimera!
Those are all very good ideas. I love veggies, but for some reason it's really hard to put them as a priority in my diet--mainly for time reasons. And I've been meaning to get rid of processed foods (sugar, white flour) for a while, but it's the easiest thing to eat. I'm going to have to try again. I think it would really help my overall health, even if it is that I'm just plain allergic to Seattle (you missed, I think, how my doctor told me that if I didn't start having allergy shots, I'd have to either move away or live in a bubble?).
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Chimera, you're alive! Phew. Honestly, I was worried that maybe you really crashed after the OHI thing. I'm sorry to hear about the weight loss and low blood sugar.
But it's great that now you can tailor your diet to your needs even better after the trip. The no-sugar for a month thing is *quite* the accomplishment, too! Welcome back! :D
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The no-sugar for a month thing is *quite* the accomplishment, too! Welcome back! :D
But if you want to gain weight it 'aint gonna help. Take it from an expert on gaining weight.
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Gaining weight san-sugar is pretty hard. At the mental health center we "force" the anorexics to eat lots of sugar. They usually often have to have a booster shake with their meal.
That's the fastest way I know of to gain weight is to have a breakfast or diet shake with your meal.
Course, if you aren't underweight, going vegan and avoiding sugar is a great way to lose weight.
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The sugar thing for you only applies to simple sugars right?
So you could carb load. Ie.. lots of Pasta and wheat bread and stuff.
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Welcome back!
I'm no nutritionist, but I think a good serving of pasta or bread is a good way to maintain a healthy weight. I realize not many people have to worry about wasting away, but for those of us that do, carbs are a good thing. :)
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Protein too!
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Trouble w/ breads and pasta is they sometimes have added simple carbs, right? But she should be able to find no-added sugar breads and stuff. I hope.
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I appreciate the concern. But don't worry...I'm not dead yet! ;) And I actually broke down on Valentine's Day and had some sugar. At Institute they were passing around Lindt Lindor truffle balls...I couldn't resist! However, the nice thing is that it hasn't triggered any cravings.
And, no, I can't eat pastas and breads to gain weight. :D At least, not for now. I have a wheat sensitivity--as long as my body is acting hypoallergenic, I avoid enriched flour and processed foods. However, there will be a time again that I can eat whole grains, like brown rice and other non-GMO forms of wheat like spelt, kamut, and quinoa. Just not now. But I eat protein at every meal, so there's very little chance of me disappearing.
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Well, I love my whey protein shakes. They're a great source of protein and whey is one of the easiest (if not the easiest) protein to digest as well as being low in fat and calories. They may not taste the *greatest* but it's doable and it's only a cup of liquid and you're done. You can have them with anything, including water.