Day 6

Weight: 239 pounds Lost: 10

I've taken to marking my wall calendar with a big "X" on the days I successfully fast, and have just put up my sixth "X." If I look at it that way, there are only 2 1/2 more weeks of "X's" till the end of the month, and of the fast.

I've noticed that when I put my socks on in the morning it no longer feels like I'm holding a basketball in my lap and am trying to bend over it. Now it's more like a roll of flab, which is a big improvement. I also have noticed that I don't have as much crud in my eyes when I wake up. For the last ten years or so, every morning when I wake up I've had a film covering the corners of my eyes like a couple crescent moons that loosened within a few minutes and made my vision blurry until I either rinsed my eyes or rubbed the film out. I asked an eye specialist about this some years ago and he recommended that I rinse my eyes with warm water in the morning and assured me it was nothing.

Today I didn't go out at all, neither did I do any exercise. I spent time reading on the internet, and working on video editing (home movie stuff). I had another poor night of sleep last night, waking frequently, rising at 6, going back to bed at 8, and sleeping in till 10:30. Hey, it's Saturday.

I would like to take a walk before I go to bed. My fast started at 9PM Greek time 6 days ago, and that is about the time I add to this blog.

I may be moving into what people in the know call the "easy phase" of extended fasting: that's from days 6-9 or so till 15-20 or so. Your body has given up expecting to digest solid food, and has gotten used to the liquid diet. Yesterday, other than oranges, and lemons (diluted 10-1), I didn't have any fresh juice, and felt its absence. I had a couple quarts of store juice which, though it tasted great, did not feed me like the stuff from the juicer. Today I juiced, both in the morning and evening, a lot of spinach with a little celery mixed in (about 2 cups total juice), and about a quart total of carrot and apple juice. The spinach and carrot in particular are what I call "vitamin bombs:" there is so much good stuff packed into these two vegetables that you get a lift similar to that of drinking a cup of coffee, without the jitters.

Juicing is pretty time-consuming, what with having to clean the fruits and vegetables, juice them, and clean up later, a process requiring about a half-hour, but you could spend the same amount of time cooking a meal. I juice more than I need and share with Zoe and Cathy. Not surprisingly, Cathy doesn't like spinach juice, but she loves carrot/apple juice.

I find myself less concerned about time and more methodical in my movements. Yesterday it took me the better part f an hour to shave, prepare for a shower, and scrub myself twice from soles to scalp with a bath brush, trying to remove dead skin and anything secreted through my pores.

A blog called "US Cavalry OnPoint" has this interesting headline today:

"ON Point in Iraq: Marines "Hit the Jackpot" at Village near Fallujah"

And "The Fourth Rail" has the following:

"Coalition forces received a big break yesterday, with the arrest of a close aide to Abu Ayyu al-Masri, the leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq. Al-Masri's aide was captured at a gas station in Mahmoudiya, a city just south of Baghdad. The unnamed aide met al-Masri within a day of his capture."

I continue to think and pray about the situation in Iraq. I've also started reading two books I've read portions of before but haven't completed them: "Calvin's Institutes," in an elegant modern translation, and Dallas Willard's wonderful "The Divine Conspiracy."