Today was the last day of the fast. Good, as I’ve just about had enough. I am ready for fruit! Bring it on!

Today a work colleague and I headed to a hotel neat Kachidoki station in Tokyo to meet two film producers from France. The meeting went successfully and we are going to write the English subtitles for a French film (with an all-Japanese, and Japanese-speaking, “cast”). It is a documentary of Osamu Dazai, a famous Japanese writer. I’d love to write more details here, but as the film has not been released, we have been instructed to keep the contents secret. The gig doesn’t pay much at all (it’s paid for through government culture grants, and much work is volunteer), but it will be a wonderful experience for my Japanese colleague and I, as we enjoy translation projects. Neither of us would have the confidence to do it alone, but with me focused more on the editing and my colleague focusing on the initial script, we think we can pull it off like professionals. It will be cool to have our names come up at the end of the film!

The meeting went well, but unfortunately for my colleague, when the producers found I could speak French, English started to take a second role. (no, they cannot speak Japanese). I’m grateful for the fact that it’s already been translated into French. This means I’ll be able to make reference to my second language to confirm my translations from my third (well, technically Japanese is my 6th, but I’ve forgotten the other languages- you don’t use it and you loose it, baby!) into my mother tongue.

After the meeting, we went to Roppongi mid-town to do some insanely upscale windowshopping (insane as in a USD4 thousand price tag on a sweater). As it was so hot and humid outside, and the store were far from crowded, it being a weekday, we had quite a lovely afternoon. I was the cause of guilt in my companion, however, when I did not eat at lunch, but she got over that fast. And I too will be over this fast tomorrow!

Today I had:

phyllium shakes and apple juice, lemon water drinks

It’s day 4 of the fast and I’m hungry again. I’m still requiring a lot of sleep it would seem, and waking up feeling a bit clogged up in the eyes and mouth. My liver was obviously activated today, as I released a lot of green slimy stuff (It’s supposed to be waste bile, or so I was told on my first fast in Thailand).

My roommate has still not gone to the toilet, so I tried to book us for a trip to one of Tokyo’s few, but increasingly popular, colon hydrotherapy clinics. Increasingly popular indeed - they told us to reserve spots at least one week an advance as they are always booked! You can actually give yourself a good colonic irrigation, but it can be… messy if you don’t have the right equipment.

We are out of lemons, and we both really need a treat as a pick me up, so I guess I should nip over to the grocery store. I just have to muster the energy. I feel fine, but can get dizzy if I move suddenly or too much. This didn’t start happening until today. Glucose reserves are low! Ketosis (when the body uses up it’s reserves and heads to fat for fuel) is hitting! The unneeded ketones are releasing through my breath and urine. Stay back!

Anyway, lemons are not only very alkalizing once in the body (surprising, eh?), but they also do wonders for cleaning the blood and lymph fluids. Joy! A tall glass of these freshly squeezed babies, watered down of course, is so refreshing in this heat, and all the tastier with a dash of raw honey!

I spend the afternoon grading today. Finished! Except… 3 students are failing, and because I am nice (maybe too nice), I am giving them an extra couple of days to frantically complete missing assignments.

Today I had:

psyllium shakes, apple juice, water, and soon… lemon water

Today I spent the afternoon at my laptop doing just a wee bit of grading but also spending a great deal of time assembling a new blog, one dedicated to raw food recipes. I have a few up already, but because I ended up using the Fantastico instant installer supplied by my host again (it does make things easy breezy), Japanese does not work. I wasted a couple of hours trying to install in manually, but I couldn’t get it to work. I do have one friend who is familiar with both coding and WordPress, but he’s out of the country at the moment… Drat. I want to make these recipes available in Japanese, too!

I did find a really nice theme for my blog, though. It’s not a food-oriented skin, but it very much matches the image I’m aiming for. I’ll post a link to it on my page bar once it looks presentable and contains a few more recipes.

Today was day 3 of my fast, and I experienced no pain. Hunger pangs have completely gone and I had at least one excellent bowel movement of giant black slimy pellets. (Yes, it is acceptable for fasters to talk shit!) My tongue is heavily coated now and my head feels clear. I did need a long sleep last night, however.

As for my roommate, he’s not so lucky - still hasn’t had that euphoric first major poop, and is experiencing headaches still. Maybe the process is faster for me because I’ve done it several times before (and eat lots of raw foods!)

Today I had:

5 psyllium mixes with about 5 cups of pasteurized apple juice
a few glasses of lemon and water with ice and a touch of raw honey

Today was day 2 of the fast. I woke of with the beginnings of faster’s tongue. In the full throws of a detox, the tongue gets a stinky, vile, white, hairy coating of slime. You can use a tongue scraper to regularly remove it. I often find I attend even more to mouth care when fasting, not just to help remove all the toxins and tend to dental hygiene, but because I can’t stand the detox feeling in my mouth.

I also felt less hunger. In fact, I almost forgot to take my second herbal shake today.

My roommate has a great electric massage devise, so we used it to massage our abdominals (It stimulates elimination in the colon). We are not doing any colonics or enemas (though we should), so hopefully this will help. On the Blessed Herbs program colonic irrigation or at least an enema are recommeded, but not necessary. Usually people manage to remove some rancid, rubbery plaque buildup from their intestines in day 2 or 3 with the herbs alone, and that’s what has happened with me before.I had my first big “release” late this evening. Yes, I feel absolutely fantastic afterwards.

Today I had:

5 psyllium mixtures with a total of about 5 cups of pasteurized apple juice

Today was the first day of the fast, and there were a few things worth noting for me:

1) I was much hungrier than I thought I would be. Of course I expected hunger, but the psyllium drinks have usually filled me up in the past. I felt really deprived a lot of the day.

2) I didn’t have any headaches. Usually the first day feels a bit like a hangover.

3) I had a major cramping experience later in the day. It felt like severe PMS. Actually I think it was an internal muscle spasm I picked up when making perhaps a bit too much effort on the can… Whatever the case, I was debilitated with pain, so I took a nap, and woke up just fine.

4) Normal bowel function ensued.

Today I had:

5 physllium mixtures with a total of about 5 cups of pasteurized apple juice

My roommate and I are starting a 5-day fast tomorrow, using the Blessed Herbs program (I’ve done it a few times before, with successful results.) You take these herbal pills in the evening, to activate and stimulate your liver and kidneys, and 5 times during the day, about every 3 hours, you take a psyllium-based powdered concoction with water and apple juice (should be raw, be we are opting for the more convenient and cheaper mass-produced, pasteurized, store-bought version - sorry, I don’t have to money or volition to juice all those apples. I could just take it with water, but I cannot swallow that disgusting, fast-bulking, jellied psyllium mulch without the salvation of some sweetness! Apparently, apple juice helps in this detox program, but I’m not sure about my personal take on juice…)

Anyway, because of this venture, today is eat-all-remaining-food-in-the-fridge day. Boy did we feast! (Doesn’t look like much when I write it, but trust me.)

Today I had:

watermelon
oranges
broccoli, cucumber and dried tomato humus (yum!)
zucchini pasta and tomato sauce (2 giant helpings)
avocado cacao pudding (lots!)
banana smoothie
papaya