Kicking off a fast!
Broke my 3-day fast last night with meatballs (Bardo Farm lamb, pork, beef w/parmesan), daikon, and homemade broth.
Since I was in it to win it, meaning in that high-energy, “can-do” phase you often encounter when fasting, I batch-cooked 3 additional meals, ensuring that Yesterday Carla has Tomorrow Carla’s back.
In my quest to rewire negative self-talk (cognitive behavioral therapy), I’ve made it a habit to acknowledge this “Time Travel Gratitude Loop” when I grab a pre-planned meal from the freezer, especially on nights when I don’t feel like cooking, because I know my food is a healthier choice for me than takeout.
Why do I fast?
* Health benefits including autophagy;
* Extra energy directed at extra tasks (e.g. great time to clean the fridge);
* Ritual for contemplation/meditation;
* It’s a mental test.
Before jumping into fasting, I suggest you:
1. Do your own research;
2. Consider becoming fat-adapted first (i.e. low-carb/glucose managed)–it’s x100 easier when you don’t have carb-withdrawal cravings too, so start there for long-term success;
3. Build up incrementally by doing intermittent fasts (e.g. skip breakfast);
4. If/when you fail, roll with it, learn something, then try again!
The Number One thing I love about fasting is the relationship it reestablishes between my mind, body, and spirit.
There is a deep sense of awe you feel when you realize:
1. You can do hard things;
2. You are in control and it truly is mind over matter;
3. Hunger comes in waves and quickly recedes thus reminding you to treat the experience more like you are a surfer, and not a drowning man;
4. Fasting isn’t as hard as you thought it would be… leading you to wonder what else may be conquered next.
Tell me down below what you’re hoping to conquer next, whether it’s intermittent fasting until lunchtime a few times a week to, say, literally learning to surf.
Big or small, we are all hopefully striving to improve at least one thing in our lives! Let that one thing be… YOU!
Have you dropped some balls recently? Carla feels your pain, and shares a few tips from her personal life to help you get back on track. Also in this episode, a brief overview of the new NBC docuseries about the Free State movement, banned documentaries, and some upcoming events.
Here’s the NBC Boston series: Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of New Hampshire. WATCH NOW!
Listen to the audio-only podcast here:
In February, I fasted from Tuesday, February 14 to Saturday, February 18th, my birthday. We decided to break with an early dinner at Christmas Farm Inn in Jackson, NH, which was delicious.
I want to capture my fasting experience for each month of this year… perhaps for a book sometime in the future?
This fast went by fast. Mood was good the whole time. Did get a headache on Day 3 but not as intense as the ones in 2022. On Day 3 and 4 at night, had a ball jar of homemade broth each. My journal note for Day 3 says: “Broth (yay!), nutritious and delicious, Past Carla making Future Carla happy in the Now.” 🙂
My main observation this month is I write more when I am fasting, and this feels like an underscoring of finally finding the right flow for me–the right way for me to be spending my time.
For most of my life, I resisted the urge to do “artistic” things, because it was somehow instilled in me that this was “wrong,” “an indulgence” “not serious.” Which is an extremely odd position to hold when considering Ma was an artist.
Lawyers don’t draw
I’ve been trying to figure out where this hang-up originated from and am still mulling it over… especially as I now know many self-defeating beliefs we carry, we simply created ourselves… something happened and you filed it away in a way that created a negative voice you may not even be aware of… unpacking these voices and putting them in their rightful place is what makes us healthier in the long run. [Read about how I learned to ignore the really nasty ones HERE.]
I suspect my suppression of my artsy side was because of the dysfunctional competitiveness that developed between my sister and I when we went to boarding school in the early Eighties, and we both felt we had to start aggressively vying for our parent’s attention. Based on conversations with my sister, she concurs. Add to this a subtext my parents presented to us that Lizette would be the “artsy, smart one” and I’d be the “smart, not artsy one,” and some of my resistance to my true calling–writing–make somewhat sense.
Listening to the voices in my head
Back during one of my 5-day fasts in 2022, I came up with the “My Life (in Balance)” series, those Post-Its I’ve been putting out, so I keep looking for new inspiration or moments of clarity while fasting. This time, a voice mentioned that when I panic about “having to make The Carla Gericke Show” (which I do a lot), I could be using content I have already written directly from my site. This falls in the “Past Carla helping Future Carla in the Now” category, and while I really don’t know why this never occurred to me before, I’m going to implement this life hack, stat!
How about you?
What are you doing to set yourself up for more success in the future? Are you making the right choices with regard to your diet, exercise, sleep, mental health? Remember, building integrity with yourself–in other words, making and keeping promises to yourself–is the road to happiness!
Today is DAY FIVE of my first FAST of 2023.
Goal for 2023: Fast 5 days once per month, which ends up being 2 months no eating by the end of year. TWO MONTHS of not eating! Wow!
Why? Save money, free time, great energy, and SUPER GOOD FOR YOU: Autophagy! Recycle old cells! (Pic from yesterday: No makeup, no filter, I turn 51 next month.)
This is my 4th or 5th 5 day fast. I generally eat low carb, whole foods & avoid sugar & seed oils. Worked my way up over past 18 months, so if this is something YOU want for GREATER HEALTH, start with regular IF (intermittent fasting), then 24hrs, 3 day, 5 day. I did a week once but 5-day works best for me.
I do water and black tea and coffee. In past, have added homemade broth Day 4/5 but didn’t need it this time. Electrolytes x2 for foot cramping. Breaking tonight at Indigenous Dinner w/this menu.
Pro-tip: I planned to go to this dinner w/friends bc sometimes the urge to keep going–Louis Calitz & I can get competitive–causes stress towards the end, “should we/shouldn’t we?”. Now there’s a “hard stop” built-in.
I’ll be writing more about my fasting journey this year. Follow along, and feel free to ask questions! Greater health is there for the taking… you just have to want it enough!
Building good habits and replacing bad ones takes time. How are you spending yours? <—Number One thing to assess if you’re SEEKING changes in your life <—Why you need to be journaling! 😉
This week, we talk about the benefits of intermittent fasting, garden sales, and whether anything is allowed to follow logic and reason anymore…
This week, I get into the corporatism we are seeing with regard to Pfizer and the legacy news, whether it rises to the level of fascism yet, and how fasting can make you feel great and when you are working to enhance your health, who cares about medical tyranny?!? (I do!)
TCGS Iterations and Improvements:
- I designed a brief intro on Canva, using photos I designed with Prima, set to some background musak. I like the intro design enough that I will work to improve upon it, but I don’t like the music and will need to figure out something new there going forward.
- A volunteer came to help me improve the quality of my Facebook Livestream. Something went wrong. The audio was totally awful, as one comment asked: “Are you speaking from inside a hurricane???” I’m not sure what went wrong, but here are a few takeaways: a. Still do your own ghetto recording in portrait that everyone complains about because… it’s better than nothing!
b. Several of you are watching and rooting me on, so THANK YOU! and c. We are all still learning, things will go wrong, and that’s OK. Next time will be better! Hopefully! - The same volunteer–thank you, Chris Silk!–mentioned how not great Joe Rogan’s original podcasts were. It is important to remember, we all start somewhere! Onwards and upwards!
- I posted this on Facebook when I shared Ep. 3: “This makes me happy for many reasons, but mostly because everything in this frame looks like the “picture in my head”–including me! When I was young, I was… a… handful. If you think I have a lot of bubbly energy now that I’m approaching 50, imagine tweeny-Carla. Yeah. I don’t recall who it was, but I was definitely shut down often enough as a child with remarks like: “Pipe down! What? Do you think you’re starring in The Carla Gericke Show?” Well, yes, Dream Crusher, f-you, I damn-well *AM*. And YOU, my friend, are playing the starring role in YOUR LIFE! Make it what you want it. It’s literally up to YOU. Many hours went into reclaiming my health and retooling my life to take the leap to finally start this show. Candidly, TCGS is still very much an amateur train-wreck waiting to become something FANTABULOUS, but here is what I do know: You can’t get from here to there if you don’t know where you are going, and once you do, you still need all the baby steps in-between. Big goals are only accomplished by breaking them down into smaller chunks and then doing the work. Whether it is dropping that first or last pound, or going an extra hour on a fast, or deciding surely someone, somewhere wants to hear libertarian lifestyle news from an African-American immigrant refugee seeking political asylum in the Free State of New Hampshire–/surely/–you need to relish all the small wins along the way that lead YOU to YOUR Big Picture. Identify ONE goal that YOU want to accomplish before the end of the year. What is ONE step you can take TODAY to put you on the path to getting there? What are two more you can do this week or before the end of the month? Whether you want to be more present with the people you love, or maybe you want to tackle a home-keep project, whatever it is, find something YOU KNOW you will be happier for having accomplished, and then… DO IT! It really is as simple as one step at a time… After all, my book The Ecstatic Pessimist was written one word at a time! Feel free to share a goal you are working on in the comments below… And, saying you want to be a future guest on The Carla Gericke Show is 100% totes allowed!”
LISTEN NOW… People have eaten in strange and baffling ways for thousands of years – and your hosts are performing some experiments of their own! Join Carla (on day five of a fast) and Brinck (on hour 2 of a fast) for this week’s episode of Told You So! LISTEN NOW…
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