Passive support...

TofuRobot

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  1. Vegan
Some of you may remember me mentioning the guy I work with who's a huge carnivore and doesn't like vegetables. he has started asking me questions... like the latest one is if he thought it was worth it to do a cleanse - you know by a product claiming to "cleanse" , so he could lose the fat in his midsection. the other day he said he felt sorry for me because I was missing out on a bunch of food... I told him that I don't feel that way because that stuff doesn't appeal to me. ...

Anyway I told him our bodies do a good job of cleansing on their own if you put the right food in your body. then I asked him if he had seen What The Health. of course he said he hadn't but I sent him the link and he says he's going to watch it. I really hope he does because he's a nice guy and really needs to clean up his diet for his health and it would be great to get him eating more vegetables and fewer animal products.

*crossing fingers
 
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Sometimes all it takes is to have someone around with a better mindset to start etching away at bad problems and lifestyles. Being in my workplace, I haven't fully changed anyone, but I have encouraged healthier meals, living, activity, etc. I will take any meal of a meat-eater I can replace with a vegan meal as a win. It's a long war, where moral victories do matter. Perception will shift over time. We just need to keep working until we can hit the tipping point.

Keep it up! :)
 
Sometimes all it takes is to have someone around with a better mindset to start etching away at bad problems and lifestyles. Being in my workplace, I haven't fully changed anyone, but I have encouraged healthier meals, living, activity, etc. I will take any meal of a meat-eater I can replace with a vegan meal as a win. It's a long war, where moral victories do matter. Perception will shift over time. We just need to keep working until we can hit the tipping point.

Keep it up! :)
Thank you :) I "rewarded" this effort (and good willingness to learn) by giving him a Larabar. I do not believe he had ever had one before he met me but he's decided he loves them and asks me when I'm going to bring him one again so the time after i first have him one
 
I'm more than halfway convinced that "cleanses" are just another type of BS.
However many years ago I tried one. This was before I was vegan although I was already some sort of semi-vegetarian. Anyway, I did study the different techniques and some of the literature first. I also surprised myself with how much better I felt afterward.

But you are right. A cleanse isn't necessary if you just don't eat crap. And fruits and vegetables are the foundation of a good diet. If you don't eat them then the results of any cleanse will be only temporary. There are some good strategies for getting peeps who don't like veggies to eat them. What the health? is a good movie and may open his eyes to some new ideas.

Most of the "cleansing" strategies don't promise or result in weight loss. And for guys losing fat around the waist can only be accomplished by lowering your Body Fat Percentage, which is best accomplished with a reduced calorie diet and more exercise.
 
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You can do one, but IMO the best "cleanse" is a water-only fast - and no form of "cleansing" is going to reap any benefits if you follow it by putting junk back into your body again. (I really did do a WO fast for 7 days. It was very "enlightening" ... and it was during my fast that I decided I had waited long enough to be vegan.)
 
I did the Three-Day Energy Fast. Which is a bit of a misnomer. It's not a fast and it lasts 9 days.
3 days of no meat, dairy, or grains. Then three days of only fruit juices, vegetable juices, and vegetable broth. then 3 days to gradually back out of it.

That's an oversimplification of it but while reading the book I got the impression that the author was just throwing everything into it with a hope that something would work.
 
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We did a one week cleanse years ago and it was a bentonite, minerals, vitamins etc and no eating.... ugh. The entire time we talked about food and what we would eat if/when....

Emma JC
 
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Water only is really the way to go. The slightest thing added to your water activates digestive hormones which reduces the effectiveness of the fast and keeps you feeling hungry, making fasting more difficult. Anyway, day 3 I wasn't even hungry - though I also spent all my time binge-watching food videos, LOL. That's when I discovered all the vegan YouTubers. It started with watching What The Health, then I went to the internet and looked up every doctor that was in the documentary, which led me to everyone else...

I wouldn't go so far as to say it was a super "comfortable" experience - I'm sure I had a lot of toxins built up from over the years of eating junk. But since cleaning up my diet (which I thought was pretty clean anyway, at least compared to most) I really haven't felt the need to fast since (more than a couple of days).

...I had already seen FOK & Earthlings a couple years prior. Probably the only reason I didn't switch to vegan at that time was because I was living with a small family of carnivores - none of whom were remotely affected by it, I don't think. All of them huge animal-lovers... :/
 
Yes, I would consider a water fast if I was in a controlled environment like the True North Health Center, where they would keep me busy with lots of healthy activities and learning sessions and keep my mind off food.

Doing it, in my home, surrounded by food would be challenging.

I would really only do one if it was discovered I had some life challenging disease. I like my food to do it just for fun. :D

Emma JC
 
Yes, I would consider a water fast if I was in a controlled environment like the True North Health Center, where they would keep me busy with lots of healthy activities and learning sessions and keep my mind off food.

Doing it, in my home, surrounded by food would be challenging.

I would really only do one if it was discovered I had some life challenging disease. I like my food to do it just for fun. :D

Emma JC
It was both a remedy and a preventative measure for me - health concerns revolving around cancer, which runs in my family - as well as a being something of a spiritual experience. I was at home, alone, and for a few days, I even cooked for my son. As I said - after day 3, even though I thought a lot about what (wholesome, whole plant) foods I was going to be eating post-fast, I wasn't hungry *at all.* I would definitely do it again. I've done shorter fasts since, but not longer than 3-4 days. Those were much easier than the initial experience (I experienced a lot of the typical aches and pains many do during a fast). I would *love* to go to True North though! Especially if I had a dire need, health-wise. I actually want to stay there just for the experience of it, and the food :)
 
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Not that I'm recommending it to anyone but the Three Day Energy fast was pretty easy. There was no hunger involved. Each morning, you would make a big blender full of fruit juice smoothie. No banana - just pineapple and mango. but you could drink as much of it as you wanted to. Then for lunch you juiced veggies. And again you could drink as much as you wanted to. At the beginning, you made a big pot of vegetable soup. You took all the vegetables out and just had the broth. as much as you wanted. At the end, you got to eat all the vegetables.
 
Not that I'm recommending it to anyone but the Three Day Energy fast was pretty easy. There was no hunger involved. Each morning, you would make a big blender full of fruit juice smoothie. No banana - just pineapple and mango. but you could drink as much of it as you wanted to. Then for lunch you juiced veggies. And again you could drink as much as you wanted to. At the beginning, you made a big pot of vegetable soup. You took all the vegetables out and just had the broth. as much as you wanted. At the end, you got to eat all the vegetables.
Being kind of a fasting "purist," I take issue with anything program that includes anything other than water only calling itself a "fast." Anything else is a diet, which isn't to say that a short juice diet wouldn't have its benefits, but to people experienced in fasting, the only thing that is a true fast, is nothing at all but water. ...And I, too, am not here promoting it, other than to say that I felt it was beneficial for me, and I do believe in the benefits of a properly supervised fast, such as what can be obtained by visiting a facility like True North. A juice "cleanse" or "diet" is going to have benefits, for sure, but nothing at all like a water only fast.
 
The Three Day Energy Fast was definitely misnamed. Probably by the marketing department. cause it is NOT a "fast". It's not even "Three Days".

The marketing department concluded (probably correctly), that The Three Day Energy Fast would sell better than the Nine Day Fruit and Vegetable Cleansing Diet.