Yoda,
You said:
“I find that I can feel my body’s meridians and channels flowing all the time when I’m fasting.”
This made me wonder. When I am still, I feel vibration/energy/humming at any place in my body that I place my attention…in fact all through my being…
Is this what you mean when you say you feel the channels flowing? Like so??
In Light and Love,
Kathy
Yoda says:
Try tomato juice instead of V8. Let me know if it improves asanas, spinal breathing, iaming, tantra, etc.
I have bought V8 and tomato juice. I like the V8 – have you tried it hot, like a soup?
V8 seems just the thing.
Don’t know if you like garlic… but add some fresh crushed garlic to a cup of hot V8… mmm mmm good! 
With David on this grape fast, I decided to give it a go myself. Its about 10 years since the last one. My system feels like it could do with a good clearout.
Almost finished the first 24 hours and going well.
Thanks David for giving me the impetus
Louis
LOL! Well, that’s what I’m here for! 
I’ll get some V8 at some point.
Here’s a related article:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,8126-1707912_1,00.html
NagoyaSea,
I’d imagine everyone’s experience of energy flowing is different, but whatever your experience of it is, I’d bet that some form of fasting or calorie restriction would increase the magnitude of this experience noticeably.
-Yoda
Yoda, thank you. It was the process of dying that brought the experience to me-- an anaphylactic shock to be precise. Obviously I survived. In stillness the energy is present through my entire body. There isn’t a need to increase the magnitude. It is ever with me.
Kathy
That QOD forum above is a great resource and the Doctor will answer your questions directly.
Something to keep in mind about making any sort of dietary change is that it has to be slow and gradual. I was reading Walford’s “Beyond the 120 year diet” and he said that when researchers change adult rats from an ‘all you can eat’ diet to a restricted diet suddenly, those rats don’t live very long. But if the change is made gradually, then these rats gain the longevity benefits.
The best transition time for rats, if extended directly to humans would be 4-6 years. But Walford believes that a one year transition time is sufficient.
Kathy,
Awesome!! That was your 108th post too!
-Yoda
V8 is actually superior to tomato juice.
While Dr. Fuhrman disses juice fasting in his “Fasting and Eating for Health” (says juice fasting keeps you out of ketosis which protects the body from using muscle tissue for energy) He might have a point, but I have plenty of muscle and juice fasting is 300% easier than water fasting in my preliminary experience. Also, I find that I’m not actually taking in many calories from juice (just to take the edge off sometimes), so I’d imagine that some level of ketosis is still taking place. I should get some of those ketostrips to check into that. But even if he’s right, juice fasting is the only way that I can work and exercise with no sort of energy crashes, headaches, etc.
Grape-fasting, and juice-fasting with enough high-calorie juice, will certainly keep you out of ketosis; there are a significant number of calories in grapes, for example.
But to keep it in perspective, ketosis is not the aim of all fasts.
Just as anaerobic respiration is not the aim of all running; without sprinting you won’t go into anaerobic respiration.
I’m finding significant purification, clarity of mind, energy and strong meditations coming from my non-ketosis grape-fast, and it is free of all side-effects.
Hi Yoda,
From what I know, even a packet of tomato ketchup will get you out of ketosis. Ketosis is absolutely no carbs. Grape juice should help you keep out of ketosis.
-Near
So, an update on my grape-fast: I started my grape fast last Monday; on Friday, I had someone’s birthday to celebrate. I decided to break my grape fast that evening, and try to renew it next morning.
It worked – no problem! I didn’t really find that the cravings had come back full force or anything.
Another thing is that I had no difficulty eating a small meal on Friday. Breaking the grape fast did not seem to need to be so gradual. It seems in my case anyway that the regular grapes kept the digestive system ready for some food. I expect that if I had eaten a large amount of food there might have been trouble, but with a small meal, there was no problem.
A curious thing about grapes – they have a well-known mild laxative effect when eaten with other stuff, but not really when eaten alone. At least that is my experience on this grape fast. I don’t have to endure frequent trips to the outhouse, which was something I was afraid might happen. Can other people confirm this?
I’m now taking the fast one day at a time. It’s still going very nicely.
I might eat on the weekend and re-start the fast next week… This might be a sustainable, permanent eating pattern… well, it’s early days yet, but it has crossed my mind.
David - It seems to me that a permanent grape-fast like you suggest would screw up your digestive system. Five days of grapes seems sort of extreme, in terms of the acidic content, and the havoc that might wreak on your system. Not for a week, but as a permanent diet. You’re not worried about this? Do you know something on this that I don’t, in terms of the benefits? I’m interested in giving it a week’s try, but am concerned about the excess sugar/acid, and lack of protein. Also, I have a fairly rigorous exercise routine, and am wondering if I’d have the energy to keep it up. Any thoughts?
Good point re: ketosis as not the be all and end all of fasting.
I tried the “master cleanser” lemonade diet and my teeth just can’t handle the acidity. I think I’ll hang out in v8/tjuice land for a bit. I’m on day 4 of the “misc juice” diet. I’ll try grapes at some point. There’s a cheap juicer for sale on amazon that I ordered:
click here
(URL embedded to get rid of wide page.)
It’s about $30 refurbished, seems to have decent reviews.
Like David, I’m thinking of some sort of juice fasting habit as a lifestyle, so I want to check in on the whole juicing scene.
I went through a wheatgrass phase once, but that took too much effort. Excellent stuff, though.
I’ve ordered a couple of books on juice fasting as well.
I’ve got that tongue coating and bad breath just a bit, but not too bad.
I keep a can of v8 or t-juice in my vicinity so if I need some grounding fast, I can have it.
-Kyle
I started the grape fast last Thursday and one of the first jobs I was asked to do was go down and collect the fish and chips for the wife and kids - my first challenge. Passed this test and then had to endure wafting curry smells etc. etc. - my family have a good sense of humour
On Easter Sunday the wafting smells of the Duck and all the spices and wine sauce was too much - so I decided it would be appropriate to eat with the family on Easter Sunday
I wondered about restarting the fast the next morning but when I was bringing my wife her breakfast in bed ( as usual) I sucumbed to tea and toast in bed myself.
Not the journey of a diligent yogi.
Had a light meal in the evening (now 11pm here) and that’s it.
Even though I have returned to light meals the fact that I was on the fast for three days resisting the cravings etc. has made it much easier to resist habit eating.
The peace in me is deepening even though I have come off the fast partially - my meditations are also deeper than usual.
I have another 3 kg of grapes in the fridge so that’s a good enough reason to restart for another couple of days.
When doing this before, a number of years ago, the comment was made that as the body releases its toxins and purifies, the toxins can simply lie in the intestines and when the fast is stopped can re-enter the system. It was suggested to take something like plum juice or go on plums for a day to flush the toxins out. What do you people think of this?
Louis
Actually, Louie, my experience with the grapes is that when my fast is broken with a meal, there is a flushing out of the digestive system (= a few trips to the outhouse for an hour or two). I don’t know if you’ll find the same, but if true, it seems unlikely that there would be a problem with toxins staying there.
Meg, I don’t think I’d suffer from malnutrition, or anything like it, if I ate only fruit on the weekdays and proper meals on the weekends. But a dietary behavior like that should only be done by people whose bodies’ are ready for it. Mine may be right now – I don’t know, I’ll see.
hmmm . . . an hour or two in the outhouse every Saturday? I may have to reconsider . . .