Detox-a Go Go & Scan results!

Bonjour Butterfly Wing!

First and foremost, I’d like to thank my wonderful Blog Posse member Kathy Freston, and our super special guest Donna Perrone, for their terrific posts!

It’s day FIVE of my 21 day juice feast and I’ve made it through the dark side. But before I get into the nitty gritty, I must share a valuable tip I learned for long-term fasting. SALT! When fasting for more than a few days it’s important to add a ½ tsp of sea salt (Celtic or Himalayan) to a large glass of water 2-3 times per day. Otherwise you may find yourself with an extreme electrolyte imbalance. I learned this the hard way when my blood pressure started to tank. Lots of folks think it’s important to add fat during a fast. Not sure I agree, at least in the beginning. Yes, our bodies need fats, especially our brains, but oils clog the liver and fasting is the time to flushy flushy. Marine Phytoplankton and E-3 Live are great substitutes with loads of other benefits. Check them out!

Ok, onto the journal portion on this post. Tuesday was an embarrassing tear-fest. I could barely keep it together – major detoxing. Wednesday wasn’t much better. Yesterday I received my third colonic of the week and wowza did the stuffies keep on truckin’. I thought I was empty! Nope, as my colon hydrotherapist said, “here come the mummies”. By abstaining from solid food and living on 5 quarts of green drink per day, I’m allowing the old debris to finally release. Too many colonics in a row may not be right for the average person (your therapist would be the best judge) but at my intensely rapid level of detox it is essential. Probiotics are the key!

Here’s some other big news…

I got my annual scans back (GULP) and I’m happy to report that the tumors in my lungs continue to SHRINK. YES! My liver, the little rock star, is looking pretty darn good too. Its function is perfect and all is stable. DEEP SIGH! If you could see me right now you would notice my inner rainbow. ? These results motivate me to stay committed to my alkaline-loving, oxygen-thriving, juice-drinking, magical, raw diet. They also help me deal with the needles that are driving me crazy.

As I mentioned in my last blog, I’m in Arizona doing a medically supervised juice feast and receiving IV ozone, hydrogen peroxide, vitamin C, chelation and other nutritional therapies. Though the fasting kicks up a lot of physical and emotional stuff, overall I’m feeling really fantastic. My body loves the rebuilding and I thrive on the investigation! Three weeks seems like a long time but in reality I wonder if it’s really enough. I have a ways to go before I can totally say that I am in optimum health. But dang am I committed to the journey/adventure!

Next week we’ll be testing my hormone levels. After watching lady Oprah’s show on hormones I got really curious about my own levels. I’m only in my mid 30’s but I totally relate to the symptoms the women on the show were describing. Did any of you catch those episodes? Interesting stuff! The little “c” does prohibit me from experimenting with bioidenticals. And yet I wonder if better supplementation (and DIET!) holds another key. More on that soon…

I’ll also be testing my hydrochloric acid levels and (yuck) a stool sample. When hydrochloric acid is low in the stomach folks have a difficult time digesting and utilizing food. This can contribute to multiple problems, including candida. The test for it is wicked WILD. They connect a pH testing capsule to a string, drop it down your throat, and yank it back out. This gives the doctor an accurate read on your levels. If low, then a hydrochloric acid supplement is needed. I pray I don’t puke on the poor technician. Stool samples can also tell you a lot about your terrain. What I’m primarily interested in is the balance between good vs. bad bacteria. Gotta get the good guys growing and the nasties in check.

The other big decision I have to make is whether or not to get a port. Since it looks like I will be continuing these non-toxic healing therapies for about 3 (ish) months, there’s no way my veins can handle the daily sticks. One of them blew out yesterday when my favorite nurse poked clear through it by accident. I SWORE LIKE A TRUCKER AND CURSED MOTHER MARY. Sorry Mary.

Gotta be honest, the port freaks me out! So many of my readers have been there, done that. In fact, if you dear ones have any advise for this newbie I’m all ears. Haven’t totally decided yet but time is ticking.

Balancing all of these treatments in my life is another challenge. I guess where there’s a will there’s a way. Will my port go off in the metal detector? Hmmm…. So many questions…

Blessings to you today gorgeous bright one!

Peace and re-generation,

Kris

PS. I hope you all checked out the welcome video Brian and I created for you. Don’t forget to cruise around the site. There’s much information salad for your hungry mind.

How and where to vote 101

Good Monday!

I’ve got two words for you… One Day! That’s all we’ve got, one day. So here’s a concept: let’s vote… then volunteer. Contact your local organizers and see how you can help. Drive someone to the polling place who’s in need, knock on doors, hand out fliers. And if you live in a swing state like Ohio, North Carolina, Missouri, and Pennsylvania – hustle baby hustle! Here are some voting basics:

1. Find your polling place by clicking here or calling 1-866-OUR-VOTE.

2. Voter ID laws vary by state, but always bring your ID!

3. Not on the list? Make sure you’re at the right polling place, then demand a provisional ballot.

4. If voting by machine with paper record, verify the record is accurate.

5. Know your rights when you go to vote: http://truth.voteforchange.com/

6. Need legal help? Call 1-866-OUR-VOTE.

7. Your cell phone camera is a valuable tool for democracy. Record video of any problems and upload to watchdog sites. One of them is Video The Vote. You can also interview other voters who had problems outside the polling place – as long as you stay the legal distance.

Even Oprah had a hard time at the polls, gang. If you see something fishy, say something. Double, triple check that your vote was counted and that your choice was correct. Let’s avoid the Gore debacle at all costs.

Good Luck Obama! I’m on Crazy Sexy Pins & Needles!

Peace and anxiety,

Kris

VOTE!

Greetings Gorgeous Citizens,

The part equals the whole. Regular readers know this is a big theme for us here, over at the forum, and more and more on the road with my public appearances. It’s been one of the most exciting and important awakenings for me to uncover the connections between our bodies and our planet – the health of one is inseparable from the health of the other. Yet there’s another essential dimension to this: politics.

Many of us glaze over when the topic comes up. What’s it got to do with me? There was a time when I believed this. Politics was abstract, wasn’t something I could hold in my hands. But then I got “sick” (major dot-connecting, wake-up call) AND married a progressive politics junkie! For the first time in my life I started to take another look around me – there’s nothing that hasn’t been molded by the invisible hand of politics. My body (farm, drug, healthcare policy, just for starters), how about the sleeves on my arm? (cotton? Wool? Eco chic bamboo? Trade, labor, and again, farm policy). My computer (how about Defense spending long ago that led to the internet?), even the thoughts I believe are my own (who gets to lease airwaves? what is “decent”? Janet’s boob: no. Bloodbaths: yes? This is all FCC policy). You get the idea.

We’re just a week away from one doozy of an election. Every few years we hear, “this is the most important election!” But right now, everyone I know has a gut-wrenching feeling that it’s really true this time. In one cool discussion over at the forum, people were recounting how they voted early with tears of hope and pride in their eyes. There’s something in the air this year, and it’s a beautiful thing.

I’ve been swept up in the drama of it all, following the tit for tat soap opera as the kindergarten candidates throw playdoh at each other. Brian and I obsessively check wonky websites with up-to-minute swing state tracking polls displayed in pretty pie charts. Palin’s expensive clothes! Snap! Zogby polls paint Ohio light blue this morning! Snap! It’s exhausting and boy am I ready for a techno-detox.

Next Tuesday morning Brian and I will walk a mile down the road to the firehouse and vote. It’s not only a privilege and an honor to vote, it’s our duty to vote smart. We owe it to each other to do our homework. I cringe and get depressed when I see people make these decisions on a “feeling,” or on rumors, gossip or sound bites. I see some uninformed ignoramous on TV and think, “who the hell let him open his yap and how on earth can that jackass’ vote be worth the same as mine?” (maybe even more, since he lives in Florida). This election is expected to see the highest voter participation in generations. This is amazing and yet I am on edge. We’re in a shit pickle no doubt.

The two most important issues to me personally are healthcare and the environment.

Healthcare, obviously, because of the little box I check next to the words “pre-existing condition.” My COBRA is running out. I won’t bother describing the state of our healthcare system in the US other than to say it’s a despicable, immoral, shameful mess. I believe a decent level of healthcare in a wealthy country is a “basic right.” But Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness just ain’t possible when your premiums and co-pays are going up twenty times faster than your income, and hatchet men in cubicles overpower your doctor and use loopholes to deny care when you need it most. On this issue, Barack Obama gets our vote. His underlying philosophy jives with mine, and his way of going about it makes sense. He sees prevention as a key part of keeping us healthy and coverage affordable. McCain, on the other hand, says he’s all for freedom of choice, but after 30 years of deregulation, we know exactly what that really means: we’re screwed. His little 5K gift (which is only for families, not individuals, and isn’t tax-free) ain’t gonna get me very far. My COBRA is nearly $700 per month! His plan would leave tens of millions uninsured as the responsibility shifts from employers to workers. It’s based on faith that the market will eventually do the right thing… A concept that’s been discredited in a big way on Wall Street recently.

The Environment. This issue is so huge because it is inextricably linked to all others. Beneath the surface of any problem we face, we’ll find environmental causes and solutions. Dealing with global warming seems like a paralyzing challenge because we aren’t often asked to think so big and so far into the future. Politicians, especially, see the world through short-view lenses. During the 2008 Presidential campaign we’ve heard disappointingly little about the environment. But if you look hard enough, you’ll find the rhetoric. On the environment, Obama gets our votes. Both have plans to cut carbon emissions, but Obama’s gets us there quicker. And frankly, overall, the Democratic party has a long history of respecting the environment while Republicans have taken it for granted – even to this day denying a problem at all. Whether we’re talking global warming, endangered species, land use, pollution, I trust Obama has the intelligence, skill, and hopefully the will to lead our world towards an essential paradigm shift. It’s time for us to rely on clean energy to create jobs that both empower our people and respect our precious planet. It’s also time that we make the connection between energy independence and national security.

Here’s my environmental policy: Vote with your fork. I think Obama is more likely to help me raise that fork. I think he shares my table manners.

Of course, there are many other gravely important issues to worry about. Remember that Iraq War thing? Yep, still going on, to the tune of $10 Billion a month. And speaking of money, there’s the pesky economic armageddon. The damage hit home for me when I checked my account yesterday– one fifth of my life’s savings went up in smoke in just one day last week! Thanks, Deregulation! There’s also the Supreme Court’s affect on Women’s Rights. But hey, what’s politics got to do with me?

Meanwhile, Brian’s all bent out of shape about balance of power among the branches of government, wiretapping, Geneva conventions, nuclear proliferation. He explained it on our big dry erase board over tea the other morning. I get it.

Brian at his personal mecca, Jefferson’s Monticello

We won’t give you a bunch of links here. Thanks to Google, it’s never been so easy to be informed. And don’t forget to research your local races, too. Local politics have a huge impact on your day-to-day life.

Think about what matters to you, then think about your vision for the planet, your health and the future. And whether you agree with me or not (I still love ya) join us on Tuesday and vote.

In Peace,
Kris and Brian

Bookworm Posse: "In Defense of Food" pt. 1

Hello All!

I hear there’s a party going on in here. I’m not sure which bar I should hit first, the wine or the wheatgrass… My globetrotting wife Kris is in South Carolina for the weekend – in the middle of an all day yoga class as we speak – so I thought I’d kick things off with our little book club.

For anyone just dropping by, we’ve begun reading Michael Pollan’s In Defense of Food.

First off, I love Pollan’s writing. He has such a talent for digesting (pardon the pun) our familiar world and reflecting it back to us with a fresh, clear perspective. You see connections where you hadn’t before, and learn that there are deliberate forces, often political, influencing parts of our lives that we assumed were the domain of chance.

We live in a strange time, food-wise. As our world shrinks, our food options grow larger. Consider the produce section at your mega-grocery: it’s brimming with exotic choices our parents and grandparents never even heard of, let alone had access to. And this bounty is available season after season, all year around. We take this so for granted that we need a leap of imagination to realize just how novel and unnatural this is. As they say, “it’s always summer somewhere.” This, of course, brings up a variety of related issues: the connection between chow transport and global warming; the reliance on preservatives and GMO for longer shelf-life, to name a few.

Pollan talks about how much our diets have changed over the past few generations – for good and bad. He describes his Grandmother’s diet in the 1940’s, his Mom’s in the 1960’s, and now his. We all know our family stories – who, when, where – but do you know your food story?

My Mom grew up during the 1930’s and 40’s. Her relationship to food was probably typical of an upper-middle class American family at the time. (Hi Mom. I know you’re out there but either too shy to comment or can’t figure out how to sign in. Or both.) When she was a kid, it was a special occasion to have citrus fruit, for example. At Christmas they’d get a bag of oranges – all the way from a place called Florida!!

Back then dinner was a sit-down family affair, and she continued this tradition when I was growing up. We had a big old farm bell in our suburban front yard. You could hear it all the way to the edge of my known world, and when it rang, you’d better haul your ass home to dinner. Of course my brother, sister, and I tended to resent this tribal obligation. While many of our friends were free to wander home whenever they pleased and forage for leftovers or TV dinners, we were stuck in Family Land, talking, laughing, and passing around hot casseroles. In hindsight, from the perspective of nutrition, some of the food was unhealthy. But the meal – the overall experience – was infinitely nourishing.

As Pollan writes in the intro: “We forget that historically, people have eaten for a great many reasons other than biological necessity. Food is also about pleasure, about community, about family and spirituality, about our relationship to the natural world, and about expressing our identity.”

We know instinctively that food and community are inseparable, but we struggle so hard in this drive-thru age. Incredible advances have been made in nutrition – not all old habits are good just because they’re old – and I for one am happy for the variety today. But with 1 in 6 Americans eating lunch in the car, how do we change the system and reclaim a holistic definition of EAT?

What was a meal for you growing up? Talk to your families – hopefully you’re lucky enough to have a few generations still hanging around – find out what they ate. And how they ate. And why. What about your distant ancestors? What is your Gastro-Geneology?

Would love to hear your thoughts on In Defense of Food.

Peace,
– Brian
PS – thanks Dhrumil for a great blog!