The Three Day Fast

I'm on a three day fast. Which means no food at all. Nada. It's not fun but it is interesting.

And of course, I've just driven myself crazy posting a picture of a quiche I made because you're 'supposed' to have a picture on a blog posting. Sometimes I do make myself laugh...

So, you say, why are you doing the fast if you don't enjoy it? Who would?! But there are three reasons really - it's good for my body and it's good self-discipline - and because of John-down-the-road.

When I was ill a year or so ago, I ate very healthily but since then I've gone back down the 'yummy carbs' route probably because I'll never be one of those people who only eat to live. I love my food! And I love baking and making treats for others.

When I was sick I ate keto as much as I could - no sugar, virtually no carbs for 18 solid months (and no alcohol either). I certainly got slender - though ironically that wasn't any part of the goal - and people said that I'd never want to go back to sugar. Really? On what planet? I have to say I'd love to be one of those people who genuinely discovers that sugar no longer appeals but it certainly wasn't the truth for me.

When I bake nowadays I bake gluten-free (which is probably why so much of my food is messy - see articles below!) but I still include maple syrup or sugar when the recipe requires it. I focus on the gluten-free not because I'm coeliac but because I just think it's healthier. Who knows how much mess there is bound into most gluten? Apart from anything else, most pesticides are formulated to destroy the insect's stomach and if you have enough of that in your own tummy ... well, need I say more?

Incidentally, the quiche pictured is 50-50 gluten free and normal flour. That was quite simple: I just made two pastries and stuck them together. The non GF half was for my husband.

It would, of course, be healthier to drop the sugar too - but I don't want to. And I am a fervent believer that what makes you happy is a valid pathway to greater health. Eat as well as you can and eat happily and you are doing okay. I hardly ate happily any day for those 18 months; it was a grind and that's not how I want to live my life. It's not healthy!

There is research that supports what seems to be true for me - that the body tries to re-build the fat it used to have before you dieted/got sick. It seems that it believes that being skinny is not the accepted, healthy norm for it - and as the dieting doesn't actually remove the fat cells, just makes them skinny. They want to fill out again.

Hence the fast. I reckon that if I want to stay as healthy as possible and I intend to eat stuff that is 'bad for me' and which makes me joyful then I also need to allow my digestion and immune system the chance to take some time out and re-set itself. Here's an article about it. If there's no food to process, the stomach can rest ... and if there's nothing to spark any reactions, the immune system can get on with sorting out what really matters like any rogue cells, that sniffle that's gone on too long or anything else that might need repairing.

What's fascinating is that, here on day two, I'm not hungry. Truly, there has been no rumbling yet at all. But I miss the routine of eating breakfast, lunch, tea and supper with my husband, I miss the anticipation of meals, I miss the cooking. And I miss the food!  I can smell Lion's lunctime soup and his supper much more than I would notice the scent of my own food. And I'm finding it hard to concentrate which means my blood sugar is (understandably) low. But I'm incredibly proud of myself. In many ways I lack self-discipline but this is an exercise in just that and it's pleasing that I am ready, willing and (so far) able to do it.

Oh...the bit about John-down-the-road: John is an incredible man who heals people with chronic pain through EFT and kinesiology. He truly has had some wonderful results but, just like all healers, he has had his failures too, including, partially, himself. He had arthritis. Now he didn't have it like he 'should' have had it because of his work on himself and his diet and his beliefs; it has reduced and reduced since he started healing work and became simply faint but it was still there. So John (who has shedloads of money and never charges for his healing work - bless him) went off to Arizona to do a three week fast, to reset his immune system enough to clear his arthritis.

This fast was fully medically supervised - he wasn't even allowed to leave the facility which, to me would have been hell! - and all he took in for 21 days was water. He was bored out of his brain but he did it.

And the arthritis went.

Now, I don't have the guts to do 21 days but I can be inspired by John and I can manage three days and I can intend to do this at least every six months as an act of love towards this marveous, beautiful body of mine.

And on Friday, I can have another of those uttely yummy GF, organic brownies I made on Sunday. If Lion hasn't scoffed the lot.

Downtown Sedona

'The Spirit of the West' Downtown Sedona.

"It's ruined; nothing but a tourist trap," said some people. "It's fabulous," said others. Downtown Sedona is simultaneously neither and both. Oddly enough, there is even one shop where you could buy groceries, vegetables and fruit although they are rather exclusive groceries, vegetables and fruit.

It's full of shops selling Indian jewellery, teeshirts and sweatshirts, artisan clothing, New Age shops, art galleries, hats, bags, leather goods and restaurants. Nothing is cheap; some of it is tacky; some of it is fabulous. That's exactly how it is in every American 'tourist town' I've ever visited.

But Sedona is different. There are no lights above street level at night to guard against light pollution so if you go for a walk in town in the evening you need a torch; every other building seems to offer healing of some kind; McDonalds had to paint their famous arch green as the yellow one wasn't allowed and there's no Wal-Mart. You can view all of that as lovely or pretentious; it's up to you. There is, of course, light pollution from all the cars driving through but it is reduced.

In layout, downtown Sedona is a typical American Main Street, laid out in one straight line, with some shopping arcades either side and, apart from said groceries shop, pretty much nothing sensible to buy. But hey, who wants to buy sensible in Sedona?

Downtown Sedona is an experience. It's best on a lovely sunny day, of course, but our first visit was in pouring rain during November and it still kept our attention. That first day, there was nothing to see bu the shops and the puddles on the sidewalk but, on your-average-Arizona day you can gaze at the wonderful red rock formations while pottering round the shops which makes it a spectacular event just being there. In that way it's similar to our home on Dartmoor where you only have to look over the gate to have your breath taken away, although I have to admit that, at home, we don't sell Indian jewellery or have a Wild West Movies museum… Perhaps we should.

There's a load of free parking just off the main street (head to the right from the 'Y') and it's on the right at the end of the shopping part of Main Street. If you don't know what the 'Y' is, no worries; you'll soon find out if you come to Sedona. Or, you can stop off while take the trolley bus around town. It's fairly cute (on fine days) and goes to several 'scenic view' spots as well though it's not cheap at at $18 a head.

However, we'd got a kick-ass Dodge Challenger so my petrol-head husband wanted to drive everywhere and I didn't fancy pottering around and waiting for the bus to come round again to pick us up.

So, what's on the street that's interesting? There's the fudge shop… They pummel the fudge to death — sorry make it —in front of your eyes and it is utterly forbidden-fruit irresistible, delicious and indulgent (you don't actually believe that Eve was tempted by a piece of fruit, do you? She was a woman for God's sake! It had to be, at very least, a fudge tree).

Okay, the fudge doesn't look very thrilling just like that but the folks were folding it over like flaky pastry and, trust me, the end result was gorgeous.

I wanted to do an interview with Tudy [sic] the owner of Sedona Fudge Company not only because it's fabulous fudge but because its origin was a glorious mistake and I like stories like that. But Tudy was out on the first day we went in and in hospital (not for anything serious, I'm glad to say) when we went back so that didn't happen.

It all began back in 1887 when a chocolate-maker started his own business in Michigan and made a chocolate fondue which went horribly wrong … and turned into fudge with a really creamy texture that everyone went crazy about. I do that kind of cooking all the time but I've yet to make a business out of it so big kudos to him! It's all natural ingredients without preservatives and they include a diabetic chocolate as well sweetened with a natural plant product that begins with M but I've forgotten it and can't find it on Google (if you know its name, do tell me in the comments and I'll edit this - thanks).

What else? Ah, yes, returning to the beautiful original picture of 'the Spirit of the West', Sedona is filled with just glorious bronze statues, mostly of horses. You just want to climb up onto 'the Spirit of the West' and urge him into a gallop. And there's the lovely pony with a puppy trotting at its feet as well… This used to be in a separate shopping area called Tlaquepaque but is now in the main stretch, inside a small mall.

Not to mention the dancing couple that are on a wheel and swing round and round if you push them...

Probably the only really disappointing shop/place was Sedona Motion Picture Museum which has dozens of black and white photos of all the movies that have beens shot in the area (and there were a lot). However, it is only one room and the staff were grumpy and unhelpful on that particular day. One of them half-heartedly tried to offer us a horse-ride at a very cheap price in return for our seeing a time-share presentation. As we'd already been round that loop (of which, more later) we weren't interested.

It is a lovely town centre. Even Lion, who doesn't enjoy shopping, was happy to go around it twice. And if it is a tourist trap, so what? These tourists enjoyed it.

"About as Much Use as a Chocolate Teapot" — Exeter Christmas Market no. 2

So realistic!

Being a chocoholic, I've never quite understood that phrase. It might not do as a teapot but it's still chocolate and that's always useful.

Of course, it's the time of year for chocolate Santas, snowmen and reindeer — although the latter look rather worryingly like ear-amputated leftover chocolate bunny rabbits at Easter with different wrapping. We're fairly used to chocolate in odd shapes and sizes by now.

But a chocolate monkey wrench? A chocolate paintbrush? A chocolate slice of mousetrap cheese? A chocolate salami? Why? Why? Why?

I don't know why, but I know this stall from The Amazing Chocolate Workshop  stopped me in my tracks at Exeter Christmas market. It was almost impossible to believe that they were selling chocolate. Luckily, one of them gave me a morsel to prove it and it was delicious chocolate. Gluten-free, 65% delicious chocolate.

Oh, and if you look carefully at the picture above, you'll see they actually do sell chocolate teapots. Dammit, if I'd just noticed that when I was there, I'd have bought a couple of those. What a fabulous Christmas present!

I'm not sure whether they were doing a roaring trade because the chocolate spanners were stealing the show and there was a part of a few people's psyches going 'you'll hurt your teeth on those.' Quite how that works out when our teeth are quite happy to sink into a chocolate Santa, I don't know, but the brain is weird in its wiring until it's used to stuff.

But I do know that now I've looked at the pictures and had a browse on their website, I want to go back and buy stuff.

Unfortunately, they don't sell online yet, but there's a form on the site that you can fill in and they'll tell you when they do.

But if you're near Exeter and you're looking for a genuinely unusual chocolate Christmas present (and one for you too), you simply have to visit this stall.

Weirdest — and Sweetest — Car Park Ever.

There was a time, and not so long ago either, when, if you were a vegan, you couldn't have the treats that the rest of us take for granted. Maybe that's what made so many vegans so cross with the rest of the world?

It's always interested me why those who care so much for the planet and its creatures are often willing to psychologically attack humans who don't share their beliefs. Obviously, they believe that we are all wrong but there are good ways and means of educating us and blaming and shaming isn't one of them.

I once had a former student tell me I was the personification of evil and she was recycling all my books because she had found out that I ate meat. She added that she would have burnt them but she was a good woman and wasn't going to add that pollution to the planet.

She may well have been a good woman although I'm always suspicious of those who actually tell me that, just as I'm suspicious of those who say 'I'm coming from the heart' which is so often egoic passive aggression for 'and you're not.'

I know she's right in a way — at least in that it would be better for the world if we ate much more vegetarian food and much less meat and I hope I'll get there in my own time. But not when I'm exposed to hatred. She was full of the Biblical commandment 'thou shalt not kill,' but what she didn't realise was that the Hebrew commandment is actually  'thou shalt not commit murder' — it's nearly always mistranslated — and to the mystic that includes psychological murder: the attacking and shaming of another.

And the world is changing. I am delighted to see that. Chocola Tree in Sedona is a herald of the (I'm sure gratefully received) New Age belief that it's okay to have yummy stuff including chocolate if you're vegan and wear purple clothes with too many buttons. Or even if you're not.

It's a fascinating rabbit-warren of a shop with fabulous ginger, lemon and honey lemonade, fresh juices and a delicious menu that's all vegan, gluten-free, organic or locally-sourced, GM-free — and it has a whole counter of chocolate. Have a look at their fabulous range of treats here. They made my mouth water.

Lion, who's an archetypical bloke and into his Sunday roast and sausages wasn't all that keen but I know that if I lived in Sedona, this would be my (alternative) coffee shop of choice.

Chocola Tree is  the kind of thing that's going to inspire people to change — it is filled with good feelings, good food and friendly staff.

They also have a very amusing, weird and loving car park. Here are some of the signs in it.








And finally, they sell tee-shirts with lovely life-affirming messages such as this:



You change the world with love, not hatred. You promote peace by being peace. Chocola Tree rocks!