JVG Fastblog

In a rather perfect, almost Disney- if not Greek tragic - fit twist, of course the crap weather of yesterday turned..well, perfect(!) on the day we had to hop into taxi for Zurich airport. To wit: But, I (and speaking for Vicky too, who consented verbally), I mean we are not complaining. When younger brother Dannysport asked today how we were feeling, the obvious answer was also beautifully true:  lighter (fersure!) in both body and spirit. Faithful readers will know that ol' John managed one more treatment even before 11:00am checkout (and don't mess around with that, right? Remember this is Germany and we have rules!) from the highly reputed osteopath Herr Kaiser-Schropfe, and yeah, since I'm about as au fait with osteopathy as I am with...well, most else that we experienced here, I don't have much in the way of intelligent (heh! intellectualism! Who needs it?) commentary to make about it. Suffice it to say that while I was feeling lighter in ever-heavy and compresse...

Today started with a proper muesli (oh, yummers!) and ended with a bit of piano jazz from a 'local' who grew up in Manhattan and trained in composition and keyboard with Thelonius Monk's own teacher. He played mostly pieces written by Monk and then Duke Ellington - two giants from very different jazz eras (his knowledge, although Len will remember our one music course back in New Jersey so I did have some vestigial memories of the history...) who overlapped in early 60s and did spark off each other. Because it was raining, cold and grey from the jump on this not sunny Sunday, we passed on the 7:45am departure for walking tour (call us crazy) and enjoyed first a wonderful breakfast which we will definitely make back at home (requests for recipes will all be honoured, please). Bircher muesli that was much more fruit than oat and bran, and exceedingly healthy AND tasty, for it.  Then, as we both had a lot more energy than the preceding day, a nice bout of exercise in the gym b...

We did actually sit at a real table for dinner tonight - look, Mom, real friends! - for actual food you can chew instead of the broths (tasty, but light) we've been eating for the past nine days.  Vicky's asparagus and carrots were wonderful - and toothy, nicely al dente - and it is both season for and asparagus-growing region around here, we were told, but other thrills included simply the ritual of dinner as pleasure and company (my friend Zach calls it breaking bread, which was absolutely true even if there was no sign of any baked products anywhere). It was also nice going back to (multiple - it's been all one spoon meals, yeah?) utensils, actually chewing, and yes, even a "coffee" digestif, although of course not the real beans.  ( Chicory coffee , for those in the know - aka 'camp coffee' so there are some aspersions (used during war, say, when real coffee beans weren't available) but tasty to these deprived/sharpened taste buds, no question). T...

...and the re-feeding starts tomorrow (well, at dinner time, and it's only a thicker soup, but still...the party's coming to an end shortly). Rather than report the day's activities (I suppose there will be at least one picture and a peaceful video from my 2-hour group walk this afternoon), perhaps better to address a dear friend's question of whether this is a bit much of an effort for two absolutely regularly healthy people. Looking north over the Bodensee/Lake Constance It's certainly true that both Vicky and I are substantially lower in mass then when we started this process, and I won't complain about using one more hole in my belt than I have had to, probably since the beginning of the COVID sloth and wine-drinking! But aside from a few clients here who are medically overweight, the central goal isn't weight loss but rather the metabolic reset (switching from sugar burning system to fat-burning) and more importantly, the detox that comes along with gre...

It's been so gorgeous here lately* that this morning's clouds and rain were a real let down, but after the very low energy day yesterday - whew! Glad that's over - I woke up, well, not exactly leaping to get going, but close. The morning meditation with ever wonderful Gilbert was a treat - perhaps some of you felt the LovingKindness beaming over from Germany? - and in almost black and white contrast to yesterday, I felt none of the heaviness of head that afflicted me from the beginning of the sitting. And then chest-expanding yoga followed by stretching, lunch with new friends Andrew and Patrick, and then Qi Therapy - I had an examination from a (German) doc who practices Chinese medicine which felt a lot like an amalgam of serious osteopathy/chiropractor stuff, cranial-sacral energy work, and yes! My first ever experience with acupuncture - some unknown number of needles in the belly (more than 5, less than 10 - so gentle hard to know exactly) which no, I cannot claim any ...

Seventh day felt like the first drag of the fasting period - from first meditation class, even prone on mat, there was so much heaviness in my head I almost couldn't perceive anything (sunny day, the dulcet tones of teacher Gilbert) but the fog. The good news is it wasn't pain - no headache - but it did hamper even the limited activities I had scheduled. A little more yoga in the morning and crabby lunch - speaking only of me, please, certainly not Vicky or any of the lovely fasting friends - before my first ever experience with Chi Nei Tsang healing treatment , in short a traditional Chinese therapy involving lots of abdominal and thorax massage and attention. I woke up enough to pay attention for the 50 minute hour, but even so, I'm fairly sure I didn't get as much as might have been garnered from it. It was a pleasant sensation particularly as the old alimentary system - a 'tube within a tube' thank you Dr. Nels Granholm - hasn't been called upon much in ...

While I acknowledge that part of my wanting to come here was to take a step back, rest and listen inwards, I have to admit I’m loving the full daily schedules too – if nothing else because they distract from what might otherwise become unsatisfiable hunger pangs. And I know that while I would certainly get a lot out the deeply meditative mode I could get into these two weeks - and to a certain degree I am by just taking care of myself for once - I’m also getting so much out of the treatments and group sessions too. Shiatsu massage, traditional Thai massage, brush massage, foot reflexology, full body massage. Stretching, meditation, yoga, colon massage, pranayama & peace chanting, spinal fitness, psychological counselling… to name a few. And that was just last week. As well as the glorious two-hour walking excursions every day through the vineyards here. And a visit to the Salem Monastery and Palace, an impressive 10 th  century redone in the 19 th  century complex that Joh...

And it's another glorious day in Überlingen - this one kicking off with slow half hour of stretching and then a huge wayback experience with a session of Progressive Muscle Relaxation (PMR) which I know I remember from somewhere back in maybe even teen-age years, but I haven't done it for, well, decades and it was so simple and yeah, relaxing. Ended the half-hour with delicious feeling of looseness in my limbs and enormous heaviness in my head...ha! Quiet day ahead with both traditional Thai massage and some counselling in the afternoon, plus a demonstration (I don't think we'll get to taste...) class in making vegetarian antipasti before dinner. I'll be there, and anybody London-ish please do consider coming over to try some of 'em over the next few weeks and months - we'll be experimenting from the Buchinger cookbook for a while at least. Stats still moving, and I slept almost through the night last night (we're drinking so much water both for flushi...

Easter Sunday meant even the staff of Buchinger Wilhelmi got some time off, so some new friends took three of us along to tour the monastery and palace at Salem , aka Kloster und Schloss Salem. The day couldn't have been a lot better, but in the interest of peeling onion layers (oops, did I say normal tourist stuff? Well, normal tourists explore their inner experiences too, don't that?) there were two noticeable slips from glorious: 1) when the tour guide delivered a Trunchbull-esque verbal slapdown to our friend Shiva because she had the absolute gall to help out those of us non-German speakers with an English translation from time to time during the guide's powerful but seemingly both fixed and uninterruptible presentations (Vicky was herself terrorised by this, and it wasn't even directed at her - her (VERY) sotto voce comment to me was "this is what scary Germans are like"), and 2) even though it was a sunny April day, still only about 45F so the huge bloc...

Very few words today - the usual afternoon walk was early for Easter Sunday so we were on the coach by 7:45am (don't be late - it goes bang on German time) for a walk through the countryside and lots of vineyards...  But even before that, we were up early enough to catch the Easter moon before sunrise...and I'm sure I can't blame my iPhone since it's obvs user error, but this will at least serve as aide memoire for me, watching the moonlight shine over the Bodensee as it moved across... Stats: BP: 125/74 Kg: 74.1

A busy Easter Saturday here at camp, where we started the morning with pranayama exercises and then unison chanting of a mantra for peace for the day's amuse-bouche, and ended with very serious and powerful discussion by the clinic's head of medicine Dr. Françoise Wilhelmi de Toledo (those paying attention at home will notice the common last name in there, and yes, she did marry the third-generation heir to the biz Raimund) about the Bach oratorio combined with ballet performance by John Neumaier's troupe in Hamburg of St. Matthew's Passion. Yes, we do cover a wide gamut here, fersure. As it was the day before the resurrection festivals, Vicky and I attended the discussion of the music, dance interpretation, and the biblical drama (of course underpinned by enormous conflict...in the good doctor's words, "a drama about the death of an innocent man who has no chance of being understood in the face of the collective unconscious." You see the connection, no?...

Since I've been writing so much about the ancillary support that goes along with the fasting (was it Mark Twain who said "Show, don't tell"?) here's some showing... Yes, it was another day of two bowls of (seriously, lovely) vegetable soups - today was beetroot lunch and pumpkin dinner, plus meditation and yoga in the morning, but with a free afternoon I wandered down campus to the Kunsthaus for...painting classes! Although "class" is a pretty strong word for what was really an experimental, 'see what you like,' 'give it a try' kind of free-form art lab. We were given green ink and twigs as our medium, and after one stab at using the branch like a pencil I was gently encouraged to hold it nothing like a pen at all but rather just at the opposite end of the twig from the one with ink on it. I understood Frau Klakla's point while trying it, that doing it that way makes it (obviously!) looser and freer, and more important pretty much im...

Short one today, but not because there weren't any good stories. It's just that I think mistakenly "stealing" someone else's Colon HydroFlow treatment both: 1) deserves more detail and an in-person telling, plus 2) isn't really the thing for a PG-rated public journal either The main points remain both a surprisingly (shockingly? Heck, even gobsmackingly) imperceptible sensation of hunger - really, neither Vicky nor I have been craving food - and more generally, the feeling of shifting positively on all kinds of fronts in addition to the dietetic. I've been feeling good amounts of physical energy (stretching and Pilates-esque classes today, e.g.) as well as calming down (anyone reading this - hello? Anyone? - will know that slowness or calm aren't parts of the universe I'm ever even in the neighbourhood of!) both intellectually and at the same time emotionally too.  More on that over the rest of the two weeks, but obviously with my fervent hopes -...

It’s 5pm and, so far, I haven’t had any real hunger pangs, although we just came back from our two hour hike and I must admit my old reflex of “I could use a snack” after that much cold, fresh air and exercise definitely kicked in. Sure, I’d love a cookie now but a) like I said, I’m not really hungry, just habituated, and b) that would be considered cheating… and while I’m not out to win the prize of who can lose the most weight in ten days, I do want to do this properly. Not to mention that there simply is nothing available to snack on – and if there were, it sure as heck wouldn’t be covered in chocolate sprinkles. So I’m learning a lot about self-discipline, and cravings, and perfectionism, and am happy to wait another hour of so until we get our next bowl of soup.   Lunch was a very generous portion of parsnip soup with lots of fresh herbs. It was absolutely delicious, and really filling. Taken in a very tastefully decorated, quiet, cozy salon with huge windows overlooking Lake ...

BP: 118/66 Wt: 77.0kg Well, it's just the start of first official day of fasting, and I've taken my solution of Glauber salt to...ahem...start the process. After it's done its work, I'll be on two doses of light vegetable consommé each day (those are the lunch and dinner) along with all the water and herbal tea I can drink! We'll have tea with a spoon of honey each morning for 'breakfast' too, which who knows? Could be a massive treat and thing to look forward to, or...not. As for internal reportage, curiously I'm not feeling hungry, even after the light day of vegetarian cuisine yesterday. Woke up this morning with mild headache and didn't sleep uninterruptedly either, but nothing bothersome in either case. The cranial-sacral emotional balancing treatment yesterday was...well, I'd say eye-opening except my eyes were closed for most of it, and anyway, the more apropos term would be closer to heart-opening. A little weird to be 1.5kg lighter in a...

BP: 122/70 Weight: 78.5kg Actual fast starts tomorrow - this beginning day is to gently bring us down to the low (Low!) calorie plan we'll be on starting tomorrow, so today is rather lovely vegetarian three "square" meals that nets out at something like 600-700 calories all in. It's cool but beautiful here in Uberlingen - this is the view out of my definitely not luxe-o resort room, but oh! I'm not complaining...

Over the past few days, as I slowly began to focus on the fact that we’re about to go – three more sleeps! one more dog walk! – to subsist on 200 calories a day for 9 days as we do yoga, hike, try new therapies (Tibetan singing bowls!), have massages, read and sleep, I noticed the flashes of fear and exhilaration, sarcastic quips, questions and observations that were whizzing through me –     Could I possibly own enough Lululemon for 2 weeks of self-care? - Sadly, yes, I do. But is this  really  the first question that comes to mind?! When Germans say “Bring one set of dressier clothes for evening program” what exactly does that mean? Ha. Germans and their relationship to dressiness is one thing I should probably know something about. Wait – we can’t wear Lululemon to a concert in town? And what if the “dressier clothes” I bring don’t fit me anymore by the time we go out? They won’t feel – or look – dressy at all then. Oh boy. Who invented the concept of an optional ...

For those of you looking for a little background, here is the TLDR story. I’ve been fascinated by the whole idea of fasting since…yikes, I don’t even know but it started with an  article  from GQ something like a decade ago.  The health arguments in favour of periodic, significant calorie restriction seemed unarguable even then, and today with all the attention around such concepts as the 5:2 diet, reduced eating windows, OMAD (one meal a day) and even such star power as Chris “Thor” Hemsworth working with fasting guru Peter Attia on his Disney+ show Limitless, it can’t be said not to be in the mainstream anymore.  This despite the, ahem, wide variety of responses we’ve garnered in telling friends about our Easter holiday plans. Yes, it isn’t exactly expected to go on a roughly 200 calorie per day regimen over the usual feast-y Passover week/Easter weekend. That said, the anti-inflammatory, overall gut health and metabolism reset, and pretty solidly evidenced a...

10:15am London City Airport It's our mutual last coffees and last “bad” (carb, meaty - for fuck’s sake, I had a bacon egg roll!) food before flight to Zurich.   The mood is quiet, even subdued. Cautiously excited about the prospect of a life-changing experience - with our chosen partner too - whilst also not wanting to believe too hard in any magic bullet. Which, by the way, this isn’t - especially as Vicky noted she cleaned her Nespresso machine in anticipation of its not use on our return.