Helen Melon's Page

Yes.  My last attempt was 20 days w/out sugar and 15 days w/out coffee.  My new start is 1/1/11.  Since then I've had no sugar, salt, gluten, or animal protein.  As of today I'm excluding coffee, oils, chemicals and preservatives, and adding probiotics (which I define as fermented veggies and fermented soy milk).

I may one day be raw.

Ron

I'm just now getting back to 20BaD after falling off over New Year's.  I've now been vegan and 80% raw since 1/1/11.

I read 80-10-10 four years ago, when I first tried and failed at this program.  At that time I summarized the book in my mind as, "Eat all the fruits and veggies I want--and nothing else--for many reasons"!  Is that your summation of the book?  I don't have it now, and I don't plan to reread it.

Am I making a mistake to try this program again with nothing more than that recollection of the book?

Ron

Damn!  I found more black mold in my sink!  The rubber grommet holding the strainer had mold spreading out from it.  This was probably the seed where the spores came from that wound up in my closet.  No telling where the original spore came from; the one that was first deposited on my black rubber grommet. 

I suppose that if I buy all kinds of things from all kinds of places and bring it home to my sink, then eventually I'm going to wind up with a black mold spore in the grommet of the drain in my sink.

Anyway, I'm feeling much better; sleeping much better; and having less upper-respiratory distress since I got the black mold out of my apartment.

Another problem in Seattle is vitamin D because we get lots of cloudy days and rain here--and very little sun--most of the year.  That is a formula for low Vitamin D levels.  I take D3 supplements, hoping to survive a few more years in Seattle, before I move to New Guinea to die. 

Ron

Today I decided to simplify my life by selling my computer and keeping my dog!!

Are you suggesting that if I ate more fats and oils that I would not have been so susceptible to the temptation of that coconut treat?  That I would not have been so "weak" when I walked past that pecan pie?  That the smell of that tuna casserole would not have been so attractive for me?  Maybe I should stay away from normal people when they are socializing with SAD?  I stay out of casinos because I don't want to drink!!  Is it the same thing with food?

If your hair falls out on this diet, is it healthy?  Is this a healthy diet for an elderly person?  Should I be eating this way if I'm 67 y/o?  Maybe I'll hurt my brain and get dementia!!!

What if I add nuts to my salads?  What if I eat bean tacos and put avocado in the tomato, onion and green pepper salsa?  What if I use coconut milk as a cooking oil when I stir-fry veggies (I'm not 100% raw yet)?  What if I substitute corn tortillas for bread (I have to grill them because I don't like them raw); they have oil, don't they?

I got a bag of golden flax seed.  How much should I put on my salad?  What if I put flax seed in my smoothies?  How much oil am I getting if I add all this together?  Will it keep me from having heart disease and dementia?  Will my hair fall out?  Will it protect me from sugar cravings?

What about durian?  That has a high oil content, doesn't it?  It's cheaper during the Summer.  What about whole coconut in the shell?

Ron

Yes, falling off was more like "getting physically sick"!  It also had a mental aspect to it, because it was as if that one pressed-coconut "treat" had made me "crazy"!  I started obsessively-compulsively eating more sugar, and more sugar, and more sugar--until I made myself sick!  That's crazy!

Actually, in AA we say that there is a mental, physical and spiritual aspect to relapse on alcohol.  I think it must be somewhat true about sugar as well.  Are you familiar with the 12-approach to addiction?  I wonder if you could identify with it?  Can you remember your last "junk food relapse"?  Actually, I think the relapse has to be bad enough for it to be classified as a "binge."  Then I think the addiction approach probably would apply.

Say we talk about alcohol and decide if the same thing is true for sugar; salt; junk food; fats and oils...the whole SAD diet, in fact! 

The theory is that, if I drink enough alcohol, I can actually make myself physically sick (cirrhosis of the liver, Delerium Tremens, etc.), which are physical.  Of course, I would have to be crazy to drink that much alcohol, which gives it a mental aspect as well.  Such a person would have to be suffering from an obsessive-compulsive personality!!  Otherwise, why couldn't he leave alcohol alone?  Such an obsessive-compulsive person would have to be crazy, wouldn't he, to make himself physically sick by drinking so much alcohol that he damages his own health!

Well, what kind of person would do that?  ...Only a spiritually-sick person would do that.  A normal person would not need alcohol for a crutch; an escape; and excuse.  A normal person would not need alcohol to feel good; to have fun; to socialize; to overcome low self-esteem....  Well, what kind of person would need alcohol to do those things?  Only a person who did not have the right relationship with God and Man!   Ron

Yes, black mold can be deadly, as a matter of fact.  If you have it undetected in your house, it can cause headaches, cough, chronic respiratory problems, lung disease, skin rashes....  Black mold is serious.  It grows in wet, humid places, so I'm trying to keep my apartment dry.  That's why I take my wet clothes to the dryer when I take them off.

I used to throw my dirty laundry and wet towels on the carpet, in my walk-in closet.  Then I thought I must have thrown something dirty in there, because I noticed a stain on the carpet...no big deal.  I was sleeping 6' from the closet.  I have sleep apnea.  I developed headaches, chronic cough, sore throat, bleeding sinus mucous membranes and a productive cough.  Of course, I thought these were related to my sleep apnea; the air pressure; the humidity of the air through my mask, etc.  It got worse and progressed to the point where I was thinking that I could not tolerate CPAP.  Then I happened to discover black mold symptoms one day on the internet.  On successive days, I poured alcohol, vinegar, hydrogen peroxide on my carpet to kill the mold, then scrubbed up the stains with baking soda to remove the last of the mold.  Since that time, I've had no trouble with CPAP and I'm sleeping much better!  I thought I was dieing from sleep apnea!!!

Seattle has a rainy season and a dry season.  This time of year we are getting rain almost every day, and I'm trying to make sure that my apartment doesn't get wet--because I'm already sure that I've got the black mold spores in my apartment.  A little humidity and I would have black mold again!

Ron

Yes, things are better with the dog.  They couldn't be better, in fact; but that is because I'm spending 24/7 controlling, training, exercising, feeding, cleaning and caring for him, and my apartment.  I think a big dog in such a small apartment is too much, especially since I don't have a car.

Three times a day we slog through the rain and mud for 5+ miles; and three times a day I clean him and wash and dry my clothes, shoes, coat, gloves and towels so I don't get black mold in my apartment.  Even at that, I'm watching my apartment get slowly degraded.  I can see that I will have to pay for carpet, paint, woodwork and furniture if this continues.

I have not yet had time--or energy--to work out at the YMCA, go to a square dance, reformat my C: drive and re-install my operating system or repair my back-up system to remove all the adware, spyware and viruses I have on my computer.   I can hardly even keep up with my emails, finances and responsibilities--small as they may be--since I'm retired!!

I'll have to have Styx boarded while I'm away on all-day or overnight trips to the V.A. for golf or treatment.  I don't want to get into leaving him in his crate for 4+ hours while I'm out, and then have to cope with the behavior problems that will cause.  When we have adequate time together there are no behavior problems, and I don't want to introduce them into the relationship.

I could go on and on.  I made a mistake to believe I could keep a large dog in a small apartment without even a car for transportation.  When we go somewhere, I can't leave him in the car, because I don't have one!

So I'm calling the shelter today to make arrangements to take him back to the same place I adopted him.  It hurts me to do it.  As Buddha said, "Behind every little pleasure and happiness lies some kind of pain."

Ron

I fell victim to a tragedy today, and I sometimes wonder if other people have the same kinds of problems I do....  I bought some fruit and greens at my favorite fruit stand today and they had some chopped coconut pressed together for sale beside the register, so I took some--though I knew that it was obviously held together by sticky sugar.

It had been about 20 days since I had eaten any sugar, but I seemed to be in control and prided myself on how slowly I ate the whole thing and savored each bite.  Then two hours later I walked into my apartment building and discovered that the normal people were having a potlatch of some kind, so I had some pecan pie while I watched the news.  Then some more pie...then some peanut butter cookies...then some brownie bites...then some apple pie...then took a tuna casserole back home a split the rest of it with my dog.  Neither of us should eat "people food," but we loved it.

So now I have all my cravings back and I've lost all the progress I made over the last 20 days!  I'm hopeless!!  Do you think other people do this type of thing?

Ron

We walked a mile to the bus transfer station this morning, rode to Edmonds and walked to the off-leash dog park, which is a triangular area abutting the Puget Sound.  He too a s*** right on the sidewalk.  We were so early that no one else was there, so we played Tug of War with a rope, and Chase the Tennis Ball into the Water.  We were learning a bit more about each other, and then he ran head first into a large wave and got knocked off his feet.  After that he seemed to be through playing Chase the Tennis Ball into the Water, which I thought was odd for a male Black Lab.

Then we walked around Lynnwood and rode the bus back to Echo Lake, which is home, and played Chase the Ducks.  Something seemed to click today and he quit pulling on his leash and settled down to walk with me instead of ahead of me.

I fed him in his crate when we got back and locked the door behind him for 10 minutes after he finished eating.  He's in his crate now and he seems to be comfortable in there.  So we made very good progress today...yesterday he was off leash and ran at a woman in the dark and exploded barking behind her--and she let out such a blood-curdling scream that I decided not to let him off leash anymore when people are around.  I still feel guilty about how badly we scared that poor woman!!  Things went better today.

Ron