Skin and Hunger

[glowingwillow]

Okay, so I've been slowly transitioning into mb for the last two weeks. I have included many more whole grains and wg food, and lessening sugar and dairy (didn't eat much to begin with) and processed foods. I have two concerns I wondered if someone could help with.

1) I've gone down a full clothing size in about a week and a half. Now my skin is sagging. I've lost weight before (even fairly fast) but never has my skin become so loose. I know there are creams containing peptides to help with the caliginous quantity in the dermis layer to rebuild the structure of the skin. I will probably try one at some point, but I'm waiting for my skin to pull in some. Is there anything mb I can do to help my outer most organ firm up?

2) I've rarely experienced this in my life, but I wake up at about three or four in the morning famished. I know to help with digestion and to sleep more soundly I shouldn't eat two to three hours before I go to bed and I try to eat brown rice or oat meal so the complex carbs can sustain me through the night. It's not a normal hunger either, being more intense than anything I have experienced. Is this normal for beginners and will it regulate as time goes on?

I'm enjoying the journey - it's been quite exciting so far!

GW

[Bruce Paine]

glowingwillow,

I lost one hundred pounds in one year (before becoming macro; mostly liquid diet and vigorous exercise, hitchhiking from Southern California to North Carolina during the hot Spring to Summer while carrying a very heavy backback) and though my clothing sizes were smaller, I never had loose skin so my feeling is that maybe you need more vigorous exercise to compensate for the skin loosening, not any chemicals or cosmetics.

Are you tired when you wake up?

Just like most people in the greater society need more liquids, they also need more sleep.

Waking up hungry is a sign of good health and if you are sleeping five or more hours and waking up hungry, just be grateful.

Years before macrobiotics I slept an average of 8 to ten hours a night (I was smoking pot often and eating what most people eat).

Just before macrobiotics I met Scott Nearing who told me that he slept only 5 hours a night, going to bed at 10, getting up at 3am, writing till sunup, working outside until sundown and then cooking and eating dinner and retiring at 10pm (Scott lived until a week after his 100th birthday!).

From 1974 till recently I slept just 5 hours per night.

Sometimes I sleep more and take naps during the day (I wash street-level windows during dry weekdays and drive taxi rainy days and some nights for 12 hours per shift) so my sleep can be somewhat irregular!

Anyway if you are not sleepy when you wake up, that's what can happen when you stop eating meat, dairy and all the other foods of the greater society.

Reorganize your day and make good use of your extra awake time!

Thank you, very much.

Bruce Paine

[glowingwillow]

Bruce,

Thanks for replying.

Due to my broken back I can't exercise much. I have an elliptical machine because it's nicer to my joints, but just a 20 minutes workout means a day and a half recoup. If my back is overworked or my vertebrae slips my legs aren't as responsive and I can't walk well. So exercise is an iffy issue, though I'm trying.

When I wake I still feel half asleep, just hungry. And I try to ignore it because I am so tired and don't want to get up. But if I get up and eat something I quickly get back to sleep and sleep more soundly for a few more hours.

I know that egg ash can be used for scarring, is it beneficial for stretch marks? And Cucumber and daikon radish juice help when the skin becomes too yang. Does the skin need to be balanced as one loses weight to help it to tighten as the body shrinks?

These may be silly questions. Sorry about that.

Thanks

GW

[Klara]

Glowingwillow,

They don't sound like silly questions at all and I too look forward to reading answers, not that I have that problem at all.

I have no idea if this would help, but mb promotes doing a body rub every day, maybe even twice a day. If you can't find info on it in books or on the net, ask again and I'll cc some posts that were written on a different discussion group. My understanding is that the skin is the largest organ in our bodies and this helps the skin to detox and I'm sure other reasons. I also heard that the rub in the a.m. helps to awaken you and the one in the p.m. helps with sleep issues - interesting, no??

as for exercises, just seems there must be other things you can do that would not be injurious to your back (and hopefully also your back will heal with time from mb). Mb is all about dealing gently with your body, so I couldn't see pushing stuff that would hurt you. How about just deep breathing exercises, or using parts of your body that would not affect your back - I'm no expert but just seems there's so many parts to our bodies, true they're all connected - which would be an interesting thing to know from someone who's an expert in chakras - which part of the body would help support healing for your back - there's reflexology which claims the bottom of the foot affects all parts of the body - ditto with the ear and I believe also with the hand - must be info out there that could help.

Hope that info comes down your path. Happy healing.

Klara

[glowingwillow]

Thanks Klara.

The breathing idea is great. I had forgotten about that. I will implement it into my daily routine.

Really my movement is extremely limited. What's broken are the anchoring points of the vertebrae. Essentially, L5 is detached from L4, cleanly, and has been for over two years. Mb may help to balance me, but as these points no longer line up - at all - being balanced can't fix it. I can't even swim because it causes too much of an anterior tilt of the pelvic girdle, overarching the small of my back and sliding the vertebrae out of place too easily. I'm in a pickle, that's for sure.

As a massage therapist myself, for anyone who would like to know, the reflexes in the feet governing the spine start at the base and slightly medial of the big toe and run along the inner arch of the foot to the heel. For the energy points governing the back, there are a number of them along the spine itself. The ones that would affect my well-being most are GV21, 16, 5, 4, 3, and 2 - the crown of the head, next to the suboccipitals, L3&2, and S4. I've tried Acupressure and Acupuncture, and shiatsu. My nerves calm, but my back is still delicate.

Oh and my nerves are another issue, which I've noticed have been influenced this week. With the movement in my spine my nerves are frayed, which, when overloaded with pain, induce an outbreak of shingles. Another barrier to too much movement and aggravation.

I have been doing the body rub on and off for more than two years, since I first read about it in Glow. I do know that increasing blood flow helps to promote healthy cell growth at the basal layer, and cross-fiber friction helps to break up built up caliginous/scar tissue, and if done right it not only influences detoxing by flushing the tissue with fluids, but assists in moving the toxins toward the lymph system. Klara, great suggestion. Thanks for the reminder, I will be more focused about doing that.

Any other ideas would be more than welcome and greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
GW

[AllenSchmid]

As to why you wake up hungry, it is likely because you eat only complex carbs before you goto bed. I'm not saying it's bad, but just that carbs are digested very quickly, whereas more fatty things take longer digest. With that in mind, most people that eat fatty foods sleep longer (you'll notice that now, if you didn't before.) My diet got way off track for a while, high salt, high fat, little green: I was always tired, always feeling snacky (a salt addiction I think). But since I changed what I eat, things have been getting better, and I really don't require as much sleep as I used to. I rarely wake up tired anymore, but I do wake up hungry, and well that's what breakfast is for hehe.

[glowingwillow]

So should I eat some fish or nuts with my b/rice and kale at night? And should I eat closer to going to bed than I am?

[Klara]

I agree with Allen that it's good to wake up hungry - one of the signs of health on mb is having a good appetite.

Your problem is waking up too early when you feel you haven't rested enough - I like that you wrote that you are slowly transitioning into mb - I truly believe that's the best way to get into mb - but because our bodies are so complex there could be so many roads to explore - and that's the biggest challenge over getting info on the computer - as we saw when the issue of exercise was brought up.

The idea of not going to sleep on a full stomach is because the body needs to be resting, not digesting - or even worse, as the body rests, it cannot digest, so food sits there half digested.

Ideally it's best to see a counselor when one has issues, as there may be factors that the counselor can see by asking the right questions and observing you with the tools of Oriental Diagnosis that he/she might notice that you might not even think of. You can of course, play with the mb and try fish or nuts and see how you feel. Are you already understanding yin/yang concepts?? For some people fish is just much too yang for their condition/constitution, some can have it once in a while, some weekly.

In my own case, I am trying to be more calm, so I try to have more yin foods to have a lighter attitude towards things in my life. It's all very relative and never EVER just a matter of one issue - that's the fun of the mystery of life
and the challenge of mb in trying to see the entire picture. Then again, if I'm trying to bring more yin into my life I wouldn't be on the computer so much, as manymoons has mentioned the computer is quite yangizing - ahhhhh

Does reading at night help you go back to sleep?? or has the body rubs had any affect, tho not sure how long it takes before you can feel effects.

Lately I've been working very hard on not eating 3 hours after eating - and yes sometimes my stomach rumbles - sometimes I give in and munch on a cucumber or something - sometimes worse - but best of all is when I go to sleep in spite of the rumbling!!!! it's all a process!!!!

Klara