My definition of fasting..

Or.. more to the point I suppose.. - what is it that I personally mean when I talk about fasting?

You see.. the thing is, the colloquial meaning of the term fasting, is changing as the term is abused.. just like vegetarian has changed to become a diet including many things that are actually far from vegetarian, and as fruitarian has done, to now be a widespread choice of many potentially very different diets.. (see: my definition of fruitarianism).

Anyhow, I've heard people talking of doing juice fasts, or fasting on watermelon, or fasting on grapes, etc.. but the thing is, many of us may actually break-fast (the first meal of the day after a night of not eating) on a glass of orange juice, or a bunch of grapes.. so with that in mind, I hardly can consider a week on orange juice to be fasting.. You'ld be breaking fast with each glass you took!

Nope, in my opinion, fasting means taking no food, of any kind, including any juices or mono fruit diet.. It does include drinking water when thirst is present, but if one chooses to go without water too, then, to make the distinction totally clear, I tend to call this "dry fasting".

That's it.. simple really.. just how I like it!



So what about those times we just mono on one particular fruit, or just drink fruit juice?

Well, one definition of such a regime is "a cure", like, a mono fruit cure, a grape cure, an orange juie cure.. or just even a juice cure (with various fresh ly squozen juices)..

Some years back though, I coined the term "juice feasting" - instead of the abused oxymoron" juice fasting.. I liked it because it was just that little "e" (f(e)asting) that made the difference, and since then, I've been calling such experiences I've had "juice feasts".. I've also noticed that in more recent years the term appears to be really catching on, and I've since witnessed many people using it both off and on the internet, so the term is definitely gaining in popularity..

hugs,
mango

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What I ate in December 2007

This is a list of all the food I ate during the month of December 2007.

So, if you divided the list by the number of days that I actually ate anything, you would get a somewhat simplified and rough idea of what I might eat on a daily basis..

However, it is probably true that on most days I eat a maximum of 4 or 5 different types of fruit, so I would not be eating all these fruits every day..

Also, you need to bear in mind that I fasted on 7 of the days in december, and on 3 others, I just drank watermelon juice. (see: days of fasting and feasting).

Kveta had roughly the same as I did, exepting that I ate more avos than she, and she ate more cucumbers than me, plus one banana..

Anyhow, here's the list: (the quantities quoted in the list are all rough educated guesses based on our accounting statistics..).

Apricots - 3.5kgs
Avocadoes - 70
Cherries - 3kgs
Cucumbers - 1.5kgs
Durian - 10kgs (approximate weight of just the flesh).
Longans - 2kgs
Lychees - 1 kg
Rock Melon - 1
Nectarines - 30
Pawpaws - 6kgs
Tomatoes - 7kgs
Watermelon - 35kgs
Sweet Peas - 1 kg




and this is what I ate in November 2007

hugs,
Mango.
PS Those who say it cannot be done should not interrupt the person doing it.

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Natural cockroach repelant.

For anyone out there looking for a natural cockroach repellent, I just got a tip from fruitbat Anne, of a method she is using and having success with..

In her own words..

---

... I have tried quite a few natural methods. This one is catnip. I use 'cosmic catnip' brand, which is available on e-bay. It is a very potent catnip. You just sprinkle it in drawers, cupboards and anywhere that roaches like to be.

Since I started to use it there have been no roaches anywhere I have sprinkled it. What's more the cockroaches seem to be discouraged from the whole of the house too.

---

I haven't tried it myself, but i'll certainly be keeping my eyes open for some catnip!

Anne's a fellow fruit eating enthusiast, and you can read more from her here and here..



hugs,
Mango.

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Environmental Fruitarianism

Hi all you budding fruitarians!

In previous posts I've touched upon the basic physiological reasons for adopting a fruitarian diet (here), I've mentioned some common sense reasons (here), and also recently written a little on ethical reasons for adopting a fruit only diet (here).. And I'm pretty sure that they aren't the last posts on any of those subjects..



But today I feel to write briefly about the environmental advantages of going fruitarian.

A fruit based diet has its roots firmly entrenched in the ground.

Unlike the traditional omnivorous or vegan diet that is based primarily on annual crops, predominantly cereals, a fruit based diet is predominantly based on perennial agriculture, primarily fruit tree growing..

Being reliant on annual crops means heavy reliance on fossil fuels for land cultivation.. it involves wide spread loss of wildlife habitat, and annual unintentional slaughter of innocent animals that get caught up in the heavy machinery used to turn the earth.. The earth suffers from this practice, which is, to say the least, highly unnatural..

Think about this.. no where in nature will you find a naturally grown field of one particular plant species.. Mono crops are devastating the planet.. To grow large mono crops to feed the masses, involves a constant struggle against diversity of plant life. The alternative of not relying heavily on pesticides, herbicides and other chemicals, is even more labour intensive, thus inevitably producing food of higher shop price..

Fruit tree growing does not involve the earth being disrupted each year, by heavy rotivating plows and the like..

I am not naively saying that no fossil fuels are used, or chemicals in fruit production, far from it. but I am saying that the amount and impact is vastly reduced.. And I mean vastly... Fruit trees are also grown in mono.. field after field of mango etc.. And ultimately I clearly believe that that can be improved on too, however the environmental consequences of this are far less than the desertifing tactics of annual monocrops..




Please give it some thought..
Hugs,
Mango.
ps remember - harm to a part, is harm to the whole..

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Happy new year to everyone!

Happy 2008 to you all!

As the saying goes, Time flies, fruit flies,

I hope it's a fruit filled one for everyone!




hugs,
Mango.
ps picture taken yesterday.

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Days of fasting and feasting.. end of year 2007

Kveta and I decided to eat even more frugally for the christmas period..
sort of to balance out the normal run of the mill seasonal gluttony, I guess.. - how does that saying go?

in order to get to the source, you have to swim against the current..

Anyhow, this is what we ate:

DATE	ME	KVETA
24/12/07	Dry Fast	Dry Fast
25/12/07	Dry Fast	Dry Fast
26/12/07	Juice from 1 small watermelon, 2 avocados, 4 tomatoes	Juice from 1 small watermelon
27/12/07	Juice from 1 small watermelon	Juice from 1 small watermelon
28/12/07	Dry Fast	Juice from 1 watermelon
29/12/07	Juice from 3/4s of a watermelon, 1 glass of orange juice, 1 and a bit avoadoes, 1 tomato.	Juice from 1 watermelon
30/12/07	Juice from 1/2 a watermelon	Juice from 1/2 a watermelon
31/12/07	Dry Fast	Juice from 1 watermelon
01/01/08	Juice from 2/5ths of a watermelon, 1 and a half grapefruits  (juiced), 1 avocado. 2 tomatoes.	Juice from 3/5ths of a watermelon. Juice from half a grapefruit.

it's the 2nd today.. we havent eaten yet, and have no food in the house excepting one lemon.. So we are going out on a big fruit hunting expedition. Hopefully bag ourselves a durian or 2..

hugs,
Mango

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Mystery fruit - 1

Hi all..

A little puzzle for you today..

This was some free food we picked straight from the trees while travelling north in NSW..

anybody care to guess what it is?

I'll post the answer here, later, sometime after you've all had a chance to think about it for a while..

hugs,
Mango

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