Originally Posted by
LetsGo
If you want to wait until 1/7/2021 to start that’s okay, but you’re delaying your recovery by that amount of time. You will ultimately have to stop drinking during the protocol and if you’re used to drinking with your friends, and they insist that you drink / call you names if you don’t drink, then you’re not going to be able to hang out with them during the protocol.
You’ll need to stay consistent with the diet throughout the whole process. If you reintroduce gluten, alcohol, and sugar after 3 of 4 months then you won’t be following the protocol and you’re just pushing back your recovery date. 6 or 12 months will go by and you’ll realize it was a mistake to start eating gluten and sugar, because you’re not making the progress you should be making. One thing I learned along the way is that you need to be prepared for this to be a long process. If you’re sloppy with compliance then it will take even longer.
If you’re doing a water fast, you should do a medically supervised fast, otherwise a juice feast is recommended instead. If you can’t take time off from work and spend a whole bunch of money on a fasting clinic, then go the juice feast route. On a water fast, you’re not drinking any broth, just water.
The weightlifting is a key part of the protocol, and everyone who has never lifted before will suck at it. That’s okay. Just work with where you are currently and build up from there. Same thing with HIIT. The workouts are just something you have to get used to, and after a few months it’s not a big deal anymore.
For the herbs, you really want at least 7 to start with, that way you get a full 7 days in between taking that herb again. 14 herbs is better, and 21 herbs is even better. But you can start with just 7. If you do 4 herbs, you’d have to have 3 days per week where you don’t take any herb. So I guess: Monday = herb 1, Tuesday = no herbs, Wednesday = Herb 2, Thursday = no herbs, Friday = herb 3, Saturday = no herbs, Sunday = Herb 4. Next week: Monday = no herbs, Tuesday = Herb 1, Wednesday = no herbs, Thursday = Herb 2, Friday = no herbs, Saturday = Herb 3, Sunday = no herbs, Monday = herb 4, etc. If I only had 4 herbs that would be, I think, the way to do it, but you’re not going to get the expected results with only 4 herbs.
CD has always recommended not smoking tobacco. Cigarettes are sprayed with chemicals like freebase nicotine and even “natural tobacco” cigarettes like Natural Spirits are very unhealthy. They’re bad for your heart and lungs. What’s the up-side of smoking? Some minor social benefits of meeting other smokers outside of bars, mostly (but remember, you don’t drink anymore so even that benefit is gone,) and looking cool from the beginning of middle school through the end of college. I will sort of entertain the idea of smoking in college (which is irresponsible of me to condone) if you’re otherwise in great health, as long as you quit when you graduate (which nobody does, which is why ultimately, I think smoking in college is still a bad idea.) Most smokers have vague plans of quitting someday (before a heart attack or cancer) but you can always put it off another week, and that’s how you wind up being a lifelong smoker. Or you’re like my aunt who finally quit when she got COPD and started needing an oxygen tank at age 60. She can’t walk more than 30 feet without needing to rest and there’s no way to repair her lungs, quitting just stopped adding to the permanent damage. So as you revamp your health, go ahead and also make this the time when you quit smoking. You can easily afford to buy all 20+ herbs with your cigarette money.
And switching to vaping doesn’t count as fully quitting. You’re still dependent on nicotine and you’re still inhaling a chemistry lab worth of different chemicals if you vape.
