Richard_D
01-03-2008, 10:32 AM
It's kind of an odd subject for me to bring up at this point in the game, 10 HPS cleanses under my belt, and the whole time never a mention of problems with being overweight or the like, but I was struck recently by a recollection from about 4-5 years ago before I found the HPS website.
There's only been one time in my life when I was what I considered overweight enough to notice or care--that is, more than 5-10 lbs I guess. I had been living in Taiwan for something under 2 years and was living by myself in a rather large house for 4-5 months. I'd gotten into a new habit of sitting at the computer surfing the web for hours and eating whatever I had lying around, lots of ice cream, cookies, and worst of all meat stews that I made with rice thrown in because I thought that was "healthy."
In a matter of about 2 months I looked down at myself one day and realized I had something I'd never seen on myself before: an enormous belly. Well, enormous for me. It was so new and strange that I wasn't even upset about it, I just played with it like a sandwich bag full of jelly or something. But it registered to me that something was suddenly very off to make such a drastic change in that short a time, and by chance (?!) a friend (now my wife) came back from Thailand about that time with news of fasting and cleansing, and before too long I was off on my first journey with all of that. It wasn't HPS, but it got me here pretty soon afterward.
I bring all this up now because I remember clearly my weight at that time, my biggest ever: I was 87 kg, or just under 192 lb. Now that's actually not all that heavy considering my height (6', or about 182cm) but it wasn't flattering to look at and it got my attention. I'll come back to this in a bit.
It's been a little under 5 years I think since I've been a member at HPS-Online, and in that time I've never made a secret of my fasting/cleansing lifestyle for those who know me personally, except for family. If anyone asks this or that I can answer openly without worrying about being too weird for them--in a foreign/expat community you find quickly that everyone's got something a little different about them and you don't worry so much about what anybody else is thinking.
Whenever I get a positive response from people who think they might be interested, it's always to do with some idea of weight loss; the rejuvenation and taking responsibility and control of one's own health never registers for even a second, but you get people saying, "yeah, I'm gonna do that too sometime, I need to lose some weight, etc."
I don't mean to disparage that point of view; I myself came to HPS with the primary goal of quitting smoking, and I think it really didn't sink in for me what all was possible until after Level 3. It takes a lot of new thinking to get your head around what can be done once you take up the cleansing/rejuvenation lifestyle.
Anyway I figure that perhaps a disproportionate segment of the cleansing-curious population out there is thinking weight loss when they approach cleansing as something they might be interested in. And the point I wanted to make with this testimonial is that, yes, weight loss is certainly in the cards when you undertake HPS cleansing, but it is such a miniscule part of the overall picture that it's a bit like going to the opera for the first time because you heard once that the seats are comfortable--it really misses the point.
More important than the concept of simply shedding a few pounds, the HPS faster learns the nature of appetite itself--relearns in many cases, each time one enters a new post-cleansing period right after a week of fasting, one quickly re-realizes the vast difference between the body's natural hunger for nourishment and the pathological cravings instilled over a lifetime of habit and societal pressure. If it sounds a bit odd from the outside, it really is quite a breakthrough realization, and even one level of HPS cleansing brings that distinction crashing home for many here, and a lifetime's worth of different perspective.
Appetite control, finally, has far more implications than simple weight control. The distinction between natural appetite and artificial craving is crucial to every important area of life, I'm finding.
I could go on and on here, and in fact it's kinda one of my hallmarks that it takes me a book to tell a few paragraphs' worth of material, but I've been kicking this testimonial over for too long already and still couldn't compress my thoughts any more than this.
Now, as to what any of this has to do with my opening story of my big overweight experience: I was on the scales the other day and saw that my weight was--get this--83 kilograms, or about 10 lb lighter than my all-time heaviest! But you know what? The fact is, I don't look at all overweight, much less like I did that one time years ago. It's like my body's ability to absorp nutrients has made me denser, but not fatter. Now couple that with the sensation of being 20 pounds lighter and ten years younger! And I couldn't begin to imagine where I'd be now if I'd continued on the same track I was on when I started off on this path at the age of 30.
So many thanks are due to Jos-hua for this program he's designed, and for all the many many wonderful people who have been with me over the years, every step of the way. I'm here for the long haul; I've proven the value of HPS cleansing to myself far too many times to even consider giving up this part of my life.
Rick D
There's only been one time in my life when I was what I considered overweight enough to notice or care--that is, more than 5-10 lbs I guess. I had been living in Taiwan for something under 2 years and was living by myself in a rather large house for 4-5 months. I'd gotten into a new habit of sitting at the computer surfing the web for hours and eating whatever I had lying around, lots of ice cream, cookies, and worst of all meat stews that I made with rice thrown in because I thought that was "healthy."
In a matter of about 2 months I looked down at myself one day and realized I had something I'd never seen on myself before: an enormous belly. Well, enormous for me. It was so new and strange that I wasn't even upset about it, I just played with it like a sandwich bag full of jelly or something. But it registered to me that something was suddenly very off to make such a drastic change in that short a time, and by chance (?!) a friend (now my wife) came back from Thailand about that time with news of fasting and cleansing, and before too long I was off on my first journey with all of that. It wasn't HPS, but it got me here pretty soon afterward.
I bring all this up now because I remember clearly my weight at that time, my biggest ever: I was 87 kg, or just under 192 lb. Now that's actually not all that heavy considering my height (6', or about 182cm) but it wasn't flattering to look at and it got my attention. I'll come back to this in a bit.
It's been a little under 5 years I think since I've been a member at HPS-Online, and in that time I've never made a secret of my fasting/cleansing lifestyle for those who know me personally, except for family. If anyone asks this or that I can answer openly without worrying about being too weird for them--in a foreign/expat community you find quickly that everyone's got something a little different about them and you don't worry so much about what anybody else is thinking.
Whenever I get a positive response from people who think they might be interested, it's always to do with some idea of weight loss; the rejuvenation and taking responsibility and control of one's own health never registers for even a second, but you get people saying, "yeah, I'm gonna do that too sometime, I need to lose some weight, etc."
I don't mean to disparage that point of view; I myself came to HPS with the primary goal of quitting smoking, and I think it really didn't sink in for me what all was possible until after Level 3. It takes a lot of new thinking to get your head around what can be done once you take up the cleansing/rejuvenation lifestyle.
Anyway I figure that perhaps a disproportionate segment of the cleansing-curious population out there is thinking weight loss when they approach cleansing as something they might be interested in. And the point I wanted to make with this testimonial is that, yes, weight loss is certainly in the cards when you undertake HPS cleansing, but it is such a miniscule part of the overall picture that it's a bit like going to the opera for the first time because you heard once that the seats are comfortable--it really misses the point.
More important than the concept of simply shedding a few pounds, the HPS faster learns the nature of appetite itself--relearns in many cases, each time one enters a new post-cleansing period right after a week of fasting, one quickly re-realizes the vast difference between the body's natural hunger for nourishment and the pathological cravings instilled over a lifetime of habit and societal pressure. If it sounds a bit odd from the outside, it really is quite a breakthrough realization, and even one level of HPS cleansing brings that distinction crashing home for many here, and a lifetime's worth of different perspective.
Appetite control, finally, has far more implications than simple weight control. The distinction between natural appetite and artificial craving is crucial to every important area of life, I'm finding.
I could go on and on here, and in fact it's kinda one of my hallmarks that it takes me a book to tell a few paragraphs' worth of material, but I've been kicking this testimonial over for too long already and still couldn't compress my thoughts any more than this.
Now, as to what any of this has to do with my opening story of my big overweight experience: I was on the scales the other day and saw that my weight was--get this--83 kilograms, or about 10 lb lighter than my all-time heaviest! But you know what? The fact is, I don't look at all overweight, much less like I did that one time years ago. It's like my body's ability to absorp nutrients has made me denser, but not fatter. Now couple that with the sensation of being 20 pounds lighter and ten years younger! And I couldn't begin to imagine where I'd be now if I'd continued on the same track I was on when I started off on this path at the age of 30.
So many thanks are due to Jos-hua for this program he's designed, and for all the many many wonderful people who have been with me over the years, every step of the way. I'm here for the long haul; I've proven the value of HPS cleansing to myself far too many times to even consider giving up this part of my life.
Rick D