First Day at TrueNorth Health Center

 

After taking the 6:30 am shuttle from San Francisco Airport, I arrive at TrueNorth at 9:00 and get checked in. I met some great and wonderful staff and checkin to my apartment suite with 3 other room mates. Only one I meet today and he is a high school student completing a 16 day water fast. Lovely polite young man with a killer smile. 

I meet with my doctor and he reviews my history, conducts an examination and helps me set goals for this fast....20 days of waterfasting, with 8-9 days of refeeding is the plan. 

I meet with a member of the research team that I had initially signed up with and review more questions with her. I am disqualified from being in this research project because my blood pressure was normal. I had discontinued my bp medication 3 weeks ago at the suggestion of my Primary Care PA and my bp has been borderline. With recent dietary changes I have made it is now normal. Hoping that fasting will result in my bp being at an optimal level. 

I attended a cooking class on how to make Tuna Salad by substituting chick peas and the instructor’s secret ingredient was Kelp bits which added a seafood flavor. I am thinking that I will purchase her cookbook ( it has a spiral binder and lays flat!)

I ate both lunch and dinner at the dining room, but because I am a new guest, I must social distance for the first week and wear a mask.... Dare I say, I had to eat on a patio table outside and met new friends in the process. 

This health center is very chill and friendly and I observe people very clearly making life changes while here. The stories I am hearing are heartwarming and funny...I am told that one guy here is finishing a 40 day fast and he is referred to by others as Jesus. 

We are being asked to use this opportunity to think about  our lives and take a contemplative approach to the fast through yoga, meditation, and prayer. 

This is a place of healing and you can feel it wherever you go. I meet a gentleman who is quite obese who tells me that he was not allowed to be on a waterfast, but that he is still attending and engaging in the classes and working on his relationship with food by eating clean healthy food in a supportive environment. I am inspired by his commitment to himself. Some people here are also engaged in juice fasts as their preferred treatment. 

Tomorrow I will start my waterfast and have my first morning rounds, my vitals will be taken and blood and urine collected to establish a baseline. 

I feel like an outsider as a new person as people congregate and socialize......I hope I get to meet Jesus before he leaves....

Ciao

Mike