Day 4 draft

Day 4 was definitely not a bore.

I was crazy busy.  And I was running low, or low-ish, on broth today.  I had forgotten how much broth I really needed to have on hand pre-made or in the pot and cooking.  I thought that I was cruising along pretty well but it seemed like whenever I looked at my stock of soup, no pun intended, I didn't have is much as I thought that I did. There certainly was "enough" but I didn't feel comfortable believing that I could relax for a bit. I always had enough but there was not always a backup.

So I decided to be proactive. I went to the store and bought a bunch of different types of meats and vegetables. And I found the third crockpot. So armed with as much organic food as I could buy, I went back to the kitchen to start making broths.

One of the questions that I get often is if I mind watching other people eat food when I'm fasting? My wife often worries about this when I have fasted in the past. But the truth is, as long as I'm comfortably full, it makes little difference. I'm sure some people would use it as away to make others painfully aware that they are fasting, but if I'm not hungry, then it's not a concern. The same holds true when making broth. I suppose if I was really hungry and I was cutting up vegetables and cooking meats, the products going into the soups would seem a bit tempting. I try to make sure that I am fully satisfied, with a full stomach, before I even start shopping or assembling food. What is interesting is that although I may not want to consume solid food or at least be okay with not doing so, I want to chew on something. I asked the doctor about chewing gum and he said it was not a good idea even if it was sugar-free. He dissuaded me from consuming anything that might make my body think it was receiving sugar. That seems reasonable and logical. Although I haven't tried it, I've always thought that chewing on some ice would be good. I'm sure my dentist would love that idea :-)

Going to the grocery store was, and is, actually kind of fun. I know that every single thing that I buy will be used to make my own soup broth. I try to stick to organic products because after all, I am doing this to help my body and I might as well get the healthiest products that I can. Besides, making soup is far less expensive than making regular food and certainly many times less expensive then going out to eat. The amount of money I save all alone just on not having beer, and I'm not a big drinker, probably pays for most of my ingredients.

I guess what I learned most yesterday was to be aware of the need to constantly be drinking. The bottom line is to do this, and be comfortable, one needs to plan on drinking something all the time. I always have a glass of water, sparkling water, Ashwaganda tea, some other herbal tea, or broth nearby.  But when I get hungry, it's not just the sipping that will solve the problem. When I find myself "getting" hungry, note that I didn't say when I "am" hungry, I know it's time to consume some broth to be preemptive. And as I mentioned in the other posts, I can't stress enough how important it is to drink the broth very quickly.

As I mentioned earlier, to do this I make sure the broth is warm to lukewarm. This morning I had some that was cold. It wasn't refrigerator cold but it was definitely cold. I think the idea kind of sounded a bit weird but when I drank it, it was really quite nice. I would imagine that it would be especially nice on a hot day. After all, gazpacho is served cold right? I have some in the refrigerator right now and I think I will try to drink it cold rather than warming it up.

So what am I eating right now? I decided to mix it up a bit. It seems like beef and chicken broths are pretty commonplace at this juncture. I was getting a bit played out on these and decided to go rogue. So when I went to the store I bought ingredients for a ham based soup, a sausage based soup, and a bacon based soup. I guess I was in a pork mode :-)  So sorry to mention this to my dear friends in Turkey, or perhaps elsewhere.  My Turkish friends don't seem so comfortable in consuming products that are not available in their country.  I've asked them if they came to America, would want to have bacon.  Some said yes some looked like the idea was just not something that they could do.  But for those of you in other countries, although America is commonly thought of related to guns, the truth is this country is more about bacon.  There is even a fast food restaurant here that for a short while served ice cream with bacon pieces on it....actually, that sounds pretty good right now.

I will put the recipes for these broths in my book, but as a snapshot, I made a ham broth with some onions and carrots, etc. I also made two of my favorites. I made my famous, well it's at least famous in my mind because I think about it a lot, Italian sausage, bell pepper, and onion soup. It is perhaps the simplest soup that I make. Other than some herbs and spices that I add, it's nothing but Italian sausage, bell peppers, and onions. I have to tell you, it is absolutely delicious and takes the least amount of time to make and be ready for consumption. Easy and fast. And the most fun part is that everyone is ready to eat pre-cooked Italian sausage, bell peppers, and onions. They make for a great sandwich. My son, his friend, and Suzy my sweet wife will make quick work of that.  The third soup that I made was a soup that I like to talk about. I call a BLT. It's made with bacon, leaks, and tomatoes. And that is it. Nothing else. It kind of, sort of, tastes like a BLT. Of course it doesn't taste exactly like one most likely because it is not one. But it is sort of along those lines and I find it is really nice in the morning when I wake up and am in the mood for more of a breakfast-y sort of thing.

I made all of these soups at the same time. It was nice to have three soups going simultaneously. And then I had a chicken soup available to me that I was drinking while making these. I had enough of the chicken broth to easily make it through until these three new ones were completed. I took the remainder of the chicken soup and put it into a large plastic water bottle and then put it in the refrigerator.

Today I will be on the road again. And when I get to my destination, there will be no soup waiting for me. So that said, this time I decided to be well-prepared. So I will leave with a decent amount of soup. I'm going to travel with the Italian broth, and the ham broth.  I'll be drinking the cold chicken broth on the way.  And I'll be drinking the BLT before I depart on the 3-4 hour drive.  As I've said before, being prepared is one of the most important things to have a successful fast. At least for me.

By the way, as a statistical update, I've noticed that the readers have significantly increased over the last few days. That cheers me and motivates me. I'm not sure that I really felt like writing this morning but I felt obligated due to the interest of so many people. On that note, please share this where you can. It's kind of a fun story and is certainly something interesting to talk about between you and your friends."Did you hear about this guy who drank nothing but soup broth for 30 days straight?"  Just so you know, if you're jumping into this and haven't read this from the beginning, that is what I did. It helped me immensely with some rather complicated medical issues that I mention towards the beginning of this broth fast and will address in great detail in the book that will be finished by the end of the summer!