Make Life Magic!

Flashback 2001. While I didn’t look as bouncy as Mr. Canine here, I certainly felt just as  bloated as he looked.  The reason? I was about 10 pounds overweight. My dietician blamed a slow metabolism. I simply blamed Ronald McDonald for setting up shop next door.

I felt lousy when guys in muscle shirts strode past. Here I was, clad in flashy Prada but my physique made me sag like a duck next to these lean dudes in tattered Levis. Something had to be done. So I did what every fat slob was doing: popped the Hydroxycut, did the Atkins and hit the iron. It didn’t work.

Six months and 8 bottles of Hydroxycut later, I dropped a whopping two pounds, landed in the hospital twice and still felt like that same fat  dog- only lazier. My grand fatloss scheme certainly wasn’t working. So I consulted a few more diet experts. Their advice were suspicious carbon copies of each other. The general suggestion was that I  can boost my metabolism by eating enough (not too little, like most slobs on a diet), chowing more frequently (5-6 small meals a day), and slapping more protein and fiber to the  diet. Throw in weight-training, and high-intensity cardiovascular exercise and I should theoretically reach a lean ripped mass.

Yeah right. I’ve been on an ephedrine high, bland water diet and bone jarring exercise regimen six months… and all I had to show for it was a lightened wallet from gym membership and a GNC recurring bill. Plus, I was cranky as a cop without his doughnuts. There had to be something else.

There was.

By accident I heard of a queer practice called solarhealing invented by Mr. Hira Ratan Manek. This fine fellow claimed that by gazing into the sun a few seconds at sunrise and a few seconds at sunset ultimately eliminates the need for physical nourishment. He likened the human body to a solar battery. The act of gazing this way for 40 days ultimately charged the human body with energy and liberated anyone from the need to eat. Check out the fantastical documentaion on this guy. Allegedly, he’s stopped eating since 1995 and US Universities appear to back up his claims.

That was good enough for me…so I tried this sungazing thing. Armed with light tinted shades and an alarm clock, I gazed into the sun as prescribed. The exercise exhilarated me! I literally felt electrified with new found energy.

Day ten into the regimen, I abruptly noticed that cravings for fatty foods had permanently stopped. My gym workouts extended up to 3 hours without winding me. Weight dropped about one pound. No Hydroxycut included.

Woah… I was on to something.

I kept it up for six months straight. Either the sungazing rewired my actual need for chemical nourishment or it effected a constant psychological satiation becauseI found myself eating a quarter of what I used to per meal. That’s a far cry from Hira Ratan Manek’s claims that eating will be totally eliminated. I was still eating, period. But, miraculously, I was eating very little and feeling explosively powerful.

I don’t know if sungazing or my workouts or my recent immersion in hatha yoga affected my metabolism, but I do know this: I no longer looked like the droopy dog. My schedule forced me to abandon sungazing after six months, but the benefits persist till today.

And I have a muscle shirt to show for it.