Power Up Your Brain (30 page)

Alcohol:
While consuming one alcoholic drink per day for women and one to two drinks daily for men has been shown to reduce the risk for cognitive decline and even Alzheimer’s disease, we recommend abstaining from alcohol during the first four weeks of the Power Up Your Brain Program.
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Caffeine:
Discontinue caffeine. You will be able to reintroduce it later on.

Withdrawal Symptoms:
If you have been aggressively consuming sugar, caffeine, or alcohol, you may experience significant withdrawal symptoms. The range of withdrawal symptoms is quite wide and can include everything from headaches, depression, fatigue, and mood swings to nausea, vomiting, insomnia, and fever depending on which substance you’ve given up.

To manage these symptoms, drink an additional eight-ounce glass of water two or three times daily, preferably spring water or reverse osmosis purified water, and meditate as described below. Accept that you may have to feel a little bit worse before you start feeling better.

Do not fast during Week 1.

Add the following natural supplements to your diet.

• Vegetarian DHA:
1,000 mg (milligrams) daily. Vegetarian DHA typically comes in the form of a 200 mg capsule, so take five capsules daily, all at once or split the dose throughout the day, with or without food. Keep refrigerated.

• Olive oil, virgin, organic:
1 tablespoon daily. This may be added to salad dressing, drizzled over steamed vegetables, combined with freshly juiced organic vegetables, or consumed with whole-grain bread. The oil must be consumed uncooked, so olive oil used in cooking does not count toward this requirement.

• Alpha-lipoic acid, controlled release:
600 mg daily, 30 minutes before meals or on empty stomach. Available under the brand name ALAmax CR from
www.Xymogen.com
(tel. 800-647-6100).

• Coconut oil, virgin, organic:
1 tablespoon each morning. Feel free to add this to a smoothie or use it as a spread on whole-grain bread. Alternatively, capsules of coconut oil are now available.

• Pterostilbene
(pronounced
tero-STILL-bean
): 50 mg each morning and evening, with or without food.
*

• Sulforaphane:
30 mg each morning and evening, with or without food.
*

• Curcumin from turmeric extract:
200 mg each morning and evening, with or without food.
*

• Green tea extract:
200 mg each morning and evening, with or without food.
*

Ask your physician to help you determine your exercise tolerance.

Aerobics:
Exercise (walk, bike, or jog) at a sustained aerobic pace for 20 minutes every day—or more if you’re in good physical condition. Set your target pulse rate at a number equal to 180 minus your age, unless your doctor advises otherwise. Don’t include warm-up or cool-down times in this 20-minute total.

If you are inclined, purchase a wristwatch-type monitoring device such as the Polar Heart Rate Monitor, which will give you an instantaneous readout of your pulse. These devices are available at most sporting goods stores and online.

Yoga/Stretching:
Practice yoga or a similar stretching/flexibility program at least twice a week for at least 30 minutes per session.

The Shaman’s Bath:
Enjoy this once a week, on the day of your choice, in the evening before going to bed.

Quieting Your HPA Axis:
Perform this exercise twice each week in the evening before going to bed.

Participate in the Power Up Your Brain Program’s daily Planetary Meditation. Download this peace meditation—along with an image that can be used as your desktop screen saver—from
www.PowerUpYourBrain.com
. As you do the meditation, try to tune in with others around the planet who are meditating at the same time.

Reflect on your relationships with yourself and others, especially people who are important to you. Think about who these people are and how you reaching out to them today. How are you celebrating the ones you love? How are you honoring yourself?

Contemplate your interconnectedness with all human beings and with all creatures of the Earth. As you prepare to eat a meal, say a short prayer of blessing and imagine all the different plants, animals, and people who have contributed to your nourishment. Include not only the farmers, growers, and livestock raisers but also the handlers, truckers, and grocers.

As you move forward from Week 2 through Week 4, you may experience a heightened awareness of your being, a greater appreciation for yourself, and a diminishing amount of anxiety and anger in your life. As you smile at the person who just cut in front of you in the grocery checkout line, you are a step closer toward an enlightened life.

Continue to choose as many organic foods as are available.

Continue to avoid allergens, hydrogenated and saturated fats, alcohol, and caffeine.

Fruits & Vegetables:
Eat at least five to six servings of fresh fruits and vegetables daily. When fresh produce isn’t available, choose frozen preparations over canned.

Carbohydrates:
Reduce your intake of carbohydrates to one serving per day—two slices of whole-grain bread or one serving of whole-grain pasta, or cereal (unless you exercise strenuously, in which case your body will need increased amounts of complex carbohydrates, like whole-grain cereals, pastas, or breads).

You will fast twice in this part of the Power Up Your Brain Program: once during Week 2 and once during Week 3.

Choose a day to fast.

If you began the program on the day of the full moon, then the fourth day of this second week will be the 11th day after the full moon and will correspond to the ideal fasting and meditation day, as described in the Ayurvedic texts (as mentioned in Chapter 12); this will synchronize your fasting and deepen your meditative experience as you energetically connect with others who also adopt this program.

If you are not able to fast on the fourth day of the second week, then choose a day when you have no demanding business or personal obligations.

Fast again during Week 3, ideally one week after your first fast.

Do not fast during Week 4.

On the days you fast, drink ample amounts of water.

If you find fasting to be an overwhelming challenge, eat fresh fruit, such as sliced oranges, on the day you fast. Again, it’s important to check with your physician before engaging in a fasting program, especially if you are diabetic, have low blood sugar, take pharmaceutical medications, or are experiencing any other physical concerns.

Follow the same recommendations as in Week 1.

On the fasting day, continue to take all of your nutritional supplements, but add a second tablespoon of coconut oil and a second tablespoon of olive oil in the afternoon. Take a double dosage of pterostilbene, sulforaphane, curcumin (from turmeric extract), and green tea extract twice on this day only; or simply take two capsules of Nrf2 Activator morning and evening.

Practice yoga or a similar stretching/flexibility program at least twice a week for at least 30 minutes per session.

Increase your daily aerobic workout to 30 minutes, if possible.

Refrain from aerobic exercise on the day you fast.

Open and close your shamanic exercises with the Creating Sacred Space prayer, or a similar prayer of your own creation or choosing.

Sky Gazing:
Perform this exercise each morning at sunrise.

Dream Yoga and Lucid Dreaming:
Perform these exercises each evening.

Quieting Your HPA Axis:
Perform this exercise two times a week, in the evening before going to bed.

Reselecting Your Genetic Destiny:
Perform this meditation once each week.

We Are Our Stories:
Perform once during the week and develop your new life story, your personal mythology in which you are the hero.

Shaman’s Bath:
Enjoy this once each week in the evening before going to bed.

Participate in the Power Up Your Brain Program’s daily Planetary Meditation. Download this peace meditation—along with an image that can be used as your desktop screen saver—from
www.PowerUpYourBrain.com
. As you do the meditation, try to tune in with others around the planet who are meditating at the same time.

Often during each day, take time to be consciously aware of your breath in order to cultivate stillness. Take long, deep breaths and feel the air move in and out of your body. Notice the sensations in your body as you breathe. And as your breathing becomes more rhythmic, you will find your sense of inner peace growing.

Eliminate toxic relationships. Make a list of the people you need to forgive, and employ the Radical Forgiveness practice in Chapter 13.

In Week 5, you will continue your hero’s journey with greater awareness of and appreciation for yourself and your being. You are on your way to enlightenment.

As you eliminate toxins in your body and your brain, you will notice that your senses become more refined: colors become sharper, feelings become deeper and clearer, and your other senses, including touch, hearing, and smell, may become heightened. You will find that situations that once caused you stress or duress can now be dealt with much more elegantly and gracefully. As your brain becomes clearer, your meditation becomes easier. The noise level in your head is reduced greatly.

Continue to choose as many organic foods as are available.

Continue to avoid allergens, hydrogenated and saturated fats, and caffeine.

Continue to eat an elevated number of whole fruits and vegetables—at least five to six servings.

Continue consuming only one serving of carbohydrates per day.

Alcohol:
You may consume alcohol if you wish, preferably organic red wine. Drink, at most, one glass with your evening meal, at most three times during this week. Do not consume alcohol on the fasting day.

Calorie Consumption:
Implement calorie reductions or, if you are already consuming calories at the recommended level, make no changes—do not restrict your calorie consumption any further.

Women:
reduce daily calorie consumption to 2,000 calories, or as advised by your physician.

Men:
reduce daily calorie consumption to 2,550 calories, or as advised by your physician.