What you've read in Power Up Your Brain so far is the marriage of science and spirituality, of fact and tradition, of history and prehistory.
In the following pages, you will receive instructions regarding diet, fasting, dietary supplements, exercise, shamanic exercises, meditation, and imaging practices. The program entails five weeks of intensive practice, followed by a more moderate regular practice for maintenance.
You are about to embark on a journey toward enlightenment.
You will experience the benefits described throughout the earlier chapters in this book, specifically the creation of new neural pathways that will help you to heal from trauma and experience inner peace and enlightenment.
If possible, begin the Power Up Your Brain Program on the day of the full moon.
Important reminder: This Program involves fasting. Consult with your physician before
engaging in this or any fasting program, especially if you are diabetic, have low blood sugar, take pharmaceutical medications, or are experiencing any physical condition that you believe you should discuss with your doctor or a professional health practitioner.
WEEK 1
During this week, you will begin a journey that will lead to significant changes in your body and profound experiences for your being. Depending on your lifestyle, you may not be aware of those changes, and you may even experience a certain amount of discomfort as your body begins to eliminate toxins.
DIET
Organics: Choose as many organic foods as are available. If finances are an issue, make sure
to choose organic varieties of the following foods because they're most likely to be contaminated: apples, peaches, nectarines, pears, strawberries, cherries, imported grapes, celery, sweet bell peppers, spinach, lettuce, and potatoes.
Allergens: During this first week, modify your diet to reduce your consumption of foods that
may contain allergens. The most common of these are foods that contain gluten—wheat, barley, and rye—as well as dairy products.
Totally eliminating gluten from your diet may be challenging, so you may wish to ask your doctor to perform a simple blood test to determine in advance if you are gluten sensitive. If the test is negative, meaning that you are not gluten sensitive, then there's no need to avoid gluten-containing foods.1 An even better idea, which will serve you long after the Power Up Your Brain Program is completed, is to consider having a comprehensive blood evaluation for food allergies such as the Comprehensive Food Allergy Profile offered by Genova Diagnostics Laboratory. This simple blood evaluation will determine your unique level of sensitivity to 88 common foods.2 The test provides a ranking of foods in terms of your sensitivity. We generally recommend that patients permanently remove all foods ranked at 2+ or 3+ from their diets and certainly throughout the rest of the Power Up Your Brain Program.
As much as possible, eliminate sugars and other simple carbohydrates such as highly refined flour. This means no pasta and breads made from processed flour. Instead choose products made from whole-grain flour, which you can purchase from health-food stores.
Fats: This is also the time to start focusing on the fats in your diet. While it may sound
counterintuitive, dietary fats are good for the brain. This makes sense when you remember that some 70 percent of the brain is made of fat and that the source of this fat is your diet. So it's not so much the amount of fat that's in your diet, but the type of fat you consume that makes all the difference. Consuming foods made with hydrogenated, saturated fats not only builds a less functional brain that's at increased risk for diseases like Alzheimer's and Parkinson's, but will also compromise function day by day while increasing your risk for so many systemic diseases that are now epidemic in our society, like diabetes, depression, high blood pressure, and coronary artery disease. Now is the time to infuse your diet with sources of DHA and good fats like virgin organic olive oil, which may help protect the brain from Alzheimer's disease. New research now finds that oleocanthal, a compound found in virgin olive oil, modifies specific proteins called ADDLs that interfere with normal nerve function and may trigger memory loss. These modifications render the ADDLs less damaging to the brain.
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.3
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.
Fasting
Do not fast during Week 1.
Dietary Supplements
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.*
*These supplements are contained in 1 capsule of Nrf2 Activator, available from Xymogen: 800-647-6100 or www.Xymogen.com. Nrf2 Activator also contains BioPerine, a pepper extract that significantly enhances the absorption of the active components of this unique supplement.
Physical Exercise
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.
Shamanic exercise
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.
Meditation
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. PowerU pYourBrain.com. As you do the meditation, try to tune in with others around the planet who are meditating at the same time.
Relationships
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.