Bottled Water for sale in Japan from all over the world. I found it fascinating to see such a selection of water for sale in Japan.

People often ask me, “How do you keep kosher when traveling in so many different countries around the world?”

My general ability to eat is that, I maintain an 80% fresh fruit, vegetables, and nut diet. Eggs and rice make up the remaining 20%.  I can generally stick to this diet anywhere in the world and thus keep kosher by doing so.

Every country though offers something unique. In Honduras I was scuba diving off the island of Utila for a few weeks. I was able to buy lots of fresh fish straight from the fisherman. I also found giant bags of kosher corn chips.

In Guatemala I could find avocados and fresh corn tortillas everywhere. Avocados are kosher, and the tortillas are made from just corn flower and water, cooked on a special overturned hot plate.

In the north of Thailand I lived in Chiang Mai for a while. I ate fruit most of the day, lots of papaya and bananas. In the evening I got a kosher chicken meal at the Chabad house.

So there is always a way to keep kosher whether it be in Honduras, Guatemala, or Thailand.

I’ve also experimented with fruit fasting where I eat nothing but fresh fruit for two weeks. I will have a small piece of bread on Shabbat. Aside from the incredible health benefits from fruit fasting, I have also shown myself that I can survive on nothing but fruit for a couple of weeks.

This week I’ve been experimenting with a water fast. It’s something I’ve wanted to do for a long time now. A friend of mine did a ten day water fast. I’ve done some research about it and there seem to be loads of health benefits to fasting.

Today is day five of my water fast. I’ve had some juice made from fig syrup to help as a laxative and clean out the intestines. Also a bit of lemon squeezed into water. But mostly my calorie count has been less than 200 calories per day.  Had a lousy headache yesterday but feel fine today and have good energy. I can’t go for a run, but I went fig picking this morning and did some Tai Chi.

Maple syrup for sale in Japan. One can even do the lemonade diet in Japan!

This is showing me that I could easily go for a week on almost no food. I could always mix some honey in water anywhere in the world if I want some calories or perhaps lemon and maple syrup.  There is actually a diet called the ‘Lemonade diet,’ where people drink nothing but freshly squeezed lemons in water and mix in some maple syrup. I have one friend who does this every year for three weeks straight. He is very active and we even went on a 3 hour walk last week and he had perfect energy. He says he actually has more energy on the lemonade diet than when he eats normally.

I hope to try the lemonade diet sometime, but for the meantime I’m sticking to the water fast which I’ll keep please G-d until Shabbat.