The indigenous "Muka" dieta and how I lost 25 kgs in 3 months

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I have followed a very special “dieta” which they call “Muka” and lost 25 kgs in 3 months, here is the dieta and what happened. You can see me on this picture eating frogs and boiled green bananas on my improvised “table”.

The “basic” for one year:
-no pure water (I can drink water with grilled corn they call “Fuba”, non-caffeine tea, passion fruit or green apple juice, nothing sugary or sugar-tasting in my mouth. Here is a bag of grilled and crushed corn to mix in my water.

-no sugar whatsoever and no sugar tasting food
-no fruits except green apple and passion fruit (and lemon but I could not either)
-no alcohol (I have stopped entirely and not planning to drink ever again. For them alcohol is poison and they’re not alone, plenty of sources online). It’s tough for a wine lover French man, of course.
-no meat except some chicken, fish ok
-no sex

I had an additional dieta that the healer Sakou I just wrote about added following my liver cleanse, he added:
-no lemon
-no garlic
-no onions
-no smoking pipe or cigars. I smoked a spiritual pipe like twice a week that the Ashaninka tribe (lead by Benki) gave me and it’s also a spiritual ritual with the Lakota Sundance I have done twice. Two more to go minimum to complete that path.

In the dieta it is recommended to eat lots of hot chili peppers, which I did and still do daily. I can’t just take them from the plant daily though.

For the first 3 months isolation in the jungle I just went through was the above but with the following restrictions:
-absolutely no salt
-first month I ate only two boiled green bananas a day made into a little ball (no sugar) and half a glass of water a day. No guitar playing, focus on voice and prayers. No lifting of any weight.

-second month I ate the green bananas or I could also eat some corn, also boiled with nothing added and also a little (very little) river fish but not every day as well as some açai fresh juice.

Kids were climbing trees twice a week to get it for me it was awesome as it’s very strong.

-third month I basically only ate white rice, small but bigger fish and açai.

Now I “just” keep going the “basic” diet.

I lost 25 kgs and got quickly used to only a glass of water a day. No salt removed lots of water in my body but also the need to drink.

I could not move much as I got very weak. Here I am in my hammock with the traditional fruit paint I was always wearing. It lasts about a week, they draw from visions and call it “keuneuh”. This one -as often- is the forms you can find on a boa, for protection.

Anything I did became really hard and I fainted twice, fell down on the floor with all my weight fortunately with just a few scratches.

I learned to move extremely slowly and feel I was getting close to losing consciousness again so I managed to stop moving when I felt that to avoid falling down. I could not play guitar or do anything involving more than walking a few steps.

I could only eat from the two persons authorized to cook and bring my food. You can see them here in the jungle kitchen.

They were in dieta too, a simpler one but involving the same restrictions, they could just eat more. For them the energy I receive is very important so nobody could serve or share anything with me not prepared by them.

I could not and still cannot share my food or anything (like clothes etc) with anyone.

I could not establish eye-contact, talk or touch anyone for three months. Only some of the teachers could approach my space and sit or talk with me, or someone also “in a dieta”.

I could not leave a 50m circle around my hut for about 1.5 months or could not go to the village which was a 30 mins walk (at my slow pace!).

I was allowed to go online online 2 to 4 times a month just to basically say I was alive to my family and did not communicate with anyone else of the outside world, check the news, the Internet, stocks, crypto… The return to reality has been even more dramatic with the tech stocks and crypto crash.

Obviously there were not many distractions in the forest. Meditation, connecting with animals, contemplating nature or learning songs and prayers were all I did for 3 months.

Why do all of this and what did it do to me?

I am still figuring it out, but I did it, it was definitely the hardest I have ever done in my life.
-purification of the body by simplifying everything I ate (only 3 or 4 simple things local from the forest)
-keep all my strength inside and build it, no meat or processed food makes it easy to digest. No sex is a common practice of most spiritual or religious traditions to keep all my energy for myself. This was tough for the first three weeks then it became easy.
-enhanced dream life. I never had that many dreams I could record and write every night, 3 to 5 different dreams a night
-”strong spirit” as they say.

This dieta is also a test of one’s strength and will.

It is not given to many people (last time this family gave it to anyone was 10-15 years ago) and many people who had it “broke the diet”. You can hold it, break it and lose all the benefits or… die and accept it. I wasn’t ever close to death but the two bananas a day and losing consciousness twice felt pretty close. I obviously had many thoughts to quit but always found the strength to keep going. Isolation for 3 months is really hard too.
-learning many songs and long prayers wasn’t easy but became very useful when I started to understand what they do, like giving me hope and strength
-meditation daily was really hard. I was so weak I could barely keep my back straight or avoid falling asleep.
-I slept a lot, sometimes up to 14 hours a day. That was awesome.
-I learned to be happy alone, first time ever in my life, and I can now come back to that meditation place inside whatever happens. I enjoy family and friends, also interacting with everyone here of course, more than ever.
-I learned to live with close to nothing. I had a bed, a few clothes and spiritual objects. I used my iPhone offline to record songs and prayers then learn them. Living with nothing made me appreciate any simple thing now.
-I wrote 4 full notebooks of dreams and thoughts, I wrote about 2 hours every day

-I sang for more than two hours a day which I have never done

Oh, I also got to eat weird things!

I ate monkey meat, ants with a big belly and… frogs they call “TO - A” because that’s what they sing all the time. Not just the legs… everything even the head. Good for the voice they say, with a monkey throat. Here are the frogs.

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