Most people from my region in the South Eastern US don't know too much about fasting. It's not part of our culture, religious practices (Bible belt, y'all), spiritual preferences or medical treatments. So I think it's safe for me to assume a lot of people haven't researched or studied fasting. I have. Hence, why I took on a week-long experiment (originally only for 3 days, but then... go big or go home, right?).
I looked into fasting because I was experiencing many problems that store bought products couldn't fix. My eyes were constantly irritated and blood shot, even with the doctors rx, they would not heal. My skin was flushed with bumps and the all natural homemade remedies: coconut oil/aloe body scrubs failed miserably. My hair became straw-like and was falling out at alarming rates. I was gaining weight even though I swam all the time and my (mostly) vegetarian diet remained unchanged. So a lot of things didn't add up. Some of these factors had to have been linked to stress and the environment, nonetheless, I was tired of zero progress.
So I became obsessed with how fasting works and who supported it in the past (Hippocrates, Socrates, Plato, Gandhi, Upton Sinclair, and many modern doctors/scientists). It is found all throughout history, especially as a religious tradition for detoxifying the body. There is a ton of research on it, books explaining how it is linked to nature, people beating cancer with it, animals living longer when scientists put them on fasts, and so on... I watched youtube videos of people going through it, read blogs of their experience, got my doctor's approval, read Sinclair's book and it all made sense. I can do this and I should do this. Everyone who has has benefited from it.
I got some negative feedback when I was explaining my ordeal. People told me that it's not good to starve myself, I need food for fuel, lack of vitamins only makes things worse and so on. But they were all wrong. And I told them so, but it hard to explain so much information to people who are set in their lifestyles. Something so off-the-wall is hard to accept.
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| The week I became a plant: sunshine and water for all. |
So I began my water-only fast feeling good- it's 90% mental anyways. Not that I had to prove to anything to anyone, but I wanted to know for myself. If all the research I did was true and it could work. I'm naturally a hangry person so it was a real test to myself.
I spent the week drinking lots of water, resting, watering my plants and writing articles. When my stomach started to growl, I hushed it. And it worked. Real hunger is felt around the 35 day mark (we can go without food for 40 days) and it's not by a growling stomach. Throat pains tell you you are really hungry and running out of reserves. My squeaky grumbles were no problem and I felt full off of all the water. It was much easier going without food than I imagined.
My biggest struggle was my mind. I would get a slight headache from time to time, but the thoughts of food were endless. This is also because I am cooking and experimenting with food everyday, so I am always thinking these thoughts anyways. The funny part was that I remained clear-headed and creative. Others have spoken about "mind fog" that is frequent... not for this girl. I had trouble sleeping because I could not shut my mind off. An increase in creativity was noted as a common side effect, and for this I was happy.
To wrap this up, it was a nice little fast and I'm glad I did it. I broke the fast on the sixth day as I was losing too much weight. I am already a lean girl, and with all my muscle gone, I called it a week. My skin cleared, my eyes have yet to act up (it's been over a month now), my hair is healthier but still falling out. Maybe I'm just old now? I was also having a leg pain for a few months, but that has stopped as well.
The greatest part was what I learned after breaking the fast. Once I started introducing foods into my system again, I could directly see how they affected me. I've known dairy upsets my stomach, but I didn't realize meat did the same and then some. Sugar makes my skin break out and I feel drained/gross after eating it. So now my senses are more heightened to my bodily reactions and I can understand what they are saying. I read that most people feel more in tune with their bodies and desire foods less. Which is good.
There is a lot here that I haven't said. I would encourage anyone to try it out, even intermittent fasting, or just juice fasting one day a week. I would like to do a week-long fast once a year with intermittent fasting throughout. "The Fasting Cure" by Upton Sinclair and "Eat Stop Eat" by Brad Pilon were good resources. This lady: personalexcellence.co/blog/fasting-series/ explains and records it very well. Youtube also has tons of day by day videos and reviews. Your body deserves a break from digesting so it can focus its energy on the parts of us that need healing. Sometimes we just need to slow down and fast.
