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marie2 -> RE: Fasting (12/17/2008 8:50:46 AM)
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Given the fact that I began my second fast today, this thread really grabbed my attention.
I'm a fasting novice. My first fast was about a month ago. I did a juice (veggies and fruit) fast for 4 days. This time I'm just doing a 3-day, because I have to bake cookies over the weekend, and I know I won't be able to resist sampling. After the holidays, I plan to do a longer fast. Not sure I could last for 30 days, but I'm going to shoot for a 2-3 week fast in January.
From the reading I did beforehand, it is recommended that you don't go from never having fasted to a really long fast. They recommend a 3-5 day first, then a 10 day, then longer if you want. And if you plan on doing a water fast, they recommend a juice fast first. Not sure if there is any validity to this, but it's what I read.
My experience with the 4-day fast was a headache on the first day (so far this time, I don't have a headache, but it's only 11 am). On my second day I seemed to cough a lot. And in my reading it said that one of the major ways your body eliminates toxins is through your lungs, therefore I wasn't surprised when this occured, I figured it was working the way it was supposed to.
Surprisingly I didn't feel sluggish at all. And the first 2 days I did feel hungry, but it wasn't a torture, just a bit of discomfort that I considered pretty bearable. By the third day my body seemed to have shut down it's appetite, so the third and fourth days were a bit easier than the first two.
I can't really report any feelings of great transformation (but that's probably because I only did it for 4 days). I did feel energetic afterwards and somewhat healthier and more inclined to eat a diet of mostly vegetables and whole grains. I felt like I didn't want to screw up my newly-cleansed system with meats and other indigestable garbage like white bread and refined sugar. In fact, last night was the first time I had meat in over a month, which is a long time for me, since I used to consume red meat on a regular basis. So, I would say that doing the fast definitely left me more inclined to eat a healthier diet in general.
There was also this strange feeling of power...not physically, but mentally, like wow, I can't believe I haven't eaten in two days, three days, four days. etc. I was really skeptical that I would last a day, so when I saw the days going by me without eating, it felt empowering on some strange level. I'm looking forward to doing a longer fast next month.
The worst part of the whole thing was cleaning the juicer 6-8 times a day. This time around I am using V-8 Fusions, which is a blend of vegetable and fruit juice without any added sugars. Surprisingly the taste and texture of it is pretty similar to what came out of my juicer when I was using the fresh fruits and veggies. It's probably not as beneficial as fresh fruits and vegetables, but I'm going to see how it works out for me, since cleaning all the parts of that juicer multiple times a day is a real hassle and not something I see myself doing for 3 weeks. I tried juicing some ahead of time, and bottling it for the day, but it didn't stay homogenized, and it was somewhat squicky to me for some reason.
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