Observations on ending a 30-day fast 
Hoose
14 y
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I started my fast on 9 November and am ending it tomorrow morning on 9 December. This is my ninth fast over 10 days in length spanning 7 years. It is my first fast over 20 days in length. Overall it has been easy, although I have recently been fantasizing about how wonderful it would be to not have a tongue.
Ten years ago, I could eat what I wanted and activity at work would keep me slim. In the last 2 or 3 years, that suddenly stopped happening, and I've been in a bit of denial about it. I got a rather alarming physical last month and decided it was time to try a longer fast.I don't claim that any of the points below are original, but they have been touchstones for me through the whole process.THE GOODIn short: mission accomplished. In the beginning I was 53 lbs overweight, my blood pressure was 150/95, resting pulse 105, chest 49", waist 39". On my last day, I was 12 lbs overweight, my blood pressure was 109/73, resting pulse 56, chest 43", waist 34". Even with a 10 lb weight bounce coming off the fast, my problems now seem manageable. I'm pondering a shorter, follow-up fast next month to take care of loose ends.THE BADHands down, my tongue was the worst part of the fast. Since day 17 it has had an odor ranging from sickly sweet to a sweet, rancid putrid odor that has been close to maddening. It wakes me up at night. It dominates my waking thoughts. Leaving it alone doesn't help. Drinking more water doesn't help. Attacking it hourly with things like antiseptics, brushes and scrapers doesn't help.In a distant second place is sleeplessness. It was more of an annoyance than anything else, but I've noticed that when making calculations, I really need to double-check myself.SOME OBSERVATIONS1. Distinguish thinking about food from hunger.These are two very different things, but the perceived difference always seems to evaporate over time.2. Keep track of your progress.When things get trying in the middle of a fast, it's nice to look back and see how much progress you've made. I keep a spreadsheet open with a graph showing my daily weights and notes. This time, since there were some heart/circulatory issues, I kept another spreadsheet that showed how my blood pressure was plumetting as the fast progressed.3. Keep a clear mental picture of what's left to gain.As the fast progresses, you'll find your "magic number," how much you typically lose per day after the initial weirdness ends. For me, this was a pound, or about 2 cups (1 pint) of fat. On day 15, it was comforting to think that I expected to lose another 30 cups of fat by the end of the fast. Even on day 25, the prospect of losing another 10 cups was intriguing.4. Don't avoid being around food.Smelling, seeing and holding food in your hands while you fast helps you proactively deal with feelings that could lead to binge eating after the fast. That said, you do have to respect the fact that you are a hungry animal. On my latest fast, while stimulating my salivary glands by smelling a bottle of pepperoncinis, I may have turned into a werewolf for a moment.* There's no question that growling and sweating were involved.I did avoid watching food commercials on TV, they were indeed distressing.5. Prepare your kitchen.Throw out anything you don't want to eat after the fast and stock up on the foods you want to eat. If there are problems in the kitchen that sap your enthusiasm for making healthy food, apply some of your fasting energy to solving them. When you get a craving, look for recipes you can make to fulfil it in the future and add them to your repetoire.I planned out a set of 7 menus for my refeeding period, calculating vitamins, minerals, fiber, and so forth. It seems better to do it ahead of time, and decrease the stress later.6. Distractions can be useful.If you can kill a block of time doing something that pushes out thoughts of food, it's a real windfall. On my latest fast, I had to travel by air to another city on days 27 and 28. Worrying about logistics like plane schedules, the rental car and hotel, driving directions and so forth kept my mind busy.Sometimes you'll forget for an extended period that you're fasting. One thing I particularly hate is deciding that it's time to get something to eat and then remembering that I'm on a fast.7. After day 21, review the arts.Nobody would ever refer to me as a particularly emotional or artsy guy. However, late in the fast, I was amazed by the emotional response I could have to music, photos, and even some news stories. Spread your net wide, and you'll likely find some really interesting surprises.I didn't cry at my father's funeral, but watching a retrospective on the 30th anniversary of John Lennon's death this morning, I was sobbing like a baby. Go figure.8. Identify and leverage your most powerful motivators.There is a deep, shadowy layer somewhere in my mind where my fundamental attitudes towards healthy eating, exercise, and fasting dwell. From time to time, I will subconsciously start thinking of fasting as attonement for the sins I committed against my body in my misspent youth. For me, that is not a deep well to draw on for inspiration. If I stay in that mindset, I can't do a long run or a long fast. If instead, I use "this helps me be the best at a job I love" as my underlying motivation, I find I have a surprising perserverence.-------------*. A metaphor, of course.
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- Re: Observations on ending a 30-day ... hungry4health
14 y
1,483
MoreThis is a reply to # 1,735,490Inspiring. Thanks for all those tips. I would like to go that long. The longest I went was 10 days, and the tongue thing made me break my fast, I couldn't stand it, it's the worst. And I was scaring people with my bad breath and afraid to open my mouth.
- Re: Observations on ending a 30-day ... waterdesign
14 y
1,631
This is a reply to # 1,735,490I concur about the tongue. I did a 40-day WF this Spring and my tongue got quite nasty too. The last week or so, my saliva got really watery (and smelly!) and i had to spit every ten minutes (too nasty to swallow!) like a camel.
Anyway, its months after my WF and my tongue is still pink when i wake up in the mornings ... i'd say it done me good suffering through the nasty tongue for 40 days.- Re: Observations on ending a 30-day ... chirontherainbowbridge
14 y
1,376
9 Day Juice Fast Kit
Juice fast without hunger.
End Constipation Now
Let oxygen remove old, impacted fecal matter as it detoxifies and...
This is a reply to # 1,735,572WD.. "like a camel". :-) gack. Me too. But since I quit on the 29th day, now I wonder if I just had a lot more spitting
to look forward to, had I gone on.
I was into that from about day 22-29.
C.
- Re: Observations on ending a 30-day ... chirontherainbowbridge
14 y
1,376
- Re: Observations on ending a 30-day ... montecristo5216
14 y
1,549
This is a reply to # 1,735,490Thanks for your ingenuity. You made me laugh hard and long...Oh, God! I love your writing style. Thanks
- Re: Observations on ending a 30-day ... mattydean
14 y
1,434
This is a reply to # 1,735,490Thank you so much for your journey - just reading others experiencing helps so much x x x
The tongue / restlessness are my challenges with long fasts x x x thank u - Re: Observations on ending a 30-day ... chirontherainbowbridge
14 y
1,306
9 Day Juice Fast Kit
Juice fast without hunger.
End Constipation Now
Let oxygen remove old, impacted fecal matter as it detoxifies and...
This is a reply to # 1,735,490All good to hear. I amassed a good collection of raw and vegan recipes during my first WF, delved into artisan breadmaking (only vicariously) and watched some food shows, which I found oddly soothing as they seemed like something from another world--very distant and curious. No TV commercials. >>That is hardcore mind control.
But you mention "antiseptics" for the tongue--meaning you used something other than water? Not mouthwash, I hope, since this would surely affect you badly. The tongue thing: well, that's the map of the terrain, so it's likely to be a real drag. Maybe the thing to do is to praise it!
This is rather like the approach of 'blessing the dear bad thoughts' (for all the good they do, in driving one onward...In inspiring true radical change...)
:-) I do wonder sometimes if water fasters are (just perhaps!) a rather compulsive, even obsessive bunch. The spreadsheet, the graph and all...
I never thought about fat before as "cupfulls", but I can sorta see the appeal. Yes, tasting yourself can be a big drain. For me, it wasn't bad until about the third week, then it went midly metallic, sour and just plain foodless body-burning-its-own-waste. I don't think I ever *smelled bad*, as I would sometimes do the 'lick the wrist' thing as a test, if I had to be out and about.
congrats on the lengthy fast!
C
- Re: Observations on ending a 30-day ... hungry4health
14 y
1,483
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