Hi GJ, sorry to hear it’s all so overwhelming for you there. From the way you describe what you are going through I went through something similar when I went back to do my Year 12 the second time as an adult at 21. I was very interested in Creative Writing also but was told it was a useless profession to consider in school and not to bother dreaming basically. On the surface I ignored their put-downs but I didn’t follow through with my desires to write either. I basically made it halfway through that Certificate year until I came head to head with most of the teachers and what they were t ...
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They do sound like symptoms of depression, whether related to diet as well is hard to tell. She may not be able to talk about it just yet. She may not know what is going on at all within her. Coming to the realisation that you have depression is no small thing, it is an overwhelming thing in itself. I think the best thing for her right now may be to have patience with her. Let her know you are there for her when she feels she can talk about it. Be close to her as much as you can. Reassure her that you won’t judge her on whatever is going on, just that you are concerned and want to help, wa ...
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Good luck Ali. Don’t take it as such a disaster. Each time we try we learn from our body’s responses and the responses of those around us. Unfortunately it can be a matter of trial and error to get things right. So as disappointing as it is to have broken this fast early what you learned this time will benefit you a lot in the future. Take care. Andrew.   [End]
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I think the main reason we leap into a fast is to grab hold of the motivation while we have it. If you can spend even a few days eaten raw fruits and juices that would help immensely. From my recent experience the preparation certainly helps get through those annoying first few days as your body is not only cleaner from eating raw foods but also more fully satisfied than it would be from eating any other way. I am not experienced in juice only diets but I can vouch for the fact that eating a fruit salad the night before a fast has so far been the best preparation I have experienced going i ...
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In some ways fasting is like being on another world, or some virtual reality experience. Our world’s are turned on their heads and no longer revolve around food. If you think how much time we spend on food: preparing and eating our meals, the actual planning of them and the time spent shopping for them! It takes up literally hours of each day quite often. To have that time given back to us, especially when those around us are still consumed by consuming so to speak, can really give us an alien experience of our own world. And time (boredom too if we’re not prepared) can stretch before us u ...
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Hi resurgem. The sugars in fruits are not to be feared! This is a big problem in today’s world. Most of westerners are happy to feed themselves and their kids soft drinks and cordials but shy at juice because it is too naturally sweet! The sugar in fruit is sugar exactly the way it was intended for our body. It is also part of a whole food which is perfectly designed for our body’s, or we are perfectly designed for it however you would like to put that. How much weight you put back on, though I am no expert on this part, depends on how much food you eat when you start refeeding. That ap ...
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I think it’s a sign the fast is doing fine. I assume the brain fog when I’ve had it is due to toxins being released into the bloodstream for removal. They will sometimes have similar side effects going out as they did coming in. With drugs this can particularly the case, even things like the theobromine in chocolate and caffeine in soft drinks and coffee etc. Once released back into the bloodstream they can be carried out of the body through the breath, sweating, intestines etc, but on the way out they are still in circulation again for a limited time. It sounds like you’re doing fine. ...
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The reflux has plagued me recently too. I suspect it is from too much soft drinks, I was hooked on the damn things. It sounds like you don’t need much time in between your fasts at this stage, so long as you stick to mostly raw foods and are improving the quality of stores in between the fasts instead of adding toxins through too much cooked or overly processed foods. Take care, Andrew.   [End]
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I hope the meeting went okay and all is still well on your fast. Sounds like you are needing all the down time you can grab for the moment. Take care, Andrew.   [End]
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I’m sorry I can’t locate the recipe I use for making nut butter dips from scratch, there are various available if you do a quick search for it. The quick and easy way to do it is to use bought nut butters. Anything from peanut butter to almond to tahini. Make sure you don’t use an overly processed one, they are easy to get without sugars and with their natural oils in them still. You start with the nut butter then add as much water to it as you like to make a runny dip. Just add a little water at a time to the nut butter and let the dip mix with the water fully before putting more in and c ...
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I can’t be sure if I’ve had orange urine or not. I know that it remains dark the whole time and does change colours and shades somewhat but don’t recall orange in particular. My first thought if it was worrying you at all would be to look up what orange urine could be a sign of and rule out any major issues. The other concern is that the orange could be a sign of blood in the urine, and I would consider that. My next thought is that without other symptoms to worry me I wouldn’t be concerned. The body is still functioning well, the kidneys are still doing their job well also. The main th ...
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I have also read of people who have given up on fasting due to detrimental effects felt through doing their fasts. If you look closer at how they conducted their fasts it’s easy to find the reason for their bad experience of it. I believe it is the same with being a vegan, however any human diet is a lot more complicated than fasting so it’s not so easy always to find the reason. Andrew.   [End]
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Salads are raw foods, most salad foods are raw vegetables and any raw vegetables would qualify as raw food allowed after a fast. Fruit is the highest water content, softest and most cleansing of the raw foods which makes it the best food to break a fast with as a general rule. I make a point of waiting until at least my bowels are functioning normally after a long term fast especially on fruit only before I add any salads, and so far the I have felt good breaking my fast for half it’s length of days on fruit only. Raw vegetables are usually whatever you like best in a salad. I know one ...
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I definitely can’t explain any better than the quote I have already put in here about how fasting can do in a matter of days that which could and often does take meds several weeks to do. He stated there that this is because fasting effects all the neurotransmitters at once whereas a drug cannot be anywhere near as efficient. In general though a fast will first of all rebalance the entire body. It will give it a period of perfect nutrient digestion from it’s own stores, so if it is a deficiency causing the depression a fast would help immensely. It also cleanses the entire body, making ...
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That has been a hell of a 2 months, and literally. There are no platitudes that can change what has happened that’s for sure. Often friends and family just don’t realise that the old words just don’t have the same effect anymore- they just don’t know how to deal with the radical change at all. I think many or even most people don’t want to know that one of their ’happier’ friends has been struck down like this, because if so it can happen to anyone, even to them! I would ask you not to give up, if not on completely healing the herpes at least don’t give up on getting that under control. ...
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I am pretty much completely vegan Chris and due to my widely varied diet I have rarely worried too much about where all my nutrients come from. I feed my children the same and make sure they do get nuts and seeds in their diets as well as plenty of raw food, which is the most important consideration in my opinion. Once I regain a healthy weight I intend to continue a very high raw content in my diet and I know that many raw foods contain at least trace amounts of nutrients that are considered lacking in a vegetarian diet. Also most or probably all recommendations for ’minimum requirements’ ...
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The general rule for refeeding from a fast is to stick to raw food as much as possible for the amount of days you fasted for. I have found that eating fruit and juices only for half that period works very well, and makes sure that the system is functioning normally again before anything heavier is added. I then add a meal of salad each day and gradually add very small amounts of cooked food to the salads until the time is up. I personally wouldn’t eat a cooked only meal until the full recovery period was up. This seems to fit in with the time period your doctor gave you also. At the end ...
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This article has nothing to do with fasting itreeye. First of all we are not starving our bodies, so this article based on a famine response is totally irrelevant. A starving body which has these famine responses (even assuming the article to be correct in this regard) has absolutely no reserves left on it’s body to live on. We are fasting as all animals do during times of dearth, hard winters, droughts, natural disasters etc. The fasting body does NOT consume vital organs. It is unlikely it even uses muscle tissue if you are using those muscles and not resting totally, unless it nee ...
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I have heard massage can be great while fasting but haven’t researched this side of things much. I’d give it a go if you can. The best chance I’d get here would be to get my kids to run up and down along my back while I’m lying on the floor! lol I had the same thing during my last 11 day fast. For four days of it I had enough energy to use on good workouts, an 8 and 10 kms run, and pushups and situps. Several days later I was napping most of the days between doing stuff that had to be done. 14 days is great going, keep it up. :) Andrew.   [End]
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Hi Vanda, great post. :) I totally agree that there is room for experimentation in fasting to see what works best for each of us. There are a couple of key points I disagree with in Shelton’s teachings that I have read to date, but that doesn’t make all his teachings bunk. His results speak for themselves. I think we all agree here that the most important element of water fasting is not to take anything else by mouth except water. The amount of water that works best for the individual is something that not only can be experimented with, but is not necessarily a constant anyway. Mysel ...
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Don’t be too disappointed at failing. The first time I started experimenting with fasting I would often go for a day or two and then join my family with a meal of chips from the fish n chips shop! And boy did they taste yummy. The longest I managed in that time was about 3 days and the few photos I have from then show me fairly pale probably because I wasn’t even getting into ketosis properly on most, and of course not understanding the value of breaking the fast properly. My best advice would be to consciously change your cravings. If and when you start feeling the cravings instead of ...
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I have had mild headaches on fasts before, nothing compared to the migraines I often have while eating processed foods. They also aren’t anywhere near as persistent as a rule. Headaches are not uncommon while fasting. It could also have something to do with the vitamin tablets, when you add something like that to a fast, it isn’t technically a fast anymore, and the normal rules just may not apply. Andrew.   [End]
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If the dry skin is just the result of the fast I wouldn’t worry too much about it, so long as you are drinking and don’t feel thirsty. It could be a result of having the bouillon or even the vitamin tablets. Also having the sugar tablets and the bouillon may actually be increasing your desire for other tastes, so abstaining from everything but water may get rid of your cravings as well. I personally would not take either the vitamins or the bouillon. I trust both that the fasting works far better on it’s own without any assistance and that refeeding on raw foods will build up your syste ...
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Wow that is hard on you aliprice. I hope you gain the success you are after and in need of as soon as you can! Take care, Andrew.   [End]
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They are probably just pasting in their signature each time, which most forums allow for. But it even sigs are easily abused. I know that links are posted all the time and are usually quite relevant. But I’ve not seen a direct link to another forum and though there doesn’t seem to be a direct policy against it I would prefer to wait for a decision. But in the meantime Quinta_essentia feel free to email me. Thanks been there done that. :)   [End]
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I’m not sure if I’m allowed to advertise other forums here as they may be considered competition? Maybe a moderator could answer that for us, I’m not sure how to contact them directly.   [End]
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I don’t want to advertise the other forum here but here is an extract of a post by a medical doctor who replied to a post in which I mentioned getting relief from depression symptoms at the beginning of a recent fast: ”do bear in mind that during a fast, as soon as the blood sugar starts dropping, your endocrine system foes full out to increase the sugar again. To this end it releases cortizone from the adrenal gland, as well as adrenaline, noradrenaline, dopamine, serotonin and growth hormone. These all helps increase the blood sugar again but they are all andidepressant also. Most (go ...
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Hi abby, good luck with your new fast. Dinner is a tough one when the cravings are still there. Worse is making fruit salads for the kid’s breakfast and worst of all is helping my son with his newfound joy juicing! lol Luckily that passes fairly quickly most of the time though. If you’re planning on fasting for more than a week or so you could try making larger meals and freeze what’s left, then thaw it out again next week. They still get your home cooking but you don’t have to face it each night. I usually just make the same amount as normal and freeze what I would have eaten, which is en ...
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I have done several medium fasts, up to 14 days, over the last 2 and a half months Bluegreen and in between each have used the rule of thumb to recover for the same amount of days after each fast. That has been mostly on raw food and I believe that to be an important consideration. Between my fasts I have been feeling steadily less hungry and beginning each successive fast especially has become easier and easier. I have had a lot of weight to lose, being nearly 140 kgs before starting, but I believe I have benefited greatly in so many ways from using the full recovery period between each f ...
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hehe Unquity. I call fasting an enlightened cure in this sense as I was comparing it to healing modalities like reiki and others in that only a small portion of the population are exposed to them or come close to understand them. I do totally, or almost totally, agree about the chemical pollution in today’s world. I find it no surprise that Hitler used fluoride in such a way, it’s totally evil stuff to be polluting our water supplies with. In fact here in Australia they want to go a step further and use a fluoride spray to fumigate OPEN UNPROTECTED foodstores to protect them from insect ...
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Thanks for your reply Ubyquity, but I think we’ll have to agree to disagree on this one. :) I think it is far too generalised. The only way to really know if our colons are impacted with old mucous and toxins as you suggest is to actually look in there, however that is done nowadays. I read one account of a man who was unfortunately put off fasting because he fasted for two years but only one day a week- not understanding that he was probably not even entering ketosis therefore getting none of it’s benefits and only feeling- or remembering- the discomfort. He was also a medical student and ...
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I’m not sure I totally agree with all you say here Unyquity. I really don’t think that ’enlightened’ cures like fasting are any more available to most people than enlightened soul searching. I think that mankind is quite self-destructive and actively resists any attempts to remedy that situation in any major way. As bleak as that sounds though I have a lot of faith in human nature, I just think the challenges and burdens on us as individuals and as a race are more often than not too much for us to accept the added burden of change of any sort, and therefore tend to always choose the dev ...
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Hey there malchicka. Good luck! I was hooked on junk food and especially soft drinks before I gained the motivation this year to start a good clean out with fasting, and haven’t looked back. I certainly have no desire for either any more. I am quite happy when not fasting just to eat mostly raw foods. :) Take care, Andrew.   [End]
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I also went through depression without medication, well done for being strong about that. The pressures to take them can be incredible and only add to our woes. Fasting is the most efficient way to cleanse the body and you certainly won’t have to do a colonic cleanse as well. While fasting the body seeks to rebalance the system and without the burden of digestion on it systematically cleanses those parts of the body most urgently in need of it. Many have also reported symptoms of depression clearing up during a pure water only fast, in as little as three or four days. I can personally a ...
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The book was Eating For Health by Dr. Abromowski. It was published in South Melbourne Vic Aus in around 1911, or maybe a bit earlier. It is well out of print now, a priceless book to be sure. I was lucky to get a copy just to read I no longer have access to it. There are some articles online about Dry Fasting and if you google it you will find some interesting and useful reading material about it. My interest in fasting was part of my interest in finding a better way to live healthily. I was more or less healthy on my first fast but had been contemplating fasting for many years and deci ...
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I agree with telling very few people if any. When I did my first long term fast I told only my children and my very closest friends. Now these people did not actually support me due to their fear but nor did they hinder me with too much pressure to stop. As I had more days behind me in my fast I could more confidently tell more people- I haven’t eaten for 15 days or how ever much it was, rather than ”I’m trying to fast X amount of days.” If you tell them what you’ve done, you’ll shock them, but they can’t tell you it’s impossible! If you tell them what you are trying to do, you open the do ...
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I think you are proving yourself on the right track already. You have made it three days without eating and it doesn’t sound like you’ve become more fatigued since you began. At all times listen to your body and when you do break the fast break it correctly and your body will gain health from the experience. Take care, Andrew.   [End]
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Fasting cleans out the colon and gives the intestinal flora a chance to revitalise.   [End]
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Thanks for the praise. This is just a topic that I have been passionate about most of my adult life and an area I’ve tended to soak up the information on. Still, it’s mostly from personal diverse experience and I wouldn’t call my knowledge definitive. hehe my comment about the advert was more my enthusiasm in supporting fruit, more laughing at myself for sounding like someone who was all hyped up and excited advertising a tampon! lol A lot of what I said about fruit did come from Natural Hygiene. The fruit won’t ferment if eaten on an empty stomach because it passes through the stomach ...
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As compared to what? I think you’ve got super high standards if you think Jurplesman a layman. Are you even ’qualified’ enough to make that assumption? You won’t even use your own nickname whereas he isn’t afraid to use his. A very cheap shot.   [End]
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I totally disagree sorry itreeye. Fruit has a totally UNDESERVED bad reputation in today’s supposedly sugar conscious society. Sugar is in just about every processed food you buy from the supermarket- I know because I avoid it like the plague and it is damned hard- so people eat this refined white sugar all the time. But we are told/conditioned to believe raw natural fruit off the trees is bad for us!!! It is a crazy situation. I have a constant argument with my ex wife who tells me that I shouldn’t be giving my children fruit juice because they will get used to the sweetness when I’ve see ...
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The weight loss would be slower than with a longer fast most likely but I think your plan is a good one. I think making each successive fast a little bit longer will improve the fasting process, also it may take up to three days to really change the system to ketosis the first time, but I believe I’ve read that the ketone production can continue in a smaller way up to 10-12 days after the fast. With this in mind I believe that on each successive fast the ketosis transition will come quicker. I do believe that the body learns to fast better and better each time we do it. As for losing fa ...
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I agree about the water triggering hunger. I think it might even be just taking anything by mouth makes us want more. But I often seem to feel heavier in the belly during a water fast. Sounds like you’re doing great. :) And certainly a very ’safe’ way to test out the dry fast. Without supervision or support my first long fast of thirty days I just drank one glass of water a day. It was only after this and the confidence I gained- and the hindsight- that I started really exploring the dry fasting. You have probably read this already, and I’ve already mentioned some, but the signs I watch ...
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No problem Chris. I guess I was just lucky to have the right book on the subject thrust in front of me to start with. First impressions and all that. I can only assume that people like Shelton and others never really experimented with the concept. I guess they had no need since they were already on such a good thing already. Andrew.   [End]
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This is not the first time I’ve heard of this, though not so grisly an evidence of mistreatment. The Medical Profession continues to prescribe ineffective and ultimately dangerous medications to underage children. The Medical Profession appears to be a Law unto it’s own and can do whatever it wants so long as it writes enough papers to justify it’s actions. Andrew.   [End]
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There is no doubt that water fasting is the safer option Chris. There are dangers with both however and nobody suggests that people walk blindly into water fasting either. The danger with dehydration is over stated in my opinion and I will explain why. First, from personal experience. I have done several dry fasts now. Many in excess of 3 days and several now 5 days and more. My first 5 day dry fast I was eating some raw food but not much comparatively- my diet was still predominantly cooked and therefore low water content food. In other words very little preparation. So how, with so l ...
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I agree with Chris. I definitely think it is worth trying fasting to help you, but also definitely without the medication. If you have trouble getting professional advice about this, which I also strongly suggest, please email me and I will try to help with that also. Good luck. Andrew.   [End]
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Strict dry fasting is not having any water, no washing hands, no mouth washes etc. And especially of course no water. I have done the no washing bit- hell I’ve gone for a week or more without showering before so that’s not a huge deal, more of a problem for the people around me! lol I can’t go without brushing my teeth though, the acid in my system while it detox’s demands a daily brush of the teeth. And actually after my recent fasts I have just noticed in the last few days the yellow stains have disappeared for the first time in I don’t know how long! Anyway back to dry fasting. It is ...
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I think the more raw food you eat during your refeeding the more likely both that you will replenish your body in the time you’ve given yourself and also that you will put on the least amount of weight back on. I am still a bit concerned about your taking in small amounts of other foods (broth etc) while fasting as this is more likely becoming a starvation diet. But you seem to know what you’re doing and if you have enough stores in your body you are unlikely to starve from what I’ve read either way. And your refeeding plan sounds pretty damn good to me. I think you’ve done an amazin ...
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I disagree about the ’no water’ bit but this forum is not the place for that debate. :) I’m not sure what is meant by the term ’dead’ water. I used to get people tell me that water that’s been sitting sealed in a bottle for several days has gone stale and they wouldn’t touch it. I visit a camping thread and people there are afraid to drink river water. It’s a sad world we live in. If your water, distilled or otherwise, seems a bit dead or stale, just pour it from one glass to another a few times and it will instantly be revitalised. It’s not beer, it doesn’t go stale! Andrew. :)   [End]
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I fully understand your anger and frustration. It is often hard to find the positives in life. Not as many try to tell us because we aren’t looking hard enough, but simply because the negatives so overwhelm us. When I Healed my depression it was with soul searching mostly. That was aided by training I had had as a rebirther (which in a nutshell is deep breathing and regression with the goal of cleansing the body and mind of old traumas) and as a reiki practitioner. It was using these two modalities combined that immediately lifted my depression. It was an instant Event that followed my ...
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Yes Jp, it’s Nobles Pureau and I know it’s available in Sydney I found that out on my water research journey when I learnt the horrible truth about my water filter. It comes in 5 and 10 litre casks in the Supermarkets. I get it from Safeway, I think it’s called Woolworths up there. It comes in smaller bottles too but they are obviously more expensive. Here is the link to their website: http://noblebeverages.com Cheers, Andrew.   [End]
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It depends where you live and what they put in the water. I recently discovered that my little filter doesn’t remove fluoride, it was quite a shock to me I can tell you. Apparently you need a reverse osmosis filter for that or something, and that’s too expensive for me at the moment. As is a distiller which I found cost $200 plus. I have settled on buying water from the supermarket from a company here in Australia that boast absolutely pure water. It comes in 10 litre casks for 6 or 7 dollars so it’s affordable. The important thing is to get your water as pure as possible, no spring wat ...
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I don’t think you need anything to accelerate the detox in a fast. The body will fast as quickly as it can as it is. If you want to detox quicker you could try dry fasting just make sure you get as much info on that as possible first. I don’t know much about HP but I would be worried about what else it would do to the system while it is fasting, even if it doesn’t have any calories- it could well have other side effects. Andrew.   [End]
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That’s right, you need to recover on clean raw foods as long as you fasted. As your body recovers you can add some cooked food with your salads but keep that minimal, and wait the full recovery period before either starting back on a cooked diet (but hopefully healthier than before) or fasting again. Good luck, sounds like a great plan. :) Andrew.   [End]
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”This planet has become SO ”toxic” in virtually every way possible, and people are basically ’permanently conditioned’ to understand that healing ’comes from a bottle’.” I absolutely agree, and this is exactly why depressed can’t be cured from a bottle. It isn’t always a disease at all, it is a natural reaction to the world as it is today. When I discovered I had Depression and the Hopelessness crashed in on me I fully expected to live with this condition my whole life. Simply because I was intelligent enough to realise it wasn’t simple a disorder in my brain but a natural response to m ...
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Unfortunately you will lose the benefits of the fast, it will need to be digested normally and the body will no longer be fasting but starving because you are feeding it but not enough to live. I have another suggestion that may help. If you fast as long as you can, break the fast with lemon juice and then with fruit and some juices only until you feel satisfied, a day- two days, whatever you feel you need. Then start the fast again when you feel ready. Your body will be cleaner from the fast and the fruit and will be more prepared to begin a fast and you will hopefully have an easier s ...
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I have been fasting for weight loss for about ten weeks now. More than half of that time I have been fasting, the other half I have been eating raw foods. This has worked a treat for me. I weighed myself a few weeks ago and had lost 20-30 kilos and now would consider myself more overweight than obese, something people who know nothing about fasting would consider a miracle for someone who weighed 140 kilos in the middle of this year. So myself I don’t think there is any need to be impatient about losing the weight, it really does come off quickly enough following the basic principals of fa ...
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I have no experience with putting salt in water during a fast. Personally I wouldn’t do it. I would always assume my body has the reserves to call upon if needed. Nor in all of my research on cramping have I found any evidence to suggest that salt is definitely the cause of leg cramps. I’d suggest they won’t last too long, and the best remedy, even if it is only short term and still painful! Is to stretch the leg when you feel the cramps coming on. Sorry I can’t be of more help with this. And Thank You. :) Andrew.   [End]
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You have lots of positives to be proud about Unfettered Moth. First ten days of fasting can’t be erased by a few days of indulging yourself. You’ve done a lot of detoxing in that time and it will pay off for you. Also if your cravings are still so strong sometimes it is a good thing to indulge them to be able to put them behind you. Your body and mind now know they can fast for ten days and that it is beneficial, whereas they also know what it feels like to give in to the cravings! Good luck with your new fast! Andrew.   [End]
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My experience and that of others written down over the last hundred years that I have read state fairly consistently that you are most likely to feel hunger and cravings for the first few days at most. After that both hunger and cravings pretty much disappear. On my first long term fast I had days where I would imagine eating one thing, such as a boiled egg (which as a vegetarian/vegan I rarely ate) and the imagination was so strong that I just walked around for a day or so tasting it in my mouth. But there was no temptation to actually eat it along with the experience. In my recent exp ...
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Your body certainly doesn’t need vitamins on a fast and yes it might trick the body. I don’t think it’s worth the risk. Remember also that vitamins come packed in milk sugar (lactose) so it’s more than likely it will interfere. But rest assured you’ll be fine without them. :) Andrew.   [End]
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You’ve done well Stockwiz. You are certainly fasting long enough to get the benefits of the fast, and not too long for the bacon to have done you too much harm. Good on you for continuing. :) If you go for longer remember your digestive system will shrink and close down to a large extent so eating anything other than high water content food could have a lot of trouble getting through it. But it sounds like for you giving in to that craving gave you the strength to continue on. Well done. :) Andrew.   [End]
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If you’re having trouble getting past the first day or so the best advice I can give you is to prepare for your fast with a mostly raw eating day before you do. Maybe have your main meal for lunch but make it mostly salad then have a big fruit salad for dinner, then if you’re feeling like that’s not enough have a fresh juice afterwards. Eating like this the day before a fast gives me a great first day at the very least. Good luck. :) Andrew.   [End]
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Aww what a pain! Good on you for not letting it get you down too much though. :) Good luck continuing the fast. Take care, Andrew.   [End]
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Maybe you could try eating the foods that tempt you so much for a day or two.. and eat them to your heart’s content! Enough hopefully to dull the cravings for them before you start your fast. Then on the night before your fast have a big fruit salad, my best starts to fasts have been after a fruit meal the night before. You fully hydrate yourself and the taste of your last meal almost follows you through the first couple of days. You could also try putting your water in an esky and staying away from the fridge altogether. :) And going for a walk or something when the cravings hit. Ho ...
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Good on you and thanks for the encouragement. :)   [End]
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Good luck lukesnyderfan, you really do need to get passed the first couple of days to start seeing the benefits, but they can be the hardest as you’ve already discovered. Keep at it! I have just finished a 6 day dry fast and am continuing straight on with a water fast for a few more weeks at least (with any luck) so if you want to keep in touch with me feel free. I hope you make it okay! Take care, Andrew.   [End]
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Only you can decide that. Everything I’ve read says that you will know the difference between false cravings and real hunger when you get it. The important thing always is how you break your fast, so whether it’s 10 days, 2 or 3 weeks, or when you feel hungry again, make sure you break your fast cleanly and you will get the full benefit of it. :)   [End]
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Water fasting will certainly detox and help you lose weight. You may find it difficult to start with especially, but as the weight starts falling off you will certainly see the benefits. I started fasting to lose weight just over 2 months ago and had lost 30 kilos last time I weighed myself 2-3 weeks ago. I haven’t fasted all that time though, some of the symptoms I’ve had while fasting have interferred with my life and particularly being a good dad for my kids so I have broken the fast with raw fruit and salads in between. This has worked excellently for me so far and I am six days into m ...
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ahh you are a bit shorter than I thought so it’s very unlikely to be real hunger at this point, still it is worth being vigilant and listen to the signs of your body. Your mind will always try and trick you into eating if it’s anything like mine. :)   [End]
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I would say you are about normal weight and will most likely be below weight by the time your fast is finished, if you aren’t already. It doesn’t sound like you’re quite wasting away just yet though. :) If you start feeling like the hunger is ’real’ in that it feels like your whole body is yearning for food rather than just your mind then it’s time to start eating again. Otherwise you are probably just experiencing normal reactionary cravings especially if this is your first fast. Andrew.   [End]
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Were you overweight/underweight/normal weight before the fast? Do you have symptoms with the hunger like salivating at the thought or sight of food, or other signs from your body that you need food? Or is it more like cravings, wanting to eat old favourite foods, whether they are good for you or not? If it is the latter and you are getting cravings that aren’t a sign of real hunger you could try thinking about other foods, fruit and other raw foods instead of the nasties until the need to think about them goes away. Then find something to distract you afterwards. If it happens a lot it ...
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I would suggest a two week fast then one week of fruit then one week of ’fruit breakfast/lunch’ and mostly salad with a small portion of cooked food of your choice (but simple) added to your salad. This will give you the best result, I think, in the time you have. Whereas if you fasted for 30 days and tried to eat your normal wedding feast you may not have the wedding night you had planned for! And if you could stick to a two week fast with raw food up until the wedding you will have great results! Good luck with it. :) Andrew.   [End]
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I do know that some fasting supervisors allow carbonated water during a fast. Your post just reminded me of that. Again I just stick to normal water but if this helps you maybe try to find a soda water machine that can carbonate the water you are drinking normally. Even if you accept that adding some diluted carbs to your diet during a fast is okay you would still probably want to avoid the quinine in tonic water. Take care and I hope tomorrow is better for you. Andrew.   [End]
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Thanks #84008, you are right of course. Because fasting is so shunned by the medical profession in general and so little research is done on it we rely heavily on personal experiences and far too few writings on the subject by professionals who have practised it over the last hundred years or so both on themselves and their patients. And more often than not these professionals vary in details and in fact the details of their explanations in books are often found wanting by us when fasting because there is so much difference in individual body response to a fast. And in our perceptions of w ...
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Certainly your opinion is valid, and nobody is suggesting any evil motives for putting them forward. I know myself I would rather break a fast if the detox is harsh enough to interfere with my everyday life- particularly with being a parent- and have done so, rather than try any sort of quick fix like you are suggesting. Even if it didn’t stop the fast altogether it would certainly confuse the body by introducing glucose back into the system. So you may indeed experience relief from your symptoms, but that relief may be simply because you have interrupted the fast, not because the dilut ...
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Yes I agree Chris, if you have aloe vera or lemon juice in your water it’s breaking the fast. I totally missed this as I just skimmed the post thinking it was another one suggesting to swish something around in the mouth as others have suggested before with oils. I’m of the opinion pretty much that the fasting body doesn’t need anything from outside, the ONLY exception being enough water to keep it from dehydrating. But certainly anything added to the pure water will be breaking the fast and shouldn’t be done. I’m not sure who would be advising diluting water with lemon juice for a fast, I ...
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I’ve had this a couple of times too and it has passed for me after a couple of days. Not much for it but to ride it out as you say. It is foul tasting as well as burning at times and pretty hard to live with at the best of times. It’s also ended in vomiting a couple of times. The good thing is that the vomiting itself was easy, not painful, just an auto reflux. And afterwards I felt much better. Hopefully you don’t have to put up with it for too long. Take care, Andrew.   [End]
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How fast you gain the weight back would depend on a lot of things I think. How much you eat and the quality of that food. Also the longer the fast the more likely the body will be absorbing nutrients more easily as well. I have heard of people who were previously unable to gain weight that have done so after a fast. You can post about dry fasting on the Fasting- General Fasting Support Forum. There is no forum just for dry fasting here but they do discuss it there. Andrew.   [End]
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I’m sorry I haven’t looked at all the links given but if you think your depression is sugar related you may be hypoglycaemic. My ex wife was diagnosed with that and it led to symptoms similar to chronic fatigue and to depression related to hi growing incapacitation and also weight gain. She had to remove sugar completely from her diet and then wheat also, which the body metabolises to make sugar when sugar is removed. But after doing this for some time, 6-12 months, she was able to regain a normal moderated diet again. She always shunned sugar while still with me though- except for treats. ...
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This sounds more like Anxiety than depression.Just like depression can strike those who have good jobs, great family lives etc- in other words people who have ’no reason’ to be depressed- so too Anxiety can effect people who have no fear of things generally. Anxiety attacks can be very debilitating. If you don’t know much about anxiety you there is plenty of information available on the net have a look and see if it applies to you. Also if you are going without food for days at a time look at information on fasting and find out how to recover from those times without food in a healthy w ...
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Touche Jurplesman. I found exactly the same thing when doing Year 12 Pyschology. That was before I recognised my own depression but I could see things in the movies they showed us of old experiments that none of the professionals had any idea was going on. Bad education can too easily destroy basic common sense and it is the exception, not the rule, to find a psych who really understands people in my experience. I have found also that drugs and normal treatment will work for a lot of people- keep them working, being productive members of society. They’ll hide symptoms or lessen them may ...
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Hi ikota I hope your fasting is going well. I learned about fasting first through a rare book written by a doctor who strongly advocated and supervised hundreds of dry fasts through his practice in a country town in Victoria Australia, including serious illnesses such as one case of tuberculosis. It was the book that first excited me about fasting and although my first long term fasts were 10 and 30 days, they were only on a glass of water a day rather than the larger amounts I have seen suggested for water fasting. Since then I have done three 5 day fasts, one of 6 days and my longest ...
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I had a pretty nasty day yesterday emotion wise. I’ve been fasting on and off for over two months now with raw eating in between, so technically I’ve got a lot of emotions to account for that I used food to push down before this for many years. I feel like the feelings are building up to a bit of a crescendo so I need to find the space to deal with them before too long. Today I feel a bit clearer headed but I know I won’t get out of this too easily, I’ll have to face the onslaught sooner or later. :) I hope you sleep well and tomorrow is better for you unfettered moth. Andrew.   [End]
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I know exactly what you mean unfettered moth. My mind does this to me a lot during fasts and has beaten me more than once making me end it. It goes through a process of trying to convince me it would be a good idea to stop. It rarely is the best idea to stop but sometimes the persuasion is just too overwhelming to resist anyway so I grab hold of any little reason and run with it. The benefits of staying on the fast are obvious. The detox that is happening now, the fasting crisis, will continue to it’s natural end and whatever is causing it will be gone from your system forever. Whereas ...
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Personally I wouldn’t tell your doctor you’re fasting. Just ask for a general check-up, the kind they would do for some new jobs or to make sure you’re not going to have a heart attack doing weights at the gym. They will just do the simple checkup for you just give them a good reason for having the check up so they don’t start asking suspicious questions. I doubt they will though, they will be happy to do their 5 minutes work for your $50 or whatever they charge where you are. Then you can let your parents know the doctor gave you a clean bill of health. I don’t know for sure but I woul ...
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I know what you mean about the mental games. So often I’ve ended fasts very early on due to losing such games in my head. After 10 days it becomes a bit easier to win the ’arguments’ due to being halfway there and not wanting to turn around and go back so to speak. Having been using food as a crutch and now not having that crutch the moods have also hit me pretty hard as my fasts have progressed over the last couple of months also. I am very much hoping that this will turn out to be part of the detox process and healthier emotional life as well as physical will follow this fast. I also ...
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Good on you white craig, I wish you all the best on your fast. They are all great and achievable goals. Drinking lots of water can relieve some of the detox symptoms to start with I think, but as you fast for longer you may wish to reduce the amount of water you are drinking. Always take notice of how your body feels and how thirsty you are and you will find out the best amount for you. It is great also you going straight into a long fast. If you do have to finish it early for any reason be focussed on breaking it correctly and you will still be on course for your goals. I have never ...
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As long as you’re drinking plenty of water you’ll just have to be patient with the fasting process I’m afraid. :) Your body will get around to dealing with your dry skin problem it is just busy in other areas at the moment. Hopefully that won’t be too long for you to wait! Take care, Andrew.   [End]
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Good on you ali and I hope you are successful in your fast. I will be starting a new fast either tomorrow or Wednesday so we’ll be travelling together so to speak. The body doesn’t need anything added to the fast, and it can definitely be detrimental to it to eat or drink anything other than water. The body detoxes at it’s own speed and that is super quick on a water fast so I would suggest not having teas or any other supplements during your fast. Good luck, and take care. Andrew.   [End]
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My thought on this is that the minerals in spring water would confuse the body which is intent on digesting it’s own stores and gathering exactly what it needs from them. As well as possibly conserving or even recycling the minerals it already has on hand. I think that adding minerals to the fasting process is unnecessary and would most likely not beneficial either. The body knows what how to get exactly what it needs from our stores during a fast, but adding in any new elements could disrupt this. This is just my opinion though. I’ve read nothing to support my theory. I prefer to work ...
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Boredom is always an issue for me, whether fasting or not. I plan ahead and try to keep many different things on hand to avoid boredom. I have lots of dvd’s, forums I visit many times daily, playstation games and also plenty of books to choose from to read. I also play trivia online in a chatroom, which is a great way to while away the hours especially when you want to avoid thinking about more serious stuff, or about food. :) Also often when I’m feeling very bored there’s a physical aspect to it and doing some sort of exercise like a short walk for example will help with that. Sometime ...
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Good for you hunsalove. :) I wish you better luck this time. Take care. :) Andrew.   [End]
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In spite of us not eating the stomach seems to have plenty to do during a fast, sometimes too much for our comfort even. I always seem to have plenty of burps happening during a fast, so it’s not an odd occurrance for me, it’s a normal one. :) Cheers, Andrew.   [End]
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Great stuff Alnun. :) That’s exactly what water is supposed to taste like! I remember camping when I was younger and drinking fresh creek water with relish. Unfortunately finding such places unspoiled nowadays is a harder chore. Having your taste so clear shows a very clean body too, you’ve done a wonderful job cleaning your body, congratulations. :) Andrew.   [End]
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Okay I’m a boy as you can probably tell by the hairy face. I’m 183cm, exactly 6 feet tall. The last time I weighed myself was two weeks ago nearly and I was down to 112 kilos after being 140 kilos pre fast. I’ve around half of the last two months or so- more than half the rest of the time eaten fruit only and the rest about 80-90% raw. My plan is to get down to 80 kilos but 90 would be okay I’ll just see where this fasting journey takes me. I will hopefully have all distractions behind me next week and plan to do a longer fast to get rid of the rest of the weight I need to. Andrew.   [End]
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I’d be very careful with these short fasts lauray. I think it’s very important that you either increase the length of your fast up to 4-5 days or have a lot longer between your attempts. There is a real danger of starving your body as you aren’t giving it enough time to actually change it’s system chemically to actually fast so it is very unlikely your body is actually retrieving any nutrients from it’s stores before you start eating again. This little article sums it up very nicely: http://www.fastingconnection.com/the-downside-to-short-fasts.html Take care lauray. I wish yo ...
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Good stuff Alnun. I have gotten rid of a lot of bile on my recent fasts too, it’s a relief when the nausea and digusting backwash taste leaves the mouth that’s for sure! Well done pushing on through it and best of luck with the rest of your fast. :) Take care, Andrew.   [End]
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Well done Pretty Face, you’ve done excellently in your fast and the recovery. Keep eating healthily with as much raw food as you can and you will be well prepared for your next fast. I’m sure you’ll find it much easier breaking the fast next time around too. Thanks for reporting back on your success! Andrew.   [End]
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