G'day All...
(The following is a bit disjointed, but please bear with me)
I ended up doing another 28 day water fast this time. My body told me it was time to end it after 28 days on water only.
During the first 28 day water fast I did late last year, I went through a 'cold' patch where I felt very cold for about three days. This time, I did not hit the cold spot until day 25. This was not too bad as the weather was reasonable.
I think this cold patch happens when you hit old hard fat that your body has carried around for many years. Drinking extra water helps.
Normal light 'jiggly' type fat seems to burn very easily and provides reasonable levels of energy. But when you hit deeper hard type fat, which is compressed, this seems to hold a lot more toxins than other types of fat. Your body is not very enthusiastic about burning this type of fat, so shuts down a lot of body processes (including heating) and burns this as slow as possible. This seems to cause the coldness.
These cold patches are best handled by making sure you keep yourself warm. The problems arise if you allow yourself to get chilled at these times, and the body has problems warming itself. So when this happens, its time to break out the hot water bottles and sweats, hot showers, warm cat, etc.
During my previous fast, the cold patch hit along with some cold weather about day 14 and lasted till about day 19. Then I learned that wearing warmer clothes day and night, and drinking extra water, helped. During this time I also hit one day where I had an explosion of nicotine tobacco taste and smell for one day. My mouth tasted suddenly like an ashtray. I used to smoke a pipe, but gave up smoking a few years ago. I am guessing that I hit a layer of fat that contained these toxins. It only lasted for one day...thank goodness.
I finished this fast just over a week ago and in total lost about 10 kilos of weight. Anyone can do similar so long as they are not underweight to start with. I have a solid build, so handle this easily. But a lighter person could do the same on less fat fuel.
I use enemas and the husks for internal cleansing and this is a great help. The husks alone are not sufficient for internal cleansing and there is no way around the enemas. Cleaning out the digestive system means you will have fewer problems and will maximize the body's self repair mechanisms. If you don't do this, your body will only do half the repairs it could have done, or less, as it will be busy handling the toxins from decomposing waste.
The extra water I took this time was a huge help. Water awareness! I was probably taking 20 pints a day at one state, but this made me feel great with reasonable energy levels. It made the fast much easier in general. And this did not make me urinate too frequently. The body seemed to burn the water up. According to some scientists I consulted with, the body needs a lot of water to break down and burn fat efficiently, particularly the denser types of fats.
Taking minerals and supplements and apple cider vinegar, etc, are helpful with short term fasts, up to 5 days. But for longer fasts I recommend nothing be taken but water, and the husks once a day. Everything the body needs is stored in fat, including all vitamins and minerals and salts. Pure water, distilled or RO, is all that is needed. Anything else that is taken will cause some type of issue and increase difficulty.
During this fast, I was taken out to some wonderful restaurants at least twice a week. And on other days I cooked and prepared food as usual. This caused me no issues at all, but I found myself collecting new recipes...lol...and watching cooking shows for same.
There seem to be a lot of myths concerning fasting and you really have to do it yourself to discover the truth about fasting. Fasting is a very natural and healthy thing, the mechanisms for which have developed over hundreds of millions of years of evolution, where every year during winter there is little to no food available during Winter. So at these times the body rests and repairs itself ready for Spring and Summer.
The idea behind water fasting is to get down to skin and bone, and then to put on health fat from healthy food and drink. If you are a woman, you will lose your boobs during the fast, but they'll come back pretty quickly afterwards. This replacement of old fat with healthy fat makes your whole system healthier, and can be said to raise your 'vibrations' and increase energy body and Chakra activity.
You will know when to quit. When you are fasting you are burning fat and damaged and diseased tissues. Your body scavenges for anything containing calories that it can burn, to slow down the burning of its 'precious' fat reserves. It will scavenge tumors and plaque buildup in arteries and veins, and reset the cells of your body back to default. This totally removes insulin sensitivity, so if you were diabetic or had heart disease or fatty liver, you will no longer have these issues after one or two month long fasts. I don't have cancer, but did have a few small tumors here and there and these were consumed during my two water fasts. As far as I can tell, my body has also started repairing some damaged spinal disks, and nerve damage here and there.
Let me get this straight here.... Fasting is 'not' starvation. Starvation happens when your body runs out of fat to burn. Starvation is burning muscle, and you don't want this to happen. When you run out of fat to burn, your body will tell you immediately by giving you starvation symptoms. Starvation begins with a massive urge to eat that comes from your THROAT and not your belly. This urge will make you eat grass and bark and shoe leather and snails....anything remotely edible. It is a powerful urge and impossible to mistake for anything else. So if you get the big throat urge and are skin and bone, its time to eat.
And do not let your ego fool you into thinking you are 'starving' when you still have plenty of fat to burn. Your body may reduce fat burning, which will make you feel cold and weak, but this is because your body is having problems processing toxins and it is not starvation. Drink lots of extra water and dress warmly and you'll get through that layer of fat.
If you are not well experienced with fasting, it is wise to do it under medical supervision. Go visit your doctor once or twice a week and get your blood tested. Tell your doctor what you are doing. Your doctor may not agree, but will make sure nothing bad happens. There are also fasting clinics you can book yourself into, eg, True North Fasting Clinic.
Fasting is a lousy way to lose weight. Weight loss is easier done with food. But, fasting is also very effective and many people find it easier to fast than to diet.
Fasting is also a great way to get to know yourself, especially your ego. So this can help to identify ego based dietary issues and deal with them...deal with them by recognizing them and being mindful of them. Just observing them will start to melt them away.
Trauma memories and bad feelings that are at the root of many psychological issues are often buried in the fat of the body. The body wraps toxins in fat and stores them as a way of avoiding dealing with them. It does the same thing with traumas and bad experiences and pains. So you will find such things surfacing during a fast. And then these can be processed and dissolved. If you find this happening to you and your personality reveals some not nice parts of you, like anger and depression, this is a good time to seek the help of a loving psychologist or counselor to help you handle it.
In my case, my ego revealed itself during my first 28 day water fast. This was an enormously helpful spiritual exercise, as it allowed me to come to grips with it. My ego separated into something like a separate possessing entity. It was very powerful and complex, but also gullible. I found I could wear it down by lying to it. For example, when a food urge appeared and grew strong, I would give in and lie to it, telling it 'yes, this fasting is silly. I'll go and eat in a minute. I'll just finish this paragraph.' Then the pressure would go away for a couple of hours. I would not eat, but would just continue working. When the urge to eat came back, I'd do the same and just lie to it. This is a great workaround as no matter how many times I told the same story, it would believe me and go away. In time, the gaps got longer and the urges to break my fast were fewer.
This next part is difficult to explain, so please bear with me. Eventually, we (my body ego and I) had a series of confrontations and battles, where it went all out to force me to break what I was doing. I faced it squarely and told it that if it did not back off and learn to behave and obey me, I would fast my body to death. It knew I was capable of doing this, and so backed off completely. After this, when it tried to intrude into other areas of my life, and other thought patterns, I used the same threat and it backs away. This allowed me to come to grips with all aspects of my personality, and this has allowed me to retrain many aspects of my self that have remained elusive. So this is a great way of getting at some of the nitty gritty aspects of self that you may think are just a part of you. They are a part of you, as the ego body mind is a part of you, and an essential part of you at that. But all this can be retrained and you can totally remodel your personality aspects.
Eyesight will get weak during a fast, and I found I needed to wear stronger reading glasses during both these fasts. But a week or so after ending these, my eyesight became stronger than it was before. My hearing and sense of smell also improved.
Ending the fast 'Refeeding'. This is important. If you end your fast in the wrong way and just chow down, you'll end up in the emergency room with a blockage. Your body does not have enough stomach acids and etc to digest normal food. Start with vege juice and light foods like green salads and slowly build on this over two weeks. I recommend no grains for a week, no bread or pasta, and no red meats.
I started back on green vege juice and a small head of lettuce, and a few ounces of brie cheese, and a green smoothie. Several hours later, I had some curried eggplant and spinach and some green salad. You want green or 'sloppy' foods for the first few days. Avoid hard root vegs unless they are thoroughly blended.
After a day or two, sushi is good, but avoid all rice and batter type dishes and keep it light.
As a general rule, refeeding should last 50% of the fast. So after 4 weeks I need two weeks for my digestion to return to normal. You will feel this happening. If in doubt, eat a 'little' of something and see how you feel. If it feels lumpy in your system, or if it gives you heartburn, avoid 'it' for a few more days, whatever it is. Introduce salad oils slowly, and increase only when it does not cause heartburn. Start with a teaspoon of good olive oil and see how it sits.
Common sense rules here. Everyone has different digestive systems. My system is legendarily robust. Some people are delicate. So pace yourself and experiment.
No red meat for at least a week. Stick to seafood and a little chicken and lots of veg. And don't take too much fruit or fruit juice, or it will cause heartburn...which you don't want. And when you do try something heavier, take it slow and chew well and do frequent gut checks to see how it makes you feel.
Listen to your body and it will give you the best advice. And if your body tells you it wants pizza, it is misleading you badly. No pizza for several days at least. I tried a pizza five days in and had to feed it to my pets after one piece, which gave me heartburn. This took half a gallon of water to fix.
Water is amazing. If you make any mistakes in refeeding, drink lots of water.
Everything you eat for the first four days will pass straight through you with barely any digestion taking place. This is good as it helps avoid blockages.
If you eat the wrong thing, like bread or pasta or rice, and this starts to feel uncomfortable, drink 'lots' of water and you'll avoid any blockages forming.
Your body will continue to burn fat for a few days after you break the fast. So, the keytone break will continue for a few days. This type of breath contains acetone type smell...and urine will also smell of this. If you have eaten a lot of meats in the past, you'll find the smells of these fats will also be produced during fat burning.
The only other thing here is that none of my clothes fit me, so I had to throw just about everything out and got a new wardrobe, as I had dropped two sizes and 6 inches off my waist. I'll put some of this weight back on of course. After the first 28 day fast, I deliberately put on extra weight to get ready for this 28 day fast. But my diet has changed a fair bit so this will be minimal, as I am attracted to different foods, more vege and juice, and more raw foods, and less grains and etc.
Given the confusion I find in books on fasting, I will probably write an eBook on this in the near future, on various types of fasting.
That's about it for now.
My next fast will likely be an extended juice fast for 45 days, probably in August.
peace, robert
Reply With Quote
Bookmarks