Hi there... how'z'it? So my mom has said she'd like to do a fast... and asked me to plan it for her... she's neve fasted before... so i suggested doing 2 days of raw first and then juice for a day and then a day of raw again... just for starters... anyone have any ideas on what would be the best way to plan this???

love laugh and dream

Hi Luvyuu,

If mom doesn't eat raw for a little while (2weeks, can't remember where I read it) she may experience a bad time due to all the toxins that are released during a fast. I say this because I just started 90% raw as of 1/1/09 & I still get the usual headaches, brain fog,etc... I'm a 53yr old male who has eaten SAD all his life except for a Daniel fast the last 5 yrs every January.

With this being mom's 1st fast & all we wouldn't want her to have any additional unpleasentness that goes along with a fast in general. That's just my opinion though. I'm hardly an expert on the discipline of fasting having only lasted 2 days this past Thanksgiving wknd.

I pray Mom will have a good experience.

Blessings......
Joe

Love is patient, love is kind, it is not self-seeking, love ALWAYS protects,always endures. (1corinthians 13)

God IS love!! (1john4)
Jesus Christ...... The ONLY way to Heaven.
I am the Way, the Truth & the Life..(John 14:6)

hi joe
what's a daniel fast?
just curious never heard of it

Hi Veronique,

A daniel fast is fruits,veggies, some grains. It eliminates the 4 white evils sugar,flour,salt,& dairy. It also doesn't allow caffiene, white bread, sodas, chips & the typical SAD foods ESPECIALLY MEAT of any kind. If you 'google' Daniel fast you can get a complete list. The most important part of the fast is to spend extra time in prayer & fellowship with God. However, with the way most people eat, they don't have any of this 'extra time' to pray because their kitchens are loaded with all the things that the fast eliminates. I say this from experience. My wife was so frustrated last year. This year we were better prepared & I was determined to go & stay raw even when our church broke the fast.

Thanks for your replies to my other posts..

God Bless You
Joe

Be very careful with the fast..

Make sure shes under lots of supervision, I just had a really bad experience with a fast.

Just do a 3 day fast take it easy Lots of rest and dont shed to much energy. Detoxing will leave you weak and fatiged. I ended up going much longer then a week in a half and depleted all my electrolyites and nded up in the ER and in a hospita for a week, so be supervised and smart and listen to your body..
Probably should read a bit at the library from mied sourced to better understand how your body works during a fast.

She will only be juice fasting for a day... the other days will be raw foods only... I think it should be ok... but I will make sure she pays attention to all the signs...

it must be a bad time for fasting... cause i ended up in ER during fast about 2 weeks ago too... had a crazy time explaining what I was doing to the hospital staff... hope you are feeling better and healing well

So anyone have a specific plan they follow...or a website... i've never planned one for anyone else...

thanks for the info...

love laugh and dream
g

Is there a way to help eliminate the free-circulating toxins faster so that we can minimize the fatigue and stuff? I've fasted for a week before (when I wasn't raw) and while I was tired and freezing cold all the time, nothing serious happened. But I wish I had the knowledge I have now back then. And knowing some gentle ways to compensate for the increased toxin load (more baths? skin brushing?) would help a lot.

A diet of fruit, veggies and grains is NOT a fast.

A fast means NO FOOD. Water only.

And juice for a few days has been termed by some as a 'juice feast', but is emphatically NOT a fast.

Luvyuu, assuming your mum would like to undertake a fast, this article might help her prepare. Note the reference to June 14th is June last year.


[debbietookrawforlife.blogspot.com]

Sorry about your experiences luvyuu and herbalgerbal.

Luvyuu, is your Mom already vegan? That should help a lot. If not, I suggest getting the book Fit For Life, by the Diamonds. They recommend a vegan diet and SLOWLY introducing one fast per week.

Your Mom's experience will be dictated by her present health condition. The more toxins released by the fast, the harder the fast will be. Even though she'll be drinking juice, if she's not used to it, it will be like a fast to her.

I think she should be OK on juice for just one day. You might consider adding some peppermint tea to the fast to help reduce any stomach distress. You might also consider a smoothie "fast", as opposed to a juice fast, since blending fruit, rather than juicing it, will preserve more of the fiber, which will help deal with eliminating toxins released by the fast.

One very important factor to seriously consider is how your Mom breaks her fast. She might have a huge appetite the next day, especially soon after breaking the fast. Appetite can take over if a person is unprepared for that. Make sure, raw or not, that your Mom stays mucousless for at least a day. Have plenty of good veggies in the house to steam up if your Mom wants more than raw. No nuts, seeds, grains, legumes, meat, or dairy. That's extremely important because released toxins are surrounded by mucous, and adding mucousy foods could create a mass of mucousy yuck that will get stuck inside and possibly cause extreme, or even dangerous, stomach distress. Mucousless foods, on the other hand, will help push out the toxins released by the fast. If there's no bowel movement after the first day, stay on mucousless foods until there is one.

Good luck! I hope your Mom has a great experience!

Hi ecjames,

I water fasted a few times for a week when I was younger, and the fasts were really healing. But the fasts were usually difficult and brought on a lot of heartburn and nausea.

A couple of years ago, after many years of staying nearly all raw, I water fasted for a week. The fast was VERY difficult, with massive stomach problems, especially at night, and "restless leg syndrome", which I'd never before experienced.

I thought my days of fasting were over.

But about a year ago I was MISdiagnosed with skin cancer on my chest (turned out to be just dermatitis). Well, the word "cancer" can do wonders for motivation, so I decided to see what a longer fast could do. I water fasted for nine days, and amazingly, there were almost no stomach problems at all, and no "restless leg syndrome".

So what made the difference? I'm sure it was this: Coincidentally, for several months leading up to the 9-day fast, I fasted a full day and night (36) hours, beginning with 1 fast a week, then 1 fast every 6 days, then 1 fast every 5 days, etc., until I was fasting twice a week, for I think a couple of months before the 9-day fast.

The rest of the time, I was eating all raw, with a full varied diet of fruits, veggies, nuts, and seeds, and exercising as much as possible.

So the moral of the story is, I think the effects of short 1-day fasts are somewhat cumulative, when combined with a varied raw food vegan diet that supplies all nutritional needs.

Also, if you like, read Dr. Joel Fuhrman's book, "Fasting and Eating for Health". He will tell you that the more muscle mass you have, the longer you will be able to fast without danger. He recommends supervision by an experienced physician for longer fasts.

Hope that helps.

Luvyuu,

I thought of this later. If your Mom has any existing health issues, then instead of a juice (or smoothie?) fast, she might try a "mucousless" day of fruit and veggies, both raw and steamed. She could do that once a week, or once a month, depending on her experience. In fact, trying that out for a day to see how her body reacts, might give her a better idea about her readiness for a juice fast. Once she can go mucousless for a day without physical distress, she'll probably be more ready to try a juice fast for a day.

Again, good luck!

suncloud- thanks for the advice. I know that I feel so much better when I am fasting, but I always feel like I have no idea what I'm doing. Also, good advice about stuff to avoid. I mean, following a strict raw diet anyway would exclude most of those things, but it's always good to be reminded. (Particularly about the nuts and grains part, which is where I tend to fall short. You could also add crn to the list since, following someone else's advice on another topic, I tested and found that the only time I felt an increase in mucous production during the week was when I added raw corn to my salads. Geez.)