Hey guys,

For the record, I am a 38yo. guy, been raw for 5 months.

(Note: I previously posted a "fasting and diarrhea" topic and realized it's completely normal. It was just the liquid I was drinking. It was nothing serious.)

I made it to day 5!! This is a huge deal for me. But BOY, I gotta tell you I am totally out of it. I am so weak and drained of energy to the point of almost fainting, or scary feelings of "dying" and what not. I know it sounds crazy but that is how I felt. My girlfriend was in a panic more then I was, she wanted me to stop so many times but I kept pushing forward trying to "macho it out" but it was only making it worse. In some cases I even felt like I was hallucinating.

I lost 10 lbs very quickly and my pants got so baggy.

Hearing about all these people on YouTube enjoying their fasting (even upto 100 days) and having tons of energy, well, it was a total disappointment to me. I honestly do not know how they did it. I had feelings of failure if I stopped. So hungry even a hamburger and fries looked good on the food channel. But I wouldn't actually :-). I experienced true hunger, like an animal.

This morning is day 5 and I broke my juice fast with a fruit banana/smoothy. It tasted like heaven and I felt fine. My head is still foggy and everything is still in sloooow motion. I ate some raw tacos later this evening and all of a sudden I got a huge burst of energy. But it was short lived and I am still recovering from that dreadful fast still.

Going back slowly to more solid food tomorrow. I thought I could easily do this for 30 days but I guess it's not realistic for me or I'm not ready for it.

We have decided to fast for one day each week from now on.

Thanks to everyone for their support.

it can take many short juice fasts to detox your body, but you already read my opinion on that I believe,lol... 1 day a week is better than nothing! although doing 3 days at one time once a month would probably have better results...and be easier the second time.

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Oh, mirror in the sky
What is love?
Can the child within my heart rise above?
Can I sail through the changing ocean tides?
Can I handle the seasons of my life?

oh, btw, Im glad you decided to stop when you where feeling so horrible...

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Oh, mirror in the sky
What is love?
Can the child within my heart rise above?
Can I sail through the changing ocean tides?
Can I handle the seasons of my life?

I agree... glad you stopped when feeling awful. I can't do juice fasts because it messes with my blood sugar too much and I have crashes. I prefer to do water-only fasts in short stages. Three days is perfect and I feel GREAT during and at the end of the fast. Whenever I go longer I feel so awful and just don't have the staying power to continue the fast. I know... people will say it is detox but I don't care, it is unbearable and must be stopped. LOL

What was in the juices you were consuming and approximately how much were you drinking? Were you doing anything else besides just produce? If it's done correctly, you should have little issues.

Simple Raw Recipes & Health Tips

You probably didnt stop at the right time but none the less new fasters generally have the same problem with trying to bare it out. It doesnt help when most times when someone posts similar feelings they just get told its detox/toxins and to bare it out. Im glad you stopped when you did.

As rocketship says juice fasting can mess with blood sugar in some, which by your symptoms sounds to be the case, excess adrenaline can be released and causes feelings of mass panick.

Im not a great fan of fasting for this reason, like i said in the other thread many people with chronic fatigue/adrenal fatigue/health problems suffer from chronic hypoglycemia due to malfunctioning adrenal glands, before i knew much about the body i fell hook and line for these "gurus" who tell you fasting cures everything and at that time i was desperate enough to try anything to get well.

Most times i didnt even make it past the first day as hypoglycemia would kick in, adrenaline would be released and i would have major panic attacks, dizziness, passing out/near fainting it was horrible. At that time most people on the forums(not this one) would tell me this is just toxins/detox, so id push on macho it out thinking i was weak compared to others who had done 30 days etc but by the second day if i hadnt gave up god knows what would have happened to me.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 12/08/2010 02:50PM by powerlifer.

The proper way to fast is by consuming an abundance of greens (leafy greens/celery) or green supplements to counteract the sugars from fruits. If you do this, you should have very few issues other than a bit of detox, which often isn't for long. For those not interested in losing weight, juice feasting (4-5 quarts minimum) is the better option so you can get enough calories. You can add chlorella powder or other food powders to increase the calories. That's what I do. I went through my own experience with being intolerable to high sugar juice and it was pretty awful for 2 days. At first I just felt physically sick and later, my brain wasn't functioning well. Later I realized what happened and it's no longer an issue as long as I consume enough minerals. Two very useful & potent supplements I found to help are Adya Clarity & Ocean’s Alive Liquid Marine Phytoplankton. Ocean’s Alive for added minerals, but most importantly it really helps alleviate some, if not all, detox symptoms & hunger when used in-between juices. Adya Clarity actually is a bit more powerful to help counteract high sugars when needed. Both are useful and I couldn't fast without them. Having just pure mineral juice may be effective as well. Having 1-2 Tbs of fats like coconut, flax or hemp oil is also recommended by most fasters and is another way of maintaining your weight. Regardless, you'll likely lose a tiny bit, but it shouldn't be anything alarming if you're consuming enough calories.

Juice fasting is as powerful and important as people have claimed. It's helped with health issues I couldn't resolve with just raw regardless of how much I modified my diet. It's also a great spiritual tool.

Simple Raw Recipes & Health Tips

Who on earth is doing juice fasts and having 'super energy'? Ive never been passed in a marathon by someone on a juice fast and the people on youtube that promote juice feasting etc, how come they are always unfit?

What happens when we go on starvation diets and expect our body to do the same work on less fuel? We get depressed, stimulant dependent, crave dense calories, binge prone, emaciated and seek the latest superfood to overcome their 'raw emotions'.

Read 80/10/10 by Doug Graham and get on the high energy vibe cos your getting heaps of carb calories and can finally sleep properly, stay hydrated and stay away from the nasty stuff cos your not starving your body and expecting it to do the same work.

my understanding from just undergoing a fast in a naturopathy centre in India is that it depends on your original body weight how long its good to fast - many overweight people can go many days easily and still keep quite active, while underweight people can do shorter regular fasts and take a lot of rest, with others somewhere in the middle.
As far as feeling terrible on day 5, well I felt really terrible on day 3, really dizzy, almost blacked out, palpitations, extreme nausea and weakness, and after the nausea passed I had major hunger up till day 7.i took complete rest.
However I did keep going and by day 7 had more or less lost my hunger and constant food cravings, was a bit weak physically but had a super clear and calm mind and I'm happy I went up to day 10 and completed it and would have happily continued but they told me for my weight it was better to start breaking the fast. (I did 7 days on coconut water and 3 on juices)...
I lost quite a lot of weight quickly in the first days which I think was mainly water because after that the weight loss was only small.

durianrider Wrote:
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> Who on earth is doing juice fasts and having
> 'super energy'? Ive never been passed in a
> marathon by someone on a juice fast and the people
> on youtube that promote juice feasting etc, how
> come they are always unfit?
>
> What happens when we go on starvation diets and
> expect our body to do the same work on less fuel?
> We get depressed, stimulant dependent, crave dense
> calories, binge prone, emaciated and seek the
> latest superfood to overcome their 'raw emotions'.
>
>
> Read 80/10/10 by Doug Graham and get on the high
> energy vibe cos your getting heaps of carb
> calories and can finally sleep properly, stay
> hydrated and stay away from the nasty stuff cos
> your not starving your body and expecting it to do
> the same work.

One time i agree with you durian haha, i agree fully though much better off just eating a nutritious diet to cleanse and rebuild the body rather than starving it in my opinion.

You recommend Doug but every post i see from Doug over at vegsource hes recommended water fasting for everything under the sun?