What helps keep you on your fast?

What is the hardest thing for you while you're on a fast? What goes through your head?

Do you avoid food? Do you keep it out of your mind or do you enjoy it vicariously in your mind?

Are your cupboards and fridge empty? In a way, I almost think it helps if I have something there because then I feel like I'm fasting out of choice rather than I'm doing it because I have to (which is never the case)... is that weird? But then again, it's nice to have food not around because then the temptation isn't there.

Do you take frequent naps?

Does anyone know the significance of lemon squeezed in a glass of water? I've read it helps clean out your colon and maybe that you should drink that during a fast.

What's the longest you've fasted?

How much weight did you lose, and do you think that weight was fat, muscle, or something else?

ANY FEEDBACK TO THE ABOVE INQUIRIES WOULD BE GREATLY APPRECIATED. <3

What keeps me on a fast more than anything else is the knowledge, based on past experience with fasting, that I will be profoundly healthier and I will look and feel much better if I keep fasting. ;-)

What also helps is doing my fast (if it's a water fast) at a time when I con't have a lot of obligations and I can rest a lot.

What also helps is deliberately pretty much cleaning out my refrigerator and cupboards of my favorite raw foods and dried fruits so that I'm not tempted during that critical first 3 days.

Having a fasting buddy helps. If you're going to water fast, think about joining the Yahoo 'waterfasting' group-- they're a great source of inspiration and the members are really supportive. (I'm one of the moderators there.)

Finally, it really helps to lighten up and do some sort of cleanse before the fast-- eating only fruit for a few days, or whatever. If I'm going to water fast I'll do juice for 2-3 days first to get into it.

Sharrhan:


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I recommend the book, Fasting and Eating for Health by Joel Fuhrman. In the past when I have fasted I have read all the information I could get my hands on about fasting. All the information recommends to be supervized if you are going to do it for longer than a few days.
Best Wishes,
Cecilia

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One Fasting Strategy is to start with a good Cleansing, Raw Diet that you can live with day-in and day-out. If you feel a need to fast, just cut back on your regular diet. Keep cutting back, cutting back, until you're doing nothing but water (or juices) some days (or many days), if that's what you want to do. If you feel an urge to eat, just add back a little of your normal healthy diet, rather than binging on something you know you shouldn't be eating......WY
P.S. It's far better to trust your Raw, Cleansing Diet and not fast than to go on a fast and then return to a sub-standard diet.

If I am ever trying to accomplish something difficult for me, I evaluate my reasons for wanting to achieve X goal. I think of a symbol to represent my vision, and i paste the symbol on my door, and in other places I look at (that people wouldn't generally understand besides me).

for example, I work out because I want to feel and look great. I want to be strong, and working out helps me achieve this goal. I paste a pic of supergirl on the inside of my door (i love her). I know it's kind of silly, but it's a reminder of what I feel is important to me. It helps to keep me going instead of hinding from the world under my covers.

what helps me most to stay on a fast:

dry brush massage twice a day, tongue scrapping several times
a day, and most of all staying quiet in bed with my eyes closed
letting the fast do its magic.

VeloriaRaw,

I've done over 10 short 3-4 day water fasts, a 10 day water fast, and a 12 day water fast.

What causes me to stop fasting is obligations or commitments that I need to meet which require me to have my full strength. I would love to do a longer fast than my longest 12 day fast, perhaps someday I will go to Dr Graham's supervised fast in Costa Rica.

What I find difficult is sometimes I get restless while lying in bed day after day. I want to do something, yet I don't have that much strength after the 7th day or so.

I don't find it necessary to avoid being around food when I'm fasting. I really don't experience hunger, though sometimes my mind will obsess over food. So I don't empty out my cupboards or fridge.

When I am fasting, I sleep a lot. I really try not to leave the apartment, and mostly I try to sleep as much as possible.

I don't drink lemon water. That will stop the fast as it starts the digestion process.

Whatever weight I lose on a fast, it always comes back. At first its water weight, then fat, then muscle. I don't think I've ever lost muscle on a fast.

Ideally go someplace on retreat (not a fasting clinic, those are a rip off), if you have a friend who has a country home he or she would let you use for a week that would be ideal. Being at home is more challenging because you may be tempted to fall into ordinary habits and routines. If you do stay at home I'd clean out the cubords. No point is fighting against your own temptations. Ideally read and rest and meditate alot. Ideally wait, as Bryan said, until you can get time off from work.

i never have a problem sticking with a fast, it's eating i have problems with! on a fast there's no decisions to make of what to eat or not, i'm just fasting. eating on the other hand is all about choices. i also generally don't feel hungry after the first couple of days so that helps.

as a single mom there's no way for me to not be involved with food while fasting. if anything i seem to get more creative! i love serving my family good healthy food! i feel satisfied just inhaling deep breaths of all the delicious aromas.

there are many different kinds of fasts. as you didn't specify which one you were interested in i'll tell you about the ones what i've experienced..

i've done two 7 day water fasts, one 25 years ago and one 10 years ago. the first one was amazing, mostly for spritual reasons. i felt like a new person. the second time i was older and probably had a whole lot more toxins built up in my system and it was really excruciatingly painful for me. i was heavily detoxing and i felt like i was having back labor for days. all my muscles and joints ached. i was literally writhing in pain, but i stuck with it. by the last day of the fast i was finally pain free and felt wonderful!

then a few years ago i discovered the master cleanse. since then i've done 5 cleanses, the longest being 34 days. the thing i like about the mc is the emphasis on eliminating toxins daily through the bowels. when i did water fasting i was heavily detoxing but it seemed like the toxins weren't being eliminated from my body efficiently. also i like the high energy level i experienced on the mc. i don't have the time and space to be in bed for days on end anymore and with the mc i was able to continue doing everything i needed to do and then some!

i may try another water fast sometime when i really have the time and space to do it like bryan does, lots of bed rest and sleep, but i dont' see that happening anytime soon. i am planning to do another mc beginning in the middle of april though, for at least 2 weeks. i do them about 3 times a year.

purenkind wrote:

"i never have a problem sticking with a fast, it's eating i have problems with! on a fast there's no decisions to make of what to eat or not, i'm just fasting. eating on the other hand is all about choices. i also generally don't feel hungry after the first couple of days so that helps."

I feel the same way! Many times I have felt it easier to just reject all food (to fast) rather than to just reject cooked food (eat raw).

purenkind also wrote:

"the thing i like about the mc is the emphasis on eliminating toxins daily through the bowels. when i did water fasting i was heavily detoxing but it seemed like the toxins weren't being eliminated from my body efficiently."

I'm water fasting right now. What's a good way to get the toxins eliminated then? I thought they went out through the urine (and oils through the skin), and then later when you break the fast with fruit, toxins leave out in the form of stool.