hello i am about to embark on a water fast in a couple of days here,, i hav been 100% raw for 2 months, except for a slip back i had a few days ago, o well :p but thats not the reason im fasting,, months ago even before i went 100% raw, i felt like this was something i needed 2 do,, so i am about 2 embark on this crazy adventure, and im so glad i am finally ready 2 do it!! i hav a few questions tho for anyone who has had personal experience with water fasting,, and yes i am absolute on my decision 2 only fast on water, i feel like that is best for my body,,neways the first question is how much water would you suggest drinking a day? has anyone ever exercised during a water fast, im talking light exercise like bike riding etc,, and after the 3rd day does it really get better? o ya also wat experience hav u had with water fasts how much weight did you lose? what sortof body changes did you experience? thats all thankyou for watever info you guys can leave me peace

my experience with fasts .. any of them... is to rest as much as possible you need fuel for your body to work or exercise or your body will start catobolizing your muscles for proteins

just rest

...Jodi, the banana eating buddhist

Ok.....

1) How much water? I would think 1/2 - 1 gallon should be more than enough.
2) Exercise? Sure. Walking or bike riding or some other light exercise is fine...if you feel active.
3) Does is get better after the 3rd day? Yes. If your permanent toxic load is light.
4) How much weight did I lose? I might drop 5-10 pounds in an extended fast...before it stabilizes. Fasting lowers the metabolism and is a TERRIBLE way to lose weight in the long run.
5) Other body changes: Great all-around health improvement.

-David Z. Mason

WWW.RawFoodFarm.com

fuzzysox,

I didn't do a lot of reading before I began exploring fasting, but I did read one small book by Dr. Herbert Shelton, Fasting Can Save Your Life, which helped me a lot, taking into consideration the time in which Shelton wrote and his beliefs that fasts should be professionally supervised. Still, I recommend this quick read.

It is generally not recommended for beginning fasters that you do an extended fast without an experienced support person or group. This can be done over the phone if necessary, but having someone checking on you daily if you live alone is best.

I have experienced multiple fasts with 12 people and several of these people have done fasts over 21 days in length. The first days seem to be a roller coaster ride for myself and most of the fasters I know. The first part is the digestive system shutting down and the physical discomforts of that which are coupled with the mental condition and challenges of overriding the mind's desire to eat, which is deeply rooted in our upbringing around eating 3 meals a day to be healthy.

Somewhere around day 5 or 6 I began to feel an overhwelming sense of well-being start to come over me and grow stronger every day. It became easier to ignore negative thoughts and energy and focus on the positive aspects of the experience I was having.

I agree with David that losing weight is a minor issue in fasting. For me the most important thing is to rest the digestive organs and allow them to heal from past abuses. Of course I lose weight when fasting, but I feel that the best way to lose weight is to focus on long term dietary changes and other aspects of healthful living; the excess weight will leave and stay gone.

For me fasting is also a way to detoxify the body. When the body isn't using energy to digest food it seems to me to shift into house cleaning mode. I experienced one person who detoxed very strongly through their skin and the chemical smell reminded me of organic solvents (ketones), which I had to a minor degree for a few days myself. Another place I notice detoxing is the pasty coating on the tongue, which I scraped off daily with a tongue cleaner that I got from a health food store.

Rather than focussing on how much water to drink I was more interested in how many times a day I was emptying my bladder. I found that I consumed between 1 and 1.5 quarts a day during a 28 day fast. More in the first half of the fast. I feel that drinking too much water over stimulates the organs.

I was doing hatha yoga daily until around day 12. I think this was more about my old belief system that I needed to be doing something "productive" and physically active. The truth was that being quiet and still were foreign to me and resting equated to laziness. I know people who have been physically active and even kept regular work hours whie fasting up to a certain point when they got the body's message to rest.

The thing I feel is most often overlooked is that the fast doesn't end when you start eating again. Almost everyone I know has taken about as long to return to "normal" daily activity, energy level and physical strength as the length of the fast. In other words, if you fast for a month you can expect about a month on the back end to return to "normal". I have a bit of trouble using the word "normal" here because so much changes after a successful long fast. My energy levels came back quickly. My physical strength returned to the smallest muscles more quickly than the largest muscles like the quadriceps.

Enjoy your experience! Be gentle and forgiving if you do not reach the goals you have set for yourself and see it all as a learning experience on which to build.

I've never done a really long water fast, but I've done three 7-day water fasts, and several shorter water fasts.

One thing to really think about is how you're going to break your fast. It's very common that once you start eating, you might become very very hungry.

Foods to try to avoid the first day of breaking the fast, and absolutely avoid for the first meal are: nuts or seeds, anything starchy, anything dehydrated or sundried, anything cooked. Try to stick with fresh juicy fruits and/or veggies. This is because a good fast will usually bring up a lot of mucous and toxins into your elimination systems, for the purpose of flushing the bad stuff out. Your first meal(s) should be something to help this elimination process. If you eat the wrong thing(s), it all can get stuck in there and cause discomfort and lessen the benefits of the fast.

If you eat correctly the day you break your fast, you should see and feel some really noticeable positive results when you wake up the next day.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/24/2007 07:25PM by suncloud.