Thoughts about breaking the fast

Day 5 is over almost omg holy moly and I'm heading into day 6.  Today I had a lot of active and physical work, but I made it through.  slow and steady.  I was dragging, for sure, but I wasn't hungry. I mean, I felt alert and energetic, but it was like my body was a little heavier and I avoided extreme exertion like the plague.  Over all I've found that I feel most weird upon waking. Thats when my heart beats a little stronger, when I feel the most light headed, when I feel kind of weak.  I've never been a morning person though.  

As the morning progresses to afternoon I feel better and better.  I do believe I could go 7 days but I've decided to break the fast at the end of the day tomorrow (day 6).  I'd like to be able to eat some solid food by the end of the day Friday, I've got a visit with a friend out of town at her cabin and if I can grill up some salmon and veggies I'd be pretty happy. So I spent some time this afternoon crafting a plan to break my fast- you'll find it below.  If you're fasting or plan to, this might be helpful.  You could follow it, tweak it or just use it as inspiration to create your own. I created it after reading many many different blogs about how to break a fast.  Some advice I blatantly disregard, and other advice I'm weaving in. Feel free to let me know if you think I'm making bad choices. I'd love input.

I think that when I break it I'll remain in ketosis. At least thats what I'm trying to do with my little plan.  Since ketosis diets are a totally new concept for me to wrap my head around, I'm not sure if I did it correctly, but that's the goal.  I hope to get out of ketosis by maybe Friday night or Saturday morning. Still not sure how things are going to go after that.  This fast has been a teacher and I still need to figure out what lessons I'm going to take forward with me. And I still have more to learn.  More on that next time. For now, here's the menu.   

Breaking the fast

I've broken a long fast the wrong way before and I feel like it seriously undid a lot of the work of the fast, plus it was like 3 weeks before my digestive track was normal again. So for those of you who are interested, here's my plan to break this fast.  Beginning Wednesday evening, just 4 hours short of completing 6 full 24 hour cycles.  

DAY 1- BREAK FAST AT NIGHT

Wednesday night-6pm  

sips of sauerkraut juice, 9oz cucumber, kale, spinach, parsley, celery juice.  Also liquid b12 and d3 supplements and turmeric tincture 

Wednesday night 10pm  

sips of sauerkraut juice, 9 oz cucumber, kale, spinach, parsley, celery juice

DAY 2

9 am- digestive enzymes, sauerkraut juice 18 ounces pure juice carrot, beet, celery, spinach, parsley, cabbage, kale, himalayan salt  and a 1/2 avocado.   Also liquid b12 and d3 supplements and turmeric tincture.

1pm- digestive enzymes, sauerkraut juice 18 ounces pure juice carrot, beet, celery, spinach, parsley, cabbage, kale, himalayan salt  

5pm-digestive enzymes- sauerkraut- 18 oz cucumber, kale, spinach, parsley, celery 1 hardboiled egg- half an avocado

9pm- digestive enzymes- sauerkraut- cucumber, kale, spinach, parsley, celery

DAY 3

8am  digestive enzymes, kraut, salad (romain, raddichio and arugula and a shredded black raddish) with olive oil and apple cider vinegar, 1 egg fried in bacon grease  Also liquid b12 and d3 supplements and turmeric tincture.

12pm- digestive enzymes, kraut, salad with olive oil and apple cider vinegar

4pm- digestive enzymes, kraut, salad (as above) with olive oil and acv and a scoop of fermented cottage cheese- possible frittata (where i work they make frittatas a lot)

8pm- digestive enzymes, kraut, salmon and veggies- maybe broccoli or asparagus

For what it's worth, if you have a natural supplier of fishes and meats, look for Copper River Sockeye Salmon from Alaska right now. It's fished only a couple of days per year, and the haul is just making it to market. And it will fly off the shelves and be gone.  It's wild, deep deep red and so very good and special. I purchased some today and am looking forward to having it Friday evening.

Also, on another note, my turmeric tincture is extra special too.  It comes from a friend of mine who lives in Costa Rica. They grow it there on their farm and make really potent tinctures out of it.  When he visits the states he brings it with him for friends.  It's fantastic and I'm glad to be adding it back into my diet. 

Ok kids, onward we go.  Wishing luck to those still in the game, where ever you are, whenever you are. 

Things are gonna get easier...

Before I talk about the fast I want to give props to the people who motivated me to take this challenge.  I listen to a lot of podcasts and one in circulation for me is the Smart Drug Smarts podcast hosted by this guy Jesse.  The podcast advertises itself as a show that "brings you actionable insights from world leading experts in neuroscience and psychopharmacology- for the enhancement and protection of your greatest asset: your own brain."  I've been enjoying it because it's very no-nonsense, full of information, fast paced and entertaining, and based on science in as much as possible, and when not they are clear about that.  

So this guy Jesse encouraged his listeners to do a 7 day water fast with him and so here I am.  Call me a sucker.  But I was planning to juice fast this summer anyway, so his show intrigued me to take it a step further.  We are all in a Slack channel communicating about how it's going and it's been interesting and good to not be alone in the woods on this.  

Anyway, if you're into learning about how to improve your brain, check out his podcast. You'll probably really enjoy it. 

Ok- onto the fast and how it's going.

On the third day, waking up was hard. All of the symptoms had set in, weakness in particular. In the late morning I went to work for a few hours and by 2pm I was feeling really good. Later I went for a hike on the luscious greenbelt (a beautiful trail lining a creek here in Austin) and spent a few hours lying around sunbathing (vitamin D ftw) on a large rock in the middle of a raging creek with my best friend. We both meditated some but interestingly, I had a really hard time staying focused inside my brain with my eyes closed. After about 10 minutes I decided to lie back, open my eyes and just soak in the beautiful world around me- the running creek, the many trees, the sun and the clouds in the blue sky. That was really easy- I think the fast induced heightened alertness has made everything a little prettier. 

And stinkier.  Sense of smell is always fun during a fast. At the creek I could smell the water and the mud with so much more intensity. I smell restaurants from farther away than usual.  I just cleaned out the fridge and found that a friend left a bag of shredded cheese in there. My olfactories tried to convince me that the cheddar-mex blend was the best cheese ever.  So aromatic.  When was the last time you were really swooned by a bag of shredded cheese?

I'm about 92 hours into my water fast, coming to the close of the 4th 24 hour period. And honestly I'm shocked at how good I feel.  The beginning was really hard but mid-day yesterday I got over that hump and I'm feeling energetic. I'm a bit more efficient with my movement- not really excercising, I don't want to lose much lean muscle.  I've been doing more reading and writing, taking it a little more easy. But at the end of day 4 I've got to say that I expected to feel weak and shaky and I don't.  Mentally I'm a wee bit spacey, but in general I can be this way so it's hard to make a correlation. Otherwise, my mind feels quite clear.  

One thing that differentiates the water fast from the juice fast is that I found I miss the ritual preparation of juice twice a day.  When you are just drinking water and making tea, there's not much ritual. And I haven't filled that with any new ritual.  The closest I come to that is putting a few drops of trace minerals and a pinch of Himalayan salt into each glass of water (mineral supplementation for heart health and other things).   

My ketones today are around a 6, down from 8 the other day. The 8 must have been a spike when it started.  Since then I've been around a 4-6 regularly.  If you want to know more about what this means you can ask, but it basically means my body is eating my fat stores.  Kind of boring but it's the point of all this.  While I love the mental trip I wouldn't do this if it weren't for a bigger health goal.  Well.... never say never.

I weighed myself on day 2 and I was 112.  Yesterday I was 113.5 and today I'm 108.7. Probably has to do with when I weigh myself. I'm not a fan of the scale and rarely use it but it provides a data point to help observe the burning of fat in ketosis. I hope I'm cleansing out the bad stuff that the body stores, in hopes of making my it healthier. That's the goal. 

Ok kids, that's it for day 4.  The rough ride is over and it's pretty smooth sailing.  I don't know if I'll make it to 7 days, but right now things are looking pretty good.  My tummy is rumbling a little, not gonna lie. But it's easy to ignore. 

The Hardest Day

I feel like I'd like a little snack.  I feel like a big stack of short ribs would make for a nice little snack. Sounds like it could make for a lovely Sunday.  

It's been about 60 hours since my last meal. Since then it's been only water and herbal teas, with the exception of a small amount of earl gray. Of course. To be clear, a true water fast isn't supposed to allow for herbal teas and especially no caffeine- I've tailored mine to include small bits of black and herbal teas- becasue that gives me bigger joy and doesn't change things significantly if at all.

Of all of the fasts I've done- too many to recollect (juice and master cleanses)- this water fast is by far the hardest.  no doubt. What's the difference? Oh, probably a few 500 calories a day or something. 

Today the symptoms I had been dreading set in.  I feel weak. Really weak. And that shaky hungry feeling is setting in, I'm surprised it took so long.  When I got out of bed I felt a little light headed. And my heart is a little thumpy- it feels a little faster, a little stronger.  I'm familiar with tachycardia so it no longer scares me but I still don't like it. This is only temporary. This is only temporary. This is ONLY temporary.

I measured my level of ketosis, seems like I'm somewhere around 8, which is quite high for the number of days I'm in so far.  I'm a fast ketosier.  quite ketosy. 

I am not going to have those short ribs I so badly want. This is where it gets interesting.  This is where I tell myself that I can go on.  I can get through this.  I can tap into deeper reserves in my mind, and those will help me tap into deeper reserves in my body, and I will go another day.  I will go to work today (only 3 hours) and I will get home and figure out how to better use my time.  yoga. a walk. maybe some writing, some reading. maybe i'll go lie in the sun and soak up some vitamin D, I could use it. But I will make it through today, the hardest day, because I know while it might be hard it won't kill me, and after today, things are supposed to get easier.  I hope so because tomorrow is a harder work day and I'll need to be tapping into those promised reserves. 

Right now the only reason I can give for doing this is to prove to myself I can.  I know there is more to it, but maybe not. Right now I can't remember the other stuff.   

So far this fast has felt pretty humorless.  I am really looking forward to some minor delirium or something to lighten things up.  

Only water for 7 days.  

Sometimes it feels like I need to do something extreme. Sometimes I feel like I need to forcefully shake my shit up. Sometimes it's like my habits and routines are driving me down, not lifting me up, and I need to wipe the slate clean. Reevaluate, examine, look deep inside, make new choices from a place of deep introspection with a set of rules and boundaries that I typically would not honor.  Fasting has always been a good way for me to do this.  For the past 12 years or so, I've done 10 day juice fasts to accomplish this goal. However, I've abstained from fasting for the last 2 years because I was mentally and physically unfit to take it on.  But finally, I'm ready. and so very ready, for a new fast.  And so I'm taking on a new fast. A water fast. The most extreme of all the fasts. 

Unlike my other fasts, this one intimidates the fuck out of me. Not only will I not be eating, I will be not consuming any nutrients at all, nothing at all besides water, with the goal of leading my body into ketosis- when the body burns fats it usually reserves for extreme circumstances.  It is also considered (see some certain and specific science articles) that this is also where unhealthy products generated from our lives are stored, where bad things may be happening, where icky stuff resides, like the superfund site for our bodies. 

What happens to a body that isn't given any nutrients?  I have no idea. Plenty of people experience true starvation regularly in this world.  I have not. As I experience this for myself- what true hunger feels like and what effects it has upon my body, mind and soul- I will let you know.  It's only 7 days, and in the global experience of hunger, that's nothing really.

As I head into this fast, I think of the many people who have died of hunger, of the many who have fasted for justice and liberty, who have fasted for freedom or resistance.  Those people fasted for reasons much less selfish than my own.  I will be meditating on the strength and determination of those who have come before me, but who were not given a choice. It's a little melodramatic, I know, but I guess at this moment it seems important to me.  I've been preparing for this fast mentally for several weeks, and it comes down to that- meditating on the hunger and fasting experience of human history. In essence its a bit solidarity, a bit selfishness, a lot exploration.  To see what will happen when I only consume water for 7 days. 

OMG.  I can do this.  Hopefully my posts along the way will include a bit of humor and lightheartedness that I usually share. But tonight, the night before I embark, I'm feeling so serious. Stho Stherious!    Follow this blog if you have any interest.  Let's go!