Water Fasting – Healing Journey Day 3

Journal:
Well, after being so tired yesterday, I expected to be as tired today. I didn’t go to sleep until after midnight, so I set four alarms to  make sure I got up this morning. Sadly to say, for whatever reason, I woke up wide awake at 4:00 a.m. Of all the things that could happen, I wake up at 4:00. I didn’t wake up starving nor dying of thirst, but completely was wide awake. It makes no sense to me.

So what did I do at 4:00 in the morning? I decided it was time to consume some water. Sadly, it didn’t come with the fireworks I was expecting. It was good, but I honestly think of could have done dry fasting for another day. However, since I work with students, I don’t want to take the risk of being completely active all day long and not have my body running on anything. So breaking into my water fast is the process I’ve begun.

So what did it actually feel like to drink water again? It puts me in a hesitant state. I’m not sure my body is fully accepting it to be honest. I feel like there is a possibility of running to the washroom at some point and also a possibility of vomiting the water back up. It’s unsettling for sure. My energy is not where I want it to be; it’s not as good as last night, but not as bad as yesterday morning so I began praying early to survive the day.

Thankfully, I did survive the day with only one person commenting on how tired I looked. I also was yawning a lot when she said it, so that was a clue.

I couldn’t drink very much in the morning. In fact, though I had imagined I would be guzzling water throughout the day, I really don’t think my body was ready for too much water. It almost “hurt” my stomach without actually being painful. But around midday, water began to go down easier (6 hours past the initial sip). The feeling in my stomach is gone for the most part though food does sound good. It was a test to go through two snack times and a lunch period sitting with my students while all of them are eating. The smells are what got to me the most. But somehow, I still found it fairly easy to bypass the food they were eating and the emergency stash I have by my desk.

Following school, I had a meeting with a parent. It was a positive meeting and the mother was so wonderful, she even brought me a bag of tomatoes from her garden. Oh, how I would LOVE to eat those tomatoes. But since it will be quite awhile until I will be eating tomatoes, I am looking at options of either buying a dehydrator to dehydrate them or perhaps finding a method of canning. I am sticking with this journey 100% and not willing to skip stages. I’m holding out well.

Once the meeting was over, I came home and took a nap. It felt so good to take a nap though I freaked out when I woke up thinking it was 7:30 in the morning and I was going to be late for work. It took a few minutes to sink in that it was only 7:30 at night and that everything was going to be ok.

It took awhile for me to get up because I was very cold. I am finding that my body is reacting more extremely to temperatures. For example, when my heater is on, even on the lowest setting, I am pretty warm, almost too warm for blankets. But when the heater is off and the basement gets the cool feeling again, I start freezing so much I cannot even fathom getting out from the blankets. I’m having a hard time finding a happy medium at the moment and I’m hoping this will sort itself out.

I did go to the gym today though I was heavily debating whether I should or not, especially after feeling so tired all day. However, I’ve been working out for years, so I figured that I cannot completely stop now. Aside from cardiovascular benefits, I considered the fact that exercise might actually help me feel warm again after feeling cold for awhile. It worked, and I actually was stronger than I though I would by cycling on a stationary bike. My pace was much slower than normal, but I wasn’t about to make this an all-out sweating session, but rather just a health activity.

So now it is the end of the day and I’m in bed, about to go to sleep. I am so looking forward to only two more days of water fasting and finally getting to drink fruit juice on Thursday. I’m hoping that the lemon slices I’ll be adding to my water on Wednesday will give my body a little energy kick with the most minimal of calories but still something compared to nothing.

Review of symptoms:
This morning, my face actually had a sign of improvement: there were no new pimples! Almost every morning I’ve had at least one new one if not several. Perhaps my body has had enough time cycling everything on the inside without having outside substances to deal with that it is able to concentrate on healing my acne. This is good news for me! My energy is lacking; not horribly like yesterday morning, but not as awesome as last night. I was also shaky again this morning and though it is certainly not as bad as yesterday, it is definitely noticeable. Though I wasn’t able to drink much in the morning, it picked up throughout the day. In total, I think I drank about 1.25-1.5L of water today. Much less than expected, but not bad for my body to adjust to. My body is reacting to temperatures in extreme ways and I’m really hoping this will sort itself out. Something I didn’t expect but totally noticed today was that my teeth are whiter! I haven’t done anything special. In fact, I’ve just been using my clay toothpaste. But the yellow tinge they had before starting my fasting is almost completely gone and they are looking pretty white. This is an exciting side effect!

Weight at the end of the day: 185.4 (down .2 lbs from yesterday, a total of 3.6 pounds lost in 48 hours)

Total Calories = 0

Dry Fasting – Healing Journey Day 1

Journal:
Today was the first day and let me tell you, it was nowhere near as bad as I thought it would be! I have never dry fasted before, so this was a completely new experience.

For those who don’t know what dry fasting is, it’s abstaining from the consumption of food and liquids, including water. There is absolutely nothing but the air you breathe entering your body. Yes, it can be quite intense and no, it is not something that you can do for a long time.

There are some dry fasting extremists who even avoid brushing their teeth and showering, but I have chosen not to go that route as I use a very natural, clay toothpaste and shower with only water so I believe that is all apart of the cleansing state I’m trying to be in.

I quit eating around 7:00 last night. I was full from supper – a root veggie burger with corn – and though I planned on stuffing myself before falling asleep, I was so tired from my first week back to work that I crashed and didn’t get around to eating anything else.

I woke up this morning feeling pretty normal. I walked the dog, was on the computer for a bit, then got up and got ready to go to church.

Church went well; I always enjoy singing worship songs and the sermon was excellent as well.

After church, they had a fellowship meal in the hall. Yes, there was lots of good food, but just by going around and talking with different people that I knew, I was able to stay away from the food fairly easily. Thirst had not yet set in either so this didn’t really seem like a big deal to me.

After talking with almost everyone I was happy to see, I came home to the smell of garlic bread and lasagna – two of my favourite foods. Although I knew I wouldn’t be bothered to eat them because they were not made vegan, the thought of food did enter my mind. However, I must say that it wasn’t too hard to continue battling food at this moment. I was even offered vegan food to be made for me, but thankfully, my housemates have a baby so I was able to trade off by saying that I would take care of the baby while they ate and to not worry about a thing. There was even pumpkin pie and homemade peach sorbet but I managed to keep busy with the baby while only starting to notice hunger creeping in.

After a couple hours when the food was put away, I was invited to a church corn boil and potato roast. I was encouraged to come out to get to know some of the younger adults in the church so I took the opportunity to socialize, but knew I’d be confronted with food that would be perfectly delicious in a hungry state. However, I was determined to not allow the fasting to ruin my life and to get rid of the hold of food, so I still decided to go.

I had a good time overall. I got to meet some awesome new people and connect with people I haven’t seen in a long time. The corn was freshly harvested the day before as well as the potatoes. There was a cucumber salad, juices, lemon water, and cookies for dessert. Many times I was eyeing the food, but again, kept myself busy socializing with other people. By the time the sun began to set and we had a beautiful Vespers service, I knew I had gotten through without food or water successfully.

After I finally got home for the evening, I was hungry but not so bad that I was going crazy. Before too long, I came to bed and went to sleep.

Review of day and symptoms:
Overall, this honestly was a fairly easy day. I managed to dodge 3 food-related social situations by keeping myself busy talking with other people and taking care of the baby. I don’t feel bad at all besides the minor hunger and have been surprised that my energy has kept up all day. I consider this day an absolute success.

Weight at the end of day 1 = 188.8 lbs.

Total Calories = 0