Starting my first fast

[Random Violin Guy]

I've never fasted before, so I'm sure I'll have plenty of questions as I go along. As I understand, you're supposed to ease into a fast by eating only fruit on the first day, eating only melon on the second day, and then fasting for however long... then melon for a day, and fruit for a day before finally eating as you normally would (or as you want to).

Right now I'm on my first day - fruit only.

Breakfast:
1 grapefruit

Lunch:
part of a bag of grapes

After-Lunch snacking:
The rest of the bag of grapes

Dinner:
1 grapefruit
1/2 glass of water


I've got 3 apples and a quart of strawberries to eat for the rest of the day. So, my first question is this: How long should I fast for? Is 3 days a good length for a water fast? 3 days is what I was planning on (not including the transition into it and out of it).

Thanks for all your help! I love it how helpful everyone on here is.

[spicyfull]

Oh My..Are you at the Right Place but the Wrong Room...........There is ALWAYS a FAST going on at this Forum. MissLinda is the No.1 Fasting Diva. Look up her Name and I am sure there is one getting ready for the Month of July.

There is also a Fasting Section as you enter this Forum.

If you don't find what you are looking for or anyone does not give you the help you are seeking......."Bump" your Thread up because sometimes they get lost on page 3 or 4 and might be over looked by the person that has all the info....

Just find your Thread and write "Bump" and that will take it to the HEAD of the Line again.........

I'm talking........but really giving your Thread a "Bump"...........

[Random Violin Guy]

Thanks for the bump.

Last night I ended up having about 3/4 of another bag of grapes (green, the first bag was red) and that quart of strawberries. I guess I'll have the apples when I'm coming out of the fast.

I'm onto day two- watermelon only. Haven't had anything yet, though.

I still don't know if 3 days is a good length of time to plan for. Any thoughts?

[spicyfull]

Bump..............

[Random Violin Guy]

OK, so here I go. Today's the first day of actual fasting. I don't really know what to expect (detox? emotional rollercoaster? lots of energy? no energy? feeling hungry? not noticing? ...ah well). But I'm well prepared to make it three days on just water. All the food is out of sight. All the water I want is by my side. Oh, and I've got a few books to keep my mind occupied.

I'm excited! This is like an inward adventure for me. It's not every day that I get the opportunity to do something like this. :)

[FirstGarden]

RVG - One of my fave things to read while fasting is books about fasting and their benefits. I find that quite motivating & inspiring. Lot's on the net too. In Fasting Bandits, a few pages back are some links on fasting books online. Rational Fasting by Arnold Ehret, which you can download, and Paul Bragg's "The Miracle Of Fasting" which you can read online. :)

[Random Violin Guy]

Cool! Grazie mille! I'll look them up.

[Random Violin Guy]

Aha! Found 'em.

Now I'm going out for a walk, cuz it's a beautiful day out. This should keep my mind occupied for a while.

[Random Violin Guy]

Well, here I am at the end of day one. It's not quite what I expected it to be like. Here I thought I would be starving by now...

Instead I feel completely full, amazingly. So far no signs of any detox or anything like that. I've kept my mind busy with books, movies, and a few short walks. I've also been taking naps and just resting in general.

I think I've gone through over a gallon of water today. Maybe a gallon and a half? Of course I'm still awake, so I'll continue to drink more.

[Random Violin Guy]

I'm starting day two of my first water fast feeling pretty tired/weak, but still not hungry. I've gotta say, I thought it would be more the other way around.

It occurs to me that I never posted my age or weight. I'm 21 years old, a little under 6' tall, and 125-130 lbs or so. I don't have a scale, so that's more just the weight I tend to hover around.

I know I'm gonna make it through this fast as planned. Especially since I don't have the watermelon yet to break the fast. (Side question: I used watermelon to ease into the fast. Should I use a different type of melon to ease out of it?) I'll most likely get the melon tomorrow to eat the day after.

I look forward to looking back on this in two days time, eating my melon and patting myself on the back. In the meantime, I get to relax and take it easy for a few days. What more could I ask for?

[Random Violin Guy]

I'm continually amazed at how different this is from what I expected. I thought for sure that I would be hungry throughout this. Not once, really. If I felt the slightest bit hungry (and believe me, that's all it ever got to) I would just have some more water. Hunger begone!

I do find it odd that after drinking about a gallon of water a day, I'll wake up in the morning feeling thirsty. I don't feel nearly as weak as I did yesterday morning, though I don't have nearly as much energy as usual. I fell down twice yesterday after getting up and taking a few steps. The first time, I scraped my arm on a desk- the second time, I just bumped into a table on my way down (no hard edges on this one). I've taken to being really careful now when I stand up, to bend over when I get light-headed.

So, today's the last day! I'm so excited to have made it through this. Yes, I say this in past tense, because there's about a snowball's chance in hell of me breaking the fast early today, or of easing out of it too quickly. Tomorrow is all watermelon, and the day after is all fruit.

I realize I'm using this thread as more of a blog than a discussion. That's fine by me. It's like my fasting journal, in a sense. But please, feel more than welcome to chime in. I'd love a few responses or some advice.

Cheers!

[konmai]

That's cool you're using this thread as a blog. It's your thread, & I find it interesting reading your observation of it all. :D

Think I'll start my fast today. I've already done some 14 days water fast before. It's nice to read someone has started ahead of me. ;)

[Random Violin Guy]

Arigatoo gozaimasu Konmai-san.

Wow, 14 days of water fasting. I'm only in it for 3. It must be heavenly for your food bill. :) How long is this next fast for?

[Random Violin Guy]

I've made it! Tomorrow is watermelon day- Yipee!!!! Then fruit day after that. I look forward to Friday, when I'm back to my good old salads and green smoothies and soups and such. There's no way I'm gonna eat that stuff until Friday, though. I hear the stuff you feed yourself after fasting is even more important than the fasting itself. Just something I remember hearing; not sure if it's completely true or not, but there's definitely gotta be a lot of truth to it.

I'm still floored that I'm not starving, and never once was more than the tiniest bit hungry. I so wasn't expecting that.

So technically it's Wednesday already, though I never really consider it the next day until I fall asleep and wake up again. Or when the sun rises, I guess. I guess I'm just saying that I'm not breaking the fast until I wake up in the morning. Not that it's not tempting to eat a few slices of watermelon right now... really, I did start this fast over 72 hours ago, so it has been more than three days, time-wise, but I wouldn't feel right doing that. I'm sticking to the original plan.

For now, I'm gonna watch a movie. My landlord lent me I <3 Huckabees. He says it's really good. So I'm gonna watch that, then fall asleep, then wake up and eat all the watermelon I can stand to eat. :)

[Random Violin Guy]

Goodnight, raw foodies. When I wake up, I'm gonna be eating my heart out with all the watermelon I can eat. :)

[Random Violin Guy]

I made it through the fast, no problem! Today's watermelon day for me. So far I've gone through 3/4 of a medium-sized seedless watermelon (organic, of course), and it's only 3:00. I woke up around 10 something this morning.

I think I'm gonna have to buy some more melons. Maybe honeydew or cantaloupe. Maybe just more watermelon. I'll see what's good at the co-op.

I'm really excited for my green smoothies and salads and soups and such on Friday. It's amazing- I keep on making the same soup, and I'm still not tired of it. Alissa's cream of broccoli soup, modified a heluva lot. I throw lots of greens in there, and treat it kinda like a green smoothie. Sprouts, spinach, asparagus, whatever I've got - leaf lettuce, too. Sometimes I'll use hemp oil instead of olive oil. It's quite a fun recipe, but it does drain me. There's plenty of fat in there- almonds, avocado, and oil. Still, I'm looking forward to it.

As you can probably tell just by the length of this post, I've got a lot more energy now than I did during the fast. I've been walking around the apartment a lot more, sitting up straighter, and all that good stuff.

One thing I haven't mentioned yet is that I started going "no 'poo" at the beginning of the fast. I'm hoping the fast sped up the detox process from all those years of shampoo chemicals on my scalp. I've been playing around with different things to clean my hair with- salt or ACV, for example. It's an experiment. We'll see how it goes in a month or two or whatever.

OK, I think I've rambled on quite long enough. Nobody likes to read really long posts anyways, even if this is more of a blog than a discussion. I'll write again later tonight.

Ciao!

[Random Violin Guy]

So, today I've had a watermelon and later a honeydew. The watermelon was "eh" but that honeydew was really sweet. Tomorrow's breakfast is gonna be a banana smoothie or some grapefruit or some apples. I've also got an orange and some grapes. Tomorrow's gonna be a tasty day.

OH! And I'm so excited that organic red bell peppers are finally available around here. I'm really looking forward to all the good stuff I can make with those. I mean really looking forward to it! :) :)

I'm really glad I did this fast. I think I've learned a lot from it, as well as hopefully cleaning myself out and detoxing. This was really stepping outside of my routine day-to-day life for me (not that my life is that routine, but you know...), and I think I've changed in ways that I might not even be aware of yet. I'm still completely floored that throughout three days straight without food, I was never once hungry. I just can't get over that.

Okay, I'm going to bed. When I wake up, it'll be fruit day. Hurrah!

[Random Violin Guy]

Not really much to say for now. Today's a mono-fruit day for me.

Breakfast:
2 grapefruit

Lunch:
1/3 bag of grapes or so

[konmai]

hehe. how do you decide which foods you're going to eat for the day? :p

[Random Violin Guy]

Well, a friend of mine - she's a raw foodist, and she fasts, by the way - she told me that you ease into a fast by eating only fruit for a day, then only melon for a day. Then you fast for however long, and after that you ease out of the fast in reverse - so, melon for a day, then fruit for a day. I'm not sure whether or not it's better to eat monofruit on the second day after breaking the fast, or whether it just needs to be fruit. I'm definitely not an expert, and there are plenty of people on here that know a lot more about fasting than I do. Heck, I never even read any of the fasting books, not even while I was fasting. lol :o I just kinda... fasted.