A One-Day fast: What do you think?

[Andre]

I was thinking of just doing a one day fast with little or no water. I've only been raw for about 2 weeks and wanted to try it. I don't wanna do a 92 day juice fast or 3 day fast, just 1 day.

What do you think?

Is there any benefits?

Thanks

[Clare]

Little or no water?! Are you crazy??? :-) I think the only reason for no water would be a religious holy day, like Yom Kippur or something (not sure but I'm Catholic and our definition of fasting is not truly fasting at all...) Water helps flush out the toxins and especially in our time that is so important!

From what I have read, even one day of fasting has benefits, especially if you do it regularly, like once a week. You might want to start by skipping one or two meals, for example eating dinner Thursday night, but not eating/snacking again until Friday lunch or dinner. But keep drinking water! You want to keep your skin clear, right? (I just saw your post about acne clearing - that is so great!)

[lavendarJ]

Fasting for one day shouldn't be a problem (assuming there are no health concerns). It's a good way to give the body a break and I don't think you'd get dehydrated from fasting without water for one day (assuming you are already eating healthy and staying hydrated prior to fasting). Sometimes eating a lot of dehydrated things constipates me just like S.A.D. food used to and I might fast for a day just to give my digestive system a break and extra time to digest food. I've never had any problems with short fasts - I don't see any harm in you trying it; if your just testing the waters with the whole fasting issue try it on the weekend or on a day when you don't have a lot of ripping or running or obligations-that makes a big difference.

[Andre]

Today I woke up and I wasn't hungry so I decided the today was the day. I'll see how it goes and maybe once a week might be a good thing. There have been many people that have did once a week fasting with excellent benefits. It'll also save on my grocery bills. ;)

[Blazin'Jane]

Yes, if you fast just one day a week, you save aobut 14% on your food bill, unless you overeat the next food day to compensate for what you didn't take in while fasting.
After I was RAW for about a year, I started experimenting with fasting. I started with one day a week, water only, but I drink plenty of water. Some how it makes sense to me to keep flushing. One day during December i fasted for 3 days straight, but a I was very happy to get back to food after that. In fact, I think I got up in the middle of the night and had an orange!
During this Lent I have fasted one day a week and then started fasting Mondays and Thursdays. This has worked pretty well for me and for now is about as much as I can do. I work full time, I'm very active physically, and I'm 66 y.o. While theidea of a longer more dramatic fast has some appeal, I probably won't attempt it until I retire in a few years.
Another thing...some of the books say that most ;eople end up preferring to water only fast, and others prefer to juice fast. I'm definitely in the former category; if I introduced juice, I'd spend all day waiting for the next "fix." People like me who water fast can't generally fast as long as the juice fasters.

[Stina]

My concern is that without water to flush away the toxins that will be released is that you could do more harm than good by having them circulate in your system.

[miaculpa]

muslims, jews, and the copts fast without food/water from sunrise to sunset during their fast days. Unless you are in weak health, pregnant, etc it should not hurt you.

I am opting to Master Cleanse one day a week, after having done a total of about 40 days on the MC since Jan 9th. I find fasting to be rather a spiritual practice and I feel best when I am/have fasted. I am *quite* the foodie, so this is unusual for me to embrace it so wholly. I don't see why you can't 'flush the toxins' the next day, if need be. I dunno, I am no expert. I just know that I FEEL better when my digestive system gets periodic breaks.

[oai]

Going to bookmark this thread. Please update us on your experience! I'd love to know how it went. :D

[Aleesha Sattva]

i've read that fasting one day a week is a good thing to do... but again... pushing the fluids. doesn't mean fasting without fluids is wrong... i've just never read anything supporting that choice.

regardless... i hope you get the results you are hoping for.

[GlimR]

My first response was WHAT??? WHY???If not for religious reasons. I found this interesting article by David Wolfe.....

http://www.worldproutassembly.org/archives/2006/06/dry_fasting.html

[Blazin'Jane]

Hmmmm. I know I've read somewhere recently that going without water is tricky business. Many people advise being monitored on water only fasts, so that would be doubly important with no water intake. We can live without food much longer than we can live without water. It does make me nervous thinking about you not drinking......

[Andre]

Thank you all for the comments.

I'm sorry, I didn't mean to concern anyone. I read somewhere that dry fasting was a good method. I actually drank water anyways because I read later that night that drinking water was good as well.

I rarely drink water on it's own because I eat so much fruit. I just ate 6 oranges, lol.

About the fast, at night I decided that even though I wasn't thirsty, I'd force myself to drink water. I drank too much - 1.5 litres. I felt nauseous. I could feel my stomach working hard.

The next morning I felt like I was gonna throw up. I was afraid to eat because I thought I might bring that up. I had a simple fruit smoothie and felt fine.

I'm thinking of maybe fasting this Sunday (March 16th). I'll make my mind up tomorrow morning. I only do something if my body tells me it wants to.

And I may just try dry fasting for 24 hours. I'm sure I'd be fine.

[Stina]

My first response was WHAT??? WHY???If not for religious reasons. I found this interesting article by David Wolfe.....

http://www.worldproutassembly.org/archives/2006/06/dry_fasting.html

Very interesting link. I'm at day 15 of the global juice feast which is going for 92 days. I just say I'll do this as long as God carries me. I'm thinking about incorporating a little dry fasting down the road when I feel really clean, as I want to see how this feels spiritually.