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I promised you a video or write up, and now, you can get both! You can check out the video above or read the post. They both have the same information.
(Warning: this is a LONG post, and the video is about 16-min long itself. Both contain the same info - the video is obviously more entertaining because it's just me talking LOL And, a reminder, this is my PERSONAL accounting of my fast. If you're going to try this, consult your health care professional.)
Why?
I have been diagnosed with two autoimmune disorders. And that explains a lot of reasons why I haven’t been feeling good, my energy levels been super low, a whole host of issues. And contrary to the first doctor's opinion, I was not just gaining weight because I wasn't eating right or working out. My doctor actually had the gall to tell me I was getting fat, which is not something you ever say to anyone. Because there's always an underlying condition, whether it's they're eating wrong things, or they're overeating, or there's an immune issue or there's inflammation. There's a whole host of reasons why.
I didn't bite their head off. I thought about it. A couple of the friends who I told this to before all this laughed at me about how I actually phrased it originally.
I didn't like that doctor's opinion ~ insert sarcasm here, right? I took everything to a different doctor who I have known for over 20 years, because she's my OBG. She’s been with me since before B was born. She has my history, my bloodwork history, just everything. It made more sense to talk with her about how I was feeling and the changes.
I am not taking any meds yet. My decision was, after talking to a couple industry friends and those who have been doing fasting and also listening to other people who have the same or similar disorders or diseases, was that I was going to try this fast. I just wasn't sure how long I wanted to do it. And researching showed that a 48-hour fast was helping reset your mitochondria and a 72-hour fast resets your immune system.
If you click on the image, it will take you to Thomas DeLauer's Official YouTube Channel.
I figured a 48-hour fast was what I could do to start. I am not a foodie, thinking about it wasn't even hard. The decision to do it was just a split-second decision. My friends will tell you that from Kelly who was doing this with me (his being a 36-hour fast) to Corry, who was cheering me on and making sure to ask me a ton of questions, Nick who's cheering me on, all know that I'm not a foodie.
Fasting is not a big issue in my brain. It wasn’t really hard. I told myself I could eat again on Thursday night and that was sort of it in my brain. It would be hard for other people – especially those who have trained their bodies to eat every few hours during the day. You have to get your brain set around it. You have to plan it you have to let your household know you're doing it.
This was nowhere near like a competitor diet that I used to do way back when, and I get hangry mid-afternoon, or you want to gnaw your arm off. Or the top of the desk. If you’ve competed, you know exactly what feeling I’m talking about.
This time around this time, it was a medical mindset. And I think it gave me the ability to power through it.
How
There are a lot of different ways to do it. There are a lot of different theories on how to do it the best way.
I decided that the best way for me to approach this fast was to start on Tuesday night after dinner. We had dinner at 6pm, and then I stopped eating and switched over water. (Also, do this during the WORK week, it’s easier to keep yourself occupied, see later in the post.)
My water routine:
- Water with half a fresh squeezed lemon & a dash of cayenne pepper
- Green tea – usually warm
- Spindrift Lime - You have to watch what Spindrift you get because some of them have natural flavors on the label. You don't want those ~ you want those that have the sparkling water and the actual fruit juice. READ the labels.
- Rotate!
I could have had coffee with nothing in it, but I am only recently a coffee drinker, and it has to have something in it. I just skipped out on the coffee.
The only time that I really wanted food was dinnertime. And it was a brain want, not a stomach one if that makes sense? I wanted something in my system. It was just because it was that time to eat.
On Wednesday night, at dinnertime, I sidetracked myself with a household project. I started tiling the floor of the guestrooms closet, one of them (there are three closets in there for some reason). I've been wanting to do it anyway, and it was a little mosaic piece. That took me about an hour and it got me through dinnertime.
Anytime I was craving food during the evening after that, I switched to the Spindrift.
Sleep & Daily Stress
Some people may experience insomnia. I found an eight-hour meditation on YouTube, and let it run all night long.
The other thing that I did that one of the doctors recommended was, and I highly recommend it, is when you are feeling headachey or cranky or hungry to do something that raises your oxytocin levels. What's happening is you're stressing yourself out.
What are some ways to raise your oxytocin levels?
- Hug your kid (careful, they get annoyed if you do it too often LOL)
- Walk the dog
- Meditate
- Do some artwork or projects
- Whatever helps you unwind and let the stress go
On Being Cold
Thursday, I was FREEZING all day. A byproduct of fasting, your metabolism kicks in and you are freezing. Kelly & Nick both got to hear me whine about that. I think it was whining about that more than was whining about anything else. I had a next of blankets on the couch both Wed and Thurs nights. The cats loved it.
If you click on the image, it will take you to the video on YouTube 🙂
Zero App
One trick to keeping myself entertained, the ZERO app. There's a pro version. I didn't pay for it. I just used the free version. It counts down or counts up how many hours you are into your fast, and you can pick you a custom setting. I just set mine for the time that I wanted, which was the 48. On Thursday, I kept watching the clock more because I was ready to (and at the same time not ready to) break my fast.
Breaking the Fast
It was really kind of nice not having to eat. My stomach was actually happy with me for two days straight which is unheard of ~ another reason for doing this and figuring out what the issues were with my system. I was a bit nervous about breaking the fast and how was my stomach going to react to food again.
Nick was watching the time with me so waited until till I could eat dinner to eat with me. He had gone out and gotten me gluten free organic chicken and beef bone broth so I could decide which one I was going to use to break my fast. At 6:06pm, I was sipping on the warm bone broth!
Gluten Free shopping is no joke!
And you're supposed to sip on that (the bone broth) and let your body adjust to having calories and food. It was only a couple calories. Of course, when I have chicken soup or chicken bone broth, I wanted to put in our Greek Rosemarina because that's what we do with it in our house, especially when I put in a lot of lemon juice.
Then, I made my salmon avocado bites, which the recipe is probably on here on the site. You're supposed to have a lean protein afterwards. So, you could also grab chicken or turkey. I decided I wanted good fats and protein and it worked out well.
Post Fast
All in all, I have been sticking to an 18-hour daily fast, and eating more on a Keto, and definitely a gluten free plan. (If you want to chat Keto, go follow Kelly for it. He's got it down to a science!) No more grains, for me, at least no more wheat, and all the others that trigger the inflammation in my system. My energy levels are up. I’m down 9lbs in 7 days. I am sleeping really well. I went and had my bloodwork done yesterday for the doctor's orders.
I don't recommend you do this without a partner, accountability partner, coach, your Doctor, somebody keeping track with you. It is not to be taken lightly. It is all about willpower. You have to be in the right mindset, you have to be determined to do it. And you have to tell your household!
If you’re going to try a fast, I would recommend:
- Get your Doctor’s approval. I’m a health coach and have a PhD in Holistic Health, even I talked with my doctor about it all first.
- Setup an accountability partner or get a coach who’s done fasting programs before.
- Get the Zero app ~ use it to help you get through a 16 hour fast to try it. And when you're consistent with that, then go for an 18 hour and work your way up.
Kelly will tell you; he couldn’t believe that I just jumped right into a 48 hour fast. But I tend to almost do that on our show days anyway, on Friday and Saturday. You have to remember to drink on those days I forget to do it.
My next one will be October 16 and 17th for 48-hour fast. Then I'll do another one on our show weekend in November, the 13th and 14th. And then we're going to do work our way up to doing the medical, the true medical one, which is a 72-hour one in December right after Christmas to do a complete immune reset.
If you'd like to join me on it and do your 16-hour, 18-hour, 24-hour, whatever-hour when you want to do it, you can join us here. Again, you should not do it without some sort of supervision, and I would highly recommend that you talk to your doctor about it before trying it. I have done in the past, so I knew what to expect.
I hope this has helped some! It was a definite learning experience for myself and learning even more of my body’s processes.
