Three Day Water Fast
3 Day Fast
I just finished a three day fast. I have NEVER done anything like this in my entire life. I researched it AND I followed guidance from a trusted mindbody expert: @jaisugrim #jaisugrim in the #mindbodyreboot with a great #community.
My initial experience was one of being immediately aware that I had a difficulty in front of me. There was a little bit of pressure in that I wanted to make it through because I wanted to fully experience it but I also had the feeling of the unknown. How would my body react to such extreme measures? I have the kind of mind body that tends to be very resilient and “tough”, I have experience getting through many of life’s challenges and choosing to do challenges like 125km runs in mountains and triathlons (when I was MUCH younger) BUT I wanted to see if I could just BE during this challenge. I normally force and distract myself in order to get through something difficult. That’s not what I want for myself anymore. I want peace and awareness, and to have a teeny tiny glimpse of an understanding of what people might go through when they don’t have food.
In complete honesty, my fast started at 3pm (because I eat my main meal mid day) and the first night was normal and a breeze, the next morning I had a nice hot water with some sparkling mineral water in it for breakfast and went without my normal matcha. And then I proceeded to (after meditation and yoga) write a bit, do some work and then watch movies as a distraction in the late afternoon. After this, I felt nauseous and had a severe headache so I went to bed and tossed and turned. Finally, the headache was gone around 2 am, I woke around 5:30 to do my regular meditation and yoga and I decided no more devices. I did not want the stimulation. I felt pretty great and decided to do a slow easy run/walk (I have been running around 3-4 times a week).
I found myself very easily distracted with thoughts and mesmerized by any little thing in nature, I rolled my ankle on some uneven terrain and realized that I needed to pay more attention to keep safe (see my day 2 post run photo - happy AND tired). The not eating at this point was actually easy. My partner was doing the fast with me so we were sharing stories of food fantasies etc. It was really weird to have no real reason to go into the kitchen. To not NEED food was a very unknown feeling to me. I always had this real (normal) dependency but now I had the realization that I wouldn’t die immediately if I didn’t have access to food. There is no threat to my life, mostly because I have led a very privileged life of always having the means and access to food and I am slightly overweight. Also, my metabolism is much much slower than it was even 5 years ago so I don’t get hungry like I used to. I started to think about our ancestors, how they would go days and weeks without food.
When I went on a run on the last day of my fast, boy was that a difficult experience. It is not recommended to do any real fast movement while fasting so by “run” I mean a walk/jog for about an hour. The most important thing to me was that I was out in nature. BUT wow, I had hardly any energy and I was breathing so hard during the slightest uphill. I thought though, with my generous fat reserves, if there was a food source that I had to run toward, I would probably be able to do it. Again, I imagined how our ancestors would feel during their times of no food but needing to travel to find it. I cannot really imagine, because I don’t have that life, but I have much respect.
By the end of my fast I had myself convinced that water fasting for 3 days is challenging but good for me. We celebrated with a nutritious meal of veggies representing all the colours of the rainbow and all six tastes. I ate about half as much as I thought I would need and was satisfied. Fasting was one of the remaining things from my Ayurveda training that I had yet to try. Both my partner and I found it to be very good for us and we will likely do one during the transition of each season.
Please note that it is recommended that you have a doctor’s blessing to do a 3 day water fast like this. (My partner is a doctor, so he gave us his blessing ;-)) It is not recommended for people with diabetes, pregnant or nursing women. Driving or operating vehicles is also not recommended. I would say doing highly cognitive tasks is also not recommended. If you have young kids who need your attention and love, I wouldn’t recommend fasting. I snipped at my partner at the very end when I couldn’t find the ground cumin for our post fast meal prep…and he snipped back that I shouldn’t get angry at him. I apologized almost immediately because I realized that even though I wasn’t mad at him, I was definitely projecting my frustration. It’s kind of funny now but at the time I was feeling VERY HANGRY with all the smells and finally touching and cooking fresh food etc. I let it go and welcomed the peace back in as I finished making our beautiful meal (after grinding some fresh cumin ;-)).
Give it a try, create a safe place and time to experiment. Keep an open, peaceful mind, it’s nice when you do it with a community like with the #mindbodyreboot and @jaisugrim #jaisugrim, and with my amazing beautiful loving partner. Let me know how it goes for you! Let me know in the comments if you have any questions!!
xoxoxoChristinexoxoxo
