A beginners guide to a prolonged water fast… 

I have divided this blog post into two separate posts, because a water fast is not as simple as for your health only, there is a lot more to it. 

During my two years of back to back fasting I conducted tons of research. Mainly because I found it so hard to abstain from food, especially during my longer fasts. All of the trials and errors left me with a lot of information that I will share here with you.  

At the time I was introduced to water fasting I was seriously sick so my initial thought with all the fasts was to heal my body, which I eventually did. Little did I know that restraining from food had a much deeper meaning and would make a major impact on me as a person and my spiritual development. All of the fasting gradually morphed into ego work, merging with spirit and allowing God’s Loving grace into my life.

By the end of reading this blog post you will have a general understanding of what happens with your body and mind when you deduct food from your everyday life. Down below you will find an outline of the overall health benefits, fasting by the hour and medical as well as psychological pitfalls during a fast. I will also provide you with a variety of suggestions on what you can do to get over the fasting “humps” more easily. Furthermore I will provide you with suggestions on how to battle cravings, what type of fast to use at what time and how you initially prepare for a fast and why these steps should be taken.

I do have to clarify, the information provided here is solely based on my own experience and is NOT ANY TYPE OF MEDICAL ADVICE. Always contact a doctor prior or during a water fast for proper  guidance.

What is water fasting?

A water fast is defined as abstaining from any type of solid or liquid food, consuming only water for a predetermined period of time. A water fast may be conducted out of spiritual or medical reasons, purifying the body and mind.

What are the overall benefits a water fast?

Through processes like autophagy the body cleans out old and damaged cells that may cause severe illness

Mood Enhancement

• Pre-burnout
• Depressive mood

Other types of benefits of water fasting

What happens in your body when you fast?

Fasting gets easier if we know what actually happens in our body while we fast 

Fasting by the hour

4-8 hours – Blood sugar and Insulin levels drop to baseline

12 hours – Human growth hormone starts producing, improved energy and focus

16 hours – Stored Glucose is running out and your body starts to look for other energy sources which means it starts to pull from your fat stores and produce ketones – The timespan of course depends on how much sugar and carbs you consume in your diet because glucose may get stored in your fat as well and switching into ketosis may take longer.

18-20 hours – Autophagy occurs, Cellular repair. Autophagy is a process where the body eats damaged and sick cells so it can regenerate new healthy ones.

24 hours – Gut repair

36 hours – Autophagy increases to 300%, increased fat burning, detoxification, anti-aging

48 hours – Reset Dopamine Receptors, Mood Enhancement, Reduced Anxiety and Depression, HGH increase by 500%, anti aging antioxidant production

72 hours –  Peak autophagy, immune stem cells repair, musculoskeletal stem cell repair, chronic conditions, Immune system reset

How to prepare body and mind when you fast?

How to prepare your body?

Your body and mind are going through a rough challenge by not eating for a period of time. It is good if you prepare for this as much as possible, so you don’t quit your fast ahead of time .

• A month prior to the fast, stop ingesting all kinds of known toxins such as cigarettes, alcohol, drugs, coffee, carbs, sugar, processed food, meat and dairy. A water fast is challenging as is, so we would like to simplify the process as much as possible by detoxifying our body and mind ahead of time. 

• Eat a varied diet, which includes all the vitamins and minerals that the body needs to feel good and function properly. It is also important to have a balanced microbiome and you balance it through eating food rich in probiotics and prebiotics. It is naturally important to have a balanced and healthy diet in general although if you don’t have it start balancing it at least a month prior to your water fast. The negative fasting symptoms get worse if you have a bad diet.

Detox symptoms

When we stop ingesting known toxins, stop eating certain kinds of foods and drinks or we stop eating entirely, detoxification of body and mind occurs. This process can be heavy, so it is recommended to detoxify systematically and periodically. The symptoms may include:

• Headaches, dizziness, keto cold, nausea, bad breath, heavily coated tongue, hunger, mood swings, anger, annoyance, negative thoughts, depression, oily skin, diarrhea or constipation, low energy, weakness.

How to prepare mentally?

If you are not used to fasting, a suggestion is that you build up your fasting muscle by starting with short one, two or three day fasts a week. Do these kinds of short fasts a couple of times per month to get your psyche and body used to abstaining from food. Always make sure you prepare your subconscious mind as well to strengthen yourself.

Set your intent with the fast

Is it for health reasons? Weight loss? Spiritual reasons? Or to free yourself from addictions?

Eg. My intention goes as follows. “My intention with this fast is to set my ego aside and merge with my spirit”. (Spiritual reasons)

Write down your own or listen to “water fasting” affirmations a couple of weeks prior to starting your fast

By writing down positive affirmations or listening to water fasting affirmations, every day, for at least 3 weeks (21 days) prior to your water fast, you are setting a solid and positive foundation to a successful water fast. As I mentioned before, water fasts are at times very challenging and by setting a positive outlook from the get-go you are more likely to succeed. Please continue with the affirmations throughout the entire fasts, it is easy to fall into a negative mind loop if you fast a lot, and if you fail on top of that.

Water Fasting Affirmations to Sleep by – 8 Hours long

Different types of fast

Picture taken by Michèle Krozser from Lunch Money Studios

Daniel Fast

A Daniel Fast is a fast most often conducted by Christians, although it is a very good type of fast that can be followed to detoxify the system prior to a water fast. Daniel Fast is based on eating fruits and vegetables. Start this diet (vegan) approximately three to four weeks before the initial water fast. The first week you eat normal portions three times a day.

Intermittent Fasting

The second week you reduce the portions to two meals a day, practicing your fasting muscle by not eating for 16 hours and then eating in between 6-8 hours.

Omad – One Meal A Day

A week prior to the fast, eat once every 24th hour. You are doing this to reduce the size of your stomach and to reduce the production of the hunger hormone Ghrelin. If you are not ready to go into a full on water fast you may switch over to a vegetable or juice fast. 

Vegetable or Fruit Juice Fast

If you are not ready to water fast quite yet you can continue with a raw fruit or vegetable juice fast, or plain lemon juice, 1-2 weeks prior to the water fast. This is to adapt the body to only liquids and to make sure you have enough vitamins and minerals in your body prior to the fast.

Rolling 72

A rolling fast is when you fast for 72 hours and then eat (fruits, vegetables, grains, seeds) or drink juices or smoothies for 24 hours and then fast again for 72 hours. Rolling fasts are good to conduct when you want to lose weight or when you want to practice your fasting muscles aka willpower muscles. 

48 Hour or 72 Hour Fast

If you again are not ready to jump into a pure water fast or a rolling fast is too challenging, practice with fasting 48 hours or 72 hours per week for a couple of months and then go into rolling fasts or extended water fasts.

The longer your preparation period is prior to your fast the easier the fast will go.

One or two days into the water fast, do a salt water flush

Take one or two teaspoons of Redmond sea salt in hot/lukewarm water (ca. 1 liter) in the morning and wait for your system to get emptied. Try not to go anywhere 3 hours after consuming the beverage. The salt helps balance your sodium levels as well.

Picture taken by Aleksandra Kieran

Practice Shanka Prakshalana

Shanka Prakshalana is a yoga practice that aims to clean out your entire digestive system using salt water and yoga asanas. As a novice Laghoo Shankaparkshalana should be practiced with a guru and mastered prior to embarking on the primary yoga technique Shankaparkshalana. 

Why we get cravings and hunger pangs and how to handle them

Physical Pitfalls

The first couple of days up to a week into a fast may be the most physically and mentally challenging period of a water fast. Down below you can find some examples of why cravings and hunger pangs may occur and what to do about them. 

Gut Microbes

Depending on your microbiota you can actually get cravings after the food you eat the most. Studies have shown that gut microbes (bacteria in your gut) feed on specific foods and can create cravings by the food you eat the most, especially when food is deducted entirely. So if you eat a lot of  junk food, meats, or salads and your diet is not balanced you will get cravings after this. The cravings can get excruciating. This is why it is good to detoxify yourself prior to the water fast by eating a vegan diet with probiotic and prebiotic foods as well as taking active charcoal supplements, this can balance the bacteria and help you battle cravings a lot better. 

Hormetic Hotspot

When entering into a hormetic hotspot, the body will get cravings after fast energy such as sugar and carbs and you will get hungry. Although there are things you can do, Dr. Mindy Pelz suggests you may eat something small, a fasting snack consisting of good fats, to get over these humps. 

Here are some examples of what Dr. Pelz recommends you to eat:

Do not over consume, maximum 20 grams of protein and 50 grams of carbs, high in fat and less than 200 kcal.

After the first three days of fasting the hunger hormone ghrelin is lowered and you should not feel any hunger, although if you do get hungry drink A LOT of water.

Muscle weakness and tiredness

During an extended water fast muscle weakness and tiredness is not uncommon. Your body is put through a mild stress which in terms can make it tired and weak. Although since we consume a lot of water, minerals in our bodies get flushed out. Lack of potassium, sodium or magnesium may occur. Things you can do to reduce the discomfort are as follows. 

Consult a doctor or break the fast, if the weakness is extreme or if you are too tired and can not function properly. As I mentioned earlier I am not an expert. So if you feel something is wrong contact a doctor or break your fast. 

Suggestions on how to battle cravings and hunger pangs

• There are a lot of things you can do when you get cravings or feel hungry. Down below you will find five suggestions that really work.
• Drink A LOT of (luke warm) water if you are hungry. If you are on an extended fast you will start getting REALLY cold, this is why luke warm or even hot water is good to drink 
• Lemon water suppresses any type of craving from sweet cravings to salt and savory
• Surf the urge is a technique where you learn to stay put in uncomfortable emotions or situations trusting that the difficult emotions or situation eventually will pass. This technique is really good and I highly recommend it.
• Distract yourself, take a walk, read a book, start a creative project, take a hot bath with some epsom salt, forest bathe, play a game with a friend or on your phone
• In general any type of meditation helps. Breathwork and Bija Mantra are specifically recommended since the heat that arises helps to soothe the sensation of hunger. Meditation improves the resistance to relapse.

Psychological Pitfalls

What we actually are doing when we are performing a water fast is to strengthen our willpower muscles. When doing so there are some psychological downfalls we should be aware of so that we do not throw in the towel too early or completely. When working on strengthening our willpower we have to be ready that we are, at some point, going to fail. Down below you will find suggestions on these so-called pitfalls based on Dr. Kelly McGonigals book, The Willpower Instinct.

1.The two toned brain – Research has shown that our brains consist of two minds. One is the impulsive pleasure seeker driven by instant gratification and is located in the prefrontal cortex. The second mind is the wise achiever and is driven by making long-term decisions and is located in the back of our head. The wiser achiever is driven by our willpower, the impulsive pleasure seeker is driven by surges of dopamine release, such as eating candy, junk food, and drinking alcohol. When training our willpower we are basically practicing saying no to the impulsive pleasure seeker. This can get exhausting and is classified as a psychological pitfall when performing a water fast.

Solution

• Remove as many temptations as possible. Our willpower does not know the difference if saying no to netflix, food or candy.
• Meditation – Meditation strengthens the prefrontal cortex making it easier to say no to temptation
• A good night’s sleep – Science has shown that sleeping 5 hours or less per night weakens your willpower muscle.
• Forest beating – Sitting out in the forest absorbing the smells, sounds and sensations of nature replenishes your mind.

2. What the hell effect – The what the hell effect occurs when we start to slip on our goals and our willpower weakens, leaving us feeling guilty for failing. In this state of mind we think, what the hell I might as well give in completely, leading us into a downward spiral. When we feel guilt or self shame, a natural response gets triggered in our brain craving a dopamine surge (to comfort ourselves) compensating for feeling like a failure.

Solution

• Self compassion. The harder you are on yourself for failing the more likely you are to make the same mistake again and again.
• Notice you are feeling angry or anxious and allow yourself to feel this way.
• Talk to yourself as if you were your own best friend. Soothe yourself and be kind and loving, instead of shaming yourself and calling yourself stupid. You are more likely to fail yet again if you talk to yourself in a harsh and unforgiving manner.
• McGoniglal says “Research shows that this particular approach, learning how to talk to yourself in this way, is more effective, for example, at quitting smoking than nicotine replacement therapy. That’s how powerful being able to respond to setbacks with self-compassion can be.” 

3. Common Humanity – When failure ensues we may start thinking that there is something exclusively wrong with us and that no one else fails under these circumstances, only us. This weakens our willpower and makes it really difficult for us to get back on track with our goal (water fast). 

Solution

• McGonigal says to think of your failure as part of the process and that everyone fails it is a big part of change. Sometimes we fail, everyone does. No one is perfect. With failure comes knowledge and a chance to improve.

4. Power of pessimism – Being too optimistic when pursuing a goal or a big change in your life can lead to failure. As well as keeping track of your success may lead to self-indulgence later on in the process. Having a bit of pessimism when entering a challenge or a goal is healthy because you stay open to yourself and to the challenge ahead.

Solution

• Have healthy optimism and be aware that you can fail, you are only human.
• Keep track of your successes without self-indulgence (be your own cheerleader instead)

5. Self-knowledge – To have a successful outcome with your water fast make sure you know how you fail. A good thing is to write down your failures because you can learn from them and last longer leading into your next water fast. “Willpower is about knowing your trigger points, your mental traps and your bad habits”.

Solution

• Keep track of your failures so you can learn where you went wrong.
• Write down and memorize your solutions so you do not make the same mistake again especially when you are in a stressful situation and/or act on impulse.
• Prepare ahead of the water fast. If your trigger point is having food in the fridge or money at hand, give it to your family or a friend for safe keeping. 

6. License to sin – This is when you do something good (reach a milestone in your fast) and you give yourself permission to do something bad like indulge in a small piece of candy. Instead of tying your goals to being good, think of it as a milestone that has been reached in my overall goal and you are so much closer to completing the fast. Keep on going! 

Solution

A license to sin most often comes into play at the end of your water fast and may lead to overindulging in food as a reward for being so long without it. A good way of dealing with this is to make a healthy meal plan and stick to it!

Refeeding

The refeeding process is a crucial moment when coming out of our fast, since we easily let go of all control and overindulge in all the food that we were denied during our fast. There are ways to work around this phenomena and minimize the severity of our overindulgence. 

Make a meal plan, prepare the meal sizes and when you should eat

Make a meal plan, buy the necessary groceries ahead of time, prepare how much you should eat in a day and when you should eat it. By making a meal plan and buying all the groceries ahead of time you avoid all the temptations luring at your local supermarket on the day you end your fast. When preparing meal sizes and schedule your meals you avoid snacking which can easily escalate to full on binging. A suggestion is to follow Omad – One meal a day during your refeeding period. 

Three pivotal moments when fasting

As I mentioned earlier, fasting is a way for us to practice self-control and willpower. The self- control challenge begins when we start altering our meals prior to the fast. During the fast our willpower is put to the test denying ourselves food. What most people forget is that we need to keep practicing self-control even after the initial fast, during the refeeding period. When our refeeding period is over the fast is over. When we think like this it is easier to keep ourselves on track and finish the fast in a proper manner.