January Water Fast – Day #4
Despite a rough night, this morning was pleasantly surprising…. My fasting blood glucose reading dropped to a healthy-normal 83, Ketones are 2.1 (which puts me in the ketogenic, fat burning sweet-spot) and I lost another -2.2 pounds (-13.7 total weight loss).
I am over joyed to see that my morning-fasting BG has dropped. Now I’ll be testing and watching it a little more closely to see that it’s remaining low through-out the day.
There is truly nothing worse than waking up at 12:30 am for a rushed trip to the bathroom. TMI? Sorry Folks we are talking about fasting and well, for lack of a better saying, Shit Happens People. I laid back down and tried to get to sleep but there was pain radiating in my mouth, my back teeth were aching. all of them.
PS. You can not take any pain relieving medications while fasting. It’s totally counter-productive to the body’s healing. Headaches, muscle aches, tooth aches, suck it up buttercup. You literally have to push through the pain on your own.
Yesterday I mentioned having lower-back pain and today tooth pain, I understand some of you may feel like those are strange or bad signs.. however while a person is fasting the body is healing. And often times you will start feeling old injuries hurting again as the body is healing them. For me I feel the lower back pain was some healing going on in my kidneys – I had several major kidney infections in my 20’s and that pain was very similar to that of a kidney infection ( the pain is now gone and I have no other kidney-related symptoms)
And as for my teeth, it’s pretty much one year to the day of my final amalgam filling removal procedure. The very same teeth that the mercury was “safely” removed from were throbbing with pain over night. Perhaps my body was doing some work healing those teeth through the night, which is totes ok with me. That healing, is after all what the point of my fast is.
As Ketogenic diets have successfully been used in the treatment of cancer, fasting is also beneficial for the PREVENTION of CANCER by giving the body the time/energy to focus on stopping the progression of any cancer that has just presented itself in your body. (we all ‘have cancer’ in our bodies, it’s just is your body able to keep it inactive or not) It is recommended to practice fasting annually to help prevent cancer. Since we learned about this cancer prevention side effect of fasting, we’ve been fasting each January (previously 14-45 day juice fasting and 30 day bone broth fasting, this is my first long term water only fast)
Enjoyed!!!
I love your story! I currently am trying a 7-day water fast too, I am 24 hours in I’m feeling pretty good but I had a question, could you say how much coffee you had drank or is their a certain amount that is too much?
I only drank 1 cup of coffee,
Am I allowed to drink coconut water during this fasting period?
I do not recommend it. It contains calories and carbohydrates.
I am really interested in fasting! But I have messed up teeth really bad and am worried about the tooth pain you felt… did it eventually resolve itself?? Also, did you eat every like three days or so? I need to lose 20 in 10 days and get off of medications I know I dont need if I could just reset my body!
Yes it resolved it. The body heals different parts throughout fasting. I have fasted for varying time frames, up to 31 days straight.
This is a huge source of inspiration.
I’m on day 3 and I feel I’m going to faint.
The issue is I have to work as well as water fast.
I’m a private tutor and I work 4hrs a day going to my students home to work with them.
Is this too dangerous?
Should I break on the third day?
I really want to complete 7 days.
Are you taking electrolytes or sea salt/sole water? It sounds like a mineral or electrolyte imbalance
I am on day 4 of a water fast! Pump that water right before you do any activities. Rest for 10 or minutes if you’re feeling faint. Don’t try anything strenuous. If you are fasting for health reasons, the benefits will far outweigh the pains. If you are doing it for spiritual reasons, keep the faith, stand firm and deny yourself with all that you have. Life is full of struggles and you must be the master of your own body and bring it into submission. You are in control, you are the master of your body!! Keep going! You can do it!!
The herbal tea you drinker does it have calories and also can we drink green tea?
Thank you and congrats
Herbal tea doesn’t have calories, green tea is ok.
Non caloric and non sweetened herbal and green teas are fine while fasting.
I have done many water fast and take my multiple medications, which is a necessity. I am attempting to lower doses. I lose 10 pounds on a 7 day water fast. I do take my meds with a 40 Cal, no sugar protein shake. I do the fast under the supervision of my DO. And I have kept my 30 pound loss off for over a year. I did do some light exercising, walking, everyday type of activities, like cooking and cleaning and I swim everyday. So, if anyone out there is interested in water fasting, please speak to your Dr. I am 58 years old and am almost at goal weight. I did the fast once a month in Feb, March and April of 2016. I am 5’8″ and my beginning weight was 180, I now weigh 150, which was my goal weight for my age, height and health. It wasn’t easy, and my health is much better now for it. I watch what I eat, eating clean, lean and healthy. I do have a day a week when I don’t watch at all once a week. I had tried so many plans and nothing else worked because of my meds, but the water fast worked. We are attempting to do one more and begin weaning off some meds after my maintenance of bp, pain management, and gfr. (I have raised my kidney numbers, with supplements etc) lots of work this last year has payed off and the motivation was absolutely the water fasting. Again, it was not a complete water fast, I did take my little protein shake when it was time to take meds, it would have been much to hard on the stomach if I hadn’t, and the supplements were a HUGE help. I suffer from comorbity: renal failure, fibromalagia, hbp, asthma, sinusitis, spinal stenosis and some other usual things that go along with aging (arthritis, osteoporosis, menopause) so ask your Dr before you attempt this type of plan. It is saving my life, and I feel much better for it inside and out!
I’m on many meds too. Wouldn’t this plan be dangerous. I don’t think my Dr. would allow it, but I’m surely going to ask. Anyone else on multiple meds doing a Waterfast? I would love to hear from anyone who is on multiple meds and has tried this waterfasting successfully. Joanne, I would love to hear from you and if you got off your meds or got to a point where you lowered doses or possibly got off some meds. Anyone else too, please, I would love to know how you made out. Thanks!
so let me get this right… you lost 13 pounds in 4 days at this point?
yep
Thanks for a great post! I really appreciate the day by day expectations. I have not ever fasted. So this was a huge help. I am very active. But I definitely needed a fresh start for the way I eat. I figured a water fast was a perfect way to get that fresh start. I am now on day four of my water fast. I am not truly hungry. I think I just miss the taste of food. Thanks again!
Hi Hayley- So amazing that you have completed almost 5 days of a water fast. Strong girl! As someone who has “dabbled” in the ketogenic diet (basically eating less carbs for a couple weeks (10%) range, I’ve felt AMAZING. When I am eating/drinking..its GF, DF and sugar/sweetener free of course. It has me wondering how it would feel to water fast for 1-2 days. I love the idea of giving my body a digestive rest. I have thyroid hormonal issues and am concerned about keeping my glucose levels constant and how it may affect my hormones. I haven’t personally done a significant amount of research on the topic.
TW – Check out the 2 blogs I linked to in this post – they will help you understand how the body works when it comes to glucose. Your blood glucose only goes up and down based on what you take in (or when you are purging what is stored during the initial stages of a fast) then your BG stays more constant. Are you regularly testing your BG to know how “constant” you are now? if not I strongly recommend it.
You can also look into intermittent fasting – try fasting for 12 – 16- 18- 20- 24 hours — meaning stop eating at 6 pm then don’t eat until 6 am in a 12 hours fast – skip breakfast for a longer fast, skip breakfast and lunch – fasting from dinner to dinner.