My October 31 Day Water Fast {Part 2 –The End is Near!}

october-31-day-water-fast

Today is Thursday, October 27, 2016 which means it’s been 27 days since it’ve eaten and more importantly only 5 more days of fasting left to go. With less than a week remaining, I’ve hit the point where it’s smooth sailing and there’s no possible way that I will stop fasting because I’ve come so far.

To learn more about Water Fasting CLICK HERE

I can’t stress enough how amazing I feel. I’ve been loosing just under 1 pound per day and feel completely renewed!

While my intention was to post fairly often about my fasting journey, however it’s been so uneventful that I’ve struggled with having anything to say. I’ve been doing my best to keep busy around the house and haven’t much felt like ‘working’ here at HSITK. While this isn’t a place only dedicated to food, most of what I choose to share are food-related.

Keeping Busy While Fasting

One of the biggest keys to successfully fasting is to keep really really busy with things other than food. And along with some personal emotional growth, I’ve embarked on an epic DIY journey this month!

It’s been so hard to not post about the behinds the scenes stuff this month, wanting to keep the big reveal a secret, but I’ll give you a sneak peak (since you’re kind enough to read this post and follow my fasting journey).

My Holiday Kitchen Makeover

I’m so excited to be updating my dated oak kitchen with a brand new look, just in time for the holidays. And the part that’s the most exciting is that my entire budget is just $500!

Here’s a photo of my kitchen BEFORE I got started…… CLICK HERE For the BEOFRE Tour

My Holiday $500 Kitchen Makeover: BEFORE

For far too long, I’ve dwelled on the aesthetics of my kitchen, failing to realize that the bones are solid and the layout isn’t too bad. And I’ve been paralyzed, dreaming of an expensive complete remodel and putting minimal effort into making the best of what I have.

And right now, about 50% of the way done with my makeover, all I can say is WOW! I was so stupid to not have done this years ago!

Of course I’m not going to show you any progress photos – I want you to be excited for the big reveal in a couple weeks. But I will tell you that my kitchen is amazingly light and bright. My kitchen has a completely new look.

AND 99% of the work I am doing myself with my very own hands. Ray hates home improvement projects and frankly, isn’t very good or helpful, unless it requires heavy lifting or chain saw accuracy.

*******UPDATE click HERE for the Finished tour of our $500 Kitchen Update!****

My Post-Fast Plan

I’ve been on the fence as to when exactly I will resume eating and I’ve decided it will be dinner on October 31st – making my fast exactly 31 days (fasting from roughly 5 pm on 9/30 to 5 pm on 10/31).

Also, November 2 to 6, I will be traveling to Jamaica for the Click Retreat (blogger photography conference) and I wanted to make sure that I got a few meals under my belt before I left.

Dinner 10/31

I’ve already planned out my first meal, of course. Right?!? Who wouldn’t be thinking of eating again while fasting?!?!

While there is much controversy with what to eat when ending a fast. Like with all aspects of my healthy lifestyle I’m sticking with basic common sense & logic.

When humans fasted for millions of years as a part of their survival, say for example through a cold winter where food was scarce. When he/she finally had access to food, he/she didn’t whip out the vitamix and make a green smoothie.  He/she ate whatever was available to consume, most likely in my basic logic it was scoring some animal protein.

So, keeping with that same logic, my first post fast meal will be in respect to eating seasonally and locally – from our own land.

  • Wilted Lettuce Salad (homegrown lettuce)
  • Venison Lollipops (think pretty bone in rack of lamb)
  • Roasted Butternut Squash (homegrown)
  • Green Beans (homegrown)

My first meal will be Delicious, Healthy and Seasonal!

Perhaps most important things to consider when ending your fast (whether a short intermittent schedule or prolonged fasting) is to eat in a HEALTHY manner. Please do not flood your body with a bunch of junk food in celebration! Use your fast as a catalyst for change, no matter how clean or healthy you ate previously, there is always room for improvement AND for realizing the errors in your way.

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21 Comments

  1. I fasted for 32 days when I was anorexic. This post worries me a lot, honestly, because at the end of my fast, I had a BMI of 11.7 and almost died. Fasting to “detox” or lose weight is not healthy and is almost always inherently disordered.

    1. Eating disorders are a MENTAL ISSUE where you have a skewed perception of your body image/weight. Any diet can be taken to an extreme.

    2. This is beyond false. There are hundreds of medical studies on the safety of fasting since the beginning of medicine. What made your fast dangerous is that you were already at a low BMI and with a mental health issue. Fasting for health, healing and weight loss has been around since the beginning of time. Your experience is yours- but doesnt speak for everyone elses.

  2. Hi Haley,

    I’m going to begin a fasting journey and reading about your personal journey is so helpful and reassuring. I can’t seem to find part 3 to this series! I was wondering if from a weight standpoint do you fluctuate a lot when going back to your normal diet?

    Also do you have to ease into fasting by doing a week one or sunbathing and gradually increasing your days off fasting? I’m more of an I’m all in type of girl, but wondering if it’s a bad idea on my part.

    Thank you! Loving your blog!

  3. I really, really, REALLY appreciate your entire panel of posts on your water fast. You gave me the reassurance to do what I was going to do anyway, but I felt like it was a huge risk. After reading your posts, I was 100% confident that what I was doing was right. I’m at day 7 and I’m ecstatic about the results. Everything has been going great. I’m blown away that I can go to a restaurant and watch people eat and drink and I’m totally happy drinking water. I would NEVER have guessed that. I just had to let you know how much I appreciate your posts.

  4. This is great. 31 is long. I just did my second 20 day. Towards the end I started plotting out my meals and watching a bunch of food videos on youtube. I started fasting in January and weighed 355. I broke 240 on this fast. I had tried with diets for decades. Fasting saved my life essentially. (Or at least has given me a totally different one).

    I had lost from 440 using Keto and just watching what I ate but it made me feel miserable and killed my thyroid. My TSH went back to normal within a couple weeks of starting fasting.

    The hardest part is that it’s so easy and just gets easier compared to the diets I’ve tried over the years. I want to strangle the medical professional for not mentioning it sooner. (In fact basically suppressing it).

    People ask me what I’m going eat once I get the weight off to maintain and I’m like keep fasting. People want to follow dogma, but seemingingly aren’t big on results.

  5. Ok now your done I have a couple questions . Did you end up using bone broth? And then something a little more personal. Did you have BM’s through the 31 days? Sorry if to person but I was curious . Mostly because I did at the end of my 10 fast so I was wondering if that continues

    1. Corinne – Nothing is too personal! I’m always eager to help – I’m so sorry that I haven’t gotten my final post up on my blog – I ended my fast on 10/31 then left for a conference/retreat early 11/2, it’s been so hectic.

      I did have a few mugs of bone both – it was around days 10-15, roughly 1 mug per day and then Sat 10/29 I did a bone broth demonstration at our local farmers market and drank several cups.

      As for BMs – being honest I didn’t pay much attention – couple reasons. I do shorter fasts frequently, I eat a really clean diet so my digestive track is always moving well and perhaps the most influential, part of the supplements that I take to help with sleep include magnesium which helps to keep things moving……. The only real concern while fasting for prolonged periods is refeeding syndrome and it’s risk is associated with electrolyte and mineral balances – Keeping my magnesium intake on the higher side is better and at the same time my BMs were the same basically every morning, a quick swoosh and not a big deal. So technically I didn’t have “solid” BMs but the magnesium definitely effects it. To the best of my memory, beyond day 3/4 I’m pretty much no longer “full of shit” 😛

      1. Thanks for the reply. I have seen you mention these supplements but I have never seen exactly what rhey were, would you mind sharing? Thanks

          1. Hi Hayley-I’m very interested in hearing about your supplements to help sleep as well!

  6. Bravo! I have to admit I was skeptical at first, but now I see this is such an accomplishment! I am just now beginning to research intermittent fasting as a way to help my body heal. I ended up in the hospital with ischemic colitis, and it was very eye opening. I have used restricted dieting and heavy weight training to prepare for a bodybuilding competition. I am now focusing on my health and healing. I am fascinated by your journey!

  7. Hi Haley it’s obvious you have done your homework. Loved following you journey. Look forward to part 3. Also if this long fast broke your food, drink pattern that you said you wanted to break. I’ll keep my eye out for your part three. Tnks again for including me, us. Hugs & blessings. Robyn,
    Principia L

  8. Hi Hayley, So great to see that you are almost done. I’m planning to try this but I’m too scared not to be able to cope with the emotional side! I have done a Row Vegan,very low calories for 3 weeks with my mum about 15 years ago when I was 17! I used to do Thai Chi at the time and our teacher suggested that. I totally loved it, but I haven’t been able to do that for the past 15 years, I could only last for 3 days and that’s it!! I’m a singer and have to lose weight pretty quick for the photoshoot for my new album, for that I thought about water fasting. Do you have any suggestions for me?
    Many Thanks,
    Tara

    1. Low-calorie diets are bad for your metabolism – while fasting does not slow it.. Water fasting is a great option but I don’t encourage it for weightloss alone but over all healing.

  9. Be careful when ending your fast. Despite your personal viewpoint about this fast, you have starved your body of vital nutrients. When you reintroduce food, it is possible that your body will react negatively to it because it has acclimatized to the lack of food (a.k.a. your body is in starvation mode). Take small bites at a time and chew thoroughly. Be mindful of how you feel and listen to what your body is telling you when you next eat. It won’t all be sunshine and roses, but some of it will be.

    While historically people have intentionally fasted for long periods of time like this before, it is not advised to do this very often. Usually it was only done out of absolute necessity or for religious significance. Now that you’ve successfully fasted for a month, be mindful of yourself before beginning any future fasts to avoid any long-term negative effects upon your body. Future fasts should be shorter periods until your body has fully recovered from this one (at least one year).

    From your two blog posts, it appears that you’ve prepared yourself well for this fast, but if you haven’t done this before then be prepared for when you break it.

    1. Thank you for the concern, I sincerely appreciate it.

      My body is not in starvation mode – by definition starvation is when you body has used up all stored-resources available and is consuming lean muscle mass for fuel (that doesn’t happen until roughly under 8% body fat and true hunger is felt as a protective mechanism)

      I’ve fasted many times of varying structures and lengths of time over the past 5 years, I’m not worried. I’m openly listening to my body and look forward to learning more about it’s uniqueness in the next stage of life for me.

  10. I don’t know how you’ve done it. I can pretty much say with unshakable confidence that I could not do what you’ve done this (almost) entire month.

  11. Hooray, you’re almost done. Don’t plan on eating a lot, because 3 bites into the feast, you’ll probably feel stuffed.

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