Post Water Fast Day 1

I'm sure you can tell from the title that today was the day I decided to break my water fast. I had been ruminating about when I should end when last night, as I was thinking about ending it today, I felt an energetic tingling-like sensation throughout my body, as if my body was excited to end the fast. That was when I decided to end it today. I was also feeling my mental strength waning and decided that ending the fast on my terms was better than suddenly grabbing something and devouring it, wasting all my efforts.

Did I achieve all my goals? Not really. I do feel that I have changed my relationship with food, but not entirely. I still feel that my fear of hunger resides deep down inside, but I believe that having this experience as a reference will aid me in continuing good eating habits. As for true hunger, it was unrealistic of me to expect to experience true hunger in such a short amount of time. Even some fasters who have gone as long as 40 days did not experience true hunger in the end.

Although I won't say this water fast was a success, neither was it a failure. I definitely made progress in facing hunger head on, and I am impressed I made it as far as I did. I don't think that I fasted long enough to go through deep detoxing, but I did detox to some extent and allowed my digestive system to take a rest. And honestly, seeing the numbers of the scale was definitely nice, even if that wasn't my goal and that most of it was water weight. :)

I planned to enjoy some fruit today and onto tomorrow as I feel I need it. The day after, I will reintroduce simply cooked vegetables and gradually move towards more complex dishes and foods. Depending on how I feel, I will shift the reintroduction of foods accordingly. After I am able to consume food regularly, I plan to test my body with a few foods I have had suspicions of not agreeing with my digestion: wheat, tofu, vegan chocolate, and milk. I have always had some minor issues with consuming a glass of milk but trying it again may show some interesting reactions. My diet thereafter will be almost entirely vegan. I say almost because I will still try very small samples of items I produce in baking class. I also plan to track my calories for the next month to help reorientate myself on portion sizes and to ensure that I am not going back to bad habits.

On to what happened today. I started the morning with a third of a kiwi. I made sure to chew it thoroughly and take as long as I could. There was no immediate reaction, but soon after I felt weird. I have no idea how to describe it other than my stomach was trying to wake up and it felt groggy and grumpy. Two hours later, my stomach calmed down. It felt empty again, but content. Physically, I felt no surge of energy and was actually still weak. I let my stomach rest until later in the afternoon where I ate a slice of apple. This time the food was more readily accepted and I had no digestion issues. In fact, I started feeling like I had more energy. Two hours later, I ate a few more slices and noticed that taking the stairs was significantly easier.

Later in the evening, I slowly indulged in a persimmon. Soon after I had a strong urge for something savoury and drank some no-salt added vegetable broth. What a life saver! I was completely satisfied and felt almost as energetic as I did pre-fast.

In the end, I was glad I did this fast. I am not a person who can do things (related to food) in moderation. I needed a shock, something extreme, to bring myself back to reality. I am considering this a clean start and intend to follow through with clean eating via a vegan diet concentrated on leafy greens and vegetables.

I will write another post fast update at a later date in case anyone is interested in how I do in keeping my promises to myself. :P I hope the past week was at least somewhat interesting. A water fast isn't for everyone in the sense that one has to believe one can succeed. And that is perfectly fine. If how you eat now makes you feel good and how you feel is optimum, I say continue on. I am an advocate of doing what makes you feel best instead of following the hard and fast rules laid by others. If you don't feel well or that believe you could feel better, why not try something different?

Summary

Water drank: 1.5 litres

Weight change: -1.0 lbs

Total weight change: -9.6 lbs