"Does this sound like a reasonable plan for the first week of my refeeding (following a 28 day fast... only 5 days to go!!)
Breakfast: Apple. Watermelon.
Lunch: Apple. Banana.
Dinner: Apple. Avocado.
I will still continue to drink plenty of water. I do not plan to do a whole lot of juicing, but will break the fast with juice for breakfast on the first day, not introducing solids until lunchtime.
...
Any feedback on my plan would be very welcome. I know it's quite limited on foods, but these are the fruits I've really been craving. I am not a big fan of vegetables and feel that psychologically, I need food rather than juice. So yes, I recognize that it lacks variety, but I cant help but feel that after 28 days on water, I am entitled to enjoy my favourite produce!!"
Hi Lilac :),
Instead of having the same plan for day 7 as you have for day one, it is important to consider that day 1 is an extremely delicate day and that by day 7 your body will be quite a bit further along in it's digestive capacities. Whatever i am having, i will be having a lot less of it on day one than on day 7.
I believe through experience and through the experiences of many others that whole fruits on day one (unless you were to reach genuine hunger) will cause you to weaken rather than strengthen, this through over challenging your digestive system at a time when it is sound asleep. Whole fruits are a digestively simple food, but are nowhere near as simple as juice. Fiber is good under normal circumstances, but not in the earliest stages of breaking a fast. 28 days after fasting, our body deserves and requires the very simplest of foods to give it a chance to awaken and re-adjust.
Psychologically you want whole fruits, but physiologically, unless your are different from the majority of people, your body is most likely not ready. If you are in a hurry to get your strength back, which is natural and understandable, perhaps it seems counter-intuitive, but the best way to accomplish this is to take it very slow, enjoying only juices in the first several days. Food that is more than your body is ready to digest, whole fruits as an example, by overtaxing your digestive system will likely send you backwards in strength, not forward.
Thus I would highly recommend juices alone for several days, but if you were determined to have whole fruits, i would have perhaps one total cup of watermelon on the whole of day 1, 2 cups at the most if your body is not struggling with it. Watermelon while not as digestively simple as juice is perhaps the simplest of all fruits. Whether you are having juices or whole fruits, subsequent days bring slight increases in what you are digestively capable of.
Dr. Shelton on Breaking the fast and Re-feeding:
"The care that must be exercised in breaking a fast is in proportion to the length of the fast and to the general condition of the fasting individual. The approved plan is to break the fast on liquid food, using for this purpose fruit juice, or tomato juice, or watermelon juice, or vegetable broths. Fruit juice--usually orange juice--is used most often.
Orange juice, grapefruit juice, or fresh tomato juice are excellent with which to break a fast. Watermelon juice or the juice of the fresh pineapple or of fresh grapes may also be used. A half a glass may be given at the start. After an hour, another half glass may be given. Juice may be given every hour the first day. The second day a whole glass of juice every two hours may be employed. On the third and fourth days give the whole orange or grapefruit and on the fifth day other foods may be added. Large meals should not be attempted in less than a week. These instructions are for the long fast. A short fast requires less care in breaking and is usually followed for several days by an eliminating diet."
This is another post i made on the topic of re-feeding in WaterDesign's 42 day experience: http://curezone.com/forums/fm.asp?i=1629187#i
Great job on 23 days and wishing you all the best :).
Hi Lilacsophia,
If you are comfortable listing your starting weight and amount of weight lost so far, i would be happy to give you my opinion/best estimate. Meanwhile, you are certainly right that bananas are high in potassium, and there are also several excellent "digestively simple" choices including Carrot juice, Orange Juice and Tomato Juice. I suspect beet juice and spinach juice are good sources as well.
Foods High in Potassium : Potassium Rich Foods
Foods which are rich in potassium include apricot, banana, baked potato, sweet potato, beet greens, yogurt, tomato puree, prune juice, carrot juice, tomato juice, spinach, lentils, beans, milk, etc. The potassium content in some foods in a serving size are given in the following table/chart. The values above 500mg are considered high in potassium and lower than 500 mg as low potassium foods.
List of Potassium Content of Foods
Foods with
Potassium Serving Size Potassium
(mg)
Almond 2 oz (57 g) 412
Apricots, dried 10 halves 407
Artichoke 1 cup 595 *
Avocados, raw 1 ounce 180
Bananas, raw 1 cup 594 *
Beans, baked 1 cup 752 *
Beans, Kidney 1 cup 713 *
Beans, Lima 1 cup 955 *
Beans, Pinto 1 cup 800 *
Beets, cooked 1 cup 519 *
Black-eyed peas(lobia) 1 cup 690 *
Brazil nuts 2 oz (57 g) 340
Brussel sprouts, cooked 1 cup 504 *
Cantaloupe 1 cup 494
Carrot Juice 1 cup 689 *
Chickpeas 1 cup 477
Dates, dry 5 dates 271
Figs, dry 2 figs 271
Kiwi fruit, raw 1 medium 252
Lentils 1 cup 731 *
Melons, honeydew 1 cup 461
Milk, fat free or skim 1 cup 407
Nectarine 1 nectarine 288
Orange juice 1 cup 496
Orange 1 orange 237
Pears(fresh) 1 pear 208
Peanuts dry roasted, unsalted 2 oz (57 g) 374
Potatoe, baked, 1 potato 1081 *
Prune juice 1 cup 707
Prune, dried 1 cup 828 *
Raisin 1 cup 1089 *
Spinach, cooked 1 cup 839 *
Tomato canned sauce 1 cup 909 *
Tomato Juice 1 cup 535 *
Winter squash 1 cup 896 *
Yogurt plain, skim milk 8 ounces 579 *
Source: USDA Nutrient Database for Standard Reference, Release 15
Out of curiousity, what is your history with fasting? :)
I am 5 10 and started out at 166lbs. ... I would estimate that, on day 25, it is around 20-25lbs.
Hi Lilacsophia,
Based on this information and on what i believe to be true about fasting physiology, i estimate that you've lost about 8 pounds of fat and about 1 pound of protein type tissue (the worst of it first). If you have lost say 23 total pounds to this point that leaves about 14 pounds of loss that is likely temporary... consisting of about 12 pounds of water and 2 pounds of intestinal contents.
I am reluctant to buy scales because I know I will inevitably gain weight over the next few weeks, and don't want to end up being discouraged- I fear that I would self-sabotage.
Good point :). I keep the scale but know from repeated experience that much of the loss is temporary water, so it will not discourage me when a pound per day starts coming back on with extremely light eating.
I have juice fasted in the past, and I have also done short 2-3 day water fasts.
Wow, what a massive leap from 3 days to 28. Doing great :).
... I have never come off such a long fast, and obviously know how important it is to do so properly.
Yes it's quite an essential. You seem to have done a fair amount of research, even knowing such things as this.
I didn't fast for weight loss so much as to have a new start, and cleanse my body for this next phase of my life, but I do feel very comfortable with the body right now, and so I am anxious about weight gain, which I suppose is natural. I'm not so worried about gained lbs (I don't mind if I have more water in me!) I just don't want to visibly expand!!
In my opinion, if we have low body fat, the water weight coming back on makes us look better, not fatter.
I was thinking I'd probably weigh myself in about 2 weeks and expect that to be close to the weight Ill stabilize at, providing I am sensible. Does that sound reasonable?
Yes, i would say about 2 or 3 weeks is where the water is back to pre-fast normalcy.
... if one doesnt engage in any extreme eating habits?
Separate issue there. Over-eating will cause fat gain... But also high sodium eating will cause excess water retention.
Wow, sorry, this is a really long message!
Not at all :).
I'm so grateful for all the support and info on here. What a great resource for this weird and wonderful journey!
You're welcome for my part. Yes surely this is a great resource :).
Surely fat loss is the only loss that makes a visible difference? Ie. surely the water and intestinal contents don't make a difference to one's physical appearance?
Hi again Lilac,
No i don't believe this at all. I believe that if you lost 23 pounds you will look 23 pounds lighter, but when so much of it is normal temporary water weight, it can be a bit distorted looking. That's why, at least for me, now with reasonably low body fat... in gaining the water weight back after a fast, i do look heaver, but the added weight looks good because the body fat is still low. I would say it makes me look and "seem" more muscular, going from 150 to 170 pounds in 3 weeks, retaining the 10% or less body fat %.
With higher body fat, i would sadly say the water weight will make a person look and seem "fatter". But again, the person will look a lot better having lost the 8 pounds of real fat. If a person wishes to lose more body fat, this can continue to be done very effectively with nutritious diet (preferably vegetable and fruit based) and exercise (preferably intense cardio and strength training).
Other than that, everything makes perfect sense, and is extremely helpful. Thanks again.
You are so very welcome :). You're getting so close... exciting :). All the best.
I completely agree including sometimes utilizing the rebounder (mini trampoline) for this (other times running, uphill biking or fast uphill climbing). I generally will sprint for 20-90 seconds to near exhaustion then recover for about 60-90 seconds... then repeat this for a total of 5 or 7 intervals which results in a total workout of about 12-15 minutes. As a side note i also gently rebound for 2 minutes several times per day to keep the lymphs moving.
Quote:
... Rebounding on a mini trampoline is perhaps the most efficient and forceful means of flushing the lymph while stimulating the immune system and defending against cancer and other ailments. During rebound exercise the forces of the upward and downward bounces – acceleration and deceleration – are vertically aligned on the same plane with gravity. It was proven by Albert Einstein in 1911 that the aligned forces of acceleration, deceleration and gravity result in an increased gravitational load (1). What this means for the body is that during rebound exercise cells adjust to the increased load by becoming stronger. Rebounding strengthens virtually every cell of the body at the same time and is equivalent to resistance training for the cells.
It takes only two minutes of rebounding to flush the entire lymphatic system, while cleansing and strengthening cells and lymph nodes. A further benefit to the body is that during this brief time span the white blood cells of the immune system triple in number and remain elevated for an hour. These specialized cells play a major role in the body’s defense against illness and disease. For one full hour their activity is increased as they perform their tasks of destroying and eliminating cancer cells and other toxins, expending themselves in the process. An hour after rebounding for two minutes the white blood cell count returns to normal (1, 2, 3) [footnoted].
At this point another two-minute rebound session would increase the demand for white blood cells as the process of cleansing, strengthening, and the flushing away of spent cells and other cancerous debris is repeated. A therapeutic strategy to rebuild health would be to rebound for two minutes every waking hour, or as many times a day as possible. Two minutes of gentle bouncing throughout the day is more effective for healing than one long session. Repeated short sessions sustain an active immune system, oxygenate and strengthen cells, and continuously cleanse the lymph. Therapeutic rebounding has been shown to reduce cancerous tumors and improve or heal a host of other ailments (3).
from: http://www.greendivamom.com/2009/03/05/whole-body-detox-part-1-lymphatic-cleansing-with-rebound-exercise/
I'm on Day-12 of Refeeding after a 40-Day fast and I've gained about 4-lbs back (lost 33). I am getting hungrier and besides the broth, have started eating pureed soups (usually w/ abt 3-4 ingredients e.g. shallots, celery, asparagus and dillweed and good salt).
Hi WaterDesign,
Day 12 already, wow! It must feel nice to finally be getting hungrier? I take it as a great sign. Are you still avoiding fruit juice and fruit at this point? Somehow i was confused thinking you fasted 42 days, but now i remember it was 40 :).