Well done, WY!

Thanks for your reference to "refeeding". It sums up well what i was going through many times.

Yes, fasts for over 10 days do require about 4 days of refeeding on either juices or grass grazing.

What's more, when fasting i work full-time, but refeeding means a week off work to me.

There's the link to a video of a man who broke his back at the age of 16 and later managed to become a champion of heavy-weight lifting:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8pyJn-c5Tuo

My experience with the first 29-day fast is that the refeeding takes a lot of care, and a great attention to one's "inner tuition", which should have been sharpened by a water fast. This is why I don't like to see too much emphasis put on "stats" and the purely physical level of un-gunking the body and taking off weight, when water fasting.

The reason is, such a focus cuts people off from developing a sharper (higher) intuition, about what their body actually requires, in the way of re-feeding. For one, cucumbers and tomatoes would be perfectly wonderful. (esp. if home-grown!) For another, plain baby spinach, at first. For a third, a nourishing mineral broth, made with lots of alkalizing high-mineral vegetables--and maybe soon after, some baked apple.

(Most people won't do well with concentrated protein, but even that has been okay for some! it really has a lot to do with how the mind is pointed. Fear and a sense of no inner direction make the whole thing a bit catch-as-catch-can.)


The re-feeding is a *big* part of fasting supervision, in my opinion. That expertise in assessing what would be best for *this* person, and how to keep them from gorging on everything, in a sudden ravenous fit: which is more likely evidence of a need for the full range of minerals.

This is a great skill, and one a lot of the fellows who burnt out and died young spent untold hours assisting people with...


One thing that confuses people is when they break a Water Fast with 'high-water content food',(like a lot of the lit. says to do, especially the modern, widely-shared google-able stuff), and then they feel lousy. Too much 'sugar', too fast, too little minerals.

Or the food is just plain poor quality food, which causes a kind of acid flush, as the body begins digestion and yet lacks enough good minerals to stay alkaline, in the process.
That's not an inspiring way to come out of a long water fast.

(Interested readers can/would do well to look into Brix, and its critical place in the whole endeavour of finding food that is GOOD, nourishing, and has a well-rounded mineral profile. It is nothing like as simple as people assume it is... In fact, it will shock almost everyone to really see the quality of what they've been eating, and how deficiency is a major issue. This is not to be solved with non-food supplements, either.)

I broke that first fast with some watermelon, and it had no appeal, was so disappointing; was the equivalent of too much sugar, and no nutritional value. It did get the bowels moving, so I understood the value of the whole food, as opposed to say, juice, with no pulp--which I believe may be not so good for a lot of people. I had a strong sense it was not really a "good" watermelon, but couldn't find better. On the other hand, I have an idea that too much food, in the way of a green smoothie: too many different foods at one time, is probably burden on a system just awakening to the whole digestive/assimilation process.

Since that first fast, I've been far more conscious of Brix, and how even a "good, plant-based, high water content" refeeding, can be doing far less good than appears.
Important in this way, to read a lot (of the old literature)
and then listen only to one's own inner voice.

I've learned that very small amounts of food can be adequate, IF they are top quality. One way to add more nutrition to food is to culture vegetables, which allows them to accumulate more nutrients, and also beneficial enzymes of all sorts, etc. etc. This is going off-topic, but is central to the whole Water Fasting thing, imv.

Science has little interest in this area of nutrition,
(and will freely share misinformation) primarily because it can't be controlled or patented. It's truly democratic!

It's empowering to learn about nutriment, (which is more than food) and to attempt to eat less, to be more mindful of the whole arena, and to watch the veils of deception fall away.


One of the first things the Buddha taught after he "awakened" and then achieved liberation (which means the vow to free all beings form suffering and delusion) was

"all beings live by nutriment". All. We know this to be true. What kind of nutriment? That's the real study.
Jesus taught that we should be more concerned with what comes out of our mouths than what goes in. Where Jesus and Buddha would be as one is that what comes out is another form of what we feed ourselves. A big Aha. That's the great mystery than the world doesn't really want people to grasp.


:-)

best,
C