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DiscoverJane
6 y
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Hello good folks,
I only made it 2.1 days dry before moderate to strong persisting thirst in my dry mouth and throat and the beginning of dry peeling skin on my lips led me to drink, but i decided to satisfy thirst with water-only (in this case for .5 day, satisfying even mild thirst throughout this period) before going back into the next dry segment which has been about 20 relatively comfortable hours so far. So currently i am 3.5 days into this combined dry/water-only fast.
My longest dry fast to date was a reasonably comfortable 4 days about a month ago followed by a very difficult and uncomfortable 3.5 days about 5 months ago. I would like to reach about 10 days combined total this time with about 8 of them dry, maybe something close to 2 days dry followed by .5 day with water-only repeated 4 times. This would be the approximate protocol only if i can handle 2 days dry each time. Not knowing how dry and thirsty i might become, i may have to settle for 1 or 1.5 days dry in some instances, but we'll see how it goes.
I have learned and learned well through the aftermath of the very difficult 3.5 day dry fast not to push myself too deep into thirst. In that instance i fought med-heavy mercilessly persisting thirst for about 24 hours before finally drinking and experienced 10 days of dehydration-induced nausea as a result along with drying skin in many places and even some blisters.
Indeed dry fasting is the most powerful of all methods of cleansing and healing, but it is possible to take it too far and i have learned through experience to respect my body's limits. Let it be stated that for some people, 7 and even 14 days dry does not lead to such strong thirst or symptoms of dehydration. I realize and accept completely that i am not one of these individuals, at least not at this stage of my life.
Back to the current fast, i did the first 2.1 days dry in what i will call semi-rigid fashion which for me means no showers, baths or swimming (because the body does indeed drink through the skin when thristy), but i did brush my teeth with water-only, wash my hands and other limited strategic places and even soak my feet in cold epsom salt water, the latter partly as a compromise to help slightly appease the fairly strong thirst i was experiencing. I resisted a moderate persisting thirst for the better part of the 2nd day before the thirst increased a notch (to med-heavy persisting) and i decided to drink.
I am hoping for and anticipating some continued heart healing in this fast. Past water-only fasting of 30, 36.5 and 17 days, each with many less aggressive dry segments (mostly 15-20 hours until reaching semi-moderate persisting thirst) along with the 4 and 3.5 day dry fasts and about 3 months of aprox 16 hour daily dry fasts have allowed my body to take a badly damaged heart to about 90% healing and my goal is to reach 100+.
Exercising modestly, not pushing too hard, but i did isometrically train my muscles in the first 2 days of the fast (while i still had more energy) to try something new. I don't believe those workouts will produce a gain in size, but i do believe the muscles will be stronger and healthier as a result, utilizing weaker recycled protein sources to build up stronger ones.
Otherwise i am jumping on the trampoline and walking, each at a comfortable pace which at this point is pretty slow to moderate and doing these a couple times each per day. The trampoline sessions are only 2-5 minutes and the walks 10-15. Existing in a state of heightened calm, the gentle walking is a delight to my soul, sometimes feeling a bit like walking on clouds.
I do have to work somewhat, but i am trying to work as little as possible and lay in bed reading and otherwise relaxing as much as i can. I am also making a point of laying in the mid-day sun for a few minutes each day to capture all of the benefits brought forth through this worthwhile endeavor.
As another welcome perk of the fast, i would expect to burn about 5-6 pounds of actual fat over the 10 days (should i remain strong in my resolve to go this long), enough to create a noticeably healthier overall body composition with perhaps about 8-9% body fat and some fairly well defined muscles. I will of course lose a lot more than 5-6 pounds overall, but i know from experience that even through healthful eating and exercising this additional weight (the weight that does not include the 5-6 pounds of fat) will return within about 2 weeks, most of it temporary water and intestinal content losses, but i also expect to gain some muscle that is eager to be trained and fed and probably a little bit of fat because though i eat healthy foods, my goal is to build my body and replenish nutrient stores, erring on the side of eating a little too much.
I believe that fasting primes me to build muscle more efficiently once i begin eating again, primarily due to a heightened ability of the body to assimilate nutrients and i believe that each cell in my body will become stronger and healthier.
Finally, when i ended the 4 day dry fast (about a month ago) i did so feeling pretty good (meaning that i didn't knowingly break it in mid crisis), but the very first morning upon awakening i had a sore throat which persisted for about 2.5 weeks(!) and about 2 days after breaking i had developed a night time and morning cough that persisted this entire past month until i began this fast... and the cough was gone about 1 day into it.
I broke the 4 day dry fast with distilled water initially, but an hour or two later i had some herbal tea with honey and some fruit, followed a couple hours later with some vitamixed vegetable soup. My guess is that the 4 days dry stirred up some toxic activity and i didn't give it enough of a chance to exit my body (with a longer water-only segment) before greatly slowing the cleansing process, trapping within me what would become the sore throat and cough. I see this fast as the means by which to completely eliminate any remaining trace of those issues.
As to refeeding and assuming i proceed with the full 10 days, i would expect to break the last dry segment with at least .5 day of water and follow this with about 2 days of largely organic juices, both raw (some fruit juices, tomato juice, carrot/beet/celery/parsley) and cooked (as in collards or other heavy greens/garlic/onions/celery/chili peppers) and herbal teas, then eating largely organic whole fruits and vegetables for 2 or 3 days before finally introducing other healthful foods.
Feeling pretty good now, not at the top of my game, but able to pretty much do the things that need to be done without too much discomfort.
"Mighty Sun Tzu a fine and interesting post. Thanks."
Thanks T2 and thank you for your reply. You raise a lot of interesting questions and make a lot of intriguing points.
"A couple of questions and an observation.
What is your normal (non fasting) day to day water consumption?"
I would say that this varies with weather but i usually have roughly 2 liters of herbal tea along with many veg's and fruits...
"What is your daily carbs and fruit fructose intake?"
In addition to eating a lot of vegetables, i eat quite a bit of fruit, maybe about 10 servings per day and then there is the moderate amount of honey in the large amount of tea. So the fructose is running pretty high!
"A suspicion I have held for some time: too much fructose and carb-sugars may have a detrimental effect on my body. Fructose along with carbohydrates influences my body's use of and requirement for water.
During my initial fasts it took me about two weeks to move out the detrimental effects of "sugars" on my system. Although it is not something that seems to effect my dry fasting (because I have removed almost all grain carbs and most fruit fructose from my diet) I suspect that my body levels of 'sugars" may have placed an increased burden on water within my body. And that the elimination of those held sugars increases dehydration. I think this is true for me and wondered if that idea has any relevance for yourself."
Very interesting possibility to be sure. From what you describe, this may certainly be an issue for me. I wonder if other dry fasters who are able to go a lot longer comfortably are low carbers too (assuming that this is what you are based on your low fruit/low grain diet). So what then does your diet consist of? It would be a very good experiment for me to lead into a dry fast with 2 weeks of low carb and see how this changes my level of thirst.
"Your dry fasting experience does puzzle me. One part of that puzzle is your dramatic "water weight" loss during a fast and your subsequent rapid regaining of that water after fast completion. I have neither when I fast. Slow down and slow up is the weight pattern here. 71 - 64 - 71kg during the last fast of 7 days dry followed by 24 days water to need."
Yes this is an interesting and perhaps telling contrast between us and could be a big clue as to how you are able to dry fast so much more comfortably than me.
"I suspect that these may be individual issues and perhaps nothing more. All the best T2."
Could be or maybe low carb diet leads to more comfortable dry fasting in general :). Would be great to get a lot more input from different dry fasters on this.
All the best to you as well good sir and thanks again for the valuable insights :).
When you say you need a long time to recover from dry fasting, how do you mean this exactly, that you are weak for several days or longer afterwards?
I find dry fasting really takes it out of me. Its almost 2 weeks since my last dry fast and I only feel like I'm recovering today because I went out for a long bike ride. Although i did go dry till 3pm last Sunday so that would'nt have helped.
After dry fasting I do feel really bad for a while and have to do some decent exercise like cycling to recover and come out of the depressed state of mind. The state of mind is really horrible sometimes.
From now on I will probably only dry fast one weekend a month, although if it wasn't for the recovery period I'd do it every weekend.
My body also needs that time to recover too and return to normal, longer than just water fasting.
That is the down side but yes my sciatic nerve problem is as good as completely healed now and it was a problem for 2.5 years, so that is really good news, a few more dry fasts and it will be strong again. I realise now that the problem was caused by sloching in my chair at work and putting too much pressure on my buttock, thank god I reversed it, dry fasting is the only thing in the world that could heal that I think!!!
Hi Mighty,
How was your Cascade combined dry/water fast going. How many days were you going? Are you still doing those Cascade fasts?
Had several prolonged water fasts and juice fasts before discovering dry fasting. I'm still figuring out how to make it more bearable as I dry fast and thinking about a 24 hours dry fasting cycle followed by a cup or two of water each time to make dry fasting more accessible for myself.
I'm just scared that this method would slow down the beneficial effects from dry fasting too much down to the pace of a water fast especially in respect of weight loss?
WhatWhat your Cascade result comparing with a water fast only? I am right now into a 3 days water fast followed by a 28 hours dry fast, having a cup of water as I was defeated by (emotional) thirst, then now again into 30 hours dry fast. There are not many Cascade experiences out there. Hoping to having your take on this! Thirsty greetings from Germany and happy fasting! : )
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