Re: Feeling ill after breaking 23 Day Water Fast

Hi Adam,

Congratulations on completing a 23 day fast, hopefully you can get back to feeling happy, healthy, and hippy soon!

I'd like to ask what your fasting history is?

"I am assuming that my body is still in detox mode and cannot clear enough of the residues out of the lymphatic system so has therefore created this healing crisis for me to deal with... the question is how!"

It is best to break your fast when you are on an 'up' cycle, meaning that if you are not feeling well you should continue fasting until your body deals with the current toxins it is dealing with.  How were you feeling when you broke your fast?  If you weren't feeling well when first taking food again, this would greatly diminish your bodies ability to handle nourishment, as it's energies would be diverted away from the digestive process and directed towards cleansing and healing.  Eating at this time would interrupt this process.  What you are feeling likely isn't a healing crisis, though yes your body will not completely switch from detoxing so soon...

"I also noticed that my digestive system did seem to be taking issue with the new influx of food, but with the high quantity of juice and soluable fibre I did think it would be good to have the tract swept clean after the fast."

I think this is the cause of your problems.  Too much food too soon.  23 days is quite a long time, and your digestive system will have gone into a deep 'slumber' and need to be gently nurtured back to it's regular functioning.  I note you say "high quantinty of juice", while it's important to have have quality nourishment after a fast, a high quantinty of even healthy food is contradictory.  Which is a good reason that juice is your best bet for breaking a fast, since even if you over due it a little, it will be received much better by the body than whole foods.  Sometimes just a little juice is enough to stimulate the bowels after a fast.  No need to rush in to eating fiber to sweep the tract clean, there was nothing doing this for the last 23 days...

"Broke the fast with a day of vegetable and fruit juices, along with a few leaves of raw spinach later in the day and a couple of small items of sweet fresh fruit."

How much of these you took will make a big difference, and where you would have been safest waiting a few days before taking even whole fruit.  For your first 'meal' for example, as little as 1/8-1/4 of a cup of fresh juice would have been a recommended amount.  Sipped slowly, and taking the time to 'chew' it and letting your saliva start the digestive process.  Repeating this process every 1-2 hours.  You may find, if you look at some older posts here, that people have had problems from breaking much shorter fast than yours with whole fruit.  A common advised rule of thumb is to stay with juice 1 day for every 4-5 days that you fasted. So for your 23 day fast, having nothing but juice for around 5 days.  After which you could move into whole fruits, again taking care to not eat too much at once.  The best fruits during this time are ones of high water content, melons, apples, grapes, oranges, etc.  After this you could start with small salads.  Be prepared for the next few weeks that your digestive system will still not be at it's full working capacity, even if you think you are ready for more, mind yourself.  We should allow for a period of time equal to the fast in returning to our normal digestive capacity, and sometimes more. 

What kind of fruits have you consumed?  Bananas would be a poor choice for instance, and dried fruit would be worse.  The spinach would have best been taken much later after breaking your fast.  What amounts of juice, fruit, and salad have you taken?

"However, my glands in my throat have now swollen up and I now have a sore throat. Also my tongue became very sensitive and felt like it had been exposed to too much acid or something.

Combined with this, I also experienced a noticeable drop in my normally positive outlook... which I figure is probably related to the digestive / colon issues..."

I believe both of these are caused by your over taxed digestive system.

"Do I continue with the juicing and reduce the quantity of food to a minimum, or try to just drink as much water as possible and refuse all solids again?"

There is no need to drink as much water as possible... are you having excessive thirst?  Only drink if your body requires it, any excess water is just more that your body has to deal with.  I think you should refuse all solids.  Try to relax and rest, drink if thirsty, but otherwise it is for your best to allow your body to recover from overtaxing it with too much food.  This may take a day or so.  Start back with the juice when you're ready and stay with that for a few days, then start with very small fruit only meals of high water content.

Don't worry, you don't sound like you've done anything overly wrong, just a little hiccup.  It sounds like you've let the psychological aspect of the need for food govern your strong appetite emerging from this fast...

"Went from 155-130lbs on the fast and I'm a 6ft male in my 30s, so I'm pretty keen to start rebuilding as that's not a lot of weight for my frame..."

This is a normal amount of weight to lose in a fast of this duration.  I understand your eagerness to gain your weight back, but you must be patient with your body and it will take care of itself.  While 130lbs. is thin, you're in no danger.  Most of your weight loss has been temporary water loss, that will quickly return.  After a fast, less is more to an extent.  Please remember your digestive system has been resting, your metabolism has lowered (it will return), small amounts of food will still result in a quick return of your weight.  Overeating at this time will not result in gaining your weight back any quicker, and will more likely cause you to gain less back.

You may feel like you need a lot of food to make up for the days you went without, but just reason it out.  You were fine during those days, there is no need to jump back in to eating large quantities so soon. 

I hope this information is what you are needing.  It looks like it was, based on how I interrupted your post. Please ask if there was something else, or if I missed something.  I don't know how much of this you knew or what your experience is with fasting.  Keep us updated on how you are, and I'm sure someone more knowledgable/experienced than I will be able to help you (if I haven't).