Water Fasting: My Story

Hello Everyone,

This is the first time posting to the forum but I have been viewing it for quite a while. I would like to begin by telling you a little bit about myself and how my fast has been so far.

I struggle with addiction of all sorts. I have an addictive personality and everything I do I must do to the extreme. About three years ago I found myself overweight and unhealthy due to Alcohol abuse. My strength was down and every part of me was sad and dying. I developed severe acid reflux and terrible red bumps behind my ears.

I knew something had to change and that led me here, to this forum filled with very many positive and informative people. I started my first Water Fast that lasted 7 days. I did that fast not for fat loss but to clear my mind of alcohol and it helped slightly.

I jumped into exercising and became completely obsessed with the gym and running. I went from 230 pounds to 200 pounds, with a pretty good physique. I was running 6 miles Monday through Friday and was very, very happy. My first child was born and I thought life couldn't get any better.

Eventually my job relocated my family and I was put into a new, very stressful, challenging position that required me to skip the gym, my runs and family time. This eventually caused me to get back into drinking. Fast forward for the last year I find myself in the same rut I was in, if not worse! My chest has severe inflammation that feels like my sternum needs to pop but never will, my weight became heavier than before (240) and I felt terrible.

This brings me to where I am out now. Still dealing with the same stressful job and lack of family time but now I want to make a change. I'm not going to lie, I started this fast to hopefully get back on track with my drinking and lose weight. I understand any weight loss will come back if not properly monitored after the fast but I'm confident I can do it again.

I started my 21 day fast on the 29th of April. I am now on day 7 and have lost a total of 16 pounds. The crazy thing is my sternum pain has decreased a lot! Which is a surprising and exciting benefit of the fast. I've been drinking nothing but distilled water and trying to rest as much as my job will allow.

The last two days I've been experiencing mild acid reflux, belching, and flatulence. Today I've had some BM that were very dark and almost mucus like. Is this normal?

For the most part this fast has been extremely rough for me. I am a mentally weak person and I can't seem to get food off my mind. That is why I came here hoping to be one of the hundreds that come begging for support. All I can think about is food and I just want to quit on this fast but I set a goal and I want to stick with it. After combing the forums my plan is to break the fast at day 22 with the 2 days juice, 2 days fruit, 2 days salad ratio. Does this sound pretty normal?

Anyway, thanks for reading.