on day 9!

I can't believe I've made it this far. Psychological hunger is not even there any more. I feel pretty indifferent to food right now, even when I'm cooking it or being around it. It's kind of nice.

Yesterday I felt amazing. I even went to the park a few blocks from my house and I wasn't bothered by any of my outdoor allergies. I'm not bothered by my dust allergy either so this has been really great.

My body seemed to want some movement yesterday, particularly after doing almost nothing but lounging around for a week. So I did some stretching and I attempted to do some very light exercises with a resistance band for less than 5 minutes and my heart started to pound uncomfortably so I guess I will just be sticking with the stretching only.

I got my TOM yesterday and I wondered how the fast would affect that. I had only mild cramping as opposed to severe cramping so that was a good thing.

I'm usually prone to migraines and I've been shocked not to have any during this fast, but I started to get one when I woke up this morning. I did my first enema so far this fast and I took a cold shower and I gave myself a foot massage with coconut oil and it went away, thank goodness. I guess that's my first real detox symptom so far.

It really pays to prepare for the fast. To me, the first stage of a fast is preparation. I ate very lightly the week before the fast, mostly a lot of veggies, although I did do an experiment by dropping my carbs down for two days beforehand by drinking my own shake made out of rice protein and flaxseed oil to see if it would get me into ketosis faster and thus make the first couple of days easier by not having to deal with gut-wrenching hunger pains. This experiment was a success.

I have studied fasting A LOT over the years, and done many fasts and cleanses, including juicing, MC, Intermittent Fasting or Every-Other-Day fasting and short water fasts. I feel pretty comfortable experimenting a little, but for newbie fasters, I think it is extremely important to follow tried-and-true fasting methods and stick as close to known fasting regimens and do LOTS of homework.

There is a big difference to me between informed experimentation and recklessness. Fasting is serious business and should not be undertaken lightly or used as a crash diet. I have been horrified in the past when I have read posts about binging the day before a Water Fast or when I read about people trying to do serious workouts while water fasting.

Breaking the fast is also another extremely important stage. I read a story about concentration survivors during WWII who were rescued and as soon as they were given real food, they died because their bodies was not prepared for it since they had not been eating for so long. It's called refeeding syndrome.

I think what has also helped make this fast a success so far is that I don't drink, smoke, take caffeine or medications and I limit my refined Sugar intake. I really don't think anyone should really try to do Water Fasting until they have detoxed themselves from these things first or else the detox symptoms can be really severe for people.

Another thing that I think helps is to do liver flushes. Even though I haven't done any substantial fasting besides some Intermittent Fasting in about a year, I have done several Liver Flushes and I think that is also why this fast has been relatively easy so far in terms of detox.

So I'm just going to keep at it. It's gotten to be pretty much a mundane thing at this point, but I do feel a lot of happiness and optimism over all. I'm so happy that I am doing this.

Be well!

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