I fasted for 41 hours this past week.
I'm pretty pleased I was able to do it, and it wasn't even that difficult for the most part.
I do intermittent fasting quite often, which is fasting for between 16-18 hours, including overnight sleeping time, so I am used to fasting for that long at least.
My body has just been craving greens and a reset.
I made a smoothie the other day because I was chopping veggies for soup and I just kept thinking about a smoothie (it began several days prior actually) and I couldn't ignore that my body was just really telling me it needed that. And I don't even like smoothies.
But the wild blueberries and raw spinach, carrot, celery, avocado, and cinnamon made me feel fantastic 🤩
Likewise, I've been considering a doing longer fast for quite some time now, and I woke up last Friday and just went with it.
I had had a little snack Thursday night, so counting from 9:30pm, I already had almost 12 hours of fasting in.
I drank lots and lots of water, lemon or lime water and herbal tea. That evening I had some homemade bone broth which was very delicious and satisfying and I didnt have any trouble really getting through Friday.
Saturday morning I woke and still felt really good. I continued drinking tea and water.
Around 2pm I started to feel a little hungry. I waited until 3:30 and then had some bone broth.
At this point I started to feel like I was crashing a bit. I just wanted to lay and down. An hour later I was feeling exhausted.
Because I have/had adrenal issues, I didnt want to push it too far, so I broke my fast around 41 hours. I really wanted to make it to 48 but you have to weigh the pros and cons.
I ate a salad with broccoli and butter lettuce and spinach and wild salmon with avocado mayo and a drizzle of my HM dressing.
I still felt like I had no energy though, which is a pretty normal thing for fasting from what I've read...usually it happens because your body reaches a detoxing phase and/or you have an electrolyte imbalance.
Brian took the kids swimming and I just curled up on the couch for a couple hours.
When they got home, I had a glass of warm lemon water and that really really helped. I almost instantly felt more awake and energized.
Later when the kids went to bed, I took an Epsom salt bath to help with any magnesium deficiency, and that felt amazing and I just felt super relaxed and good afterward.
I ate another salad, this time with a boiled egg and red onion on it. And a quarter of a low carb paleo waffle with almond butter and cinnamon. I felt good and satisfied.
This morning I had a salad with two fried eggs on top.
And then lunch was a taco salad with lettuce, spinach, avocado, cilantro, red onion, and a sauce made from avo. mayo and a dab of sour cream.
And then another quarter of the paleo waffle with almond butter and cinnamon.
I am just craving greens since getting through the holidays, so non-stop salads it is!
I am feeling great. My tummy feels really good. My skin looks good. My sleep has been up and down -mostly down- but working on that.
So why did I do the fast?
Fasting has many benefits but personally I really wanted to give my digestive system a break and time to "reset". There's also a process called autophagy that happens after you fast for awhile, and it can be very healing; it's basically your body's cellular recycling system, taking old, misformed, and broken cells and turning them into new cells. It's amazing. There's also a deeper level of detoxing that can happen when your body isn't working in digesting your food. Detoxing is important if you want smooth, healthy skin. And then there's the part where your body starts burning stored fat, particularly visceral fat, which is fat that's stored around your organs and you dont want that.
I'm not a doctor, this is just my personal understanding and experience, so please do your own research to find out it fasting is safe for you, if you want to try it.
Generally, intermittent fasting at least is something everyone except pregnant women can try, but you should check with your doctor if you have ongoing serious medical issues.
Overall, I had a very good experience with the prolonged fasting and will be trying it again. And definitely going to keep up with the intermittent fasting too.
When you eliminate all the processed food and chemicals and give your body while foods and natural products, it opens up a level of communication with your body that cant really exist when your system is confused and overloaded with low quality, synthetic junk.
I love being able to support my body with nourishing food, especially when I can really tell what it wants. It's very satisfying.
Way more satisfying than eating half a batch of fresh baked cookies or all the leftover peanut butter balls...
(I didn't do either of those things, but they definitely crossed my mind during the holidays)
The clinical nutritionist I listen to and work with always says when talking about fasting, "Just try it. See how you feel. If it's terrible, eat something. You can always try it again later."
I agree.
I'm pretty pleased I was able to do it, and it wasn't even that difficult for the most part.
I do intermittent fasting quite often, which is fasting for between 16-18 hours, including overnight sleeping time, so I am used to fasting for that long at least.
My body has just been craving greens and a reset.
I made a smoothie the other day because I was chopping veggies for soup and I just kept thinking about a smoothie (it began several days prior actually) and I couldn't ignore that my body was just really telling me it needed that. And I don't even like smoothies.
But the wild blueberries and raw spinach, carrot, celery, avocado, and cinnamon made me feel fantastic 🤩
Likewise, I've been considering a doing longer fast for quite some time now, and I woke up last Friday and just went with it.
I had had a little snack Thursday night, so counting from 9:30pm, I already had almost 12 hours of fasting in.
I drank lots and lots of water, lemon or lime water and herbal tea. That evening I had some homemade bone broth which was very delicious and satisfying and I didnt have any trouble really getting through Friday.
Saturday morning I woke and still felt really good. I continued drinking tea and water.
Around 2pm I started to feel a little hungry. I waited until 3:30 and then had some bone broth.
At this point I started to feel like I was crashing a bit. I just wanted to lay and down. An hour later I was feeling exhausted.
Because I have/had adrenal issues, I didnt want to push it too far, so I broke my fast around 41 hours. I really wanted to make it to 48 but you have to weigh the pros and cons.
I ate a salad with broccoli and butter lettuce and spinach and wild salmon with avocado mayo and a drizzle of my HM dressing.
I still felt like I had no energy though, which is a pretty normal thing for fasting from what I've read...usually it happens because your body reaches a detoxing phase and/or you have an electrolyte imbalance.
Brian took the kids swimming and I just curled up on the couch for a couple hours.
When they got home, I had a glass of warm lemon water and that really really helped. I almost instantly felt more awake and energized.
Later when the kids went to bed, I took an Epsom salt bath to help with any magnesium deficiency, and that felt amazing and I just felt super relaxed and good afterward.
I ate another salad, this time with a boiled egg and red onion on it. And a quarter of a low carb paleo waffle with almond butter and cinnamon. I felt good and satisfied.
This morning I had a salad with two fried eggs on top.
And then lunch was a taco salad with lettuce, spinach, avocado, cilantro, red onion, and a sauce made from avo. mayo and a dab of sour cream.
And then another quarter of the paleo waffle with almond butter and cinnamon.
I am just craving greens since getting through the holidays, so non-stop salads it is!
I am feeling great. My tummy feels really good. My skin looks good. My sleep has been up and down -mostly down- but working on that.
So why did I do the fast?
Fasting has many benefits but personally I really wanted to give my digestive system a break and time to "reset". There's also a process called autophagy that happens after you fast for awhile, and it can be very healing; it's basically your body's cellular recycling system, taking old, misformed, and broken cells and turning them into new cells. It's amazing. There's also a deeper level of detoxing that can happen when your body isn't working in digesting your food. Detoxing is important if you want smooth, healthy skin. And then there's the part where your body starts burning stored fat, particularly visceral fat, which is fat that's stored around your organs and you dont want that.
I'm not a doctor, this is just my personal understanding and experience, so please do your own research to find out it fasting is safe for you, if you want to try it.
Generally, intermittent fasting at least is something everyone except pregnant women can try, but you should check with your doctor if you have ongoing serious medical issues.
Overall, I had a very good experience with the prolonged fasting and will be trying it again. And definitely going to keep up with the intermittent fasting too.
When you eliminate all the processed food and chemicals and give your body while foods and natural products, it opens up a level of communication with your body that cant really exist when your system is confused and overloaded with low quality, synthetic junk.
I love being able to support my body with nourishing food, especially when I can really tell what it wants. It's very satisfying.
Way more satisfying than eating half a batch of fresh baked cookies or all the leftover peanut butter balls...
(I didn't do either of those things, but they definitely crossed my mind during the holidays)
The clinical nutritionist I listen to and work with always says when talking about fasting, "Just try it. See how you feel. If it's terrible, eat something. You can always try it again later."
I agree.
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