Thursday 23 November 2017

Water Fast Day #22

Thursday – Water Fast Day #22
11:30 AM
In these days I’m thinking and thinking on how to break the Fast. One very important thing to be aware of, when breaking a prolonged fast, is that right after the Fast is broken a famine hunger comes very suddenly; so strong that I could eat the entire McDonald’s menu 5 times! So I will need to have a very detailed plan on how to break my Fast and be very strict to stick with it 100%. That’s why I am trying to figure out what is the best way of refeeding. In my previous fasts I always ate watermelon, to begin with, but this time around I would like to start with some vegetable juice too; actually I was thinking on having a drink of 50% juice of veggies and fruits and 50% of water – this to avoid a big spike of insulin. The first day I would have 8 ounces of this mix, 4 times during the day and with the days I would increase the ounces and decrease the frequency of my meals. I will post a detailed plan when I finalize it.
Today I don’t feel great in terms of motivation, I often think about eating or drinking something, but I’m being strong and not surrender to these temptations. I think it might be also due to the fact that is Christmas time, all around is a feast of colours, food, gifts, and of course I would like to enjoy the season and eat everything I could possibly eat, all those cookies, pastry and tasty sweets! But I guess is a good thing for me that I’m fasting during the holidays, so I won’t gain back in a snap everything I lost with so many sacrifices.
When doing a prolonged fast is normal having some weak moments; it’s part of the process for sure; but being in Ketosis helps, no food can certainly tempt me enough to break my fast. The only thing that could force anyone to give up a Water Fast, after so many days, is a physical issue that is compromising the wellbeing of the individual itself, this danger can be scary enough to break earlier…or not, any fast. So learn to listen carefully to your body and not push too much to reach too fast a breaking point.
It is Day #22 today but it’s still so early for me, I have lost basically nothing compared on how much I still need to lose, so I must keep going no matter what, otherwise I would be just wasted 22 days for nothing. But I’ll keep on going, I know it’s boring but the days will pass and I’ll be thankful that I did it; after all this is just between me myself and I.

Wednesday 22 November 2017

Water Fast Day #21

Wednesday – Water Fast Day #21
10:30 AM
I’m back in the office today; I took yesterday off to do some errands and to go for a spa day, I really needed. Today I don’t feel doing much; I’m not sure if I am weak or just bored and unmotivated. In any case, I don’t feel hungry and fasting does not bother me much, I just like cooking and eating so I kind of miss that. Sometimes I feel a bit worn down, sort of weak but not exactly, I don’t know how to define it, I might be depleting my electrolytes and some vitamins I guess, I should do a blood test to check, but I’m lazy.
My weight is going down very slowly, as I already said hundreds times I guess, but this is my biggest concern at the moment, I’m not sure I can handle, physically, more than 50 days without food, I should take something, like Sodium, Potassium but I don’t know exactly what’s the best way to do it. Is drinking salt and water enough for my Sodium intake? How much Potassium should I take daily? My stomach gets upset if I take supplements. This morning I took a B complex pill and right after I was burping on B vitamin! I really don’t know what to do for this issue; it might compromise my ability to continue the fast.
My Ketosis is staying stable at 80mg/dL, which is good, it means I’m burning fats on a good rate; I still cannot fit in all my dresses though, but I guess is normal since I’m still way overweight and far from my target goal weight.
I did not have any BM lately, apart from the coffee effect on Monday, so this morning I was thinking that I should do an enema, not that I really feel I need it, but as prevention and cleaning measurement.
One thing I was thinking about today, that I believe I do not have Candida anymore; after these 2 past prolonged Fasts I think the level of Candida in my system went definitely down to normal values, which is a good news.
For the rest I’m doing ok I guess; days are passing, I’m already on over 20+ days, I’m trying to go to the gym as much as I can, without doing strenuous exercises; but I register good losses when I’m more active during the day. A lot of people say that after 30 days something changes in the body and we become weaker and weaker; I’m wondering if this is the case for me too; I mean last time it was definitely true for me; I felt very weak after day #30 and I wanted to break the Fast, but this time around this is not in my plans, so I hope I don’t have to deal with this – since I still have a long journey ahead of me.

Monday 20 November 2017

Water Fast Day #19

Monday – Water Fast Day #19
9:30 AM
My Fast is proceeding well, it seems very slow but days are passing by and my weight is going down, helping me feeling better and fitting in some of my clothes without breaking any zip!
This past weekend I was working, but my part-time job does not require any strenuous activity, so I was mostly sitting on the couch watching TV. This morning my Ketosis was less than usual, at 40mg/dL; it’s been stable at 80mg/dL since I started the Fast, I’m not sure why, I still have plenty of fat on me to burn. I want to check it tomorrow – since this afternoon I’ll be going to the gym for my usual swimming workout; but overall I think I’ll be more active today.
So far I feel ok, for the first time, since I started this Fast, this past weekend I felt a bit weak and tired, not sure if it could be that I wasn’t being very active. For me, if I don’t get moving during a fast, I tend to become weak and without desire of doing anything. But at the end, I completed everything I was supposed to do, without major issues. I must to say though, that the night before I didn’t have much sleep so it could be that too; last night in fact I slept without waking up once, which is uncommon for me when I fast.
This morning I had a big decaf coffee and now my tummy hurts; I went already once to the bathroom, and whatever BM I had was mostly coffee I think. I should not drink coffee so quickly, especially in the morning, my stomach is very sensitive. I still have my period, this thing is very odd for me that I usually miss my period for months, who knows what’s happening with my hormones?!
My tongue is still coated, it gives me the usual terrible taste, it makes me feel thirsty when I’m not, but I’m learning to live with it, there’s nothing I can do about it anyway.
I’m losing an average of 200gr per day, which is very little I know; it seems my body is getting used to fasting an d it holds on my fat longer than previous fasts, well at least that’s how I feel but I might be wrong; every fast is different after all.
I hope I can be done by mid of December, although is not looking good as a date – since I still have at least 20 pounds to lose and they will not be gone overnight; I also believe I will be losing less and less going forward so there’s that too. Well let’s see I’ll figure out with the weeks, hopefully not too many weeks!

Friday 17 November 2017

Water Fast Day #16

Friday – Water Fast Day #16
10:30 AM
It’s been a bit more than 2 weeks now into this Fast and so far I’m ok I guess. This morning for the first time I felt very weak with my arms, contrary on how I’ve been feeling in the past days; I had lots of energy and I feel very positive. I’m managing to go to the gym/swimming pool 3 times a week; it’s been nice so far and not heavy on my muscles for sure. Strangely my period came back, just after 2 weeks or so, it never happened before, but I’m not worried – I’m sure this fast is messing up a bit my hormones so I guess is normal. Because of TOM I’m not going to the pool this afternoon but instead I’ll go to the gym to do some exercise on the machines, I don’t want to miss it anyway, it’s good to have a routine.
My tongue is still heavily coated, it makes my mouth feeling awful; this is one thing that I really hate of a fast; it makes everything harder, it gives me this constant feeling that I’m thirsty or something, which is not true; but there’s no relief for that, I tried many thing…the coating will always be there as long as I fast.
My weight loss is still slow but I noticed bigger losses when I go to the gym and I’m more active during the day; that’s another reason why I want to keep on going – until I have energy to do it, since I assume I’ll be weaker in the following weeks. But again, every fast is different from another, so I might not experience the same weakness as before. I’m also taking some vitamins here and there, trying not to take too many since they upset my stomach. I’m also drinking black decaf coffee, and I assume there is a small percentage of caffeine in it, so maybe it is helping me somehow with my energy – total assumptions though. I did notice though that the decaf coffee does not upset my stomach as the lemon water does, maybe the lemon acidity is bad while fasting?

Tuesday 14 November 2017

Water Fast - Day #13

Tuesday – Water Fast Day #13
10:00 AM
Today begins my 13th day of this Fast; I would say every fast is different from another, in the way I feel, the way I lose weight and also the way I drink. So far I feel very good, the high feeling of the Ketosis is fully in and I feel very energetic. I’m going to the swimming pool every other day and I hope I keep on doing it, it’s a very light exercise but helps me a lot with the mood and how I feel in general. This morning I did the terrible mistake of taking some vitamins all together, I was almost throwing up after 10 minutes. I will never do it again, that’s it, when fasting I cannot take any supplement; I just hope my lack of electrolytes will not force me to stop the fast further during the next weeks.
One new thing for this fast is that I’m drinking instant decaf coffee with a couple of drops of stevia; it is not affecting my Ketosis – which is still constant at 80mg/dL – and I would say even the weight loss is not hugely impacted; unless I Dry Fast I never see large losses on a daily basis anyway.
Yesterday I was trying to do some estimation, in terms of time, on how long I should fast to reach my weight goal; well the “estimation” was definitely depressing, it might take 60 days or more! I’m just concerned that I would be in the middle of my refeeding process for my January vacation South; I would like to avoid it though, since I will want to enjoy my trip without thinking on how my asleep stomach feels – ok, mostly because refeeding means that I need a bathroom trip every time I eat or drink something. Well I guess the weeks will tell how long this Fast will need to last.
The weight loss is very slow, some days I lose just 200gr, some others a bit more; but as long as I am in Ketosis I guess I’m ok. I don’t really care what the scale says, because I can see it in the mirror how I look, how my clothes fits; it doesn’t fit anything yet so I’m not losing much; but it’s been only 12/13 days so I’m not complaining.
My tongue is heavily coated, and my mouth has the usual bad taste; if I drink coffee it tends to go darker of course, but I can still feel the tick coating; I hope it will get better with the days.
Another thing I noticed this time around is that my period started and took so long before it ended; somehow when I fast the hormones get messed up and I guess my period too; but I think it’s also a chance of cleaning so it’s not a negative thing after all.
Yesterday was a busy day for me, I had to do lots of errands so I walked a lot around during lunch time, plus I went to the gym for half hour in the pool and 10 minutes in the sauna. Moving and exercising helps me a lot with my weight loss, and till I have such a great energy I should take advantage of it and try to be as much active as I can, because as soon as I stop and lye on the bed to “rest”, I will not find again the same energy.

Thursday 9 November 2017

Water Fast Day #8

Thursday – Water Fast Day #8
2:00 PM
Yesterday I had the chance to go 40 minutes to the gym for few laps in the pool. It doesn’t seem much but, when Fasting, is a lot, well at least for me; I know of people exercising and doing strenuous activities even further into a Fast, but I tend to become weaker and weaker with the days, it could be a lack of electrolytes, I’m not 100% sure.
I’m still on day #8 though and my energy level is very good, I really don’t feel that I had no food for a week, except for my arms; they are – as usual – the weaker point in my body. The swimming was nice, I had no breath, maybe for my anxiety but most likely because I’m out of shape, but I want to keep on going, I enjoyed after all.
This morning my weight was exactly as yesterday, not even 1gr less! It might be due to the gym and water retention, I don’t know. I checked my Ketosis and it was good, with a purple Ketostix reporting 80md/dL of ketones in my urine, that’s comforting. I have also a little machine to check my body fat and my BMI, but I don’t think it works very well, it seems just doing a calculation based on my weight and age, not really evaluating my body fat; but I guess it doesn’t hurt keep on monitoring through the Fast.
Yesterday I started to add a bit of lemon juice to my hot water, I’m not drinking too much really so I think it will not impact my fast. But this morning I had a sense of acid feeling in my throat after drinking some hot lemon water, and after having a good 2 cups of it I had to rush to the washroom, I’m guessing this lemon is not really appreciated by my GI tract and it’s rejecting it right away! I’ll try to be more disciplined from now on and stick only with water. This weekend though I’m still with the idea on doing a Dry Fast, the weight loss is way faster and I cannot stress this thing more.
Today I feel that my brain activity is improved, I talk differently, I make more elaborated sentences, even at work; for me this is a sign of being deeply into the Fast, getting all – or almost all – the benefits of abstaining from food. I do miss food though, I guess it is such a big part of our lives, a pleasure that it’s impossible to miss. If someone would tell me that in the future we will feed ourselves with pills, I would be highly disappointed; I love to cook, I love to mix new ingredients and trying new recipes, who doesn’t?!
Talking about food, one thing I’m strictly avoiding at the moment is shopping for food, to save in my pantry. I have enough already and, I know I love to shop, but I should not even think about food for now; my journey is still so long that I would own the entire isle 5 of the grocery store if I keep on buying stuff. Plus, looking at food, watching videos, buying ingredients, it’s unhealthy for me when fasting; it creates a stomach-food-cravings expectation, if that makes any sense; so when I’m done fasting the wolf’s appetite will come and hit me so hard to delete completely all my sacrifices fasting – which I definitely want to avoid this time around. God help me!

Wednesday 8 November 2017

Water Fast - Day #7

Wednesday – Water Fast Day #7
9:30 AM
I broke my Dry Fast at about 4.5 days, not sure why – I was just bored I guess. As expected, my weight loss slowed down unfortunately. I went from an average of 1Kg per day to 300gr per day! 3 times slower than Dry Fasting. I hope I can resume Dry Fasting along the way, because after a while, even drinking water becomes annoying – while when Dry Fasting the only thing I want to do is drinking fresh water, I don’t even care about food! Human mind is fascinating, an escalation of needs and desires when we can’t have what we want.
Today I feel good energy wise, I planned to go swimming this afternoon; I prepared my gym bag and everything, I am actually excited to do it, I hope I will feel good after. I’m not hungry at all; my Ketosis is good at 80mg/dL, with a nice purple Ketostix. My tongue is becoming a bit more white-coated with the days, I guess is normal. Usually around Day 7/8 of a Fast I feel very well, and I do but I’m still so fat that I don’t feel comfortable with myself; I believe this is an issue for my motivation and my mood.
This morning I was getting ready to go to work and I tried a white shirt that used to fit me a bit large, well I wasn’t able to close the buttons so I gave up and wore something else. It is really depressing.
This weekend I want to try to Dry Fast again, since I’ll be working from Saturday 8AM to Sunday 6PM, I might be able to get distracted and not drink much water, or at all. To be honest I’m not drinking much anyway, yesterday I had my last sip at 4:30PM and resumed drinking this morning around 7AM when I woke up, but only because I felt thirsty a bit. If I drink too much I don’t feel very well, not sure why.

Monday 6 November 2017

My prolonged Dry Fast - Day #5


Monday – Dry Fast Day #5
10:30 AM – 108hrs

This morning I was able to check my Ketosis with my new package of Ketostix purchased from amazon; it was a nice purple with large traces of ketones at 80mg/dL – I am happy I’m now fully in ketogenic state. Definitely helps with the hunger and the cravings – disappeared altogether fortunately.
My Dry Fast is proceeding fine, apart from my awful mouth feelings – a terrible staple now in all my fasts – I feel perfectly fine; my tongue is light pink, slightly coated, not much though, I don’t know if it will become worse the more I go into the fast, let’s see.
My sleep is ok so far, I was able to sleep a fair amount of hours in the past 2 nights, not uninterrupted sleep but enough to rest. So far I don’t feel weak, but it’s been just 5 days so I’m not surprised really; maybe I’ll see some lack of strengths in the next week, when more than 10/12 days have passed.
It’s been only a bit more than 100hrs in this Fast but I’d like to remind myself that, although starting a Fast is a really a hard thing to do, it gets easier and easier with the days; the hunger disappears, the cravings are gone, all the benefits of a Fast start to come by, and, what I think is important, the self-esteem tends to come back again; because let’s face it, gaining weight, being overweight and fat does not help the self-confidence in any way. I know we should love ourselves just the way we are, and I do, I don’t really care sometime if I’m fat, but I don’t think we shouldn’t try to get fit, to have a normal healthy weight and help the self-confidence, it is all beneficial after all.
My weight goes down quickly with a Dry Fast, or maybe it is also the syndrome of the first few days’ weight loss. Nevertheless I lost 5.3Kg (11.5lb) in 4.5 days – I wish I could keep this rate till the end of my Fast but it’s not going to happen and, also might not be healthy losing weight so quickly.


1:30 PM – 111hrs
I went downstairs for a walk in the mall during lunch time, the energy levels are good, but dreaming about drinking fresh water, but I’m not thirsty per se.
Today I bought a swimwear, for the swimming pool though, one piece bathing-suit, it was depressing, I look like a sausage in it. I’m thinking to go to swim twice a week; I feel my shoulders lost a lot of muscles during these past years. I used to swim twice a week when I was younger and enjoyed a lot; I hope I can go back into the routine of swimming, slowly maybe. Swimming is an easier workout than a regular intense cardio workout, it involves lots of muscles and being into the water constantly helps with the sweating and skin hydration. It is gentle on muscles, if done properly, so I can set my pace and slowly increase the speed; I only hope my anxiety attacks and difficult breathing won’t give me any problems during the workouts.
I’m thinking on stopping by the gym today after work, to see how long the pool is – hopefully it is at least 25m. I know that I’m dry fasting and I’m not supposed to do any exercise but I want to try and the water seems a good place to start.
Strangely this time around I did not have any headaches whatsoever starting my fast, I thought at least for the sugar withdrawal I would feel something, but no, nothing, that’s good though.
I’m still urinating normally, maybe the quantity is less but the bathroom trips are roughly the same, I woke up in the night too! I think is positive though, it means my body is melting some fat and getting rid of waste.
Another thing that I noticed in all my Dry Fasts is my period; every time I do a Dry Fast my period comes, maybe I didn’t have it for 4 months, but as soon as I start going Dry, it comes! It happens similarly with the Water Fast, but after lots of days in a Water Fast, or not at all.

Friday 3 November 2017

My prolonged Dry Fast - Day #2

Friday – Dry Fast Day #2
3:30 PM – 40hrs

Second Day of my Dry Fast, just 40hrs but it’s going well; I did not have any headache as for now. My cravings are still strong but not enough to make me break the Dry Fast. I don’t feel thirsty, neither hungry, but my mouth is beginning to feel awful because of my tongue; sometime I’m wondering if my breath is bad; hopefully not.

I’m urinating normally, maybe today a bit less than yesterday but I didn’t see major differences; I hope this means that my kidneys are filtering as expected.

I went for a walk during lunch time; I bought some new clothes in larger size; now nothing fits me anymore and, so much I hate it, every morning I struggle to find something to wear.
I was looking at food, during my lunch walk, I was jealous looking at skinny people, able to have normal meals, not addicted to food. But I didn’t buy anything editable, I’m actually trying to avoid to read or look at anything that is food related; I’m not forcing myself though, I guess with the vision that this fast will be very long I do not have any interest in food at the moment.

Sometime I wonder why I don’t drink, that I would like to drink something, and then I repeat to myself all the reasons why. It’s a war against my inner self this one, a bloody battle with psychological weapons, so hard to fight.

Thursday 2 November 2017

My prolonged Dry Fast - Day #1


Thursday – Dry Fast Day #1
2:30 PM – 15hrs
I think I stopped to drink water at around 11:00 PM last night, but as far as food I had my big dinner earlier at 7:00 PM or so; I would say it’s about 15 hours of no drinking and no eating.
I feel normal so far, after all it’s just few hours; I had no hunger at all today, just one episode of growling stomach during a meeting and that’s all; but in my defense I can say that the meeting was  extremely boring, maybe that’s why!
I went for a walk during lunch time, to get distracted, to move a bit my fat legs; it was ok, every time I stand up from my chair I feel so heavy. I’m wondering when the headache will start, maybe tomorrow. My mouth is not dry but I begin on feeling that awful taste I have when I’m not drinking, not that goes completely away during the Water Fast, but it gets better, especially if I drink hot lemon water.
This time around I was thinking avoiding the lemon in the water or any tea, better if I drink only pure water – SMART water most likely, my favourite. I want to reset completely my taste buds this time around, since I’m planning on taking a long Fast to resolve all my issues. I might introduce salt and other supplements going forward during my long journey.

Failing to begin a Fast - I'm trying again

The beginning of a fast is always the hardest one, and personally I usually fail the first couple of attempts before reaching Ketosis. Once I am in a good Ketogenic state, nothing can tempt me really, but this happens after approximately 7/8 days into a Fast.
I know I said I would start my new Fast on November 1st, but after 18hrs of Dry Fasting I gave up and had something to drink, in the evening I had a big supper, but overall only one big meal for the day. It’s so easy for my mind to convince me that one more day won’t make any difference and indulge in food and sugar; I am very weak.
Today I feel more motivated though. Since yesterday I started to check my weight again; I have to admit I cried when I saw the number on the scale, never been so fat and the amount of time I would need to lose all this weight is beyond my estimations.
On the Internet I found various blogs talking about personal Fasting experiences; the number of days of the length of a Fast it usually different for everyone, it can go from few hours up to 100 days. I was reading yesterday about someone completing 92 days fast, impressive, and definitely not common to find online these numbers. It requires lots of patience I can imagine, and fat storage enough to support the body for 3 months. But one thing I learnt from this story, after 3 weeks or so into the fast I should start to take Sodium, Potassium and other supplements for my electrolytes or I will feel too weak to continue over 30 days. This time around I’m aiming for 40/50 days, let’s see how it goes, I will listen to my body….but the number 92 is always in my mind!
I can’t wait for these first few days to go by quickly, because I know that I will feel better once I’m over this period, not that I feel hungry or thirsty but soon I will feel sleepy, I’ll have a headache, I’ll be grumpy, stomach growling, sugar cravings (well those ones never go away!), and my focus on things will be definitely impacted negatively. And I’m only 12hrs into the Dry Fast!
But really, I cannot continue like this, I hate myself everyday a bit more, and not that I care on how I look, I just don’t feel good, I don’t even want people to see me; if I could I will stay home in my bed for 2 weeks….but I have to come to work and deal with everyone here and with my cravings. I hope I’ll be fine this time around; a long journey is in front of me, I pray the Lord to give all the strengths I need to not give up this time.

Tuesday 31 October 2017

Disadvantages of being FAT

Recently I gained a lot of weight; and I can certainly say that I never been so overweight in my entire life. I keep on saying this thing since I reach new highs after every attempt to meet my goal weight; maybe I should learn something from that.
For me being overweight is not only about the fat on my body or my wardrobe not fitting anymore; it’s about so many daily struggles.
I’ve been experiencing some body issues; and my apologies if this post is a bit too detailed – but I share my experiences, good and bad. Recently I developed – where the fat is concentrated on my body, like belly area and under my breasts, some sort of skin reaction; I never had something like that before. It’s not itchy or anything, just uncomfortable. I try to wash the areas often and using talc or Aloe Vera gel to help with the skin reaction, but I’m not having success – I know a Dry Fast would resolve this problem in no time!
Another issue that my fat is causing to my body is my heavy breathing problem; I literally have hard time to talk normally sometimes, I hate it! But realistically, I don’t know what to do.
Some time I also wonder: how can I live as a fat woman? I really don’t fit in this body! I feel awful doing simple things, walking, sitting, talking. My legs are all swollen at the end of each day; I have hard time doing daily things in the bathroom, due to my new size. I have skin breakouts every other day; itchy feelings here and there; always feeling hot and easy sweating – like I’m reaching menopause! My hair get oily and dirty in 2 days (while fasting I can go as long as 5 days without washing it).
Nothing fits me anymore, I bought larger size clothes but I still feel uncomfortable in it; I can’t move around in the same way; I can’t even cross my legs while I’m sitting! I feel I’m losing more hair now than when I fast. My hair are ok when I’m fasting, never had any issue.
I look much older than my age with this extra fat on me; and no matter how difficult can be to accept or not, I get treated very differently from everyone when I’m so fat. I repeated this thing many times in my blog: people treat me nicer when I’m skinnier; people notice me when I’m not fat; they talk to me, they smile at me…now is like I don’t exist and I tend to hide as consequence.

I failed again!


I might sound like a broken clock by now but, here I am again, telling about another failure of post-fast maintenance.
In defense of what happened though I can say that, every fast experience, teaches me something about my body and how things work for me and my weight management.
What I realized is that after a prolonged fast my body goes into a famine-mode for about 3 weeks, after that food does not have the same appeal as the first three weeks. I guess it’s just a normal reaction after so many days abstaining from food. Makes sense though.
In 30 days of combined Dry and Water Fast I did not lose much, in terms of weight, but I was definitely feeling better than when I started. Chances were that when October started my mind just got hit with the fact that my parents were leaving the country to go back to Italy, leaving me here alone again. I didn’t handle the reality very well, I must admit; so I recall spending 3 days in bed crying and eating junk food. They say food is comfort but I wasn’t feeling better though….quite the opposite; my shrunk stomach was hurting me so much when I was eating those huge meals, and the excessive amount of sugar. In any case I kept on eating, and crying, and eating, till my stomach was not shrunk anymore and started to dilating… disproportionately!
To add more reasons to me giving up on controlling the amount of food eating, was an awful experience I went through during a long-weekend trip with a….ex-friend. Well we went out of town and let’s just say I came back home taking a coach-bus, what a jerk – you never know people till you travel together; that’s why I love solo-vacation! Anyhow, the whole situation really impacted my feelings, I felt hurt by his rude manners and words, and although he was clearly a moron, I could not deny myself of more food-comfort to relief some of the stress caused by this negative experience. And my weight and inches skyrocketed!
These past couple of months were not great for me, lots of stress combined with my ex breaking up with me, my parents moving out, their trip, long weekend nightmares, boring working days, lack of money, loneliness; well this combined to my famine-state after Fast made me gain back and more whatever I lost during the 30 days of my combined Dry/Water Fast.
What can I do? I tried to do a self-analysis of what happened, but does it really matter? Will I learn from my mistakes and don’t do it again? Most probably not….so I gave up on this too.
I do have the intention on starting soon a new Combined Dry / Water Fast, I’m aiming for tomorrow, which is November 1st, 2017 – I got some chocolates today since is Halloween.
I have to say that lately I’m not craving food much as my usual, I think the past 30-Day Water Fast was great in terms of healing. The first 3 weeks after breaking a Fast are very critical, the body really craves for food like crazy, so imposing an extremely rigid maintenance protocol is crucial in those days, after 3 weeks or so, things get better….well at least this is what I experienced.
One thing I’m looking forward from the Fast is, not only my general well-being and the weight loss, but the reduced amount of sleep hours needed. I know that it was a concern for me initially, but now I’m enjoying watching TV in bed and working on my loom, so I usually fall asleep at midnight and in the morning I have hard time to wake up; I know it does sound as a contradiction but it is not!
Keeping a journal while fasting is very important, either on an online blog, YouTube videos, on paper, whatever works for you is ok, but those words will help you in the future; share your motivations, your feelings, how you reached your goal, how you felt when the Ketosis was fading away all the food cravings, leaving only the so desired mental clarity; all those words would help you in the future if you ever need it again. They did for me.

Monday 25 September 2017

Combined Dry and Water Fast - 30 days completed!

So I successfully completed 30 days of my combined Dry/Water Fast; who knew I could go so many days without eating, not so much for the absence of food rather than the willpower of staying away from food itself. Oh well, time passes after all and at the end of the journey looking back does not seem that difficult, if done once in a while.
Today I planned on refeeding with Bone Broth, I’m now sipping on my Mason jar with 1/3 of Bone Broth and some boiling water; I must to say it taste awful, I added too much water and the end result is not great at all. I’ll do better with the next jar I hope.
Last night I had hard time sleeping, as often happens, but this time my mouth was extremely dry, as I never felt before, I was trying to drink water during the night, but it wasn’t helping. I was wondering if it was a sort of sign that I should break my fast, but I didn’t feel hungry at all, just thirsty. Well this morning I was very weak, I could not walk to come to work, I took the streetcar for most of the way here and walked with lots of challenges the rest of the way, thinking that I could faint any time. Most probably it was just my mind making up this scenario, but I didn’t like how I was feeling and I was ok with the idea of refeeding on Bone Broth today, I need to have a normal life and functioning properly, otherwise I cannot continue any fast whatsoever.
My eyelids are still twitching often, a sign that I have some nutritional deficiencies for sure, but I hope once I start to eat again things will be better. I cannot wait to eat a hearty salad from my favourite restaurants. Now that I’m drinking I feel really tired, the refeeding process, let’s face it, it sucks; eating after a prolonged fast takes so much energy from the body that basically shuts me down while I’m digesting, and I’m just sipping on a little bit of Bone Broth with tons of water at the moment!
I still have lots of weight to lose unfortunately, the rate on which I was losing weight was not that fast so I would’ve needed another two weeks to reach my ideal target weight, but I could not handle another 2 weeks of Water Fast, I’m getting tired of not eating; I hope with good food and exercise I can reach my goal, and maybe I’ll do short Water Fast here and there to stabilize my weight and lose another couple of Kg. The important thing is that I don’t gain any weight and I maintain wherever I am now, or less of course. Wish me luck!

Thursday 21 September 2017

Combined Dry and Water Fast - Day #27


I’m almost at the end of another week, on Day #27; so far I’m ok but I’m definitely feeling the side effects of so many days of Fasting. I cannot do long walks, well at least not today, sometimes one day can be totally different from another. My arms are still very weak; I don’t have much strength to do heavy lifting or things like that. Yesterday I had to change the system inside the toilet that control the water tank with the lever and so on; well it was a real challenge for me removing the old pump and unscrew the various pieces! I thought I could not do it at some point, that I had to call a plumber; fortunately I managed to find some strengths and I was able to change and fix everything, I was proud of myself at the end; not only for my handy-man skills but because it was tough on my body the overall process.
My mother is becoming a bit worried about me not eating since so many days and she keeps on asking me when I’m going to end my Fast; but I told her that I planned on refeeding by the end of next week, if everything goes well; at the end I listen to my body and how I feel day by day, and really the days pass, once into a Water Fast you don’t realize how time can be so erratic and it goes, no matter what you do, you just need to have some patience, let things go, let your mind being distracted by the bigger picture not the challenges of the moment, it won’t work easily if we engage in analyzing too much how we feel now, rather than how we would feel if we give up.
For today I was thinking on doing another enema, I don’t feel constipated or uncomfortable, but I had feelings that I could have still some residual food sitting in my GI tract that would need to be removed, so not to poison my body. I was also wondering if I would ever see any parasites coming out of my body; not that it is something that I’m looking forward to, but lots of people doing Water Fasts are reporting of getting rid of parasites and worms and nasty things like that; which is a good thing to know that they are leaving the body anyway; I personally cannot say that I ever got rid of any of those things, who knows if they are hard to go or just I didn’t notice and I actually did removed parasites in my previous fasts.
My weight loss is still very very slow unfortunately, but there is not much I can do I guess, I was hoping I would be at 57Kg by the end of this week, but clearly is not going to happen, I’m still in the 59Kg and it’s already Thursday today. I hope at least by Monday I will be able to see the 57Kg somehow. If I am in the 56/57 Kg by the begin of the next week I was thinking on switching my Water Fast to a Bone Broth Fast, always drinking water on the side but starting to add some proteins and vitamins from the broth. I already know that I won’t be able to handle too much Bone Broth for too many days without being sick of it, so I might have it only here and there during the day and for the rest my usual water intake. But I’m not sure yet, since much would depends on what my weight will be by begin of next week.

Wednesday 20 September 2017

Combined Dry and Water Fast - Day #26

Days are passing after all, it’s been 26 days that I am not eating any solid food; never been so long without eating – I reached a new personal record! I’m still far away from my weight goal though; unfortunately I had lots of fat to shed so lots of days are needed.
So far I’m ok, morning walks are becoming a bit of a challenge, but not crazy really, I can still manage to come to the office and back home without major issues. What’s a bit harder for me is using my arms muscles; drying my hair mostly, using the hair dryer is tough and I need to take breaks every few seconds; I’m wondering if exercise can help me with that.
What I don’t like are my sleepless nights, I can’t sleep continuously during the night and in the morning I don’t want to wake up at all, maybe also because I’m getting bored at work – as usual. Apart from that I guess I’m ok, my tongue is not that white-coated, just a little; I’m not particularly hungry but I like to watch a lot of YouTube videos of Raw Vegan recipes; I also try to prepare something for my dad so I can satisfy my desire of cooking, and I keep my mind busy from the food restriction. I have to say, even while I’m cooking something delicious, I have no cravings to try or taste whatever I’m cooking, I feel fine really.
I noticed that during a Water Fast I bruise easily, and it takes time to go away the bruise; this is apparently a common thing for fasters. Today I have a bit of lower back pain, maybe I need an enema, I didn’t do in the past few days, but I don’t feel the need to at the moment. My weight is going down very slowly, as I was expecting; I estimated another 2 weeks for me to reach my weight goal, but I’ll see how the next days will go, I’m just afraid my weakness can get worst and it will become harder for me to do my daily activities.
I still don’t fit in lots of my dresses, even though I lost some weight in these 26 days, I still have a lot of fat on me, this is something that really bothers me, because 26 days is a long time to stay without food, and although there are people doing Water Fasts for 40 days, it is still a big number for me! I know I should be stronger and think that days will pass and eventually I’ll get there, where I want to be, in happiness with my body, with my cravings, sure that I killed some parasites and got rid of lots of my addictions for certain type of junk food.

Monday 18 September 2017

Combined Dry and Water Fast - Day #24

So today is the 24th Day of my Combined Dry/Water Fast, never did a Fast longer than 24 days, so from tomorrow on I’ll have reached a new goal. I’m aiming for 40 days though, let’s see how I feel in the coming weeks.
My weight loss really slowed down, I barely lose half pound every other day; yesterday I did an enema, I felt something was negatively affecting my mood and I thought it can be related to bacteria stuck in my colon, I didn’t want to take the chance, so I did it but not much came out. This morning I registered a loss though, I was 59.9Kg – glad to see the number 5 on the scale!
I spent all weekend being lazy and what I learnt so far from my fasts is that being lazy is counterproductive if you want to lose weight; I don’t care what they say that you have to rest and blah blah, for me doesn’t work like that; I need to move to consume calories, to keep the body running. This morning the first 10 minutes, while I was walking, I felt very weak and dizzy, it got better after few minutes but I’m sure it was because I was in bed all weekend and not used to stay outside. I tried to take a deep breath when I was out but, living downtown has its negative sides, the pollution is high but what was bothering me and not letting me take a deep breath was the stink of dogs’ pee and poop, everyone has a dog in my neighborhood, and although I love animals, they stink like hell 
So far I’m not hungry, I often watch videos of Raw Vegan recipes, what to eat, what to prepare, I dream about eating something delicious, but I don’t feel weak that I’m going to break my fast; I’m really committed on reaching my target weight so I’ll keep going till I do, I hope God will help me in my journey and give me the strengths to not given up.
Physically I feel my arms very weak, I was drying my hair yesterday and I had to take breaks here and there, the air dryer felt too heavy; I don’t have issues with my legs though, I can walk – slowly maybe, but for long time. I was thinking on going to the gym from today on, just to do some light exercise, to keep the lymphatic system moving and facilitate my weight loss a bit more.
My tongue feels still awful but it’s not that white-coated anymore, I’m wondering if this is a sign that my detox process is going well. My sleep is still very bad, I sleep and wake up during the night constantly, I know my body has high levels of cortisol at the moment, so sleeping deeply is not going to happen, but after all I don’t feel much tired in the morning anyway; I would rather sleep all night though, I have to admit it.
During this past weekend, I took some supplements: Potassium, Calcium, Magnesium + D3, Vitamins B100 Complex, Vitamin E, Probiotics and Omega 3, not all in once, spread during the 2 days. I was concerning if, all this drinking, can affect my electrolytes and create a vitamin deficiency; also my eye lids were twitching, which is usually not a good sign. I will take some more tomorrow too, maybe every other day or so, it depends on how I feel. During a prolonged Fast you really need to listen closely to your body, how you feel is extremely important, especially if the Fast is not medically supervised, it can be very dangerous if anything happens.
Yesterday evening I was watching a video of a girl (most probably with an eating disorder), that was doing 3 Water Fasts of 40 days each, one after the other one, with just 4 days of refeeding. She became bone and skin eventually, but one thing that shocked me was that she was mentioning on breaking her 40-days fast with a steak! A steak! That’s just crazy for me, how come people cannot understand that the digestive system needs to wake up again after 40-days being dormant? How can you possibly expect that a steak will be digested normally, when nothing was in your stomach for 40 days?! Just crazy, if I can give my opinion, people are gambling with their health and it’s unfair to our bodies.

Friday 15 September 2017

Raw Vegan "Cereal" Bowl Recipe

Sometimes while Fasting, one thing that I look forward is to eat healthy, fruits and vegetables, and trying new recipes, never tried before. So today I have something in my mind that I got from a YouTube video. It is a Raw Vegan Cereal Bowl, without the cereals though.
Here’s the recipe that I customized for myself (feel free to do any change you like):
Ingredients:
  • 1 Crispy Apple
  • ½ Ripe Banana
  • Handful of Walnuts
  • Cinnamon
  • ½ tsp of Vanilla Extract
  • ½ tsp Chia Seeds
  • ½ tsp Hemp Seeds
  • Coconut flakes
  • Nut Milk of your choice
If you want to avoid fats altogether, you can substitute the Walnuts with dried Mulberries and keep the crunchiness of the Cereal.
  • I’ll post a picture when I’m back on eating again!
 

Combined Dry and Water Fast – Day #21

Friday 15.09.2017
Combined Dry and Water Fast – Day #21
Water Fast
Today I feel better than yesterday, my energy level seems improved a bit and my mood is ok. I came to the office with my scooter for the first time and, although does not give me the chance to walk and do some light exercise, I really liked, it’s a short trip really but I feel like at home in Rome, when I used to use my scooter to go to the subway or the train station.
My weight is going down very slowly, today I’m 60.7Kg; I registered a weight loss after the yesterday’s stall, so always good seeing the scale going down. Apart from the numbers, I prefer looking in the mirror and see my progresses; I’m still very chubby, I barely can use the leggings without feeling a sausage for my fat legs, so I am not getting skinnier fast that’s for sure. But that’s ok, I guess I’m a work in progress and I need to be strong and have patience if I want to reach my goal of 52Kg.
I was thinking of taking some of the tinctures in my morning Kidney tea, who knows maybe they will help me with the energy; I was also wondering if I should take a B12 shot once a week, that should help me too with my energy levels, but I’m still debating on this, so let’s see.
Fortunately it’s Friday today and this weekend I’m not seeing my parents, so I can dedicate to myself all the time I want. I feel that if I keep myself busy I don’t think much about the fast, plus I’m not even hungry anyway; I often repeat to myself: don’t be a chicken and keep going with this Fast, time will pass and I will be glad I did it, 100%!

Thursday 14 September 2017

Combined Dry and Water Fast – Day #20

Thursday 14.09.2017
Combined Dry and Water Fast – Day #20
Water Fast
So I broke my Dry Fast yesterday, not because I was thirsty or anything, just bored of not drinking, but I’m also bored of drinking water anyway. Some days are not all rainbows unfortunately. I feel given up, I feel I would like to eat something delicious, fruits and vegetables. But I tell myself to be strong, after 20 days I must continue, days will pass and I’ll reach my goal and thank myself for being strong and keep on going with my Fast. I’m not hungry, just annoyed of drinking water I guess, but from a point of view this is just childish somehow, because I’m like a little kid that wants the candies, not because she “needs” candies, just to satisfy the cravings; so I better stay away from these stupid cravings.
I estimated that I could, potentially, complete my Water Fast around October 6th/7thif everything proceeds as expected. Today I did not lose one single gram from yesterday, but it could be water retention since I broke my Dry Fast just few hours ago. I have to remember that, if I want to start a new Dry Fast, I either do it for at least 5/6 days or I don’t do at all. Because 48hrs are worth nothing in terms of weight loss, and actually I’m just shocking my body that would retain as much water as it can!
So far I feel ok, mood is good, my stomach is growling often today, but I’m not hungry. I bought an unsweetened tea at Starbucks today, and really it was absolutely disgusting. Now I guess I cannot tolerate anything, I should stick with just plain water, not even lemon water, it’s bothering me that too now.
Sometimes I think on how will be my body reaction to food again, once I break the Fast in 3 weeks from now. It does seem a long time, but I’m sure time will pass quickly if I don’t think too much about it. I wish I had lots of things to do during the day, so I could be busy and not think about my Fast. It is really a lot of mental component here, because there’s no hunger whatsoever, so it’s just my mind that calls for food.
My journey though, it is still long but I have lots of weight to lose unfortunately, so I don’t have much choice, I don’t want to be fat as I am, I don’t feel well, it’s causing me a lot of anxiety, and when I’m skinnier I feel younger, full of positive thoughts, I feel like another person. People interact with me differently, I do too, I feel more confident, my clothes fit and I can use my whole wardrobe without stressing in the mornings on what to wear. I know it might seem a superficial way to see things and my life, but this is what makes me happy, and everybody is different, what makes you happy can be different from someone else. We have to find what’s right for us.