How to stay motivated during a Water Fast?

When approaching Water Fasting most of us struggle on being disciplined and continue the fast till the planned time or the hunger signal. The most difficult part of a fast is going through the first 2/3 days, till the body enters into Ketosis. Those days are the toughest one usually - since hunger, detoxing symptoms and headaches are a common thing. Desire of food and general unwell being can be hard on anyone. I myself experienced these difficulties too and gave up many times!

So how do we stay motivated and keep on going? Although I don't have a magic formula for that – since most of it can be self-motivation; I believe that knowing exactly that we just need to reach Day #4 and feel better, great - can be helpful in motivation. I suggest planning the first 3 days out of the house, busy with something; plan exactly what you are going to do in these days, set your mind to reach this goal no matter what. Once those days are gone you won't feel anymore hungry; temptations for food will always be there, we're humans at the end, but the chances to give up and indulge on eating will be definitely less.

How do I feel after 2^nd/3^rd day? I personally reach Ketosis around >48 hours into a fast, I can usually see some traces of Ketosis after this time, some people need more time, and apparently men take something like 72 hours to reach this stage. Once into Ketosis I feel always cold, energy is very good and the weight loss changes a bit, I can see reducing fat on my body. Maybe not in a single day but during extended fasts the excess fat tends to get down rather than muscles. I believe this is also another reason why I lose much more in the first days rather than when in Ketosis. Of course there is water retention, GI tract cleaning up but there's also muscle loss unfortunately. Muscles are heavier than fat and even a small muscle loss can show up on the scale more than losing unwanted fat. I would suggest being happy for the weight loss only once into Ketosis, that's the real deal!

Researches have shown that the Ketosis phase can also give a pseudo high sensation, and I believe it. Once few days into a Water Fast I usually feel way better with my mood and motivation. I suffer of anxiety and this is definitely improved after few days into a Water Fast. If you're struggling with anxiety and depression, definitely a prolonged Water Fast could give you some relief for that.

So don't give up in the first 2/3 days! I know it's hard like hell but the way you'll feel after will help you keep going with minimum effort. I personally don't have any problem between Day #4 and Day #21 really, but I noticed that if I set my mind with a Water Fast deadline, I cannot go longer than that. That's why I always suggest to Think BIG! Set for yourself an extended Water Fast, at the minimum 7 Days (if it's your first time), in this way there will be less chances for you to give up at Day #5 or #6 since you will be almost achieving your goal. May the force be with you!

Water Fast Day #3.5 - updates

It's Thursday today and pretty much during lunch time starts officially the fourth day of my Water Fast. So far I'm ok, just ok; I cannot say that I don't have cravings or not dreaming about food but I know that the first 2/3 days are usually the hardest one. After these days pass, then it's smooth sailing…or something like that.

I had a bad headache during the first 24 hours of fasting, maybe for the sugar withdrawal or just for the detoxing process, although I'm not really sure I was already "detoxing" during the first 24 hours of fasting. It was not a huge pain or anything like that, I still recall my first Water Fast – I had terrible headaches for 2 days! It was mostly for the coffee withdrawal though…and sugar too I guess, although I was not eating refined sugar anymore, only Stevia.

I'm having often hot water with lemon and sometimes I go to Starbucks to get a Passion Tango hot tea, it's 0 Calories and it's nice to have something warm looking at the snow outside. I usually try to drink distilled water, especially if I'm home; but if I'm in the office I drink either the filtered water that we have in the kitchen or the smart water brand that's vapour distilled, as I found out it's made by Coca Cola, but to me it taste delicious when at the right room temperature.

This morning I had only small traces of Ketosis and my weight is nicely going down, I am 58.7Kg which compared yesterday weight at 59.3Kg is a 600gr loss (1.32 pounds) – of course first days are easier on the scale since I'm releasing a lot of weight that comes from my GI tract; but once I'm a good Ketosis I'll be sure I'm also burning fats.

I'm planning to continue the Water Fast till all day tomorrow (Friday) and on Saturday I will break the fats with Bone Broth for the whole day. I'm not really happy to break my Fast but Sunday evening I have a dinner with my boyfriend and I know he cares a lot about this dinner so I don't want to be the bad one and ruin the plans….we didn't see each other for Valentine's Day so it's like a belated celebration. The reason why I'm not happy to take this break from my Fast is because being in Ketosis makes things easier to carry over, and the dinner will throw me out immediately of course….getting back in that phase will require another few days of strong willpower on not indulging in food and sweets. Oh well I hope I will find the strengths to start again my Water Fast…

Starting a new Dry Fast

I'm starting a soft Dry Fast today and I'm thinking to buy 2 Bone Broth jars on my way over, so I can break this fast with the Bone Broth in few days. Because of the TOM I don't feel extremely well, I did not weight myself today because I'm confused, between the gym, my weight gain and the period, I don't know exactly how much fat I gained vs muscle or water retention. The Dry Fast will definitely help me with most of these symptoms. I wish I could stay all day in bed today, I might leave earlier if I don't feel staying in the office, there's not much to do for me here today anyway.

So far I'm taking every day probiotics, one in the morning with 50 billion and one in the late afternoon with 30 billion, going forward though I want to stick with only an 80 billion per day – I found it way more effective for me and easy to remember than 2 dosages. I didn't take anything this morning though, because of the Dry Fast I don't want to ingest anything that might need to be processed by my body; I want just to be focused on healing whatever needs to be healed. I still have some problems on my right knee, especially when I go into the cold, I wish all the issues I have on my ligaments can be fixed with this Dry Fast, sometime I'm afraid that exercise can further damage whatever is wrong with it.

 I am not crazy about Dry Fasting I must to say but – based on my researches – it is the most effective and absolute Fast out there, so whenever you're doing such an extreme action for your body you want to go with the most effective way on doing it. But in general I want to give another chance to Dry Fasting, I feel my body needs to be accustomed to this type of Fast to get all its benefits, plus every time we fast is different from the previous one. It also helps with the water retention and since I'm under TOM in these days, it would definitely help my body with that.

Yesterday I went for a 20 minutes run outside, it was a bit cold but not much to be unbearable during the run, what I didn't like though it was the pollution from the traffic on the street that I breathed while I was running. I can feel it now, coughing here and there….but I don't have a park nearby my place where I can go running and using the thread mill is not always appealing to me, sometimes I just want to try doing some HIIT changing speed while running. I know that often people say to change city, location if living in such polluted places, but seriously do you think I wouldn't like living and working in Costa Rica? Eating fresh juicy fruit every day? Staying in the sun every time I can? Of course I would! Who wouldn't?! But I live in Canada and we're not in the Tropics here - let's face it, this is a huge city and pollution is the least we can expect when living in the downtown area of such a big metropolis. Fasting also helps to get rid of those toxins we ingest, breath every day – it might not help with the Vitamin D but at least cleanses something else from the body.

Bone Broth Fast - My results after successfully completing 4.5 Days

So I completed successfully 4.5 Bone Broth Fast Days. I cannot say it was a pleasant experience I have to admit it, but after finding the low sodium Bone Broth at the store downstairs my office, it was definitely easier keep going. Overall I did not feel sense of hunger or weakness during the Fast; it was easy to compensate my cravings with a mug of warm broth – that might sound gross I know, but I always added so much water I could barely feel I was drinking the broth of dead animals bones.

At the end of the fast I did not feel miraculously younger, neither my skin looked different, so I thought that for me it was just a chicken soup, nothing to look forward to do again. I did not feel any mental clarity during the fast; nothing improved comparing to other regular days. However something different happened to me after 2/3 days of completing my Bone Broth Fast. My mental clarity came back, my cravings too ok…but slowly I felt lots of energy and motivation that brought me to exercise 4 days in a row without feeling tired or sore after that (maybe the L-Glutamine supplements that I'm taking helped too).

Yesterday TOM came back, regular period – after just a month! It didn't happen since at least 2 years – so I'm wondering if this could be due to the Bone Broth I drunk in those 4.5 days. It might be only a coincidence by all means, but I feel good so far, I gained some weight during the refeeding, trying to eat less fruits, mostly blueberries and half persimmons but my sugar addiction is still there unfortunately.

I usually start very well my refeeding process, I eat slowly, very clean, portion controlled; and then a bit more fruits, a bit more shredded coconut, maybe a couple of dates….maybe more, and on and on – out of control on everything, even my salads look for a 5-people meal! Good thing though is that the refeeding process for a Bone Broth Fast is not so drastic as the Water Fast or worse like the Dry Fast. I still needed to go easy on what I was eating but I didn't have 5 watermelons as the other Fasts!

During my Bone Broth Fast I had lots of BMs, maybe helped by the probiotics I was taking regularly twice a day, it was mostly liquid of course but I felt that definitely helped in my cleansing process, I did an enema only once during the 4.5 Day of my fast – just to give a cleanse to my colon. So far I'm not 100% negative on the Bone Broth Fast but I might need to try it again to collect more results.