Water Fast - Refeeding Day #1

My 7-Day Water Fast is completed and today's my first Refeeding Day, so far I had 250gr of watermelon for breakfast and going to have same amount for lunch. I didn't register any weight loss this morning but my ketosis was still in large traces at 80mg/dL, so – to quote Dr. Simeons - if I'm not losing pounds I'm losing inches.

What I believe could be the reason of not seeing changes on the scale, is the fact that I basically didn't sleep last night; I added few sips of green tea in the afternoon that might affected my sleep, I know it sounds crazy but I cannot think of any other reason why I could not sleep at all; yes I always have hard time sleeping during fasting or strict dieting, but not completely for the entire night! But again, mine are just assumptions; let's see tonight how it goes.

After ate and digestion started I felt very weak and with no strengths, I know the feeling because it was even more evident after my 23-Day Water Fast. It still surprises me to see how much energy the digestion process takes from my body, and I would assume from my brain too.

Yesterday I ended up buying some Raw Organic Almonds and some Raw Cashews, my cabinet is completely full, I don't even know why I keep on buying things! I'm getting crazy with the idea of preparing so many recipes that somehow buying the ingredients is a bit like executing the recipe itself. But I have to be conscious on preparing too much food or doing all these gourmet recipes, especially because 99% of them are with nuts and seeds, which hare rich in fat and I know for fact that fat makes me fat pretty quickly.

One thing I want to do this afternoon after work is going to buy a food processor; since today's Black Friday today there are few deals out there and I found a refurbished good food processor for $60, which is good for the brand and size of the processor. The reason why I want to have it, after buying the Vitamix is mostly for chopping and shredding vegetables. I would like to cut my vegetables in smaller pieces, I found that the thick and creamy dressing sauce that I prepare get better into the vegetables while mixing all the ingredients.

Yesterday I took out from the freezer the container with I believe was cut papaya, it was hard to see frozen from outside, but I'm pretty sure it was papaya or I'll have a surprise tomorrow for breakfast. I also took from the freezer one container with a green sauce, which I'm not sure what it is and the 2 Chinese zucchini that I bought a couple weeks ago. I left all this food in the fridge to thaw, adding this morning my lemon container with few slices of lemon, to use in the morning in my water, not yet though, I will start in a couple of days to have citrus, to avoid upsetting my stomach.

Water Fast Day #6 - How am I feeling so far and a morning struggle

My Water Fast Day #6 started very badly this morning. My weight and ketosis were great but I struggled a lot with my BM, I have to say that similar thing happened in my first Water Fast, but this time around was way more painful. I know that lots of people don't always feel comfortable talking about BMs, but it's a natural thing, it's a response of our body on how we process food how our digestive system is working. So I hope my experience can be helpful for who reads and is going through my same difficulties.

So I didn't feel good since a couple of days and my mistake was really not doing anything till today, I should have had an action plan that I can execute while at home and with plenty of time. Unfortunately I didn't, so this morning I had one of the worst half hour of my life! In short I took 2 probiotic as soon as I woke up and a glass of hot water, it didn't seem helping at all so I decided to try again with the salty water and the Shank Pashlanka exercise, well it really took little time for me and just a cup of water to have some relief. I am happy to say that I felt like a new person after that!

Today I have much more energy compared the previous days, my cravings are less than before and I'm good in terms of weight loss, so I guess tomorrow will be ok to stick with the initial plan and end my fast. After that I will start my refeeding process with just watermelon, this time I don't want to buy the whole fruit but I decided to stop by to a local store downstairs and grab just a couple of containers of pre-cut watermelon, it will save me time and avoid wasting anything; I had way to much watermelon in the past weeks, so I'm not looking forward to feed myself all day with this fruit. I will switch to papaya the day after with no regrets.

My back still hurt me today, still don't know why, I never had any issue with back pain, just wondering if could be related to my fast or I'm crazy thinking that this could be the cause.

Usually when we do a Water Fast chances are that the sleep will be very little, sleeping becomes an issue while fasting, maybe because we save so much more energy taken from digestions, but I might be wrong. This second Water Fast for me is a bit different though. During the first one I really had hard time sleeping, I forced myself to stay in bed and close my eyes to let my body rest and heal. This second one instead I have no trouble sleeping; sure sometime I wake up in the middle of the night but I can fall asleep back again in no time, which is good for me.

Another common symptom of the Water Fast is associated with being in Ketosis – I'm feeling always cold. I have the heater under my desk in the office and when I'm home I have to turn on the heater almost all day and night, which is very unusual for me that I like to sleep with chilly temperatures, to enjoy the big blanket - a small price to pay when burning fat though.

I was thinking to buy a recipe book today of Raw Vegan recipes, so I went downstairs during lunch time to check out Indigo store and see if they had good Black Friday deals. They didn't have much really, the only 2/3 books that I found they were not really fully Raw but mostly Vegan, plus the price was a rip off, $30 for a tiny book, full of dessert recipes that I could easily find online…for free. I know they pay for printing and branding and so on, but why then switching to eBook and make it more affordable? I would love to buy a Raw Vegan recipe eBook for $10, as long as it has ONLY Raw Vegan recipes and doesn't talk for half of it about the author Raw Vegan Diet transformation or a classic useless explanation: What is a Raw Vegan Diet?

Water Fast - Refeeding Process and my second meal of the day

Ok, so my second meal of the day is done; I just had again 2 ounces of watermelon and so far so good. This piece was cold, it was in the fridge since this morning but I was eating it in very small pieces, chewing slowly so it did not affect me much, in other circumstances I wouldn't be happy to eat cold fruit while I'm freezing here in the office. It took me another 10 to 15 minutes to eat it all, so I will resume my water around noon; I'm estimating another meal around 1:30pm and the next one I might have at home – since I'm supposed to eat every 2 hours between 9:00am and 5:00pm; not sure if I might ended up eating another 2 pieces of watermelon home or not….let's see.

Again, I wasn't blown away from the eating experience really, it was not even tasty, I'm wondering if I just bought a bad watermelon since it's almost November here. But for tomorrow I planned to buy some papaya and continue my refeeding process with another fruit, I'm not even sure I can find papaya in Toronto! I wish I was living in a tropical country…mostly because I would be on the beach right now.

I'm somehow getting impatient for this refeeding process, it feels so slow and boring, thinking that I'm not able to eat whatever I want it's frustrating. Not that I'm thinking on bingeing or anything, I'm actually fine but I would prefer staying an extra couple of days with just water than eating this tiny small piece of watermelon; but I guess I have no choice, I need to let my digestion system wake up again gently without attacking it with lots of food or anything hard to digest.

Tomorrow my papaya meals will be every 2.5 hours, so basically I will start at 9:00am ending at around 6:00pm, depending on how the eating process goes, I'm not sure I like papaya so it will be a new experience for me, I hope I will, or my frustration will be greater than today! Wish me luck!