Fasting and Social Life - How to manage it?

One of the difficult things to overcome when deciding to embark in a prolonged Fast is the social-life aspect. I’ve been struggling on completing properly my Dry/Water Fasts often for this reason; since my man is an always-hungry-foodie type of person and denying a dinner invitation all the times can be difficult.
One thing that I learned though is that I can work around the events somehow; at the end I go out to eat maybe one or two time per week. Of course that could be situations when I’m out of town for a road-trip or special events going on that I need to attend, but really this is not the usual schedule. I work 9-to-5 and I cannot afford to go out for lunch or dinner with friends every single day, plus I don’t find it really healthy anyway, at the end you never know how is the food served at those restaurants.
I always remind myself that, no matter if I eat or fast, time will pass and it’s up to me deciding if I really want to improve my health or find excuses not to. So look at your weekly schedule and plan a Fast around it; starting with 2/3 days of Dry or Water Fast is great as well, and I’m sure between weeks will happen to have more time to keep on going with the days. If anyone asks for lunch or dinner when you’re in the middle of your loving fast, well a regular excuse that I come always with is: “Sorry, I had a very long week and still need to catch up with some tasks/errands; let’s try the next one”. It might not work for everyone by all means – but it can give you some ideas.
I perfectly know how difficult can be starting a fast, thinking of not eating or drinking anything for days, but life’s made of priorities sometimes and, with trials & errors, everyone I’m sure, would be able to find some time to do a fast; even my boyfriend once was able to do a 2-days Water Fast! Unbelievable but true, he felt amazing after that, his belly too!
Good luck everyone on finding the time and mental preparation for this amazing journey of Fasting.

In my first day of 7-Day Water Fast - How am I?

My first Water Fast day is going well so far, right now I feel less hungry than before, I noticed that if I drink water I have the emptiness feeling that we always use to associate to the hunger – which is not, it's just the water rolling into my digestive system and finding its way down.

I went downstairs to buy a couple of bottle of vapour distilled water, it's not exactly pure distilled water but I think it's a good compromise while fasting, it also tastes really good.  One of the key component on being diligent during my Water Fast is finding some time to do things instead of having a meal, I have to say that I can always find something to buy instead of eating - but my 23 days Water Fast done in October really made me spent so much money that now I have to be more conscious on what I really need to buy!

The first 2/3 days of a Water Fast are never fun, especially knowing that I'm losing muscle – since I'm not into Ketosis yet. I should have switched to a low carb – low sugar regiment before starting the fast, but who does it? Yesterday I ate whatever I wanted, I didn't feel great with my stomach and my heart palpitations were raised almost the whole day, I have better willpower when avoiding food altogether than sticking with a specific meal plan. I wasn't always so bad, the large amount of Diets made me like this really.

I'm still the idea of doing my planned 10-Day Water Fast on December the 5^th, I like Water Fasting, I don't mind it – it really gives me a break from my obsessions, my fat, my cravings, my mind works better, I have more mental clarity, I feel confident I can manage my weight, I like the idea that my body is healing itself and I'm cleansing it. The reason why I want to do another Water Fast in 2/3 weeks from now is because I believe my body still needs to detox, to heal and I did not complete this process, it will require some time; I cannot achieve this goal without multiple extended Water Fasts. I'll be fasting often in the coming months, not sure yet the length of each fast, most likely a long one like my first, I would do only a couple of times in a year, spaced out with shorter Water Fast like 7/10 – Days total – less than that there's no point on doing it, my body gets into ketosis around 3/4 days into the fast so I need to burn fat or the Water Fast will just make me lose muscles and it's definitely not what I'm looking forward to.

Incorporating Water Fasting as part of my life

As a result of my Water Fast experience I lost lots of weight, which it was one of the main reasons why I wanted to do this fast – as well as getting rid of my Candida Albicans, my Binge Eating Disorder and understanding my underlying issues with food. All things that I believe I achieved so far; I do think sometimes that I will ended up binging again one day, but better staying positive for now and thinking that the path to a healthy lifestyle and better relationship with food is a long way with highs and lows but that I should never lose track on what I'm gaining staying straight.

In any case I'm absolutely loving my new weight, I feel a completely different person, I feel younger, detoxed and with a different type of desire when thinking about food. I can say no, I'm full to myself and I have no issues on waiting a bit when meal time is coming; I try to concentrate and understand what my body is telling me, if I'm hungry, I'm bored or simply craving anything - but so far I did not have any craving, apart from healthy salads and fruits, which it feels very different compared the type of craving I used to have before for sugar.

Since I don't want to lose this Nirvana status between my weights, my new whole wardrobe, the way I relate to food, I decided to incorporate in my life Water Fasting from now on. I already planned my next Water Fast, it will be only a 10-Days Water Fast and I'm planning on starting on December 5^th till the 15^th or so, as usual it would be also driven on how my body is feeling so far for that days.

The reason why I planned this 10-Days Water Fast is because I believe my healing and cleansing process didn't get completed with my 23-Days Water Fast, I still have so much to give to my body, give it time to heal and rest. Doing a Water Fast that does not reach Ketogenic status is not much worth the stress really, at least not from a cleansing perspective, that's why a minimum of 10-Days Water Fast will be the best solution for me going forward. I'm thinking on having an n-Days Water Fast here and there during the year coming up, for the prolonged Fast I don't think I will do it more than 2/3 times a year, but let's see how it goes.

Apart from this 10-Days Water Fast I think I will use a sort of IF – Intermitting Fasting strategy as well, but not exactly as IF is supposed to work. I found that IF doesn't really work for me, I like having breakfast or something during my mornings so I don't think I can keep on avoiding this thing for too long without feeling frustrated about it. So I decided to do a 2-Days Water Fast during the weekend, not all weekends but I might start this one if my weight is getting unmanageable, for me maintenance is a delicate period that have to last at least a month so I need to prepare a backup plan in case my weight goes up too much, too soon. So I planned on starting the Water Fast on Friday evening, I will try to have an early dinner, light with no fruits so I can try to get into ketosis if I can, and continue with the Water Fasting till basically Monday morning, when I will have again a regular breakfast – without eating too much to avoid upsetting my stomach after the short Fast. I hope I can find the strengths to do it, but in general doing my prolonged Water Fast didn't bother me at all, I actually enjoyed the whole experience, but it's also true that I just completed one and going back on only drinking water can be annoying, let's see I might have a busy day on Saturday so I will not mind staying just on water for a couple of days.