Master Fasting System - Days of my life!

A couple of days ago I started a new protocol that I was researching since a while. It is called Master Fast System, which is not really a Fast but a combination of drinking juice and dry fasting basically.
The protocol requires drinking from 1 to 4 liters of Concord Grape Juice with fresh squeezed lemon, as well as a special Kidney Tea with special tinctures added to it and once a day a sort of a Pudding based on grape juice and 3 powdered ingredients - magic for detoxification: Psyllium Husk, Bentonite Clay and Activated Charcoal. Those 3 powders are amazing to detox your gut and they’re rich on fiber as well.

So far I’m on day 1/2 not sure exactly, since I’ve not been doing it religiously quite yet, I hope today I won’t indulge in anything outside the protocol and I’ll be able to find the Plasma Balance that everyone is talking about!
The protocol is not hard to follow overall, you can drink a lot of grape juice and 2 teas per day, plus the “mud pudding” – as my man calls it – is really delicious and I don’t feel deprived as a normal Water Fast. On another note I really don’t want to know what’s the state of my Ketosis, with all this sugar that I’m taking every day; but the idea is to do a sort of intermitting fasting too – since the protocol requires a daily Dry Fast of 12-18 hours at least and a 24 hours weekly Dry Fast – I don’t think I’ll be interested on doing a monthly 48 hours Dry Fast as right now.Today I had what they call: mucoid plaque releases. A black long release that is supposed to coming out from the wall of my intestine and colon apparently, but I believe is partially created by the Mud Pudding, with some residue of whatever I have in my gut right now – I do trust 100% the power of the Mud Pudding! It is a magical detoxifier!I’m not losing weight with the same speed as a Water Fast and this is normal I guess, but this protocol actually banned Water altogether! I’m not supposed to drink Water at all, and actually I definitely decreased the amount of water I take daily by 90% I think. I drink water just with my 2 Kidney Teas and to take a pill in the morning, that’s pretty much all – scaring I know!

My daily struggles

I am here again struggling to start another Water Fast when my hormones destroyed all sacrifices I made last week with my 9 days Water Fast.

Some days I feel really hopeless, some others I try to find inside me the strengths to keep going to have happy thoughts and good intentions for my future weight loss journeys. When it is going to end? When I will achieve my goal weight and fight to keep it? Most probably never, I know it’s not an optimistic way of seeing things but that’s how I feel today unfortunately.

I know now that this is not actually me talking but my hormones; once a month or so I feel very negative, not only for my weight loss but for everything; I lack in motivation, I see all dark and I put in discussion everything of my life. My job, my city, my boyfriend, the way I look, the way I dress, the things I do every day, it feels I’m the worst critic of myself, nothing that I do is good and nobody around me appreciate me nor I deserve them.

Being a woman sometimes really sucks.

Today I’m very negative regarding my relationship; it’s been 5 months now that we’re dating, and although it’s not a long period by all means, I don’t feel very positive about how things are going. He’s a great man, very kind and sweet, and really I’m very lucky that I found someone like him, knowing how difficult is to meet a good man in this city. However I feel our story is boring sometimes; I feel he is not that much into me as I am not into him. But I wonder if the fact that we don’t see each other that often might be a culprit of our boredom? I also think that could be the age after all. The more we grow up the more we tend to handle relationships differently, maybe more rationally. We don’t jump into anything suddenly anymore, - well at least I don’t - I try to develop something taking my time, being conscious on what I’m doing, without rushing anything too fast. I want this story to last for long time, I don’t want to get burned but at the same time I do want to feel in love with him, otherwise there won’t be any future, regardless the pace that I’ll take to let everything develop by its natural course.
Today I was thinking on going to a walk-in clinic to get prescribed some test for the Candida Overgrowth (COS), not sure if they will look at me and think that I’m crazy but at least I would have tried. It really bothers me the fact that I feel the urge to go and buy chocolate bars and m&m’s like I was a 12 years old; I cannot stand this absurd behavior at my age, it’s just ridiculous. It must be something that can help me… Today for instance, I had basically lunch with a full bag of cookies, m&m’s and OH-Henry chocolate candies. How can this been happening to me? I was so happy of my Raw Vegan Diet, and frankly I still am, but I wasn’t eating so badly since months now, I really don’t know what’s happening to me. I feel disgusted now, my stomach is killing me and I deserve everything really.
Some time I envy people that don’t have issues with food, that they can eat just when they are hungry, with no major cravings or mental addictions, I’m really jealous of this type of gift.

How food addiction jeopardizes my Water Fast

A lot of people that struggle with extra weight (me included) very often don't eat for hunger but rather for emotional reasons. Sometimes those reasons are unknown to ourselves altogether and we just eat because food is joy, it's a reward that we deeply need, makes feel us better, loved. But food it's at the same time culprit of our troubles. It's a vicious circle that we can never get off from, there's no brain switch that would say: that's it. I had enough of you; I want to have willpower on my food intake. Unfortunately, this is a lost war that only good prolonged, extremely prolonged habits can win.

Food is my enemy and my love; I can't control my feelings when dealing with it. Yesterday I had a real pure Binge Eating episode, planned and executed perfectly. I did not have this type of episode since a while now; yes I was often overeating but never planning my binges, at least not in the past few months.

I'm thinking that the reason could be due to the refined sugar and carbs I had in the past 2/3 weeks. I had non-raw-vegan food in few occasions, including m&m's at the movie theatre and English muffins from McDonald's once I felt already screwing up everything I had achieved in the past months. Shame on me!

In these days I'm trying and trying to start a new Water Fast, and oh man how difficult is, I never had so many problems starting a Fast; sure the first 3/4 days are tough but I always came around to do it somehow. This time seems everything so hard and my belly now looks like an 8-months pregnancy! I have that moment where I hate my body.

Temptations are always around, the desire of food is always there, I'm hungry and frustrated, I have anxiety, I sleep very badly at night and nothing fits me properly now. I look so ugly and old in the mirror.

One thing that often influences me negatively with my fast is meeting people; in particular my boyfriend….that is always hungry! When he asks me to go eat something I feel bad to say no, that I'm fasting, because I know he likes to eat a lot and me too anyway, so I give up on my discipline and eat with him, happily.

But today I feel more motivated, the pictures I took of my huge belly yesterday are a great motivation; the way my face looks with all this extra fat is convincing me on stick on my fast. I also saw my ex for a coffee yesterday evening and he did not believe the fact that I did a 24 day Water Fast and he acknowledged my fat and extra weight, I know he is a jerk, he's always been like that….he likes skinny women and I'm not here to judge him, but – believe it or not – this offensive look and comment kind of helped me to find a good motivation to stick to my Fast today.

One thing I'm worried about though, this afternoon I'm going to see my parents and spend 2 days with them; I really hope they won't make me eat the usual junk food or forcing me to eat something and break again the fast. I really need to pass these first few days; once I'm in ketosis things will be easier. Also my boyfriend is already thinking on celebrating my new job in the coming week, going out in a restaurant of my choice and to have some fun together. I hope he'll understand that I finally started my Water Fast and we just need to postpone the dinner of few days; it should not be a big deal.

Trying to Fast again with no success

So I'm back again here struggling on starting a new prolonged Water Fast, ideally I would like to do a 14-Day Water Fast. The reason I am aiming to this number is because I think I will need at least 2 weeks to lose all the fat I gained back after my last fast done before my trip to Italy.

I gained all back, I'm not over 60 Kg yet but I can see from my body that whatever I have on is just fat, since I'm not going to the gym in a while I have no muscles anymore. I went for a run 3/4 times in the morning, when I was in Italy, but just for 20/30 minutes….better than nothing sure but not enough to build muscles. I might need to go back on my gym regiment or these Fasts are going to break down all my left over shapes!

I gained my pounds back because of the amount of stress I'm getting at work; seriously this job is killing me inside and out. I'm desperately trying to change but it's not easy to find a good job. Before leaving for my vacation I was very motivated, I had found a great company that asked me to come multiple times for interviews, giving me great feedbacks. This gave me great motivation also to keep on going with my Water Fast, until the last few days before my trip, when they decided not to pursue my candidature for the role, that was very disappointing since I kind of pictured myself already leaving this hell where I'm in every day!

This is the first time in my life where I don't want to wake up in the morning knowing that I have to come to work. I think nobody should ever feel in this way for a job….this is not a happy place. The way I feel every day is affecting my behaviour towards my entire life, my relationship with food and also my relationship with others. I feel depressed, very often I would like just to go home and cry. I don't have anyone I can talk to and that understands my situation. I told everything to a couple of friends but I realized that after talking few times they are tired to listen to my complaints; which is totally understandable, I've been dealing with these struggles since 6 months now, anyone would get bored to listen to me, myself included…!

In the mornings I have strong anxiety, the Water Fast usually helps me a lot with my anxiety, but it takes at least 5/7 Days to really start to feel the benefits of the Fast, and the first days are normally the toughest one. I started last Thursday fasting then after 3 days of being diligent I gave up on some food at a local pizzeria with my boyfriend. I was definitely hungry but being in company and going out didn't help my discipline.

It takes so little to gain weight back, I spent yesterday eating and today I had a huge lunch, although skipped breakfast and planning on starting a real Fast. I want to be successful this time, I know the level of stress is high but eating and gaining weight makes me only more miserable and it gets my mind so foggy. Being on a lower weight helps a lot my mood, my self-esteem, my anxiety, I can control my food better because I'm more motivated, even my gym routine improves.

I want to try to start an IF regiment once I get to the desired weight, I'm thinking that even just 56Kg as a start would be perfect, and then anything less can be achieved with IF or the gym. But first I need to get rid of this fat I have accumulated to my belly. I'm wondering if even the stress can be a reason why I'm often bloated…I don't know. I just hope to find the strengths on keep on going with my Water Fast. Wish me luck!

Completed a 10-Day Water Fast!

Ok, so I have successfully completed 10 days of Water Fasting and I'm now in the 11^th day planned on breaking my fast this evening with bone broth. I do not feel hungry though, and a part of me would like to keep going and enjoy this amazing feeling that the fast is gifting me with. But everything has to end eventually and since I'm going to Italy in just few days I might as well start refeeding and be ready when I'll be with my family.

The mental clarity while I'm fasting is great, I am absolutely astounded every time I do a sort of longer fast. This is my second longest Water Fast after my 24 days, I think I could do another 10 days without any problem…but, as I said circumstances are against me at the moment.

Today I had for the third day in a row the same weight at 55.6Kg, but my Ketosis has been very high, over 100mg/dL; which is a value I rarely see in shorter fasts. So I don't mind much the plateau for now, I'm sure I'm losing inches somewhere and considering the colour of my Ketostix, I still have lots of fat to lose here and there.

I'm happy to report that I'm still having a sort of BMs, I did few enemas every other day just to help my detoxing process. I used to buy the Fleet enemas at the Drug Store but they're too expensive so I'm recycling it and reusing it after a deep deep cleaning! I know it sounds gross but $10 every other day is not affordable for me at the moment.

I believe that my weight plateau might be also due to the fact that I've been home in the past 3 days and not moving much around, since my condo apartment is very tiny; is not that I'm thinking of doing strenuous exercise or anything but walking at least one hour per day is definitely beneficial for my weight loss.

After I end this Water Fast I want to try to reduce as much as I can the carbs, in particular the fruits. I noticed that I tend to binge on bananas especially if I eat them with the peanut butter powder. Delicious combination by all means, but it makes me gain weight back in 2 days, which is not ideal for me. I also want to try stick on a 2 meal daily plan, basically IF, trying to eat first at 11:30 in the morning and then dinner around 5:30pm. Hopefully I can do it in Italy too, we usually eat late in the evening there, so it might be tough for me smelling all the amazing food my mother cooks without feeling hungry. But I'm planning on having big meals, mostly green leafs and fats like nuts and seeds. Wish me luck!

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…