How do I Fast?

Fasting isn't just a matter of stopping eating; it is stopping eating solids, to allow time for impurities to be eliminated from the body.

A faster needs to drink at least 8 glasses of water a day. Plus unlimited herbal teas, coconut water if fresh coconuts are available (the juice inside, not the flesh!) and optional vegetable mineral broths made of boiling up vegetables and herbs on the stove and straining out the solids leaving a broth. This keeps the body's vitamins and minerals up as well as flushing the toxins out of the liver and kidneys. Juices etc aren't allowed on an elimination fast, but you can juice fast or mono diet, and a loss of weight and purification will occur, just in a different way.

Decide you are going to fast, and take the step. It will be hard sometimes, and your brain and others will be telling you to eat eat eat, but be strong and keep reminding your self that food will always be around. It is excellent to have a buddy to do it with, or go away from your normal food triggers, if you are able to get some time off. I always like to be by the sea and swim if possible, or in the mountains where I am with nature. Meditation, long baths, writing diaries and poems, reading and lots of sleeping really help. Just let your body relax totally, and reward your self for every day with lots of love and encouragement.

How Will Fasting Make me Feel?

The first day is the hardest, because there is a lt of temptation and hunger pains. The second day is the easiest because the thought of eating makes you sick to your stomach. At least this is my experience. The days after that I get cranky and easily irritated. I don't have a lot of energy to do things so I end up feeling very lazy, sleeping a lot or just sitting around. I find concentration to be sort of difficult, at least for long periods of time. Sometimes I have heaps of energy. In my experience, girls who have more body fat deal with fasting better. Each experience is individual though. On my first big fast, I had a lot of body fat compared to some of my peers, who were totally no energy, when I was running around with energy to burn.

If you are really low in body fat, fasting is very tiring, so go real slow, if you feel really sick, just keep drinking water and peppermint teas, it will pass.

Oral hygiene is really important too, your tongue can feel fuzzy, so teeth cleaning at least 3 times a day with tongue scrubbing is recommended.

Some people experience a lot of emotion fasting, it is a very individual process, others will be euphoric, some depressed, some angry, some a combination, but you will experience change, each fast brings emotional, and physical change. You are controlling your body and food, but also cleansing it and this is a very beautiful gift to give your body, and you will feel different about who you are afterward. By day three you will be used to not eating and I get really empowered and strong, after day 10, you feel you can go forever. Obviously it is best to set an amount of days and see how you go. Start big is actually my suggestion, do a major cleanse and then just maintain with a day or so a week.

How Long do I Fast For?

This is best answered again by considering your lifestyle. The optimum time to fast is 14 days initially.

This needs to be qualified by saying that this takes a lot of discipline and also 14 days where you really don't have much on. It is a time to be as the Buddhists would say 'in the moment', where you allow yourself to let your body slow down and relax, to let your mind wander, and be gentle and good to yourself while you eliminate old wastes. Most bodies can fast for up to 21 days without starting to waste organ tissue. Fat is used up first, then muscle.

If it is impossible to do a long fast, then you need to plan to fast at least one or two days a week, if you think about it that adds up to nearly a third of a year - pretty good length of time for fasting, and it won't be impossible to schedule in.

How Do I Stop?

Coming off a fast is probably more difficult than actually fasting to be done properly so weight isn't quickly gained. If you consider what your body has been through in fasting, it is now taken back to a much cleaner state, so don't put dirty junk back in, it needs to be run slowly and smoothly to get back to eating.

This is especially important for long fasts, i.e. those over 7 days. You can feel really sick if you rush out and go crazy eating, believe me it is a rank feeling!

You need to leave yourself about 5 days to come off a fast.

Day one and two should be juices and a fruit, not a combination of things as stated before, the body likes to digest one at a time. Apples, pears, mango, grapes, watermelon, watery fruit are great. Things like banana and avocado are too complex. Save them for later.

Day three: a light raw salad with some lemon juice squeezed on is fine, still plenty of water and fruit.

By day four and five, some cooked steamed vegetables or a bowl of brown rice will get you moving again. A good rule of thumb is to not eat any protein until you have had a decent bowel movement, so keep up the high fiber and veggies till then.

If you're looking for things to do while fasting - see the ana tips.