My 21 Day Water fast and why I'm healing my body right now
Hey gorgeous humans!
As you know, if you have seen my instagram, I have been on a wild healing journey with my body in this season of my life.
A few short days ago, after 9 months of pain, struggle and frustrating doctors appointments, I was finally given a diagnosis: I have chronic Lyme disease and possible co-infection.
The healing journey is a long road ahead and I still have several blood tests to get done, but for now, I am really grateful that I was able to get a diagnosis so I know what to treat and can discover how to treat it.
This has been a LONG time coming. And I am so happy I know now.
I talk all about my symptoms and struggle on my new Youtube Channel I started called, "My Body Awake" (I wanted a safe space to document my healing for all of you and share the healing modalities and protocols I am trying as I find my health again.)
So... once I found out I suspected I had Lyme I started researching natural healing modalities and found a lot of research on the power of water fasting.
So I decided to jump in and do a 21 straight day water fast.
**Let me first say, before you read this post, that I am working with 2 doctors and a healer during these 21 days (I meet with them all once a week.) Fasting can be really grueling on the body and I'll share my experience in this post, but if you are considering doing a water fast more than a few days please please please do it smart. Talk to a doctor.
As I write this, I am approaching day 8 ( I started my fast at 2pm in the afternoon which I found SUPER helpful to my process- so it's day 7 now but in a few hours it will be day 8), and it has been a wild ride that I am sharing on my IG Stories. I have been getting so many questions about it:
"How does it work?"
"Are you also taking supplements?" (no.)
"Wait...so you're just drinking water and no food for 21 days?"
"Where are you getting your nutrients?"
and my favorite...
"Are you crazy?!" (No I am amazing the end)
So ... .I thought I would take a moment to answer all of those in one beautiful blog post for all of you, let you know how I am feeling and share some resources that helped me.
Why I am choosing to do a long water fast.
60-80% of our bodies energy is actually used to digest our food. And that's when our digestive system is working properly and is healthy! When the body has health problems, often times, there is very little energy available to move out infections, bacteria, viruses or parasites (yuck.)
And if the body cannot eliminate properly, this can lead to other really damaging symptoms such as fibromyalgia, fatigue, brain fog, exhaustion, joint pain, leaky gut, acne/skin issues, and more.
If you look at nature for guidance, when animals are sick or not feeling well, their first response is to not eat their food. They intuitively know to fast. That is because they are conserving their energy to let the body heal. So why wouldn't we be the same?
For me, I know that the are some unwanted living things in my body: Lyme, Co-infection, parasites: the whole nine. And they need food to LIVE. So I want to kill them. Starving them out is one of the quickest ways to do that!
If you are wondering what parasites and bacteria and cancers live off of: They thrive on things like artificial sugars, processed foods, and dairy... which is probably why I was experiencing such crazy cravings all the time. Most days it felt like I was binge eating out of my control - like my body was just telling me to feed it these bad foods that I didn't actually desire.
Parasites and viruses are known to be thought bodies, in that they can actually take on thought energy within your system:
"eat that bad food"
"feel sad."
"Feel anxious"
"get suicidal thoughts" (this started happening for me during the worst of my Lyme flare ups.)
In case you are wondering, my Lyme systems were really debilitating. I couldn't get out of bed often and sometimes sleeping for 15 hours at a time. I had joint pain, muscle pain, ringing in the ears. I couldn't pick up my suitcase at the air port and vomited after every flight.
I felt like I was dying.
And my skin on fire rashes were the WORST. It felt like something was trying to crawl out of my body all of the time and it burnt so bad I couldn't shower.
There's a quote in the Lyme community: "Lyme doesn't kill you, but it certainly makes you wish you were dead."
I definitely felt that way at times.
So a while back, trying to heal these symptoms without a diagnosis I did a 22 day juice cleanse where I was drinking 4-5 large green juices a day and having a homemade lentil soup at night.
I noticed when I was on that juice fast that much of my symptoms went away. I thought I was cured and went back to my regular old way of eating: having chips daily, and sweet processed treats at night...I try to eat a plant based diet and that is always my goal but slowly over time, one chip bag at a time, I transitioned to making more negative decisions: Ham and cheese sandwiches, Mac and cheese, and tubs of ice-cream.
My rash came back full force.
I knew in my heart that I needed to go a more intensive route. Juice cleansing was great and will definitely be the next step for me after this current healing I am in, but my body really needed to repair itself and needed to go a more intensive route. SO I started looking into water fasting.
First Question: "Where do you get your energy when you are Water Fasting?"
FROM THE FAT ON MY BODY.
I started this cleanse at about 169 pounds because I was so inflamed and making so many poor food choices. I wasn't underweight or malnourished so my body had plenty of storage to rely on.
Your brain is what tells the body what to use for fuel. And when you are eating regularly, the brain uses something called glucose (what it pulls from the food you eat. But when you stop eating, and the body uses all of its glucose storage, the brain then looks for other resources of fuel: Like your fat storage. This is when the body goes into Ketosis.
This is a natural thing our body can do. It's magic.
Think about it: in the really old days... like really really old days: Cave men had winters and had to go months without eating. The body developed this unique ability to go into ketosis or else they died.
Evolution for the win.
The truth is water fasting IS tiring. I imagine those cave men slept a lot during those cold winter months. I am very tired and weak some days, so I am spending almost all of my time resting either in my reading chair, my zen den or my bedroom. I get up, walk, do some things around the house every day, but I am making it a point to let my body rest so it can do it's thing. I'm in quarantine right now for Covid19 so it's actually a convenient time to do this since I can't go anywhere anyway.
The Benefits of Water Fasting
There are many. I'll name a few here for you.
Cell Regeneration: Water fasting puts the body into Autophagy, which is a state where dead cells get eliminated from the system. Anything that is unnecessary or dysfunctional can be flushed out so the body can become well again. You do not need to do a long 21 days to get int autophagy. In fact, the body can experience signs of autophagy after just 36 hours of fasting so that's really cool!
Healing the digestive system: Think about it... your brain gets a rest every night when you go to sleep, but your gut, which is your second brain, hardly EVER gets a rest (you know this if you find yourself digesting food at night or going to bed on a full stomach. The break from eating gives the digestive system a chance to return to its most balanced state.
Healing Cravings, Unexplainable hunger, and the need to eat all the time: So many of us are running around listening to our cravings and not actually listening to our bodies. But our Cravings are actually sometimes caused by something deeper going on. By going into a fasting mode and resetting your system, it can be really helpful to find your balance again.
Removing Parasites from the gut: Ew.... but SO important. Speaking of cravings, they say majority of our cravings actually come from these thought body parasites that are telling our bodies what to do! Crazy!!! Im on day seven of my water fast and already I am passing parasite eggs, worms and other things. It's super gross but it's also an incredible relief to me knowing that I'm getting these things out of my system. At some point after my water fast I am going to explore more intensive parasite cleansing protocols.
Removing Dis-Ease from the body and Resetting your entire system. This is kind of a no brainer epic side affect of water fasting. Every day I wake up feeling more rested, energized and healed.
The Downsides of Water fasting.
Days 1-3 I was just hungry. This is when the body is still looking for glucose and it can be hard to fight through those cravings. I am pretty sure I had a million thoughts about food and deeply inhaled the smells of all of Matt's dinners.
Day 4 and 5 I felt like I was dying. My spine was killing me, my bones felt like they were breaking in half and my legs were cramping so much. I was restless at night and had a really hard time with the pain my body was feeling. Mentally I was fine and wasn't really feeling the cravings of food.. I think the pain in my body was worse.
Day 6 I started to pass some parasites. I'd release bile in the bathroom with bugs and it was really gross. It's a good thing, but also totally shitty. Literally. But I felt really good in my body that day and was able to actually work and spend some time with Matt. I noticed my brain fog was gone or the first time in months and I could actually read a book without getting distracted or write in my journal without losing my thoughts.
Day 7 I was WEAK. This was yesterday. I couldn't really walk and I had trouble holding the water pitcher. I think this is because I started antibiotics and my body was killing a lot of bacteria in my body. That is my guess. But who knows. This is also when I started to notice a lot more parasites in my bathroom visits.
The rest of the journey is ahead and who knows what will happen!
Do you want to do a water fast? Read this.
First off, let me say again, I am working with doctors during this process. Matt takes my blood pressure, pulse and temperature 2x a day. I have calls with doctors regularly and I pee on some strips to test my ketone levels every day.
Some things can go wrong during a long term water fast and it is not advised for anyone who takes medications daily, has anemia, or is a type 1 diabetic. It can be really really dangerous.
Again. Talk to a doctor.
I have also heard it suggested that before you do any type of fasting that you should not have alcohol, dairy, or animal products for at least 2 weeks before you do this.
I remember years ago I did a juice cleanse but was drinking alcohol often and eating poorly prior. It put me into a high grade fever with shakes and vomiting. No good.
I will say that before I jumped into this 21 day healing experience I was already familiar with fasting.
I first started with intermittent fasting (10 hours at a time, then 17 hours at a time)
Then I experimented with 2 day water fasts
Then I did a 22 day juice cleanse
and THEN I decided to do this 21 day water fast.
Don't just jump in. Stretch yourself slowly. You need to train your body to do this.
Things I am doing during the fast
Checking my temperature every day to make sure it remains low (water fasting is known to lower your temperature. Mine has been around 96,97)
Checking my blood pressure and pulse every day which has been 123/81 and 79
Drinking 64-90 oz of filtered, purified water. I use the Berkey system the medical medium suggests and I love it.
Adding some sprinkle of pink Himalayan salt to my water once every few days just to keep my sodium levels balanced.
Light stretching, heating pads and relaxing in bed.
Tongue scraping and dry brushing my skin
I am also using coffee enemas periodically and may do some Epsom salt or Dead Sea salt baths... the doctor DID NOT advise this because it can possibly make you faint if your body can't handle the heat of the water or the enemas so I am being extra careful.
Anyway... I'll keep you updated!
I hope this helps you for anyone who is curious about fasting.
