By Katherine

Fasting can be a useful way to improve your health! Even seniors can benefits from fasting.

Here’s a look at what happened over the course of a week of fasting…

Sunday October 7, Day 1

I knew yesterday today would be a good day to fast. So here I go on a journey for longer than I have ever fasted!

All morning until about 2:00 pm I didn’t even notice not eating. That’s what happens when you overeat the night before. I drank lots of water and cleaned up the kitchen from the night before. Not eating didn’t bother me. I froze some soup and squash so it wouldn’t go bad in anticipation of fasting a few more days… and grated some zucchini from my garden.

9:00 pm—Feeling cold, tired, and out of zip. I did a lot of work on the computer from about 3:30 pm until now. Time to watch a show and go to bed.

Monday October 8, Day 2—down 2 pounds

So glad I am down in weight! Fasting is a good way to put the breaks on when I’ve had a couple of weeks of out of control eating. It takes so little time. I don’t have to decide what I am eating. I don’t have to take any time to cook.

I had a bit of congestion and a very phlegmy cough this morning. It went away for the day and returned in the evening.

However, I am tired and don’t get as much done as I usually do. A slower pace is a nice change from my crazy life! Good thing we have a fire going in our wood stove. I am wearing my warmest sweater and the house is sweltering. I am just right!

I was sooo thirsty this morning. My mouth was so dry and my tongue felt so heavy and coated. So I drank tons of water…

Really aside from being lower energy, my day was fine. I was a little hungry… but then I just drank water. I took the seeds out of the pulp of some squash to roast later. I can’t work with ready-to-eat food or I would eat it.

I haven’t really had any headaches these past 2 days. Usually when I fast, I have a ‘detox’ headache. Bonus. It’s 9:00 pm—I’m ready for bed!!

Tuesday October 9, Day 3—down 4 pounds from Day 1

Five days of fasting will take me to Thursday evening. I’m not sure if I will go until Thursday evening or Friday morning. I feel surprisingly great this morning even though my armpits smell worse than usual. I had a good sleep, although interrupted by pee breaks and replenishing with water.

Drinking water this morning feels like a dream! It is sooooo refreshing! I went to work for the day and functioned surprisingly well, although perhaps you should ask my employees how I did! LOL. Towards evening, since I didn’t need to eat supper, I stayed at work until 8:30. I tied up a whole lot of little things and got a ton of organizing done. I always feel good after I organize all the big and little bits of paper on my desk. It gives me direction for the upcoming days.

When I got home I wasn’t dead tired. In fact, I started packing for an upcoming trip. By the time my husband was ready for bed just after 10:00 pm, I joined him. But my mind was going 100 miles per hour. I kept him up for over an hour talking about everything!

Smells are huge. Everything is exaggerated. My husband had onions in his salad today, and in spite of him brushing his teeth and gargling, the smell of onions on his breath was almost nauseating! Never mind, he said my breath was worse than bad breath; in spite of brushing my teeth and gargling. Oh well. No kisses for us tonight.

Wednesday October 10, Day 4—down 6 pounds

I could still smell the onions this morning! LOL! Last night I felt like I could go to the moon and back. Surprisingly, I had another good sleep and didn’t wake up hungry. Just the usual trips to the bathroom and guzzling water.

However, this morning, I’m not so parched. Just 2 cups of water to start my day. I’m a little congested. The fire is going so I will be warm and I’m ready to take on the day.

I went to three appointments today and managed well but was pretty tired when I got home. I treated myself to a steam shower and used Frankincense essential oil to help cleanse. Since my adult son and I were both pretty tired, he took a steam shower too and we sat around all evening and chatted. When is the last time I have just relaxed and enjoyed some good conversation? I didn’t feel like I should be doing something else for once. It was really nice to put away ‘being driven’ for a while. Sure I had emails to answer, but a break was both welcome and enjoyable. I don’t ‘allow’ myself many breaks or time for self care very often without feeling guilty or that there is something else I should be doing!

At around 9:00 pm my son made himself a grilled cheese sandwich with old cheddar cheese from Costco. The smell was to die for!!!!! But I got over it. I had a glass of water!!! He wasn’t sharing anyway! LOL. Then he poured himself a bowl of Almond Nuggets in Dark Chocolate and Cashew Clusters. These are both semi-sweet treats that are usually my weakness in the evening. They were completely non-appealing to me—a turn-off! Interesting.

I got out some beef bones from the freezer from a grass fed cow we had purchased and made some beef broth in anticipation of breaking my fast tomorrow evening. I am counting down the hours when I will take my first sip! I added some onion, garlic, pepper and bay leaf and let it boil!

I will fast until tomorrow evening. That will make 5 full days. I’m excited about all the benefits of fasting I have read about. Maybe I won’t be allergic to certain perfumes anymore and the smell of roses!

Thursday October 11, Day 5—down 7.5 pounds

Yes, I have decided I will have only broth tonight, and turn the rest of the broth into a vegetable soup with no meat for the next day. Bone broth is easy to digest and has many health benefits.

Here’s an interesting bit—my husband got up at 4:00 am to check the weather to see if he would have to clear snow early morning. When he came back into the room, he said he smelled nail polish and glue. For about 3 years, I did my nails without a break. I was wondering how much toxicity my body was absorbing. Well, now my body was able to get rid of it. Instead of being busy with digesting my food 24/7, it was able to focus other areas of my body to decrease inflammation, heal my sore back and sore knee, and get rid of toxins! So cool!!

After my osteo appointment yesterday, I really felt like I had to move my body this morning. So I did a 25-minute stretch video. My energy level seems good. The smell of the soup I’m making is driving me around the bend. I will need to leave the house soon!

Ok, I was very tired, cold and I couldn’t stop yawning. My ears were plugged. I got a fair amount of work done in the office despite how I was feeling. I am counting the hours until I can have my bone broth. The more I learn about what it does for my gut, the more I think this is the best choice to break a fast.

My husband says I still smell like nail polish. Thanks, dear.

The bone broth I had saved from yesterday was amazing! I scooped off the fat and put it in the dog’s dish. My stomach didn’t have any bad reaction. However, it still felt like I was fasting; it didn’t give me any energy. Oh well, more water and to bed. I shut off the lights at 9:47 pm.

Friday October 12, Day 6, breaking the fast—down 8.5 pounds

What you eat after a fast can make or break all the benefits you may have gained!!! I’ve listened to quite a few videos.  Some people are clearly idiots and just hurt themselves with food choices after a fast. However, Loren Lockman has been doing this for 20 years, and now has a centre in Costa Rica where he helps people experience 21-day fasts (holy cow!!!) and more for healing and reversing diseases. ‘Refeeding’ is critical.

He starts people off with 6 small ‘meals’ on the first day, each 2 hours apart. You can chose watermelon or papaya and you need to stick with that for the day. The second day, the portion is a little larger but 3 hours apart. It’s still a choice of watermelon or papaya. If you want to watch numerous videos of Loren Lockman, go ahead and start with this one.

Eating after a fast is stressful! There are so many decisions!! It was easier just to eat nothing at all. What is the best thing to eat? There is so much conflicting advice out there!

I was thinking I would have an orange, since it is 86% water, and its important to eat food with high water content. Alas, when I looked in the fridge, the only fresh food we had in the fridge was half a cucumber! Oh well. The cucumber still tasted amazing! I never realized there was such a combination of flavours in just one little cucumber.

An hour later, I had 1 tbsp of apple cider vinegar. That’s all I could get down. I heard it is very good to feed a very empty stomach some probiotics.

The soup I made yesterday smells absolutely fabulous. That’s what I will take to work and work on it a little at a time.  I’m not going to go crazy on food. So far my stomach is fine. I have moments where I feel like I could eat everything in my fridge (which isn’t much because I haven’t been shopping and the 2 living with me eat A LOT!)! However, I’m keeping the fasting mentality and even with half a cucumber, my head feels different, and the energy is starting to return.

I poured myself half a bowl of creamy vegetable bone broth soup at noon. It was like a dream! So good. But I was only able to eat half of it. That’s ok. I decided I would eat soup every 2 hours until 6:00 pm. I was able to increase the serving portions to a good half bowl by the end of the day. I’ve decided I don’t want to eat after 7:00 pm any day going forward. It’s still good for my body to have that 14-hour rest from digestion in between days.

But I have a confession to make… in the evening around 8:00 pm, I ate 2 small squares of chocolate with almonds. Every warning light went off inside my body! DANGER! INCOMING!! Wow! Was that the wrong thing to eat!!! I couldn’t stop burping up, and it wasn’t pleasant in any way. Sharp pains in my stomach lasted about an hour. That should teach me.

Saturday October 13, Day 7, breaking the fast—still down 8 pounds from the first day

I went shopping yesterday and was so looking forward to the big navel oranges I bought. Surprise! When I peeled my orange, it turned out to be a grapefruit!! The grapefruit was still good. That was my breakfast. But I’ll have to settle for orange essential oils in my diffuser!

More soup for lunch. Ahh, but for supper I cooked brown basmati rice, black beans and baked chili tomato sauce in a large zucchini I had from the garden. It was to die for. Real food. So good! After 6:00 pm, as Dr. Fuhrman says, “Clean the table, clean your teeth and you’re done for the evening.” I had a huge cup of tea to accompany some evening relax time.

It’s nice to feel full! I’m really listening to my body. When I’m full, I just stop eating.

Sunday October 14, Day 8, breaking the fast—9:00 am: now down 7 pounds from day 1

Somehow the thought of eating meat still turns me off. We went for supper (with my husband’s family) at a buffet. I had soup and salad, but my husband came back with a plate of fried chicken which he placed between us. I couldn’t stand the smell. He had to put it on the other side. So gross! We inquired as to what was in the soup and I was disgusted to find out both the squash soup and beet borscht had copious amounts of sugar. How terrible! The chicken noodle soup was INCREDIBLY salty! I am ruined for life! I was so nervous to eat anything ‘unclean.’

I came home and enjoyed some homemade hummus!

I feel so pure and clean these days. Now that I am working out again, I love how I feel. I have had good self-restraint and I am really enjoying every bite and every meal instead of wolfing my food down while I check emails and notifications on my phone. I feel like I am more present with myself and tuned into what my body wants and needs.

I lost 8.5 pounds and have gained a couple back. I’d like to try to keep it off because I feel so much better.

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