The Fasting Support Thread

[foxytina_69]

ive seen that some people are doing fasts, and i am going to start my fast today.

the reason im fasting is due to the fact that ive got a flu. and i always fast whilst sick because it cuts the sickness down to days rather than weeks!

i sometimes also fast for spiritual reasons. it deepens my awareness, increases my meditation strength, and i will sit for hours meditating whilst fasting. its an amazing experience for me and makes me feel very serene and spiritual.

it doesnt matter why you are fasting, to be able to post in this thread. you can be fasting because of the season change which i know some people do, you can be fasting for spiritual reasons, or just fasting for a cleanse, every kind of fast is welcome here.

so if anyone here is fasting and would like some support, somewhere to post about their day, post what they consumed (if its a juicing fast, the master cleanse, a water fast, etc) have other people to talk to about fasting, support etc. than come here and post away!

i also want to say, i know there are many people who disagree or dont believe in fasting, and while i respect their beliefs and feelings, i would rather no one posted anything here such as "well i dont agree with fasting" or "fasting is unhealthy for you" or "there is no scientific evidence to back up that fasting rids the human body of toxins" etc. as this is a thread for supporting people who are fasting, not debating about weather it works or not.

[herbwormwood]

My muslim friends will start ramadan fasting soon.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramadan
They eat small breakfast before sunrise then no eating or drinking until sundown, then they have a special meal, and invite their friends round. They have specal food during the ramadan.

[Cattmogg]

I know lots of people who'll begin fasting this week. Was thinking of making a sacrifice or two myself over the period. I think sometimes it good to exercise your will power and know what you can do without, also abstinence from certain things can help you feel their value more keenly.

[foxytina_69]

herbwormwood, that sounds really peaceful and nice!

catmogg, i agree.

berta, like frank says, no diet is toxin free. cooked food is full of toxins, regardless of if its vegetables or not. not to mention people dont fast just to cleanse their bodies of toxins from diet (most dont actually) they cleanse their bodies of toxins from various things that we cant avoid in our world, like cars, the toxins in our furniture, carpeting and floors, the toxins of pesticides all around us, etc.

clearly fasting isnt for you, if you are saying that just because it hasnt been proven to be unhealthy doesnt mean it is healthy. like i said, it makes me alot healthier and many many people healthier. its also done often for spiritual purposes, not just to cleanse your body. and ever since i started fasting whilst sick with a cold or flu, which i get often due to my asthma and heart problems, i dont get bronchitis or pneumonia anymore because it cuts the sickness down to days rather than weeks and stops it from developing into something serious. (i used to get bronchitis and pneumonia all the time. my health is too fragile to risk getting bronchitis or pneumonia or any other kind of bacterial infection so i have to do whatever i can to get rid of the sickness, and fasting works very promptly)

like i said, this thread is for people who support fasting only, i didnt create this thread to debate with people weather fasting is healthy or not healthy. this is a place to go for support for people who are currently fasting or are thinking about doing a fast etc. if you want to debate with someone about weather fasting is healthy or unhealthy, than post on the new thread i just created on the health forum, titled "fasting: what are your thoughts?"

[Korn]

like i said, this thread is for people who support fasting only, i didnt create this thread to debate with people weather fasting is healthy or not healthy. this is a place to go for support for people who are currently fasting or are thinking about doing a fast etc. if you want to debate with someone about weather fasting is healthy or unhealthy, than post on the new thread i just created on the health forum, titled "fasting: what are your thoughts?"

The other thread is here: http://veganforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=16589

I just moved a couple of posts over from this thread to the other one, and renamed this 'The Fasting Support Thread'.

[Cattmogg]

Ok so im having 2 days with water, 3 with raw fruit and veg and reintroducing other fods back in slowly after that. Giving up chocolate and sweet things for Ramadam.

[foxytina_69]

good for you catmogg!

[foxytina_69]

i looked up ramadam to see what it was catmogg, is this what it is?

http://www.islam-australia.com.au/re...on_ramadam.htm

today i started my fast. im doing a two day cleansing fast with prune juice and apple juice. it cleans out my system really well and usually heals me from the flu pretty quick. after that im going to continue with a juice fast for however long i feel i need to.

today has been okay. i havent been hungry, and actually dont have much of an appetite which is surprising considering im pmsing.

if anyone is interested in the cleanse i am doing, this is how you do it.

1 cup prune juice in the morning. 1 cup prune juice 30 minutes later. 1 cup apple juice after that

apple juice the rest of the day. (as much as you want)

1 cup prune juice at bedtime.

i use non concentrated unsweetened apple juice and unsweetened prune juice.

its a really good cleanse for flus and sicknesses. beware, it makes you have bowel movements A LOT, so only do it if you dont have to go anywhere, and can stay home.

after i drank the prune juice i felt nauseous because i think prune juice is nasty.

i also fast to help my body get rid of the water retention. i have severe water retention problems, and fasting always helps and makes me feel loads better. (the extra water makes me very sick and i cant breathe or move around with it in me, its horrible)

hope youre doing well catmogg.

[Roxy]

Does the prune juice loosen up anything in your bowels, Tina?

[foxytina_69]

yes, thats what i meant when i said it makes you go to the washroom a lot. (and why you can only do it if youre not going anywhere for a couple days) you basically have bowel movements of water. its stool but very liquidy. i guess thats why it helps sicknesses. it really forces all the bad stuff out of you and you feel loads better after it.

[Roxy]

LOL - OK - I was thinking you were peeing a lot! Well you are kinda, but from your bum!

Prune juice is supposed to be good for iron. I'd like to do a cleanse like that, but not while I'm working!

[foxytina_69]

LOL.

yeah you would probably like it! (well, after all the visits to the bathroom LOL)

[Roxy]

Do you ever do enemas in conjunction with your cleanses/fasts?

[foxytina_69]

no ive never done an enema. i am interested in it, but ive never tried it. but to be honest, with this cleanse i dont think you would need one LOL.

[Roxy]

True enough.

[foxytina_69]

well today is my second day of my prune/apple juice cleanse.

i am confused. for the few days before my cleanse, i hadnt had a bowel movement which is rare for me. anyways, since starting the cleanse, the prune juice isnt making me have watery bowel movements as it usually does, it did once, but the rest of the time my bowel movements are normal, which is really weird. so im thinking that i must have been really constipated and not noticed or something. im thinking it may have to do with being dehydrated maybe, because i barely drink water, mostly just juice, but my doctor told me to limit my water intake due to my water retention problems. so anyhow, im drinking some lemon water now. hopefully it works.

today i am weaker than yesterday, but obviously that is to be expected. and i also have a headache.

sorry if ive shared too much info with anyone, i just like to be clear so that other people can get a proper perspective.

[foxytina_69]

well its working now. lol.

[sugarmouse]

Tina when yo speak about the spiritual aspectof the fast, why do you think that occurs?I am just curious

[foxytina_69]

im not sure. i just always feel very "connected" im a very spiritual person as it is, with seeing/talking to spirits, researching my spirituality, pyschicness, etc. and when i fast i feel very serene and calm and meditative and pure. similar to buddha i suppose. i guess its easier to connect to your spiritual self if you are fasting because its like you are pure on the inside. there is nothing in you. you are in a state of purity. thats how i feel anyways. its always great for my spirituality, and i discover and learn things about myself and life that i didnt know before. fasting is one thing that is essential for my spirituality to grow.

today is day three of my prune/apple juice cleanse. i feel better today. still weak but not as fluish.

i forgot to say, i can slip into meditation a lot easier when fasting, but since fasting really brings out a lot of emotional issues (may be also part of why i cried a lot today) and has a cleansing effect on your mind also, meditation becomes a lot more powerful during this time. you are combining two time honoured practices which cause you an immense amount of cleansing and learning.

[foxytina_69]

hmmm well only one bowel movement today. this is really weird. it definitely wasnt like this last time i did this cleanse :| maybe i had a lot more to clean out last time or something :S

anyway, im done day three of my prune/apple juice cleanse.

tomorrow i go onto my juice fast.

[foxytina_69]

change of plans. my pms took over and i had to eat something. i decided to eat today and do the juice fast tomorrow.

[foxytina_69]

done day 1 of my juice fast. drank loads of water.

[foxytina_69]

not smart to have drank loads of water. it made me gain 4 pounds. its really really tough to have such a bad water retention because it makes you soooooo uncomfortable and it sucks to have to limit your fluids. so anyways, i didnt drink as much water today, and i lost 7 pounds overnight of water. thank god. i still have 7 more to go of which i am sure is just water. i get really worried about my heart when i retain water this bad because when i do retain water, it makes my heart hurt a lot and makes it hard to breathe.

[snivelingchild]

Try taking 25mg of B-6 3 times a day with meals. You can take as much as 100-150mg a day, if you like. It'll help you excrete excess water.

[foxytina_69]

i thought that a couple years ago sniv, and i tried it but it didnt work. but i try to get lots of nutritional yeast at least because its so high in bvitamins.

[cvC]

i get really worried about my heart when i retain water this bad because when i do retain water, it makes my heart hurt a lot and makes it hard to breathe.

This is changing the subject a bit, but I thought you might be interested to read this from a recent article about vitamin D I saw:

A study of almost 10,000 women over 65 by the University of California found that those who took vitamin D supplements had a 31 per cent lower risk of dying of heart disease; researchers at the University of Bonn found lower levels of vitamin D in patients with chronic heart failure.

http://news.independent.co.uk/health/article2974479.ece

(I don't agree with the article's assertion that vitamin D deficiency might be behind what it describes as "the explosion in autism" and think vaccinations to be a more likely culprit - here's a Washington Post article on the subject and where it mentions that the first child diagnosed with autsim in the United States was born in 1931, the same year thimerosal was first used in a vaccine:

http://www.nomercury.org/science/doc...sh_5-21-05.pdf)

Also, I did a bit of research on flax after reading the impressive story of another member's recovery from illness after consuming six tablespoons of ground organic flax seeds a day for a month and, as that member indicated, they not only (usually) contain omega-3 - there is apparently a kind of yellow flax called solin that's very low in it - but also lingnans - they're by far the richest source of them from what I've gathered - which I though you might like to know are thought to be good for the heart. Lignans are in the outer coating and this is why the member said that one should eat the whole flax seed and not just the oil, which I incidentally believe is best consumed fresh - I think the seeds can be ground in a coffee grinder.

I'm also a believer in fasting, even if I don't feel strong enough to do it myself at present, and doubt that it's an accident that it's very name suggests a speeding up of something - the body's ability to focus more on something other than dealing with the last intake of food perhaps. The French verb for "to fast" is "jeuner" and "jeune" is their word for "young", so I suspect there's a message there as well. As far as the water retention is concerned, wouldn't reducing your salt intake be the best way to deal with that?

[foxytina_69]

cvc, thanks. i do get enough vitamin d, and enough omega 3's, but i should look into getting some flax seeds!

i have a lot of health problems, one of them is heart problems which cause water retention. the best way to treat that and prevent heart damage is to take diuretics, and yes of course, lower my salt intake. just lowering my salt intake in my case would be useless. even while on diuretics i can gain 15 pounds of water very quickly, which obviously tells me that its getting worse so i need to up my diuretics. not on diuretics, and watching my sodium intake, i can gain A LOT of weight of water.

[foxytina_69]

well im done day 2 of my juice fast. not sure how long ill continue for. it seems to be helping the water retention anyhow.

[mexicanpotato]

I'm thinking of fasting once a week (on sundays, I'm a Christian and its when we celebrate the Sabbath) I've been thinking about it for awhile and I'm not sure how to go about it. I'm not planning to go all out quite yet (just water or nothing at all) but I have a limited diet already (b/c of health issues) so I feel like just going off juice isn't really fasting for me since juice is a big part of my diet already (the only whole foods I really eat are fruit and nuts)

Advice?

[foxytina_69]

so would you like to do a water fast than mexicanpotato, or a juice fast? or you could do a veggie juice fast. if you dont feel like doing just a water fast, doing just a liquid fast is really beneficial. even though juice is a big part of your diet already, its different when the juice is ALL you consume, because that gives your body and digestive system a really big break, and it can do a sort of house cleaning (it would be like doing a clean through of your house every sunday, but for your body ) but juices are so beneficial that your body would just be saturated with antioxidants, vitamins and minerals, but it wouldnt have to digest anything, and thats the whole point. what are you drawn to or what feels right regarding fasting? juices or water?

[herbwormwood]

I'm thinking of fasting once a week (on sundays, I'm a Christian and its when we celebrate the Sabbath) I've been thinking about it for awhile and I'm not sure how to go about it. I'm not planning to go all out quite yet (just water or nothing at all) but I have a limited diet already (b/c of health issues) so I feel like just going off juice isn't really fasting for me since juice is a big part of my diet already (the only whole foods I really eat are fruit and nuts)

Advice?

I found this page for you about fasting and Christianity.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fasting#Christianity
There are so many fast days for practising Christians, you could deepen your faith by adhering to specific fast days and looking into how they are followed. I don't think there is a tradition in Christianity for fasting specifically on Sundays. Maybe you could find some others in your Church to fast with on the special fast days.

[mexicanpotato]

Thank you so much. This helps a lot.

[Rakey]

I'm doing a fasting week starting tomorrow, when I'm gonna go raw for 2 - 3 days then water fast for as long as I can stand...followed by juice and raw to reintroduce food to me.

Hoping to lose some of the lbs i've put on this month...

[vegcurry]

Third day into my current fast, I haven't done one in ages, I'm just drinking water at the mo' and some weak tea (I'm a tea addict if ever there was one but I've cut it right back the last few days) and I'm thinking of trying for a 5 day fast but I've never done more than 3 days before now. Any advice anyone?

[leedsveg]

Third day into my current fast, I haven't done one in ages, I'm just drinking water at the mo' and some weak tea (I'm a tea addict if ever there was one but I've cut it right back the last few days) and I'm thinking of trying for a 5 day fast but I've never done more than 3 days before now. Any advice anyone?

Not able to give you any advice but just hope that everything goes ok and it's a success for you.

leedsveg

[BlueGreenEyes]

So what advice would you give to someone who wants to fast for the first time? its not to lose weight (I dont think fasting would be a good way to do that anyway, though as I have never tryed it who knows!) a friend of mine died yesterday in fact and I feel like in spirit I am all twisted up in knots, I was thinking of fasting before that but now I really want to do it............... any advice? I want to start tomorrow or tuesday as my days off are weds and thursday and I dont need to do anything......... I have eaten breakfast, cooked, should I just eat raw now to prepare?

[Lara_Hastings]

Hi folks! I have just completed a 3 day fasting, it went very well without any side effects other than some hunger. I did a juice fast. I could have actually continued it today to make it day 4, but there was some circumstances that made it difficult, moving and stuff.

BlueGreenEyes - I suggest you read more on the subject, there is lot to find on the net, but well it can be hard to find good info. So I'll give you some tips too:

You should lighten up your meals two days before fasting, as vegan you don't need to do much. But leave out excess salt and such. And make your portions smaller.
On your first day you should flush your system with something like glaubersalt (tastes horrid but is effective), or prune juice like some have mentioned. You could also eat soaked flax seeds on your preparing days before starting your fasting, so that the flushing will be easier.
Take care to get some high quality juices that are pure and free of preservatives, you could also make your own juice with a juicer. I would also suggest something to ease the stomach, I drank sauerkraut juice, but you might not like the taste of that. There is also aloe vera juice, it both calms the stomach and gets rid of toxins.
I do recommend enemas, you don't need to do them often. But they really do help to get rid of headaches and possible nausea. You can do them yourself, it's much easier than one might think.
When you fast there is nothing in your stomach to keep the bowel moving, so dirty stuff can get stuck there if you skip doing any enemas, your body will actually start using the stuff as food, that is why one might feel sick when fasting :X So flushing is important! You need to have a clean stomach, and live only on fluids, this is the key to a successful fasting.
When you drink your juices, remember to drink them slowly so that enough saliva mixes with it, that way you get more nutrients from it and it is also easier on the stomach. You should actually "chew" your drink.
Do not fast more than 5 days if you haven't fasted before, or if you do not want to loose a lot of fat and muscle.
When you have done fasting, take it veeery slow with the food. Your first meal should be as tiny as one plum and remember to chew it well.

Good luck!

[BlueGreenEyes]

thanks for the info Lara and yes i am going to do more reaserch on the subject, though its good to talk to someone who has fasted themselves, I'm not sure about ememas, do I understand what you are saying but I'm really very regular in that departement!! Or maybe that doesnt matter I dont know! ( have no idea how to give myself one ether! the ick! facter has always stopped me from wanting to find out!)

I do like sauerkraut but I think that juice would be too much, but thanks for the other advice mIaybe I need to plan my fast better and take some days off work so I have a few days to prepar and I am not worried about working with out any energy, or are two day fasts as good as three? thanks again Lara!

[Lara_Hastings]

^ Well, if you fast only two days you will only experience the hardest parts of the fast After day 3 it's starts to get more interesting, because if everything goes well you should start to feel the positive effects of the fasting, like increased energy and such.
You can get through without any enemas, just make sure you get all the gooey stuff out the first day with something laxative. Because during the fast you will not be able to *cough* do any two's at all no matter how regular you are from before, because you will only be eating fluids.
I don't think you need to take days off during preparation, just eat smaller portions and avoid junk food. But during the fasting it's really good to not go to any work and just take it easy during the time.

[BlueGreenEyes]

Thanks Lara I think that your right about taking not working when fasting, I really want to do the fasting with as few distractions as poss................. ok not 2 but 3 days so a day or two off work is esentual.............. thanks again for the advice i am just realising that i need more planning with this

[mini_mi]

Bluegreeneyes,
I've used intermittent fasting (24 hours), several times a week for several years. I notice increased energy levels as well as increased alertness. Just makes you feel good. My experience is that it is easier especially the first few times to NOT remove your daily work/activities from your schedule. Keeping busy will prevent you from thinking about food. I don't do any special preparations before or after the fasts. Hope this helps.