In the previous article, we discussed water fasting in general terms. In this, I share my personal process and experiences. Since I will be making quite a few references to the first article, I recommend that you read the first one first by clicking here.
Before I started fasting, I had a detailed blood test done, worked with a holistic nutritionist for a while, and all my organs were analyzed with biofrequency. I confirmed with an expert that there is no harm in keeping a water fast.
Although what I have shared is within the framework of various researches, it contains adaptations specific to my own body. Since each body is unique, this article is definitely not a health advice and an expert's opinion should be sought before starting the fast.
Day 1
The day before, I ate my last meal, purslane salad with plenty of olive oil, at 19:30. I drank two cups of coffee and 3 liters of water during the day. Except for the hunger attack that came in the afternoon, I had a pretty comfortable time.
The breathing and body opening practice I do in the morning takes about half an hour, then I listen to the IBS (Irritable Bowel Syndrome) targeted hypnotherapy session through the Nerva application.
You can see my breathing exercise in this video, in which I focus on the lower, middle and upper parts of the lungs by applying 3 different Kundalini techniques.
My host, Cem, lives next door, and he has a good command of the subject as he is on a ketogenic diet with intermittent fasting. He is a freelance jazz musician and very interested in esoteric sciences. In the evening, after talking about the ancient Greek history, the origins of religions, psychotropic plants and existence, I fell asleep around 20:00 and slept for exactly 12 hours.
Day 2
Even though I woke up at 8 in the morning, I could not get out of bed easily. My head started spinning when I got up due to the drop in blood pressure as a side effect of hunger.
I had intended not to smoke tobacco during this week, but about 2 hours after waking up, I was faced with a terrible craving. I decided to drink and watch the effect of each breath I take on my body moment by moment. I have been intent on understanding the root of this addiction for a very long time.
Listening to my pulse, which accelerates with each breath, I realized that this addiction was not to tobacco but to stress. I feel deprived especially when everything is going well, and in this way, I trigger the secretion of stress hormones in my body. Addiction to stress may sound absurd, but it's real. Now I know my main focus area.
Day 3
I can't believe I'm on day 3! This was a milestone for me, if I didn't feel very comfortable, I would end the fast on the 3rd day.
The previous day, I fell asleep again early in the evening and woke up with the sunrise after 12 hours of sleep. The hunger attacks during the day did not come as hard as the first two days, this meant that my body was completely in ketosis and autophagy. I felt so fit that I went down a 20-minute steep path to the sea, swam as much and climbed that path back.
I am determined to continue fasting!
Day 4
I woke up in a compelling mood during the night as the storm broke out and I had a lot of nightmares. I felt very lonely, unhappy and anxious. So the mental cleansing of the fast had begun.
I packed up and went to my favorite Noema Cafe in Eski Datça. Both their sweet conversations and the warm first sip of the coffee they brewed with their hands softened my heart. After sitting and working here for a few hours, I visited a few shops that were still open, chatted with the owners, and gifted myself a crystal necklace from a boutique. The creatures that provide emotional support around them during fasting are the greatest facilitators.
Although I felt tired, I could not sleep until 12 at night. In the afternoon my stomach started to swell and in the evening I felt nausea and mild pain. This may actually be an indication that the body is now digesting harmful bacteria. On the other hand, it is quite possible that the coffee I drank for the first time after 3 days also had an effect. I decided to drink a cup of coffee again tomorrow and observe the effects.
Day 5
With the advantage of Saturday, after my breathing and yoga practices in the morning, I went to the ancient city of Knidos, which I had been wondering for a long time. It is worth visiting many times just for the views on the road that took me there.
I started to feel fit again, I visited the whole ancient city for 2 hours and took a short walk in Palamutbükü. Then I sat in one of the cafes by the sea and drank a cup of coffee again.
To my surprise, I pooped in the afternoon! After 5 days of fasting this should be the last remnants in my intestines, great :) Then when swelling and mild kidney pain started, I decided not to drink coffee for the rest of my days.
The night was quite challenging because I couldn't sleep until 4 in the morning. Insomnia is a highly anticipated side effect, the brain's way of sensing life-threatening danger and saying "sleep and find food." And that signal is triggered by parasites in the gut. Parasites, whose population has grown too much during fasting, can manipulate us like this because they experience famine. A mechanism that makes people question all concepts of will and control.
The worst thing to do when you can't sleep is to look at the screen, of course, but when hunger, fatigue and insomnia combined, I had a hard time coping. So I started the Lord of the Rings trilogy all over again for insomnia attacks that I don't know how long it will last :)
Day 6
Even though I can't sleep at night, I continue to wake up with the sunrise in the morning and this puts my body more stressed. The 6th day was the hardest physically and mentally, I lay down and took short naps all day. Even in my dreams, I go through so much psychological analysis that I wake up like I've had a conversation for hours. In the evening, I drank the juice I made with aloe vera, ginger, thyme and lemon juice. Thus, I prepared my stomach for the fasting process of the next day.
Some fears and anxieties have become very visible, ingrained into our cells, our DNA, and our entire consciousness. While starving is no longer a risk in modern societies, feeling this fear so strongly and questioning my control over my body has led me to reconsider my relationship with myself. In order to realize this, somatic body studies together with psychotherapy are very effective. That's why I did the 15 minutes of light-intensity exercise in the video without interruption during the fast. As my muscles and joints warmed up, my connective tissue relaxed, relaxing my nervous system.
Day 7
Tears in tears, the moment I've been dreaming about for days has come :) Let's not exaggerate, except for the last day, I spent much more comfortably than I expected. I couldn't be more ready to finish!
I had mentioned how critical this part is. Exiting long-term fasts incorrectly can lead to metabolic diseases by causing the syndrome called "refeeding".
For the first meal, a large bowl of vegetable broth or vegetable soup with rondo is ideal. After lightly frying the two zucchini I cut with a teaspoon of tomato paste, I chopped 1 large tomato on it, 3 minutes later I added 1 glass of water. First I drank only the water and after 2 hours I ate the grains.
Drinking boiled marrow bone broth as a second meal can be excellent both in terms of renewing the intestinal membrane and in terms of rich nutritional value. I ate sea bass with plenty of green salad for my dinner - I had shared in the previous article the importance of choosing animal foods from animals raised in their natural environment.
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The greatest gift of this fast to me was the dissolution of the "illusion" stressors as soon as I put myself under a "real" stress. The job I worked on, the body I had, the tea I drank felt more perfect than ever before.
With the first zucchini I took in my mouth, a tear fell from my eye. We forget the value of the blessings bestowed upon us because we see it as ordinary and get used to it. Let's face it, we are a spoiled generation. Let's see the comfortable ground that allows us to transform this to the higher steps of evolution.
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