Ultimate detox – Water Fast. My latest health adventure.

 

“Just a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down”

Famous healer and educator Mary Poppins

 

“Let the food be your medicine, and medicine your food.”

Hippocrates

What I have noticed lately is that we are slowly moving toward the “…medicine your food” and I am afraid that medicine might become our food, indeed.

When I worked at a pharmacy, I was blown away by the amount of pills I was required to put in the blister pack to take at once. I wondered, what Hippocrates would say about it. Literally, a tablespoon of pills repeated three – four times per day! How many spoons of sugar you need to help that amount of medicine go down?

Now lets take a look at the food we are eating. Actually… We better not.  How about no food at all? At least for a week? Let’s leave our body alone for a while, and let it sort it’s own problems without external invasions. Just the water— the source of life.

Can a person  survive at least one week without food?

Let me share with you my latest adventure — 7 days water fast.

At the end of this blog I included some numbers to illustrate the results of that process.

There are a few things that inspired me and lead to the reason I did the water fast.

I grew up in a family of doctors. I enjoyed hearing the endless stories about healing and healers, especially my mom. Stories about doctors – heroes who experimented on themselves to find the cure for illnesses or to obtain new physiological information about human body. This adventurous side of medicine was always attractive to me. It was probably a good thing for I didn’t become a doctor.

Natural ways of healing and the body’s own ability to heal itself always interested me most of all.

Finally, passion turned into profession. Working in wellness industry, I love to share my knowledge and experience with people and I have more reason to research and experiment and not just talk the talk, but walk the walk as well.

Another inspiration for my latest health adventure was Paul Bragg and his method of detoxification by water fasting.

You could find a lot of controversial information about Paul Bragg on the internet, but for me it was another reason to check his theory and to see if it would work for me.

There are many other natural health professionals who recommend water fasting as the ultimate detoxification, anti-aging and cancer treatment. There are different variations of methods and techniques of water fasting and many pages written about health benefits of it:

— During the water fast, your body will conserve the precious energy used for digestion, absorption, and elimination of food and use it as needed to solve it’s own problems and issues. It is exactly the same process that happens while we sleep.

— To sustain itself, the body consumes the old and malfunctioning cells, which promotes whole body rejuvenation and prevention many serious illnesses like cancer.

— Toxins are being flushed out of the body.

— Weight loss. The body eliminates excess fats. According to some studies, fat cells stores the substances that turn on the genes of obesity.

— Fasting helps to develop fascinating skill of self observation beside the will power and self control.

I read Bragg’s book, Miracle of Fasting, many years ago back in Russia.

The thing that really stood out, and that I liked, was when Bragg continued to live an active life during his 7-10 day water fasts. My biggest question was: Is it humanly possible to stay without food for so long and still be in right state of mind?

We’ve all  heard stories about travelers and survivors from natural disasters who go without food for long periods of time. In those cases, they had no choice and some times went insane. They definitely didn’t enjoy their life at that particular time. However, I met quite a few people over time who did water fast voluntarily for health reason and had great improvement of their health.

Now I have to rephrase my question: Is it humanly possible to enjoy and active life when you only consume water? Is it possible for me?

And as all adventurists know, there is only one way to find out!

My first attempt lasted 1.5 days. The headache was so horrible that I decide to stop it and start eating.

However, deep in my mind, I didn’t give up.

My second attempt was 3 years ago, and was quite successful. I survived the first 3-4 days of headache just knowing that I was not going to stop this time, especially after I noticed that my weight is going down 1kg a day! Hurray!

It is so delightful to step on the scale and see 1 kg (2.2 lbs) less every morning, you don’t see that very often.

I deliberately didn’t want to change my life style and schedule. I continued to work, exercise the same way, and cooked. I even kept my family company at the dinner table.

After the 3 day headache was gone I felt light, alert and full of energy. I got up early in the morning easily without a cup of coffee waiting for me. I discovered freedom! Time stopped feeling so rushed! I had 24 hours a day that I divided between sleep, work and doing things I always wanted to do.

My third attempt was just a week ago. This time it was even easier than before. Only 2 days of discomfort in the beginning, and after that — lightness, energy and more freedom again! This time I used some supportive cleansing techniques that I believe made it easier for me this time. Below I’ll describe the whole journey step by step in point format:

March 3:

• Switch to vegan diet (temporally) 2 weeks before water fast.
• Start reducing amount of coffee gradually.
• Felt some mild withdraw symptoms: light headache, unfocused, low energy.
• Weight 160.7 lb,
• Fat: 40.5%

March 7:

• Started Liver Cleanse by using “Gallstone Cleanse / Liver Flush” kit, developed by Shael Stonebridge, R.H.N. First 5 days – just as a preparation.
• 1 capsule of Magnesium Malate (and / or 1 spoon of Apple cider vinegar or 1L apple juice) a day, nothing really exciting. Still feeling fatigue, mild headache.

March 9:

• Weight 159.3 lb,
• Fat 41.0%

March 10:

• Weight 157.1 lb,
• Fat 39.5%

March 11:

• Weight 158.2 lb,
• Fat 39.9%

March 12:

• Day 6 of Liver cleanse.
• Took Magnesium Malate capsulle in the morning, Magnesium Oxide ( laxative) in the afternoon, Epsom Salt in the evening, Grapefruit juice mixed with olive oil right before bed.
• Sleep with warm water bottle on the liver.

March 13:

• Day 7 of Liver cleanse — actual flush. I drank another portion of Epsom Salt early in the morning then again and stayed close to the bathroom until late morning, watching stones come out.
  • Had Colonic in the afternoon.
    • Weight 154.3 lb,
    • Fat 39.8%

 

 March 15:

• Weight 156.3 lb,
• Fat 39.9%

March 16:

• Day 1 of Water Fast
  • Went to “Rain Drops Technique“( Aromatherapy massage) training. Feel great, a lot of energy.
    • Weight 155.2 lb,
    • Fat 38.8%

March 17:

• Day 2. Nothing exciting, just drank water. Mild headache.
  • Weigh 154.5 lb,
  • Fat 38.5%

March 18:

• Day 3. Had colonic in the morning.
  • Headache gone and didn’t come back at all.
  • Feel great and full of energy, like some heavy blanket was lifted from me. Went for 1 hour walk.
    • Weight 151.2 lb,
    • Fat 38.5%

March 19:

• Day 4. Feel great. Sunny day.  Went for 1 hour walk.
  • Weight 149.0 lb,
  • Fat 37.9%

March 20: 

• Day 5. Still feel great, and went into the sauna.
  • Weight 147.0 lb,
  • Fat 37.1%

March 21:

• Day 6. My usual 2.5 hours martial arts practice.
  • Weight 145.9 lb,
  • Fat 36.8%

March 22:

• Day 7. My usual 1 + 2.5 hour martial arts practice.
  • Weight 143.3 lb,
    • Fat 35.5%

March 23: 

• Started eating. Feel good as well!
  • Had 2 tomatoes Vitamixed with a lot of water, 1/2 of mango, 1/3 of small/medium watermelon.
    • Weight 142.4 lb,
    • Fat 35.5%

March 24:

• Continue eating.
  • Weight 143.5 lb,
  • Fat 35.9%

March 24:

• Eating, but still on vegan diet.
  • Had colonic.
    • Weight 144.1 lb,
    • Fat 35.0%

Change in Weight

Vegan Diet 2 weeks: 5 lb

Water Fast 1 week : 13 lb

Total change in weight: 18 lbs

Change in Fat (%)

Vegan Diet for 2 weeks: 2.8%

Water Fast 1 week : 2.75%

Total change in fat: 4.95%