Hey, I'm new here and I was wondering if it would be beneficial for me to water fast before going completely raw. I've heard good things about fasting and I think I would want the carbs more after a fast (carbs instead of fat). Thoughts?
Permalink Reply by ORGANIC811LFRV on This is a very scary post.
#1 you don't do a water fast at home on your own. You do it at a fasting retreat under supervision for a length of time. Do you have the money for that? It's pricey!
#2 It is best to start slowly on detox. You start cleaning up your diet first moving into 80/10/10 and stay on that program for a good length of time. THEN you go to a water/rest fasting retreat.
#3 What is your hurry? This is not a race to the finish line.
I mentor people daily in this lifestyle for a business. I start them off where they are at, cleaning their program up weekly until they go raw. Then I move them into low fat raw and then into a 60 day monitored juice feast. Then they go onto 80/10/10. Then they go to a water/rest fasting retreat.
Have you ever done a serious detox before? There's a reason they call it "serious"! It isn't a walk in the park. You don't do anything like that until you are educated and have some track record on gentle detox from eating high-carb, low-fat raw. Our bodies detox all the time. Eating raw enables the body to detox a little faster.
Eating raw means exactly that! No grains, no beans, no salt, no alcohol or fremented foods, no caffeine (this means no chocolate in any form), no sodas, no super-foods, no supplements except Vitamin B-12 in the form of Methylcobalamin. Lots of water. Lots of sunshine. Lots of rest.
If you haven't read 80/10/10 please do so asap.
Permalink Reply by Martin T on I think that water fasting for 24-36 hours would be a great idea; probably no longer than that unless you have experience fasting, though, or unless you do a juice fast, in which case I'd suggest that 1-2 days of the fast be on non-sweet juices. Sticking to non-sweet juices (or water) for 1-2 days helps to allow any excess bacteria or candida in your system to die off.
Fasting helps to re-set your digestive system and in my experience it is a very helpful thing to include in a transition to healthier diet. Also, it helps to re-set your digestive system, making it easier for your digestive system to adapt to dietary changes. In particular, raw food has a higher transit time through the digestive system & colon than cooked food, and raw fruit especially has a higher transit time. If you're still eating a lot of cooked food and then all of a sudden start eating a lot of fruit, without taking a break (such as a short fast) in between, the fruit will not pass through at the pace that it should, causing gas, fermentation, bloating, indigestion, and an inability to eat sufficient fruit to get enough calories. Even just going straight to a low-fruit raw diet from a cooked diet can cause the same problems. Therefore, fasting and/or colon cleansing of some sort - and, ideally, a combination of fasting and colon cleansing - are good preparation for going raw and espcially for going 80-10-10 raw.
But the best initial preparation would be to make sure you eat a really healthy diet for a while, eliminate processed foods from the diet if you haven't already done so, etc, to make any transition less drastic, and to make fasting easier. And do short fasts to begin with, especially if they are water fasts, to eliminate any of the problems of rapid detox. If you do fast and start to experience detox symptoms or get very tired, consider doing a colon cleanse of some sort; or just start your fast off with a colon cleanse.
Permalink Reply by Josette on Hey Summer,
I tend to agree with ORGANIC on this one. Water fasts are challenging, and it's easy to slip into "I'll just have a cracker, I'm so hungry". Take it from someone that did a medically supervised fast years ago (Optifast). 500 calories a day. I was fine until I went on a trip and left my shakes at home. 24 hours into the trip, we all stopped at Dennys. I ate their stale, crappy saltine crackers because I was so hungry.
Those were the best, tastiest, most delicious crackers I've ever eaten. I was starving myself, and my body tried to "save" me by making something normally pretty gross and making it amazing. I couldn't go back on the fast.
If you want to jump in, just try the food plan outlined here on the site. Just go buy lots of fruit. Make fruit smoothies, eat your greens, and drink water when thirsty. You will detox along the way. Everyone goes through it differently. I had to "enjoy" caffeine headaches, which are now gone. Eased into it transitioning from Starbucks expresso drinks and shots into iced tea into water.
No one can decide what is right for you but you. Try not to be perfect. Just ease into it, and enjoy the ride. :-)
Permalink Reply by VibrantMH on I did a water fast at home unsupervised for 19 days straight. If you are not doing anything other than just lying around, you may be able to do it. I don't recommend it without supervision or trying to do a fast while working or really anything. Personally, I don't think water fasts really work from my own experience. The only thing I got out of it is that I was obviously addicted to certain kinds of foods. I also noticed my body reacting to certain foods in a very harsh way and realized that I have gluten/wheat, soy, and dairy intolerance. I also noticed that when I do eat raw especially fruits, my body started craving more fruits.
I know that some people don't recommend hydrocolonics on this site, but I know I got huge benefits from doing it after my water fast and especially on a high raw diet. I am positive that on 100% 811RV that you will be cleansed as well, but the colonics helped to speed up the cleansing.
I would say just do 80/10/10. Personally, going 100% is difficult for me, but that is my goal ultimately. I am easing into it with some cooked foods here and there like 2X a week. I personally don't have any problems staying Vegan since I have been for years, but staying 100% raw is a bit challenging for me. It was actually somewhat easier to just water fast or even to do a month of juice feasting ironically for me.
I think everyone is different in terms of how they get to 100% 811RV consistently over time and WANT to be 100% ALL OF THE TIME.
Permalink Reply by John Jasper on I don't do this as a business but I'm regularly in contact with people who are water fasting on their own recognisance and from that experience, I recommend:
1) Don't water fast, supervised or otherwise, until you've educated yourself on the subject. The same goes for juice feasting, taking supplements, subjecting your body to colonics or colon cleanses of any type. Once you've read about the physiological aspects, the pros and cons, and worked through the hype and mythology surrounding all of these practices, you'll be in a better position to decide what makes sense and what is likely to be using up your vitality leaving you weaker and less healthy overall.
And while you're learning...
2) Go for the easy wins such as dropping as much as possible the known killers such as animal products (meat, diary, most processed foods), alchohol, tobacco, recreational drugs, pharmaceuticals (albeit with advice from your physician if you're on long-term medication), cosmetics, perfumes, deodorants, caustic products for use on hair, skin and teeth, salt, other condiments and spices, oils, vinegar, etc ad nauseum
3) Add in the organic, raw fruit and veg and begin transitioning away from the unhealthy conventional diet.
4) Observe the other factors of health - get plenty of pure air, pure water, sunshine, rest and sleep, relaxation, exercise and live as much as possible in a health-nurturing environment.
If your lifestyle was previously unhealthy, adopting these changes will bring noticable benefits to you in a short time. I did this at least 6 months before doing my first 3 day fast, 1 year before doing my next fast of 5 days and another year before my recent fast of 21 days. I never experienced any serious detox symptoms during any of these fasts or during the interim periods which I attribute to my slow-paced transition.
I agree with ORGANIC811LFRV that the best place for fasting is at a fasting retreat but unfortunately that option was not available to me due to home commitments and limited finances. I could have fasted with remote supervision but again the cost was a factor but also because I've been studying fasting for more than two years, I felt confident enough to go with a midway option - fasting with remote support from the water fasting community on CureZone (http://curezone.com/forums/f.asp?f=335).
Fasting at home can be quite difficult due to negative influences from family and friends who won't understand what you're doing or why, and they will be upset by the sight of your diminishing figure. Out of sight, out of mind is actually easier for them as their imaginations will never match the reality of what you'll look like after fasting for 2 weeks or more. If you must fast at home, you have to prepare them for this experience as well as steeling yourself against their negativity. Having support from an experienced fasting supervisor is important and anyone with chronic illness, especially anyone on long-term medication should be fasting only with the guidance of a Hygienic Doctor or other suitably qualified professional.
I tend to agree with Herbert M Shelton, he of Natural Hygiene fame, and many other Hygienists such as Dr Vivian Vetrano, when it comes to supplements (including B-12), colonics, juice feasts, and numerous other unnatural practices that have arisen from either the dark ages of "health" practices or the latter day "health" industries. None of these are actually needed and indeed are injurious to health. I've recently had to turn to juicing as a compromise solution because of a dental problem (failure of some dental work from my pre-healthy lifestyle days) but once that's fixed, I'm going back to "juicing" on the fly using my molars!
I hope that this and the other helpful comments here have given you plenty to think about in deciding how to proceed.
John
Toni Jessop replied to Toni Jessop's discussion What did we eat in the wild when there was no fruit?
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