Dear _______ ,
I offer you a few thoughts, based on my own experience of fasting. Each person is individual and will have individual experiencing of fasting. However, unless you have some unknown medical condition, my experiences should offer you a good general guideline to follow.
Except for some unknown medical conditions, you should be in okay condition to follow your heart and gain tremendously from a pure water fast. If you have never fasted, it may be wise for you to check out your doctor's opinion. Just remember that most doctors are not schooled much in nutrition or natural herb and fasting programs. Doctors have told me that my tongue coating during a fast means nothing. However, every time I have fasted over the last 20 years - within 48 hours my tongue is coated. Within four hours after eating anything - my tongue is cleared. This has never varied. The tongue is one of the organs of toxin elimination from the body. I highly respect the learned opinion of the medical doctor. However, you must make your own decision on what to do if your doctor's opinion is different from what your heart is telling you.
I want to be of as much help as possible in making your fasting experience a safe, pleasant and most effective experience. I will be honored if you give me your opinions on how I can make it more readable and understandable.
One thought I could repeat over and over - a fast is not recommended for vanity weight loss. Changing your diet, exercising and getting plenty of rest is a better way to get into shape. You will definitely benefit by "cleaning house" before you re-build your body. Just know that I feel a fast is much more than a weight-loss diet and potentially much more rewarding.
Your immediate future and the rest of your life can and will be affected by your fast and the reasons you go into your fast. One pre-fast tendency is to eat an overdose of the foods and drink you think you will miss most on the fast. This type of gluttony is never beneficial to your bodily health. It will also make the first few days of a fast even more difficult since your body has to assimilate and eliminate this overdose of food-stuffs. If you do indulge this tendency, I believe it is important to begin the fast with a couple of days of a blended fruit and colon conditioning process. This will balance the previous overindulgence and help prepare your body.
You can drink juice during this pre-fast process. Since the digestive system was not made to drink the highly concentrated fruit-sugar of processed fruit juice, you should add fruit and plant fiber to your beverage. I use a colon conditioner called "Colon Cleanse". One or two tablespoons in a juice beverage will give more bulk in your system. The longer it sits in the glass, the softer it will feel when you drink it. You might have to add more liquid to your drink because it can get pretty thick the longer it sits. The protein powder I mention can be any brand you like. Each one will taste differently. The most important aspect is to choose one that has as few additives of any kind. The one I presently use is vegan, no animal products in it and no sugar. It will not leave any additional toxins in your body as you prepare to enter your fast experience. You can actually drink it every day for the rest of your life. It is not just for beginning a fast.
I like protein powders that are vanilla flavored. The fruits and/or juice you add to the blended beverage will give it an enjoyable flavor. You don't need the protein powder. It only gives the blended drink more of a malted-milk texture and flavor. Any health food store usually carries it.
A few thoughts on the pre-fast beverage: You can drink as much of the beverage for the two pre-fast days as you like. Fill the blender 1/2 with apple juice. Apple juice is an excellent pre-cleansing fruit. Add two to three bananas and a couple of tablespoons of the vegetarian protein powder. The protein powder will give the beverage a smoother taste. Add one tablespoon of the colon conditioner for more bulk. Add about 8 ice cubes (if your blender can handle ice cubes. The ice cubes will make the drink more refreshing and the cold of the ice cubes will slow down the bulking of the colon conditioner before you have a chance to drink it. I love strawberries so I add about 1/2 pint of them to my beverage. Pineapple is an excellent digestive aid. Orange juice blended with some pineapple slices is great. If you use canned pineapple slices, make sure the pineapple is canned in its own juices, not in sugar-syrup (either heavy or light syrup is a no-no). However, be careful of too much acidic fruit such as oranges, pineapple and grapefruit. Too much acidic fruit can cause small acid bumps to develop in your mouth. Nothing to worry about, but uncomfortable. I sometimes have a few bottles of low-to-no-sodium V-8 juice in my two day pre-fast beverage diet. It may be bottled, but it offers a little variety and is somewhat nutritious. I drink it straight.
If you must have some added energy later into the fast, an okay thing to have is 50% water and 50% grape juice with some colon conditioner powder. If you must have anything, at least the grape-juice will not stop your cleansing process and the colon conditioner will scrub your digestive tract somewhat. We prefer your stomach to stay asleep for detoxifying. Grape juice mixed with water will not be digested in the stomach. It will pass directly to your intestines to be absorbed into your bloodstream. It is important to sip the juice beverage. Too much too soon will contribute to you feeling worse in a little while rather than better. You don't want your blood sugar levels to fluctuate wildly. Follow this juice-water drink with a glass or two of distilled water. This extra water will help your body handle the juice and colon conditioner.
The two day pre-fast fruit diet will definitely make your initial stopping of eating easier and will help lighten your discomfort in the beginning days of the fast. You have to expect times during the fast when you feel real good and other times when you feel real miserable. The miserable times are just moments of detoxifying. If you eat and break the fast at the miserable times, you will just slow or even defeat the important detoxification process you body is involved in.
If you have headaches, take a headache pill if you must. It is best to not introduce any chemicals into your body, but when it comes to a headache, I use the Tylenol crutch (just as much as I feel I have to). I am not a masochist. I don't like headaches. I can deal with just about any discomfort other than a terrible headache. Even the headaches that you feel like screaming from the pounding pain will pass. Don't stop the detoxifying process and the headaches can be looked at as a positive sign that the body is moving right along on its de-toxing journey. You might not even have any bad headaches. Just know that if you do, it is good and it will pass. After many years of all kinds of various foods, your intestines are like the drainage system of a large house. You have over 20 feet of intestine that has many curves. These curves have collected oils, fats and other particulate matter that is actually sort of glued to your intestine walls. Just like the accumulations of a house plumbing system. A fast is like a "roto-rooter" of your intestinal tract. As you go into the fast, your body shuts down non-important bodily processes (like the stomach digestive action) and starts using its vital energy to "clean house". It actually digests the fats and toxic particulate in order to eliminate them from it's house. It carries the toxins through the lymphatic and blood system. It passes these toxins through your liver for cleaning. Your tongue, your kidneys which produce your urine, your feces and sweat glands are important avenues for the body to eliminate toxins. Your blood stream is one of the carriers of the toxins marked for elimination. When the toxins carried along in your blood are passing through your liver, your kidneys, your colon and your brain - you will feel various bodily discomforts. The degree of discomfort and the frequency of discomfort will be determined by how built-up the toxin and garbage is in your body. KNOW THIS - THE MORE YOU CAN HANG THROUGH THESE DISCOMFORTS, THE POTENTIAL IS GREATER THAT THE BETTER YOU WILL FEEL IN THE LONG RUN. Future fasts will be easier since your body will a less concentration of garbage to have to process.
It is important to give your body as much rest as possible. Any energy used in non-detoxifying activity takes away from the vital energy the body is devoting to "cleaning house". At times you might even feel stronger sexual urges than normal. A build up of the body's vital energy concentrates in the genital area. From here it either is released through the sexual activity or it is concentrated and sent through the body where it is most needed. Deplete this vital energy through sexual activities and you will lower your energy levels for just getting out of bed in addition to the energy needed for an efficient "house cleaning". I could repeat over and over the importance of this concept of vital energy. I can not repeat it often enough. This vital energy is the energy used by the mothers you have heard of who have lifted an automobile off of their child in an emergency. Your body will not be eating and digesting nutritious foods during the fast. It will be using it's vital energy to both eliminate the toxins and use whatever energy it can get from the internal burning of the toxins for the energy to keep you alive, healthy and functioning through the fast. Don't make it any harder for your body to do its job than you have to. You will be the only one who will feel the rewards or suffer the penalties. A little discipline will go a long way. You can expect to lose between 1 and 2 pounds a day on average. One day you may lose 3 pounds. The next day 0 pounds. No one is the same. The amount and speed of your weight loss will be determined by your individual metabolism. Just know that over an extended fast, losing one to two pounds a day is almost a universal experience.
The first ten pounds will be mostly liquid. Be sure and drink plenty of water. Drink at least two quarts a day. You don't want to dehydrate. If you feel like it, even a gallon a day is not too much. The body needs plenty of liquid to help flush the system. Don't force the water, just drink as much as you need to make the hunger less discomforting. The more the toxins are diluted in your body with liquid, the less they will impact on your perception as they are being eliminated.
Your tongue is a good indicator of the detoxifying process. When it is completely clean is the indicator that your body has cleansed as much as it will on this fast. It is then time to consider breaking the fast unless you feel like continuing it for other reasons. By then, you might have some spiritual inspirations to consider when you are contemplating breaking your fast.
After about 15 days, some people will begin to notice their tongue starting to clear from the outer edges in towards the center. It is written that between 21 days and 28 days your tongue will be crystal clear. Your breath will be fresh. On a fifteen-day fast, my tongue didn't clear up completely. However, my body told me it was time to stop the fast. You have to learn to listen to your body. After fasting several times, believe me, you will become more and more aware of your body and how it speaks to you.
During the fast, drink as much distilled water as you want. Just make sure the water you drink is distilled. Don't drink spring water, it is not as pure as distilled water. Distilled water is recommended for clothes-irons so mineral deposits don't form in the iron and ruin it. Your body is more important then an iron.....treat it accordingly. Do not drink spring water. Spring water is not as pure as distilled water. Do not drink tap water. Tap water has chemicals and poisons which kill harmful bacteria and microbes that might be in the tap water. When you are taking water into your body and no food, the chemicals and poisons will become too concentrated in your body and can be harmful to your health.
Concerning enemas during the fast. You should give yourself an enema to help dilute the concentration of toxins accumulating in your lower colon and being re-absorbed into your body through the colon walls. The colon walls are very absorbent. An enema actually does not go very far up the colon. A colonic, which is a more profound enema, is better. However, an enema is better than nothing. Just don't rush it. It is best to be horizontal during the enema so that gravity won't work against the water going deeper into your lower colon. A general rule of thumb is wait at least 4 days between enemas. If you do it properly in a horizontal position and use plenty of water, you should notice a definite difference in your general feeling of well being.
It is good to brush your tongue when you brush your teeth. Not a heavy scrubbing, but a light brushing which will loosen the white accumulation and stimulate the process of detoxification through the tongue. It is good to floss regularly also because of the accumulation between the teeth of toxin residue.
A good warm to hot shower will help remove the toxin accumulation of body's largest organ of elimination - your skin. A little cool rinse after the hot shower should invigorate you.
My first long water fast lasted for 7 days. On the seventh day, I had more energy than I had when I went into the fast. I wanted to continue the fast. However, I broke it at day 7 because I wanted to have a good memory of my first long fast. A good memory of a successful fast makes future fasts easier to get into. On the other hand, once you go for seven days - day 8, 9, 10 and so on are a lot easier to do to than if you start again from day one some day in the future. This is something you have to decide on one day at a time.
I will be as close as your e-mail to give you encouragement and support each day of your fast.
I will be honored to help you through your ongoing decision process of when to break the fast and how to break it properly. Breaking the fast properly will tend to be more difficult than staying on the fast. The tendency will be to gobble up as much food as you can get your hands and mouth on. Resist this with all the discipline you can. The value of your fast can be completely destroyed by a lack of discipline at this break-fast time.
