My Experience of Fasting

For a while I’ve been considering doing a juice cleanse. I’ve read how good they are meant to make you feel once you get through the first three days and it sounded like something worth trying.

Then I really got to thinking about it and I decided I couldn’t think of a worse combination to force down than water with lemons, cayenne pepper and maple syrup. It sounds pretty gross right?

So instead, I decided to do a five day fast where I would drink water and that was all. Here is my experience:

Day One

Day one was pretty uneventful. I was a bit peckish but nothing major really.

Day Two

Again, nothing really to report for day two although I was starting to miss coffee already.

Day Three

This was truly the worst day. I’d read in a lot of places that day three is like Hell, so maybe that influenced me a little bit, but I came close to giving up on day three (the only reason I didn’t to be honest was I wanted to write this post and I didn’t want to have to say I quit).

On day three, I had a headache, I kept feeling dizzy, I felt a constant far away sickly feeling and my legs were like jelly every time I stood up. Not to mention I just felt generally rubbish.

And I figured the next two days were going to be even worse.

Day Four

Day four rolled around and surprised me.

Not only did I not feel like crap anymore, but I actually felt better than I have in a long time. The headaches and sickly feeling was gone. I had energy and I felt like I could actually do this.

Day Five

Day five was the only day that scared me. I felt empowered and in control, which sounds like a good thing, but is it?

Is it a good idea to feel empowered by fasting?

I’m not sure, but I’d bet on no. It felt far too close for comfort to the feeling people with eating disorders describe around control.

I’ve never had an eating disorder, but from what I’ve read and heard about them, this felt like an eating disorder waiting to happen.

I started to feel tempted to go on for longer, just to see how long I could do it for, but luckily, the more rational side of me kicked in and I knew this would be my last day.

I didn’t feel hungry at all – in fact the thought of food made me feel a bit sick.

After Effects

I didn’t really have any negative after effects, but in honesty, the positive effects I felt (more energy mostly) went away after two or three days which I thought didn’t really justify the effort.

In a physical sense, I don’t think limited fasting is dangerous, but from a psychological view, I think it could do real damage. If you are someone who feels out of control, then this is a dangerous pathway to something that can give you the ultimate control.

I found it quite hard to face my first meal after doing this – I had a small bowl of soup and I had to force every mouthful down, and I felt so stuffed afterwards. After the first day, I still felt full quicker than normal, but I didn’t feel sick or anything.

I think I should have done a lot more research about what to expect, supplements to take and how to reintroduce food and maybe my experience would have been different.

Overall, it was hard at first, but it definitely got easier. I wouldn’t be in a rush to do it again, because I don’t think the effects where worth it, but I it wasn’t as hard to do as I thought it would be.

Have you ever done a fast or a cleanse? What did you think? Let me know in the comments 🙂

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