How To Fast – 10 Common Questions

Have you ever imagined being totally healthy?  Have you got any health issue that you struggle with? Would you like to get off any medication that you are taking at the moment? In this article we would like to share with you the information and our personal experience with fasting and the resulting improvements in health and well being. So how to fast?

1. What is fasting?

Very simply put you stop all intake of food for certain period of time. For one, three, five, seven, fourteen or even twenty one or fourty days. When we say all food, we mean all. No teas, no juices, no little snacks. The only thing you put in your mouth during fasting is water and ideally only distilled water.

2. Why and how fasting works?

Your body is super intelligent electrochemical and biological machine made by nature that posses enormous self-healing qualities. When you cut your finger, for example, within few days your body heals itself replacing and building new cells and skin. It is incredible self-healing process. The same happens after every surgery when your scar gets healed not because of any medicaments but thanks to the self-healing power of your body. The great news for everybody is that the same process operates not only to heal open wounds but in your entire body. So when you stop eating all the excess energy that is normally used for digestive processes is used by your body to repair, renew and generally balance all your body’s functions.

3. Why to drink distilled water during the fast?

You may want to read about why we drink distilled water here. When fasting, drinking distilled water is especially important. The basic principle, as explained above, is to stop your digestive processes and thus, allow your body to deal with all issues it has. If you drank anything else than pure distilled water your digestive system would still operate a bit and in this way would stand in a way of the healing process. Also, distilled water is highly reactive and in this way supports all the processes going on in your body. So the aim is to stop your digestive system completely and let the body do the rest.

4. What to expect during the fast?

There are few common symptoms you will experience if you give fasting a try. The cleansing process usually in the first three days is accompanied by headaches, feeling cold and dizziness. This is caused by the toxins flowing into your bloodstream before they get expelled by your kidneys through urine. Your urine gets darker as a result. Whenever you notice your urine gets darker, drink a lot of distilled water.  Another thing you have to be careful about is your breath. You can expect white smelly film on your tongue caused again by the cleaning process. Brushing your teeth more often usually helps only for a while, so you should adjust your behaviour patterns (no dating, no intimacy).

Have a rest during your fast

5. What about sport and other regular activities?

Well, you will feel low energy during the fast, so you would not be able to do some great sporting performances. On the other hand, speeding up your blood circulation helps the cleansing process. Walking or light running is a good compromise.

6. Will I get hungry?

Usually only first three days you feel like being hungry and eating some food. After that, it turns and the next days you are not hungry at all. The key to getting over any cravings is to find some activity during the fast as you can expect to have a lot of free time that you usually spend preparing and eating food.

7. Will I lose weight?

The great news for most of us is that thanks to fast you lose weight and usually in places of your body where most desired, i.e. your belly. Your body removes your excess fat as if by miracle. Do not worry too much about body mass index and similar measures. Your body is intelligent and it would never lose more than what is necessary for its proper functioning. In addition, once you begin eating again you will quickly gain kilos again!

8. Returning to solid food

By far the most important moments of the whole process of fasting is returning to food. You have to be very careful and start eating gradually, ideally juices, fresh fruit and steamed vegetable. If you fasted longer time, it takes up to three days to start your digestive system operating normally. The golden rule says: Careful return to solid food should last as long as the fast itself. After the fast your body is super sensitive to what you eat. You can experiment yourself, but we can assure you that your body will love any raw food. Salty, fatty food full of refined sugar, on the contrary, will cause you hard moments. So please avoid them, otherwise all your effort will be in vain. If you stick to raw foods, you’ll experience enormous increases in energy, improvements of your skin, nails, hair, senses etc. You will feel for yourself the miracle of fasting.

9. Are there any contraindications?

Well, anybody can fast and find his/her way back to total health. Even terminally ill patients with cancer for instance recovered thanks to a combination of regular and long term fasting. Only pregnant and breastfeeding women should avoid fasting because the detoxifying process would negatively affect the fetus or the baby. Also, people with cancer or overmedicated patients have to be careful when fasting as their bodies are so full of toxins that their kidneys can become overwhelmed by the sudden influx of toxins into the bloodstream and suffer self-poisoning. There is an easy way to protect yourself, though. Just observe the colour of your urine and when it gets very dark, drink a lot of distilled water. If the colour of urine does not get better stop fasting and return to food immediately. The cleansing process slows down and your body gets busy with food again rather than cleansing.

Raw Food lifestyle

10. How often shall I fast?

Fast of any duration is beneficial to your health and cleanliness of your body, even if you introduce a single day per week or just occasionally. But the longer you fast the deeper and more thorough the cleansing process will be. If you aim for longer fasts, start with a day per week on a regular basis. Do not worry too much if you initially cannot make even one day. It took us for attempts to get over first day. Then once a month try to make three days, than next month five days, and next month seven days with always sticking to one day of fasting every week. One week of fasting per year will help your body to be healthy and clean. If you suffer from chronic disease caused by a long term imbalance in your eating and life-style habits than you would have to train yourself to make 21-day fast. Three weeks without food and only on distilled water will reset your immune system and many people report recovery from many serious chronic diseases.

Myself, I have never made more that 8 days fast and can sincerely recommend it as a way to clean and harmonize your body. With patience and endurance you will discover the miracle of fasting.

I would also recommend to prepare for a longer fast in advance to make arrangements with your partner (if you have one) so you feel supported during your fast. Don’t tell your relatives or colleagues as they would try and persuade you to stop 🙂 Simple question you can ask them: Have you tried yourself so you know it is not beneficial? We bet 99% would say NO.

Happy fasting and if you have any questions or comments, please connect with us by commenting below or via FB. If you like our articles, don’t forget to subscribe to our newsletter not to miss any and to get our FREE ‘Be Rawsome’ guide to help you with your raw food journey.

Michael & Eva