January Water Fast: Day #13 {Fasting Results}
Well my fasting is over. And while I’m excited to get back to eating, as I mentioned before, I’m not looking forward to the chaos of a food-driven life.
Our final fasting results are pretty impressive; In 12 days of water fasting Ray and I both lost a total of 26 pounds. We were also in deep ketosis since day 3(me), 4(ray).
On Friday (day #12, my last day of fasting) I had to run some errands, I am mostly a home body, especially since the weather has been very cold lately. It became apparent that our society is partially to blame for most people’s addictions to food – your addiction to food is perhaps the biggest obstacle to success at fasting, let alone eating a healthy diet.
Food is everywhere. Every gas station, every store, we are overwhelmed with food being thrown at us. Temptations are around every corner, literally.
And if you can overcome the plethora of fast food restaurants every 10 feet and meals served at gas stations…. then you still have to deal with the new trend turning every small event into a celebration deemed worthy of cake, cookies and doughnuts.
We just all need to STOP EATING. And by that I don’t mean stop eating all together and fast – but I mean needless, pointless, excessive eating.
If you don’t “have time to eat” then, well, don’t eat. You won’t die if you miss a meal – I just skipped 36 meals and I’m only better for it.
Missing lunch on a Wednesday instead of going through a drive through and eating in your car, is a far better choice.
Eating has become a compulsion. Food is too accessible and treated too casually. Food is delicious and nourishing and should be treated as such. Eating is an event and if you aren’t making time to EAT with consciousness then your priorities are completely skewed.
Animals lives were given to feed you, farmers gave their all to fill your belly, pay homage to those sacrifices as they deserve. Stop treating food as an unconscious part of being.
What you eat determines 80+% of your health, why are so many people giving it the least focus in their lives?
And we aren’t perfect either, while we rarely eat out and even more rarely eat at fast food restaurants/gas stations/target – we still have places we need to improve. We realized while we were fasting that even we weren’t giving our meal times the focus they deserved.
I take pride in what I make for our meals and we put much time, effort & money into sourcing the highest quality food – yet we eat dinner every day in the living room infront of the television. Mindless eating. No doubt eating more that we should since we are distracted.
Ray and I decided that Monday – Friday, meals will be eaten in the kitchen. Sitting together, no television, no iPads & no phones. Just us, focusing on eating nourishing foods. (eventually I hope to get weekend meals more formalized too – but baby-steps!!)
It’s ok to not be perfect because, perfect does not exist. And if you keep thinking that perfection is your end destination, you’ll be sadly let down because perfect keeps changing over time. All that we can do is Better Than Yesterday. All those better days add up to a simply amazing life.
I challenge all of you to stop eating mindlessly and eat only consciously.
And when you can’t eat consciously, consider missing a meal. 95% of the time you are only desiring to eat at a specified meal time because you’ve developed a conditioned addiction based on a pre-established timeline. Trust me, you are not truly starving or even physically hungry 4 hours after your last meal – it’s 100% in your head.
In fasting for 12 days, not one single time did we experience physical hunger, only the emotional desire to eat. Our success fasting is completely based on our ability to realize the difference between physical and emotional hunger. I want that for you too.
I have started a 14 day fast to help heal my body. Your right hunger is only from your mind cause it is used to eating. My starting weight is 246.8 and I am hoping to lose at least 20 pounds. If not then Baby Steps. I will start walking tomorrow the rest of the time for 30 minutes a day and see how I do. Since Covid fasting has been hard so I had to take baby steps to get used to it again. Now I am on Day 3 to be honest I am not hungry. I was in the beginning but not so much now. I am proud of myself no one knows I am fasting cause they are all negative about it.
Hi there, Haley.
It’s been a couple years since your water fast. When you picked up where you left off and started to eat food again, did you gain any weight back? And if so, was it quick to gain back? Ever since I was young I was always told that when you don’t eat you’ll obviously lose weight, but once you start you’ll gain it all back and even then some. What was your experience like post-fast?
Fasting is not calorie restriction. Fasting does not wreck your metabolism like dieting does. You gain weight back if you return to your old patterns and eat an unhealthy diet for your body.
Hi Haley-
Just a quick question…. with your 12 day water fast results did you mean to post that your and Ray lost a “combined” 26 lbs or 26 lbs each. I am confused about that. Thanks for clearing it up for me.
Best,
Terri
we BOTH lost 26 pounds. Not combined.
when you say that you BOTH lost 26 pounds, that DOES MEAN a combined total (in the english language)
If you each lost 26 pounds, then you BOTH lost 52 pounds.
So, did you BOTH lose 26 pounds or EACH of you lost 26 pounds?
WHICH is it?
Ray lost 26 pounds, I lost 26 pounds. We both lost 26 pounds.
Thanks for writing about your water fasting journey Haley! I was searching google for info about juice fasting and came across your blog. After reading it I might actually start a water fast tomorrow instead of a juice fast.
I am curious. Did you really say that you didn’t experience hunger pains during the fast? I’ve done a 3 day juice fast in the past and the first day I was so hungry that I wanted to gnaw my arm off! I used gum to get myself through it. Maybe not the best choice but I wouldn’t have made it without the gum!
Yes you’ll be hungry, anytime you’re not eating you’ll have both physical and emotional hunger until your body becomes adapted to using it’s stored energy (aka fat)
Thank you Haley. At the end of day 2 and yes, I am hungry!
I enjoyed reading your post, thank you
Awesome blog. It’s always nice to find another person that thinks for themselves about diet, nutrition and health. We as a society are given so much misinformation that many of the ancient parts of humanity, and well being, are forgotten, like letting our body heal itself through a fast.
Thanks!
I love to follow your journey; I admire you for exposing yourself to the criticism that comes with it.
I have made major overhauls to my diet in the last five years and continue to work at improving it. I was a 44 oz diet cherry coke and dark Milkey Way candy bar daily addict……..a glass of milk and the candy bar was lunch or dinner of choice more times than I can remember. I have loved sweets for as long as I can remember and will agree that sugar is as addictive as cocaine.
I frequently forget to eat until the headache at 4pm strikes. Even with such little interest in most food my weight began to increase after my 30th birthday.
Changes began slowly with wellness programs at work, diet coke was the first to go. I still crave it, but do not drink it.
The introduction to Kefir, Kombucha and cultured vegetables at a Whole Food Grocery was next.
Becoming involved in Alzheimers Clinical Research was the next motivator; I do not want my children to have to deal with an aging parent with the mentality of a two year old. My family history involves dementia; mother, uncles, grandparents.
A program provided by my chiropractor was the next step; a two month dietary challenge that restricted processed food, grain products, sugar, certain types of vegetables and fruits. I allowed myself one cheat day each week to eat something that was restricted. Granted it was mind games, but that kept me on track. I decided it was “Mind over matter, if I didn’t mind it didn’t matter” But I did mind and it was very hard to make those changes. That challenge resulted in a 13 pound weight loss over a two month time period even though Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years fell within the 62 days. It has been three months since that specific challenge ended, but the weight has remained off and I have continued with many of dietary changes.
I believe we need support from one another, what works for one person may not work for another. The fact that your husband is also involved is refreshing, too many times we are in the trench. The ultimate goal is to be as healthy as possible and not have to take medication. It can be a singular journey or one filled with companions. Quality of life far outweighs quantity.
By the way, I will turn 70 the end of June. I work full time, have may interests, maintain my home and yard myself. It’s good to be busy, I really think if we stop moving we “rust”
I wish you the very best of success with your journey and look forward to your new blogs.
Thank you so much for reaching out!! I admire your progress and wish you the best!!! <3 Hayley
This really bothers me. You state in other posts that you believe you are completely healthy despite being overweight, yet you focus a lot on your weight loss here. Why bother saying you lost 26 pounds if that number has no effect on your health?
And while I greatly appreciate your statement that we are obsessed with food (we are), not eating for two weeks is definitely not the answer to a healthier lifestyle. The human body was not meant to do that, and just because it’s physically possible doesn’t mean it’s good for you. You also CAN go 7 days without defecating, or a month without sleep, or 30 years on 2 packs of cigarettes a day, but that doesn’t mean you should, or should tell other people to do so.
But thank you for the wonderful writing about how food consciousness is an important part of our everyday lives. I do think many people live in denial about what they put in their bodies and the effect it has on the planet.
Sarah – Please elaborate on your statement “The human body was not meant to do that (fast)” because it is FACT that the human body has had fasting as a regular part of it’s existence for MILLIONS of years. It is only with recent history that we’ve become illogically addicted to shoving food into our mouths at regular, pre-determined, timed intervals. Please don’t confuse your present day mindset with the facts of our historical existence. Our bodies are specifically designed to prepare for times of famine, by holding on to excess during times of feast – in terms of calories, fat and nutrients. These are undeniable facts. (not even factoring in historical spiritual fasting for those who are of faith)
I am an authentic person, who like everyone else, has many faults – The only difference is that I purposefully CHOOSE to be open about them in a public forum.
I completely understand that YOU would conduct yourself differently or perhaps that since you aren’t in my shoes, you can’t compassionately understand my POV – however as someone who is PROACTIVE about my long term health, I am constantly looking for ways to improve.
And as I stated previously, while I have documented data PROVING that I am a healthy individual, Am I really at fault for striving to be BETTER? Would you prefer if I was complacent and did nothing else – Because NONE of us are perfect enough.
Regardless of the current state of my HEALTH – it does not change the fact that personally, I WANT to loose weight. It is a emotional burden I struggle with EVERY DAY OF MY LIFE. Can you personally identify with my struggle?
Sarah – I appreciate you taking the time to read my post, comment and that you agree on the food-obsession of our society – but if you aren’t interested in ME AS A PERSON and who I am – embracing my struggles and flaws – perhaps my blog isn’t the place for you.
I strive to help others by exposing myself and my imperfections, including the fact that despite being deemed “healthy” on paper it’s not the end-all-be-all for my journey, I want even more for myself. It’s like you are saying that someone who’s already “healthy” shouldn’t exercise to be “healthier” – Health isn’t the end of a race, it’s an ongoing, everyday part of my life. Striving ever for better and more.
I wish you only the best in your own personal journey.
I love when people make statements about things before researching them. From my RESEARCH, I have ascertained that you are correct in saying that the human body is built to fast. It actually makes sense if you have the ability to think logically. Before the humans advanced to the point we are at now, we did not have the ability to eat EVERY day. We would not be able to kill prey everyday and conserve that meat for later on. We would not be able to find edible fruits and vegetables EVERY day either. So it stands to reason that human beings would need to built to fast in order to survive and to evolve. It makes even more sense if you understand how to human processes food and how it stores fat. Operate word STORES…… As in stores it for later. I like the way you responded to her, especially her wording was aggressive and combative, her reasoning based on pure ignorance. You were very polite and knowledgeable in your response. You are a better person than I. I personally have little tolerance for willful ignorance
I”m actually really short fused, that was just a good-moment caught on my blog, normally I’m rather bitchy!
Loved this post. I have been following your fast although I have no intentions of doing it. I have done intermittent fasting but I just can’t do a complete fast while working an outside job and taking care of my parents. But I so agree that people take food for granted. I have been eating grain free for years and I feel so much better but it is so tempting to eat all the doughnuts and other stuff that people put out. I have no problems staying away from fast food places because I don’t want to spend the money. I spend my money on real food. It helps that my grown son and my parents are on board. Once you get away from having dessert all the time and not eating sweets on a regular basis, it is easy to really enjoy them when you occasionally get them. I’m not perfect but I do my best. I love your cookbook and plan to cook my way through it. Your flat breads are perfection. I’m glad your fast was a success.