As soon as I heard it was cancer, my entire relationship with food changed.
I’ve always been aware of how nutrition impacts health, and the diagnosis was a stark reminder that I hadn’t been effectively applying my knowledge in my daily dietary choices. I was eating a lot of meat, cheese and carbs and unfortunately very few vegetables or fresh fruits.
For the last few months, I’ve been making more intentional choices which have lead to a drastic change in my diet. I’ve eliminated sugar, processed food, gluten and most meat, dairy and eggs. I’m doing my best to make 90-95% of my diet whole food and plant based. I plan to share some more thoughts and details about my food experiences and challenges in a future post. I mentioned part of the struggle in a recent post called, “Gratitude.”
As I learned more about a healing diet, the concept of fasting continued to come up. I’ve done intermittent fasting before as part of my faith practice, but I have never done a multi-day fast. Not even accidentally.
Today is day one of my first water fast. This morning, I finished up some carrot-ginger juice I made on Saturday (so maybe I’m not officially fasting just yet, but I think it’s close enough) and squeezed a little bit of lemon in my water. I don’t have much in the fridge that will go bad in the next 3-5 days, and there’s nothing too strenuous coming up this week that I need a lot of energy for.
The timing seems right.
I do have to admit that the primary reason I’m choosing to fast is because I’m sick of thinking about food. The health benefits come in second for me. I don’t want to go grocery shopping. I don’t want to chop vegetables. I don’t want to clean my blender or juicer. I’m excited to take all of that mental load off my plate (pun totally intended). It’s water time.
I’ve researched water fasting a lot lately, and I’m aware of some things to expect.
They say on day one, I’ll feel fine.
Day two will probably suck.
By day three or four, I may not even be hungry anymore.
I will need to prioritize rest and not exercise too much.
When I break my fast, it should be with something easy to digest like oatmeal or cooked vegetables.
If you’re interested in learning more about the science and health benefits of water fasting, I highly recommend these interviews with Dr. Alan Goldhamer and Dr. Nathan Gershfeld from the Chris Beat Cancer podcast (which can also be found on Spotify if you prefer audio only).
My plan is to make it to Thursday morning. Three days. If I feel okay on Thursday morning, I might continue through Friday making it five. I plan to continue doing my morning yoga and maybe go for some short walks, and sit out of karate classes this week.
The other thing I’m supposed to expect is that some big emotions might come up. I’m no stranger to that. With all the talk about solar flares, Mercury retrograde and today’s eclipse, my emotions have already been doing things I’m not sure I understand anyway.
Emotional healing is a huge part of healing. I’m willing to explore, feel and move through the emotions that have been waiting in my body to be seen, heard, felt and released.
It might be a rough road. I’m not sure I’m ready for it, and now is a good a time as any. Could be good practice for my impending menopause. Maybe I should warn my family.
Have you ever tried fasting? What’s been your experience?
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