Ep 16: Water Fast
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Jo: Hello, my beautiful friend. Welcome back to the podcast. Boy, do I have a story and experience for you! So. Let's just dive in to today's episode. I did a water [00:01:00] fast. For 48 hours. I ate no food. And only drank water. Now, I know you might be thinking, why the hell did you do a water fast and not eat anything? Are you crazy? No, I'm not crazy. So here's the thing. Water fasts or fasting in general is an ancient practice. And so many cultures. Practiced fasting. For not just the health benefits, but also the spiritual benefits of fasting. So I decided to give it a shot. I originally planned to do a full three days or 72 hour. Nothing but water. And not just any water electrolyzed reduced water, which is like the best water that you can possibly hope for it's negatively charged ionized water. I signed up for a three day water fast challenge, essentially. It's guided [00:02:00] and you have videos that you can watch every day. That goes over the science and what's happening in your body and how you can kind of make it easier for yourself and stay motivated to complete the challenge. Let's go over the benefits real quick. Why you would want to do a water fast or fast in general contra-indications and then we'll get into what I did wrong. So. Some of the benefits of water fasting one, it gives your digestive system a rest and helps it kind of reset. From the day we're born up till now we've eaten every single day, unless we were sick or had a stomach bug or something. But even then our culture as an American is to eat. We're conditioned and programmed to eat three meals a day, plus snacks like continuing to feed our digestive system, which in reality, wasn't designed for that kind of lifestyle. [00:03:00] The average American eats way more than they really should. That's just a given, right. We all know that the average American eats way. Way more calories than is needed. And our ancient ancestors. Didn't have food available to them every waking hour of the day. Most of us can just go to the refrigerator or the pantry, open it up and grab something to eat. And that's not the way that our ancestors lived. They had to hunt for food or go out and find their food. And sometimes they wouldn't eat for days. When we think back over time, it wasn't that long ago that, that was the reality for our ancestors in the entire, like, Span of history so much has happened in so much has changed in the blink of an eye. Now we're living so much differently than our ancestors did, but we haven't had the chance for our bodies [00:04:00] to catch up to the way that we're living now. Which can pose quite a few problems, right? The issues that we're facing now, like morbid obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, heart disease are at an all time high. And one of the benefits of fasting is that we not only give our digestive system a break and a chance to reset and reset all of our healthy gut flora. But we're also giving our systems a chance to detox, all of the stuff that we've been putting into it. We're giving our bodies a chance to burn fat for fuel. It can help regulate your blood sugar and promote blood sugar control. By reducing insulin resistance. It can promote better health by fighting inflammation. So many of us live in a chronic state of inflammation. It also helps to. Improve blood pressure, your triglycerides, your cholesterol [00:05:00] level. It can even help. Boost brain function. And brain structure. How cool is that? Plus on top of all of that, it helps aid weight loss, because if you reach a certain point, you're then burning fat for fuel. Instead of all of the glucose, that's swarming around in our bloodstream. It also increases human growth hormone. Which is important for growth, weight loss, muscle strength, and your metabolism. Let's talk about what happens in your body. During the fasting period. So for me, I did. A 48 hour fast. It was supposed to be 72, but I cut it short. I did not prepare my body the way that I should have, but we'll talk about that later. So. So about 12 to 13 hours of fasting your human growth hormone is boosted by about 1300%. Just from 12 to 13 hours of fasting. So if you're wanting [00:06:00] to boost your metabolism, To increase your muscle mass to lose weight. 12 to 13 hours of fasting will increase your human growth hormone and help you with all of that. And really helped with your gains in the gym. If you go to the gym. Then from 13 to 15 hours of fasting, your body is starting to transition from burning that sugar for energy and the carbs. To burning fat. For fuel. So if you're wanting to lose weight, This is. That switched that you're wanting to happen. You're wanting to switch from burning sugar to burning fat. At about 17 hours of fasting. This is when autophagy kicks in. Autophagy is when the cells of your body begin to find food other places it recognizes that there's no more sugar left for it to eat. So it starts to find food, other places. This is when the detox begins to happen because [00:07:00] this autophagy is when your healthy cells start breaking down the old damaged cells. It recognizes what is not supposed to be there and begins the process of eliminating the old dysfunctional cells from your body. So at this point, we've kicked on the human growth hormone. We've kicked on autophagy. And the body is starting to burn fat for fuel. So at about 24 hours of fasting, a lot of magic has been turned on and the gut-- your small and your large intestines -- start to generate stem cells which helps with leaky gut syndrome, candida, and fasting past 24 hours, those stem cells will continue to heal and repair your gut. And at about 24 hours, the brain starts to create more brain derived neurotropic factor. Which is an [00:08:00] amazing thing for your brain and helps to repair degenerating neurons that can cause memory loss, brain fog, and the inability to focus. Can help with depression, anxiety, and trouble learning. How freaking cool is that? Holy smokes. So by 48 hours, there's so much good stuff that's happening. In your body to repair and for a lot of people, day two is the hardest. For me, it was day one. So after 48 hours, we're getting into the 72 to like 120 hours of fasting. Stem cell production is really, really ramping up. And according to research the primary stem cells that kick in on the third day. Are from the immune system. So if you're looking to boost your immune system a three day water fast is probably the way to go for you. Now, this is in no way medical advice or anything like that. This is just for [00:09:00] funsies educational purposes only. I'll leave links to all of the resources that I'm pulling from for all of the benefits and what your body goes through during the fast for you in the show notes if you want to do a little bit of your own research. And now I'm going to tell you my experience with the water fast. So, like I said, I cut my fast, short at 48 hours instead of doing the full 72. And that's because I did not prepare my body in the way that I should have for the fast. It's recommended that you eat. A raw food diet for a couple of days before you jump into a water fast and I did not do that. Why? Because I decided one day that I'm just going to start my fast today. Instead of actually planning it out. So what I did. Was. Randomly decide to start this water fast. It had been on my radar and apparently that day was the day to start it. So I went to the gym and I lifted heavy. That was my [00:10:00] second mistake. So I didn't prepare my body. And then I went and I lifted heavy at the gym. Oh, So my body was trying to repair itself. After being put through the ringer at the gym. And I was not going to give it any nutrition. So those were my two big mistakes. That I know much better for next time. I did still make it through a 48 hour water fast and I am so proud of myself and really, I feel so much better now that I've done it. I feel mentally more clear. I feel like I'm less bloated. I look less bloated. I just in general, feel better and my skin looks better. So the benefits that I'm feeling are incredible. And I'm really excited to do this again properly. Not exercise heavily during the fast, at all. Just allow my body to rest, do some gentle movements and Kundalini [00:11:00] meditation. To really nurture my body instead of torturing it with with a heavy gym workout. But. Yeah. I'm overall, really excited and really encouraged by the change that I saw just from not eating anything for two days. And it sounds really hard. I got a few comments on my Facebook about like, oh my gosh, like don't you need to eat. Yes. General consensus from the medical community is that yes, the body needs food, but you can go weeks without eating. And still survive. You can go longer without food, then you can water. So a water fast helps to keep you hydrated and using the right water with the right supplements is super important. So if you want to do a water fast, I'll leave the link to the water fast that I did in the show notes. So that you can check it out and sign up for it. If you want to do that. [00:12:00] Get the proper water. Have the proper guidance to go through the water fast, I personally recommend it from my experience. Now, of course, if you have any. Kind of medical condition. 100% talk to your doctor before you do a water fast or a fast of any kind. The first day for me, like I said, was the toughest. The hunger was the worst for me on the first day. But. Typically it's the second day that the hunger is the worst. And. For me that wasn't the case. The first day was all I could think about was food. I was so hungry. All I wanted to do is eat, but the second day. I woke up. I felt good. I could already feel some of the effects of the fast, which was incredible. It's all really a mental game. So when I started feeling super, super hungry and I wanted to cave so badly, I just told myself that I was doing this for my body and that I would feel better. Afterwards. And [00:13:00] then I, I even drank some pickle juice. So the salt content from the pickle juice helped really curb the hunger. I drank some pickle juice and then I took a salt shaker to work with me the next day. And I ate salt when ever I got a craving and just drink more water. And it was fine until I started getting a really, really bad headache towards the end of the second day. Which is why I cut it short at 48 hours. Some of the guidelines said, if you get a really bad headache or start getting. Shaky. And clammy or super severe hunger pains. Then to eat. So I decided to listen to my body. And I had a little bit of food. I don't even know how I forgot to mention this, but my cravings. Are gone. So the things that I craved. Like Cheez-Its. Oh my gosh. That was like number one, craving. take fives are my favorite candy bar. I would crave those out crave. Tortilla chips, like all [00:14:00] of the bad stuff, right. I would crave all of that and I don't. Oh, you just doesn't even sound. Good anymore. Like I woke up. On day three and I was like, I want some Hambone soup. My Nana used to make this amazing Hambone soup is really just Pinto beans with a Hambone thrown into. And we'd put it over rice and eat, eat it with corn bread. And I was like, I really want that. And I think it's because all of the collagen that is in the Hambone bone broth has a whole lot of collagen in it. So. I went out and bought Pinto beans. And some ham. And rice. And we're making Hambone soup tonight. It's going to be fabulous. So. If you're looking really to lose weight. And feel better in general and curb the cravings 100% recommend a water fast. Just make sure you're being smart about it. You're drinking the right, right water. You're getting the right guidance and it is okay with your doctor before you do it. So. That is it. For this [00:15:00] episode, if you have any questions about water fasting. Find me on social media, all the links will be in the show notes or send me an email at [email protected] and we can chat about it. If you want to go ahead and dive in that link to the water fast challenge that I did will also be in the show notes and I will see y'all next week.
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