Today is day two of my seven-day water fast. I will be posting an update next week sharing my entire seven-day fasting experience and a daily update of each day. In this post, I’m going to be sharing some of the benefits of prolonged water fasting, why I am doing a seven-day water fast, and how I prepare for my water fast.
10 Benefits of prolonged water fasts:
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Hormone balance: Water fasting balances and optimizes hormones, including the production of HGH, which is the hormone responsible for building muscle and burning body fat.
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Healthy Gut: Water fasting improves your gut microbiome health, including clearing candida.
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Cellular Health: Water fasting improves cellular health by inducing autophagy, stem cell production, and the overall strengthening of cells.
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DNA reset: It induces DNA reset.
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Lowers risk of chronic disease: It reduces the risk of, as well as fights off chronic diseases.
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Cancer treatment: Water fasting has been known to decrease tumor growth and even shrink tumors.
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Brain health: It improves brain health including improved memory and mental clarity.
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Energy: It increases energy by increasing mitochondria
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Inflammation: Water fasting decreases inflammation while increasing antioxidants.
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Spirituality: it has many spiritual benefits. I have several friends that fast solely for the purpose of enhancing their spiritual life.
Why I chose to water fast
The reason why I personally chose a seven-day water fast is because I really want to optimize all of these amazing health benefits that prolonged water fasting provides. My health is so valuable to me, and I’m always looking for ways to be my best self. I am particularly interested in the cellular benefits.
I remember my last trip to Korea I met a lady, and she had amazingly beautiful skin. She was in her 60s, and her profession was actually researching stem cells. She had stem cells injected into her skin, and she credits the stem cell injections for her youthful look. I also visited with her husband. He had an autoimmune disease that he treated with stem cell injections. He claims that it actually cured his autoimmune disease. Hearing their stories really inspired me. It made me a believer in the importance of stem cells for regeneration in the body.
Unfortunately, stem cell injections like this, they are illegal in the United States therefore unavailable to me. So, prolonged water fasting is a alternative way to stimulate stem cell production and reap all of its amazing benefits. And who doesn’t want more youthful skin? It’s something that I definitely think about more as I’m getting older. But in addition to the stem cell generation, I’m also just really looking forward to enhancing the increased mental clarity, increased energy, and increased overall health.Also, as a female in my 30s, hormone balance is also very top of mind for me, so I use water fasting to ensure that my hormones are working optimally.
I am somewhat experienced with prolonged water fasting. I’ve completed quite a few of 24-hour and 48-hour water fast. I’ve done one 72-hour fast. I have yet to ever do a seven-day water fast or anything beyond 72 hours. But, I chose to do a seven-day water fast this time around because not only do I want to push my body and test my mental toughness, but I also want to experience all of the health benefits of water fasting to their full effect. A lot of the benefits of prolonged water fasting aren’t really optimized until around day five of the water fast, so I want to push past this 5 day mark to ensure I experience fasting to it’s true capabilities.
it’s really important to have your mind and your body in the right place if you’re going to do a prolonged water fast. There are probably other circumstances under which you should not fast other than what is listed below, so make sure you consult your physician before doing a fast or making any major diet changes. You shouldn’t do a prolonged water fast if:
1 you are underweight
2. you have a history of eating disorders
3. if your only intention is just to lose weight
4. if you’re pregnant or breastfeeding
5. You have a medical condition that would not respond well to a fast
how to prepare for a fast.
You’remay not be able to execute on every one of these perfectly because… life happens. We have families. We have kids. We have jobs. We have a lot of other priorities. But, this is just a guideline. Execute on these the best to your ability. That’s what I try to do. I don’t do everything perfectly. And if I can’t execute on all of these, I don’t stress about it at all.
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remove all the temptations: I planned my fast knowing that I would be running out of groceries and also knowing that my boyfriend, who is an amazing cook, would be on a trip for the next week, so I have no delicious foods to tempt me during my seven days. Many of you may not be able to plan ahead this well and to this extent, but just try to get the temptations out of your way as much as possible.Do whatever you can to stay away from them. Simple things like putting away the food that you normally have out in plain view…that bowl of fruit, or that loaf of bread. Store these in the cabinet so that you don’t see it. Stay out of your kitchen as much as possible so you are not tempted by any of the foods in your kitchen.
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free your schedule as much as possible: I’m not executing on this one at all during my fast because I am fasting during a workweek, but I know of people that will take off from work for the whole seven days of their fast. I think it’s a really good idea if you have the ability to do so. The more that you can keep yourself out of stressful situations, the easier your fast will be to stick to. You’ll also have a more successful fast because you’ll be able to keep your cortisol levels low, putting your body through less stress.
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avoid negative people: This one is super hard for me because I sell cars for a living, so negative customers are a given. But, we all have people in our life that are super negative that we have control over avoiding if we choose to do so. If your particularly negative friend or relative calls you up and wants to hang out, just remember that now is not the time. Matter of fact, I would avoid telling that person that you’re on a water fast. They will only try to sabotage you, so avoid them until your fast is complete.
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write down your purpose for why you’re doing this fast and keep a daily journal: It’s important that when you’re going through hard times during this fast that you can go back and reference the purpose that you had written down. It will remind you of why you’re doing this to begin with and will also provide an outlet for you. In addition, it will provide documentation for you to reference whenever you’re done with the fast.
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eat a low-carb or ketogenic diet for a few weeks leading up to your fast: this will help your body to fat adapt more easily when you go into your fast, making it a smoother fast overall. Unfortunately, this is not one that I executed on well either. I knew that my boyfriend was leaving for a trip, so we had a huge dinner the night before I started my fast. But if you have the means and ability to do this, I highly recommend it!
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add a daily walk or yoga practice to your daily routine: You’re not going to want to overexert yourself during your water fast, so I don’t recommend doing really strenuous activities or workouts during your fast. However, I do think it’s important for you to get movement in to get your circulation and blood flowing throug your body. Doing a daily light yoga practice or a light walk will give you the movement that you need without overexerting your body. Now, having said this, always listen to your body. If you feel like you just need to rest, certainly do so!
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get everything that you need for this fast: Here is a list of things I get for my fast:
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good quality salts. The salts that I always get, I get pink Himalayan salt. This will give you your sodium chloride. I get something called No Salt. That will give you your potassium chloride. Then, I also get a food-grade Epsom salt which gives you your magnesium. Now, sodium, potassium, and magnesium, those are the three electrolytes that you’re most at risk for losing when you do a water fast like this. Mixing the salt in with your water along with a little bit of baking soda will ensure that your body has everything that it needs to get through this fast. I use a recipe called Snake Juice to ensure that I get the ratios that are ideal from all of the salts. It’s not my recipe. It’s one that was created by this guy named Cole Robinson. But, I’ll put a link down below for the Snake Juice recipe.
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large hydroflask or water bottle. I like using a hydroflask because it keeps the water cold. I use a two-liter hydroflask. I don’t have it with me because I usually keep that one at work because I’m at work more than I’m at home. Then here, I have a smaller version of that that I keep at home. Then, what I do is I mix my salts with my water at the beginning of the work day, and then I’m prepared for the day. I don’t have to do any running back and forth worrying about fixing it in the middle of my workday, and I have the water at my desk ready to go.
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box of enemas. I do find that when I do a prolonged water fast, sometimes it can cause constipation because you have literally zero fiber pushing your stools out of your system, so the enemas can help with that. I’ve seen people that will actually do one every single day of their fast. I’m hesitant to do that only because I don’t want to lose important minerals or nutrients that I might need in my body. I will probably do one to two enemas during the seven-day five. Now, I get the enemas at my local drug store, so you should be able to find them there as well.
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ketone monitor. I like to check my blood sugar levels and my ketone levels because I like to see when my body actually gets into ketosis during this fast. I use a ketone monitor called Precision X because that will check your ketones, and it has a dual blood sugar test as well as ketone test on it. If you don’t want to fork out the money to invest in a ketone blood monitor, you can get ketone strips. That’s where you pee on a strip. When you urinate on the strip, it will tell you the level of ketones that are in your urine. Now, this is not going to be as accurate as a blood ketone monitor would be at telling you when you’re in ketosis, but it will at least give you an idea and something to gauge. If you want the most accurate results, you’ll want to invest in a blood glucose monitor.
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scale so that you can track your weight during this process. I personally like to also take before and after photos. I actually think this might be more important than tracking it on a scale. Now, keep in mind during a prolonged fast like this, you’re also going to lose water weight, so not all of the weight that you’re seeing come off is your fat coming off. However, I do still like to track my weight loss progress, and I also still like to track the way that my body is looking through this process and how my body is progressing. I always step on the scale every day, and I’ll try to take photos daily as well.
So now you know a lot of the benefits of prolonged water fasting, and you know why I’m doing this fast for myself, and how you can prep for your next water fast. I hope you find this information helpful. Let me know in the comments if you have additional questions!
XOXO,
Esther
No Excuse Girl
Disclaimer: I am not a physician, so use this information at your own risk and please consult your physician before starting any type of fast.
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