A couple months ago I completed my 4 day fast? I have been contemplating how to share my experiences with you. Today is post 1, “The Physical Aspect”!
Have you considered doing a 4 day fast or any type of extended fast? You may be concerned with certain aspects of doing so.
Many of my clients or potential clients think about fasting quite often, mainly because people want to lose weight and often fasting can play a role in achieving that goal as well as other benefits like autophagy. Many are afraid of 4 day or longer fasts, and so was I, so I decided to do one myself.
My experience of the 4 day fast was not what I intended it to be. Most importantly, I was concerned with my physical health, my ability to workout as normal, and my ability to go about my normal daily routines.
I have done fasting before, I am familiar with autophagy and the other benefits, but I was very interested in a 4 day fast to see if my body could handle it and more importantly, recover from it.
As it turned out, and to no surprise, it began to become harder to workout on each successive day.
It only took to the second day to start to feel a bit colder. There was not much tinder on hand to stoke my metabolic fire. By this day, I also had no urge for a bowel movement, which to be honest caught me off guard.
On day four I was planning only a light cardio workout which was good, because I started having leg cramps and muscle tightness, probably not due to a sodium deficiency but likely other micronutrients. This is an area I learned how to improve for next time.
As I had my shower on this last day, I noticed that I was starting to have excess body odor. With usually 18 hours of fasting, a near daily practice of infrared sauna use, and compounds and supplements to help detoxify my body, I found this to be a bit perplexing and wondered what was actually happening. I interpreted this to be my body really starting to detox and get into major autophagy.
What was the aftermath?
It took three days after this experiment ended for the cramping and sore legs to disappear. I was extra tired for a few days and it took these same three days for my body to sync back up with a normal bowel movement. I welcomed back the four pounds that I had lost during this experiment.
By doing the 4 day fast, maybe I did a little damage to my body, but I outperformed by what I learned from my experience and my expectations by doing it, and my body was able to recover.
I can’t think of a better example of how resilient our bodies are, our natural healing abilities. We can do seemingly silly things and bounce back within a few days. The key of course is not to make a series of bad decisions a chronic lifetime habit. I feel like that is my purpose, helping out a few dozen people at a time get back on track. If you would like to learn how to incorporate fasting into your life for overall health, longevity, management of chronic conditions or weight loss, and not make some of the same mistakes I did, lets connect.
