A Fasting Overview

Fasting is an ancient tradition that has prevailed in different cultures for thousands of years. Primarily religious and ritualistic in nature, cultures from historic Incan to modern Islam used and use fasting. To see a list of fasts by religion, check out this site: < http://www.beliefnet.com/features/fasting_chart.html > Simply googling “X Religion” and “fasting” will turn up numerous websites listing the reasons and techniques of their specific fasts.

Fasting has generally fallen from favor and in rigor in modern society, no longer practiced by the people en masse. Except in the case of the political fast, one hardly hears of a person fasting unless they know them personally. No doubt, though, that one of Mahatma Gandhi’s most useful tools was the political fast. Prisoner’s also use fasts to send a message, one of the few tools they have to make a statement. Some information is found here < http://www.pressureworks.org/frontline/features/fast.html >

Less well publicized is fasting for detoxification or medicinal reasons. Fasts were commonly used in the past when confronted with bouts of illness, though now we typically eat through colds and flu. More popular now is a detox cleanse, that is typically a juice fast (though water fasts are seen), and a mono-diet, focusing on only one type of juice for the duration. The Master Cleanse is in this category, where the only nutrients and calories taken in come from one source, though water and herbal teas are sometimes used. Until the recent history (ahem, globalization), our diets were significantly more restricted than many realize, responding directly to the kinds of foods that could be both (a) grown locally and (b) grown during a specific season. For this reason, I feel our bodies are more adept at handling a mono/restricted diet than we assume. That said, I will whole-heartedly agree that this diet does not contain every nutrient you need, and am hesitant to recommend it for too long. Anyway. Some sites on detox fasts:

http://www.webmd.com/diet/features/detox-diets-cleansing-body
http://health.ivillage.com/eating/estyles/topics/0,,4vhc,00.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Body_cleansing
http://www.healthy.net/scr/article.asp?ID=1996

And what about water fasts? I would never attempt more than a two day water fast alone. These typically require full bed rest and a physician to do it without damaging your body. And don’t worry, if you’re interested there are plenty of fasting spas that specialize in water fasting, with specialists on staff and a lovely room for you to stay in with some great views. They also charge appropriately… < http://www.tanglewoodwellnesscenter.com/index.php > (In reading the user's comments it seems the only stress many felt during the experience was about how much money they were spending to do the fast... not a good sign.)

Day 10

The night before I’d gone to bed at 9:45, but I live above a bar. A loud bar, full of karaoke singers. I didn’t get to sleep until probably 11:00 again, and slept like a rock until my alarm went off at 5:00. I was immensely groggy and it took me quite some time to get myself moving, both inside and out. It wasn’t until about 5:45 that I had my usual BM, and not until 6:20 that I finished what I could of the SWF. I only managed to drink half because I realized part of the reason I’d had so much trouble putting it down in the past was because I got FULL. It felt like it wouldn’t fit anymore, and I didn’t want to force it. I again hopped in the shower ASAP, regardless of what the day before had done to me. Since I was moving so slowly, I knew I needed time. I slowly pulled myself together, and managed to leave 5 minutes EARLY. This would have been awesome if my train hadn’t been re-routed mid-commute. These things aren’t my fault, I swear.

The SWF kicked in while I was waiting to transfer trains, but by this time I was a pro at holding it in. I made it in to work a full 15 mins late, and went to spend the next 10 in the bathroom. I was still pretty tired, but got myself some hot tea to wake up. At about 9:30 there was a catered-breakfast presentation, which included some lovely fruit options and fresh orange juice. Not everyone ate, so I wasn’t the only weird one, but I was looking forward to a handful of berries again soon. I was, however, the only weird one not eating at our lunch presentation. The woman seated next to me asked where my lunch was, and I just said, “oh, I’m not having anything right now, just juice.” She was clearly miffed. I wasn’t at all hungry, though, so it didn’t bother me too much. I did finish my juice while I was at work, though, which was a first. I wasn’t drinking as much water during the day, and pledged to drink only that all night. That I was never significantly hungry remained a surprise throughout the entire cleanse.

It was raining that night, my boyfriend and one of our friends who knows about the cleanse hung out and watched a movie, and drank tea. We also talked with him about how the cleanse was affecting us and what we planned to do afterward, at which point my boyfriend’s stomach started feeling bad. As the night wore on, he felt more and more gassy and was considering stopping the cleanse then. He’d had a bad fermentation problem as well, and I thought it might have been that, though we won’t sure. By the time we went to bed, he’d decided that he would feel out tomorrow and see how it went, but he wasn’t going to continue. Since I had plans of keeping on, I wasn’t sure what I’d do. It’d been helpful to go through this process together, and finishing together was the plan all along.

Total lbs lost: 8.5

The Word on Senna

In many of the blogs I’ve read, the topic of a Senna-based laxative tea doesn’t get much play. Because of that, I wanted to bring it up here. Senna is a powerful naturally-occurring laxative, used in many conventional laxatives, including ex-lax. That said, it does not mean that Senna is 100% safe. In fact, most Senna teas come with a warning indicating that the tea should not be taken for more than one week continuously. I read this going into it, and took the leap, regardless, knowing I would not be on the cleanse too much longer than that (and I wasn’t). But for those considering a longer cleanse, I would be hesitant to add this tea to the every-day routine. Once the body becomes familiar with a laxative (such as caffeine, in my case, as it jump-started my IBS), it is terribly difficult to get it to recover from the dependence, and can possibly cause permanent damage. My advice is to use the tea more sparingly on a long cleanse, but use the SWF. I know some people can’t stand the SWF, but it works and saltwater comes with no warning labels (outside dehydration, so drink up!). At the end of this cleanse I decided that I would use the SWF as a laxative when necessary, rather than the tea, as it seems better for our bodies in the long run.

For more Senna info, check here:

http://www.yogitea.com/Lifestyle/SennaLeaf.htm
http://www.traditionalmedicinals.com/?id=31&pid=76
http://www.drugdigest.org/DD/PrintablePages/herbMonograph/0,11475,4029,00.html
http://www.drugs.com/mtm/senna.html
http://www.clickondetroit.com/news/1828452/detail.html

Day 11

My tea decided to kick in early in the morning. Real early. At 3:00, while people were still drinking at the bar below, I was stumbling in the dark to the restroom, which I visited three more times in the next 1.5 hours. Then it was my boyfriend’s turn. I didn’t sleep all that well as a result, and had to be awake at 6:30 as it was. It was Saturday, but it wasn’t a break for me. I had a seminar to go to at 10, and we were heading to the local greenmarket at 8:00 to pick up vegetables for the soup we were making when we broke the cleanse. My boyfriend had woken up still feeling not great, and was set on Day 11 being the final day. He wanted to finish the day out, though I encouraged him to just stop then if he didn’t feel well. I was still on the fence, I felt well enough to continue, but didn’t want to split up. As we picked up some fresh, local, organic produce, I got more excited about the tastes I was missing. Asparagus, tomatoes, potatoes, scallions, onions, leeks, peppers, cucumbers, apples, pears. Everything looked and smelled marvelous. We bought what we needed and I jumped on the subway to go uptown. …As a note, I didn’t SWF that day because of my two-hour no-bathroom period. Not safe.

At the seminar there was a really lovely looking snack table, which I left where it stood. Two co-workers (a guy and a girl) were with me, and though they didn’t mention anything at the breakfast break, at the lunch break the girl asked if I wanted anything, anything at all “want a grape?” No, I was fine. I was, too. I was surprised, again, but I was not hungry at all. Even in the tiniest bit. It was marvelous to not have that yoke hanging around my neck. I didn’t feel like I had to rush to the snack table, like I normally would have. I wasn’t drinking my juice, though, because of the layout of the seminar it would have been really awkward to break out the giant bottle I had with me. We got out at 2, and I drank some then, wanting to get some calories in me.

The day was beautiful and my boyfriend and I headed to the park for a while. While we were there I decided I would end the cleanse with him. I was starting to get worried about the Senna Tea as it was, and, though I felt fine, it would be difficult to have different eating schedules at this point. I was also the better versed on cleanse info, so I didn’t want to be in a position of trying to give him whatever advice I could though I wasn’t going through it myself. We stopped to get some tea after that and paid great attention to our taste-buds. They were going to be in a whole new world in the next couple days. As I started drinking the juice later, at around 5:00 my stomach started bubbling up. That was enough to clench it. I’m sure it would have passed quickly (it had before), but we excitedly drove to the store at 7:30, picked up orange juice and a couple more veggies, and went home. I took a couple table spoons of syrup to make up for the juice I wasn’t drinking, and said good-bye to the lemonade. We got another movie, drank water, and went to bed. No tea.

Was I disappointed to end the cleanse before I felt I had to? Sure. Neither of our tongues had quite finished clearing (though they were getting better by the day), and I felt like I could keep going for a few more days, even with my Senna concerns. I was, however, looking forward to food. All those flavors out there were calling to us. Plus, being a few days before my birthday, I could eat something then—though still not cake… I decided solidarity was best on this, and didn’t regret my choice.

Total lbs lost: 9.5

When to End

Aside from the Tongue-Coat Mantra, many people choose to end the cleanse on day 10. This has been perpetuated by a book called Lose Weight, Have More Energy & Be Happier in 10 Days by Peter Glickman, who runs the website <>, which I linked to earlier. The original book states that 10 days are the fewest days one can complete to see the benefits of a cleanse, so this seems to be the cleanse-lite approach. Many websites say that no one should start a cleanse with a set cut-off date. In my cleanse, my boyfriend set out with the goal of cleansing until the tongue is uncoated, but we did set a max-cleanse time, 12 days. This was heavily influenced by our friends, who had each gone 12 days before ending the cleanse. I recommend one seeks the advice of a specialist if they consider going on the cleanse for around 20 days or longer to find out how their health could be affected by the cleanse. There are certainly people who have done the cleanse 40+ days, and survived, but lost nutrients can be a problem...and I wouldn’t brush off the Senna issue either.

Once you end the cleanse it is imperative that you treat your body delicately. Your digestive tract is pure and clean as a baby’s. Treat it as such. Don’t go breaking the cleanse with pizza, as some have done. Not only will it cause extreme pain (some bloggers have done this, and ended up in the hospital from the pain. For reals.), but what is the point? If you are doing this either as a cleanse or as a liquid reducing diet, that is a completely absurd way to finish out the process! C’mon! Anyway. Some info:

http://www.thelemonadediet.com/comingoffdiet.html

Day 12

The first day off cleanse. Oranges. What lovely things they are. We got up near noon, and each took an extra-salty half dose of the SWF. I felt I really needed it to clean out what was left from yesterday, and to get my body cleared for some new stuff. We squeezed all ten of the oranges we’d purchased the day before and made orange juice, watering it down to taste (pure OJ is not usually taken at this point, too intense they say). We also took a pro-biotic and a digestive aid pill (chewable! Yea for chewing!) I’d picked up at GNC. We didn’t get started drinking the juice until around 2:30, at which point we were both incredibly tired. I’m sure this was from not finishing our juice the day before and not having any calories for almost 15 hours. Lethargic, my boyfriend drank even more OJ, while I also spiced it up with a couple swigs of the left-over maple syrup. I’m sure it spiked my blood sugar, but I knew I needed some more calories. Within an hour or so I felt better, and then we went outside to run some errands, perking us up even more.

We’d decided a couple days ago that we weren’t going to adhere strictly to the end-diet suggested by the book. Again, this was influenced by friends. We pushed up the schedule by a day, making the veggie soup in the afternoon. At 8:30 I had my first sip of something non-citrus. Delicious, natural, wholesome, fresh veggie broth, it tasted better than I’d thought possible. After tossing in every fresh veggie we could find, a bay leaf, some coriander, basil, thyme, salt and pepper, we simmered our soup for 2 hours, creating a thick broth with floating bits of veggies—we didn’t even strain. Rebels, we are. We used our smallest bowls, and filled them with about 1.5 cups of broth, but by the time we’d downed 1 cup we were full. AMAZING! We couldn’t get over how great that was – how much money our newly tiny stomachs would save us! We followed with another pro-biotic and a digestive aid, both were flavored, too, strawberry and papaya. Almost desert… We put the rest of the soup in the fridge for the next day and sipped OJ and water until bed. It was a marvelous day, and I even had an evening BM-huzzah!

Total lbs lost: 10

ps. During the cleanse I dropped a jeans size, which was pretty exciting, I finally fit in all the clothes I was wearing a couple years ago! My boyfriend dropped almost 17 lbs, which is pretty astounding. We both landed firmly in our “Normal BMI” range, as well, which was great. The long battle: to maintain it.

Digestive Health

After submitting our bodies to a 11 day attack of diarrhea, we purchased a few aids to get out intestines up to snuff. As mentioned in many blogs, it is critical to not neglect your body post-cleanse. The best way to do that is to make sure all the good bacteria is in your body, ready to deal with the food you are about to give it.

There are three main categories of digestive health aids: Prebiotics/Fiber, Probiotics, and Digestive Aids. Prebiotics are fibrous foods, mostly whole grains, that provide the food for bacteria in your body to feed on. There are many types of Prebiotics, each found in different foods, each for different purposes, and supplements are available. Fiber is fiber. It’s not only a Pre-biotic, it’s the link. It pushes through your digestive tract, cleaning things out and getting rid of refuse. If you don’t get enough fiber in your diet, you are more at risk for colon cancers (really, read up on this), and at a greater danger of improperly digesting nutrients. Probiotics are supplements that supply the bacteria that is naturally in your body, (which you may have flushed a bit too cleanly out). They are essential to a well-run digestive system, so don't think you'd be more "clean & pure" if they were gone. To make sure your bacteria are in full working order, it is recommended that some Probiotics are in your post-cleanse regimen. Digestive Aids are supplements meant to help your body adapt, or re-adapt, to eating foods that are typically harder to tolerate. If you intend to go back to a meat and dairy diet, it might be a good idea to pick one of these up.

Some links for you:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Probiotic
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prebiotic_%28nutrition%29
http://www.isapp.net/IS_pb_intro.htm
http://www.webmd.com/diet/tc/Probiotics-Topic-Overview
http://www.pdrhealth.com/drug_info/nmdrugprofiles/nutsupdrugs/pre_0326.shtml
http://therawfoodsite.com/probiotics.htm

Day 13

Monday, the first day of work post-cleanse. I woke up, gloriously refreshed at about 6:30. The sky was blue, the birds were singing, I went back to sleep. It was marvelous. At 7:00 I got up to my alarm and made it out the door in 45 minutes! Huzzah! I rode the subway unafraid! I put lunch in the refrigerator! It was pretty obvious by the looks of approval by some co-workers, that they were glad to see I had food. Ok, so it was mushy veggie broth. They didn't know that. I was gonna eat it with a spoon, that's all that mattered.

I fared well on the OJ, watering it down a significant amount. No hunger, though without the cayenne to punch my taste buds every few minutes, they were clearly more awake. I waited to eat lunch late, and was quickly satisfied with my cup of broth (with one or two mushy veggies my boyfriend snuck in). It was great to be full and know I
was putting a bunch of nutrients back into my body. I was still drinking a lot of fluids, the OJ and water, which certainly made me feel full. Before the cleanse I rarely drank even 16 oz of water in a day, but I realized how much better I feel when hydrated properly, and someone mentioned my skin was glowing. I'm sure it's part of the deal.

I went home that night, feeling vaguely hungry, and hungry in a different way than I had during the cleanse. But I held out and waited for my boyfriend to come home. We had some more soup and a rice cracker each. It was almost too much. Such tiny bellies! Fantastic! I drank more OJ until bed, and brushed my teeth and tongue. My tongue had nearly cleared up at the end, and now that I wasn't only on the cleanse juice, my mouth had cleaned up and felt better entirely. I didn't feel that compulsion to brush my teeth every 20 mins that I had before, which was nice.

On the BM end of things, neither my boyfriend or I had one. This is normal. If there's nothing artificially stimulating the bowels, it's going to take some time to amass stuff to move through your system. Some people take longer than others. If it takes longer than a week, I would start to be concerned, however, and you might want to contact your doctor.

Total lbs lost: 11 (yes, dropped another. we'll talk about that later)

Teefs.

I started noticing toward the end of my cleanse, and particularly soon after, that my teeth were sensitive, my gums were sensitive and...quite frankly I was afraid the cleanse had given me a cavity. Anytime I had something HOT or COLD my teeth would bug me. I freaked out. I'd never had a cavity before, and wasn't sure what I was feeling, but it was not normal. I called my dentist and got an appointment.

Turns out the major torment was not related to the cleanse, but the general sensitivity was. I didn't have a real good place to brush my teeth during the work day, so I didn't, which was a mistake. My dentist said prolonged citrus exposure does cause sensitivity in gums and teeth which can persist for a few weeks. My dentist gave me a tube of Sensodyne and instructed me to brush as usual, and just use the Sensodyne to rub on my gums and leave it on overnight. I did it for about 5 days, and it worked. Best advice--brush more than I did!

On the Joys and Dangers of Chewing

There are a lot of ways to break a fast, and all of them say one thing: go slow. No, no, SLOWER. My boyfriend and I decided to go as slow as humanly possible off the cleanse. While most sites advocate 3-4 days of entry back into “real” food, we were aiming for more like two weeks. It was a good goal. It didn’t exactly happen, but it was good. What we did do, which made a huge difference, was paying attention to when we introduced things. Spurred on by stories from a friend, we were careful to introduce possible allergens slowly, from veggies to fruit, to nuts, to dairy, to gluten to meat. We’d hoped to add more seafood and poultry to that list before the meat, but it wasn’t in the cards. But I think it’s important that, once leaving the cleanse, you recognize that your body is a clean slate. Pay attention to what happens when you put something inside of it. You may notice a change in your system that you always thought was ‘normal,’ but is, in fact, only associated with one food. If you are able to eliminate that food, your body may work better—you’d have better energy and overall health if you found out peanuts are like poison to you. It might be depressing to find something out like that, but better to know than to be harmed by it, eh?

Here are some websites about food allergies:

http://www.webmd.com/allergies/guide/default.htm
http://www.celiaccentral.org
http://www.foodreactions.co.uk/intolerance/lactose/
http://www.foodallergy.org/allergens/index.html
http://www.foodallergyinitiative.org/section_home.cfm?section_id=15

Post Game

The first week I stayed close to my juices and veggie soup. We threw in some salad and raw vegetables during dinner, and kept all “bread” products to rice crackers – there are many varieties out there now, and some that are just pressed veggie crackers, that you can use instead of getting back on gluten directly. We also lived it up with the fruits, and no fruit is sweeter than the fruit you didn’t eat for two weeks. Everything tasted marvelous. That weekend we played pick-up soccer and everyone brought food to share. Most of it was incredibly healthy, fruits and veggies, we made hummus, it was spectacular. But seeing all the food laid out, we ate more than we needed. My boyfriend ended up feeling pretty sick and had to sit out some of the game for fear of a bad BM. We also were tempted and won over by a desert: a flourless dark chocolate cake with strawberries and marshmallow topping. We cut a piece. And then cut it in half. Half again. And one more time. A tiny bite…it was amazing. HELLO chocolate. We managed to make that one piece of cake last about three days.

About a week later I had lunch with a friend at a great healthy place—I had a tiny salad and some steamed salmon in rice paper. It was great, and I had not one bad feeling in my body. Fish! You are my friend! Then a couple days later I started in on dairy. At first I just had a few tiny bits of cheese. No biggie. Then I made panna cotta…with strawberry rhubarb compote. Pretty tasty. We ate it late at night, splitting one portion, but that hunk of dairy hung in my body the whole next day. For the first time since starting the cleanse I had gas. My stomach was on the rocks all day from it. Then my boss said I needed to meet with him over lunch. Over sandwiches, which he provided. Goat Cheese on multigrain with avocado and watercress. I dutifully ate half my sandwich during the meeting, but now I was putting MORE dairy and GLUTEN into my body. I felt awful afterward, my stomach pinging and panging all over the place. Was it just the dairy? Was it the gluten? Was it just too much food?

After much dietary experimentation over the next couple days I noticed that too much dairy was, in fact too much. It gave me gas, but it didn’t hit all the symptoms for lactose intolerance. I didn’t swear off it, but I did swear off endless cheese plates. More experimentation is necessary to decide if cow is the worst offender, if goat is fine, and sheep? Only time will tell.

What turned out to be more painful than the dairy, however, was the gluten. Within 20 minutes of consuming even small amounts of gluten, my stomach would feel what amounted to tiny needles in my gut. It would last from a few minutes to hours depending on how much I ate. I also became extrememly lethargic once I added gluten back into my diet, where right after the cleanse I had never felt so rested. Long story short, I’m getting tested for Celiac’s Disease soon, and may find this to be the root of my original complaints with anemia and IBS. I’ll post an update when I get the results.

Moving right along, the next day was also full of fun, it was “Birthday-day” at the office for that month’s birthdays. As it had been mine, I was given the honor of cutting a rich chocolate cake / butter cream icing / vanilla ice cream cake. Clearly I had to take a piece and eat it, all eyes upon me. I got about half of it down, and, though absolutely delicious, my whole body went crazy. Midway through the meeting I ran to the bathroom, my stomach in knots, not knowing what to do. The feeling passed after about 20 mins, but it was terrible. No more cake. Ick. Also that day a friend from home came into town, it was a treat to see her, but friends mean food, and not always the good-for-you kind. After work I met her at a brewery, where I proceeded to drink, very slowly, 1/3 of a beer. If I’d had my druthers I would have had wine over beer, or water, but the only beverage was beer and she was buying. What a sucker I am. Luckily, no harm was done, and I felt fine.

Later that night we stopped for Hot Dogs. I LOVE Hot Dogs. I was a vegetarian for about seven years, but I ate Hot Dogs. Sounds mad, but it’s true. I love them. Love. I was so happy put one of those on my tastebuds, but I had willpower on my side. I managed to split one dog 3-ways, and savored every last tiny morsel. You don’t know how many bites it could take you to finish 1/3^rd of a Hot Dog until you try. A lot. The next day we went to the saddest Mets game ever, and my boyfriend and I split a luscious all-beef Hot Dog. Meat, indeed. I got the same stomach pangs as before, when I ate the bread, but no more, I suppose it’s good-bye to buns. Oh, Hot Dogs without buns, you are now my favorite, my darling. I will eat you bun-less forever. *sigh*

The following day? Mother’s Day. We spent it at my boyfriend’s parent’s place where we tried to eat a little, but ate more than we were used to…and I ate way more dairy and wheat than I had hoped I would (so tasty! Damn!). The pain from the pasta and bread and crackers and pie crust lasted well into the night, and even the next morning I could feel it. Even if the test turns out to be negative, I decided then and there that I would go off gluten regardless. The pain is truly impressive, but the most shocking part is that I NEVER noticed it was out of the ordinary before. I truly felt that my guts were normal—maybe in pain, but what did I know? I don’t know if they had ever NOT been in pain for me to even pick up on it.

Toodles!

So that’s about it. We hit all the major food groups… tofu/soy, some more fish in sushi form, no shellfish yet, had a spoonful of peanut and almond butter in there somewhere, and have had eggs for breakfast more than once. Our weight has stayed stable within two lbs of our last day of the cleanse, and we are both excited to keep it there. My plan is to go back to a juice diet for a few days if I feel myself getting away from my goals, though I’m staying away from laxatives as much as I can. I’m back to exercising and am loving it, I feel so much better, it’s truly been a bodily transformation.

I hope everyone has found something for them here, information or anecdotes or even a red flag. If you have questions, post a comment, I’ll try to respond. And if you decide to go on the cleanse, good luck and be strong and smart with yourself.