A group to support regular fasting, both short- and long-term, to create and maintain physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual health. Fasting is an ancient, safe, and gentle healing practice. Trade information about fasting and share feelings, thoughts, experiences, doubts, fears, and strategies to achieve the ability to fast. Especially for those who struggle with food addiction.
I'm back to My Plate after a year or so hiatus. I'm looking for a group that will help
spur me on to health. I've fasted a few days now and then several years ago and would like
to make that a regular part of my health conscious life style. I know that fasting takes
commitment which will spill over into other areas of my life.
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I look forward to meeting you all and getting to know you.
Day 2 is done and over with. Other than one moment (much like day one) where I thought I
was going to break and give in to temptation ... other than that one moment of weakness,
today has gone amazingly well. I went to work ... actually had the opportunity to come
home early. I chose to walk the neighborhood during the time I would usually be eating
supper to avoid any extra temptation. The walk helped ease away work's stresses and also
helped clear my mind. I centered on my inner thoughts and found a sense of peace and also
gratitude with the day's actions. I feel a tiny bit of power building within me ... a
mixture of confidence, motivation, inspiration, strength, and patience. A little voice
saying "you got past day one ... you know you can get through day two ..." And sure
enough. This evening instead of watching TV or abusing techonology I chose to read an old
book of light hearted comic strips. One of my favorite characters of all time - Calvin and
Hobbes. I brewed a hot cup of chamomile tea to go along with my lterary adventures and
curled up on the sofa.
The tea was very relaxing and I have tomorrow off. All that awaits is my bed and I am
feeling much appreciative for it.
To all those out there on day one or day two ... or even farther than I am at the moment
... you can do this. It just takes a little perseverance and the willingness to look past
the bad and realize the positiveness of your personal outcome. Whether it be for health,
or for spirituality, or for healing.
Good luck friends!
Write tomorrow.
Day 1 - First 24 Hours .... have been a success. Ever so relieved to have the first day behind me. Now on to Day 2 ... which is just as crucial. Lets nip this in the bud guys!! I know we can do it. :)
Hi guys,
I am joining this group in search of help. I have been trying to successfully complete a
fast for months now. I am doing it as a transition into a healthier lifestyle. I used to
be a binge eater (still am struggling) and I have gained so much over the past year. I
feel depressed by my diet because I feel that food controls me. My goal is to complete a
10 day water fast and then break it slowly by drinking juice. And I am starting a
healthier diet thereafter. I have always been a partial vegetarian but now I plan to go
completely vegetarian for my health's sake. I hope to cut out the excess sugar I am
addicted to ... as well as all the foods I consume daily.
The past two weeks I have tried and tried to go on a fast. But I work a full time job and
I usually don't make it past 24 or 30 something hours of fasting before I break and binge.
The stress of work increases my likelihood to binge. And with my many attempted fasting
attempts when I do eat ... its all the wrong things and in huge amounts.
If anyone has any tips on how to stay strong and get through the first 3 days of fasting I
would be more than grateful. All advice is welcomed.
I start again tomorrow. On my sixth attempt. But I try to remain in the mindset ... it
isn't the number of attempts that counts. Because if at first you don't succeed. Try, try,
again.
All in due time.
Good luck with tonight guys.
I begin my journey at 12 am (in 46 minutes) and plan to finish it out until the end. This
is for health. This is for life. This is for me.
I can't afford to fail at that.
Farewell friends.
I shall write again tomorrow.
I was obese as a child and i started dieting and exercising to loose weight at the age of
17.By 19,i was a bulimic and i wanted to be super skinny(just like a model in the ads).So
i started excessive calorie restriction and exercise.But as a result ,i looked ugly...my
skin around stomach was hanging loose and thighs were not skinny enough.I went into
bulimia out of depression and the deprssion from personal life.This keeps happening with
me like an endless cycle.
i want to know two things:
1.If i'm bulimic because of childhood obesity
2.if my skin hangs loose(inspite of exercise and diet) and thighs dont look too skinny
becasue i was fat as a child???
I have decided to fast.
I am tired of binging all the time,
I am tired of food always on my mind..
Hopefully after the first couple of days my wish will come true, food cravings have
dissapated.
Any tips for a beginner?
Thanks!
Good morning, everyone! I don't have a lot to say. I just created my account and joined the group so I wanted to say hello. Have a great weekend!
welcome mia ;)
anyone else planning a post thanksgiving fast? im thinking a juice fast may be good (time to break out the breville!) the help clean out my system from all the garbage i will likely end up ingesting this week!
nvm, it just ook forever, sorry for the doubleish post :/
livestrong isnt letting me comment on posts for some reason, but wanted to offer my support, day three is always a killer for me on a fast, if i plan to make it to day four, i have to be sure im off work the third day so i can just lay around, i get aweful head and body aches, and to get up and moving, usually have to break the fast, which is always disapointing. planning to start a seven day fast mid next week, if anyone is interested, i could use the support!
I am feeling a little sluggish today. Last night I had a bad headache and went to bed around 10pm. I am thinking of having some decaf coffee today but I still have not made up my mind.
day three is always very hard for me on a fast. if i have to go into work that day, i have to have some tea with honey or some juice to get me off the couch and kill my headache, your doing very well:)
and a word of warning, if your like me, once i let myself have something like the tea or juice, next its broth, and then soup, etc, lol, so i often dont make it past the third day of my fasts unless i REALLY buckle down and just stay huddled on the couch on day three!
I eliminated 3.5lbs of water weight yesterday. I went to bed early about 8pm because I was fairly tired. I woke this morning at 7am feeling wonderful.
Today is the first day of my 7 day water fast. I am here to get support and read about
other's journeys...
My Goals for Fasting:
1. Break the addiction to Food/Soda
2. Get closer to God
3. Lose Weight
I will try to update daily.
I've just started my water fast, and so far so good.
Update us on how it's going, i'd love to know beforehand how this will benefit me:)
I have a moderate case of psoriasis, an auto-immune disease and have been looking for
non-medicinal ways to control it. I read this article in Men's Health magazine that discusses many advantages to a weekly 36 hour fast.
The author suffers from the more serious auto-immune disease known as Crohn's and the
weekly 36 hour fast eliminated the symptoms for him.
Last October 9, I started the process and have fasted 36 hours every week since, with the
exceptions of the week of Christmas and New Years. The day varies each week
depending on my work and travel schedule. I start after dinner and do not eat until
the morning 36 (or so) hours later. That morning I do not crave food but eat
something light. I have toyed with extending the period just to see where it goes
but am content with the 36 hours for now.
Sorry to say that it has had no visible effect on the psoriasis but the other benefits are
enough to make me want to continue. I feel better, I look better (lost 20 pounds),
and am more energetic. By the third week I started looking forward to the fast day
and don't miss eating on those days at all. I do drink water and I am afraid that I
"cheat" by drinking two cups of coffee the first morning. I am almost 50
and have been in reasonably good health with decent cholesterol numbers and a relatively
low BP. I have not been to the Doctor for a checkup since I started so I will be
interested if my labs show any marked changes since I started.
If you care, I'll let you know.
How are you doing now? Did you go to the doc?
Healthy Body is the temple of God. Wealthy Man cannot be happy without better Health. Physically Fitness brings us charming and energetic feeling in our life. Beauty and Fitness are just like the two side of same coin. Proper Exercise, Yoga & Nutritious Healthy food helps us to prevent maximum disease >>>>>>Visit: http://manojonline07.bravehost.com/H elFit.html
Yesterday was the toughest day to get through. Hubby could hear my tummy growling under
thd bed sheets. He's worried about me, but I am feeling good and God has spiritually been
filling me instead of food :)
Peace,
Pet
xoxo
We don’t say it is very impossible to reduce extra Calories. But I think you can easily loss your weight if you strictly maintaining Proper Diet. Fit & Strong Body grows your Personality very high….Visit: http://manojonline07.bravehost.com/H elFit.html
hey i just started out with Livestrong> and im on the raod to a healthier life,
i was a vegitarian who ate junkfood, turned vegan for two days now, i decided since im a
little rocky when it comes to he food (iknow what not to eat and what to eat, but the
junkfood part still sucks) i'm going on a 24hour fast to "clean house"
i hope to do this at least once a week, and in time make it two days to even three
ps i have spelling and grammar issues, srry. =/
I was feeling extreme tiredness from last few days. Always I felt a peculiar feeling which I could not in a word. For overcome this complicacy I quickly start gym & yoga in my daily routine. Now I really feel better and confident than previous…..For more: http://manojonline07.bravehost.com/HelFit.html
Interesting, it says we have 10 members, yet I only see 2!
I have read a lot on the site www.fasting.ws . It is a great site! I want to start a fast
but I don't know a way to convince my parents to let me do so.
Hmmph.
I have started a water fast today, Thursday, August 14th. I have concluded to try to
motivate myself on a spiritual basis. I am having real trouble in my life because I can't
give or receive love, and I know that fasting helps me get secure enough to open up to
others. I stilll find that I am not motivated, even knowing how lonely my life is; but I
REALLY know that fasting is the right way to go. I have had SO much therapy and have it 4
to 6 times per week now, still; and I just conclude that only fasting will heal my
emotional illness (it has in the past, for as long as I stayed detoxed -- a very short
while but enough to validate my belief in fasting... I really -- based on 1970's
documented cures of schizophrenics with 30 day water fasts (see Allan Cott MD)-- know that
the major factor in neurological/emotional illness is intestinal illness -- curable by
fasting, and pretty much, as far as i can tell, only by fasting. I am so impatient to get
well. I know it will take many fasts. I have made progress TOWARD fasting by really
cleaning up my diet, on a permanent basis. But I have not yet succeeded in fasting for say
a week at a time regularly, which I will have to do at least for a therapeutic period of
time, to become well. It is scary to think how thin I will get, but I also know I will
become WELL. Right now I am living a nightmare life of sluggishness and constant
compulsion and obsession to eat food. I recently read that 70% of the world eats fewer
than 10 meals per week -- and I realize dismay the incredibly sick addiction to food that
Americans have; and how our addiction persuades us we need all this food; and how toxic
and bacterially infected we all are. It does dismay me. I am helpless under a mound of
food. I am a food addict. I MUST FAST.
I have set a goal for myself of 5 days. I am telling myself that I am fasting so that I
can begin to behave decently toward other people, instead of being trapped in all the
addict's personality flaws: dishonesty, unwillingness to work, using others.
I know, however, that I can't shame myself into fasting
One thing is that I REALLY HAVE TO BECOME DEEPLY CONVINCED THAT FASTING IS THE RIGHT THING
FOR ME -- THE MORALLY CORRECT CHOICE. This might sustain me in my fast if I really got
secure in that belief.
I am about to be 40 years old,a nd my life has been a terrible loneliness. I hope to
become a writer and actress and have shows; but for now I am simply incapacitated by food
and the depression in which it imprisons me. I want out. I want to fast. I want support
and conviction and motivation and belief, to fast.
I need to fast, but I can't do it.
A good thing is I am aware of being unwilling to fast through the misery that I get in
touch with when I try to fast.
There is a desolate emotional experience which occurs. I need to address this.
I am too tired to work it out now.
I am so alone. I am really sad. i got really beaten and shamed on my fasting support
forum -- the one I usually post on -- for failing in my fast.
This isn't what will help me work all this out and succeed in fasting.
i need to be completely open and also exhaustive in my self-examination and
self-reporting.
I am too tired to do it now.
Fasting needs to nbe my only project and priority.
Right now I am in the misery of just craving food again and just miserably waiting for my
body to be ready to eat again. All teh time. it is horrible.
The key is for me to continue cleaning up my diet.
I have to commit
I am crying about the response fo my fasting forum. I am really ashamed of myself after
those people shamed me. I am really ashamed of myself. i cannot see that I am not wrong,
as they say I am: childish, needy. Selfish and bad. A bad person. I am crying as I
write this. have I really hurt anyone? Have I really done wrong? i am crying.
I want to stop living the way I am living.
I want to heal from this physical condition I am in.
Fasting is the way for me to heal
OK. So. In order to fast: I think the thing that will facilitate fasting the most is
cleaning up my diet even further than I already have.
I am too tired to write further.
I am frustrated. I had to waste time and money today going out shopping for damned fude.
I am hemorrhaging money. i can't go on vacation. if I were on the non-triggering diet I
could have gone on 5 vacations.
I am to tired. I am overwhelmed. I have got to work out how to clean up my diet. Then
fasting will be easier.
I have a notion that fasting is harder the more triggering one's diet is. That in the
process of the fast, the misery I feel is really a neurological effect of the withdrawal
from the triggering food substances I have been having.
maybe if I really clean up the diet, these emotional horrors during fasting will cease.
I DO feel more willing to fast NOW, having given up many of the triggering foods I had
been eating. I feel calmer about fasting.
Basically with fasting I am in an anxiety trap.
It is deep and complicated.
I want to write it out, and resolve it, but I just can't now
I am so frustrated and helpless.
There are so many things I need to do to start to succeed.
And the thought of fasting is so painful.
I need to get on the phone and cry to someone.
This is the second day of my fast. I want to use as my model the account of the long fast
that I read and referred to here yesterday.
My mantra is that I can have just as much fun not eating as I do when I am eating.
I just want to stay with it. I know that if I succeed in fasting 7 days this is only a
beginning, and 7 days would itself be an enormous achievement for me, so this is
discouraging, but I have to keep spiritual values and stay motivated that way. I cannot
stop fasting and give up just because I "don't see the point" or feel "it isn't worth
it."
I have got to undertake this adventure at last. i know it is the only thing that will
ever make me well.
I do wish I had some more positive motivation than that: negative motivation doesn't feel
like it's going to work for me for very long right now.
I am struggling for willingness and determination. I think I just need to keep myself
distracted at this point. I should aim to make the time go by quickly and somehow not let
myself argue with what I am doing.
Twice so far I have come close to giving up. I think it has been twice. I need to write
about these mental phenomena since they are the inhibitors to my succeeding in fasting and
getting well. The first time I was deterred from quitting by .... oh god I don't remember
now. I will have to try to remember. I have a vague memory of using some mantras: "Yes,
it's hard, and I'm doing it!" and another one, I forget. I have a vague sense that
posting here and in other blogs and forums made me keep my commitment. I wish I could
remember. I will try to and post shortly.
The mental battle is the main thing right now. i think I should reread the diary of the
6-week fast that helped me earlier.
I am thinking of driving out on vacation tothe mountains like tonight or tomorrow so as to
give myself a nice distraction - but I am afraid this spot in the mtns. will be too
lonely. i don't know what to do.
Right now I am going to re-read -- MAYBE print out the story -- and I know I should make a
detailed plan as to how to spend my days -- and I know I should try to plan to keep busy.
i am too tired to make this effort right now. I will re-email the people I got in touch
with on curezone, though. If I arrange to e-mail them or even call at a certain hour of a
day, it will make me keep the fast that day. As I say, the mental/psychlogical challenge
is the main thing now.
I have struggled to begin this fast for the past few days. At last now, I hope, I am
beginning.
I would like to fast at least seven days. I am not afraid to do it.
The key to my achieving this willingness to begin was that I read an account of someone's
long fast, a six-week fast, at http://www.geocities.com/fastinguc/020124ch5.htm; I got
comfortable with the idea of fasting and its process; and I began to feel that, as I
articulated it to myself, "I could have just as much fun not eating as eating," which
sounds funny but is the way it came out. A major part of my resistance to fasting seems to
be that I feel I "can't stand it," that life will be just horrible without the powerful
(and so damaging to my body in its present state) impact of food fixes.
I have tons of difficulty coming to the willingness to fast, owing to complicated,
painful, and entrenched emotional/cognitive structures that just have to be dismantled;
but I am too tired to do this today.
I am just writing to publish my intention to start fasting today.
I would like to try to fast 7 days. Here is a copy of a message I sent to the friend who
will be fasting with me. Sorry it is long. It just summarizes my progress and talks
about barriers to my fasting (which seem surmountable, but simply still to be inhibiting
me because I don't quite have the support in place)
As of today, Thursday, July 31st, I have achieved 100 days on raw food only. I have not
been able to do this in about 3 years. I have always relapsed back into processed food.
Although it would seem I am perfectionsistic, it is in fact the case that I am totally
dysfunctional on any cooked or processed food. I suffer horribly from anxiety and
depression when my diet is not 100% raw. I suffer when on raw food, too, since I need a
real healing via total, extended water fasting, and have not yet found the support I need
to achieve this; but with a raw only diet my suffering is rather less. The raw diet is
essential, I believe, as a support for achieving a program of regular therapeutic fasting
in my life.
For several weeks of this raw-only stretch (and I want to commit to raw only for life, so
this is something I consider permanent -- again, too extreme for many, but necessary for
me: I believe in an addictions model of compulsive overeating and feel I must stay away
from triggering foods, totally and permanently: and that raw only can be perfectly safe
and balanced)
... for several weeks fo this raw-only stretch, as I started to say, I was -- despite my
continued suffering and continued (though moderately lessened) compulsions to eat and
painfully bloat myself & incapacitate myself to do work, etc. -- able to increase steadily
the lengths of my weekly fasts. It really made a difference to fast slightly longer. My
craving/compulsion to eat the more triggering/tempting raw foods was less after the longer
fasts. I made it up to 66 hours fasting -- 2 3/4 days -- but then -- possibly because I
started summer school and this interfered -- I fell down in this steady increasing of
lengths of fasts. I fell back to 30, 36 hour fasts weekly.
This is better than absolutely nothing, but it is frustrating since I just seem to be
stuck in the same pattern of being compulsed by anxiety (which is the neurological
consequence or manifestation of being intestinally compromised [intestinally toxic, with
an overgrowth of parasitic intestinal bacteria which cause cravings for food generally,
especially food that will feed THEM])
-- of being compulsed by anxiety to shove down food (despite my feeling that I do not
really want to eat), at intervals daily (and this feeding of the bacteria creates more
bacteria, more toxicity, more anxiety, and more cravings, in a vicious cycle)
... this compulsion results in extremely painful bloating, with all the consequences of
that -- brain fog, and intensifed anxiety (the anxiety I feel when painfully bloated is
based, I believe, on the fact that when bloated I am not able to eat food... and eating
food is the major way I have of dealing with my feelings. So if I am not in a condition
in which I can comfortably eat food at will [i.e., if I am bloated], I am going to feel
really frightened since then I am liable to experience feelings that are eally painful and
that I cannot repress....
... I say all this not to suggest that I have really horribly serious psychic pain; but
that I just have lacked the support to deal with and think creatively about the pain I do
have; and thus to succeed in fasting... when I try to talk to professional helpers about
this it is VERY hard. These people are not inclined to GIVE support to a person for
refraining from eating; which is what I NEED; and besides this, I think my own resistance
to fasting blocks my ability to ASK sincerely for this support. AND it is hard to work
THROUGH my resistance when there is a risk that the therapis will discount the value of
fasting in the first place; and this is demoralizing and intimidating to me even though I
know fasting is, absolutely and inescapably, what I NEED. I have a therapist now who is
supportive of my fasting, at least in theory; but I cannot feel quite enough trust in her
yet to ask with the sincerity necessary... or to work through openly with her my
resistance to fasting. Building this trust takes time and it is my primary goal in
life... I have temporarily suspended my art school studies, by the way, so as to put
fasting first and foremost. This is my way to health, and I have got to achieve fasting
before I can do anything else. I do consider my raw-only diet and beginning to increase
lengths of fasts to demonstrate the beginning of success in this effort to learn to fast
at length and thus heal myself, so I have hope... I just am really not yet in the clear
and really am, most days, fulll of ccraving, compulsion, doubt, and fear. I have got to
get INTO fasting, by fasting longer; and I have got to let fasting AFFECT me, really
affect me. It is scary to surrender to the process of healing, which will necessarily
make me for a time weak, vulnerable, and soft, unprotected, chaotic, disorganized. SUCH
gentleness toward the self is needed when a fasting process really takes hold. It seems
the slightest accustomed self-violence pushed me back into old, food-addicted, violent
ways. i am so scared... when I experience healing I feelso weak and fragile and
unprotected. It is really scary. This is another part of why it is difficult to fast.
... It seems I am mainly simply too much alone in the process. I know if I had others,
others who were experienced fasters, and my therapist is unfortunately not experienced at
fasting; though she is not American, and this helps -- if I had others, it would be a lot
easier. ... it would also be necessary for me to really have mutual trust with those
others; since in order to work through my fears and keep on the fast, instead of gettign
terrified and breaking it off, I need to confide in someone trusted.
The basic problem is: I try to fast. i get EITHER scared or miserable. i break off the
fast. ... The misery I am sort of addressing, with contact with you and others on the
forum... the fear is more difficult. To work through it,as I say, requires SUCH
vulnerability. This is so hard to practice.
The solution is for me to examine at depth my resistance to fasting. I am resistant first
of all to sobriety from my fix of choice (food) because something in me just isn't getting
enough joy/fun in life or enough love... and I habitually use food to suppress the pain of
this and substitute for fun/love. Life seems UNENDURABLE without the drug/fix/high of
food. Other resistance to fasting is a resistance based on being unable to commit to such
"virtuousness."
This is a complicated resistance which I need to address in my blog or somewhere since I
am almost out of time here.
I really want to do this fast for 7 days; I know I can do it and know it is very good for
me and completely safe; but I also know, from my experience with myself, that I am going
to get moderately compelling panic feelings during the fast. I am going to get anxious
when I start to feel ill from "detox." It helps to read about the complete normalcy of
these symptoms and experiences on the curezone forums; but... I get so scared. I am
still working through this fear. The fear could go away if I were able (as I say) to be
COMPLETELY honest about it with another.
I have just acquired a TV on which I can watch movies. I remember that during a time 4
years ago when I succeded in some 4-day fasts, sitting down to a series of movies helped.
It helped me become able to imagine getting through the day without my fix, i.e., food. I
have checked out several novels from the library, though I wish I had some better ones
(can you recommend any?). I am at the library now and so I can try to address this matter
and get some movies, too.
My thought is also to read about fasting, to increase the positivity of my attitude toward
fasting. I am capable of feeling enthusiastic about fsating. The only trouble comes, as
I say, when I start feeling ill and get scared.
Tuesday, August 29th: I am really really really lonely.
I so narrowly missed really succeeding at the attempt at a 7-day fast which I started
recording here. i got to 39 hours and quit, I unfortunately can't will myself to
articulate here why. However, I will meditate tonight and this will make it clearer and
more in control for me.
I am kind of okay but it is not tolerable to be so narrowly escaping bingeing all the
time.
The answer is to clean up my diet more. Get the triggering foods out.
I can do this by relapsing back into fruit for a time so as to get off starchy sprouts. I
can have fruit but not sprouts that are starchy.
The real main problem is how alone I am.
I truly now understand my inability to fast at length as a problem of "anxiety." -- a
condition western medicine holds to be mental... I doubt my abillity to control it
mentally... I COULD, and I came close in this 39 hour fast I just achieved... but it is a
horrible struggle and so so so slow to succeed at controlling it mentally.
Physically is the way to go to get real control. I mean, eliminating triggering foods.
My plan to do this is as above.
I have to phase out fruit but REALLY COMMIT TO sprouting conscientiously and responsibly
and consistently.
I can commit to this.
My life is such horror: I have got to change it: got to get sober: got to fast.
a big support I am going to institute maybe tonight and definitely tomorrow is several
hours of meditation daily.
I feel my body is in a real crisis -- though I am more in control now and bloat myself
less... but the meditation is very needed for me to get control of myself and my behavior
(bloating myself, persisting in eating triggerign foods)
I have got to commit to a 42 hour plus fast now.
I have got to figure out when to do this.
I am thinking of going away. camping at a site with tents and platforms or to a nice
hostel in the mountains.
This would be ideal distraction and carry me through at least 30? maybe 36 hours of a
fast? With the travel, the newness.
I was so positive on fasting 7 days the other day. I only ended up fasting 39 hours.
Strange: now I can't feel "strong"/determined enough to fast 7 days. I can sort of imagine
fasting 42 hours. I think I'd better take advantag of this.
I don't know what my immediate fasting plan is.
I want to aim to fast 7 days.
But I can't feel sincere in this desire yet.
I almost really did it the other day. I kept telling myself "I can do this seven days. It
is okay." i really could visualize it! I was not exactly happy about the prospect, but I
could do it.
I don't know why I broke it. Probably because I gave myself the "out" at the outset, of
only having to fast longer than my last fast. I have a period now of about ten days always
fasating longer than my last fast.
Fasting is jsut so serious and so hard. I just want to slack off and give up. But I cannot
continue to live this way. I cannot continue to live like this!
A complicated thing is that when fastign I am not sure of the results. I want to end up
strong and well. But sometimes I am so scared because I jsut have this image of the fast
making me disorganized and weak.
THis is part of healing -- being weak and disorganized. I have got to raise my positivity
about being weak and not capable. I have got to heal.
Hi -- just a note to say I am still fasting. Saturday night, still in Day One.
My big problem is loneliness and I may have jsut found a person to talk to ... sort of ,
maybe. I need a plan for tomorrow.
Hi, I am writing the next day, after posting to begin this fasting support group.
I am beginning a fast. I don't want to write too much right now, but I did want to note
that I am doing this.
Benefits I expect to receive are: release from depression and anxiety, and release from
the craving/compulsion to eat. Eating will be a choice, not a compulsion.
I have been using raw foods only for over 90 days now (I keep a day count). This is a
life choice that I have struggled for years to make.
Today is Day One of the fast. I want to fast for seven days.
The hardest part is psychological. I want to get through the psychological barriers
that come up at 1 1/2 to 2 days for me that say "oh, it isn't worth it;" or, "oh, you have
done enough." I need the healing of a longer fast. I have been fasting this length of
time -- up to 2 days -- approximately weekly for a while. I have fasted 3 days
consecutively before, and also, some time ago, made 4-day fasts. Now I want to achieve a
step forward in healing.
So much has gone into this decision, and I have struggled to make it for a really long
time. I want to do justice to this process in some later posts. I want to explain how I
arrived here. I am certainly afraid I will fail once again this time but I want to put my
process out there and I really want to start out withthe good faith that I will
succeed.
I am committed to posting every day on this blog to reveal my progress to others.
I have much more to tell, but I am shying away right now from really putting myself out
there. But I do promise to post tomorrow, when I will be running into what has been the
"barrier " -- 2 days of fasting.
Marahanna
Hi -- I'm the originator of this group and am wondering if anyone else is interested in or
has experience with fasting.
Here's the full content of what I wrote for a group description, which was too long for
the format:
A group to support regular fasting, both short- and long-term, to create and maintain
physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual health. Fasting is an ancient, safe, and
gentle healing practice. Trade information about fasting and share feelings, thoughts,
experiences, doubts, fears, and strategies to achieve the ability to fast. Especially for
those who struggle with food addiction and who know intuitively that fasting is right for
them but need support to do it. This is a no-criticism, helping forum to foster open,
honest (and therefore healing)sharing about trying to learn how to fast... about struggles
against food addiction (we support you to make a life choice finally to give up foods or
food categories that are addictive for you). We provide hope of living in a practice of
regular fasting by commitment to a "sober," non-triggering diet -- this is whatever diet
each individual chooses to avoid the cycle of "getting high" on food. We find that
fasting lifts us out of the state of wanting to use food to escape, and that fasting is
enabled by first (and afterward!) adhering to a non-triggering diet. We each set our own
goals for fasting and fast-supportive behavior (primarily, stopping compulsive eating and
triggering foods) and (optionally) track our own progress and share it with the group. We
find that as we make progress we are freed, wonderfully, from food addiction and its
symptoms. We can live "food-sober!" Fasting heals!
by Amanda803322 on May 26, 2011 at 12:33 pm
I think it is possible.....I have been overweight since childhood, and I too suffer from binge eating.....The loose skin is a result of losing a large amount of weight.
Binge eating is a way of soothing yourself with food. If you did it as a child it is very likly you will continue as an adult if you do not get a handle on triggers. Purging is also a mental disorder....you purge b/c you feel guilty for the binge....vicious cycle