Yep. It sounds a little crazy I know. That is exactly what I thought when I first heard of my friends doing a 60 hour fast. Well, thankfully I am not above a little crazy so I started some research.
Let me begin by saying that there is more than just water involved. I also added in a supplement for body and brain fuel so no starvation going on here, get that out of your brain and cal down for a minute! Let's start off with the Why
Purpose: To Detoxify, Repair, Regenerate and Reset our body both physically and psychologically. + Mental Clarity, Acuity and Accomplishment + Starve the micro-biomes of sugar + Brain Metabolism Adaptation (The Sugar Shift) + Increase Growth Hormone Levels + Detox...The worse you’ve been, the worse it will be. Toxins will be removed via skin, breath, bowels.Now, I'm not necessarily looking to lose weight here, I don't need to. What I do need is a shift in my body, over the past 2-3 years while my weight has remained virtually the same, my % body fat had increased from 16-18% on up to 25-26% I work in the fitness industry, I'm not sedentary, and I didn't like where this was heading. I am a hard gainer meaning it takes a LOT of work for me to build muscle so I knew I was going to have to make a conscious effort to stop this trend. I have always followed a higher fat diet because that is the science that I align myself with and I'm wanting to follow more of a ketogenic diet as I come out of this. Enter the 60 Hour Water Fast & Ketone Cleanse!
I'm not going to go into full detail & run folks off from boredom, I'll just say that I trusted the research that I read and I made the decision that felt right for me, telling myself that I would stop without judgment if something didn't feel right. A nurse friend of mine joined me and we agreed to be accountability partners (this became SO important) There is also a FB support group we joined (I can add you!) and we embarked.
We started a bit earlier than the group due to work and travel plans so at 9:00pm on a Thursday night we stopped ingesting any protein, carbs, or fats and started our clocks. My goal was no less than 100 oz. of water each day of the fast (I struggle with water intake and want to hit 50 oz. daily but like most people I often fall short). I went to bed with a large bottle of water and slept like a baby. Following is my recap of the next 60 hours.
Hours 0-9.5 Get ready for bed and sleep, that was easy! I actually have slept so very well since starting with this supplement, it has been one of my favorite benefits that I've experienced (Once I decided to stop resisting waking up at 6:30 am!)
Hours 9.5-17.5 Friday morning, Up and ready for work, I had my morning packet of Max (caffeinated) and life was grand! Now a little intermittent fasting is nothing new for me, I don't like to eat early in the mornings so no big change here. This was a bit of a busy day at work with a few back to back meetings and 2 practice workouts. During this phase of the fast guidelines are to get in a good workout so that you burn through your glucose and glycogen stores so we wanted to 'spend' lots of energy today. ✔
Hours 17.5-22 Friday afternoon, I ran from one thing to the next (a bad habit of mine!) and while I did keep my water bottle full I did not have my mid-day supplement pack. I felt it, and reached out to my friend who pointed out to me that duh...my sugar appeared to have dropped! I shook up a drink and immediately felt better this turned out to be the first and only time I wondered if I would need to stop. No hunger pains, no cravings and water intake is going well! Finished the workday and went home, the hubby is out fishing so no worry about dinner...not yet!
Hours 22-26 I wanted to go to an essential oils class tonight because my accountability partner uses lemon essential oil in her water and I wanted to learn more about this so I go to a friend's house for the evening. It was so nice, there were beautiful looking and delicious smelling snacks, fruits, salad, and even some ketogenic diet friendly foods since her mom follows a ketoogenic diet! I thoroughly enjoyed looking at and smelling the foods but was not compelled to cheat or break the fast at all. I brought a non-caffeinated Max with me and was fully satisfied. I also got to enjoy some amazing company and laughed more than I have laughed in ages! I have some awesome friends!
Hours 26-34 Home to sleep again, this passes time wonderfully. I did break the 100 oz. mark yesterday and yes, I did go to the bathroom a lot, no GI distress though! Slept well as usual and got up this morning to go teach Boga, a floating fitness workout that we offer at our outdoor pool. I fixed my water bottle with lots of ice and shook up my caffeinated Max and headed off to work (Hubby left before me for more fishing so no breakfast duty either!)
Hours 34-38 Taught two classes back to back, showered, made a round around the facility and headed home... I'm still feeling great, no grumbling tummy, no fatigue, no weakness! Today the shift from sugar metabolism to fat metabolism should kick in, I'm making regular check ins with my friend and she is right there with me, she may have had it worse though, she went to a BBQ last night and didn't even cave! I'm telling y'all the cravings aren't there!
Hours 38-43 The time I fear the most...being at home with nothing to do. I knew it before going into this but I tell you what I really know it now. I am a snacker, I eat out of boredom and I will eat anything...I will also eat the whole package so I don't have to worry about eating it later - especially if it is less than healthy because I won't want to keep that unhealthy stuff around, you know! I'm feeling good and the yard needs some work so I set out to mow and weed-eat. Yep. In the Texas heat. It was the s-l-o-w-e-s-t yard work I have ever done! But it kept me busy and trust me I took so many rest, water, and cool down breaks I also popped a few rocks of Himalayan Sea salt throughout the day to keep electrolytes balanced. This is a cool article on salt too:It's Not Salt's Fault So anyway, I drank my mid-day Max and other than snooping obsessively in the cabinets and fridge for a snack that I knew I wasn't going to eat, another good day! Now, about this snooping - this was not out of hunger, it was out of habit, note to self.
Hours 43-49 The evening. Hubby is home and loves to cook so he took care of his own dinner at this point I'm pretty glad for that. I continued distracting myself, had my evening Max and made another mistake. I got on Pinterest. 😮 I knew what I was doing too! I just wanted to innocently look at some good ketogenic recipes and start planning a grocery trip! Planning my breakfast, dreaming of food and delicious things! It was only mildly tortuous 😏 But then I drifted off to sleep and all was well. Still no hunger pains, still no GI distress, no headaches, etc. This does make me feel good about where I started from, had I not started making some healthy changes beforehand this could have been a bit more ugly!
Hours 49-58 I went to bed with my breakfast all planned out, visions of eggs dancing in my head! You're going to get tired of hearing this but I slept like a baby again. I don't get up in the middle of the night to use the restroom, I just sleep. Until 6:30 and then I wake up, it never fails. I didn't want to wake up at 6:30 today though, I wasn't having breakfast until 9! So I made myself lay there tossing and turning for a little longer. I didn't get up and get another bottle of water like I should have and a headache started to creep in, I knew why.
Hours 58-60 About 8 am I forced myself up to get a bottle of water, goodbye headache. Hello stove! at 8:30 am I started pulling out my breakfast supplies and getting so excited! I whipped up some eggs, avocado, bone broth, and...bacon. The bacon was a bad idea, it wasn't part of the plan and I see why! It sure tasted good though!
First Meal Post Fast |
Post Fast Day 1: After breakfast I went to church, now today calls for breakfast only and a small snack or so I'm still having my Max regularly and still aiming for 100 oz. of water for the day. So, about that bacon - I did not feel good and I could tell it was bacon related, a little queasy and a little headache but nothing ridiculous so I'm hanging in there. This evening we have a dinner at church, fries chicken, potato salad, and tables full of desserts! Now my snacks should have been small bits of fruit but I broke guidelines and had a bit of salad and a nibble of chicken (meat only) instead! Felt okay about it and stuck with no dairy, sugar, etc.
Post Fast Day 2: Never. Have. I. CRAVED CARBS like I have today. Never! Without willpower and time invested I could have devoured a buffet of pasta, bread, pastries, cakes, cookies, you name it! Today was a mild struggle but I just had to remind myself that these were the very things that had gotten out of control in my diet and this was exactly why I needed this reset. Power through, complain a little, and en the end I'm proud of the progress.
Post Fast Day 3: Carb cravings are gone, water intake is easier and easier each day and I'm consistently hitting my 50 oz. goal with no trouble and a completely normal number of restroom breaks! I've not had sugar cravings and I've just been slowly adding in new foods, monitoring how my body feels as I add them and making a decision from there on keeping the foods or not. I'm happy with my progress so far, I'm on vacation right now and don't have the urge to splurge (I am considering a sno cone later today though) and Monday mom and I will be headed to Trader Joe's and JR (the hubby, fisherman extraordinaire) will embark on the ketogenic diet! Pinterest here I come!!
I'll update again later on with my progress! Oh, and speaking of progress - while you don't weight during the fast, I an conscious about not losing weight so I utilize a tool at work called an InBody to track changes in my body composition. In the past month my weight has virtually remained the same, only my usual fluctuations of 1-2 pounds. In the time I've been supplementing with Keto//OS my body fat has been dropping, from its highest point at 26% to my post-fast 21% and not only have I maintained muscle mass but I've gained muscle along the way. I couldn't be happier -- imagine the update as I implement a new workout routine and begin to focus a bit more on myself and my health!
If you want to try a fast of your own, or even just add in the daily supplement it is so easy and so good, just Email me, Facebook Me, or just Place an Order!