Day 4 of 3-Day Fast
No, that title is not a typo. My seven-day fast ended around the 84-hour mark. Allow me to explain . . .
On day 3, my body started to shift, and drinking water became more and more difficult. I was anticipating day 3 being one of the hardest days of the fast, so while I was uncomfortable, I was committed to enduring. This is what I signed up for. I could do this. By the end of the day, I had not drunk nearly enough water, and my stomach was hurting a lot. I had spent the day on the couch because I was also very weak. I called in reinforcements to help with some previous obligations, and I set my heart to getting through that night. Late that evening my husband asked if I were ready to transition from the couch to the bed, but when I tried to get up, I felt nauseated. I had to lie back down . . .
. . . and that’s when the negotiations with God began. I knew I was borderline dehydrated, but the idea of drinking water was repulsive. I knew if I threw up, that would send me fully into dehydration, and I knew that wasn’t safe. I prayed, “God, I am leaning into you. I know you are my strength and my healer. You can take away this feeling and quiet my stomach. And if you don’t, I’ll take that as my sign that you want me to break this fast.”
About 30 minutes later, I felt better. I righted myself, walked down to our bathroom, and then, I . . . ahem . . . “tossed my cookies.” Of course, after that I had no desire to eat or drink anything, so I went to bed, hopeful that I could feel better and continue the fast. Let me pause to say, in all my research, I have not heard of anyone throwing up during fasting. I was even searching “signs to break a fast” to see if I were in any danger. I also know that a body in a fully fasted state can NOT get sick. Viruses need glucose to feed on to grow and multiply. Anything that may have been trying to plague me would’ve been DOA.
About five hours later, I woke up feeling absolutely miserable. My head was throbbing. My hips ached. I could not go back to sleep, and I felt I might get sick again. It was at that point that I decided my time had come. I tried a spoonful of almond butter for two reasons. Number one, when breaking a fast, it’s good to start with good fats. Good fats coat your stomach and set it up for digestion. Number two, pure fats (no glucose included) don’t actually break your fast. I figured if I could go on after the almond butter, then I would still be in a fasted state and be okay.
Unfortunately, the nauseated feeling worsened, so I went on to step two—eat/drink a cultured product like a low-sugar kombucha to replenish gut bacteria. This is the definite end to the fast because I was introducing glucose into my system again. I drank some kombucha, but when my body didn’t feel any better, I resorted to some gluten-free pretzels because I felt they could settle my stomach, which they did.
Here’s the interesting (to me) part. My recovery from the fast was 2.5 more days! I spent allllllll of day 4 in bed slowly introducing food back into my body. My energy was still super low, my body weak, my heart would race if I walked to the bathroom and back, and I couldn’t do much of anything. By the end of the day, I had some rice and chicken. (Just the thoughts of being able to hold the rice in my mouth excited me.)
I went to bed that night expecting to be back to my normal self the next day . . . but I wasn’t. On Day 5, I did make it to the couch for the day, but that was about it. I was still super weak, easily winded, and not able to do much more than watch TV all day long. I tried some different food and didn’t get sick, but I started to notice that my tastebuds had changed. Nothing sounded good except real food—meat, veggies, and fruit, and just a few bites of food would fill me up. I did begin to perk up throughout the day, and soon I was able to talk at a normal rate (it was laughable how slowly I talked—and walked!—on day 3).
Day 6 was a slow start, but I finally began to feel more like myself. I cooked myself lunch and was so proud that I announced it to my daughter, “Look! I cooked a whole meal!” I took a leisurely walk into town (less than a mile total), and I transported my kids around a little. There was still a lot of couch and TV time in between. I did go out to a social event that night and managed to eat normally, but I didn’t participate in the active portion. Again, it was becoming clear to me that my body had changed. I’ll elaborate more on that in another post.
I’m still processing what happened and what I’m to take from all this, but I wanted to get some of the practical details out of the way in this post—the when and why I broke fast and how my body reacted physically. Also, my focus and reason for fasting was to offer myself to God, but I certainly experienced some physical benefits too—one being that I dropped double digits on the scale. As exciting as that is, it has come with its own demons on the other side. Until I can process more . . . 💛
