Hello, tender friends! I’m excited to share this information with you because I was intimidated by the idea of water-only fasting for years. When I finally got over my fear of not being able to sustain the fast, or of doing it improperly, I realized how much of a blessing it is.
If you’re not sure what exactly water-only fasting is, it’s when you drink only water during the fasting period and abstain from all food.
For me, this means also avoiding tea in any form. Some people say that tea is ok during fasting because it has no glucose and doesn’t break your fast. However, tea stimulates my appetite, and I personally sustain the fast better without including it. I also find that skipping tea is as much or more of a sacrifice than going without food, so it makes sense for me to go without it as far as spiritual discipline is concerned.
And yes, I realize the cruel irony of posting this after my keto mac and cheese substitute recipe. If it’s any consolation, I sometimes use that recipe to break my fasts since discovering it!
First things first. Why should you consider doing a water-only fast?
- Water-only fasting has made me feel AMAZING since starting it about a year ago. I resisted the idea of water only fasting for years despite my curiosity about it because of a low body mass index. However, I can attest to the fact that safe and healthy water only fasting is possible, even at 5’8” and about 118 pounds.
2. Fasting is like free stem cell therapy for your body and one of the healing modalities that almost anyone can use.
3. Despite the fact that I wasn’t feeling particularly spiritually motivated when I started fasting, God made himself known to me even during my first fast. I felt the Holy Spirit with me and had increased joy and peace and MORE energy, which surprised me. Then, interestingly, when Anthony and I first started fasting together, it seems to have activated a unique form of spiritual warfare. (That will be a separate post next week)
The recommended time limit for women to do water-only fasting is up to 72 hours unless you have medical supervision. I have fasted only up to 36 hours because that’s the point at which I personally felt my body was telling me I had reached maximum benefits.
Ok, let’s dive in. Here are my first 8tips for starting a water-only fast:
- Start with a 24 hour fast and work your way up from there. (If this is too much for you, start with 16 hours as you would with intermittent fasting. I felt comfortable starting with 24 hours).
- Eat an early dinner, around 5 pm. Consume healthy proteins and fats and avoid anything that could cause a blood sugar spike, including fruit. A typical last meal for me before a fast is steak and broccoli, or chicken and peas.
- Tell your body that your dinner is your last meal. I’ve found that telling my body it’s going to enter fasting mode makes it stop producing so many digestive juices that cause discomfort during fasting.
- Go to bed early. Multiple studies indicate that staying up too late can increase insulin resistance. You will feel hungrier if you stay up late. Going to bed early will make your fast more pleasant.
5. Work out only moderately the next day. I don’t run or do hard cardio when fasting because I can’t sustain it without eating. I only walk and do pilates on fasting days.
6. Keep busy to keep your mind off food.
7. If you have kids, prepare their food the day before to avoid smelling food. Once you start cooking, your body will start making more digestive juices and you will be tempted to break the fast.
8. This might go without saying, but water-only means you’re drinking only water and not consuming anything else. Some people indulge in a mint or two during fasting time. If you’re doing this as a spiritual exercise, that’s between you and God, but if you’re doing this to heal, you have to adhere to having only water during the fasting period. Any form of sugar will prevent your body from entering autophagy, which is how your body starts kicking butt to heal you from within.
This was originally one post, but I was afraid it was getting a bit too long. I’ll include the remaining tips in my next post. I hope this one wasn’t too much.
What benefits of fasting have you discovered? Please let me know in the comments!
Thank you so much for visiting, and be blessed, tender friends!
Thank you for sharing!
tea and tenderness 
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