7 Day Water Fast (not my first rodeo)

[Phoenix97]

Hi everyone!

I’m Phoenix and I have done several extended water fasts over the last 2 years (12 days, 13 days and 14 days) but - possibly because I wasn’t in the right emotional mindset at the time - I ended up regaining the weight I lost.

Since the start of January I have been alternate day fasting and I’ve found this relatively easy, but I’ve been wanting to do a longer fast of minimum a week. Unfortunately, both times I started I’ve reached mid way through day 4 and given up, which is why I really want to push through to at least 7 days this time.

I’m not sure why I’m struggling so much to push through (especially as I’ve done this before and I KNOW it gets easier after day 4) but I’m really hoping that maybe having some accountability and encouragement might help me get there.

My plan is to do a seven day fast and then refeed (I would try for longer but I’m going on a trip where I’ll have to eat). After the fast is over, I aim to go back to alternate day fasting for a while before trying another extended fast. Any support is always appreciated!

I’m currently on day 2. Let’s goooooooo!

[Anna]

Welcome to the forum Phoenix! I hope this forum will make it slightly easier to feel motivated and inspired to stick to your goal! It helped me a lot to journal here in my journey!

I recognise myself in that by my own experiences with fasting (many 7 days, one 10 days and one 30 days) I find that the more time in between fasts, the harder it is to get back into fasting for longer than 3-5 days.
I’m thinking that the main issue is that I didn’t have a strong enough motivation at times where I’ve failed. The most successful fasts I’ve had has been when I’ve been so tired of feeling the way I did so choosing between eating or fasting was like choosing between plague and cholera! Even if the fasting was hard, it was still too difficult to stay in the same feeling of misery, so it wasn’t worth eating! Soon enough the toughest parts was replaced by an autopilot mode!

Another aspect that has helped me is to have a beneficial environment around me, aka not having people around me who doesn’t understand or support me fasting, as well as having a clean environment that doesn’t have any tempting foods around!
I know that can be very difficult to control, with family, work and school etc, but it was an important factor in my longest fast!

I wish you all the best! I’m excited to follow your journal!

[Phoenix97]

Thank you! That’s helpful actually!

[Phoenix97]

So today is day 3 and I’m really struggling. I’m inexplicably hungry - usually my hunger goes away around day 2. I’m going to wait out this wave of hunger and go and do some exercise which usually helps me feel a little better. I just had the smell of my neighbour’s (amazing) cooking waft through my balcony window which could definitely have something to do with the pangs I’m experiencing lol. I’m having some black coffee and getting some little jobs done to get my mind off it and hopefully I’ll push through until this evening.

[Anna]

I’m trying to have the mindset of just delaying the eating when I feel hunger or cravings, even if it’s just 2 hours at a time. When the hours have passed by and you feel like you can go two more hours, just delay it again. Soon enough the whole day will pass by and it won’t be worth eating until the morning anyway!