Day 2…48 hours into my second 21 day fast. So far, so good, but I am prepared that tomorrow could be rather not fun…until the weekend, where my inner brat finally gives up, trying to tell me this fasting is such a bad idea, LOL. I am determined, and already feel that I will soon be at the end of this 21 day fast. And, ha-ha, it will, after the 5th day, go by fast. I slept great, all through the night. The trick is to stop drinking after 18:00. I then do not get my sleep interrupted. And that is such a wonderful thing. During the last 21 day fast, between the third and fifth day, my sleep was not so good, I had such nervousness and anxiety. I will push through, though…Fasting is just amazing and I am grateful that I have such a nice community to come to, that understands the benefits of fasting. Until tomorrow, I wish you all happy fasting.
Mary Joy's (3 consecutive ) 21 day Water Fasts
Once you experience the benefits of fasting, it encourages you to stick with it. And yes, we know the “inner brat” has a big mouth! But isn’t it a wonderful feeling to know you are in charge, not the brat?!
Yes, the benefits of fasting sustain me, and give me motivation to continue my healing journey!
Day 3 of my second 21 day fast:
Wow, today went by fast. It is evening and I gotta go to bed, because I have got to get up early. My day tomorrow is also long. I am already bored with water. I made ginger water and drank that all day. I really wanted a nap, but resisted because I have been sleeping through the night, and I want that to continue.
I thought day 3 would be hard, but it was rather OK. On the last fast, it was actually day 5 that was very hard for me. Somehow, I mentally “clicked” a lever in my brain, and I feel totally committed to my plan. My inner brat has shut up, but I will stay vigilant in case… Time to take day 3 sticker down. G’Night. And I am onto day 4!
Day 4 of my 2nd 21 day fast:
Sorry, this has to be quick…I gotta long day ahead, and only a few minutes to check in. If I am not too kaputt this evening, after 10 pm, when I am done working, I will check in again.
My energy is great, stomach still growling, I am telling it to, “settle down now”. I will check to see if ketosis has kicked in but I do not believe so, because every time when that moment of not being hungry starts to happen (it is so magical…), that is when ketosis, for me, is measurable in urine. BTW, I am reading a yogic text about shivambu chikitsa…Urine Therapy. It grosses me out, like it just did to you, when the realization hits that “urine therapy” is …pee-pee drinking. I KNOW!!! But, check out some info about it, and that does not include Wiki-gagola-pedia…It is interesting. I won’t tell a soul if I do try it. So gotta go. I slept so great last night despite the hungry tummy. Happy Fasting!
Lol… your post made me laugh. Really uplifted my mood. Drinking urine… yikes!!!
Your post made me laugh so hard I spit out my urine on the keyboard 
I am still reading about shivambu chikitsa, and have not yet decided to take the plunge. There are YT videos of folks healing their cancer, and other chronic dis-eases and I WILL heal my thyroid! So, naturally I am wondering. But my tummy may not let me drink urine. I have to be 100% convinced before I, gulp, try urine therapy…And I am laughing, too, as I write this, because it is fun, to make people laugh! Hang in there, Van! You are doing GREAT!
YEAH!!!
Laughter is the best medicine!!!
Hey, my gut is going down, hurray. How is your gut? Shirnking???
Day 5!!! of my second 21 day water fast (I am doing 3 consecutive 21 days, with a 1 week re-feed)
But…
I am open, if I feel like it, body/mind-wise, to going longer than 21 days, this time around, because I do not have to refeed, like I did, last time around. Last round, I was going to a yoga seminar/retreat, and I wanted to eat their organic, vegan buffet…I had never been to this particular school before. It was supposedly on the North Sea. But it was about 5 miles away from the sea, and I only had about 1 hour a day free time, so I could not walk down to the sea, or park (costs big bucks). Even to go onto the beach cost money. The food sucked, too. It was so tasteless, boring and not fit for my dogs! During the re-feed, I learned I was not out of control, crazy with food. And I learned that by really following my plan (next time I will track Macros…), I could control the Mary, who can not stop eating. I am in the process of becoming more organized, and I will continue to learn how to eat, consciously and joyfully. I am learning how I can deal with pain, and stress without stuffing my mouth, 24/7. Maybe the ton of grief therapy is going to come to conscious use, now that I am not mis-using food. Time will tell, as I am as certain that there will be challenges in my life as I am, that someday I will depart this body…(Death). So, today is day 5. I am allowing coffee, if I feel like it, but only before 12 noon. I just LOVE that I am sleeping through the night. I have suffered from insomnia for years. This is the first time I am consistently sleeping throughout the night. I was terrified, literally freaking out, before I started to fast, the first 21 day round, because I had experienced an increase of insomnia, when I tried intermittent fasting (fasting between 36-72 hours). And I could not remember, when I did that 40 day water fast, back in 2011, if my insomnia ever resolved during that fast. Chronic sleep deprivation is HORRIBLE! I would rather go to the dentist, have him drill into my tooth with no numbing drugs, than experience chronic sleep deprivation. No wonder I felt pathologically mentally ill, depressed and hopeless. IF you suffer from insomnia, do an extended WATER FAST!!! Get past the first 5 days of adjusting until ketosis kicks in, and stop drinking, as of 8 pm, and you, too will experiece, deep and refreshing sleep. I just LOVE fasting. It is healing my knees, it has helped insomnia, and I am open to it healing arthritis, back pain, scar tissue, and anything else. I do not have blood sugar problems, thank you, Jesus! Nor do I have high B/P or atherosclerosis, as far as I know, but in case I do, I know my body CAN and WILL heal, if I am regularly fasting. I also had, before the first fast, painful heels and feet, when I got out of bed in the morning. THAT is also gone. I suggest, if you have not yet started your own healing journey, to write down ALL of your symptoms-ALL…even if they do not cause pain, like bleeding gums, or excess flatuence. Write everything down, and do a 21 day fast…(only the loud, painful symtoms get our attention, so if you write EVERY symptom down on paper, after the fast, you can analysis and see which symptoms are resolved). Join Yasemin’s very affordable 7 day fasting challenge zoom meetings, which will help you get through those uncomfy first 5-7 days, and then you will be cruising. I promise. After 21 days, you will feel re-born. I am not a fan of alternate day fasting (ADF). One always, every-other-day, has to start on day 1 again and again. Yuck. I probably will do 28 days this time around and also at least 21 days, in the 3rd round. And if my body has not reached it’s goal weight (actually I will go below my goal weight by 5 kg., to get some wiggle-room…eating/food weighs something, right?), I plan on fasting about 5 days a week, and do OMAD on the weekends until my body has reached it’s goal. By the end of September, I plan on weighing 60 kg., and by late October, I plan on my body weighing 56 kg. I will, as maintenance, be regularly, weekly fasting 48 hours, and will do OMAD as a way of life. The feelings of hunger do not scare me anymore. And I plan on doing gluten-free, and very low-carb for the next year to see if this positively effects my thyroid condition.
I slept GREAT again, and I added a tad of lemon to my water, just to give it some taste, so I am able to drink 2-3 liters of water today. I will add potassium/NaCl as needed, and I take one cap of Magnesium L-Threonate a day. So, I am off to enjoy my 5th fasting day. I think I am in ketosis, cause the growling tummy has stopped, but I will check it…just a minute, I will be right back…So! I am back from checking if I am in Ketosis, and I AM!!! I showed an 8+, which is the second darkest color. I am a fat-burning machine!!! Buh-Bye, stomach gut! Lastly, I do not do extreme exercise, as fasting is a theraputic, cleansing activity and I believe in doing a gentle kind of movement, during this healing time, and not putting the body under even more stress. I walk my dogs at least twice a day for 20 minutes each, (I live on top of a big hill, and walk up and down these hills, so it is a teeny-bit challenging, but nothing that causes me to get stressed). AND when I am done, I will go back to my daily 7-Minute work-outs, on YT by this fabulous Brit named, Lucy Wyndham-Read. I WAS already losing inches around the tummy-gut, before I began to fast. Try her work-outs, they are fun, fast, and challenging in the positive way. Just go to YT, and type in “7 Day challenge 7 Minute workout”. I promise you will love her videos. Promise!
So, gotta go walk the dogs. They are whining and the sun is shining and it is a day to BE grateful. Let us do it, OK? Think of at least 3 things, right now that you are grateful, truly grateful for. Now you are connected! Go and enjoy your day. Much love, Mary Joy
Thanks for beautiful post @schmidtsmia 
I hope you find healing through this journey.
You are so lucky that you can sleep during an extended fasting. I am the opposite - up all night if I don’t take anything for sleep. Intermittent fasting is better for my sleep.
Day 6th of my second 21 day fast…It is almost evening and I still have some energy…wow. My tummy was growling all day, even though I am in ketosis. Hmm. And last night, for the first time in a very, very long time-like the beginning of my last fast-I stayed awake until 4 a.m. Thank the gods it was Saturday, and not a workday, when I have to get up. I was really over-excited and kept wishing time would go by faster, and I could finally be at the end of all my long, extended fasts, in order to be on the maintaining fasting schedule. I could not stop thinking in bed! Well, I forced myself to get up at 8 a.m., so hopeful after having a long bath, I will be able to sleep tonight. I watched the fasting documentary offered by Jill, as a gift to us, on Gaia. In the end, it pissed me off. The beginning was alright, and even rather interesting. BUT, as a Naturopath, I disagree with the story line, that one has to be like an in-patient at some clinic, led by D.C. (what the eff??? WHY a chiropractor, gag-me?) or as was said in the video, “doctors”, and then one was given an extreme, ridiculous example of a woman, who “almost died” from doing an extreme (gag me again) 26 day water fast. I KNOW this case, and where she went (there was no names mentioned, as I guess there would be a law-suit. Supposedly, the “clinic” (it was not a clinic, but a retreat offered by a raw food “guru”, who is hitting 60+ years, who offers the “retreat”, in Costa Rica, and there is no supervision, and each person is on their own, but there is the requirement of extreme working out, and well, the water there was not good quality, and this gal, in the Gaia docu CHOSE to continue fasting even though she was sick from the water, and was dehydrated. She knew it was time to stop and yet continued. I call B.S. on this crap. Do you know HOW expensive it is to go to one of those fasting clinics? BIG BUCKS. Not me…Crazy. And lastly, Valter Longo, was/is, trying to sell, in the last part of the docu his “processed, packaged”, crap, trash “fasting-mimicking” diet (5 days costs over 250 USD!) as a great alternative to fasting five days on water. WTF! What is wrong with this world? Get a grip! We will not die by fasting on water for 5 days!!! And the example of another woman, who used this packaged, crap food, masquerading as an healthy alternative to fasting, claimed the five day diet was “hard”, and she was hungry, but doable. I can only shake my head at the stupidity of some people. You can skip the whole b.s. docu, it is worthless, and could potentially scare the crap out of anyone from doing any kind of fasting on their own. I have been experimenting with fasting for a very long time, and am over 60 years on earth. I think I have enough brain cells to notice when I need to stop fasting. And most folks who fast RESEARCH it thoroughly before doing it, as it is rather a mind-game and can be difficult, but certainly one does not have to go to a effing, $$$$$$$, FOR PROFIT clinic to do fasting. Man, it annoyed the crap out of me. IF you want to watch credible, LIFE affirming videos about fasting, go on YT, and watch the channel, A HEALTHY ALTERNATIVE. Great content. Lastly, my estimation of Valter Longo has gone completely down. He is an effing sell-out, who wants to keep his cushy job at the University…In THIS b.s. docu, he says, that fasting for cancer should only be done, with the addition of chemo, and in the older docu, that featured Longo, called, THE SCIENCE OF FASTING, he said (Remember, in the U.S. cancer can NEVER be healed, by anything except chemo, radiation or surgery), at about 51:46 minutes, “Cancer cells, even in the absence of chemo can die, or their growth can be reduced or slowed down by fasting.” In this newer docu, Longo, as changed his tune. Now he says one has to use chemo with fasting to get rid of cancer. I saw, first hand, with my husband, that his tumour almost was gone after 42 days of fasting. IF he had not gone back to eating crap and sweets, he might have survived. He never fasted again. But, he was not able to follow the Breuss protocol exactly,as he was so addicted to candy. Anyway, that is all for today,I am going to relax with some yummy, refreshing…water, before bed. Sorry for the rant. I use to work on a cancer ward, as a nurse, and patients died like one-day flies, and horribly, as a result of the usual “treatments.” Chemo is evil…destructive, and brutal.
Lol, sorry that video got you all riled up .
So, I will say I’m a member of several fasting Facebook groups, and people don’t research before they start. And they have no clue what water fasting really is. And there’s a “fasting and autophagy” group that people join and they get in there and ask what is autophagy. Like if there’s a word in a group name and you don’t know what it is, why wouldn’t you Google that word? It drives me bonkers 
.
Some people still try to make others be responible for their healing/health journey. It is a very old, authoritarian control device, so one can not develop self-reliance and intuition. We all gotta do the leg work ourselves. I dropped out from all those groups, just for that reason AND because people were unkind and respectful to each other. AND…I let myself get riled up, LOL, and have calmed down considerably…I liked the first part of the docu and actually downloaded the app about one’s ciradian clock ( but did not yet “sign up” for the study), because I am not eating right now…That was rather interesting. So THANK YOU very much for sharing the documentary. I do not belong to Gaia.
Day 7 of my second 21 day fast…
I slept through the night, but woke up like I had a bad hang-over from too much alcohol, lol. I had a cotton mouth, I felt tired, my mind was lethargic, but I got up, drank some water and it went away…I went on the water challenge FB messenger chat, and after food started getting “talked” about, my mind got obsessed with food!!! Oh, stop. But, no I told the inner brat to eff off, and have been drinking and drinking water, and now I might have a tea. I like Sundays, no one wants anything from me, and I don’t have to get up early and I can relax. So I have been lazy. I did walk my dogs, and soon I will go for my second walk. So, that is it, my Sunday is rather quiet, my tummy is grumbling since all the mention of food, but tough luck, tummy…settle down. Enjoy the rest of your weekend. Bye for now.
Day 8 of the second round of 21 day water fast:
I could not get to sleep until after 4 a.m. I could not get my mind to shut up! Breathing exercises, magnesium, GABA…nothing helped. And as I was still awake at 4 a.m…beginning of sunrise, here in Germany, I thought maybe I might be able to see NEOWISE comet, in the east, or northeast…but it was too cloudy, darn it.
I made myself get up at 8 a.m., and been dragging my body around, and I have sooo much to do, until this evening. It is almost 13:00, and I am using my “lunch” (figuratively speaking, LOL) to write this, while sipping on Ginger tea. I thought coffee would do it, but I really do not enjoy coffee right now, it feels dry and makes me thristy. Nope. I ain’t gonna do it, anymore. Hey, I tried on jeans, size 8 (American), that I have not worn in 2 years…and I wore them today. I gotta do yoga with some private clients, so gotta change clothes, but heck! Those pants, although tight, and my muffin top was obvious, I got easily into them and within the month, the jeans will be just fine.
So, due to lack of sleep, I feel not very alert…Groggy. But, it is only right now. I know it can and will change. I wish us all, HAPPY FASTING.
Love that feeling.
I have kept size 6 pants (Canadian) that I wore when I was 16! It felt amazing when I was able to fit into it. It felt snug and tight but I know it will be loose when I reach my goal!
Isn’t it a great feeling! All this hard work IS paying off. We are gaining self-confidence. On the other hand, if I had not been in a euphoric, kind of mindset, which I am, I would have let this next experience, which I will tell you about, totally bring me down.
I was in Aldi today, and they had a sale on Summer jeans that only go down to right below the knees. I saw they only had “fat” sizes, and I have noooo idea what size I am now, after fasting for altogether 30 days, and so I looked at the size, which was size 46 (size 16 in U.S.) and it looked rather small…Hmmm. So I got them, and before I washed them, I tried them on. They fit snug-like, with a obvious muffin-top. Normally, that would bring me sooo down. Today, I feel euphoric, as if I am in love with the world. And I just said, I know I am dropping weight, and these so-called size 46 will look hot on you, in just about 2 weeks. I do not honestly think these new pants are a REAL 46…they seemed very small. I will compare them to my old 46 size pants. I WAS size 46, BEFORE I began to fast, so I am just relaxing and enjoying my day…no effing pants have any power over my self-worth. Much love to you, you strong woman.
Today is day 10 (almost done!) of my second 21 day fast. I stayed up waaaay too late last night, with my grandson. We went outside on a nearby hill, to see if we could find comet NEOWISE. No, it was not showing itself. Supposedly the comet is at it’s brightest. We then talked until 1 a.m, and I got up a 4 a.m., to see if the comet was showing itself. Nope. I stayed up, and still awake and dragging my butt. I will stay awake until 10 p.m. because I am really, really tired. Today, my energy was lowk, but I feel rather positive, and in love. Yesterday, it felt like I took “happy” drugs. I like feeling happy, but this borders on maniac…Weird. Today, it has been not so. Mostly tired. So, that is it for today. Tomorrow I will be over the half-way mark of this present fast. Hurray. So, Happy Fasting.
You are kicking butt big time! You are about half way through the 3 fasts too!