Raw Fruit Fast - Halfway Update

Well, I’m halfway through raw fruit 3-day fast. My weight was down 2 pounds today. I’ve been eating a variety of fruits and don’t really feel any hunger or weakness. What I have noticed, and had read that it would happen, is that have hardly drank any water. I had, in total, one glass of water since yesterday and most of that was before my 10km run tonight.

I still have hockey and will be, obviously, taking a water bottle on the bench. I have shown zero signs of dehydration, so far. The only thing that seems to be negative is a dull headache that seems to be following me around. I read that that would be one of the symptoms of raw fruit fasting, as well.

I do believe on Tuesday, after 10am, I will revert back to a plain old vegan diet with cooked veggies for at least one day. It’s more of an economic situation than anything else. I have a fridge full of veggies that will be past the point of eating raw and will need to be cooked or wasted.

I have a completely new fascination with raw avocado. I love the stuff cooked or raw and mixed with umpteen other veggies. On its own, avocado is just damn delicious.

Water Intoxication - Yikes!

In the midst of the winter blahs and with 5-10 pounds of holiday weight to get rid of, I had a crazy scheme of drinking nothing but water this coming Sunday – and a lot of it. I thought that I would try and see just how many litres of water I could ingest over an 8 hour period while fasting from food. It would purely be in the name of science to see how much I could take in and what would be the effects on my overall mental and physical self.

I started looking around at what sort of achievements had been reached when it came to power water drinking. Hell, I might even be looking at a world record!

Thankfully, I did do some research. It seems that people die from drinking too much water. A little known condition called water intoxication can result in death if too much water is ingested too fast. Now, that is strange indeed.

It turns out that the kidneys can only process about 1 litre of fluid per hour. Consuming too much water too fast can force your blood to become more dilute with low sodium concentrations. The sodium concentration in your blood becomes lower than the concentration in your cells. The water moves from the blood to the cells causing them to swell.

The killer is that your brain swells with the resulting pressure causing headaches and loss of functions such as breathing. Without breathing, we are quite challenged to survive! Thus, possibly resulting in death.

This is more apt to affect the elderly, babies, those having an operation and those participating in extreme physical challenges (marathon running on a hot day). Apparently, water intoxication is a risk for those on the drug ecstasy. The drug makes the user incredibly thirsty and they literally drink themselves to death.

Andy Warhol is perhaps the most famous person to die of apparent water intoxication. He was in for a routine procedure and was fed too much water intravenously.

After putting the fear into everyone, it is quite unlikely that this will ever be a problem for you. It is said that the fear of water intoxication will probably kill more people by driving them to dehydration!

The plan now for Saturday evening until Monday morning is a fruit only fast. I still do not see myself joining the Fruitarians, but I have a huge curiosity about what the short term effects of a fruit only diet will be. I’m even going to give up my coveted green tea for the duration. Supposedly, I won’t even need to drink any water because I will get sufficient amounts from all the raw fruit I’ll be eating. However, I will have a water bottle on the bench when I play hockey on Sunday night.

I’ve been feeling the winter blahs pretty bad this year and I need to get out of the funk I’m in and take off a few of the X-mas pounds. My goal is to do something drastic to kick start a change and bring back the energy. I’ll let you know how it goes in as much detail as possible.

Other posts you may enjoy:

Fruitarians, Canadian Communists and the Biggest Loser
24-Hour Fasting

24-Hour Fasting

I've been doing some reading for some time about fasting. I think I lead too active a life to go the 3+ days that are recommended as an ideal fast. However, a 24-hour fast which has been proven to be beneficial to our health is within my means.
Benefits of a 24-hour, water-only fast include:

• cleansing of the pancreas
• reduction in your desire for sugar
• reduction in blood pressure
• more efficient energy usage
• weight reduction
• digestive system 'vacation'

It is also said that fasting as short a time as 24 hours reduces tiredness, bloating and gas and is good for the brain. It is also said that regular 24-hour fasting, as much as once per week, can significantly extend life expectancy by simply decreasing stress on the organs and creating a more efficient system. Also, it may even be beneficial in avoiding diseases such as cancer.

I plan on experimenting with my first intentional 24-hour fast on Saturday, September 26. I say intentional, because I know there have been times when I have gone that long without eating but it was due to illness or the after-effects of a night of drinking alcohol. I plan to have my last meal on Saturday afternoon at around 2:30 so that I'm ready to start at 3:00. This would give me time to get in a workout and run in the morning and would give me enough time for both Sunday evening before 10pm hockey.

I am going to keep a diary of weight and pulse. I would like to monitor blood pressure and blood sugar levels but do not have the equipment. I have concerns about sodium loss and will be doing more research about that but I haven't found anything written, so far, that it is a concern.

I would love to hear from anyone who has tried this or does this on a regular basis and I look forward to my little adventure in less than two weeks.