5 days no food – just water and tea

Fasting – a complete abandonment of solid food. During the fasting days you only drink clear liquids. 

The last couple days have been an incredible experience, which I would like to share with you here now. Fasting is definitely not something most people do – which they maybe should because it is such a great way to detox and cleanse your body. 
Fasting kind of runs in the family if you will. My parents are doing it for decades and the longest they have gone without food was 10 days. My aunt and uncle did it for 14 days one time. Everyone around me loves to fast one time a year and I see how it benefits them all the time. That is why I started fasting once a year as well three years ago. So this is the third time I did it. 

My motivation for fasting 

Some of you were asking me why I am fasting. My main motivation to fast was to really give my body and digestion a break and totally cleanse my body. I wanted a couple days to slow down and focus on myself. I feel like we focus way to much on what we eat, how much we eat and sometimes even obsess about it. Especially being a food blogger a lot of my time evolves around food. I wanted to take a step back from my daily nutrition and let my body step forward. 
You should never do a fasting cure because you simply want to loose weight. I believe this is the completely wrong motivation and won’t get you very far. 

How it works

This is by no means a guide to fasting, I am just sharing my personal experience here. There are many different types of fasting out there. I am sure you have heard of juice fasting before where you only drink juice for a couple of days. I don’t like this type of fasting because in my opinion your body still needs to work and digest and you will be so hungry all the time. The way I fast is simply by drinking pure, clear liquids. Mostly water and tea and once a day for lunch or dinner a clear soup. On day two and day four I took bitter salt. This is a laxative which helps you to completely cleanse everything out 😀 It has the most horrible taste ever, but is a key element of this fasting cure and its effectiveness. 

Aren’t you so hungry all the time?

Most of you asked me this question. The funny thing is after the second day all signs of hunger completely vanish. You feel like you have just eaten the perfect amount of food and are totally satisfied. No grumbling stomach or feeling hungry. Every once in a while a notion of hunger would come along. But then I would simply drink something and it was gone. Especially on day 4,5 and 6 I didn’t feel any hunger anymore. Just the first days are hard. 

My fasting tips 

When fasting try to plan the days well. Pick a week where you are not invited to any events or dinners. This will just make it harder on you when you see everyone else eating. When it was really hard I would allow myself a tiny teaspoon of honey. And for the first three days I bought unsweetened almond milk (13kcal per 100ml) to add to my water for a bit of taste. 
Also try to flavor your water. I liked to put elderberry flowers and lemons into my water. It is just nice to have your water taste a little bit different. The same goes with tea. I bought a multitude of different teas to not get bored of the same taste. Make sure to buy a detox or fasting tea with nettle leaves. Chewing gum was also helpful every once in a while to keep me distracted.

My positive sides of fasting 

Fasting results in a reduction of toxic and superfluous substances and detoxifies the metabolism and connective tissue. Blood lipid levels are reduced, elevated blood sugar levels are decreasing and you will see a discharge of the gastrointestinal tract, biliary tract and pancreas. All of which are huge reliefs and well deserved breaks for your body! Perfect for regeneration. 
I noticed that I needed so much less sleep than usual. I was completely fine with 5 hours every day. I always woke up way before I had set my alarm. Since my body wasn’t digesting anything at night I also needed less time to recover at night and had more energy available in the morning. 
Another very positive  benefit is that you have so much more time on your hands. All the time you usually spend on grocery shopping, cooking food 3 times a day, preparing snacks is available for you to use now. 
What I love about doing the fasting cure once a year is to prove to myself how strong my will power is and my dedication. It is such a rewarding and powerful feeling when you have achieved something as hard as not eating for five days. 
Also I feel like my skin is just perfect at the moment and when I look in the mirror I kinda see myself glowing. 🙂 
And almost forgot to mention the weight loss part. I lost 3kg within 5 days – half of it will probably be right back on simply because my whole digestive system is empty right now. When my parents fast they usually loose up to 8 kg within a week. Usually half of the weight you lost will stay 🙂 

                                                                           
                                                                                before – after                        before – after

My negative sides of fasting 

Especially in the first two days I still felt hungry and even had a headache on the first day. This is perfectly normal as your blood sugar levels are simply super low and your body is not used to that. Occasionally I would feel weak and on the first day in the afternoon I had a real energy low. Besides that I have to honestly say I felt super fit and strong. I even went for a run one day. 
What I really noticed is how cold I got. As soon as the sun was gone I started freezing. Since my body wasn’t digesting anything I produced less body heat. 
Another negative side effect was the mood swings. I noticed how jumpy and bitchy I could be in the last couple of days. I would simply snip at people without much reason. I was definitely not the easiest person to be around with the last week 😀 Thankfully I have such a supportive boyfriend <3 
Okay not sure how open you want me to be about ALL negative side effects 😀 BUT you will need to go to the bathroom a lot. Not only because you are drinking so much liquid (up to 4l a day) but also because you are taking bitter salt which helps you empty out your digestive system.

The days after the fasting – SO IMPORTANT

Okay you NEED to get this right when you are fasting. The days you build back up to your normal nutrition are so crucial and important. Much more important and way harder than the actual fasting. If you do this wrong all of it was in vain. When you are fasting your body goes into starvation mode. This means it will store every little piece of nutrition it gets. So once you start eating again you have to start bit by bit and gradually increase your calories. When you fast for 5 days you should at least do 4 build up days (Aufbautage – sagt man das so auf Englisch? :D) Here you can find special eating plans on the internet for the first days after breaking your fast. 
Getting this right and not starting to eat everything you couldn’t during your fasting period is so important, otherwise you will have a huge JoJo effect! For example when my sister fasted for 5 days she started to eat so much after that she gained more weight within a short period of time than she lost during her fasting cure!! 

Quick rundown of my fasting cure 

Full Fasting Days:

• Day #1: The hardest one. I felt very hungry, had an energy low and a headache. Water, tea, clear soup. 
• Day #2: Still a bit hungry. Headache was gone. Felt weak and very cold in the evening. Water, tea, clear soup, a bit of honey and unsweetened almond milk. Went for a run. First round of bitter salt. 
• Day #3: Not hungry anymore. Felt very cold at night. Water, tea, clear soup, bit of honey, matcha powder and almond milk. 
• Day #4: Felt perfectly fine, satisfied and fit. No feelings of hunger. Less cold. Water, tea, clear soup, second round of bitter salt.
• Day #5: Felt absolutely great. No signs of hunger. Not cold. water, tea, clear soup, a bit of grape juice with a lot of water. 

Breaking the fast

• Day #6: Felt so great that I decided to fast until lunch for exactly 5.5 days of fasting. Oat soup, steamed apple 
• Day #7: Small porridge, Oat soup, potato with greek yoghurt and salt 
• Day #8: Joghurt with oats and fruit, Spinach and potatoes, light salad
• Day #9: Joghurt with flax seeds and fruit, couscous salad, potato soup 

Summary 

I hope you enjoyed this article and my personal insights and experiences. I am sharing all of this with you because I truly think it is a fantastic experience everyone should make at least one time in their lives. It makes you realize how strong your body and your mind is and you give your body a well deserved break for regeneration. 

Let me know in the comments if you have enjoyed this article and you are ever planning on fasting as well! 🙂 

xoxo,