Have you ever done any fasting? No? Till recently neither did I. It was a very weird idea for me and I have always questioned why a healthy and active man should want to fast. For me, the beginning of the fasting process started a few weeks ago. First, thinking about short time fasting didn't seem so weird any more. I googled about the fasting and the idea, why should I fast and how to do it, started to formulate in my mind. And then came the school break and we sent our children to grandparents'. That was the best possible time to execute it.

Keep water close

My fasting started on the evening about 8 PM. That was the time I finished eating. Start calculating your time from the moment you last ate. If you ate last time in the evening, that's your start point, not in the morning after you have not eaten for 6-10 hours.

On the first 24 hours I just drunk water. Although I was a little afraid that I will be very hungry and I need to give up, it was actually very easy. The hardest part was when I went to supermarket to buy veggies and fruits for the following days. Seeing food wasn't hard at all, but smell of fresh bakery was hard to ignore.

On the second and third 24 hour cycle I only drunk water and juices. Yes, that's all! Second day was actually even easier than the first day. On the third day I started noticing all the food around me and actually wanted to eat. But I didn't give and finished my 72 hour fasting happily.

Set your mind to it

When you think of your daily routine, it is not so easy to go on for a long period of time without eating. I eat my breakfast at home and after 4 hours I feel my stomach is empty and want to have lunch.

For couple of days before I began my fasting I thought about the fasting and why I'm going to do it. I prepared myself for it and figured out the right reasons to do it. It wasn't about losing weight or getting fit for the summer 😀 These are not my intrinsic motivators. I just wanted to clean my body and to be more in balance with myself.

Prepare beforehand

First time you do something, you cannot think on everything beforehand. During the first 24 hours, it was easy - I just drunk water and I had no problems with it. Next 2 days were more tricky. Although I wanted to drink only juice, I didn't fully prepared myself for it. I needed to think what to drink and how I can get it.

It was a lot easier at home. I used juicer to make fresh juice. Fresh orange juice was OK for me and I also made smoothies by adding bananas and mangoes. Still, I needed to buy the fruits. It was more complicated at work. I didn't have there home-made juices, so I needed to buy something. Next time I'll be smarter and prepare daily juice at home. 

Do it when you have time for yourself

My fasting was during school break and we sent our children to grandparents'. It is a lot easier to fast when you don't have to cook something tasty in same time. I also had more time to focus on myself.

Finish it in sauna

Fasting cleans your physical body from inside. To get full benefit from cleansing, you should clean it from outside as well. There is no better way to do it than to use sauna. It's not just that you scrub your skin thoroughly with soap. In hot sauna you sweat a lot and that way you deep-cleanse your skin. I know people who usually don't sweat, even in sauna, but after fasting your body is on different vibrations and you can sweat and give final "cleaning touch" to the fasting.

Side effects?

Everything has some kind of side effects. The idea of fasting for me wasn't about losing weight. I still was able to get rid on 3 kg and my neck size reduced by 1 cm.

I was afraid I might not have strength to do everything I regularly do, but at the end on 3rd day I still had enough energy for everything. Just don't plan hard physical work-outs for that period.

I started with the fasting as a one time event. I wanted to know are my feelings about it correct and do I get anything good out it.

To be honest, it was very positive experience. I'm sure I'm going to repeat it. Not very frequently, but 3-4 time a year seems good for me. At the moment I'm not planning to do any longer fasting. 3 days is an excellent period and I can manage it beside my everyday life. To fast for the longer time period, it would request full attention from me and that is not I want to or be ready for. 

I hope you now have better understanding about fasting and if you think you can do it, you are more certain and determined to execute it.