Your FIrst Fast - Fasting Phases

At this point you should now have your fasting goals identified, know what you are doing, when you are doing it and for how long etc. Just having all these variables defined and understood will make the process easier and more enjoyable.

Before you go ahead and get started there are a couple of things left to consider, these are the preparatory and recovery phases. A fast in total looks like this:

<preparatory adjustments><fasting><recovery phase>

If you've decided to fast for 24 hours then that is the time you will spend in <fasting>, the time spent in <preparatory adjustments> and <recovery phase> is not counted as part of the total (at least not by me but as always do your own thing).

Preparatory adjustments phase
How long and what you do in this phase will depend on how long the fasting segment will be. If you are going to be skipping a single meal or two, you may not want or need this phase. If you are going longer and/or have trouble delaying or skipping your meals then it may be advantageous to have a period of under eating your normal intake to help your stomach to adjust. How long you take in this phase, and how much you reduce by is something that you will need to discover for yourself.

Fasting Phase
I start the timing of this phase when I last consume food. For my weekly fasts they start no later than 10pm on a Sunday evening, and then continue till at least 10 am on the following Tuesday. Often I start again at 2pm which makes for a 40 hour fast. Again, find what works for you and for the goals you are setting yourself.

Recovery phase
This phase is all about how we transition from not eating back to eating again in a healthy manner. There is little point in gorging once you have performed the fast because you are not really fasting then but delaying your calorie intake. Although to be fair, its quite hard to make up a days worth of calories the next day, so there are always benefits :)

My usual recovery meal is a raw soup (avocado, cucumber, mint or coriander, sometimes garlic and / or ginger, and enough water to get the consistency I like). Sometimes I will have a light salad - the longer you have fasted the lighter and more gradual your return to 'normal' eating should be.

In the next few posts we will look at each of these phases in detail, as well as some of the things you may encounter during the fasting phase. There may also be a report from a first time faster on their experiences!