Fasting Frequency

Once we get into the flow with fasting, it's something that we can incorporate regularly into our busy lives. It's even something that you can start to look forward to (or maybe that's just me :) )

As I've mentioned before I think its very important to establish a solid base, and always end a fast feeling strong and knowing you could go longer. Not only does this apply to the duration of a single fast, but also to the frequency of fasts.

Let's say that you complete a 24 hour fast and feel great, so great in fact that you do another a couple of days later, or a week later, and that goes well too, so you decide to pursue a weekly schedule, and before you know it a month or two has passed.

This is really good and something that you should feel proud of, but you also need to be monitoring the fasts to ensure that you have the frequency set just right for you.

As an example, lets say you've been fasting daily (24 hours) for 3 months, and you are starting to notice that the fasts are becoming more problematic. As you've already 'proven' you can handle a daily fast you may be confused by what is going on - you may also be tempted just to force through (and thereby violate the finishing strong maxim).

What I believe is going on here, is that your body is experiencing some difficulties that need to be addressed prior to continuing on your fasting regime. Things to consider are:

• Has your diet changed recently? (ie is it not as clean as it it was? are you using your fasting regime to justify bad choices?)
• Are there any new stresses in your life? (changing jobs, new relationships, bills, etc)
• Your willpower may be running low, I think that it is possible to consume willpower but also to regenerate it. There was an interesting article floating around on facebook a few weeks ago about how people who restrict things in their lives (ie in our case fasters) can suffer from a reduced ego which can lead to reduced will power.
• Are your motivations for fasting now, the same as they were when you started? Are you still fasting because you want to, or because you are the skinny guy/girl at work who doesn't eat once a week? As pragmatic fasters we strive for self knowledge - be brutally honest with your self and use that to drive forward momentum.

So what's to be done?

Perhaps nothing, you may want to continue and see if this is just a blip

You may be 'done' if you had a certain goal that you've now met, or have got this weird fasting thing out of your system :)

You might consider taking a break for a while. Settle back into a 'normal' dietary routine for a while and see how you feel. If you find that you are really missing fasting, that's likely a good signal to start again (assuming you want to). If you find you are eager to start again to meet a goal, but are not looking forward to it - this may be a sign that you should leave it a while longer.

Ultimately, you have to be the one that takes responsibility for your fasting and for your health. If fasting is bringing you health and pleasure then why not continue it, if fasting is making you cranky, unhappy and hard to live with perhaps you need to relax your duration or frequency or perhaps stop for a while.

I've been fasting (on this particular cycle) since Feb 20th 2012 so about the 6 month mark, this is where I normally begin my introspective process, and start planning my goals for the next 6 months.
I have no idea (at this point) how long my fasts will tend to be, if I'll be doing any long (or longer fasts) or whether the experiences will change at all.

I will be paying attention to my body and looking for the signals that will help me fine tune as I move forwards.