It's been a week and a day since I finished my 10 day water fasting and I am still feeling the benefits of such.
When I first looked up about it, literally the first day of the fast, the one thing that was made super clear was that, the end of the fasting is as important, if not more, than the fast itself. A few days before ending, I began to research about what to eat so I wouldn't mess up my body and have it go into a shock haha ... let's remember that is something I had done so much before my awakening.
The night before the fast ended, I was super excited because of eating ... if there is one thing about me that you can take from this, is that I truly enjoy food. A lot of people have told me they don't believe they can do a water fast for so many days because they "can't" live without food. Trust me, I TOTALLY understand. I am such a foodie... why do you think I spend so much time in the kitchen?! Hahaha although that has changed a bit.
Going back to the story... I couldn't sleep because I was truly excited that after 10 day, I could finally eat. I was a bit nervous given the fact that I hadn't missed the act of eating, yet I was anxious (in a good way) to reintroduce foods to my being.
"Start slow"
I read online. So slow I was starting. For breakfast we went to el Mercado de San Blas, here in Cusco, to get some juice from our caserita (the sweet lady we always get our juices from). We shared a cucumber mint ginger juice that I am not exaggerating when I say that it was the best tasting juice I've had! And yes of course my tastebuds have changed after not eating for 10 days. I remember the first sip... I got completely high on the freshness of this juice and the feeling of gratitude for my juice and how it came to arrive to me took over my being.
Truly, I never thought I was gonna get high with a juice. I guess that is a conformation that the simplicity of things can have a tremendous impact on ourselves. I also had some palta (avocado), which again...
BEST PALTA YET!!
And as we all know...
I LOOOVE palta!!
It was however, difficult to finish it and the juice. My belly got super small, and well of course.
I had read to start eating simple things and introduce yogurt and things with bacterias. I am plant based, so supposedly, plant based yogurts don't have as much bacteria as regular ones. Yet, I still got one; it was way too sweet for me. Another thing I read was to start eating berries... ya I couldn't... again... way too sweet for me. I went for bananas. My body craved them and they felt right being eaten.
My Guides had told me to eat a raw diet for the first days... which to be completely honest, I still am. On the second or third day, I decided to sauté some mushrooms, which I normally adore, but it was too much for my belly. That night, wasn't fun at all. I felt my insides hurting and there came in my Guides saying, again:
"Stay in a raw diet for now"
So I went back to listen to them hahaha
For a couple days, my food was palta, tomatoes, olives, mushrooms, sprinkled with olive oil, salt and pepper. I was completely fine with it and every bite was completely different and still mindblowing. I began to introduce homemade gluten free bread and put the above ingredients on it, as an open face sandwich...
WOW
I remember saying
"BEST SANDWICH EVER!'
And exaggeration?
Definitely not. It truly was.
What caught my attention more than anything, was my relationship with food. As I had said, I am such a foodie, yet at times I would just eat just to eat without tasting anything and truly not being grateful for it. Well... that has changed, not only I truly savor every bite meow, but I am no longer scared of eating or the effect food can have on me.
For more than 15 years, I struggled with anorexia and bulimia. It wasn't fun at all. There were moments that by just eating one cracker, I would freak out, go to the bathroom to throw up and take laxatives...
No, I am not joking.
The relationship I had with food, was horrible. At the same time, I know it was nothing about the food, but about the relationship with myself. I didn't approve of myself. I hated myself and everything about me, so I was destroying myself from the inside out. So, as I found myself eating the simplest meals, truly enjoying them, being grateful for having such ingredients at home, for the people that made it possible for me to have them at that specific moment, for the veggies themselves, I noticed something I hadn't noticed before:
I was completely free from that particular suffering.
Perhaps it was something I had already healed, but the fact that the awareness came through after the fast, I know for sure increased the magnitude of it and the gratitude.
I sat on the dining table with my mouth wide open, truly in Awe! If you have gone through something similar, you know how intense, difficult and extreme, the relationship with food can be, and to have the feeling passing through all my veins, knowing that I had truly made it, put me in tears.
I suffered
I had suffered SOO much due to my views of myself and food. When I say so much, it doesn't even cut it. So to be free, completely free from that suffering is such a miracle.
SUCH A MIRACLE
And I am way more than proud of myself.
As, I said, I am still having mostly a raw diet and eating the simplest foods and meals. I did have a bowl of rice and beans at the market a couple days ago and it was another explosion of deliciousness. I used to complicate my meals, thinking that the more complex, the better they were...
NAH!
The simplest things in life are also the most beautiful.
My Post Water Fasting Journey