I finished my fast over the weekend. I went a total of eight days without solid food. Stanley Burroughs suggests a slow transition back to solid foods, so on the first day I drank only high-pulp orange juice and had a vegetable soup for dinner. I was supposed to do the same for a second day, but once I had felt solid food in my mouth I lost my willpower. I ate half a loaf of bread with my soup that first evening, and for lunch the next day I had two big, fatty, veggie burritos with lots of spicy salsa from my favorite taco shop. Everything was back to normal.
Well, almost everything. After breakfasting on hot multi-grain cereal, I went skate skiing on the morning of the second day. This was before going to my favorite taco shop. I wasn’t weak, but my stomach churned like a paint mixer. Stanley Burroughs was right about what would happen if you took solid foods too soon—Kaboom!
But things have settled down now. I lost seven pounds over the whole period. I’m surprised that I had that much to lose. I didn’t go on the fast to lose weight; I did it to detoxify my body. Unfortunately, I don’t have any baseline values of toxins to compare to, and I won’t be getting any measurements taken, so I don’t really know how effective it was. But I can say that it felt good to go without certain foods.
For example, we celebrated a co-worker’s birthday last week with a tasty cheesecake. I wasn't even tempted because it was loaded with preservatives, artificial flavors and high fructose corn syrup, and had artificial colors in the [alleged] fruit topping. I love cheesecake, but wanted my first real food after my fast to be just that, real food, with nothing artificial.
I have greater awareness of the quality of ingredients in my food. I’m not sure that needed to starve myself for over a week to realize that, but then again, that just may be the mental clarity and spiritual insight I was fasting for.
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