MY 4 DAY FAST GUT RESET REFLECTION

11 / NOVEMBER / 2020
Sheree's Health Diaries

As many of you may have seen on my instagram, a couple of weeks ago, I completed a 4 day fast as both an experiment and a RESET!! It was quite the journey and I learnt a lot about myself and my body! It was a concept I first discovered reading Dr Michael Ruscio’s book – Healthy Gut, Healthy You 

To give you a bit of context, I have never been a big fan of fasting, in regards to intermittent fasting like the 16:8 diet, because a lot of the research and benefits have only been done on males, and the side effects for females often aren’t worth doing this kind of fast. 

However, I have done a 2-day fast in the past from Dr. Axe in the aim to help heal my candida and I couldn’t believe how good I felt, and that I managed not to eat for 2 days. So I decided that I wanted to apply the same concepts from both fasts, but with my own spin, and so created my own 4-day reset. 

The idea around the reset or as Dr. Ruscio calls a modified fast, is that it allows your gut a chance to repair and restore, it gives the gut a break and allows a chance for healing. Using the analogy of giving the body a rest if you’ve sprained an ankle. If you are constantly overloading the digestive system with foods, it often is focusing on processing that and cannot truly do the repair work it needs on itself.

So, being aware that this year has caused me a fair amount of stress, that my candida was having a flare up, and I needed an energy boost/reset I decided to embark on a little trial run! You can see my live 4-day commentary on my experience over on my instagram @strengthen.heal.nourish under my highlights section too. 

For someone who LOVES food, I wasn’t sure I’d be able to get through a full 4 days, but I was determined to try! And I DID! It’s not to say I wasn’t hungry from time to time, but I managed to combat this by adding in a little lemon, honey, ginger hot drink to tide me over (only 1 tsp. of honey – not to worry).

HERE'S WHAT I NOTICED

DAY ONE: I felt GREAT! I couldn’t believe how much energy I had, how the brain fog instantly cleared and I wasn’t even hungry until around 3.30/4pm. I did some light yoga in an attempt to tone down my physical output, and then had a super clear mind. Had a little trouble falling asleep however, and learnt that I cannot take my supplements on an empty stomach or I will feel nauseous. 

DAY TWO: I woke up feeling like DEATH, I had the most terrible nights sleep, tossing and turning, getting up to pee, and just really didn’t feel like I had gotten any rest at all. My apple watch which I use to track my sleep on Autosleep app, showed I hadn’t got anymore than 15 minutes of deep sleep (and I normally average 2 hours). So, I wasn’t too happy with this, but nevertheless, I had to continue on my day. 

Day two was the most tiring, I was exhausted from the lack of sleep, and despite the fact I wasn’t that hungry, I was definitely not 100% focused or energised like the day before. I even had to have a power nap during the day. I had 2 x lemon, honey, gingers alongside my bone broths to get me through, as I was teaching a HIIT class that evening… great idea right! 

To my surprise, it was quite possibly one of the best classes I have ever taught! I was so stoked! My mental clarity and energy really picked up after around 3pm and I was on fire!! The class was damn hard, and every muscle ached (in a good way), but I think that’s what made it even better!

DAY THREE: Again, the sleep was terrible, by this stage too, bowel movements had become pretty much non-existent which was such a strange feeling, and it was like I had a bunch of toxins that were ready to be released, but the only way out was through urination and sweat. 

Day three was probably the day I felt my best, despite the lack of sleep, my energy and mental clarity was fantastic, I had the energy of a 5 year old on sugar! I was bouncing around the room, spot on with my clients, did a dance/yoga session outdoors in the sunshine, and felt like I was truly healing, mentally, emotionally and physically. 

Remember the gut plays a role in all areas of our life, influencing our mental and emotional state too! Not just our physical. So I was wrapped with how I was progressing. There was a slight bit of tiredness seeping into my evening clients, but I pushed through nonetheless. 

DAY FOUR: The final day! I woke up feeling like I had been hit by a bus, literally no energy to even move out of bed, I was exhausted, couldn’t even keep myself from nodding off during my morning meditation and reading. Everything ached, the lack of sleep was really wreaking havoc on my body. 

I actually was fortunate enough to be able to have another little sleep for 30 minutes an hour after waking, and I was extremely mindful that ‘that time of the month’ was due the next day and is often when we get the most tired. However, after my nap, I woke up feeling a million times better, and energised and continued to feel this way for the rest of the day.

I had intentions of doing some strength training this day, but I listened to my body instead and just did some light yoga flow again as I didn’t want to wind up exhausted. I knew my sleep wasn’t going to be the best again either, the hunger was pretty much non-existent by this point and I felt like I could just keep going. However I was excited to eat something and get the bowels moving again. 

DAY FIVE: As predicted, my sleep wasn’t the best, but I was thankful to have completed my 4 days and the reset I felt was well worth it!! I was never doing this to lose weight, but was really curious what would’ve happened and I had dropped 3kgs in the 4 days. So, there was obviously a massive calorie deficit, but my body had let go of a lot of toxins too! 

The first meal I had I noticed instant brain fog, but that left after an hour. Energy levels stayed constant, but my appetite had really shrunk. I struggled to finish even my breakfast. It has been very much the same for the past two weeks which I have found super interesting. 

All in all, it was a great experience and experiment, and something I would highly recommend to my clients, in fact I am designing a comprehensive guide to walk you through a 4-day gut reset (so watch this space)!

OVERALL HERE'S WHAT I EXPERIENCED

→ Increased + sustainable energy 

→ Improved mental clarity

→ Increased focus + productivity 

→ Increased mobility

→ Decreased stress

→ Decreased inflammation

→ Decreased appetite 

→ Decreased deep sleep 

It was super interesting about the sleep, and something I am doing more research in, but I am still noticing the benefits of the fast now. The most amazing part was that I truly felt ALIVE within my body! 

If you have any questions about this, or are interested in doing the 4-day gut reset fast DM me on Instagram or comment below your thoughts or questions!! 

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