I had been feeling a little run down. I didn’t feel terrible, just not at my best. Especially after going out for Mexican food with my son and soon to be daughter-in-law and partaking of the tortilla chips (I’m not sure why I do this to myself). Then I developed what seemed to be a head cold, the kind where the main symptom is massive nasal congestion. The poet Shel Silverstien has a poem about this where at the end he is calling for a circus tent to sop up the terrible cold… that was me!
I had been reading and thinking of doing a water fast but felt uncomfortable trying it while not feeling well. I remembered that Dr. Natasha Campbell McBride had a version of fasting in her Gaps blue book. Page 202 -Gaps liquid fast. I read the first 3 lines: Do you feel your digestive system is tired and could do with a rest? Yes. Do you feel your body has accumulated too many toxins? YES. Is your appetite low and you don’t feel like eating? YES!
Time for a liquid fast it was.
Things to consume on a liquid fast:
- Meat Stock – different from bone broth with a shorter cook time.
- Vegetable medley – Recipe pg.235 blue book
- Brine from home fermented vegetables
- Vegetable broth
- Herbal tea
- Fresh whey from homemade kefir or yogurt
- Green juices -not made from fruit
- Natural mineral or spring water
I followed this for about 2 ½ days. I didn’t consume everything from the list because I didn’t have some things. Such as the vegetable medley and juicing vegetables didn’t sound appealing. What I did have was a lot of warm water, tea, broth, vegetable broth, and brine from ferments. My ferments were sauerkraut, garlic, and beet kvass. The above picture is vegetable broth, 2 egg yolks, and beet kvass. I thought it made a lovely, rosy color of broth in my mug!
I found this fairly easy to follow, being so congested food wasn’t appealing and not preparing food gave me extra time to rest. I also appreciated being able to consume nutrition without having to chew food, which is difficult with a stuffy nose. To come off the fast I did foods from stage 1 & 2 of the Gaps Intro diet which is mainly soups, ferments, poached egg, and baked casserole dishes. Overall it was a nice reset and my body felt refreshed despite being congested. I hope to do a water fast in the near future and I think using the gaps liquid fast would be a good way to bookend it.