My 72-Hour Water Fast and Experience

In this episode, Lunden talks about her experience and reflections after doing a 72-hour water fast. This was inspired by the book "Fast Like A Girl" by Dr. Mindy Pelz. Lunden covers what to expect during a 72 hour water fast and how she felt after breaking a 72-hour water fast. This is not a "how to" episode, it's Lunden sharing her experience and what she learned.

Timestamps to help you navigate this episode:
0:00 Intro
2:46 FREE Self Love & Sweat MONTHLY Calendar
8:15 What To Expect During a 72-hour water fast
13:22 Overcoming Challenges From the Fast
17:30 Reflections Made After 72 Hours

Mentioned in this episode:
EP 148: MY 24-HOUR WATER FAST EXPERIENCE

Book: Fast Like A Girl by Dr. Mindy Pelz

Transcript

Intro

Lunden Souza 0:01

Welcome to Self Love and Sweat The Podcast , the place where you'll get inspired to live your life unapologetically , embrace your perfect imperfections , break down barriers and do what sets your soul on fire . I'm your host Lunden Souza .

FREE Self Love & Sweat MONTHLY Calendar

Lunden Souza 0:21

Hey , have you grabbed your free Self Love and Sweat monthly calendar yet ? This calendar is so amazing . It comes right in your inbox every single month to help you have a little nugget of wisdom , a sweaty workout , a mindset activity , just a little something , something to help keep you focused and motivated and keep that momentum towards your goals . So every day , when you get this calendar , you'll see a link that you can click that will lead to a podcast episode or a workout or something that will be very powerful and quick to read . And then you'll also see , on the top left corner of every single day , there's a little check box in the calendar and what that is is that's for your one thing . You can choose one thing every month , or it can be the same , something that you want to implement and make this something that you can easily implement , like daily meditation or getting a certain amount of steps or water , for example , and staying hydrated and even taking your supplements . This can be something if you want to get more regular doing a particular habit and routine , you can choose what that check box means . So if you want your Self Love and Sweat free monthly calendar delivered right to your inbox every month on the first of the month , go to lifelikelunden . com/ calendar . Fill out the form really quickly and you will have your calendar in your inbox within a few short minutes . That's lifelikelunden L , I , F , E , L , I , K , E , L , U, N, D, E, N dot com forward slash calendar . Go get yours for free and enjoy this episode .

Lunden Souza 2:08

Welcome back to the podcast . Today I'm going to talk about my semi- recent I did it about a month and a half ago a 72 hour water fast . Now maybe you listened to the podcast I did about my 48 hour water fast , which is where I started initially and I talked a lot about yeah , my reasoning behind it , why I got interested in fasting . And at the time of recording the 48 hour water fast podcast and also at the time of doing the 48 hour water fast , I had heard of , but not yet read , the book "fast like a girl by Dr Mindy Pelz . I had watched a bunch of episodes on YouTube with her about her work in fasting , especially for women , because in scientific research in general , women are very underrepresented . In fact , a lot of the data when it comes to health and wellbeing has been done or has been the result of research that's been done on men , and so , particularly with fasting , this was super interesting for me because I was like , okay , I've had , and I think I can speak for most women , I've had hormonal issues in the past and I really wanted to make sure that , while implementing a new protocol , I was doing it in a way that was focused on me being female and my female hormones , and not thinking that just because fasting looks a certain type of way for men doesn't mean it's copy paste for women . And so , yeah , initially I just kind of stumbled upon these podcast episodes with Dr . Mindy Pelts because I mentioned this in the last episode , but I'll just quickly cover it here .

Lunden Souza 4:07

I get a lot of referrals from naturopathic doctors to work with me as a life coach NLP practitioner , and one of the naturopathic doctors in particular was prescribing her patients and the clients we were working with together fasts , and I was really interested in it . Had experimented with intermittent fasting before , but never had done a 24-hour or longer fast , and I was just kind of like I want to do it too , I want to learn more about it , I want to experience it . I want to have first hand , first hand experience with it , because I think that's important for me as a coach to when I can lean into some of the experiences and protocols that my clients are experiencing as well . I feel like being in the trenches in that sense is powerful for the coaching that I do . So after I did the 48 hour fast , after watching a lot of episodes with Dr . Mindy Pelz on YouTube and other podcasts and just kind of diving into her YouTube channel , I got her book fast like a girl . I got the audiobook . Actually it's phenomenal . I listened to it twice so good , and because of reading it I was like , okay , I want to push my limits and go into 72 hours and do a 72 hour water fast . I made a lot of mistakes when I was doing 48 hours . I wasn't taking hydration salts and there were just like different things that I was like , okay , I learned a lot during the 48 hours . I would love to experiment with 72 hours and so , just really quickly , I read this on the last episode , but I think it's really powerful between 16 to 24 hours when we're fasting

What To Expect During a 72 hour water fast

Lunden Souza 5:50

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Lunden Souza 5:50

That's when our growth hormone starts to elevate and we start to go into a phase of autophagy , which just basically means your body is cleaning itself . After 36 hours we go into belly fat burning . After 48 hours we get a dopamine system reboot and after 72 hours there is an immune system reboot . And so , after reading the book and learning a lot about fasting and also , I'll put , I'll say , as kind of an aside for women , you know , intermittent fasting , any style of fasting , is not always ideal throughout all phases of our cycle , throughout all times of the month , and so it was really cool for me because I was able to learn that even more dive into what Dr . Mindy calls the power phase that's ideal for women and fasting . So I planned it ahead of time . I track my cycle using the flow app and I was like , okay , when I look at the flow app In comparison to the fat , the power phase of which would be ideal for me to fast , I chose some particular days that I was gonna do it and I marked it on my calendar and I dove in .

Lunden Souza 7:06

Now the part that I'm really excited about , because in this episode I don't really have anything to share outside of my experience and what I learned . But what I'm really excited about is I got in contact with Dr . Mindy Pelts and she gave me the email address of her assistant , who's in charge of all the podcast bookings , and she's agreed to be a guest on the podcast this summer , which I'm so excited about . So right now she's not doing any podcasts at the moment . She's writing another book which I'm so excited about . So I am kind of creating this episode as a kind of a precursor to when I get a chance to talk to her , because there were some things and some questions that I have that I think I'll reflect on today and then be able to get answered when I get a chance to interview her for the podcast .

Lunden Souza 8:01

So this was a 72 hour water fast , or let's say , when I did the 48 hour water fast , that was completely water . Now , what I learned in reading fast like a girl is that there are some foods like MCT oil and bone broth that we can sometimes have when we are doing a water fast that actually won't break our fast . Now , the best way to track this which I didn't do this time around but I plan on doing the next time I fast is you can wear a continuous glucose monitor , so then you can see what foods actually break your fast and which ones can still provide nutrients and nourishment but won't break the fasted state . So I was not wearing a continuous glucose monitor during the 72 hour water fast . However , I did include after 48 hours . I did include MCT oil in my black coffee and I did have a bone broth . So I made kind of . I just bought some organic bone broth at the store , I sipped on it , I put some salt and pepper in it as well and I guess I can't be certain that it did not break my fast . But I decided that I wasn't going to dissect it and pick it apart and consider it a failure just because I didn't know . I was like okay , during these 72 hours I'm going to keep working , I'm going to be podcasting , I'm going to still be working with my clients , I'm still going to be doing some yoga and pilates and some exercise , I'm still going to be doing sauna and cold plunge , and so I wanted to have a little bit of something in my system in order to support me .

Lunden Souza 10:04

So this time around in the 48 hour fast , if you listen to that episode . Maybe you remember I talked about how I only had water . I didn't have any hydration salts . I didn't . Yeah , she also Dr . Mindy talks about on her YouTube channel how sometimes ginger juice , pure , like with no added sugar , just juice ginger can oftentimes be cool and not break your fasted state . So the first time around I just did completely water and this time I , like I said , had LMNT hydration salts , and then after 48 hours I had MCT oil in my coffee and tea and then I also had some bone broth . Yeah , my experience 24 hours is cool . 24 hours I got that in the bag .

Overcoming Challenges From the Fast

Lunden Souza 10:57

48 hours I start to get tired and I start to really feel cognitively slow . Between 48 hours and 72 , not going to lie that shit was hard . It was really hard for me to think , to move . I just noticed everything was moving slower , even my hand gestures , and my ability to sit up straight was different . It was really challenging for me . I also noticed after the fast , after I broke my fast , that my metabolism I don't know if these are the right words , but it felt a little sluggish , a little slow . I felt like the foods that I was eating just took a little while to digest after I had , I broke my fast , the 72 hour fast .

Lunden Souza 11:55

I broke with avocado , sauerkraut and scrambled eggs and that felt great . And then I actually met a friend for lunch that day and we had Asian food . I had like this noodle stir fry and that made me feel a little bit sluggish . I think I probably could have chosen not to have maybe something as heavy , whatever right . But I'm human and I wanted to go have lunch with my friend and I just decided , okay , I'm not going to . I could have said , hey , I'm just breaking a fast , can we choose to eat here ? But I was kind of like we already decided on Asian food . I really love Asian food . I'm going to have some . It was a little bit spicy and I just noticed that I was kind of tired and my stomach was a little flustered afterwards , not in a bad , uncomfortable way , but I think that was just an indication to myself that I probably could have made a better choice in terms of what I chose to break my fast , like that second meal . I probably could have been a little easier on my tummy for that . And also , 48 to 72 hours was like , yeah , challenging emotionally , challenging physically , immediately after the fast .

Lunden Souza 13:14

The conclusion I kind of came to was I think that 24 to 48 hours is my sweet spot . I don't know if it's wise to push myself to 72 hours . I don't know if and I'm just speaking for myself , you know naturally I run pretty low body fat . I've been exercising and strength training for a while . I don't know if I have enough reserves on my body to activate some of that potent and powerful energy that sometimes people talk about after 48 hours , and so these are open questions that I want to ask Dr . Mindy about when I have her on the podcast .

Lunden Souza 13:53

I'm like I wonder if , leading up to the fast , should I have eaten a little bit more ? Should I have increased my calorie intake , you know , in a clean way , just a little bit , in order to have more reserve for the fast ? I'm not necessarily sure . I don't specifically know my body fat at the moment . It's been a while since I've had it tested and if I was going to guess , I would say I'm around maybe 20 or a little bit less in terms of percentage of body fat , and so I , just in my mind , was kind of thinking , and I was actually talking with my coach about it . He's more of my mindset coach and life coach . But he was like , you know , Lunden , you're pretty small , like maybe , once you got past that 48 hour point , it wasn't ideal for you , right , but maybe that's how I should feel , right , like I don't throw my shoulds and my supposed tos around lightly , but I'm open to the fact that I could be talking with Dr . Mindy and she might be like oh , actually , Lunden , that's the good stuff . When you start to feel kind of funky , you know , that's good .

Reflections Made After 72 Hours

Lunden Souza 15:05

And maybe when I do a 72 hour fast again , maybe I need to do less , right , maybe I need to take a few days off and not be working and not , you know , be doing as much , to maybe let myself just be on the couch for a day to not do much of anything . Now , I wasn't , you know , doing the most , but I was still seeing clients , I was still going for walks , I was still stretching and doing some yoga and sauna , but maybe it would have been ideal to have some time just to do nothing and just to relax . I was meditating I still I meditate regularly but I was meditating more , praying more , journaling more , definitely creating more time for introspection , but maybe it could have been ideal for me to take , you know , 24 to 48 hours of not doing as much cognitively , because I just felt a little bit kind of slow , but a similar experience that I had when I was fasting for 48 hours . I had a similar experience this time with the 72 hours and I talked about in the last podcast . It was like when you start eating and you come out of your fast . It's such a cool experience at least in my opinion because it was almost as if I was getting downloads and information and insights and clarity . It was like as my body was taking in those nutrients and just like Loving the food and absorbing it all . I started to feel like these cognitive click , click , clicks , like little Lego pieces coming together of like , oh , this makes sense , and here's some information about this that I've been thinking and praying about and here's some new creative ideas .

Lunden Souza 17:01

So I really enjoy the process of being in the fasted state , finding ways to look inward right , because when we're not eating , we realize , oh , I spend a lot of time cooking meals or thinking about food or just the time spent sitting down and eating right . So I really enjoy the process of figuring out what to fill in my time with , which is more meditation , prayer , journaling , sauna baths , stretching , even just massaging my neck and feet with essential oils . I really enjoy that process now of being in the fasted state . You're good , Lunden , don't worry , you're not going to die because you're not eating . It's okay that you have a few more hours of free time each day to incorporate more self love , more work in . So I really love that part .

Lunden Souza 17:55

And I love the part of breaking the fast , of going from the fasted state to eating something and being really present with it , being really present with my senses , chewing the food , allowing the flavors to fill my mouth , noticing the nourishment , kind of waking up my brain and helping my brain make those new connections . Sometimes I noticed in the 72 hour fast I leaned a little bit more cold in terms of my temperature , which I totally think makes sense , especially if our blood sugar Starts to drop . But it was a nice feeling to eat and just notice my body temperature increase a little bit and , yeah , just the nourishing feeling of nourishing my body . And one of the things that came to me when I was breaking my fast , as I was having some of this , just yeah , these cognitive clicks . Let's call them .

Lunden Souza 18:54

Clarity and simplicity are two words that came to me . Now my words of the year are integrity and endurance , and those are still very powerful and potent to me . But clarity and simplicity was something that came to me . And then , when I recently did my Voice of Impact seminar in Colorado , as I was driving back from Colorado to Utah because I drove out there it was a four hour drive those words came back to me again Clarity and simplicity . How can I get even more clear in my approach to my purpose and how can I make it even more simple in terms of the way that I think about it and communicate about it ? Right , maybe you're an entrepreneur or this resonates with you where , when people ask you like , what do you do and who do you help and what's your mission in the world , sometimes we can talk about all the things all the time , all over the place , right ? And so I just thought it was really beautiful to get that message again . That was like make it simple . Make it simple for you to digest Lunden and make it simple for other people to understand . So that was kind of my learning from the 72 hour Water Fast .

Lunden Souza 20:08

I highly recommend the book "Fast Like a Girl by Dr Mindy Pelz . It's a wonderful read , super informative , and maybe you'll be inspired to experiment with fasting as well . If you haven't already go back and listen to the 48 hour Waterfast episode that I did , I'll link it in the show notes . Thank you so much for listening to this episode of self love and sweat the podcast . Hey , do me a favor Wherever you're listening to this podcast , give us a review . This really helps a lot and share this with a friend . I'm only one person and with your help , we can really spread the message of self love and sweat and change more lives all around the world . I'm Lunden Souza , reminding you that you deserve a life full of passion , presence and purpose , fueled by Self Love and Sweat . This podcast is a hit spot . Austria production .