Several people asked me if it would not be better for them to eat very
lightly instead of fasting, or to content themselves with fasts of two
or three days at frequent intervals. My reply to that is that I find it
very much harder to do that, because all the trouble in the fast occurs
during the first two or three days. It is during those days that you
are hungry, and if you begin to eat just when your hunger is ceasing,
you have wasted all your efforts. In the same way, perhaps, it might
be a good thing to eat very lightly of fruit, instead of taking an
absolute fast--the only trouble is that I cannot do it. Again and again
I have tried, but always with the same result: the light meals are
just enough to keep me ravenously hungry, and inevitably I find myself
eating more and more. And it does me no good to call myself names about
this, I just do it, and keep on doing it; I have finally made up my
mind that it is a fact of my nature. I used to try these "fruit fasts"
under Dr. Kellogg's advice. I could live on nothing but fruit for
several days, but I would get so weak that I could not stand up--far
weaker than I have ever become on an out-and-out fast.
One should drink all the water he possibly can while fasting, only not
taking too much at a time. I take a glass full every hour, at least;
sometimes every half hour. It is a good plan to drink a great deal of
water at the outset, whenever meal time comes around, and one thinks of
the other folks beginning to eat. I drink the water cold, because it is
less trouble, but if there is any hot water about, I prefer that. Hot
water between meals is an immensely valuable suggestion which I owe to
Dr. Salisbury.
One should take a bath every day while fasting. I prefer a warm bath
followed by a cold shower. Also one should take a small enema. I find a
pint of cool water sufficient. I received several letters from people
who were greatly disturbed because of constipation during the fast.
People apparently do not realize that while fasting there is very
little to be eliminated from the body. (Of course, there are cases,
especially of people who have suffered from long continued intestinal
trouble, in which even after three or four weeks the enema continues to
bring away quantities of dried and impacted fæces.)
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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