Staci Barkkari shares her 4 day fast highlights:
My first challenge of 2023 was more mental than physical. I decided to do a 4 day fast. Hit a hard reset on the body. This is a long post, so you can bail if you want to, but if you read the whole thing - thank you!
Sunday, January 15th. Clock started 7 pm
Last meal - We went out for dinner. I had a buffalo chicken wrap, sweet potato fries, and a beer. Screw it! LOL
Fast rules: 0 calories, nothing but water, green tea, lemons are allowed, and necessary.
Lemons have 0 calories and are a good source of potassium, calcium, and magnesium. Add in a little sodium and you’ve got your own electrolyte water.
8 oz of water, 2 tbsp of lemon juice, and a small pinch of pink Himalayan salt.
Day 1. Monday, January 16th. 126 lbs.
The day went pretty well. Hunger cravings weren’t bad and energy was pretty good. As long as I stayed busy doing stuff, I was fine. Sitting down to relax really made me want to go to the kitchen.
Water total: 6 glasses (not enough, this was dumb)
Day 2. Tuesday, January 17th. 124 lbs.
AM entry - Had to be up early for work today. I didn’t sleep that well, but that was mostly because of my dumb dog. LOL.
I did have a slight headache when I got up at 4 am.
I am hungry for sure.
PM entry - What I found throughout the day is that I’m not as hungry as I thought I’d be. I am hungry, but not starving. If I keep busy, I don’t really think about it. It’s more of a boredom thing. I think it’s not necessarily the food, but the ritual of food.
I had way more energy than I thought I would. I actually made it through my evening gym routine just fine.
Water total: 8 glasses
Day 3. Wednesday, January 18th. 122 lbs.
AM entry - Definitely seeing the difference here. I’m down 4 pounds total.
I slept ok last night, not any worse or better than usual. A lot of weird dreams that would wake me up, but I’d go right back to sleep. No headache this morning.
At the beginning of this I pegged day 3 to be the most difficult. I guess we’ll see.
PM entry - It was definitely a game of willpower today. Energy levels were good, all in all I’m doing just fine.
Water total: 9 glasses
Day 4. Thursday, January 19. 120 lbs.
AM entry - Wow. I felt like crap this morning. Weak and shaky. I did not want to get out of bed and go to work. But, now that I’ve been up for about 4 hours I am feeling a little better. Pretty tired. I’m almost there!! Right now it’s 8:30 am and I have 11 hours to go!!! I’m pretty sure I will never do this again. LOL
Afternoon entry - I started feeling a lot better by around 10 am. It’s 2:30 right now, I have about 5 hours left. I’m hungry and a little tired, but feeling good. I’ve had a lot of water today, I’ve felt more thirsty than usual
PM entry - I felt great, but I think it may be because I was so excited that it was getting close to dinner time. After that 4 hour rough patch this morning I thought today was going to be awful, but it wasn’t. I spent the last hour of my fast at the gym. It was a good workout, not sloppy or clumsy. My weights were a little lighter than normal, but it was a good workout. I got home and had a fantastic dinner, trying not to eat too fast.
I made ground turkey, red peppers, green peppers, onions, garlic, brown rice bowls and had a spinach salad.
Water total: 12 glasses
The Morning After. Weight 119 lbs. 7 total pounds lost.
I slept pretty good last night and I feel great this morning. I was so happy to eat dinner last night. That was a really tough challenge, more mental than physical. I’d have to say strongly that I’ll never do a 4 day fast again. I think I could do periodic 36 hour fasts. All in all I’m glad that I did it. I really didn’t know if I could, so it was great to push myself like that.