BB2019 – Week 4 – Thursday – Breaking Extended Fast

thursday thursday thursday!

Happy Thursday Brain Boosters.

For those with weekday jobs, hey, homestretch. For those who own your own business, hahahahahahha. Get back to work slaves.

Tonight’s tremendous topic is breaking a fast.

Breaking your (extended) Fast

I have a handful of suggestions based on my limited experience. First, breaking a fast is really not a time to try something new. Second, when you break the fast, stick to a normal sized snack or meal. Avoid over-indulging. The longer you have been water fasting, the slower you should take the meal idea. If you’ve water fasted for more than 3 days, definitely ease in with some bone broth or other very light soup. See how well you tolerate that before you go for solid foods.

Remember, bile in the gallbladder becomes more acidic the longer a person goes without eating. So when you come off of an extended fast, you are likely to have a bile build up. That can lead to an expedited processing of any food you do eat just post fast, aka explosive excitement. Break your fast gently – with broth and maybe a touch of cream – and you will have a better post fast experience.

If you did a “quick” extended fast 24-72 hours, break the fast with bone broth, maybe a touch of cream or butter added to the bone broth (most folks seem to do best with 0-1.0 oz of cream). In most cases you can return to normal eating right away. Take the broth; give yourself an hour or two before eating more, but eat more if you are hungry at that point.

If you did a longer fast (which of course you engaged your favorite medical professional to supervise), a decent rule of thumb is 2-1. Consume only bone broth or other light soup with up to one ounce of cream when hungry for 2hr/day fasting x # of days fasting. So a 7 day fast would be 14 hours. 2hr/day x 7days = 14 hours. Base your choice of next meal on how normal you feel after a few hours with broth.

Looking for foods and drinks that break your fast? See yesterday’s post!