First day of breaking the fast.

"Every fool can fast, but only the wise man knows how to break a fast"

George Bernard  Shaw, writer

A few words on fasting first. Please be aware that I didn't just decide to do a forty day fast over night. This was my thirteenth fast and I have learned about fasting slowly over twenty years. I was originally taught by a yogi and I have read many books on the subject. I started with short fasts of a few days. During the first eight fasts I made mistakes every time. The last few fasts have been fine however and I now consider myself a 'master faster'. I have learned enough on the subject to do it my way now but if you are reading this and you are interested in fasting for goodness sake get some education and experience on the subject before attempting a long fast.

Journal.
I did my exercise at 8 and broke my fast at 9 with yoghurt and linseed. Eating today has been amazing.  I was teaching guitar at lunch time and I felt really hungry afterwards. I was really excited about my tomato soup, which was orgasmic (not organic). I managed to not have a second bowl and I didn't go mad on the dates afterwards. Todays foods which are all good fast breakers are listed below. I'm so into food right now I have my next four meals already planned out, maybe I should calm down a bit. 


How to break a fast properly. Breaking a fast should take a third the amount of time of the fast, so I will be eating carefully and healthily for the next two weeks. The trick is small amounts of easy to digest foods that promote saliva and reactivate the digestive system gently. My fast-breaking foods today are as follows.

Breakfast = yoghurt linseed and honey (small bowl with a table spoon of linseed, teaspoon of honey)

Lunch = tomato soup and a few Finn Crisp rye crispbread pieces* (4 medium tomatoes with stock garlic, herbs and a desert spoon of olive oil added just before eating)
Pudding = 8 dates
Glass of fruit juice
Afternoon snack = Stewed apple puree with cinnamon and honey and a splodge of natural yoghurt(4 small apples, teaspoon of honey)
Dinner = a small salad of green leaves with French dressing then same as lunch with same pudding.
Supper = cottage cheese with cucumber and Finn Crisp rye crispbread (three table spoons of cottage cheese, 4 or 5 crispbreads) with white pepper.
 Yummmmmmmmm
Water should also be taken in between meals.


* I have about  4  Finn Crisp crispbreads (they are small) , but if you have Ryvita two will do.

Recently I had to explain (yet again) the difference between fasting and starving I answered with the following :-

Fasting is a yogic practice done for health. Starving is being deprived of enough nutrients to live. In an overweight person this can take many weeks or months.  People who have less than 5% body fat should not  fast for more than a couple of days as they wouldn't live off their fat but their muscle and eventually thier bone marrow and organs. Fasting causes homeostasis to occur, the body's own self righting healing mechanism, which is good. Starving causes death to occur, which is bad.