Day 1 - Refeeding - What Is This?

 



As I leave the fasting behind I begin refeeding today. One of the most dangerous times with waterfasting is the refeeding period. There is documented evidence that some people have experienced complications with returning to their normal diet and have overwhelmed their digestive system. Here at TrueNorth, they have over 30 years experience treating 20,000 patients and have developed a gradual and effective reintroduction to food after a fast. The refeeding is long, about half of the time spent fasting, so for me it will be 9 days. I will start out with blended soups of sweet potato and zucchini for two days. I will progress from there to steamed veggies for a couple of days, then on to raw veggies and then add legumes and starches such as rice and white potatoes. This will build up my glycogen stores in my liver and muscles and is the main storage of energy in the body. 

This is also  geared towards getting my digestive system fully functioning before I leave and to build the micobiome with healthy bacteria as it had been depleted during the fast. I am hoping that any microbiome imbalance (overgrowth of unhealthy bacteria) will be corrected with this reset.  It will be essential that I eat a wide variety of plants and fruit to support a healthy gut and in turn keep me healthy. 

The transition from burning keytones to making and burning glucose is smooth, unlike the transition I made earlier in the fast from burning glucose to making keytones which pleases me. I start the “blend” today of sweet potato and zucchini which is green and bland and unsatisfying for my first meal. It is necessary and I endure. There will be 3 more “servings” today and 4 more tomorrow. I will need to “embrace the blend” so to speak. 

I have reached my lowest weight on this fast of 166.7 roughly a 25 lb drop from my starting weight of 191 and a total drop of 35 lbs from my doctor’s visit in April prior to coming to TrueNorth. I am told that during the refeeding I will gain several lbs and then stabilize so I am expecting to come home at roughly 170. This actually places me outside of the healthy range of weight that I have been striving for. More work to do. 



Comments

Josette Cochrane-Lusk said…
Good job and you now have the building blocks for a healthier life.
3:03 PM
Unknown said…
💕
3:58 PM
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