Long-term fasting was the only thing that I found that had a significant effect on my weight loss, cellulite reduction, clearing my skin, and helping with my sugar cravings. The first attempt at fasting was a little more than two decades ago. You can read about the benefits of a 21-day long-term fast in my latest article. Today I’d like to tell you a little bit about my health problems since then.
I’ve never been too keen on healthy eating. I’d try everything to lose weight but to get my nutrition in order. Even after I started my long-term fasts it was just another way to quickly lose weight that I gained during the year. Sweets were my obsession.
I met my now husband when I was 27. We clicked immediately and none of us ever looked back since. Pretty soon into our engagement, about two years in we decided that maybe it would be time to start thinking about children.
This is when my health journey began.
The painful process of infertility
After trying for six months without any success I decided to see a doctor and check if everything was as it should be.
It wasn’t.
The doctor diagnosed me with endometriosis. I’ve always had a painful menstrual cycle but I never realized that this was a sign of this illness.
To give you an idea here is an explanation of the illness:
I did everything by the book and did all the tests. Took all the pills and injections, but nothing helped. My fallopian tubes were blocked. I needed to have an operation.
I never even thought about not going. I was thirty and we wanted to have a child.
The operation was successful and my IVF treatments began.
They would fill me up with pills for two months, then there were injections into my lower abdomen twice a day. When my eggs were ripe I was back on the operation table where they extracted them. They would fertilize them with my husband’s semen and the waiting game began.
After 5 days I would find out how many of them survived. From the 20 that they took out, 12 survived and developed into embryos.
The doctors put one of them inside me and I could go home. Then the second waiting game began. For two weeks I dreaded going to the bathroom, every time expecting my period to start.
My days were filled with planning what our life would be like when we had children, and what my pregnancy did to our life. We never dared to make any vacation plans worried it would be canceled due to my pregnancy.
And every time I was disappointed.
Two years went by. 10 failed attempts to conceive and my nerves were hanging by a thread. I couldn’t take it anymore.
I found a video that came pretty close to what we were going through.
The artificial hormones, the waiting, the disappointment. All of it. I became a different person. All of the optimism, joy, and positivity left me.
I was a nervous wreck, a ticking time bomb, usually exploding into my husband’s face.
This couldn’t continue.
Changing the problem
As fate would have it we were invited to my oldest friend’s wedding. I was on my last frozen embryo at the time. She was studying to be a gynecologist and when she got back from her honeymoon in January I just had my last failed attempt.
I had no frozen embrios left. My next doctor’s consultation was to organize another IVF procedure.
I couldn’t do it. I thought about it for days, I spoke with my husband and we decided together. We would postpone the next procedure to get me back on my feet. When I told her this, she just smiled and looked at me.
‘So, when are you two planning to tie the knot?’
This wasn’t the question I expected inside the doctor’s office.
‘Em, never…’ That was our answer.
We were engaged yes, but that was it. Neither of us wanted anything else.
When we walked out of there, instead of driving off we just sat in the car. In silence. As if on queue we looked at each other. A spark inside of our tired eyes.
‘Why don’t we get married?’
That was enough.
We decided on the date in June and organized everything ourselves. I even baked the cakes. It was a small family gathering but for those 5 months, our minds were preoccupied with the planning. Never once did I think about my infertility problem.
Until we got back home from Egipt, our honeymoon.
We sat at the kitchen table eating breakfast when I looked at my now husband and said, I’d like to give it one more try.
‘One.’ He answered.
Can long-term fasting help with infertility?
That week I was in the doctor’s office again. We decided to give it one more try but I refused all the unnecessary pills. The only thing I did agree to was the injections to produce as many eggs as possible.
The process was to start in two months since I just started my menstrual cycle.
More than enough time.
My head was back to normal, I flushed all the toxins (artificial hormones) out of my body from the last procedures. But I sensed that there was something else. Something the doctors were missing.
I explained to my husband what my family has been doing to battle the toughest of illnesses. And I intended to fix this the natural way.
To my surprise, he didn’t contradict me.
He joined me.
I was determined to do it right this time.
The last time I attempted to long-term fast was to lose weight. I only lasted 18 days of the 21 I decided to do.
This time I decided to do the whole 42-day long-term fast and was surprised that I wasn’t bothered by the length I would be without food. I prepared all the ingredients, had one light dinner with my husband and the next day we were on a long-term fast.
My husband was new to this so he had some troubles. But in my mind, it was easier. This time I had strong motivation for doing it.
We wanted a family.
My first attempt at a 42-day long-term fast
The days just flew by. I didn’t even mind the vegetable juice. I prepared all the teas in the morning, squeezed fresh vegetable juice the evening before, and packed it to go. We were both working at this time and I think this was one of the things that made it easier to bear.
For eight to nine hours we were occupied with our work and didn’t have time to think about food. During my lunch breaks, I took a long walk to get out of the stuffy office.
The best part. None of the people in my office knew I was on a long-term fast. When birthdays were celebrated I was having ‘stomach issues’ and when clients came around I took them to dinner explaining what I was doing. They all understood and supported me. And funny enough nobody mentioned anything to my coworkers.
My husband had bigger issues since this was his first time.
It helped to be working and he didn’t hide the fact he was fasting at work. Nobody pressured him with alcohol or asked stupid questions. It’s unbelievable how people react to this news. All want to know how you can function without food but all of the people we told were always nothing but supportive.
The hardest part was the weekends.
At weekends we didn’t have work to fill our time with. So after suffering through the first weekend, the next one we didn’t stay at home. It was summer so hiking was our favourite pasttime. Although we couldn’t hike as fast as we used to, we had more energy and we appreciated nature’s beauty more.
Did long-term fasting help with my infertility?
We managed to fast the entire 42 days. My husband told me afterwards that he wanted to stop multiple times but he was doing it to support me.
The funny thing was, I didn’t need his support. It was nice to have, but I was so convinced this would help that I didn’t need any outside support.
Two months rolled by.
By the time I had my next doctor’s appointment, I had been on solid food for a week and a half. I was relaxed, completely convinced this time I’d have no problems conceiving. I handled the procedure much easier, all the trips to the toilet when waiting to have the blood test were normal.
Nothing phased me. Even when the cramps started on the day I should have my period I didn’t flinch.
After two weeks I had the blood test and my husband was with me.
It was positive. I was pregnant.
The funny thing was that I already knew it. Not because I did the test at home, but because I was convinced that the long-term fast did the trick.
The whole pregnancy went by without any complications and 44 weeks later (yes, he was 2 weeks late) I gave birth to my son.
I tried again a couple of years later, and his brother joined him.
Was long-term fast responsible for me being able to have children?
Honestly, I think it was two things.
First, it was my conviction. I was so frustrated to not be able to conceive, to almost be pregnant (the last try was technically a pregnancy but it didn’t last more than two months – the doctor said I was half pregnant, to which my husband asked which half. Unbelievable… but funny) which I think was the last straw.
My nerves and desire to have children were the biggest problem.
Once we focused on the preparation for the wedding all of the thoughts about pregnancy were replaced by the planning. I didn’t have time to stress about infertility.
After we decided to give it one last try, we also decided this would be it, even though we could have 6 attempts. And it was a mutual agreement. We both saw the toll it took on my body and mind and neither wanted to go through that again.
The long-term fast was only that push my body needed to get things ready. I pictured my body taking a broom and sweeping away all of the endometriosis to make way for my child.
I don’t think it would do me any good if I hadn’t cleared my head up beforehand.
My final thoughts on long-term fasting.
It is an intense process to be without food for such a long period. Not because you are hungry but because your brain is working against you.
If you don’t have a strong enough reason to make it to the end, you will have a difficult journey.
The reason is what keeps you going through the tough times, through the bad days, through the thoughts your brain throws at you to persuade you it’s not worth the trouble.
The first and final days are always the hardest. But so worth it in the end. Not just because of the health benefits. The big reason is the confidence you get.
My thoughts were ‘I went without food for 6 weeks. What else am I capable of?’
It’s so unbelievably satisfying to stick to the end. To prove to yourself you could do it. The confidence is unlike anything I’ve experienced.
Plus. I had one more reason. I now have two beautiful boys. I have a family.
If you are struggling with something similar I went through think about it.
Ask yourself these questions;
Do you have it in you to finish what you start?
Is your reason strong enough to even start?
The benefits are endless and it only takes 6 weeks.
What is that in our lifetime…
I hope you found my story encouraging.
Until next week, stay healthy,
Ann