Red Pepper Hummus dip

Ingredients:

Potato Leek Soup

Ingredients:

7 leeks

4 medium potatoes

A delicious meal- 4th day of re-feeding after 14 days of fasting

Today was a calm yet pleasant day. I woke up, tidied the mess I did to my room yesterday, then headed to the meeting room. I found my gorgeous purple breakfast waiting for me. I had no clue what was in it, but it was love at first sight. The color was amazing, the taste was pure perfection. It turned out to be slow juiced guava and red grapes! Who could've imagined this combination working together so harmoniously. For the first time since I started re-feeding I was not trying to finish the whole cup and feeling overly full, today I finished my cup feeling happily satiated. We had a lecture summing more things up and adding some new and very useful information that can help us survive on our own, out of

1st time to eat actual food! (3rd day of refeeding after 14 days of fasting)

Today was by far one of the most fun days of the retreat.

2nd day of re-feeding after 14 days of fasting

I couldn't sleep last night, i spent hours and hours in bed just trying to fall asleep but in vain. After about two hours I finally slept, only to wake up a few hours later, again unable to sleep. It was a torturous night, I felt sick and dizzy. After hours of unrest I finally managed to get back sleep, but woke up to find that I already missed breakfast and a lecture was in progress! If you have been reading my blog you would know that I don't miss those lectures no matter what, this was the very first time for me to miss a lecture since the day I arrived here. I was still dizzy, nauseous, and my heart was palpitating, I had no clue why, I didn't even have those side effects when I was fasting, so why now?!

1st day of re-feeding after 14 days of fasting.

I set my "smart alarm" to wake me up around 8, I know we are a huge group and they needed some volunteers to help make the food. My alarm

Fasting: Day 14

I woke up with a terrible metallic taste in my mouth. My first thought was that my stomach finally created an ulcer and it is bleeding, but that was not it,

Fasting: Day 13

I woke up cranky. My back and stomach were killing me, and I did not have a good night sleep. I couldn't stand myself and couldn't get myself out of my room. I decided to

Fasting: Day 12

Today was a simple day. I woke up late, not in the mood to rush in to catch yoga, I wanted to

Fasting: Day 11

I woke up today at 10 am, I kept trying to go back to sleep because I was really sleepy and exhausted but failed. So I got up and joined yoga instead. I was ok, but drained and edgy. I could barely focus during the lecture, and tried my best to focus with our guest speaker, but it was quite a challenge. I really needed

Fasting: Day 10

There was a very interesting side discussion today about eating animals and what was mentioned in religious books, the Bible and Quran mainly, and its is insane what we reached. According to a verse in the bible meat should

Fasting: Day 9

Today was a funny weird day. Everything that could go wrong went wrong. We had unexpected non-stop showering rains that flooded the hallways, the pool, the balconies, and even the rooms. Lights went off, air conditioners got ruined for good, they need to fix something centrally, and the network was either extinct or barely there.

Fasting: Day 8

I stayed up so late last night, finished what I was doing by 4 am, and by the time I went into bed and actually slept it must've been 4:30 am! I couldn't wake up, I was so exhausted. I know we should take it easy, limit our efforts, do the minimal, especially now that we started week 2, but I just couldn't help myself. I forgot to drink water, I ended up

Fasting: Day 7

I am proud to say that by the end of today we officially completed 7 days of fasting!

But thats not the only great news! Today I was "the star" of the group as they said :) I officially lost a total of

A Pleasant Surprise :) Day 6

We had an evening surprise today. One of the guys in our group turned out to be

Fasting: Day 6

Today is another fine day. My energy levels are up, and I am inspired to write. I am sitting in this view right now, just out of the water, writing my diary. What could be more inspiring than this? I would have to say that Aswan was way more inspiring as a place, but it was such a short retreat filled with a million things to do that I never had the time to even consider sitting down and writing a daily diary.

Waiting for my medical examination one person was asking me questions and comments that included somehow a statement that I probably ate too much because of my current extra weight. Every time I am faced with that comment I want to scream out this is not who I am, you don't know me, and feel like grabbing my phone and getting out an old picture of me to show them who I am, what I looked like before I gained this drastically excessive weight.

Fasting: Day 5

Today was my first re-energized day. I was able to generally do more throughout the day, and even wrote my first Facebook status about the retreat. Even though somehow we are mostly taking it easy, doing the minimal effort, I still found no time to do anything during my previous days, mostly

Fasting: Day 4

Today started with a bad mood. I was just so exhausted, pissed off, and just so simply feeling like crap,
not physically but rather psychologically. I hadn't slept well and the pillows seemed to be made of stone even though I didn't have issues with them any night before. I was miserable and considered staying in my room and avoiding everyone, I was feeling angry, sad, depressed, sluggish, and out of place. I started doubting if I fit in this group of not and feeling like a total outsider, I was just not in a good place.

Fasting: Day 2 & 3

I was tired, sleepy, and still unsettled. I wasn't in a bad state, but not a good one either. I am always smiling and peppy so I doubt anyone felt that. I was just trying to stick to whatever the schedule was, trying to escape to my room ever-so-often, ignoring my phone to the maximum, and whenever possible cuddling up in my bed with no sound, or with the TV. We were taking some kind of a salt, in

Day 1 - Starting the fast

The plan is that we fast for 14 days on nothing but water, followed by one week of a re-feeding phase where we will gradually start eating while learning healthy ways, recipes, and tips. We are allowed 3 cups of herbal teas with a few drops of honey (no more than 3 teaspoons) three times a day only, advised to pace them into a breakfast, lunch, dinner drinks kind of.

The first day of the fast was both exciting and terrifying, not knowing what to expect, how will my body react, how much will I suffer, or how hungry will I be. I know I have great tolerance to not eating, after all I was anorexic for 6-12 months before where I literally would barely take a bite or

Day 0 - Arriving at the retreat

I didn't sleep for a minute. I spent the whole night packing my bag and trying to get ready to be able to catch my flight. I had no clue what to pack, I ended up with one large bag and a smaller one, if you saw those bags you might start thinking that I am leaving the country for good! I even ended up paying

Pre-retreat: Why would anyone in their right mind fast for 14 days and only consume water? this a brief about me and why I am doing this.

I always had a lot of issues with food, I will discuss everything in details in another post. But the fact is that I was was bulimic since I was 14, up until I turned 21, except for one single year where I was actually anorexic. My weight fluctuated all the time, so one day you would see me somewhat healthy looking (I was never skinny though, just normal), and later you would see me and find me