I too have had headaches during this fast. Instead of painkillers I have relied on an old Latvian folk remedy which is to put raw cabbage leaves on the forehead. Seems to help for me!

Steam vaporizer works wonders for headacks or a cup of weak coffee if your dtinking tea anyway

Here's what I think about it. In my first 29 day fast, I
drank a glass of red wine on nights one-three. Heresy. (In those days, I was enjoying red wine every day, when I was eating.) It helped me to get through the critical first three days, just to 'wind down', mainly, at night. I'm a night owl.


**** Edit--I should maybe add, by day four, the water only was easy. And I took nothing further, until I broke it. Except! see **below.)


We can be very rigid in our thinking, going into a water fast, and this rigidity can translate to some frayed nerves- For real! And this can make the Water Fast feel miserable,
when it doesn't have to, creating a recurring loop of the mind going into what it's being deprived of.

The Water Fast shouldn't be a deprivation.It should open the faster to a feeling of abundance that has nothing to do with food--(or drink), allowing the thinking to slide right past all thoughts of "can't". < you can actually feel the shift,of this sliding past--it's really nice!

We've all heard people talk about how hungry they are--asking for tips to stop thinking of food; who keep tormenting themselves with thoughts of food that they CAN'T HAVE. (caps are to denote the way this feels to the faster; like an attack). On that first long fast of mine, I read about vegan and raw food for the first week, at least, and thoroughly enjoyed it--allowed myself to imagine the sights, smells, etc. of what was fascinating me-- doing this enabled me to enjoy, and then let go. My partner ate very well on that fast, also, as I vicariously enjoyed his meals!

If this sounds hard, it wasn't. "Hard" would have been tormenting myself with TV ads or thinking of what I was missing.(I think I had TV then, but no longer do.)


Hard, for me, would have been chewing gum! I have never been able to do it(I mean, never, even eating)--one reason being it starts the process of digestion, and creates the pangs of 'hunger'. I'm amazed that people can do it, and not suffer. I'm even going to speculate that it creates a boomerang effect, on the WF, in that it would make the breath worse, by putting the body into starvation (minimal eating) mode, complete with its recurring rotten mouth feel. But I'm not trying to pass judgment on what a person feels they have to do to get along, at work. It just concerns me, when a Water Fast becomes essentially, a "diet", as the gum and breath mints are perceived as food
by the body.

***************************************************
To my mind, a better solution would be a lot of teeth and tongue brushing--like, several times a day. ***Once, when I went to a play on day 14, and was going to be sitting very close to others and still, for a time, I took a whole clove, and rested it on my tongue. Did not chew, nor swallow. Very effective. Was it "food"? I dunno. Ethers, more like.

About the tongue-fur and all that--including the prevailing idea that when it clears, the fast is finished: I didn't have it. I had a bit of whiteness for the first while, but nothing to speak of, through the fast. (shrug).


With painkillers, ideally, we know the answer to that. But I'm going to say, it's up to the honesty or personal integrity of the faster. I mean, it's only one person's fast--not others'. That is, if it feels like it's a make or break thing, and you think you just need to get over the hump, to get truly into it... To each his own.

best wishes to everyone!


Chiron