Weight > Water Fasting
Water Fasting March 2025
On a recent cruise, I spoke about body positivity with a woman in the hot tub. She was concerned that I was unhappy with my weight, asking why I wasn’t comfortable with who I was in this moment.
Body positivity is a touchy subject. Larger women don’t want to be pointed out or laughed at (understandably), and there’s been a movement toward accepting plus-sized people. Awesome, seriously. The thing is, you can be 300 pounds and dance when you’re 20 or even 30. At 40, though, it hurts.
I’ve hit a point where I weigh too much to do the things I want to do. I’m worried about whether the chair I choose at an event will hold me. My clothes are tight, I have a double chin, and I just look…bad. I’m aging faster and my health is noticeably declining, and the extra weight makes everything worse.
It’s time for change, and yup, we’re doing it: 40 days of water fasting.
Week 1
Tuesday, February 25 ~~ day 1
This fast was supposed to start on February 1, but I needed to get in a few more “last meals.” Last burger, last omelet, last croissant, last… it added up to a month of lasts.
Back at the fair (an event that also required eating!), I signed up a $78 couples heart and lung scan. It was the first booth in the expo hall, and the signage caught my eye. The vendor had my money before he started the sales pitch. Long story short, my scan was booked for February 25, also the day my fast would start.
There’s enough research out there to show that fasting works, but I want to know for myself. I know my current physical situation is bad, but I don’t know how bad. The scan results will be my baseline, my starting point.
Results should arrive in a week. We’ll find out then.
Wednesday, February 26 ~~ day 2
I cheated. I put Irish cream in my coffee. And I ate a bite of some Tony’s chocolate I found in the couch. (It was still wrapped, just squirrelled away for a rainy day.) I thought about how easy it would be to buy some smash burgers from Dollar General and bake some croissants…but I stayed strong and lazy.
Thursday, February 27 ~~ day 3
Woke up this morning to tingly feet. The feeling wasn’t like pins and needles, but of something solid cracking and breaking into smaller pieces, like a thin sheet of ice atop a river that breaks into smaller pieces when the penguin jumps on it.
At my worst, about nine months ago, I noticed that I was developing neuropathy in my feet. The soles of my feet were becoming numb. This was after fluid buildup in my ankles and swelling in my lower legs. There still was feeling in my feet, but not feeling things all the way.
So today’s tingling made me wonder if my feet had been more numb than I thought. Was I starting to feel again? Was blood flowing to the nerves again like it hadn’t been?
See, I have stinging nettle growing everywhere in the yard. It’s a weed that has tiny barbed hairs on its leaves, and any contact causes intense stinging. You feel like you’re on fire. But lately, I’ve been able to walk through patches of it. I’ve heard people say that you get accustomed to the pain over time to the point that there’s no sensation, so I figured, ooh boy! I’ve reached that point!
Now I just think that my feet had reached that point, the point of numbness where I couldn’t feel the burn. So I’m seeing today’s tingling as a good sign that the fast is working.
11:39 a.m. — It’s lunch time and for the first time since starting the fast, I’m hungry. All I can think about is food. My stomach is grumbling, saying “Give. Me. Food. Please. Now.”
Friday, February 28 ~~ day 4
Dr. Jenny No PhD decided to check out whether I had developed neuropathy. Test: Walk through patch of stinging nettle. If I had developed a tolerance to the stingers, I would still feel nothing. If I have had neuropathy and now am regaining feeling in my feet, I would feel some level of pain. Results: OMG, the stinging is slight but it’s there. Yup, my health had gotten so bad that I had developed neuropathy in my feet at age 43. I’m too young for these geriatric disorders!
But there’s still time to turn things around and that’s what this water fast is doing.
3:00 p.m. — Time to make the doggies some food and I get hungry. Right now I’m working on a book with passages about ordering for catered events and other food topics. The smell of chicken and rice permeates the cabin and…I take a bite of their food. And then I cave into pulling out some mozzarella sticks from the freezer and put them in the toaster and, my diet is cooked just like the hot cheese dripping out of the breading.
Tomorrow is Saturday, so I guess I’ll admit defeat and go have another “last breakfast” with the boyfriend tomorrow at the town diner.
Good news is that I can tell the difference between the “voices” coming from my brain and my tummy. I wasn’t hungry from my stomach. It was my brain giving the orders — I’m still addicted to food and all the chemical messages the food sends my brain. This is why Ozempic and other GLP-1 inhibitors work — they stop the brain from desires and cravings. I don’t like relying on meds, so I’m going to have to fight this battle myself.
More good news is my feet are still tingling, even after eating.
Saturday, March 1 ~~ day 1
Yep, had breakfast. A big plate of three eggs with cheese and tiny cubes of ham, a heaping side of hashbrowns, and two pieces of cinnamon raisin bread. Why, because I failed yesterday and it’s easy to fall back into bad habits.
I think I’ll have some more mozz sticks for lunch, and then start the clock again at 3pm. My heart is feeling slightly tight again, but my feet are still tingly. Is this nerve damage repairing itself? Going to take some magnesium today, too.
Fingers crossed things I can avoid eating food for five days and then longer.
Saturday, March 9 ~~ day X
Argh. I just can’t. Today, we went to a music and food festival in St. Augustine, and I wanted to try the Scotch Eggs. I have zero willpower. Guess I need to try again another time.
Overall…
The water fast isn’t over yet — not until this fat lady sings. Check back in for more updates.
Weight loss is a forever struggle, but now I see the destination of this journey being good health and not only beauty.
Thanks for reading! Don’t forget to check out my latest video on YouTube!
Jenny Claire is an award-winning educational materials writer, travel journalist, and food critic, formerly based in New York City and Taiwan. She calls a cute cabin in the woods of rural North Central Florida home, but lately she’s been spending most of her time cruising and traveling. She also was a secret travel critic and writer — but her lips are sealed on those details!
Living the Sunshine Life