On the way – The reset button
Don’t eat. Voluntarily! Why actually? That’s what goes through my head while the train rolls towards Sylt and with it the “Fastenhotel Ahlers” and my fasting hiking week. Isn’t a normal vacation enough? No! I need at least six weeks of that. I feel tired, listless and exhausted. And I want to change something: I want to have the strength and freshness again to rethink my life. To do this, I have to set it to zero, my feeling tells me. Press the reset button. A good plan, but my stomach is still growling. I only ate a bit of fruit and veg today, as prescribed.
Arrived – A drink with consequences
I find the Fastenhaus at the end of Westerland with the beach chairs in the garden cozy, my room under the roof cozy. With the window open I can hear the sound of the sea. The other 30 participants, all in their mid-30s to 60s, seem nice. Fasting leader Lars Rohde first explains the rules for fasting according to Buchinger: coffee, alcohol, cigarettes – forbidden. And fasting means eating NOTHING, “not even a fish sandwich!” The man is probably speaking from experience. He offers us water in abundance and in the dining room a “buffet” with more than 20 types of organic tea. Morning gymnastics start outside at quarter past eight. This is just as little compulsory as the daily hiking or cycling tours or yoga. But: If we keep our circulation going, we will feel much better. I wonder, if I can make it through At least I got down the Epsom salt drink with a dash of lemon in the evening. For defecation. Because when the intestines are empty, the feeling of hunger is gone.
Day 1 Empty stomach & first steps
Alarm clock. Stand up. Window open. lie down again I’m dizzy. Second attempt, this time slower. I’m standing and somehow I don’t feel that bad even though I’ve been on the toilet a lot during the night. Then morning gymnastics – okay, fit is not the word that suits me well today. Half past eight Breakfast: a glass of juice made from pureed fruit (apple, carrot, orange) for everyone – if you eat it with a spoon, it lasts a long time, says Lars Rohde. Plus the daily good morning story. Lars Rohde reads “Happiness Rarely Comes Alone” by Eckart von Hirschhausen. Something to think about during the following hike. It’s four hours from Westerland via Wenningstedt and Kampen to Braderup and back, armed with a thermos flask. Sometimes along the beach (foaming surf), sometimes past thatched roof houses (nice Frisian), Fish stalls (casually ignored) and plenty of toilets (luckily). Running is good. At some point, the whole group realizes that we have rarely talked so intensely about food. About recipes, nutrition, taste. Everyone agrees: losing weight is nobody’s top priority. Especially since you gain weight again as soon as you eat. Almost everyone wants to eat healthier from now on. The lunch break belongs to the liver, it gets a hot water bottle for diligent work in the service of detoxification. You have to go through the cleaning process. The whole body is rewarded with vegetable soup in the evening. Whereby “soup” is hopelessly exaggerated: I can see the bottom of the cup crystal clear. But what a treat! Especially the herbs sprinkled on top. I’ll have a second helping. An enema with warm water follows before going to sleep. No, this will never be my favorite pastime. Nevertheless: It’s going well, I’m proud of myself – and dead tired.
Day 2 mind games
Hiking again. It’s definitely too windy for me to cycle, and instead of doing yoga, I’d rather be outside in the North Sea air. The sun is shining, the seagulls are screeching in the blue sky. So many kilometers of beach, so many dunes, so much nature – Sylt is made for fast hiking. I found two fellow campaigners: Gabi, late 40, from the media industry, and Angelika, around 50, head of a nursing service. They both love running as much as I do. That’s why we choose to walk instead of the offered return trip with the shared taxi. Keitum, Munkmarsch, Kampen, Westerland. Do 20 kilometers for today, about 30,000 steps. Plenty of time to give space to thoughts. How could it happen that I am so exhausted, what is going wrong in my everyday life? What can I change? Sometimes thinking gets left behind. Then I only see the sea the sun glittering on the waves and the present. Happy moments. Is that the secret? To live in the here and now? I don’t know, and towards the end of the hike I don’t care. I’m floored The only thing that saves me is Anke and her hot stone massage, which I booked at the Fastenhaus.
Day 3 Temptations
Routine is slowly returning. I like to get used to it and watch my body: when I get up I still feel dizzy, I have to slow down everything and I get cold more easily. The others tell the same thing. That’s why Gabi, Angelika and I decide not to sit on the terrace of the “balaclava” during our rest. But inside in the beautiful round restaurant in Kampen, in a great location between the dunes and the sea on the red cliff. The stop is a challenge: fish appetizers to the right, waffles with red fruit jelly to the left (they smell good!). We right in the middle with rooibos tea. But what a victory! We have no desire and we feel great. We’ll toast to that – raise your tea mugs!
Table of Contents
Breaking the fast is important!
4th/5th day The feeling of freshness
The initial difficulties in the morning remain, but I feel much better. Fitter, more rested, more alert and with a clearer consciousness. My feet seem to walk by themselves. I sit down on the beach in Westerland and decide for the future: Whatever I do, I have to ask myself whether it’s really good for me. Also: I can say no and focus on myself – without anyone making me feel guilty.
Day 6 The vision
Somehow the atmosphere in the group changes. Departure is in the air, and indeed I have a vision as we round the Elbow, Sylt’s northern tip. There in the dunes it appears to me: a wholemeal bread with cheese. I don’t feel like continuing to fast, one week is enough for me. In the evening, Lars Rohde gives a lecture on breaking the fast: just don’t fill your stomach right away. No fat, meat, fish, wholemeal bread (a shame!). Prefer only small portions and light food. Like steamed vegetables. Tomorrow it’s time.
Day 7 Breaking the fast
For breakfast there are plates with apples and pears and a tea light on the table in the dining room. A celebratory atmosphere. Each of us gets a postcard to write to ourselves. It will be in my mailbox in three months. Then it suddenly becomes very quiet, everyone eats the fruit at their own pace. I cut my apple into small, no, very small pieces. How good it tastes. I am happy and infinitely content. I found my center again and gained a lot of strength. And I’m proud: I persevered! PS: Three months later I received the following postcard: “Dear Steffi, you did well. You continue to take care of yourself now, because you can. And remember your resolutions…” I did. And noticed: the feeling of freshness lasts for a really long time.
The Best Fasting Methods
It doesn’t matter how you do it: Each fast is preceded by relief days in which you prepare yourself to completely abstain from food and only eat a little rice and vegetables, no alcohol and no sweets. In addition, a colon cleansing is necessary so that there is no feeling of hunger. During the fast you need to drink a lot: up to three liters of water and/or herbal tea, even if you are fasting with juice. The juices are then something like meals. All types of fasting purify the body to a greater or lesser extent and strengthen the immune system.
Fruit Fasting During the fasting days, eat up to five servings of fresh fruit or lightly steamed vegetables each day. This makes it easier for those who are fasting for the first time to stop eating.
Juice fasting About 0.5 liters of fruit or vegetable juices and up to 0.5 liters of hot vegetable broth are permitted per day – in addition to herbal teas and water.
Therapeutic fasting according to Buchinger (as in our report) works in a similar way. As a juice and vegetable broth, you consume about 250 calories a day. Lots of exercise, relaxation, hiking and baths complement fasting.
Whey fasting is a special form of juice fasting. They do without conventional solid food and mainly drink whey – spread over the day about 1 liter in five portions – and other liquids. Fruit juices, sauerkraut juice and non-carbonated water are also recommended.
Alkaline fasting Avoid all acid-forming foods for a certain period of time, preferably two to three weeks. A list of alkaline foods can be found e.g. B.
Schroth Cure During the typical duration of 21 days, those taking the cure abstain from food rich in fat, protein and salt. So-called drinking and drying days alternate at regular intervals. Daily heat wraps and packs are intended to support detoxification.
F.-X.-Mayr cure There is a break of four to five hours between the three daily meals. Each meal consists of stale rolls and milk, eaten alternately. The rolls are carefully chewed in small bites – about 40 to 50 times until a sweet taste develops. Only then is the bun mixed with a little milk and swallowed.
The Tolfioow Travel Planner
Ahlers in Westerland you can fast in a family atmosphere and a cozy atmosphere. Dunes and sea are a stone’s throw away.
The Gerode monastery in the middle of a beautiful park in the Harz Mountains offers 10-day fasting cures under expert guidance with yoga, hikes, lectures and medical care.
Mallorca Fasting, hiking and yoga on Mallorca – with a fasting expert and a yoga teacher.
Fasting hikes in St. Feliu, Catalonia. 4 to 6 hours of hiking daily, yoga, gymnastics, liver wraps and relaxation phases.
Fasting plus with Ayurvedic fasting meals in the Allgäu: weekly cure with yoga twice a day, lots of relaxation and stillness.
www.moorbad-schwanberg.at Fasting for 10 days in a Styrian Capuchin monastery, which is now a modern health center. Medical care, mud baths, massages, Nordic walking and gymnastics.
For nine years, a certified fasting guide has been offering fasting hikes and fasting weeks in a monastery in Provence, which smells of lavender.
www.fastenkur.at Therapeutic fasting according to Buchinger in an attractive, modern ambience. With an additional program ranging from gymnastics to a morning walk, sauna, meditation and medical examination
Nice, comfortable house with a great wellness offer. Assisted fasting with juices.
Pretty wellness hotel in the Bavarian Forest. Pampering programs with Thalasso, beauty treatments, sauna, massages and walks make you forget the strain of fasting.
Various hikes between Altmühltal and Madeira – each with medical care and experienced company.
Clearly arranged website of individual providers, mostly non-medical practitioners, sorted by dates for different fasting hikes in Germany, Europe and North Africa.
