THE ONES WHO DARED

7 Days, Just Water: Why I Took on a Water Fast + My Top 3 Books of 2024

• Svetka • Episode 62

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Why would anyone willingly go without food for 7 days? In this episode, I share why I kicked off 2025 with a water fast—and why it turned out to be less daunting than I expected.

Through this experience, I discovered that our bodies are capable of far more than we give them credit for—not just in fasting, but in so many areas of life. As Thomas Edison once said, “If we did all the things we are capable of, we would literally astound ourselves.”

Tune in to explore the stages of fasting, its science-backed benefits, and my top transformative book recommendations for personal growth in 2024.


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Speaker 1:

Hey friends, welcome to the Ones who Dared podcast, where stories of courage are elevated. I'm your host, vekka, and every other week you'll hear interviews from inspiring people. My hope is that you will leave encouraged. I'm so glad you're here. Welcome to the Ones who Dared podcast and happy new year.

Speaker 1:

I'm your host, vekka, and on today's episode it's just going to be me a solo episode, sharing with you guys on why I decided to start the year with a seven-day water fast, the benefits of fasting, my process and what it was like for me personally to experience that for the first time. And also I'll be sharing with you my top three books that I read from 2024. Now, as a disclosure, this is not intended to substitute for professional or medical advice. I'm not a doctor and I do advise that you seek medical and professional expertise in regards to your health, to fasting and seeing if you are even eligible for fasting, as it is something that requires medical attention. So I'm simply here to share my experience, my findings, and in hopes that perhaps, if it inspires you, you can see if this is something suitable for you. And yeah, so I'm just excited to share the process with you guys. Also, if you guys have not quit on your goals and resolutions.

Speaker 1:

Congratulations, as we are past the national official Quitters Day, which I believe was on the 10th of January, and, for me personally, I don't set resolutions in ways that I used to years ago. What I do is I essentially have areas that I know I'm growing towards, working towards and goals that I have set, and what I do is create environments that are conducive to those goals and create daily steps and actionable steps to move towards those goals forward. So and I also love to take the end of the year as a time to reflect on what worked for me in the previous year what are some things that I want to do differently in the upcoming year schedule? Some trips, some challenges, some ways that I can continue to grow and evolve into the person that I am wanting to become. And so, yeah, I have some great intentions set up for the beginning of the year, but essentially boil down to what do you do on a daily basis that helps you get there? And if your goal is, for example, to get in shape or lose weight or anything along those lines, what you want to do is take daily steps to help you get there, rather than just having a goal of you know I want to lose 10 or 20 pounds by X date. Having a goal of you know I want to lose 10 or 20 pounds by X date, you want to. Essentially, maybe you want to incorporate walking daily and eating more protein and not buying junk food in your pantry. So, yeah, I think it's just evolved with learning about productivity, mindsets and how the environment that we create helps us to grow and the steps that we take essentially is what gets us there, rather than some big, audacious goals. And if you listen to my top three books from last year, atomic habits was a big, big recommendation. It's a book that's been top selling for a really long time and it's one that, if you're trying to establish new habits and new goals, I highly recommend you check that book out Atomic Habits by James Clear because he really shifted the way that I set my goals and intentions into really achievable targets. So okay.

Speaker 1:

So why on earth would I want to start my year with starving myself on nothing but water for the first seven days of the year? Well, I don't know if you know or not, but my mom passed away from breast cancer shy a month from her 61st birthday. She had breast cancer three times. In the third time it took her out. Now there were other things that played a role that I believe in my mom having cancer to begin with.

Speaker 1:

But upon fasting in the previous year, fasting in 2024, doing several day fasts, I figured that I could probably pull off a seven day fast and a seven day water fast. So from my research and again, please seek medical doctor for this to fact, check this with your doctor and if you're fasting, do it under medical supervision. Do what's best for you. This is me sharing my experience with you. This is not me telling you what you should be doing. Upon my research, I discovered that fasting is a way that helps to clean out damaged cells. It also helps to starve off some of those cancer cells, and there are some articles that I read that even touch on the percentage of decrease in cancer and diseases, which I won't quote the exact percentages. But essentially, it is a good thing to do for you in order to reset your body and for me, because I'm going to be turning 40 soon. That's right. Because I'm going to be turning 40 soon, that's right.

Speaker 1:

I wanted to do a challenging reset for my body and really to give my health a boost, rejuvenate some of that. And so here's some things that some of the doctors say about fasting. Dr Jason Fung, who is a nephrologist and an author of the Complete Guide to Fasting, says fasting triggers a process called orthopogy, where the body cleans out damaged cells and regenerates newer, healthy ones. It's nature's way of detoxing and repairing. Dr Walter Lange, who's a biochemist and researcher on longevity, says that prolonged fasting forces the body to switch from burning glucose to fat, and this metabolic switch promotes stress resistance and cellular renewal. Dr Alan Goldhammer, founder of True North Health Center, says A properly supervised water fast allows the body to reset inflammation, improve metabolic health and promote detoxification, especially when done with guidance. And so fasting has been as long as the beginning of time. People have fasted for in different cultures, different religions, for spiritual purposes as well as health purposes.

Speaker 1:

I was curious to see if I was going to be able to do a seven day water fast. Actually, I resolved that I would do a seven day water fast, no matter what. So I went into the seven day water fast with the intention to finish, no matter how hard it was going to be for me, and it was. It was difficult because the first of the year my husband's family has the best brunch ever. My husband's family has the best brunch ever and it's just an amazing spread of all the foods you'd want to eat if you wanted to indulge. And so I had to actually skip that event and stay home and start my day one of seven day water fast.

Speaker 1:

So what happens on day one? I'm going to kind of go through day by day what's going on in your body through the fasting as well as my experience with it. So on day one your body goes through transition of glucose depletion. So what's happening in your body is blood sugar levels drop and the body begins to use glycogen so that store glucose in the liver and muscles for energy and at this point your insulin levels also decrease, and so the benefits to that is initial reduction in inflammation, lower insulin levels, and this is something that starts to pave the way for fat burning.

Speaker 1:

The challenge of day one is you feel really hungry. You may have mild mental fatigue as your body adapts to you, essentially starving yourself on nothing but water. For me, what I found that helps in doing water fasting is drinking warm water. That kind of relieves the hunger pains, and also I put mineral salt in my water and it almost feels like a meal in a sense, and that really just helps to not feel as hungry. And, of course, you want to stay extra hydrated during your fast. I also avoided sauna during the fast not to deplete my body too much. So day two, you transition to fat burning, which is going into ketosis. So what's happening is glycogen stores are being depleted, the body transitions to burning fat for energy and your ketones, which are byproducts of fat metabolism, begin to rise. The benefits are increased mental clarity, as ketones fuel the brain, and cellular ethopathy begins clearing damaged cells. The challenge is, though, especially if you have been eating junk food during the holidays, is you may develop a headache, have mental fatigue as your body is switching into this kind of state, and sometimes this is commonly called as the keto flu, which you may begin to feel really crappy.

Speaker 1:

I know the first day that I've done, the first time that I've done, a three-day water fast, which was, I think, last year at the beginning of the year, that was really rough because of all the junk that I was eating, and just kind of over the holidays. This time around, I was really intentional about making sure I wasn't overloading my body with toxins and things that would be really hard for me to recover, so it was easier for me. I think it was also easier for me to do the seven day fast because I was fasting throughout the year in 2024, a couple of days in a row, so my body kind of got used to that rhythm and this wasn't a total shock, as it was the very first time I did three day water fast, which I was. I felt like I was going to be fainting and I was not having headaches and all the um yeah, so that was not fun, okay. So day three it's also known as the hardest day of fasting.

Speaker 1:

Whether you're doing a three day fast or seven day fast, it is the hardest day because it's the day that your hunger and energy dips and so you feel so hungry, your energy levels are at the lowest, and so what's happening in your body at day three is orthopogy is in full swing. It peaks as the body scavengers and recycles damaged proteins and cells and ketones become the primary fuel source and the benefits is you have enhanced cellular repair and detoxification and decreased inflammation markers in the body. And I've done research on day seven fasts and they do say that day three really is the hardest day and I experienced that myself. Now day four is hormonal optimization and energy rebound. What's happening in the body is growth, hormone production increases, promoting fat burning and muscle preservation. The body begins to stabilize energy levels. In some research they say that day four is when you peak focus and energy. I didn't experience that on day four. I just kind of it was easier than day three, but I didn't have that burst of energy that some people experience in day four. I just kind of it was easier than day three, but I didn't have that burst of energy that some people experience in day four. So they say some benefits is having higher level of energy as the body adjusted, burning fat and significant reduction in hunger pains.

Speaker 1:

The challenges you may have mild dizziness and coldness, and I did experience. The one thing that I would say I experienced throughout my fast is my body was really really cold. I had to wear like socks and extra sweaters and pants and it was just like I just felt really cold. So I had to keep my body extra, extra warm, because you're not getting that fuel and when we eat food it essentially provides heat to our body as we burn our food, and so I had to really bundle up during the fast. I was surprised, though, that I still continue to have energy. It wasn't as bad as my initial three day fast that I did, that I was actually able to get tasks done around the house, I was able to continue to work and get some things done, and it wasn't a total laying bed. And you know and again, everybody is going to experience things differently and depending on where you're at with your health and if you've done fasting before.

Speaker 1:

Day five was my favorite day of the fast. I woke up with complete clarity, energy, as if it was like I woke up with new glasses and I could see the world through a whole different lens. It was almost euphoric where I've read about it and people talk about how, day four or five, you experienced this like burst of energy. You experienced this elevated clarity, and everything just seems to make sense, and that was so true for me. So what happens is, at this day, ketones are at their highest and deep cellular repair continues, stem cell production begins in some tissues and the benefits is enhanced brain function and mental clarity decrease oxidative stress and improve insulin sensitivity.

Speaker 1:

So the challenge is psychological craving for food may linger. I definitely. Even on day five I was dreaming of food. I was making up all these recipes. I couldn't wait to eat when I'm done fasting. But I was on day five. I was full of energy. I ended up completely cleaning out, reorganizing my pantry. I did a full on intense workout at home and it was unbelievable that on the fifth day of not eating anything but water, you experience such a burst of energy. So it was very interesting to see how our body works and I've never experienced that before of not eating for five days and having this surge of energy.

Speaker 1:

Now, day six, I still experienced clarity, not as intense as day five, and I still had energy. I think on that day I was shoveling snow and still working out lightly at home. I was cleaning out my fridge, organizing things, just still having a good source of energy. So what's happening on day six is fat stores continue to be the primary energy source. The immune system resets, with old, damaged immune cells being replaced by new ones. The benefit during this day is improved immune function and enhanced anti-aging effects from cellular rejuvenation, and your energy levels may dip due to prolonged fasting. I think I felt pretty decent on day six.

Speaker 1:

And then the last day, day seven, guys, I couldn't wait to eat food. My friend sent me smoked salmon from Portland, oregon, like on day three of the fast that arrived. I should have been here before New Year's Eve but nonetheless I had this delicious wild salmon, smoked salmon, tempting me in the fridge and I just couldn't wait to eat it. But knowing that you have to come out of the fast safe and proper, you don't want to eat a full meal on your first day of fast, and so I just on day seven. I couldn't wait to eat. I was hungry, but I wasn't. It was more mentally hungry. Like you want to eat, you miss food, but it's not the same as having this, the hunger pains that you have on day three, at least in my experience.

Speaker 1:

So what's happening on day seven is your body's doing a full body detox and renewal, which I was so excited about and I was really excited to keep to finish it well. And so the body completes the deep detoxification and repair process. Metabolism resets to prioritize efficiency. The benefits of this day is significant reduction in inflammation, increased stem cell reproduction and tissue repair. And so the challenges, psychological challenges to finish the fast. I would say that I was extremely surprised how much energy I had throughout the seven days. And again it's going to vary, because the very first time I did a three day fast, I was extremely depleted in energy and felt like I can't make it through the three days. But because this day I primed my body to fast more frequently in the past year that the seven days was a lot easier than I personally anticipated, and so, yeah, that was my experience At the end of the day.

Speaker 1:

Seven day fast is a really powerful tool for physical, mental renewal and it is backed by science, and so you know there's also you can do research regarding science-based data for fasting and cancer links. There is so many different benefits to fasting. Now I will say that fasting is not for everyone. There are certain people who should never fast. Certain medications there's you know this is something that you seek your doctor for and pregnant women shouldn't fast, women who are nursing shouldn't fast. Women a week before the menstrual cycle shouldn't fast. Those are some things that I can tell you from my research, but at the end of the day, each person's body is unique. So I do recommend that you go and seek your medical doctor and seeing if you're qualified to do a seven day fast or not. Or, if you want to start with one, maybe you just want to do intermittent fasting, whatever that looks like for you. There's just been kind of mixed reviews on fasting in general, so I just recommend that you do that. But, however, it's essential to approach fasting with proper medical guidance, particularly if you are undergoing cancer treatments. Okay, so that is my fasting process. I hope that you're able to get something out of that.

Speaker 1:

All right, and now to the fun part my top three books of 2024. This is always kind of hard for me, because I love reading so much that I want to recommend books that will add value to you within the year, and so selecting just three books is a bit of a challenge for me, but I think I've narrowed down to three books that can bring you the most value and so that I read in 2024. The first book that I recommend is one that I suggested for the mastermind that I facilitated at the last quarter of the year, and this book is called 10x is easier than 2x, by Dan Sullivan and Dr Benjamin Hardy, and this book talks about how world-class entrepreneurs achieve more by doing less. Now, this book challenges the traditional view of success and argues that achieving tenfold growth is much simpler than doubling down your progress or working harder is much simpler than doubling down your progress or working harder. Instead, you focus by exponential thinking, eliminating distractions and prioritizing your unique ability, and so the authors lay out a framework by transforming your mindset and helping you achieve extraordinary results. One of the things that I really loved about this book, which isn't really new, is that you eliminate 80% of what's not working for you and you focus and do more of the 20%. That's going to help you increase the most growth in your goals and your identity and where you're trying to go in life and in alignment with your purpose and your vision for your life. And so that, to me, was something that I had to really reframe certain things and figure out what are the areas that need to let go of, what are the areas that I'm keeping, and 10x also requires you a new identity. So radical transformation happens when you align your identity with your long-term vision and, essentially, this book really helps you to simplify, create a framework for you. This book really helps you to simplify, create a framework for you and help you to work towards your goals and the people in the mastermind really appreciated this book as well, so it was well received by all the members in the mastermind and we really enjoyed this book and I think it helped us to grow in different areas. That was personal to each person.

Speaker 1:

Now book number two. I normally don't recommend books of people that come on the podcast just because it feels like I'm promoting my podcast, but this book was so good and I think it's so timely and everybody needs this message, and so I am making one recommendation from a podcast guest that I had, and this book is called Made for People by Justin Whitmiller Early. Now I am a huge believer that relationships is the greatest gift that we've been given on this earth, that there is nothing in the world like relationships and doing community and doing it well and surrounding yourself with the right people, adding value to the right people in your circles, and expanding and growing in your relationships and continuing to add value and also it just is to me is my heart. I love people. I love for people to help people around them.

Speaker 1:

So now this book explores how modern life, isolation and busyness are at odds with the deep human need for meaningful relationships. We all long to belong, to have relationships, but a lot of us are stuck on how do we come about creating the community? How do we foster the relationships we want? How do we grow deeper in our relationships? So Justin in this book offers practical, incited roots. Justin offers practical insights rooted in faith and wisdom to help readers intentionally build and sustain a life rich with community. We are designed for relationships. Community and connection are fundamental to our human flourishing, to our human needs, and we all get busy, and busyness is the enemy of connection, and so I love the point that he made and I'd really.

Speaker 1:

If you don't have time to read the book, I encourage you to go and listen to the podcast on the um. If you go to Justin Whitmull early um podcast about how the art of relationships and friendships, you will find that episode to be so helpful, and so I just recommend that you read this book because there's so many great takeaways. If not, listen to the podcast and I hope that you get great value out of it. Book number three was a very interesting read. Chapter one started off with a bizarre example of a study that was done and but nonetheless it proved its point.

Speaker 1:

So book number three is called Dopamine Nation Finding Balance in the Age of Indulgence, and I'm sure that you're aware that we live in a high dopamine society, where we have everybody has their own vice, so to speak, to feed their dopamine, and whether it's social media, the news, the, you know, for some people it's video games, pornography, addictions, all of those different things is a way that we, as humans, give ourselves a dopamine, and that can become a big problem. So, essentially, this book dives into the neurochemical underpinnings of pleasure and pain, and so explores the pursuit of instant gratification through technology, substances and habits that has led to an epidemic of addiction. She talks about the dopamine seaside. The pleasure and the pain are two sides of the same coin, and indulging too much can tip towards the balance of pain. And essentially, in our modern world, addiction is everywhere, and from sugar to overstimulating pathways, and so she recommends doing a dopamine fast, which is you could take a break from things that are perhaps overstimulating you and addictive behaviors that you are engaging with, whether they are detrimental to you or not. It could be a fast from social media, fast from your phone, sugar, whatever it is, but essentially it's important for us to embrace discomfort in order to build resilience, and then we can experience things in a way that is simple, but simpler things can bring us pleasure and we can kind of even out that dopamine imbalance that we have in our world, because it's very hard in our modern world, I find, stay more focused to um, essentially, we're just in such a hamster wheel of this dopamine cycle that we don't even realize how much we're affected by by that until we stop and actually take some intention and perhaps do a dopamine fast to have some clarity and figure out how you want to move forward. And so she also talks about how healthy relationships and meaningful engagements are the antidotes to overindulgence and addiction. So this book was really fascinating and it's got a lot of science backed data in there and I really enjoyed it. And it's got a lot of science-backed data in there and I really enjoyed it and it really helped me to reevaluate some of my daily life and some of my habits.

Speaker 1:

In the fourth book, which is a bonus book I know I said book three, but this is a book that I want to leave you with as well it is a book that I read prior, several years ago, and I reread in 2024. I really think this is a powerful book. It is more in the faith department, so it's called the Circle Maker by Mark Batterson, and Mark Batterson explores the power of prayer through the metaphor of circling promises, dreams and challenges in persistent prayer. So he draws on biblical stories and personal experiences and emphasizes on bold and specific prayers can lead to miraculous results. Now I personally witnessed the rewards of what he talks about in this book and prayers and specific prayers that and so 2024 was a year that two really, really big things that I've been contending for years have been answered, and I'm continuing to dream big, continuing to pray hard, continuing to circle specific things in prayer and being persistent in what it is that I feel like is in line with the purposes and plans that God has for my life and for people in my life.

Speaker 1:

And so I'm really excited to share this book because if you need your faith activated, if you want to understand how prayer works, if you're someone who maybe has never prayed before, if you're curious about it, this is a great book to start and it's a it has really interesting stories and metaphors and, again drawing from his personal experiences, but it was very helpful to me to kind of re knew my knowledge about it and be able to utilize and continue to utilize the steps For me.

Speaker 1:

I love writing down my dreams and specific requests on index cards, and the best part is when those things come true and I get to cross them off in a big X. And so I have some two big X's off the list this year past year and I'm excited to continue to cross off more because I'm really believing for some things to come to pass. That may seem impossible, but I believe that with God, there's a lot is possible, so I'm really excited. All right, well, guys, thank you so much for hanging around and if you made it this far on the podcast, congratulations. I hope you got some value out of that and I wish you a happy, a fabulous, a healthy 2025.

Speaker 1:

I hope you challenge yourself this year, I hope you grow this year and that you just experience wonder, above all, just the beauty and the wonder of the small and little things, because and the wonder of the small and little things because life is too short to not enjoy life and a bonus for you here if you have confetti, pull it out, take moments to celebrate life because, again, life is too short to hoard your confetti and not pop it during celebrations, and so thank you so much for listening. Have a fabulous year and I'll see you. So much for listening, have a fabulous year and I'll see you in the next episode. Thank you for listening to the Once we Dare podcast. It is an honor to share these encouraging stories with you. If you enjoy the show, I would love for you to tell your friends. Leave us a reviewer rating and subscribe to wherever you listen to podcasts, because this helps others discover the show. You can find me on my website, speckhopoffcom.