12/11/2025
DAY 1 OF A 72 HOUR FAST
Dee and I started a 72-hour fast today. Yes, seventy-two hours. Three full days with no food. Just coffee, water, or black tea without anything added. Whenever I’ve mentioned fasting in the past, even just 24 hours, people give me that wide-eyed look like I’ve stepped off the edge of the social map again. It makes me laugh because…what did you expect from me? I tend to live outside the lines most people stick to and y'all know I have a reason for everything!
This isn’t something we jumped into without intention or preparation. You don't just decide to fast for three days without preparing, that's not healthy! We each have our own reasons for committing. For me, this is about self-improvement in every area of my life. I’m more than a year into not drinking alcohol after many years of a difficult relationship with it. Sobriety isn’t just “not drinking.” It’s reshaping my life on every level. It’s detoxing. It’s repairing my relationship to the world and to myself. And that includes caring for the organs, limbs, and systems that carry me daily. Our bodies work hard for us, even when we are sleeping!
Repair means acknowledging the harm, understanding it, and then doing the work to undo what alcohol did to my mind, body, and spirit. It means choosing, again and again, to mend and strengthen what’s still here. For me that looks like learning, practicing spirituality, moving my body, eating well, spending time in nature, and tending to ritual. This fast is part of that wider devotion. And physically, the biggest pieces I’ve been addressing are weight gain and insulin issues. I’m slowly working to reverse both problems and its working so far. How do I know it's working? That's a different post for another day!
So why are we fasting for 72 hours? Well, autophagy of course!
Autophagy deepens significantly the longer you fast, and around 72 hours the body shifts into a stronger cleanup and repair phase. Insulin drops, inflammation decreases, and stem-cell activity and immune repair increase.
Read more about autophagy below!
