LETTER TO SELF ON EXPERIENCE OF 14 DAYS SUPER FAST

To Mr. Arthur Aranha (Replica)

MUMBAI.

Dear Mr. Arthur Aranha,

Dr. Bhagyesh Kulkarni of Diabetes Free Forever recently announced to the Abundance Batch participants that he wishes to start a 14 days Super Fast Challenge. I was shocked! 14 days continues fast !! OMG.!!! I had not done even 3 days of fast and getting straight into 14 days fast, was something I could not even fathom!

But, you know, what bothered me was my growing belly fat. I was seriously thinking how to reduce it. Yes I did walking, doing exercises, meditation etc. everyday but my belly was not listening. May be I did some deviations in diet. So, I thought this was an opportunity to try to reduce the belly fat within 14 days. You know what, I did reduce my belly size by 2 inches flat within 9 days of the fast, having already lost 18 kgs earlier during diabetes reversal. Remarkable, isn’t it?

You must be wondering how I achieved this. Definitely it is not easy. It has to be done in a systematic way and for that Dr. Bhagyesh Kulkarni was my mentor and guru. His directions by way of webinars helped me to follow the fasting guidelines on a day to day basis. First he provided a chart for initial 7 days of fast, which was slightly modified to 9 days on account of Mentors’ Meet on 16th November.

What I today admire was his method of making me commit to this fast. On the first day he said, the first 7 days of fast is easier and the second phase of 7 days was more challenging. On that presumption, I went through the first 7 to 9 days thinking that this was easier part.

But only after completion of the 9 days that I realized that the second part was easier than the first. While the first part was increasing the fasting period on alternate days and decreasing the eating window, the second part was reverse – decreasing the fasting period and increasing the eating window. A great and effective way to challenge the participants. I admire his way of convincing me to start. I considerably benefitted from this fast.

Yes, the initial 24 hours fasting period was real challenge. But it was made easy by keeping the fasting period to 16 hours and eating window to 8 hours, and then to 24 hours and gradually increasing the fasting period to 18,20, 24 hours. This trained by stomach to absorb whatever was coming in either by way of juices, smoothie, raw food till the 11th day when one full meal of 40:30:20 was permitted. To my good fortunate, I did not have to experience any of the symptoms that are otherwise observed during such super fast. That may be because I am otherwise following the DFF protocols regularly.

One thing surprising was, hunger pangs and cravings were not at all experienced. I could not believe it!. Even on water fasting day, when I remembered some of my favourite food items, I had no cravings for them. Wonderful, isn’t it?

Dr. Bhagyesh taught me to think of the farmers, dealers, shop keepers, their staff and to thank them for their toil, effort is making available the vegetable, fruits and food items on my table which helped me to nourish my body. Yes, I did remember them and thanked them during this period, in particular.

Surprise of surprises is that I could travel by road to Pune and back during one of the days of Juice Fasting without any hiccups.

If you have to savor food and be thankful for it, you need to do long fast. You won’t believe, I really relished the salad after 48 hours of continuous hours of fast. That is the time I realized the importance of food!.

On the spiritual front, I did nature connect by connecting to the earth, the sun, sky and water every day. By doing Anulom/Vilom I got connected to air. This way I experienced that connecting to these five elements my body responded in a positive way. Meditation was another way in which I could connect to the creator.

I must say doing the fast in a group has its own advantages. There is support, encouragement, and a challenge. I am thankful to all the group members for being there during this journey of 14 days. Dr. Bhagyesh asked me to make a pledge on the very first day that I will do the 14 days Super Fast. I hesitatingly made the pledge first for 7 days and then to extend it depending upon the experience. At every stage whenever I had a thought whether I was going in the right direction, I remembered the pledge. It kept me going not only for 7 days but for the entire period of 14 days with determination.

I am really grateful to my wife for whole heartedly supporting me and encouraging me to complete this fast. She is more experienced in fasting than me and her support really mattered. She jokingly once said that she is jobless in the kitchen on account of this fast!!

I love you man and I love Dr. Bhagyesh Kulkarni, for his commitment, his style, his direction, and encouragement, without which this achievement would not have been possible. Waking up everyone at 5.30am and himself much earlier, is definitely a challenge and I must say, he did it wonderfully.

I am very happy today that I have completed the SUPER FAST CHALLENGE. It will be easier for me now to fast intermittently on an ongoing basis.

DFFly yours,

Arthur Aranha

(Original)