blog post
Fasting on French
Last year – that’s November 2024, I decided a short water fast would be a good idea. I had been reading and listening to countless podcasts and it made perfect sense that it can be incredibly beneficial not only for the body and the mind.
Cellular repair and recycling, autophagy (cells of body literally “self+eating”) and a gut microbiome ‘reset’ sounded like the perfect health protocol to do. The positive effects promised for brain health reverberated in my mind after witnessing cognitive decline in my beloved mother and subtly present with my beloved father too. Mental clarity and reducing inflammation in the brain? I packed my bags.
I had a little practice with up to about 24 hours of water fasting, but it was incredibly challenging when food is accessible to us 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Fasting in an urban environment was just too hard!
I found a natural, honest – what is it called these days? – biohack. A way to fast that, in retrospect, mimicks how our ancestors might have experienced it: live in nature, get sunlight, sleep on the ground, feel the earth on bare feet, breathe in the clean air, swim in the ocean and surrender to what is.
The natural, supporting, nourishing, nurturing, life-giving environment I was living in and amongst, made the difference...
That’s almost exactly how it happened, except I had the “luxury” of a tent, sleeping bag and chair. I arrived on French Island (Victoria, Australia) with my very basic camping gear with no food – just my portable water filter jug and sea salt for daily electrolytes. (There is tank rain-water at the campsite) Already, this signals my brain: “Time to surrender, forget food, you’ll be fine, nowhere to get food, so just let go…” And, surprisingly, I did.
French Island is the perfect place in my opinion to try a 2-day or longer fast if you can handle it. You see, even if I did get hungry (I didn’t and I elaborate more soon), the closest and only food store was about 6 kilometres away, a 2 hour walk. That’s the perfect deterrent, distraction and frankly, supporting factor to keep on with the water fast! I fasted without struggle, with relative ease and no hunger- just tranquility. Why? Here’s my take: I was immersed in pure and preserved nature (a third of French Island is national reserve), nourished daily by the sun and elements, safely cocooned in the healing embrace of Mother nature.
Let’s start with the absence of: No cars, no air or noise pollution to assault the senses, no artificial blue light throughout day, no access to food store, no air-conditioning, no heating, no street lights. There was however, exclusively abundantly– just nature! Sun, sea, sand, koalas, echidnas, snakes (I never saw one though), potaroos (like a miniature kangaroo-x-rat), bush rats, abundant birdlife, flies flies and more flies, and at night a clear starry sky.
What I feel – no, know that made the fast struggle-less and dare I say – easy, was being in nature, fully. The natural, supporting, nourishing, nurturing, life-giving environment I was living in and amongst, made the difference; that made my 7-day water fast go without any suffering, hunger or angst. In fact, I felt a little euphoric at times, and always calm and peaceful. I experienced a kind of sense of relief, unshackled from any pressure to do anything. I found myself day dreaming a lot. I observed ants and admired the small sparrows and gasped in delight when I saw up close – very close! – a koala. I followed the echidna as it buried it’s face into the earth making holes everywhere. I had no tasks except hang out with Gaia! Nothing to do (in terms of modern living) except surrender and just accept….and enjoy it actually! It was the perfect, natural place to be to cleanse the body, mind and soul; giving the body time and space to repair, recycle and restore, without the effort and energy of digesting and metabolising food.
If I could narrow it down even more, I’d place the top 3 elements that nourished my body during 7 days of no food would be: 1, the daily sun, 2, the electromagnetic energy from the earth (aligning my electrical circuitry with the earths), and the clean pure air from the trees. Will I do it again? I’ve since done a 3-day and 5-day fast on French, but a 7 -day fast again? Maybe a new location.
Why? Because those sandflies at French island are totally nuts! Thank you Mother nature. Thank you French Island! 
Won’t miss the flies though, sorry. 