Episode 81- The 5 Day Water Fast: Here’s How It Went
Episode 81 Show Notes
In this episode, I’m sharing my full experience attempting a 5-day water fast as part of my proactive cancer protocol. Spoiler alert: It did NOT go as planned. 😬
From unexpected side effects (hello, diarrhea and dry heaving) to why I had to break the fast early, I’m walking you through everything I learned and how I’m planning to adjust before I attempt this again.
If you’ve ever been curious about extended fasting, detox reactions, or how fasting may support insulin sensitivity and cancer prevention, you’ll want to tune in!
What You’ll Learn in This Episode:
✔️ The potential benefits of a 5-day water fast
✔️ The unexpected struggles that cut my fast short (it got ugly)
✔️ How I broke the fast safely and what I ate afterward
✔️ How fasting ties into cancer prevention and insulin sensitivity
Resources & Links:
🔹 Perfect Aminos (Electrolytes & Aminos I Used)
🔹 Fasting & Cancer Research
🔹 My Fat Loss Coaching Program
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If you found this episode helpful, subscribe & leave a review! I’d love to hear from you—send me a DM on Instagram and let me know if you’ve ever attempted a multi-day fast and how it went.
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Tiffany Wickes (00:01.08)
Hey, welcome back. All right, let's talk about the water fast I did. So the water fast was part of my proactive cancer protocol that my doctor gave me. And...
Tiffany Wickes (00:28.91)
So, okay, sorry Maggie. My bug is not totally ready and then I start talking anyway. All right, so the potential benefits of a five day water fast will absolutely be weight loss. The point of what we were trying to do was to improve insulin sensitivity, reduce inflammation. There are some anti-aging benefits, like effects rather, that you wouldn't see overnight, but over time you would.
see that and then you know some possible decreases in certain chronic diseases like diabetes and heart disease and cancer. So some you know some other things like you obviously aren't eating nothing right you're just drinking water. So here's a few things to know about that is with the water I had amino acids with electrolytes in my water bottle two times a day.
I was also taking these tablets of amino acids. I think they're called Perfect Aminos. I'll put the link in the show notes for you. My friend sells them and they're actually Gary Brekka's product. So I was taking those three times a day. So it's like 15 tabs a day. I mean, that's totally abnormal for normal life, right? If you're eating a well-balanced diet, but I wasn't, I was only drinking. So the first day was like, okay, not so bad.
Second day was like, yeah, this kind of sucks, but I feel like I could do that. But I started developing diarrhea. Okay. And it was like, okay, why is this happening? And I thought, well, maybe it's too much potassium because I take, potassium, geez, magnesium. Maybe it was too much magnesium because I take, I was magnesium deficient on my labs. So I take glycinate and then I take a magnesium like breakthrough blend of magnesium at night to help with sleep.
So I thought, maybe there's too much magnesium going on. So I'll just eliminate that. And there's also magnesium in the electrolyte powder. So I took away the magnesium for that second day and it was just not letting up. based off my research, it was like, okay, it's either because too much magnesium or it is also could be because I'm drinking too much fluids because you tend to over drink when you're hungry and you're trying to fill up your belly with anything. And my kidneys were just like,
Tiffany Wickes (02:53.72)
Girl, we're done. That's way too much fluid. But also I'm still breastfeeding our littlest guy. And I was like, I really don't want to get dehydrated over here. And now I've got diarrhea. So now I feel like I need to drink more. But then drinking more was probably creating more diarrhea. So it was just this like turning into this big ball of misery. And then I woke up on the third morning and was barfing. And you might imagine like, what are you puking up when you're drinking water? Well, you would be right. Like nothing.
nothing, I was puking nothing but some bile that was coming up and you know, whatever little bit of water, like I had sipped on some water when I woke up that morning, I was like, totally not feeling well here. So I was like, well, let me just take a few sips of some electrolyte water and we'll see how that goes. Nope. I was just dry heaving for like 10 minutes and then I'm like pooping out one end, dry heaving at the other. And I was like, wow, this is freaking wretched, right? So I'm like,
I don't know what to do right now. And then, you you're looking around online and boy, the internet has got some opinions about all the things. So, you know, it was like, it's a detox reaction. It's good. Just kind of muscle through. And I'm like, okay, maybe I could muscle through. But my husband wasn't there, you guys. Adam was gone. So I'm like, do I really just keep going through like feeling like absolute death here? Just shitting everywhere, dry heaving. And then like, how am I going to take care of my kids doing that? So
Lessons learned, I tapped out, I went and got some bone broth. I was like, okay, it's been two and a half days. I need to spend at least one day, like, breaking this fast appropriately. So I did. I started with some bone broth and then I got a smoothie and then I got some yogurt with some granola and I was like, keto what? While I was bringing, you know, food back into my life. Cause I was like, I need to recover from whatever that was.
So it took like the rest of the day just slowly nibbling on things. And then I felt totally fine. So at this point, I don't know exactly what it was, but I know that I did not make it the full five days. So I messaged my practitioner and I'm like, hey girl, I did not make it the full five days. Here's what happened. What do you think? And she's like, hmm, looks like we need to work on gut health and the supplements, the protocol, it's a
Tiffany Wickes (05:15.766)
the individualized protocol that she put together because they have a compounding pharmacy. She put that all together and she's like, that will help. Try it again at the end of your 30 days of keto. And I was like, kill me now. Like the last thing I want to do is to try to go back and do another five day water fast. Like I make 24 hours. OK, so with the faster way, we do 24 hour fasts, like every two months to three months.
And I had never done them before because I was breastfeeding and I'm like, I'm not doing anything to jeopardize this. If you've ever heard my story with breastfeeding Roman guys, it was, it was a push. Okay. It took 10 full months for this kid to fully grasp how to breastfeed. because he had some physiological stuff that needed to be taken care of. And you know, we had occupational therapy, had chiropractic work, body work, you know, all the things. I was like,
pumping breast milk, bottle feeding, breastfeeding, syringe feeding, finger feeding in the beginning. It was a whole thing, but I persevered. So I'm like, all right, I am no stranger to muscling through really hard things. I can do that. But I thought, God bless, I do not want to this again. But here we are. So I'd never done the 24 hour fast. However, you know, now I know I can go 24 hours. 24 hours is actually not that bad. So if you've never tried it,
Most anybody can do that safely. Most, okay, talk to your whoever, but it is part of our program. Most people can do that safely without having to do any kind of crazy prep work ahead of time. Because most of us have plenty of body fat to work with, okay? Okay. And it'll also help with cellular regeneration and autophagy, cognitive, potential improvement in cognitive functioning, blood pressure improvement, insulin sensitivity.
Cellular repair, think I already said that. I mean, those are the reasons why we do that in the program. So 24 hours piece of cake, two days was kind of like, I'm still doing it, but you know, I'm not totally a fan. But I'll be honest, like on the morning of my third day, I was like, I don't know how in the world I'm going to make it the full third day, fourth day and fifth day. I was like, I don't even know how I'm going to do this. So I don't know, maybe I got in my head about it, but I didn't actually do it because I was just so sick and felt miserable. But as soon as I ate, I was fine.
Tiffany Wickes (07:35.672)
So to this day, I do not know whether it was overloading on my kidneys. I have no idea whether it was detox reaction. I don't know whether I picked up something else that was just like a little tummy bug or whatever. I don't know what it was, but all I knew was I was not willing to potentially become electrolyte imbalanced and pass out on the floor and not be able to take care of my kids. So going forward.
Here's what I'm going to do because unfortunately I will have to do this again. I am going to make sure that Adam is home for at least the third day moving forward and get some support in that area. I am going to monitor the amount I'm drinking and not just drink ad-lib because I think potentially that came into it. I will stop taking magnesium supplements with the exception of what I take in the electrolyte powder.
Like that will remain, but the other magnesium, I will stop that before I start, but I will continue the rest of my supplements. And that is my plan, my friends. That is what I'm going to do. And fingers crossed that the next experience goes flawlessly and not eating anything for five days is just the best thing that ever happened to me. Right now, I can't possibly see that. However, we're going to give that a go again and we'll follow up. Okay. But that's what happened with the five day water fast.
Lots of people on cancer protocols do this before they accept chemotherapy. I mean, if you have a good practitioner, a regular oncologist, like, I'm not going to bet that they're going to talk to you about all of these alternative or rather accompanying methods to intake the poison. But I have read plenty that says if you fast five days prior to accepting chemo, it really targets the abnormal cells that you want.
and that the healthy cells are not uptaking the poison because the healthy cells go dormant. They're like, okay, well, we're not being fed. We're just gonna chill over here. But the cancer cells are like, give me some food. And in the chemotherapy is actually sugar because it wants these cells to uptake it. So the cancer cells will take it in. not, I mean, I don't know that I have cancer. Like I said, this is a proactive cancer protocol because I've had some labs that were less than ideal. And because I've got some insulin sensitivity or rather,
Tiffany Wickes (10:02.028)
lack of insulin sensitivity. have insulin resistance right now, but that's all breeding grounds for cancer. And that's what I'm trying to avoid right now. So we're going to do the protocol again. I will update you on how it goes, but those are the things I intend to change the next time to hopefully have a better go at this. So if you have any other, if you have any questions, make sure you ask, look it up, tell me what you think, tell me if you've ever done it. I'd love to hear you. So DM me on Instagram.
share with a friend if you ever thought about doing it or if they're curious about it. And as always, stay strong. Can't wait to hear from you again. Ciao.