A while back, I did my first 40-hour fast.

I’ve done 24-hour fasts before, and they were usually a struggle. So I went into this one expecting the same thing—pushing through symptoms, watching the clock, waiting for it to be over.

But this one surprised me.

There were three things that stood out immediately.

First, I didn’t have any of the usual symptoms. No nausea, no dizziness, no fatigue, no anxiety. I didn’t take a single nap. I kept waiting for my body to hit a wall… and it never did.

Second, I usually hit a hard patch around 18–20 hours where I’m completely done. I braced myself for it. And then at one point, I checked the clock and realized I was 22 hours in—I had sailed right past it without even noticing.

And third, I didn’t get hungry. Not once. Forty hours with no food, and I wasn’t hungry at all. That had never happened to me before.

And that’s when something clicked.

Something had shifted in me.

My body trusted me.

It knew I was going to feed it at the right time. It knew I would take care of it. There wasn’t a single moment of panic, doubt, or urgency.

And that was new.

All the boundaries I had been setting—and actually keeping—had created something I had never experienced before: a real sense of safety within myself.

My body knew, without question: I’ve got it.

And historically, that wasn’t the case.

When faced with the idea of removing things like sugar, dairy, most fruit, potatoes, even wine, I used to say things like:

“I can’t do that.”
“I’m not going to do that.”
“You only live once—what’s the point if you can’t enjoy yourself?”

It sounds harmless, but it was all the same thing: helplessness. No trust. No belief in my ability to regulate my body, my cravings, or my behavior.

That’s what changed.

The body works a lot like children do.

Children may resist boundaries, but they actually need them. Without limits, they keep pushing—not because they want chaos, but because they’re looking for where it’s safe.

Where there are no boundaries, there is no sense of security.

But when there are consistent, loving, firm limits, something shifts. There’s stability. There’s trust. There’s a deep sense of certainty.

That’s what I felt in my body for the first time.

This isn’t really about fasting.

It’s about what happens when your body starts trusting you again.

When your actions are consistent enough that your system stops bracing… and starts cooperating.

So I’ll leave you with this:

What would change in your life if you truly believed you could do anything when it comes to taking care of your body?

Abi 🖤