21-Day Fast Testimony — Shane Idleman

Prayer, Fasting, and the Crisis of Late-Term Abortion

Before I get into the two chairs up here and what they're here for, a lot of you came in a little bit after I announced or welcomed everyone, but we received some news. Many of you have received as well too about the vote that happened in New York, where they passed legislation that you can board a child up to nine months in the womb.

If it's born, it's murder. If it's still in the womb, then the day before, I guess it's not. And my wife and I just kind of sat in silence last night, and not much to talk about and ponder. And it's difficult.

It's difficult to try to process all this, to see what we're leaving for our kids and for our grandkids. And out of that came the article that I think most of you have. I think they passed them out at the front there.

If you didn't, they have them on your way out. And I don't remember exactly the title, but you can see there by the title. Anyway, obviously, as they normally do, a Christian organization picked it up.

It's usually picked up by about five or six of the big Christian news organizations. And the one today on Christian headlines, I think, is over 115 ,000 shares. Just today. And so that means I'm probably gonna get some emails and some nasty responses.

As it stands now, I'm supposed to do a Skype with Fox News tomorrow with Lauren Green on her podcast and talk about this issue and some other issues as well. And I'll just kind of shoot you straight, it's Wednesday night.

But sometimes it just feels like you're just motivating the cheerleaders. What's this gonna accomplish? I mean, people have driven in their heels on each side and nobody's really gonna budge. However, there are a lot of people in the middle, number one.

Number two is, if God is opening these doors, and God is moving by his spirit, and God is wanting us to be bold and contend, then that's where I think we can really make a difference. The reason I'm saying that is because what we're gonna talk about tonight is vitally important.

I think what God has done in my life, the life of this church, and the life of many of you, is done because of prayer and fasting. Prayer and fasting and worship. And I actually received an email from the lady who's interviewing me on Fox News.

And she's in New York, and she said, Shane, we're so broken over this. What are we supposed to do? How can we stop this? There's an answer out there, and there is an answer. It's prayer, and fasting, and seeking God, and getting back to holiness, and righteousness, and being filled with his spirit.

Because when you're filled with his spirit, you're an arrow in the hands of the living God. That's how we make a difference. And so on one hand, it's disheartening. But on the other hand, it makes a lot of sense because the pulpits are silent.

The churches are down to an hour service. They're more interested in football. So we're hoping that this will spark some type of motivation in Christians to get on their face before God and start contending for what is right.

Fasting as a Neglected Christian Discipline

And part of that is fasting. It's a discipline that has been going on for thousands of years. It really kind of was hidden for the last 20, 30, 40, 50 years, at least based on the books I read, the research I do.

Because when I would read early church fathers, they would talk about fasting often. John Wesley talked about it in his journals before ordaining men to the ministry. He would make sure that they were fasting.

And also, you look at Jesus when he said, when you give, when you pray, and when you fast. Why this is so important is fasting is starving the flesh. It's the only mechanism I know of where you can actually starve the fuel source that causes us to sin, starves the fuel source that causes us to want to walk away from God, or to drift, or say things like, worship music is boring.

I want to watch football. I want to do all the things of the world. I don't want the things of God. Fasting arrests the appetite. It suppresses those fleshly desires. And we're not talking about monks where they kind of got carried away with beating themselves with whips, and everything in the natural is evil, and we've got to starve the flesh in that sense.

It's not that. What fasting does is it allows you to remove the desires of the flesh. The flesh is always calling, and you begin to starve that. And as you begin to pray and seek God, praying and fasting, it's a powerful one-two punch.

I don't know about you, but after a full meal, big meal, I can't fast, or I'm sorry, I can't pray very well. And that's one reason why I don't eat in the morning. I try not to eat in the morning and just fast as much, as long as I can throughout the day until later on.

And again, we don't want to turn this into legalism or works, but there's an aspect there of self-control and controlling the body. And when we start to give in to things, I have to give in to Starbucks.

I have to get my Diet Pepsi on the way home, or my Snickers bar. I have to get this. I have to get this. We begin to listen to the flesh, and you will begin to lose that spiritual edge. You'll begin to, that sword will no longer become a sharp.

Beginning a Corporate 21-Day Fast

And we start to become dull because the flesh is leading and guiding us in many areas. So we started a 21-day fast at the beginning of January. I'm also not naive. I know that majority of the people at this church did not take me up on that.

And because I know it's difficult, it's challenging. But I want to give you another opportunity. I want to maybe have this be the motivation or catalyst that sparks us to get into a season of fasting in this church.

I believe it's vitally important. But I also know not everyone can do it for timing and different things. And then maybe someone else can start at this time. And then when somebody else is stopping, somebody else is starting their fast.

A lot of it depends on work. A lot of it depends on weaning off of caffeine, sugar, nicotine, alcohol, and processed foods. And it's a process there. Now, I'm gonna have somebody come up who's actually made it 21 days.

Water only, to show you you're not gonna die. And believe it or not, I hope it's okay that I'm saying this. But Anna in our nursery actually went 21 days or 20 days with just water only. Seeking God and talking about the clarity that these people are getting.

And I feel a little bad, I haven't went 21 days water only, cuz you start to think that is ridiculous. I can't do that, I'm gonna die, and you really don't. After a couple days, your hunger fades. So also what I'm gonna do is if you can think of any questions that you could ask, just a real quick question, since there's not an extra mic, I'll repeat the question so people know.

And if they're filming this, they'll know what the question is. But you can kind of think of a few questions that you might wanna ask. Because you have to prepare yourself mentally, physically, emotionally.

And if you just wanna just go cold turkey, that's fine. I think that the Bible advocates that. You just give up something, you start. But also using wisdom. Because if you're just gonna stop 400 milligrams of caffeine, your nicotine, alcohol, processed foods, and think you're not going to experience withdrawals, then you got another thing coming, but you can pray.

I have seen people say, Shane, I didn't experience any of that. Praise God, I wish I was you. But the body sometimes reacts to these things. So I'm gonna go ahead and have Rick come up and take this mic and we'll test it as well.

You lost some weight too, I think. About a pound a day is what happened. So you can sit at this one. Is it working? Yeah. Okay, great. Well, I don't even know where to start because this is such a big topic.

Rick’s Testimony of a 21-Day Water Fast

But I think the main question would be, what was the motivation? Cuz I think you need some motivation to go 21 days in fast. Honestly, I didn't wanna do it.

You didn't wanna do it? I had done Try to put up a little bit there. I did the fast a couple months ago, seven days, and it was amazing. Because I woke up that morning, and God just put it on my heart.

He said, do not eat. And I didn't know how long that was going for, and it went for seven days. And it happened to be during the revival conference that you had here. And it tore me up. I mean, I could hear a worship song, and I'd break down and cry.

It was awesome. And I knew I was gonna do it again, but I didn't know when. And then Shane called a fast, and I'm like, no, it's not time. It's not time. It's not time. Your flesh will always tell you that, by the way.

Your flesh will always say it's not time. So I considered, hey, you know what, maybe I'll give up dinner, maybe I'll do this. But the closer I got to it, it was like, no, you're gonna give up food, and you're gonna go as long as you can.

I don't know how long that's gonna be, but I just made up my mind. If I start to feel sick, if I don't feel right, if I'm too weak, I'm just gonna eat, I'm not gonna put myself in danger. But I did it because this was a corporate fast, and it's not for me.

It was for you. I did it for this church and for the people in this church, praying for you guys, that's why I committed to it. Because this was a corporate fast, and I knew that other people would be participating in whatever way that is.

It doesn't have to be complete no food. It's whatever you decide to give up that your body says, no, I want. And you say, no, you can't have it, and God honors that.

He sure does. And I think a lot of people think that hunger gets stronger and stronger and stronger. It actually doesn't, it starts to subside. And if you've ever just stopped, let's say coughing donuts, for example.

That impulse or that desire is actually just as hard as food. And there's addictions out there, and there's different things. And I think God will honor you wherever you're at. I know I'm a little convicted tonight as far as praying for the church and doing a corporate fast for the church.

But how many days did it take before the physical hunger stopped? But also the spiritual, when you could tell, cuz sometimes the first couple days you're not in a good mood spiritually either. At least I'm not.

It got confusing. And honestly, during the whole 21 days, there was many times when I just said, God, where are you? I'm praying, I'm seeking you, I'm being obedient. And I have to question myself, am I doing this for myself, or am I doing this for you?

Trying to stay on point. But three days, the first three days is the toughest. And for about a week, I would wake up in the middle of the night and be thinking of food. And I wasn't necessarily thinking, hey, I gotta get up and eat.

But I'm thinking of, that looks good, and that looks good. And then in the middle of this whole thing, which made it even tougher, was we had committed to feeding the homeless on Sunday night. So I have now fed three times on Sunday night and made the food without even being able to taste it to see if it's good.

So my wife's been my taste tester. But so at about a week, no more thinking about it at night. It wasn't something I was meditating on. I just really didn't think about food. I could look at food and say, that looks good, it probably tastes good.

But I could turn around and walk away from it. And I went to many breakfasts, lunches, people eating around me, going to a restaurant, and not eating, it was no problem, just give me water.

Wow, that's amazing. What about the spiritual? Cuz I think that's something people need to understand. I've never done a fast where, I think the longest I've went is nine days, where you're walking on clouds every day and worship's just ascending from heaven.

And you're just filled with the spirit of God all day, it's an amazing experience. There are times where your flesh will fight against you. There are times where you won't feel like continuing. And I think some of that sometimes is part of that test of perseverance, of commitment.

If it's so easy, it would be not a problem at all. And I've talked about this, I think a few months ago, I don't remember exactly. I've talked about so many different things. But the first time I tried two days of water only.

I went up into a cabin, brought water with me, and it was not easy. But by the time the second day, there's something, sometimes something happens. And worship just comes alive. And I found myself on my face, worshiping and crying.

And just because of God just pouring in and the flesh being submitted to what God wanted to do and rewarding that. He's a rewarder of those who diligently seek him. And it's difficult in that diligence, in that continuing, in that steadfastness.

But there is a reward after that commitment. But I'll never forget that day, because it's like a switch turns on. Where you hear music, and you say, that sounds really good. But then there's a time where it hits your soul, deep in your spirit, where it's ministering to you.

And the worship, the Bible just comes alive. But it took a while, because the flesh doesn't go easily. It fights, and it kicks, and it screams, just like a two-year-old, not wanting to go somewhere.

Preparing Wisely for Fasting

And maybe my encouragement would be, try a meal tomorrow. Just say, I'm not gonna have breakfast, I'm not gonna have lunch. And what kept me away from fasting for many years was the lie that I was borderline hypoglycemic.

I was told that, I was told I need to eat every two and a half to three hours, because your dad is this. And I was told that in my 20s. And come to find out, I was addicted to sugar. That's why I would need that sugar high every few hours.

But you do need to be smart, you need to be strategic. You don't wanna be naive if your body is telling you something different, and you do have health issues. Obviously, diabetes would be something you'd have to keep an eye on.

And there's a good book on, a lot of studies on fasting and diabetes, and getting people off of their medication. And actually, diabetes is a diet-related disease, type 2 diabetes, not type 1. And it can be often cured through fasting and eating correctly.

Often, did you experience any physical, like, I know my eyesight improved, I know my mental clarity, just everything.

Yeah, my eyesight seemed to get a little better. It wasn't where I would like it to be, but there was clarity. About day eight, I found myself mentally sharper than I normally am, and functioning at work was easy.

It felt like I could get more done. Even though I didn't have a ton of energy, I could make decisions very quick. I could look at a problem, I could solve it, and everything was coming very easy. I felt like I was getting a lot done during the day that I normally wouldn't.

Some stuff, it's not important, we'll put that to the side. And I wasn't putting anything to the side. I was just, just get it done. And I expressed that to you after about a week, and it was very clear.

It was very crisp in my mind that that was what was going on, that it was clear.

Spiritual Benefits and the Discipline of Self-Control

And the thing for believers is, we go into this primarily for the spiritual benefits, obviously. That's the goal, is you're starving the flesh to be filled with the spirit, if I could sum it up. But God always honors a spiritual discipline.

You'll never see where a spiritual discipline will hurt you physically. It always helps the physical, calming of anger. I know in my own life, even desire for sugar and sweets and caffeine and different things subsided.

It takes a little while, there's a struggle there. And you don't wanna beat yourself up, because I remember a couple days into it, I just, I'm like, I can't take this. I grabbed a handful of nuts. And then kind of felt bad and convicted, but got back on track.

And it's still, I believe, I don't think God's watching every little crumb. It's about where's the heart at? This is a time of seeking him. And you look at even Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther, David, Elisha. I mean, throughout the Old Testament, there's a lot of fasting.

Jesus fasted 40 days. And it's ironic that he didn't begin his ministry until after he fasted. The Holy Spirit came upon him in the baptism that he had. It was led into the wilderness by the Holy Spirit, where he subdued the flesh.

And the devil came at him and said, you can turn these stones into bread. And Jesus said, man does not live but by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. And he was strengthened, I believe, spiritually.

We see Paul fasting. Many times we see Peter fasting. We see it's just a spiritual discipline because your flesh is either growing stronger or it's growing weaker. It's very hard to keep it at a very even keel.

That's why you'll see people just giving themselves over to food and to sugar and to these things. And then they just keep falling and just can't seem to get back on track. And they just, if they have this for breakfast, then they, well, forget it.

I might as well have this for lunch. The day's halfway over, I might as well just blow it at dinner. And then they get up in the morning, they're depressed because they had a bad day and they start that cycle of defeat all over again.

So it's really about subduing the flesh. And the more you subdue the flesh, the more you'll be filled with the spirit. So how did it, just week by week, it got harder? No, it got easier. And What made you decide to stop at 21 and that was the goal?

That was the goal.

That was the number you set. But honestly, I could have kept going. I mean, I asked my wife. I wasn't, it wasn't like, you know, it wasn't like planning my first meal a week ahead of time, thinking, what am I gonna have?

That's what I did. That was my mistake. And I eased back into it very simply, you know, bone broth, then green juice, kale, blueberries, keep it simple, salad. But, and I've had no issues. But the spiritual side that you're talking about, God was moving.

I was saying, God, where are you? But every day I'd look and say, man, look, look at what he's happening. Some of you have come to feed the homeless with us on Sunday. And what is happening there is unbelievable.

This is not just us walking in and serving a meal. We are getting to know these people. We are loving these people. And they are responding back. They are praying with us. They are, they're looking for help.

And, and some miracles have happened there already. Every time we go, something happens. And my wife and I just look at each other when we leave going, I, I think we were blessed more than them tonight.

You know, just an example, last week we went in, we prayed for a lot of people. There's a very old guy there who can't, he can't walk. He, he has a little walker, but he gets there and he sits in his bed and he doesn't move.

And you have to bring him his food because he can't get up and walk. And he sits in a certain position because he, he can't even lay flat. And, and I've been talking to him. His name's Steve and, and he's broken and he's telling me, he's believes that he's close to death.

But he says, you know, I, I need two things. He goes, I'm too old for this. I can't, I can't live out here anymore. I need to be inside and I need a wheelchair. So, I was gonna send a, a email to Susie when she got in and say, hey, anybody got a wheelchair?

And I told my wife first thing in the morning, I said, you know, just post it on Facebook, we need a wheelchair. For sure. Within an hour, she gets a call from somebody. The VFW brought over a brand new wheelchair.

I've got to put it together in the garage. I'm taking it over to them Friday night. Wow. But it's, it's actions like that. But I think that, that because that whole time it was a, it was a, God, where are you?

I know you're there. I'm, I'm doing this for you. I'm being obedient. And there is that, that, you know, taking control of the flesh. And that, that was, that was huge. And I, I even have something that I wrote that just downloaded on me.

Fasting, Obedience, and Ministering to Others

Because through it all, between yesterday and today, yesterday I broke the fast, and today is the second day. And God has done some, some things that can only be defined by him, that I would like to share, that, that I, I couldn't, what has happened today was unbelievable, what happened yesterday.

A lot of you guys know, we do a men's group every other Tuesday night, and this thing's been growing. It's growing to the point that we have to bring it to the church. It's a wonderful thing. But I rely on God every time to put on my heart what we're gonna talk about.

And I, we originally started with books, and we decided to throw them out because it's been so powerful. So sometimes I get it right the day after the next meeting. So I'm preparing for two weeks, and sometimes I don't.

And this time, God was giving me nothing. He was not there. But I trusted, and I knew that you will give me something before Tuesday night. And I'm not gonna worry about it, and I'm not gonna sit down and stress.

I'm just gonna trust that you're gonna bring it. Well, he waited till Tuesday morning. Talk about the final hour. I, I have it in my pocket, I read. And this is what we went over last night in the men's group.

And that came to me, and I wrote it all down in probably 20 minutes. And, and that's what we went over. And, and it's exactly what you're talking about. It's talking about that if we don't deny our flesh, the spirit can't take over.

We're not allowing God to have control of us if we say, I know what's best for me. And, and it, that's part of it. That fasting, there's other ways that you can do that. You can deny your flesh in many ways, but fasting is certainly one of them.

But this morning, I, I, this is the miracle I wanna share with you. I have an employee at work that I needed to write up. Really, he needed to be terminated. And it wasn't a, it was inappropriate behavior towards a female employee.

And I knew that I had to come in this morning and deal with it. But something in my heart said, no, you're just gonna write him up. You're gonna give him a warning. And I, and I do that often. If I'm accused of anything, it's being too lenient.

But, but I knew that that's what I was gonna do, that I was gonna write him up. And so I'm leaving this morning, and I grab my work bag, and I'm taking it to work. And I just felt in my heart, I'm like, no, you need to grab the bag from last night, from the men's group, with what I had written on it, and all our notes.

So okay, I'll take it. Thought maybe he was gonna have me work on it during lunch or something. So, the Lord just convicts me as I'm talking to this man, that I need to tell him that he's a sex addict.

So, there's a lady with me when we're doing the write up, and then I ask her to leave, and she leaves, and it's just him and I right there. And I tell him, I said, look, you're a sex addict. And I said, I know, cuz I used to be one.

And I said, this isn't something that is gonna easily go away. And he just looks at me. And I said, it can go away, but you have to work at it. And it's gonna ruin your life if you don't. And I could see a tear welling up in his eye.

And he says, I am a sex addict. And I said, and it gets better. He said, I cried about this last night, and I prayed to God this morning to take this away. And now you are talking to me about it. And I said yes, and I spent 30 minutes with him.

And I went over everything that we went in the men's group last night about how it is that we need to take control over ourselves. He is saved, he does believe in Jesus. He doesn't go to church, he's not currently trying.

And this guy is, this is a grown man, and he's in tears as we're talking. He is crying. And I just keep pouring into him, and pouring into him. And I say, you know what, I have a group, and we can help you.

This is not specifically for this, but it's for anything that you're struggling with. We come alongside each other, and we help each other. And I said, I'm gonna invite you. I said, you know where I'm at, you know how to get ahold of me.

You tell me you want to come, and I'll tell you where it's at. But I'm not gonna force you to come. And he looked right at me, and he said, look, if I don't come, I'm turning away from God, because I asked him for this, he brought it to me.

It's right here in front of me, and I have to come. Yeah. And that wasn't me. Wow, that's awesome.

It's on Tuesdays, so we're starting here February 5th. And it's not just a Pure Desire class, it's men mentoring men. It's a men's study here next door in this room every other Tuesday, starting on the 5th, so that was kind of a good plug for that.

Fasting as a Means of Spiritual Empowerment

But that's a great point, because I know most of you are feeling you want to do more for God. God's not moving in you, you're not seeing maybe healings, you're not seeing things like this, your family, nothing.

I would encourage you to consider fasting, even if it's just a meal or for the day, you don't have to go 21 days and 10 days, and you do whatever God puts on your heart. But there's gotta be a fighting against the flesh, a desire to want to be filled with the Spirit.

There's two conflicting forces, well, the Holy Spirit's not a force, it's a person, part of the triune nature of God. But there's that confliction that the Spirit wants you to do this and be full of the Spirit and go out and do things like this, lead of the Spirit, but the flesh wants to pull you back to the things of the flesh.

So fasting is the one big thing in our arsenal that we have that can actually starve the flesh. It will actually starve and be filled with the Spirit. And this isn't new to Christianity. Prayer and fasting were practiced and were disciplines for centuries.

It's just in our American culture, we kinda wanna get away from all those things that are difficult. So it's been ingrained in biblical theology for many years. And do you guys have any questions out there?

Fasting and Private Devotional Life

So how did it change your private devotional time? What did it look like to you? Okay, cuz I know when you don't eat, you have some extra time on your hands.

I sure did. But actually, I felt like it was worse. We have a very good discipline. We get up very early in the morning, and we read the word, and we pray, and we just spend a lot of time every day. We know how important that is.

But my sleep got really funky. When you're not eating, your body doesn't require as much sleep. So I'm sleeping three and four hours a night, wide awake. I don't wanna be awake, but I can't go to sleep.

So we get up, it's not unusual for us to spend at least two hours every day in prayer and worship. And we continued to do that. But it wasn't, the first time when I did it for a week, you're right, it was like I was immersed in that Holy Spirit, and he was with me always, all day, it was unbelievable.

This time, it wasn't that way, but I could easily just look around me and see what he was doing, that he was using me. And that was my prayer the whole time, every day. It's only that, you know what, do whatever you have to do to break me, to humble me, to have no pride.

That if I can't say what you want me to say and do what you want me to do, why go out? And that's my prayer every day, and he just keeps doing it. He keeps using me in ways that just astonish me.

And I think sometimes, possibly God maybe withdraws a little bit, like how bad do you want it? Are you still gonna seek me? Even when you don't feel a tremendous move of my spirit? Are you still going to discipline yourself?

And the reason sleep is hard is your body, growth hormone levels are raised quite substantially, and that's actually good. Growth hormone is great for anti-aging. Anybody wanna slow that down? So growth hormone is very important as we get older, because it begins to diminish.

So in fasting, growth hormone levels are elevated. Also, a couple other hormones are elevated as well. I remember, same thing, I'm looking at the clock, it's 11 o 'clock, and I can't go to bed till 1 in the morning.

And then you get up three hours later, but your body eventually adjusts to that. It's just a matter of the increase in hormones, and your body's adjusting while you're doing that. So don't plan on getting a lot of sleep.

But it does come a little bit later sometimes. Maybe in your case it didn't, but after about, I don't know, five, six days, I just started having deep sleep like I've never felt before. So deep, like you're a baby again, and you're conked out, and you wake up, and you have a lot more energy.

You don't have to get your cup of coffee and barely pull yourself out of bed, drag yourself out of bed. I mean, you feel good because your body was rested. That's why many people have to drag themselves out of bed and have a strong cup of coffee, because their sleep did not do what it was intended to do.

And that is heal the body. A person should get a good, solid seven, eight hour night's sleep. Maybe wake up once and get up feeling a little tired, but somewhat refreshed and ready for the day. Not like they just got hit by a semi truck.

Are we gonna add to that? No, but I never got that. And I read that, I looked up on it, and I thought, after about a week, I'm gonna be able to get some good sleep, and it never came. Last night was my first good night's sleep.

Okay, and it comes, it's so refreshing, it really is. Any questions on this side? How much water, what type of water? It was more in the beginning.

I hope, maybe I was getting sick of water, but that's all I drink. That's all I ever drink is water. But when I started, almost the first week, I was drinking almost 200 ounces a day, which is a lot. And that's how I curbed that appetite the first few days, cuz I just flooded myself with water so that it was full.

The water that I do drink, I drink regular filtered water, but I try to drink at least one tall, if not two tall bottles of pH water, because I found that the minerals in the pH water help my energy levels.

And then I took that even one step further, because it's the potassium, magnesium, sodium, calcium. Those are the minerals that your body's missing when you're drinking a purified water, because if I were fasting in the mountains and I'm drinking water of a stream, it's coming through the rocks.

It's got those minerals in it. But I wasn't getting those minerals, and you can feel it. You just feel lethargic, you feel tired. But if you put a little bit of salt, like a quarter of a teaspoon of salt, and take a 90 or 200 milligrams of potassium, it's like drinking an energy drink.

You just, boom, I'm ready to go, and it just sustains me for a while. And I would only do that once a day. And that was in the morning, getting up, all right, I'm going to work, I got to be ready, and I would just do that.

Potassium and sodium made a big difference.

Yeah, and a lot of people don't realize when they're actually eating, they are taking in a lot of water. Bananas, oranges, fruit, lettuce, vegetables, even a hamburger, with your bread and different things, lettuce.

And you're getting a lot of water in. So when you just stop all food, your body is craving more water. And that's a good point. Like in biblical times, they would drink the fresh water that was full of the electrolytes and the minerals.

And nowadays, if you get distilled water, especially, that's dead water. And then purified water sometimes can remove a lot of the essential minerals and things. But there are little drops you can buy at a health food store that will give you a very good balance of all the minerals from potassium to calcium to zinc and iron and all the things, sodium, that your body needs.

So I would encourage people to drink as much water as they feel they need, but not to go overboard, too, because you can overhydrate the body. And you don't need to just consume so much water where your stomach's hurting and you just do what your body needs.

Also, the body has a wonderful ability to break down vitamins and minerals that have been stored in other areas of your body through times of fasting. A need to monitor your blood sugar level. Yeah, it depends on if a person's, like, type 2 diabetes.

Of course, type 1, I wouldn't recommend. Yeah, I mean, if you have the little, you know, the pinprick or the testers, you could keep your talk with your physician, see what level he wants to keep you at, and kind of measure it to see, make sure you're not dropping too low.

But also measure it, like, after a person has a lot of sugar intake, it can really skyrocket it as well. So I would measure it if you think it's a problem, you know, and see, kind of play around with it a little bit and see what your readings are.