My 61-Day Juice Fast: From Bodily Incarceration to Freedom

How to beat the system

It was challenging last year to feel hopeful about 2024 when, for me, it wasn’t much different from 2023, 2022, 2021, or even 2020. The years blur together, stretching back to 2014—the year my incarceration began.

No, I didn’t go to prison in the physical sense, but I entered the prison system of chronic illness. Anyone who has dealt with long-term illness, depression, or any condition that robs you of your ability to live freely out in the world knows exactly what I’m talking about.

It’s about sovereignty.

But this year was different because I did something extraordinary: I reclaimed my life.

I fasted for 61 days.

I wasn’t about to let 2025 slip away before it even began, so in October, I decided that unless I did something RADICAL, nothing would change. After years of detoxing, I realized I still hadn’t cleansed at a cellular level—not deeply enough, anyway.

But what could I do? I’d tried it all: the Amazon jungle, plant medicine, chelation, Lyme treatments, EBOO, IV chelation, Ivermectin, hyperbaric oxygen therapy, hypnosis, coffee enemas, and the list goes on. They all got me this far.

But still, I was incarcerated.

Desperate for answers, I looked to the history of the mystics and prophets who had used ancient tools like fasting and meditation to heal themselves. Jesus, Buddha, and Muhammad did it. I knew meditation alone wouldn’t suffice—I’d been meditating for ten years and still felt like I was trapped in quick sand. Determined to find a way to become my own healer, I headed to Joshua Tree for a weekend of searching.

The first morning, I micro-dosed a small amount of mushrooms and got on my yoga mat to stretch, as I often did to manage my chronic lower back pain. This pain, though minor compared to my other issues, impaired my mobility daily. I had resigned myself to living with it—at least with the pain—but not the prison.

While stretching, I began asking my inner self for guidance:

How can I become my own healer?
How can I lead myself into freedom?

Minutes later, an unrecognizable voice within spoke a single word: RAW.

Raw? At first, I didn’t understand. Then it clicked. Oh no. Anything but that! I couldn’t lose more foods. I needed the foods I had left and the comfort they brought me. After all, I had already given up gluten, dairy, sugar, alcohol, and grains. What more could I do?

Was THIS was the next step?

I researched raw diets and stumbled upon the group Raw Vegan Rising. Shane Sterling, the founder and health coach, spoke about the depth of cleansing required to heal chronic illnesses. The words "mucoid plaque" hit me like a baseball bat. Despite all the parasite cleanses I’d done, I had never fully expelled the mucoid plaque. Could this rubbery, tar-like substance clinging to my colon be the key to my imprisonment? If so, I was willing to do whatever it took to get it out.

The first day was the hardest. I prayed I’d make it through. If I could last one day, I knew I could make it to 40. The fast was designed to be a 40 day fast and it didn’t occur to me that I might have to go even longer. I’m thankful I didn’t know that when I started.

Halfway through the fast my hair grew wild, like a teenager’s, and the years melted off my skin. I felt alive again. But getting there wasn’t easy.

The first week was a nightmare. I cried constantly, my head pounded, and I was angry. I was releasing massive toxins, and it sucked. Friends would ask, “Jeez, Michelle, how many toxins do you have? How much more healing do you need?” I understood their confusion—I’d been confused for years, too.

But here’s the thing:

By the time I was struck down by that tetanus shot at 43, I had spent decades carrying pain—mine and everyone else’s. I held onto ancestral trauma and drowned out the noise of my self-hating mind with comfort food, alcohol, and cigarettes. It was a lifetime of unpacking.

Thirty days into the fast, I hadn’t lost a single pound which was discouraging. Then, as if a switch flipped, the weight started to melt away. My aches and pains disappeared. Each time I released another load of mucoid plaque, old traumas bullied me. Flashbacks of how I had stuffed down pain taunted me. But I didn’t break. Not this time.

Even as progress became visible, it wasn’t enough. What about being social? What about restaurants? What about my old self? Would she come back? Do I want her to? Old fears surfaced. I realized I had been living like a recluse in the mountains for many years and I craved connection. But without cooked food what does it look like?

Food addiction—the root of the disease I’d wrestled with for years—still clouded my ability to find comfort. I felt empty, even with the love and support of my wife and a small handful of close friends.

Every morning, I juiced two liters of “ginger green blast,” taking it slowly because it contained parsley and cilantro, both heavy-metal chelators. Later, when hunger pangs struck, I juiced three liters of citrus juice. For 50 days, I released mucoid plaque daily. I noticed the ringworm that had been on my right hand for years had vanished.

By the end, I felt free. Then the re-feeding happened and I was down again. My gut couldn’t handle food, and I NEEDED to feed the inner beast. This was a battle. The migraines came back, the crying, and the desperation. Then, over the next ten days I managed to slowly introduce food and bounced back into more freedom than I’ve felt in a long time. My diet is 100% raw right now, and hopefully will be for a long time. At least until every cell in my body is shiny and healed.

Yes, I’m 15 pounds lighter, 10 years younger, more focused, and more energetic than I’ve been in a decade. But I know this is just the beginning. Cooked food, animal proteins, and starches will likely be off-limits for years—possibly forever. My previous beliefs about food helped me manage my illness, but they couldn’t cure it.

Fasting for 61 days isn’t easy, but it IS possible. And if I can do it, so can you—one day at a time, with support.

2024 wasn’t just the year I fasted—it was also the year I finished my book, Awakening in the Age of Metals. It will be published this year, and I look forward to helping others break out of their own prisons and step into the land of the free.

If you’ve been struggling with a long-term condition of any kind, please reach out to me.

Just take the first step.

Again and Again, acrylic on canvas. Available at Wylldwood Gallery:

https://www.wylldwood.com/

More work available at www.michellekatzart.com

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