A musician retreats to the Scottish Highlands in her camper van for three weeks of solitude, reflection, and healing her relationship with food
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[Editor’s Note: This is one writer’s personal story of an extended fast, shared as a reflection on solitude and her relationship with food — not as health advice. Prolonged fasting carries real medical risks, especially for anyone with a history of disordered eating, and isn’t something to attempt without a doctor’s guidance. If food or body image feels painful for you right now, the National Alliance for Eating Disorders helpline (1-866-662-1235) offers support from licensed clinicians.]
If you’d told me a few years ago I was going to embark on a journey of not eating anything for 3 weeks, I would have told you to jog on. Probably whilst laughing hysterically thinking you were a little bit cuckoo.
And yet here I am, writing this article the day after breaking my fast of 22.5 (or there about) days.
I’m sat overlooking the North Sea on the Scottish coast in my trusty home and vehicle, ‘Freeda the Freedom Van’ with my two rescue dogs sound asleep next to me on the bed. It’s peaceful. It’s just what I need. I decided to do this 3-week fasting experience in the Highlands of Scotland because I wanted to get away from society, from the fast expectant pace we’re all so accustomed to living these days. Going through such a transformative, introspective experience requires stillness, quiet, patience, time, and it’s a process that urges one to dig deeper than the superficial rules and ‘norms’ of today’s way of living, to search for something more wild within us, something more in-tune with our natural world.
So I stepped away from the city and entered the wilderness.
I started this adventure on the Isle of Skye. As a professional musician, I have gigs and performances all over the country (which is partly why van life works so beautifully for me) and I had been booked to play for a wedding reception on the island. Which worked out very well for me, as I had wanted to start the fast in this area of the world. The wedding itself was a little bit chaotic and not particularly enjoyable; I turned out to be more of a childminder playing music to a collection of children all under the age of 10 running and screaming around me as I played tunes like Ed Sheeran’s Perfect and Alicia Keys’ If I Ain’t Got You. But I was being paid to play music and it helped pay for this trip, so I just got on with it, trying to keep these positive points at the front of my mind as another 5 year old zoomed past me screaming at the top of his lungs, obviously having a brilliant time and completely oblivious to the pain he was causing me, my ears, and my soul!
I was due to begin my fast the following evening at 7pm, and I spent that final Sunday trying to eat as much as possible, naturally, as one does when not eating for the following 3 weeks. This whole process I believe has been made much easier by my decision to eat a predominantly raw vegan whole-foods diet since January earlier this year. I also cut out all processed foods, and smoking and drinking alcohol at the same time. I believe my body was already so very detoxed because of this, which absolutely helped the whole process. So I’d planned a big bowl of fruit in the morning: mashed bananas with soya milk and cacao with blueberries, strawberries, apple, satsuma, mango, Medjool dates and peanut butter, and I had the same planned again for the evening before I began the fast. I also had a big bowl of salad prepared containing all sorts of deliciousness. Unfortunately, I had majorly overcompensated and I simply couldn’t eat all the salad, so I gave the remainder to the dogs which they lapped up, it being smothered in tahini and olive oil and all. Which subsequently unfortunately gave my little dog Zala a rather funny tummy the following day…lesson learned there. At 7pm I was full to the brim and after taking the dogs out for an evening wander near the magical ‘Fairy Pools’ on the island, I shut the van doors and settled in for the first night of what was to be one of the most magical, transformational experiences I’ve ever gone through.
Why 3 Weeks
So why 3 weeks? Although as you will see I do highly advocate for prolonged fasts going off my experience, I don’t recommend attempting something like this without ‘training’ for it. I began fasting during lockdown time. I started with 3 days, then pushed that to 7 days a few months later. Both experiences were amazing (I’d in fact walked 18 miles one day during this particular fast and finished the week with an 8 mile hike with my family giving my niece a piggy back), and I was shocked at how good I felt and how much energy I had, which really got me intrigued about the whole thing. I hadn’t known much about fasting and I didn’t know many people, if anyone who did it. I watched YouTube videos and got inspiration there, and it was listening to Dr Wayne Dyer and hearing him talk about 18-day fasts and 21-day fasts that really piqued my curiosity.
How could someone not eat for 21 days? It seemed impossible, and surely dangerous?
Over the next few years I experimented with different lengths of fasting, and tried intermittent fasting, too, where you eat every day but in a smaller window of say 6 or 8 hours, giving your body 16-18 hours rest from digestion. I had had bulimia for a long time in my earlier years from age 15-29 (I’m now 39). It was a massive part of my life and has obviously hugely impacted the way I eat, the way I see food, my habits and my emotions around eating. It was actually deciding to go vegan in 2016 that finally cured me and I have been healing from it ever since. That is partly why I knew fasting would be good for me.
I needed to completely rewire my relationship to food and the habits I’d adopted.
Having mindful breaks from eating where I focus on other things, giving my body time to rest and rejuvenate in a calm, controlled and loving way seemed like a good exercise to do to help repair the toxic and unhealthful patterns I’d become so accustomed to. In 2024, I decided to push my limits and attempted a 10-day fast with a friend. We enjoyed it so much and felt so good we decided to go to 11 days, and only stopped because we were due to start recording our albums at a recording studio the next day and felt it was better to introduce food back in before starting that whole process. The year after, I felt inspired to push myself a little further and I completed 14 days, again in the Highlands, and again completely amazed and perplexed by how incredible the experience was and how good I felt.
So I’d had 5 years of preparation for these 21 days, and of course completely cleaning up my diet in January was a big part of that. Most days I meditate, do breath work and yoga, unless I’m in the van and it’s really cold, when I find these things challenging. It’s hard to meditate when your teeth are chattering and it’s hard to fluidly move through different yoga positions when you’re wearing 6 layers and it’s pouring down rain. But implementing these things more or less daily into my routine has been a key to the experience I’ve had over the last few weeks, I am sure.
Week 1
The first seven days were spent on the Isle of Skye and then driving across the country to Aberdeen, stopping at places in nature along the way. My energy and mood were good, but I of course experienced lower energy levels, so I was mindful to get plenty of sleep and not to push it on our dog walks. I found some beautiful spots out in the wild, first by the sea, and then stopping by different lochs and rivers in beautiful forest and woodland. The only physical symptoms I had aside from having less energy, was I occasionally got very mild headaches, which weren’t in any way painful, but I noticed them mainly because I never usually get any sort of headaches. They soon passed, and I realised having some salt often helped.
That was a major difference between this fast I’ve just completed and the fasts I’ve done before. Up until this year, I would only ever consume water. Hot water, cold water, sparkling water…pure, beautiful, life-giving, but pretty boring water. This time, I wanted to be kinder to myself, and I wanted this to be the most healthful experience possible. So I decided to include salt and electrolytes, steeping fresh ginger with drops of fresh lemon juice in herbal teas, and drinking black coffee in the morning, which from research looked like it could benefit a fast. It certainly benefited me.
I was also extremely fortune to have a herbalist friend forage and prepare herbal tea mixes for me that contained herbs that mirror the body’s renewal; they included ingredients like nettle, dandelion leaf, red clover, yarrow, and plantain. These, I’m sure, massively helped my journey, and I discovered that if you added a little salt and a squeeze of lemon, the drink became more like a broth than a tea! It was delicious and I’ll be continuing to have this medicinal healing drink going forward.
Week 2
The second week, in another act of self-love, I’d decided to book into an Airbnb in Aberdeen, so I could do my morning practices of yoga, meditation and breath work in comfort. I’d also picked out a place specifically because it had a BATH! Which became one of the main features of the day! It was absolutely glorious. I had the bubble bath, incense burning, candles, essential oils, bath salts, the works! Unfortunately I hadn’t realised how big Aberdeen was, and having thought I’d picked out a place in a little rural village, it was in fact a flat in a bigger block of flats on a relatively busy road at least a mile from any sort of ‘nature.’ But I embraced it and decided to enjoy the change of scenery and routine, and embrace a slightly different way of living for a week. And I really did — I loved it.
Most days the weather was good so I and the dogs woke early for sunrise and did the mile walk to the coast, which was beautiful once we got there and we’d enjoy an hour wandering around and I stopped to meditate in the sun a few times too. The gorse was out in full bloom and there were lots of bird friends around to look and marvel at, how they swoop and flit and dive and perch.
Energy levels had begun to rise during this week, and by day 11 I decided I wanted to go for a run! Which I did! I couldn’t even believe it as I was putting my running trainers on, thinking it would be a few weeks before I’d see them again! Of course it was a slower run with various walking stints, but still, here I was almost 2 weeks no food, running!
Week 3
The last week I had decided to book into another Airbnb up on the North coast in Moray — a beautiful little home in a beautiful little place called Spey Bay. The dogs and I had stayed there for my 14-day fast in 2025, and had had such a gorgeous experience I decided to go back. It was right on the coast and was very quiet and peaceful. And yes, it had a bath!
My time there went quite fast, and energy levels again were pretty high. We were walking around 2 hours in the morning and another hour in the evening, and I was enjoying yoga and trying to master the handstand and headstand. That week I achieved my longest ‘crow’ yoga pose ever holding it for 50 seconds (30 seconds was my previous record) and I also finally managed to hold a headstand for 10 seconds! Unfortunately this came at a price — a sore neck and shoulder for the next few days as it appeared I hadn’t warmed up properly — another lesson learned!
I had planned to end the fast Sunday evening 7pm, 3 weeks exactly from when I had started on the Isle of Skye, which at this point seemed like months ago. I was feeling SO good. My energy had returned to more or less ‘normal’ and I had never felt so CLEAR. I was feeling the energy move around my body which I’ve never experienced before, and I felt so light, focused and aligned. My body felt so good and looked so good! Of course I had lost weight. But it was weight that never really belonged there. I had excess fat, or water retention, or inflammation (or all three) around various points of my body, including my shoulders and my stomach. These eventually disappeared and I felt so much more flexible and stronger, and so much more like myself! As I hinted at earlier, I’ve had tendencies and habits of over-eating, which still have a hold on me, and I think that’s why my stomach had the inflammation. Giving it this rest and time off was so needed, and I felt like it was thanking me and so grateful to me for letting it just be, instead of having to work so hard all the time.
By day 19, I had never felt so good mentally and physically, which is why I decided to go until 22.5 days. I also wanted to stop all unhealthy habits — eating late being one, therefore breaking the fast at 7pm in the end seemed totally counterintuitive, so an extra half day would mean breaking the fast in the morning. I pushed that a little further, as again going forward, I want to be eating in a shorter window (knowing the benefits of intermittent fasting) so I broke the fast around 1:30pm. I did so gently with some bites of watermelon and some sips of coconut water. I had a little more of these things over the next few hours, and felt extremely grateful and satiated. I had been lucky to find some small but delicious organic avocados in the community shop at Findhorn, and I immensely enjoyed one of these with a little salt, too. I followed a similar regimen the next day, slowly and sensitively rebooting my digestive system.
Post Fast
I am now almost a week into re-feeding. My van Freeda had an engine problem so I had to stay around the Highlands a little longer but I am fairly confident that is the universe telling me I need more time to rest and integrate what I have been through and experienced in the last few weeks. I still can’t quite believe I achieved what I set out to do. And I am mind-blown how gorgeous and transformational the experience was. I have never felt energy run through my body like I did during the fast. That feeling has lessened now I am eating (mostly) normally again and I am keen to keep that sensation, so I will be experimenting with shorter fasts in the coming months. I am feeling my body so much more now and feel more deeply to it. I have not felt so physically good in a long time and although I haven’t yet done any vigorous exercise, I’ve been enjoying yoga every day and completed a 20km walk for charity with my dogs yesterday.
I confess I have over-eaten a little and eaten later than I planned, but I know healing is never a linear journey; we take steps forward and we take steps back. If I can remain mindful, patient and loving with myself, I can’t go wrong.
I have, of course, encountered some backlash during this journey. I lost one of my closest friends, but I feel so confident in my path and the guidance I receive that I know it’s all for the greatest good and she’s obviously no longer meant to be a part of my life. When you are pushing the boundaries, be it your own boundaries, or boundaries set by society, you are going to ruffle feathers along the way. But it’s important you believe in yourself and listen to your intuition. So much of ‘normal’ societal living is so not good for us a species, and it’s important to step out of the norm to experience other ways of being. And who knows, you might just discover something that will change your life for the better, forever.
I posted a daily diary on Instagram during my 3 weeks — I’d love you to check them out for inspiration and a deeper dive into my experience, which is available on my profile @veganqueenv The 3-week fast was part of my fundraising for my friend Karrie, which I am keeping open for donations, please help if you can!
You may also enjoy reading Life Discoveries I Made During a Solo Journey Through Ireland, by Diane Hartman.
