Healthy Weight Sadhana – Days 25 – 29 – Life In The Fast Lane

Sorry for the delay in posting folks! Let’s get right to today’s topic – fasting!

Don’t hit delete yet! There are many types of fasts out there and many benefits so let’s learn all about it!

Now of course even short-term fasting is not recommended for people with type I diabetes, because it can lead to dangerous dips and spikes in blood sugar. Women who are pregnant or breastfeeding, or anyone with a chronic disease, should not fast. And of course it makes sense and is recommended to seek the advise of your physician before beginning any fast.

Let’s begin at looking at the various types of fasts:

Liquid fasts include water fasting, juice fasting, broth fasting, milk fasting with raw milk or cultured milk products and the Master Cleanse (see prior posts) which I did for four days.

Other types of fasts are partial fasting also known as selective fasting which includes some solid food, cleansing diets and mono diets where you eat just one food for a length of time.

Now let’s look at the benefits of fasting:

Fasting will rest your digestive system since you are creating a break in eating patterns that you have developed. You also become more aware of your past eating habits while fasting. Fasting also allows your body to cleanse and detoxify, heal health issues, stimulate cell growth, improve your skin tone, helps you gain more mental clarity, strengthen your immune system, give you an increase in energy, a deeper spiritual connection and aid you in healing emotions that have become stuck.

I want to talk to you about my liquid fasting experience. I ended up fasting for seven days. Two days while drinking Almased, one day of clear liquids and four days on the Master Cleanse. I really enjoyed the Master Cleanse and still crave the combination of grade B maple syrup, cayenne pepper and fresh lemon juice in water. I probably could have continued and done the full ten days of the Master Cleanse if my brain didn’t get in the way. I had my ups and down and peaks and dips in energy but having to cook food for my husband and children and smelling the wonderful smells of it all (fasting usually increases your sense of smell) was just too much for me and I gave in and enjoyed my own food. I did lose some weight over the few days, probably about four pounds but what I really gained was in feeling better physically and emotionally.

I spent years waking up each morning going through half a box of tissues blowing my nose. I grew up with my father honking his nose every morning as an alarm clock and my children were well on the road to growing up the same way. I just thought I was allergic to dust and dust mites and left it at that. The fast has eliminated that. I wake up each morning clear and haven’t needed to blow my nose in the mornings. It was so bad in the past I used to end up asking my husband, “Where does it all come from?!” since it took tissue after tissue after tissue to get all the gunk out of my nose.  What I also gained was a serious decrease in my anger. I feel lighter and more patient. My body doesn’t hurt and my energy has increased a bit. Not bad for a few days of fasting!!!

Now you might not be on par with doing a liquid fast but there are plenty of fasts that involve eating. One is simply eliminating caffeine, alcohol, dairy, red meat and sugar. When you remove those five categories from your diet it leaves a whole lot out there to still enjoy!

Maybe you are thinking, I don’t want to go for days at a time fasting. Did you know that you can fast every single day without hardly knowing it? By choosing to stop eating twelve hours before you wake up in the morning you are practicing a half day fast every single day while giving your body a chance to rest. So if you normally wake up at 7:00 in the morning, you would stop eating by 7:00 at night. You can and should drink water throughout the night but just not eat any food. Will practicing a nighttime fast help you to lose weight? That depends on what you have chosen to eat during the day and your activity level. If you eat high fat junk during the day, stopping eating at 7:00 pm won’t do a thing for you. But choosing to stop eating at 7:00 can help in that you will be more aware of your eating habits. Those hours in front of the television at night will not involve snacking and by making the commitment to not eat after 7:00 pm you will most likely end up thinking more about what you will choose to eat the next day to continue to be kind to your body.

I found a great website called, All About Fasting. They have lots of information and plenty of links on all the various kinds of fasts out there. So do take a look and see if fasting in one form or another for any length of time can help you to achieve a healthy weight and happy day 29 everyone!