What is fasting? Good question! Fasting mean to abstain.
Water Fasting in particular goes back thousands of years where ancient scholars would observe the environment and nature around them. As they watched animals like deer they noticed whenever they were sick or injured they would go to the nearest watering hole to drink water only till they were healed. It is their instinct. We also have this instinct but unfortunately we have become domesticated into a lifestyle of binge eating 3 times a day when it's simply unnecessary.
When we fast we are slowing down from go go mode to healing and repair mode. I know all of us want to prevent disease but what if when we 'pre-vent' the body by supporting the 4 elimination systems, we can allow a full house cleaning like a spring clean or a deep clean. Simply eating healthy isn't enough because of the toxic world we live in. So the 4 eliminations of the body, what are they? We eliminate through defecation (back door elimination), urination (peeing), pores of the skin (sweating) and respiration (deep breathing).
So during a fast when we clean our skin (dry skin brushing) do deep breathing exercises, drink plenty of clean water (I recommend 1 litre per 22kg of body weight) and do daily enemas (water up the backdoor) we allow the body to effectively remove unwanted waste. I also recommend adding a little bit of mineral salt such as Himalayan or Celtic sea salt to your drinking water every day to keep your minerals at a healthy level. Every animal instinctively knows to ingest salt and will do it's best to acquire it. If you lock up an animal in a pen like a cow it is a common practice to place a salt lick in the enclosure for several reasons as it will be life threatening to the animals as the body wont be able to function without it.
Sunshine is so important during a fast and trust me on this one. Make sure you get at least 20 minutes of morning or afternoon sun as you will notice the difference in your energy levels.
Where does one get their energy from if they aren't eating and only consuming air, sunshine and water? Well once your body is not getting the every day energy that you give it through glucose (simple and complex sugars) the body goes through a transition to converting to ketosis (consuming ketones). Essentially fat (ketones) burning mode. Your body is very intelligent and wants to keep you alive so it does its best to maintain that. Ketosis fully kicks in by the third day of a water fast and hunger subsides.
An amazing study https://news.usc.edu/63669/fasting-triggers-stem-cell-regeneration-of-damaged-old-immune-system/
found that fasting for as little as 3 days the body completely replaces old damaged immune cells for brand new ones (how cool is that!). Also during a fast your body lowers your insulin growth factor 1 (IGF-1) within the liver. In the documentary Eat fast and live longer one of the studies found that when you have high IGF-1 you are more prone to disease. When we fast we are significantly lowering the IGF-! count the risk of disease and keeping our bodies healthy.
During extended fasts people have noticed a variety of benefits such as improved eyesight, healing of old injuries and scars disappearing. Virus's such as hepatitis C are eliminated from the body, tumours are reduced or dissolved.
Wait a minute! How is this possible? The body goes into a process called autolosys which essentially consumes inferior matter within the body such as virus's, cysts, tumours, cancers and/or damaged muscle tissue.
Why doesn't everyone know about it? It's hard to make money on telling people to eat less and to not buy medication. Every healthy person is a customer lost and considering big pharma is a multi billion dollar industry, they would not want to promote something that requires you to only drink water and eat whole foods.
So if you are a first time faster, I recommend either a raw food fast, simply eating unprocessed raw food for a week to nourish the body with good whole foods, or alternatively a juice fast. Juice fasting still allows heaps of phyto-nutrients, vitamins and energy compared to the water fast. Fruit juices are my favourite during a juice fast but also adding greens is important, People have a hard time accepting that fruit sugars are good for you let alone in juice form, If you look at the word Nutrition, Nut means light and rition means a process of. How can crystallised processed light be bad for the human body as all of life requires energy from the sun in some shape or form.
I have done several juice fasts. The clarity, clear skin, energy and functioning of the body improves significantly, but if you drink soft drinks eat sugary lollies it does the opposite. prove it for yourself, Drink 1 litre of fresh fruit juice and drink 1 litre of sugar water, That alone will tell you by just how you feel. Proof is in the doing.
Water fasting I would suggest a 3 day fast for your first time and work your way up to 7-10 max (do not exceed 10 days without a medical professional present) . Taking the time to really put everything aside and focus on you is really vital to enhancing the experience as you want to be able to rest when you need to. I also recommend fasting in the summer season as winter fasting is not enjoyable( personal experience) but it can be done.
Fasting is best related to short term pain and long term pleasure, As you can experience many symptoms which are unique to the individual. Light headiness, headaches, pains, aches, worry, doubt, etc. The more symptoms the more toxicity leaving the body which pretty much means your more in need of a fast then anyone else. There is also an emotional release that seems to happen during the fast as I have experienced some odd things which correlate to trauma in the past being released. They say 1 day of fasting clears 1 year of emotional baggage and that rings true for me and many others I've spoken to doing fasts.
A lady I was fasting with was having a hard time on day 5 of her fast and I asked her what happened 5 years ago. She told me she broke up with her husband and she had a light bulb moment. There is no science to back this up but It's something to be aware of.
By following and supporting the 4 elimination systems of the body you can significantly lower the symptoms and make the experience more enjoyable. So if you are already pretty healthy then water fasting will be great, Those converting from a processed dead food diet, I would recommend raw food and a juice fast.
Breaking your fast is the most important part as your body has slowed down and the stomach has also shrunk significantly. eating fresh fruit slowly and really taking in the colour and smelling it really nourishes you on many levels. Slowly introducing steamed veggies then grains and other fermented foods for the first 5 days after until your body is used to eating again. Your taste buds get reset on a extended water fast and food takes on a whole new meaning of orgasmic intensity, I thought food was delicious wait till you eat fruit after an extended fast. Because you have starved yourself to a degree eat a lot of small doses through out the day.
I was really sick, fatigued, depressed and had many health problems for years and had no help from the medical establishment in my own experiences. If you have had these frustrations like I have I recommend looking more into fasting as I feel it was the greatest empowerment to my life realising I was the cause of my own suffering but also the solution! I'm still healing but have significantly improved my health with fasting and adopting a whole food plant based lifestyle. I want others to benefit from what I have experienced. My ultimate goal is to facilitate fasting for other people and get them to align with their true self's and how to thrive in this beautiful world. thanks for the read and hope to connect with the community!
I will be doing more blogs about why I believe a plant based diet is the future of health as their is overwhelming evidence coming out that simply can't be Ignored. https://nutritionfacts.org is an amazing website and ill be quoting a lot of this guys stuff in the future.
Disclaimer. I am not a health professional and you should seek professional advice if you wantg to fast. I only wish to share my experiences and education on topics such as fasting for other who wish to explore other avenues of health. Doing your own research yourself is vital and being informed and making the correct decisions is IMPORTANT.
