The Healing Power of Fasting

Fasting in one of the top strategies I recommend to all my clients for healing chronic illness, promoting healthy weight loss, improving mental and emotional mastery, nipping persistent cravings (once and for all), promoting detoxification processes… and so much more.

Fasting is simply a deliberate choice to refrain from eating for a period of time, but with a healing power that is noteworthy.

Fasting will activate your body’s sympathetic nervous system, build and repair muscle tissue and promote the production of human hormone growth, increase cellular repair, support digestive health and reduce insulin, slow aging, protect against disease and improve your health in every way.

There are many kinds of fasting, and each offer something different.

For example, you can try, 

1. Intermittent Fasting, also known as Time-Restricted Eating — Daily fasting, when a person restricts eating to a set number of hours per day
2. Prolonged Fast — Fasting for an extended period; usually anywhere from 4 to 7 consecutive days
3. Water Fast — Fasting by consuming only water and abstaining from consuming food
4. Juice Fast — Fasting by consuming only fresh-pressed juices and abstaining from consuming food
5. Religious Fast — Fasting as a way to regain or refocus spiritually is common in many religions

But you say, I can not NOT eat breakfast, yes?

Actually, you can. You can do anything you want to do, if you put your mind to it.

Ask yourself, “Do I eat at certain times of the day because I feel I need to eat at these times? Is this just a habit, or do I really need to eat now? Do I really need 3 meals a day, or do I just believe this to be true, because everyone I know believes this?” Like me, you were likely raised to believe we need to eat three meals a day, so the idea of not eating one of them could feel off, difficult, even unhealthy.

Consider this: 

Tomorrow morning, before you prepare to eat breakfast, stop, pause, and ask yourself, “Am I really hungry?” It’s crazy how often you’ll sense you are not hungry, but just responding to a habituated lifestyle habit.

Here’s the thing, before you wake up, around 4am, your body begins to pump growth hormone and adrenaline, which basically activates you for the day. You do NOT need to eat for energy for the day, your body has already prepared you in all the ways you need.

Experiment with fasting 

Start by fasting for 16 hours, and eating for  8 hours, and see how you feel. This is how I started, but after a while I felt so good, and fasting felt so easy, I extended the challenge to 20 hours of fasting and 4 hours of eating daily. And ya know what? I am not hungry at all, and I’m holding a healthy weight for someone my size. 

I know, you say, impossible. I could never do it! Ha! Try it, and you’ll see how easy it really becomes… and that’s when you’ll start to take on longer fasts. And the gold will be, you experiencing in a very lived and visceral way, all the benefits fasting offers.

I often juice fast, but today I raise my water glass to you! Cheers!