I have to admit, the first time I ever even thought of actually fasting my small brain and superficial perspective could only focus on the fact that (at the time) was that I could barely go 3 hours without food before falling out in the floor. The idea of not eating for a half day, a whole day, or OMG 40 days?! No way Jose’.
With a few fasting experiences behind me, I am now the wiser. In fact, this practice has literally changed my life, my body, my perspective and so much more. Best of all IT’S FREE!!!
In 2013, I decided to commit to a fast. I don’t recommend that everyone do a fast, talk to your physician before to make sure you are good to go. When I thought of fasting, I just considered it as food and all food, entirely. But as I learned more, I realized that you can fast from anything and any amount that you want, the importance lies in what is your purpose for fasting.
In the spirit of my old way of living the all-or-nothing way with no gray area, I decided to go all in with this. I began a 30-day fast from certain foods I loved and consumed somewhat often including wine and natural sweeteners (honey, maple syrup & stevia extract). I also fasted from television shows and social media. I watched the news to stay up on current events but that’s about it.
I chose things that I consumed daily that brought me some sense of satisfaction or a sense of relief or security in my day. The things that were small enough to forget about if I had to do a recall of my day but big enough for me to miss. By not having these things in my routine, I also eliminated the emotion I received while consuming them. Make sense?
As I mentioned earlier, the importance of a fast lies in your purpose for fasting. My particular purpose for this fast was to deepen my spiritual relationship with God. I wanted to get my heart in line with what God wanted for me and my life vs. my agenda for me.
I wanted to see how “starving” myself of things I desired, these comforts of mine, made me want more of God than of the things themselves. But that was my purpose. Your purpose is personal to you as it’s YOURS.
As a health practitioner, I knew there were several physical benefits to fasting and I was pumped for those as well. I was already eating clean, organic foods and grain/gluten, dairy, sugar, and processed food FREE. I always say that there is no end to your journey of health and no ceiling as to how high you can go. So, I knew I had some room to grow.
At a young age, I developed an ability to be comfortable with discomfort which also taught me discipline. I developed this from two sources, my parents and participating in athletics. Having parents who let me fall or fail and didn’t always pick me up or fight my battles for me was one of the best gifts they ever gave me. They didn’t give me a trophy if I lost and didn’t tell me I did awesome when I did poorly at something.
By participating in athletics, I learned my limits of pain and discomfort in addition to the discipline it takes to work hard and achieve something bigger than the pain or discomfort could compete with. I learned how to push to the edge and often over it. This added to the mental and emotional strength as well but when you are pushed to your edges and beyond of physical discomfort, it changes you. I mean it changes you from the inside out. You expand your horizons, your perspective changes, YOU GROW. This is why having a coach or personal trainer is so effective in helping you change!
I opted to fast from things that would make a significant emotional impact on me. I figured if I lived in discomfort and stayed disciplined for the 30 days that I was going to do this fast, the results could be tremendous. Big task…..bigger reward 🙂
Yes, I was inviting pain but that’s when you grow right? I know that most people don’t think that way and in fact, we are all either running from pain or towards pleasure, right? Well, I’m not and don’t want to be like everyone. I want to be weird.
Each week of my fast was very different. The first week I was more focused on the things I was “missing" than my purpose for doing the fast. That wasn’t a surprise as I was breaking habits.
In week two I got over myself and stopped my belly aching as I started to quickly dedicate the moments that I wanted something I was fasting from to pray and connect with God. This began a spiritual transformation for me and an intense improvement in my spiritual health.
Physically I felt good, I felt light, and I could even think a little more clearly. My perspective changed regarding what health means to me and how I can help others better. My patience level even changed, my stress was down, and I felt more relaxed in general. Honestly, I could go on for a while with my list of benefits from this experience but the important thing to note is by the end of my 3o days I decided to continue for another two weeks, 40 days baby.
Since my first formal fast, my perspectives, thought processes, and what I deem as real and important have changed. The catalyst for these realizations was fasting. The fasting enabled me to think more than just go through the motions and react to my wants. I have a new understanding and appreciation of my health, my body, and certainly my relationship with food! I can confidently say that this step made me far more intuitive about my health than anything else that I had ever done to date.
I no longer use food, wine, or much else in the form of a consumable for comfort on a bad day. Trust me if I could bottle that one alone, I would be a gazillionaire. In most cases, when I have a bad day, I deal with it and hope for a better day tomorrow. I have a considerably different approach to detoxification and the incredible need that we all must do it. Fasting is a form of detoxification.
Since 1975 each year thousands and thousands of chemicals have made their way into our food, water, soil, air, homes, diapers, baby food, soap, clothes, shampoo, toothpaste, toilet paper, dryer sheets, dishwasher detergent, candles, coffee, you name it! They are everywhere all the time and we are absorbing and consuming them all 24/7! It’s gross if you think about it and understand the intensity of it. But it makes it easier to understand why cancer and many other diseases are on the rise despite the millions of dollars we are throwing at these problems.
Detoxification is now a very large part of every wellness program that I deliver. Did you know that when you fast, you are allowing your liver, lungs, skin, kidneys, and gut to breathe, repair, refresh, and restore? It’s like allowing them to go on vacation to a spa, and get multiple services all at the same time so they can come back to reality like new again!
The body repairs, rejuvenates, and heals when it is not having to focus on breaking down food or cleansing the body of the “tasty material” we like to call junk food (even though it’s not food). Digesting food consumes a TON of energy so if there is little or no food moving through the system, our bodies can focus on other things besides digestion like cleaning, healing, and connecting with others.
Since my fast and especially since I learned that I have chronic Lyme Disease, detox methods have been part of my daily and weekly routine. If I choose to fast (specifically from food for the physical benefits of the detox) during the week, it’s at the end of the week I will fast through breakfast and lunch and not eat until dinner. I usually do this on a day when I am not going to be physically active. I drink lots of water and homemade bone broth throughout the day and sometimes a little bit of homemade vegetable juice with a splash of apple juice to keep my blood sugar regulated.
Remember, make sure your doctor agrees with you fasting if you choose to do this, I hope you experience some life-changing moments as I did!
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