Last week's blog instroduced the simplest form of fasting, which is "eating in a window", or restricting your eating to an 8 to 10 hour window every day. I encourage you to start there before moving on to longer fasts.
Do you try to be healthy, but feel like your body is stuck in a rut? Old injuries, extra weight, mental fog, deep rooted illness, and effects of aging can make life miserable.
There is a way to change that.
Fasting causes your body to focus all of its energy and resources on healing itself.
Eating in a window (as we discussed last week) is a fantastic start and I encourage everyone to do it, but adding day long fasts to your routine will stimulate health that cannot be achieved by eating every day.
When you fast one day a week, your body stays clean inside.
Digesting food uses an enormous amount of energy and resources. Taking a break from it gives your body energy to clean up toxins, repair damaged cells, and allow all organs to have the energy they need to function properly. Blood sugar drops, allowing each cell to remain sensitive to insulin to prevent type 2 diabetes. Your brain will feel clear and sharp.
When you practice day long fasts, you can expect to see results like:
weight loss
old injuries begin to heal
clearer focus
detox
calming of autoimmune conditions
healing of the gut
slower aging
decreases inflammation
How can you go without food and not collapse from exhaustion?** Dont' we need food to survive? Yes we do, but your liver has 30 hours of glycogen stored up as an easy fuel source for when you skip a day of eating. Remember, throughout history humans did not always have the luxury of steady meals. Your ancestors had many days where they did not eat. Our bodies are adapted to do this.
How to Love Fasting
I'm not gonna lie... I used to hate fasting.
Before I learned how powerful fasting is, I had tried to fast numerous times. My church encourages monthly 24 hour fasts, and let's just say, I wasn't very good at it. I found every excuse to not fast. Even when I did, I always ended it early.
Now I do a day long fast not just every month, but every week. I never skip because I love it.
Let me give you some tips to make it something that you actually look forward to.
When you are used to eating every day, your body, naturally, expects to eat every day. It's a habit. Your brain sends signals to prepare the digestive system to do its job. Therefore, when the time comes in the morning that you normally eat break-fast, you feel hungry.
(Please don't misunderstand me. Hunger is real. Food is good. I am not encouraging you to develop an eating disorder or actually starve yourself. But we do not need to eat as much, or as often, as most modern Americans do. Our metabolisms are like spoiled two year olds used to getting their way all the time. During the times when you do eat, ultra nourish yourself by eating whole foods that are packed with nutrition.)
The first few times that you don't eat when you are used to, your tummy will grumble and complain. If you have already begun eating in a window, then you have probably found that after a few days of eating in your window, your body adapted and is comfortable waiting for food. You will get used to doing day long fasts as well. Please thank your tummy for doing its job and reminding you to eat, and tell it that you will be just fine going for a day until you eat again. You've got this.
The biggest thing that helped me achieve comfortable day long fasting was the use of sugar free electrolytes. I used to get this unbearable brain fog and tightness in my whole body around early afternoon of the fast day. This is due to a chemical imbalance. Eating salt and drinking a glass of water can help too. If you buy electrolytes, please scrutinize the ingredients and make sure that they do not contain sugar, which would nullify your fast, and also no artificial sweeteners. My favorite brand is Dr. Berg's. They are sweetened with stevia. Just sipping on electrolytes during your fast will keep that fog away.
Be aware that too much electrolytes in a day will give you diarrhea, so be sure to follow instructions on the container.
I no longer need electrolytes when I do day long fasts, but for those first few times, they made it so much easier and got me to the point where I am now used to fasting.
Another tip is to do it regularly. While it's great that my church encourages monthly fasts, I can see how only doing it once a month makes it harder. You should do day long fasts every week, not only because the benefits accrue faster the more you do it, but because you get in the habit of fasting and your metabolism learns to switch smoothly from eating to not eating.
Give yourself space and grace. You can expect to be a little lower energy when you are fasting. That's ok. Remember that your body is doing hard work inside. The first time my mom fasted for a day, the next day she said that she felt like she had worked hard the day before. And that is true, it's just work happening inside the body, not outside.
I still get tired on the afternoon of fast days if I try to read. I end up nodding off. That's ok, I work hard six days of the week, it's good for me to have one day where I rest and rebuild myself.
Styles of Day Long Fasting
What does it look like to fast for a day? I have three ways that I do it that I alternate through week by week. You should probably start with the first one before moving on to the others.
For ease of discussion, I am going to refer to days as: Day 0 being the day before the fast really gets going, where you eat like normal, Day 1 is the main day of fasting, and Day 2 is the day following the fast.
1. 24 Hour Water Fast
Eat as normal on Day 0. Continue to drink water after dinner, but nothing with calories or added chemicals. Consider having a glass of electrolytes.
On Day 1, do not eat any food until the time that you stopped eating the day before. Have a glass of electrolytes early in the day, and then again in the afternoon. Drink as much water, coffee, or tea as you wish. It is ok to have lemon juice or raw apple cider vinegar added to the water. End your fast with dinner. Do not over eat! There is a temptation, especially when you are new to fasting, to binge eat. Just eat a normal sized meal.
Good job! You did it. With practice, a fast like this will become easy and you may not continue to need electrolytes.
2. 24 Hour Dry Fast
I have heard it said that a 24 hour dry fast is the equivalent of water fasting for three days. I don't know if that is really true, but I believe that it does a better job of deep cleaning your body because it forces you to dig deeper. From what I have heard, you burn more fat to make up for the lack of water (similar to how some desert rodents get hydration from fat in the seeds they eat), and fat is where many toxins are stored in your body.
You may think that it is unwise to go without water, but unless you live in an extremely dry, hot climate, and as long as you are not out in the sun doing hard labor, it's really ok to skip water for a day. Obviously, ere on the side of caution.
On Day 0, have a glass of electrolytes immediately after dinner. Then, no more food or drink the rest of the evening.
On Day 1, no food or drink until dinner that night. Take it easy. Don't expect too much of yourself this day. Remember that deep healing is happening inside of you. Eat and drink a normal meal at dinner time.
I knew that I had really arrived at fasting when I did a dry fast and found that it was EASY. Now, on the days that I do a one day water fast, I dont' feel a strong need to drink water and I only drink a little. My body knows what to do when the food and water stop coming in.
3. 36 Hour Water Fast
Once a month I do a day long fast where I don't have dinner that night. Even though I really look forward to eating dinner on the days of 24 hour fasts, because I am in the mind set that I will not be having dinner on 36 hour fasts, I hardly miss it. By skipping just one more meal, you extend the fast by 50%. It continues during the night when your body is doing all the rest and repair that comes with sleeping, which makes this a powerful fast.
On Day 0, after dinner enjoy any calorie free drinks that you normally would.
On Day 1, do the same thing that you would during a 24 hour water fast, such as drinking electrolytes or other drinks. Do not eat dinner.
On Day 2, end your fast with breakfast. When you go more than 24 hours of not eating, your tummy should be woken up gently, or the food you eat may go straight through you. A cup of raw milk is a good thing to start with, or anything gentle and easily digested. Don't eat too much right away. Honestly, if you eat too much or the wrong thing and it does go straight through, don't worry about it, it's fine.
Even though I eat in a window most days and normally don't eat breakfast until 9:00, after a 36 hour fast I eat breakfast at 6:00.
4. Other Fasts
I personally do not practice these, but for your information:
A fast that is in between Eating in a Window and Day Long Fasting is to eat only One Meal Per Day (or restricting your eating window to one hour). Supposedly this is very beneficial to men and supports healthy testosterone. Make sure that you are not eating candy or any sugar outside of meals, and make your meal very nourishing.
5:2 Fasting was practiced in antiquity and is mentioned in the New Testament. Do two 1 day fasts in a week, eat the other 5 days of the week. (Please do not confuse that with next week's blog which is 2 to 5 Day Fasting, where the fast lasts from 2 to 5 days.)
There is something called Alternate Day Fasting where you eat one day, don't eat at all the next day, and repeat. This is also a good way to achieve weight loss. If you can't do multi day fasting but want more than just one day fasts, this is a step in between.
Great books about fasting are, for men, The Fasting Transformation by Dr. Jockers, and for women, Fast Like a Girl by Dr. Mindy Pelz. Mindy also has an online support group and many good youtube videos. Also, Dr. Berg has great youtube videos about fasting.
Next week we will dive into 2 to 5 Day Fasts, where the healing cranks into high gear.
**Diabetics must exercise caution. The amount of insulin you take may need to be adjusted, please see your doctor for advice.
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