Although fasting is often seen as a way to lose weight it is really more a process to clean and strengthen the body. The word fast or “Fasten” means to hold strong, to strengthen and to abstain from food. It’s by far the fastest way to heal the body and there’s different types of fasting that I want to share with you here.
Where Does Fasting Originate From?
Every single mammal on the planet will naturally do a fast when they become sick or injured. A deer that breaks his leg will find a stream or somewhere with water and simply lay down and drink water until that leg is healed. They do this because fasting saves energy that can then be channelled into the repair of their wounds. The body also proliferates stem cells during a fast that have the ability to regenerate damaged and weak tissue anywhere in the body, according to USC (University of Southern California).
If the digestive system is in constant use, it takes a minimum of 60 to 75% of our energy to do it’s job! When you fast all that energy is freed up to be used in healing and repairing.
If a human being has digestive issues, chronic fatigue, or any condition creating a feeling of “less than optimal”, some sort of short fasts should be considered as part of a healing plan. Some conditions may require close monitoring.
How Long Should I Fast For?
Hippocrates (Father of Modern Medicine) would say it’s better to fast for a day, than to take a medication. In fact he said that to eat while you are sick, is to feed your sickness.
So if you start feeling nasal, or some form of sickness coming on, listen to that, then rest and fast. If you expose yourself to something toxic in the environment or in foods you’ve been eating it’s a natural process for the body to produce mucous to collect and kick that toxic stuff out! You can help that process along by simply fasting for a single day.
Another format for fasting that I’d recommend is to consider stints of seven days. By this I mean start with 7 days, then assess how you feel before continuing for another 7 days. Ask yourself: What’s going on? What’s coming out? How do I feel? If you want to go deeper do another 7 days of fasting.
The ideal length of time to fast is different for each person and for what is required to return to health.
Juice Fasting – Liquid Light
The process of juice fasting is really amazing because you’re still taking in the wholefood nutrition. You’re taking that piece of fruit, that vegetable and you’re compressing and extracting the pure nutrients. Interestingly the word nutrition means process of light (nut = light, rition = process). So nutrition is nothing more and nothing less really than a process of light.
Exposing our bodies to the sun is a process of taking in light that sparks off nutritional processes like the body synthesizing vitamin D. Plants will literally position their leaves to face the sun. The collected sunlight nourishes the plants and this energy is channeled into the fruits or vegetables that plant produces. The colour of the fruit or vegetable produced will be manifested from that light. An orange or a red apple or purple grape all have these specific colours that act like signals and attract us.
Juice fasting allows us to take in this pure form of nutrition to nourish us and allow the digestive process to rest and the detox process to kick in. I highly recommend your juice fast contains a good balance of fruit and vegetable juices.
During a juice fast you still have energy, still feel great and you’ll be optimal, except in cases where you are toxic and need to clean all this out first. Your body is going to receive more light and may even go to the point where it is ready for a period of water fasting.
