Fasting Definitions

Fasting has been practiced all over the world in every religion panning back as far as we can see.

The Insulin Friendly Lifestyle utilizes fasting as a hyper-healing modality first and then an exercise in discipline or spiritual practice.

A full Fasting Cycle has 4 core phases:

1. Prep Phase and Planning (Prep Phase)
2. The Apex & Fast itself & support (Fasting Phase)
3. Break-fast and return to eating (Re-feeding phase)
4. Post-Fast Bio-Reinforcement (Reinforcement Phase)

WHY FAST? What’s the point of doing a fast, what are we trying to accomplish?

First, there’s no huge benefit from just deciding to do a fast or jumping into your friend’s “5-day fast challenge” on social media or going along as an accountability partner.

The reason we fast are TO BE ABLE to fast easily, at any time, and reap all the health, healing, and mental benefits that can come from it.

I use a progressive fasting rotation within all my health programs and as impossible many people think it will be too fast, I have not had a single client not be able to do it when planned out and supported appropriately. So you can too!

Here’s the process:

1. Prep time and ramp-up.- you don’t just jump into a fast on a whim if you are not metabolically flexible unless you are ready for all the negative symptoms that you hear about: feeling dizzy, weak, hangry, headaches, etc.

Build up to the longer fasts with different eating windows and varied meal timing while eating an Insulin Friendly Diet and intermittent fasting to get your mind and body “warmed up” and primed for the fast to come.

2. Fast. Don’t overthink it, try and stay busy, don’t change work or exercise routines, and use approved crutches to bend the fast vs. break it if it gets hard.
3. As you fast your body will start to detoxify and break down inefficient proteins (AGEs), fats (oxidized polyunsaturated fats), old scar and connective tissue, and problem cells (early pre-cancerous growths). This is called autophagy, and your body will start to clear out health-threatening fat from your liver, pancreas, muscle and visceral fat, and eventually body fat.
4. When the detox process is in full swing it triggers the body to replace cells in different organs and tissues with brand new cells made from our own stem cells. This is how we can build new muscle, create new brain cells, and heal the liver, pancreas, skin, and much more essentially reversing our genetic time clock and age.
5. Once we have the new cells we need to make sure we keep them. Over 95% of these new stem cells will be recycled if we don’t follow the appropriate post-fast lifestyle. The main contributing factor here is exercise, what kind, frequency, intensity, etc. The other big piece is keeping our healing and repair system (parasympathetic) strong and minimize our stress (sympathetic) response.

This last step is very often overlooked and not addressed in people’s fasting protocols. To not have the post-fast plan is like creating a revolving door for these brand new cells to come and go.

Fasting can be incorporated in many ways, at many times, and once you are metabolically fit you can use it any time you like without much difficulty at all. THAT is the goal. I have done many fasts including a 30 day fast myself, not a big issue and no suffering.

I hope that helps and answers some of your questions. If you have more please write them in the comments or send me a direct message.

We can do better!