Insights from My 30 Day Fast

Many of you know that I am currently fasting. Many don’t care, and some are following and are curious. I understand the views of both camps.

WHY fast? That has to be the most frequent question that I get asked when people hear that I’m fasting. Some ask it out of generic curiosity, some from the desire to try and do something different themselves, while others ask from a critical view for whatever reason.

I will list some of the proven benefits from fasting further down in the post, but before I do, please allow me to illustrate the less proven, but very easily observed motivation I have for fasting:

Self-awareness and self-control. The mind and the body are linked together. The quality of your thought and the power of your mind will be proportional to the health of your body and its systems. A mind that is not healthy will access mental opportunities at a much lower level than what a mind that is well would be able to do. A fatigued, stressed, depressed, hormonally and health-challenged person living with chronic pain will have less mental capacity and ability than if they did not have those issues and were well. I don’t think this is a far stretch at all.

Most people cannot go without a single meal without experiencing at least some mental and physical stress. If they skip two meals they get headaches, shakiness, dramatic drops in energy and mental focus, hunger pains, irritability, and more. This all happens when they only skip 1 or 2 meals. It is therefore not really surprising that if you now ask them to go without eating for a full day, they think YOU are crazy. They deem it impossible, and they will suddenly manage to create 101 excuses as to why they have to continue living as they do.

I personally see this as a sign of just how weak our society has become, both physically and mentally. This is not good at all and just shows how fragile we are in health and well-being, how toxic our lifestyle and diet are, and how out of shape or unfit we are as a species.

Fasting has been around since the start of mankind, either by choice or as a way of living. Every animal on the planet does it and humans have evolved doing it. It is only recently that we have eliminated fasting and suddenly see it as being bad, unhealthy, or wrong.

Why do I fast? The answer is simple my friends – I do it to improve my mental and physical health.

If you allow it to, your body will go into a deep healing mode during fasting. There will be no outside sugar to disrupt insulin, and this will decrease oxidative stress by a factor of 50, which will in turn lower inflammation.

Fasting literally slows down the genetic time clock as it not only slows the telomere shortening but can also actually rebuild them, thereby adding time to your life. The body detoxes at a high level, the brain resets and starts pumping good neurotransmitters, the hormone receptors in the body clear out and hormonal resistance drops dramatically. As there are no anti-bodies floating around, auto-immune issues start to heal and the immune system literally revamps itself and creates a new, stronger system. Fasting builds self-awareness and control.

Advanced fat burning and ketosis brought about by fasting is awesome for the brain, heart, and other high output tissues and also promotes cell membrane healing. The liver and pancreas will start to reverse some of the fatty tissues and become more efficient. Although weight loss was not a big goal for me, when fasting for 30 days you will inevitably lose weight and body fat, especially abdominal fat.

The bottom line is that fasting is one of the healthiest things you can do, and it costs you absolutely nothing.

The choice is however as always, yours and yours alone.