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I know lots of people who swear by fasts.
Three day grapefruit fasts, weeklong juice regimes, monthly cleanses, I’ve heard them all, and haven’t wanted to try a single one.
Call me strange, but I’m a fan of food. I’m no holy profit or international peace symbol, and since shrugging off my Roman Catholicism, feel no guilt for eating a sandwich on Good Friday. Basically, I have no need to give up food I work two jobs to pay for.
My friends go on and on about the health benefits of fasting, but I’ve always felt eating a regular healthy diet has it’s own health benefits—with the added incentive of energy.
While I totally respect and appreciate people who abstain from food for religious reasons, I’ve just never been the kind of girl to equate being hungry with being healthy.
That was until I realized a good friend of mine, who is completely normal and well adjusted in every way, regularly fasted on Sundays.
“All I drink is green tea” she told me a few weeks ago when I asked her why she wasn’t joining me for lunch, and explained that flushing out her body and relaxing once a week was one of the best things she’d ever done for herself.
While my friend is on the thin side, she watches her weight very closely, and explained that giving her body one day a week to “get rid of toxins” in a simple, easy way has really helped her maintain her weight.
The health benefits to a one-day fast seem to be there, and if a person does it correctly, there doesn’t seem to be anything dangerous about it. The key to one-day fasting appears to be in the day before and day after; getting mentally prepared to gently coax your body into a fast, and keeping yourself from bingeing the day before or after. Splurging on food before fasting is not only counterproductive, it may also be a sign of a bad relationship with eating.
After listening to my friend talk and seeing how healthy she is on a day-to-day basis (never mind having the best skin I’ve ever seen in my life), I can’t help considering a Sunday green tea fest myself. After all, staying away from food for one day isn’t going to kill me, and the only way to test the advantages of a practice is to try it out.
I may just make next Sunday my official attempt at a Day Of No Food.
…I’ll let you know if I survive.
2 Comments
OH NO! I hope you reconsider this. Fasting is very dangerous and actually tells your body to store fat instead of burning it in the usual way. This means that every time you fast, your body is training itself to store fat because it is not getting enough protein! Detoxing the body is definitely very good for you but there are many, MANY different ways to do this, even natural supplements that give the same effect. I hope you convince your friend to stop fasting. No doctor would ever recommend it.
While some say that fasting for any amount of time is dangerous and then theres the other end of this and say it has great health benefits, the only way to tell, as long as you are physically fit to do so, give it a try! One day will indeed not harm your body. The body is very miraculous and adaptive. Once you come off the fast, the body will readjust again. My own experience is a 3 day water only fast. Getting the mind to cooperate was the biggest hurdle and I didnt try it til my brain said ok. I didnt experience anything negative. I didnt do alot of physical exertion, but I didnt meditate all day either. I really tried this to see if I could do it. I found I could! So I am now going to incorporate 2 one day fasts per week, but now it will be for other reasons!
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