Health and Fitness Oasis

More and more people are turning to fasting in order to jumpstart their programs or to gain a firmer control over their eating habits.

Anyone wishing to attempt to fast should learn as much about it as possible prior to starting any program. And, most importantly, should clear that program with their primary care physician who can evaluate the impact that it could have on any underlying medical conditions from which they suffer.

Fasting can be undertaken for as short a period as one day or as long as 30 days – depending upon the type of fast and your overall health at the beginning of the fast. Making an informed decision about your plans based on your current health, fitness and medications is the most important thing that you can do to increase your potential for success.

Individuals have found that fasting can be an effective way to lose some initial unnecessary body fat but will more importantly, also cleanse the body of unhealthy toxins and help the individual to divorce themselves of unhealthy eating habits.

The reality is that weight loss happens through a negative calorie balance. This means that an individual will lose weight when they burn more calories than they take in. This negative balance can occur when an individual decreases their intake or increases their burn (exercise). Individuals who attempt to fast for weight loss may find that it gives them a healthy way to jumpstart their program but is definitely not a way of managing their weight loss.

Weight management is not an endless journey of weight gain and weight loss but instead should be achieved through maintaining a specific weight. Individuals can do this by changing their eating habits to maintain a lifelong lifestyle change. This means that they no longer go on “diets” and no longer fear failing.

If you have an underlying emotional eating habit, you may find that fasting can lead to an unhealthy conversion to binging or anorexia. Either one of those eating disorders are very dangerous to your health and individuals who believe they may have an underlying emotional eating habit should seek the advice of their primary care physician or a psychologist to assist them in developing a program which will address their underlying emotional needs prior to attempting a negative calorie balance.

For those who are attempting to fast for one to 30 days, there are three different types of fast. They are: water only, juice, or a fruit fast. A water only fast is pretty self-explanatory, for this fast you will only drink water until the fast is broken. Individuals who prefer the juice fast will drink freshly squeezed juices that are included but not limited to: carrots, apples, vegetables and fruits. A fruit only fast allows you to only eat fruit of any kind and in any amount as well as drink water.

Most people who fast to jumpstart their diet will start with a water only fast. This fast should last no longer than three days and then should move to either a juice only fast or back to eating healthy well-balanced meals. Juice only fast should be fresh squeezed at home using the juicing machine. The beneficial ingredient in these juices are the living enzymes which will die 24 hours after being produced. Thus, freshly squeezed juice is imperative in order to gain the most benefit from the juice.

Once an individual has achieved their time goals for the juice only fast they can move into the front portion of the fast. During this phase of fasting individuals should use as much organic produce as they can. Imagine pouring fungicides and herbicides into your body and an alarming rate as you juice 2 pounds of carrots to get 16 ounces of juice.

This phase should be half the length of time of the water and juice phase combined. In other words if you fasted with water only and juice for a total of 10 days then you should eat only fruit for a total of five days.
Once the juice phase is completed, you can move into a raw food diet of vegetables and fruit for the same length of time as the fruit fast and then continue to see rapid weight loss.

A secondary benefit of this diet is the cleansing out of the lower intestines and by adding an increased amount of fiber to the diet, you will also be cleaning the toxins from the body.

For the last days of the diet you should transition to foods that you will continue to eat and maintain over the long haul. Lifestyle changes for all people should include as much raw food as possible, since adding enzymes into the body is a wonderful way of giving a your body healthy nutrition.

A great many people find that fasting has fantastic health, spiritual and weight-loss benefits and, with the right motivation and support, you too can use fasting to jumpstart your weight loss and also benefit your overall health.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 25th, 2009 at 1:15 pm and is filed under Weight Loss Tips. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.