Hey guys- I'm no doctor- I am generally an over confident person who has some ideas I'm sharing. I'm writing about weight loss because it's a thing and several people have asked me about it in various ways. So here's my thoughts on fasting and weight loss.
Fasting is often done not for cleansing but for weight loss. I know that tons of people fast in order to lose weight, and they fast in healthy ways and unhealthy ways. And either way, if you fast to lose weight, you often gain it back once the fast is complete. I want to share my thoughts with you about weight and fasting. I believe that fasting can be used as a method of weight loss, but not in the direct sense that one might think. So, I'm going to share my thoughts for those who are interested.
So, when I set aobut this fast, I did so knowing that I needed to keep my caloric intake high because my goal was not to lose weight but to generate a deep internal cleanse of the organs, tiny fats and otehr tissues that act as storage for waste in the body. If you want to lose weight or not, either way you kind of need to keep track of what you're consuming. I noticed most fasts recommend 4-6 16 oz glasses of juice per day, so I figured I'd just make a lot more than that. I came up with the goal of 120 ounces because I figured if I aimed for that I'd be consuming more than what is recommend and that was a good start.
Another way I could have done it was to find one of those super easy caloric need calculators and figure out how many calories you need to sustain your current weight, or if your goal is weight lose, you can determine how many calories you need to lose weight. So for me it will tell me:
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7 day calorie cycle (zig-zag)Basically, to not lose any weight, I'd have to consume 1669 calories per day- I don't think I ever consumed that much in one day on this fast. Eh. My average was somewhere between 100 and 1300 I think, and I did lose weight. I had some lazy and restful days and some very physically demanding days. I actually gained a little weight toward the end of the fast, but I really can't explain that one, I could be wrong, I never used the same scale twice nor did I weigh myself at the same times of day. I wish I had a scale but not really.
The reason that I think that fasting could be good for weight loss is not that it reduces your caloric intake for a period of time. No. It's that fasting changes your relationship with food. If you want to lose weight and you'd like to do so through fasting, I'd choose to aim for the caloric intake that would encourage a little fat loss, not extreme fat loss. Don't stress yourself out too much, fasting is hard enough. Dont white knuckle it or make yourself feel punished.
When you decide to fast, you are doing so out of conscious interest in making your body healthier and ridding yourself of waste that you feel you no longer need. You set your goals and go about completing them sincerely. Part of the goal of a fast is not only to refrain from food, but to increase the awareness of the self, to observe the reactions of the mental, physical and emotional states of the body as you ask it to fend without that which typically sustains it. If you are on a fast to improve your health, wieghtloss or no, paying attention to the mind and emotions is hyper important for your own understanding of your relationship to food and your well being. You will see patterns, experience various inexplicable cravings, you will also notice a decrease in certain other kinds of cravings. It's entertaining to find out what you crave and what you don't- and what that might mean about you. You will develop an appreciation for food that you did not have before. You will develop an interest in being more specific about what you choose to take in to your body, and you will notice how certain things make you feel. All sorts of stuff comes up when you fast, and if you want it to be successful, keep in mind that you can cry, you can be anxious, you can be moody you can be ridiculously excited and happy- what you can't do is escape- you have to be present with yourself and watch what's happening, it's a huge learning experience.
If you haven't fasted before, just try one day. Maybe try one day a week for a couple of days- like Sundays. And you could work up to 3 days (all the hell- very little benefit) or 5 days (all the hell plus 2 days of beginning to understand how it feels to fast for longer- a bit of a benefit:) You could try to do a 5 day fast once a month, and maybe work up to a 10 day fast every 3 months or something like that.
In general, I don't recommend fasting once for immediate weight loss unless you're doing it for a movie role or something. I mean, you will experience some if you go long enough, but as I mentioned, unless your relationship with food and your body changes dramatically with that one fast, you will gain the weight back. I do think that careful conscious intermittant fasting over a period of a year, with the intention of understanding the self and food better can help one to kick start weight loss and begin to turn around unhealthy eating habits.
So, if you're interested in learning more about fasting for yourself, once again, please use my blog as inspiration but continue your research and find others who are experts at this stuff. I am mearly a particiapant in this strange world sharing with you some strange self imposed experiences with food and coffee in the butt. This is what happens when I go to long without a "normal job."
So anyway, that doesn't mean I won't be happy to sit down and have lunch a bullshit with anyone about what it's like if you're actually considering it. Since I've embarked on this fast, I've had two friends tell me that I inspired them to make important decisions about their own diets and address some of their own health issues. I can't tell you how good that makes me feel.
I just realized I still have to blog about the health issues I was hoping the fast would help me with. Hmmm, maybe after the fast I'll take some time to do that.
For now, the Juices of the day
Juice #1
4 oz blueberry- 45
32 oz cantalope- 240
15 oz apple- 225
6 oz pear- 112
1 sprig mint
57 oz at 622
Juice #2 (bought at the juice stand- amounts are estimates)
1 oz kale- 5.5
1 oz spinach- 1.75
1 oz parsley- 5.5
4 oz celery- 21
17 oz cucumber- 149
24 ounces at 213 calories
Juice #3
4 oz beet- 21
11 oz carrot- 129
20 oz apple- 300
6 oz celery- 32
4 oz kale- 18
4 oz sweet potato- 47
4 oz turnip- 26
6 oz cucumber- 53
4 oz tomato- 20
63 oz at 646 calories
120 oz at 1261 calories
(20 oz at 220 calories remains in the fridge for morning)
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