Fasting means voluntarily avoiding eating for a given period of time. Some people fast to lose weight, others for religious or spiritual reasons. Whatever your reason for doing this, it is important to have a very strong motivation, because fasting is going against the natural instinct to feed. Having a clear purpose is essential to be able to achieve the goal. Before starting the fast, you should drink plenty of water, eat fruits and vegetables, and ensure your body a good night's sleep. By treating your body properly before, after and during fasting, you will be able to achieve greater mental clarity.
Steps
Part 1 of 3: Setting an End
Step 1. Clarify your reasons for fasting
Ask yourself what you wish to learn from this experience - the answers will help you decide what the purpose of your fast day is. In all likelihood, you will achieve better results if you feel motivated to maintain self-control. You may want to fast for spiritual reasons, to achieve a state of mental clarity, or more simply to obtain physical benefits. Ask yourself questions and reflect on what motivates you and your goals.
- Fast to detoxify your body. Avoiding eating for a day will help your body more effectively excrete toxins, mucus, solid blockages, and other contaminants that weigh it down.
- Fast to increase focus. Maybe you need to find a solution to a problem, understand a situation better, or get your intuitive and creative mind in motion. Fasting can help you achieve a greater state of mental clarity, which will allow you to analyze your problems more effectively.
- Combine fasting with meditation, yoga or sensory deprivation practice to explore the depths of your mind. Use discipline and focus to escape the stimuli of hunger.
Step 2. Set the start and end of the fast
Often, when fasting for religious reasons, it is necessary to refrain from eating only until sunset. If you intend to follow the Islamic fasting rite, for example, you will have to stop eating twenty minutes before sunrise and can start again only twenty minutes after sunset. Fasting for 24 hours has become a very popular practice among those who want to keep their body healthy and vigorous, especially among people who practice yoga. In this case, the goal is to eat nothing for 24 hours, starting from after dinner until dinner the next day.
Step 3. It is best not to fast solely to lose weight
Fasting promotes the body's expulsion of toxins and can help you digest food more effectively, especially if practiced regularly. However, it is by no means certain that fasting will allow you to lose weight. Refraining from eating for a whole day and then bingeing on a large meal rich in carbohydrates means, for example, forcing the metabolism to reactivate in an extremely slow way. As a result, you will not burn more fat than you would have burned by eating normally.
- If your only goal is to lose weight, try eating a breakfast that contains only very few calories instead of fasting for a full day. This light meal will activate the metabolism causing the body to use up its fat reserves.
- Consider fasting on juice only one day a week. With a liquid diet you can guarantee your body enough nutrients not to force it to use the sugar reserves stored in the liver and muscles. In this way you will be able to detoxify the body without risking compromising the muscle tissues.
Step 4. Fast habitually
Consider fasting for 24 hours once a week. Fasting allows you to start the body's self-healing process, with the advantage of improving your general health thanks to the break granted to the digestive system. Your organs will have time to take care of themselves. Fasting regularly helps you digest food more effectively, promotes greater mental clarity, increases physical and intellectual vigor, allows you to expel more toxins, improves vision and gives an intense feeling of general well-being.
Part 2 of 3: Prepare to Fast
Step 1. The day before fasting, drink at least two liters of water
Water helps balance body fluids that promote blood circulation, saliva production, body temperature maintenance and digestion, as well as the absorption and distribution of nutrients. Be careful, this does not mean that you should drink an exaggerated amount of water immediately before starting the fast: the only result you would get would be to excrete it in the form of copious urine a few hours later. The right thing to do is to start drinking more in the 72 hours preceding the start of the fast.
Fruit juices, herbal teas, milk, energy drinks, and any other hydrating drink are helpful in preparing you to fast. Also try to eat foods rich in water, especially fruits and vegetables
Step 2. Eat healthy and nutritious the day before your fast
Absolutely avoid bingeing! It is much better to reduce portions than to increase them. If possible, eat mostly fruit and vegetables to balance your body. Eating food rich in water and nutrients can help your body prepare for fasting. Try to avoid baked goods, especially those that contain large amounts of salt or sugar.
- During the 24 hours preceding fasting, it is also good to avoid all packaged foods notoriously rich in sugar. The human body is unable to function properly if it is fed mainly on sugars. Additionally, processed foods tend to stay in the digestive system longer, hindering the detoxification process that should come with fasting.
- If you are diabetic, ask your doctor for advice on whether you can eat a lot of fruit without compromising your health.
Step 3. Make sure you get a good night's sleep before you start fasting
The next day, the body will not be able to count on the caloric intake it is used to and will not be able to fight fatigue by eating foods that provide a lot of energy. By giving your body the necessary rest, you will help it function better during the day and you can benefit more from fasting.
Part 3 of 3: Fasting
Step 1. Focus on the purpose of your fast
Direct attention to the topics or questions you are looking for answers to. Focus on yourself, explore your intuitions, connect with your spirituality or simply let yourself be pervaded by discipline and self-control. If your goal is to detoxify your body, use it as an incentive to stay determined despite your hunger pangs.
Step 2. If your fast allows you to drink only water, make sure you keep your body properly hydrated
Drink at least half a liter every two hours; water fills the stomach, restores energy and dilutes digestive acids, which give rise to the feeling of hunger. While drinking is important, try not to exceed the recommended doses so as not to risk getting sick.
Some religious practices, such as the Islamic fasting rite, prohibit drinking anything from dawn until dusk. In this scenario, it is essential to hydrate the body abundantly before and after fasting
Step 3. Keep busy
Inactivity and boredom can make you want to eat, so try to distract yourself by doing something exciting that isn't physically strenuous. Reading, writing, meditating, slowly practicing yoga, working on the computer, walking in nature, watching television, or driving short distances are all great ways to keep yourself busy while fasting. Avoid activities that require a lot of energy, such as lifting weights, going to the gym or running long distances; Exercising at an intense level forces you to burn a lot of calories, making you inappropriately hungry.
Try not to think about food. It is best to stay away from the kitchen, the supermarket or food images and scents
Step 4. Be persistent
If you feel like giving up, remind yourself of your reasons for fasting. Show your discipline and tell yourself that hunger won't last forever. If you can stay determined, the ultimate reward will be far more rewarding than a little food.
Towards the end of your fast, you are likely to feel tired and exhausted. At that moment you will have to appeal to all your tenacity. Take a nap if you can, or let yourself be distracted by pictures or videos. An engaging action movie or video game can be of great help in this situation
Step 5. Break your fast at the appointed time
Start eating slowly, being very careful not to overdo the quantities. Cut Servings in Half - It's extremely important not to eat as much as you normally would because the digestive system has been paused and still can't handle a massive amount of food. Avoid meat, fish or cheese, it is much better to break the fast by eating some fruit, vegetables or soup. It is also important to drink water and fruit juices.
- Remember not to eat and not to drink too much or too fast. Start with an apple and a glass of water, then wait about ten minutes. At this point, you can eat a small portion of the soup and drink a glass of orange juice.
- Break the fast over a period of about 30-60 minutes. Eating a lot right away could cause severe abdominal pain and dysentery, putting your health at serious risk. Go gradually.
Warnings
- If you start feeling weak or fatigued, break your fast. Feeling unwell may indicate that you are jeopardizing your health, for example because you have not prepared yourself properly for fasting.
- If you are pregnant, have a medical condition, or are on medication, you shouldn't fast. Your immune system is already very fragile, so depriving it of the necessary nutrients can hinder the healing process.
