Post-Fast Log: Day 2

First, you must understand that, when I say weight management, I do not mean the endless seesaw action of gaining and losing weight. We are all sick of that ride, where eating is ether a mathematical equation of calorie counting or a mindless overindulgence. No, I am speaking about managing body weight as a consistent dietary lifestyle.

I have a friend who is an avid faster. In fact he finds it easy to fast and has done it often throughout the years. On the surface, it would seem he has steel discipline, effortlessly doing what others find to be a great challenge. His self-imposed purpose is to become a fruitarian and, for twenty years, has read and studied the health benefits of eating an all-fruit diet. Yet, never has he been able to put together more than 14 days of fruit eating, experiencing countless failed attempts. My friend eats better than most people I know, but in his words, always “blows it,” gorging with franticness and absurd extremeness. I found it difficult to witness these compulsive exhibitions because I knew the aftermath would be guilt and depression, leading to yet another joyless fast. This abusive cycle has continued for years, and probably is still continuing. He is thin and in good shape; but, there is no joy and little freedom in eating.

No matter what type of personality God has planted in you, practicing fasting or diet programs as a means of balancing the scales is unhealthy. Binging and purging is harmful and emotionally dangerous. You have replaced one damaging cycle for another. There is no freedom and joy in such a cycle—only slavery and guilt.

Fasting is an exhilarating way to begin a healthy diet—excess body fat quickly drops, with the bathroom mirror nodding approval, maybe for the first time in years. Fasting can produce a temporary altered state: Hunger and cravings shut down. Often, while fasting, feelings of euphoria and emotional balance can be enjoyed. Those with an obsessive personality are attracted to fasting almost like the escape of drugs. Problem is, sooner or later you must face the world of eating with all its trappings. The junk-food shrines on every street corner have waited patiently. What was pushed into the peripheral, through fasting, is now back into the fore. Voracious hunger awakens from sleep. The fragrance of KFC is all the more intoxicating! In fact, some find themselves worse off and, within days, rush to their old food-lovers [their bad food habits], fulfilling the axiom, “distance makes the heart grow fonder.”

I have fasted to gain lost ground on a slipping diet or to break a tenacious addiction or even to detoxify after Christmas feasting. this has been very effective for me. The fast re-establishes focus on Christ. This can be healthy and balanced. Once the fast is completed, my diet reflects the spiritual freedom found during the fast. In other words, the fast is more about welfare than weight.

Step 1: Fasting to Jump Start a Healthy Diet

Managing weight can only be achieved through a healthy diet, in other words, eating. We all know the greatest challenge in weight management is gaining control of what goes in the mouth on a day to day bases. Overeating, or eating too fast; feeding cravings and emotions, not hunger; eating calorie-concentrated foods with lack of physical activity all lead to unwanted weight gain. Much of what we eat feeds cravings and addictions rather than nutritional needs. The problem with feeding a craving is two-fold. First, we crave all the wrong things: fat, salt and processed sugar. When is the last time you had a “big carrot attack?” The second problem is cravings cannot be satisfied; hence, we overeat far too much of the wrong kinds of food.

This is where fasting can help and is a great new beginning.

A ten- to thirty-day fast will break the physical side of addiction and break up the bad cycle of eating. But, even a thirty-day fast will not necessarily break the emotional ties to addiction.

Another gift fasting provides is a tangible starting point for a new you. There must be a divorce before there can be remarriage. Most people are more intimately involved with their eating than they are with their spouses. Fasting effectively serves the divorce papers to your former food-lovers [your bad food habits]. There is remorse, yearning—some testify to loneliness, as if an old friend has died. Makes sense: Addiction is always there, waiting to comfort empty emotions—a comfort that comes at a great price.

Clear starting points are important to change. Over years of compromise, you may have effortlessly fallen into physical disrepair. Moving toward health is an uphill climb, demanding a strong exercising of your will-muscle. Fasting is a great way to start working that muscle out.

Lastly, fasting will build powerful momentum—from a dead standstill to exciting motion. When years of weight fall off, excitement and hope tingle: “Maybe I can do this!” We all need a push in the right direction. Fasting is just that.

Step 2: Raw Food “Fasting” Transition

I can tell you that, from many testimonies and personal experience, the ending of a fast can be one of the most decisive moments of your whole life in terms of health. The completion of a fast can be the beginning of a new lifestyle or an excuse for a three-day feeding frenzy resulting in feelings of failure and shame. “Hope deferred makes the heart sick.” Proverbs 13:12. I know people who will never fast again because of the letdown during the first few days of eating, face-first into the same old pizza, a mockery to all the good that just happened during the fast.

Once you begin to eat after a fast, digestion reawakens and an interesting thing happens. Although physical addictions are broken and homeostasis is balanced, awakened hunger can also reawaken our psychological ties to the same addictions we had before the fast. Entering the world of food after a prolonged fast can almost be like walking into the neighborhood of your youth and experiencing the same old emotions of fear and insecurity you had as a kid. It can be discouraging after such a high. Fasting has freed your body from physiological addiction. But, often, only disciplined eating can effectively break deeper emotional addictions by replacing life-long, entrenched, comfort-eating patterns with new, healthy ones.

Ending the fast by eating raw food for half the days you have fasted will serve as an effective transition from the world of fasting to the more demanding world of eating.

I hesitate to call a raw food diet a “fast.” Some people have made raw food their lifetime diet. But, there are real benefits to approaching a raw food diet with a fasting mentality. Fasting demands a disciplined focus and determination. Once off the fast, we naturally loosen up focus. A raw food fast is just as demanding as juice fasting. I personally find a raw food diet more challenging than juice fasting.

And here is a word of advice. Do not spend the last days of your fast dreaming about all the delicious foods you are going to indulge in. Deciding to eat raw food for about half the fasting period will greatly help with this, allowing an emotional transition from the world of fasting to eating. Our imagination is so powerful that Jesus said, “If we lust in our heart, it as if we have committed adultery.” If you engage in illicit food fantasies, dreaming about all the nasty foods you are going to gorge on after the fast, you have missed the whole point, slipping right back into that old binge and purge mentality.

This is about permanently changing your eating paradigm and never going back. Never! There is a place for enjoying a treat here and there; but, you know as well as I do that was never the problem! Feeling deprived? Maybe this would be a good place for a little encouragement. Vibrant health, youthful body, clear-mindedness, self-control, consistent energy, needing less sleep, clear complexion, disease resistance, and longer life. Is it worth sacrificing all that for an addiction? Of course not! And, if you let this program work—it may take some time, some say up to a year—you will teach your body to hunger and feel satisfied with healthy foods.

Raw food will always taste best after a fast. Eat as much as you please. You will continue to lose weight on a raw diet. In fact, you may lose it faster, especially if most of your food is vegetables. There are far fewer calories in raw vegetables than juice. Raw food is bulking, fiber-filled, low density food. The abundance of soft fiber has the added benefit of cleaning out any toxins that have been deposited in the colon during the fast. Also, as you reawaken digestion, the body will pull out of the fasting state and your metabolism will increase; hence, you will burn more calories on a raw food diet. A higher metabolism and less caloric intake equals weight loss.

Step 3: Healthy Diet and Exercise Lifestyle

You may have heard this slogan on the radio touted by popular weight loss programs: “You can eat the food you love and still lose weight!” The problem is we love the wrong kinds of food. The whole approach is shallow and wrong. Body fat is a visible and embarrassing symptom to a deeper issue; and, there is a real temptation to quick-fix the poundage away without dealing with the unhealthy lifestyle hidden behind pounds. As we have learned, most mainstream diet programs, although providing weight loss, are extremely unhealthy and even dangerous to our health. They do not deal in any meaningful way with the source of the problem lying concealed—deep below the skin.

There is a lot of money to be made offering desperate people quick fixes. In good conscience, I cannot do this. This system will not hit the Diet Top Ten Chart because it forces uncomfortable change. There are no thrills or pills.

So here we are. You have fasted for 30 days and eaten raw food for 15, and never felt better. Weight is off, a youthful vitality is returned, and you want to keep it all. The following are five principles, if followed throughout your life, that will permanently establish vibrant health.

1. Increase the Percentage of Raw Food in Your Diet

The number one thing you can do to extend health and vibrant living is increase raw food. Living food for a living body.

2. Eat Natural, Unprocessed Food

Eat natural, unprocessed whole-grain foods and unrefined oils. Educate yourself on what is truly natural and what is often a marketing ploy. Read the ingredients. Do not be fooled by labels.

3. Eat Only When Truly Hungry

Overeating taxes the body, stores fat, and creates excessive mucus. Eat slowly and enjoy. Chew food well to assist digestion. Feed the body; starve the cravings; and, don’t feed depression.

4. Regular Fasting for Spiritual and Physical Cleansing

Regular periods of detoxification and cleansing through juice fasting or a raw food diet. Fasting can be a launching board to dietary change. A tranquil time of spiritual refreshment.

5. Exercise for Mental and Physical Well Being