Fasting

Okay kids, we’ve arrived at the topic no one likes- that’s right, the dreaded fasting.

Anyone who knows me at all knows I love food. I am always eating. Seriously. When I worked in a construction office, I had an entire cabinet drawer devoted to snacks. I take after my mother’s metabolism and prefer 4-5 small meals in a day to the standard three squares. I’m pretty sure the powers that be marketed “breakfast, lunch and dinner” to people so that we’d eat heavy three times per day rather than do what’s healthier for our blood sugar and do what I do- stuff like randomly just have a single handful of trail mix and then be on my way. So yeah. I am always munching on something, and I’m pretty sure it’s a crime what I spend on groceries each week (organic or bust, yo)

All that being said- for a person who loves food as much as I do, I also routinely do without it for prolonged periods of time. (Water is always allowed. You die pretty quick without water.) Already this year I’ve done a couple of 1-2 day fasts, but as this blog posts, I’ll be rounding the corner into beginning my first 3-day fast of the year- Sunday night through Thursday morning. I have done a 72 hour fast three times in my life, and the first time was definitely the hardest, because it was no-man’s land for me- a complete unknown, and unknowns are actually pretty hard for a lot of us. We fear the unknown because we fear there’s bad stuff in the unknown. But what if you ventured into the unknown and all you found by the end was strength, confidence, and a renewed sense of health? What if you left the light to walk into the dark, but found there was more light on the other side of the darkness?

A great quote I saw once (probably at my chiropractor’s office) said “Make time for your health or you’ll be forced to take time for your sickness.” This quote absolutely applies here, because most people never take the time to stop pushing or being productive, and we don’t realize that we are NOT supposed to live this way. The way the human condition is supposed to work, we’re supposed to rest, we’re supposed to take time off, we’re supposed to have health breaks, we’re supposed to balance our chi and get massages and sleep in without alarms. But in this current climate, that’s not the messaging, and that’s why most of us are sick- because a lot of us would rather swing through McDonalds on the way home from work late than just miss dinner and start afresh at breakfast. Why do we do this? Because we’re essentially programmed to- the FDA, the government, pharma, yes… they all have a hand in trying to make you as sick as possible. I know we’ve been over this, but it’s really important that we all realize that the “food pyramid” they peddled to us in the 90’s was brainwashing to give us all Celiac and IBS and depression. Miserable people go to the doctor and buy pills. Happy, healthy people don’t.

I will probably never go to a doctor again as long as I live. Because they don’t know how to fix you. They know how to prescribe things so that your next test “looks” better.

The human body is an amazing thing. It was created by an amazing, intelligent designer who gave us all the tools for immortality, if we’d just look inside ourselves, do the hard thing, and use those tools. The word of the day is “autophagy.” Definition? The process of your digestive system having no active food in it to digest, and instead, it directs its attention to eating the dead parts of your own body instead. Yes, I am quite well aware that this sounds like the beginning of a horror movie (The body started eating itself, the horror!) but it’s really not like you think. Our body is made up of countless trillions of cells. These cells are individual but part of a larger whole called… us. We who are immortal souls driving mortal bodies have some challenges in these lifetimes of ours, namely, can we force ourselves into being uncomfortable for short periods of time so that our overall lives can be better? Really, this is the entire secret of health- purposely do the little uncomfortable things, and never have to deal with major health problems. I’d rather run than be bedridden by 70. I’d rather fast than get cancer or lupus. I’d rather skip sugar than get diabetes. And so on. I’m currently in the immune intensive of my classes, and I am here to tell you- when the food we ingest is more plastic than food, our body -will- attack it as a foreign invader, so when our cells absorb that chemical mess… it’s our very own cells being attacked. I no longer wonder where autoimmune conditions come from- sometimes, unfortunately, foreign invaders enter our bodies in the form of S’mores Pop Tarts or Blue Razz Icee’s. And something else no doctor will tell you- depression and anxiety are autoimmune disorders. We turn on ourselves and either kick ourselves or make ourselves afraid. And we do this because we ingest more sugar in the average week than humans used to in an entire year, 100 years ago. Birthday cake was special because it was so sweet and you didn’t get it that often. Now there are people who drink four Pepsis every single day. (another of my tinfoil hat theories is that Pepsi destroys pepsin- an enzyme in our stomach that breaks down protein. Destroy the gut, destroy the mind.)

But we as humans have come to love our creature comforts. We’ve become little hobbits, who just want our morning cup and pastry, and the idea of not eating the morning pastry is just a foreign concept to us! We have also come to identify any “bad” feeling as, well, bad. We have come to pursue only what feels good, rather than what IS good, and this is why so many of us have unhealthy bodies right now- because we have not been taught how to properly care for them, how to rinse them out, how to flush liver gallstones, etc. We’ve been taught to just buy pills. And this is the biggest problem of all- we’ve given our agency away to a monster that doesn’t care for your happiness, but rather, how much money it can take from your wallet because of decades of poor food choices, for a lot of us. And we haven’t realized we do not live in a black and white world. Uncomfortable doesn’t automatically equate bad. It can equate unusual, or strange, or unknown, but discomfort leads to growth. Not a single person ever grew while comfortable. Take that to the bank.

A three-day fast is one of the purest forms of self-love that can exist.

It is saying “no” to your body’s impulses because you, the soul, the driver, is telling it that it deserves better than to be unhealthy, and so you’ll go through an uncomfortable process in order to bring health to said body. Self-discipline, as in, doing the right thing for yourself not because someone is telling you to, not because you feel you have to, but because you choose to, is the road to self-mastery. Matthew 16:24 says, quoting Jesus, “If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me.” Have any of us stopped to consider what this means? It means Jesus was smarter and giving us deeper truths than any of us want to admit. The 7 deadly sins are what they are for a reason. America has a severe sloth and gluttony problem right now. What we have wanted to do for the last 50 years is clearly killing us- and what we have wanted to do is eat fast food and ice cream and then sit on the couch and binge Netflix… for thirty years. I am no exception to this. I spent a third of 2016 and half of 2017 eating thousand calorie pints of 7-11 Salted Caramel ice cream in between bottles of white wine while watching TV and trying to drown the feelings of how much I hated myself. We as a society have gotten to a point where just hating ourselves but pretending not to has become the norm.

“You will stay the same until the pain of staying the same is greater than the pain of changing.”

I know this better than most, which is why I challenge you- what if instead of hating yourself and what you’ve let your life become, and instead of distracting yourself from the reality of your choices, you put that energy into actually fixing yourself and becoming the best version of you that you can be? The best way to jumpstart feeling better about yourself is a prolonged fast in which you reboot your entire immune system in just 72 little hours. That and you can recalibrate your taste buds. People don’t realize they’ve acclimated to garbage food. They’ll put three spoonfuls of white sugar in their coffee, four times per day, but have no idea why they are depressed, anxious, and get stomach aches all the time. You do a three day fast, though, and now all you need is a single spoonful of coconut sugar or a little squeeze of agave syrup in the morning joe, and you’d be amazed at how sweet it tastes. A ripe apple after a fast tastes like Mana of the Gods. I can’t imagine swigging a soda these days, any flavor. All I would taste is chemical poison. Which is exactly what soda is. And when you go back to food after the long fast, you suddenly think about those aforementioned Pop Tarts. You ask yourself, “Does my body want this or just my mouth?” Chances are, it’s just the mouth, people, Just the mouth.

I have spoken to a number of people who have blood sugar regulation problems, and as such, they eat as often as I do, which is to say, constantly. Or they say they can’t go longer than half a day without eating because of shakes, brain fog, weakness, etc. I am certain most of you can relate. I don’t knock those who eat constantly- I do it because I enjoy it and feel healthier that way. But I don’t eat that often because I think I have to. That’s the difference- that I am mentally in control of my blood sugar and have no problem regularly skipping a meal or two without losing my mind. I am not a slave to food. It is a friend and a useful tool, not a necessity.

Here’s something that will blow your mind to learn, though. Those of us who do regular prolonged fasts… you’re aware that we also feel those shakes, the weakness, and the brain fog, right? You’re aware it sucks just as much for us as it does for you, the first time? That we simply choose to power through being uncomfortable because we know what we are doing is healthy for us?

“But Holly, how do you deal with being productive if that’s the case?” I plan to do nothing the first day. No errands, little to no cooking, etc, no strenuous housework, etc. Which is why I said what I said about taking time for your own health. I recommend you take a Friday off from work and fast Friday through Sunday. Boom. Now you’re only really out a single day and you’ve just made fantastic strides for your health. And I say a single day for a reason- because most people have the impression that they’ll be shaky brain goop crankypants for all three days, but here’s the magic- God designed our bodies to do this, right? Do any of you think it’s an accident that by prolonged fasting, your body will just eat and discard cancer cells? Or do you think that maybe God never intended for our bodies to turn on themselves in such sickness, instead using the beautiful gift of fasting to bring us back to health? It’s the second one, I promise you, because around 24-30 hours into your fast, something happens. Your ketosis switches on. And whroooomph, just like hitting runner’s high, you find you have tons of energy and you’re not even hungry anymore.

I am very serious. This happens.

Let me give you just a handful of the benefits of a prolonged fast- from the Googles:

Ketosis

After glycogen stores are depleted (typically within the first few hours of fasting), the body begins to burn fat for energy, entering a state of ketosis. 

Weight Loss

The calorie deficit created by fasting can lead to fat loss. 

Improved Insulin Sensitivity

Fasting can improve how your body responds to insulin, which is beneficial for individuals with insulin resistance or type 2 diabetes. 

Autophagy

Fasting may trigger autophagy, a process where the body removes damaged or old cellular components, which can be beneficial for cellular health.

Increased growth hormone

Fasting can elevate human growth hormone (HGH) levels, which helps preserve muscle mass and burn fat. 

Other Benefits

Some studies suggest that fasting may reduce inflammation, improve cognitive function, and potentially even extend lifespan. 

So… it’s really, really good for you. I am aware it is also hard. Ask my hungry husband how hard it was when he did it with me once. As soon as it was over, he wanted a pile of biscuits and gravy. I didn’t have the heart to tell him he was supposed to ease back in slowly. Nope. He wanted a plate of grease, so that’s what he got. And to this day he’ll tell you it was the best biscuits and gravy of his life, which I don’t doubt. My biscuits and gravy are probably almost as good as they make them in the South… but not quite, Southerners. Not quite. *bows to your biscuit glory*

Look… I know it’s daunting. Most people don’t have the courage to walk into the dark, fearing that the light will never come back. People often don’t have the courage to force themselves to willingly suffer. But…since you all know how much I love Jesus, ask yourself this- how can we be like Him if we are not willing to suffer on purpose for the greater good of our own lives? Are we that devoted to our own chains that we would believe the adversary when he says we can’t do something? Or are you willing to take a leap of faith, trust God, and know that He will lead you through what amounts to one hungry day and two energetic but somewhat weak ones, in order to jumpstart your own healing? You can reset your entire immune system on a simple three-day water fast and potentially get off some of your medications. Your thinking will be clearer, you’ll have renewed confidence, you’ll feel proud of yourself for doing something hard, AND you’ll potentially drop a pants size. Just in three days.

If Jesus can get up from His tomb after three whole days of being dead, you have the power to get through a 3-day fast. I believe in you, because I was you, and this will be my fourth 3-day’er in two years. No sweat.

The only way to overcome hard things is to face them… and overcome them. Mind over matter, kiddos. (Edit: Due to my own yammering about overcoming hard things, I have challenged myself- just to put my muffins where my mouth is. As of today, Sunday evening, I have decided to turn this into a five-day fast, ending Friday afternoon. I know who drives my life and I trust He will help me through it. Remember, you can do hard things.)

“No one tells you that courage feels like fear.”

That, and occasionally belly gurgles.