Fasting

[SonOfTheGods]

I seen fasting mixed in with other topics, but I feel fasting deserves its own thread

 

There are correct ways to fast, and some very bad ways to do it

 

If you fast, you should do it as a routine rather than just a randomly "not eating today"

 

This way, your body gradually starts to detox and every fast feels better than the last one

 

Since 1982 I have incorporated daily fasting

 

I eat one meal every 24 hours and on Saturday I entirely skip it

 

So that's 6 meals in 7 days

 

I have found that food increases Jing but too much food can deplete Jing (Of course what you eat is a big variable here too)

 

Less stress on the digestive process, more energy elsewhere.

[Grok]

I currently eat one meal a day and have found it to be extremely beneficial.

 

Clear mind all day.

 

Energy flows nicely.

 

Have never fasted for longer periods of time but would like to try it eventually to experience it. 

 

-grok

[Orion]

What if your activity level increases? Such as going for a long walk, exercise, or mentally demanding tasks? Is that one meal enough?

 

For your one meal, what do you tend to eat?

 

I'm just wondering how anyone can have one meal per day for years and not eventually lose serious weight or suffer malnutrition.

 

The reason I ask is because I like this idea.

[SonOfTheGods]

What if your activity level increases? Such as going for a long walk, exercise, or mentally demanding tasks? Is that one meal enough?

 

For your one meal, what do you tend to eat?

 

I'm just wondering how anyone can have one meal per day for years and not eventually lose serious weight or suffer malnutrition.

 

The reason I ask is because I like this idea.

 

I Powerlift and practice/instruct Mixed Martial Arts

 

My sole meal consists of either:

 

Chicken/fish and rice/pasta with vegetable/salad and only drink water

 

My intense cultivation practices is the reason I sometimes incorporate a high calorie protein shake- at times increasing my caloric intake 1,000 - 2,000 calories (mostly during a Yang cycle)

 

I have been doing this since my military days (1982)

[blue eyed snake]

yes, i know from my teacher that he has long days full of activity without eating very much.

 

But it depends much on the person. Many people have advised me to fast because of longterm illness/tiredness , they say it;s detoxing. But i tend to loose weight even without fasting and i do not want to come to low. teacher always tells me to eat better.  

 

Maybe for later, at the moment i'm gaining weight so when that keeps stable i might give it a try. 

 

Good idea to make a thread for fasting

[Daeluin]

I used to do 7 day "fasts." I would drink diluted juices and herbal teas. Some might not consider this really fasting.

 

I quite enjoyed how it made me feel. By the end of the 2nd day and throughout the 3rd day I would be ravenous and in pain as my body presumably transitioned to ketosis. But after that I felt like I was on a cloud, and by the 7th day I didn't really want to start eating again. However I would get dizzy spells and too much physical exertion was trouble.

 

That was all before I started any sort of qigong. I've been musing on what it might be like to get back into fasting mixed with qigong. Perhaps with the right type of energy work and intent, the physical body can be moved more with the mind/energy, without as much cost to one's physical resources.

 

It is interesting how the bigu diet seems similar to a ketogenic diet at first, but at higher levels may only consist of pine needles, and then only qi.

[SonOfTheGods]

Back in the day (another era   ) I used to fast for a few days with lemon juice, cayenne pepper, and raw honey mixed in clean water.

 

Then I sprouted wheat grass, mung and turtle beans and juiced that.

 

But all my energy went into chasing my kids down to get them to drink it- so it didn't go over too well

[idiot_stimpy]

Fasting and sleep deprivation is a sure way to enter altered states of consciousness. 

[SonOfTheGods]

Also.........

 

Proper PH Balance- if you feel illness coming on- IMMEDIATELY make your body more Alkaline

 

Acid is the environment for dis_ease to grow in

 

Example- feel a cold or flu coming on?

 

Baking Soda/ Sodium Bicarbonate = 1/2 teaspoon in 8 oz clean water every 3 or 4 hours

(NOT IF YOU ARE ON A SODIUM RESTRICTED DIET!)

 

In which case, use- Organic Apple Cider Vinegar "with the Mother in it" 2 teaspoons in 8 oz glass of water

[futuredaze]

I Powerlift and practice/instruct Mixed Martial Arts

 

My sole meal consists of either:

 

Chicken/fish and rice/pasta with vegetable/salad and only drink water

 

My intense cultivation practices is the reason I sometimes incorporate a high calorie protein shake- at times increasing my caloric intake 1,000 - 2,000 calories (mostly during a Yang cycle)

 

I have been doing this since my military days (1982)

That's impressive.  One meal a day I could see working if I am not expending too much energy.  Walking, qigong, even biking or swimming a bit I could imagine doing, but lifting weights always makes me super hungry.  I'm pretty sure it is my body (or at least my mind) craving protein.  How much protein do you get in that one meal?

[Fate]

I've wanted to get into fasting ever since my first qi gong instructor said he saw the strength in me to do it.

 

I figure that listening to my body I'll figure out when the 'right time' to fast is.

 

As an on going diet change, from my teacher Albert Villodo a Medical Anthropologist and Shaman, he recommends a variant of what you've been practicing. Based on his research of healthy eating patterns from our hunter-gatherer ancestors, he proposes 18 hour fast each day. So you can eat one to two meals a day or intermittently for people who can't handle a huge meal, just limit your to eating within 6 hours.

[Synchronic]

I've always been a fan of fasting, instinctively I've been pretty much doing "intermittent fasting" for the last few years, eating 1 meal a day, usually separated by 18-24 hours or so. I find I have more focus and energy while on an empty stomach. Eating just sort of makes me sedated and just want to relax/content with not doing anything productive.

 

Thinking of doing a proper 3 or 5 day water fast, early last month I did 100 hours with just water+beer at my mates festival, but the beer is a bit cheating because of the slight calories, minerals, vitamins, and trace carbohydrates. 

[Spotless]

Real Fasting of 3 days or more - typically two weeks - done well - can have miraculous effects - seriously - like starting from wheel chair bound for years and jogging within 6 weeks. Going from relatively large doses of insulin to zero. Skin problems to beautiful skin.

 

Eating less and abstaining from foods for the better part of a day is a diet control some call fasting and it has become part of the meaning of the word "fasting".

 

From the medical side and from the Ayurvedic side this is not considered fasting and the use of the word like this is an abomination of what is considered fasting as Medicine.

 

Obviously eating once a day or only nibbling here and there have beneficial effects compared to gluttony, simply to many meals, portions to large and other portion control and timing control issues in addition to the quality of the food and combining food - but fasting in the medial sense is completely different.

 

It is only by the third day that the body has been transformed into another energy burning cleaning dynamic - and that is pretty much really only accomplished in a water fast - or a Juice fast with very little Fruit juice / sugar juice (about 1/12 or less of the intake). Most of a medical juice fast should be water, clear vegetable broths, and strained vegetable juices and herbal teas possibly mixed with Ayurvedic accents.

 

If you wish for a blow by blow daily account of a fast, I just complete a 12 day fast and it was posted daily starting on the 9th page of "opening the third eye and other byproducts along the way".

Edited August 3, 2015 by Spotless

[Spotless]

Quote from The Free Dictionary by Farlex:

 

"Physiology of fasting

Through evolution, the body became very efficient at storing energy and handling situations when no food was available. For many centuries, fasting was probably a normal occurrence for most people, and the body adapted to it. It is estimated that even very thin people can survive for 40 days or more without food. The body has a special mechanism that is initiated when no food is eaten. Fasting is not starvation, but rather the body's burning of stored energy. Starvation occurs when the body no longer has any stored energy and begins using essential tissues such as organs for an energy source. Therapeutic fasts are stopped long before this happens.

Many physiological changes occur in the body during fasting. During the first day or so, the body uses its glycogen reserves, the sugars that are the basic energy supply. After these are depleted, the body begins using fat. However, the brain, which has high fuel requirements, still needs glucose (sugars converted from glycogen). To obtain glucose for the brain, the body begins to break down muscle tissue during the second day of the fast. Thus, during fasting some muscle loss will occur. To fuel the brain, the body would need to burn over a pound of muscle a day, but the body has developed another way to create energy that saves important muscle mass. This protein-sparing process is called ketosis, which occurs during the third day of a fast for men and the second day for women. In this highly efficient state, the liver begins converting stored fat and other nonessential tissues into ketones, which can be used by the brain, muscles, and heart as energy. It is at this point in the fast that sensations of hunger generally go away, and many people experience normal or even increased energy levels. Hormone levels and certain functions become more stable in this state as well. The goal of most fasts is to allow the body to reach the ketosis state in order to burn excess fat and unneeded or damaged tissue. Thus, fasts longer than three days are generally recommended as therapy.

Weight loss occurs most rapidly during the first few days of a fast, up to 2 pounds per day. In following days, the figure drops to around 0.5 pound per day. An average weight loss of a pound a day for an entire fast can be expected.

 

 

Performing a fast

Fasts can be performed for varying lengths of time, depending on the person and his or her health requirements. For chronic conditions, therapists recommend from two to four weeks to get the most benefits. Seven-day fasts are also commonly performed. A popular fasting program for prevention and general health is a three-day fast taken four times per year, at the change of each season. These can be easily performed over long weekends."

 

End quote

Edited August 3, 2015 by Spotless

[futuredaze]

I just did a 24-hour fast.  It was not difficult and I felt very awesome on it.  Lots of energy, positivity, felt like I was glowing at some points.  Right before I ate, I got to swim in the ocean for a bit and go on a nice walk, it felt very rejuvenating!  I was turned off from fasts since last time I tried a 3-day fast I felt a lot of anxious energy coming up, had sleep problems, so decided to eat 36-48 hours into it to ground myself again.

 

I'll definitely try longer fasts in the future, but for now I think I want to try intermittent fasting most days and a 24-hour fast at least once a month.  I don't like to be too strict on myself with diet since that leads to a lot of neurotic obsessions, but having guidelines is definitely important.  Rather than beat myself up to discipline myself, I'd rather just try really hard and not get down on myself if I miss my goals.

 

Even though I was always open to fasting, I think my past experiences and deep-seated beliefs (like food=energy, etc.) made me resistant to fasting.  However, after feeling the way I did on this short fast I am excited to see what this might do for me in the future.  I think starting with a 3-day fast was a bit naive for a newbie, I should have just done a 1 or maybe 2-day fast.

Edited August 3, 2015 by futuredaze

[SonOfTheGods]

Breakfast - The word literally refers to breaking the fasting period of the prior night.

(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breakfast)

 

In this sense, I just extend it by eliminating 2 more meals- breakfast and lunch.

 

It is definitely not  a long fast, but done over decades, it helps in the long term.

 

As a mixed martial artist and power-lifter, and extreme cultivator, Jing maintenance is priority in my routines and their recovery phase.

 

Adequate nutrition and sleep are both important factors for Jing.

[WIldCat]

The longest I did a fast was for I think 19 days. I didn't eat anything solid. I drank juices and water. I remember by day 4 I had so much energy it was insane. My skin cleared up and I felt less pain. I don't fast anymore as my blood pressure runs lower so if I go too long without food I can faint but I like to fast from certain products like meat, corn, pasta, ect.