FASTING For Your Health (Tips How I Did It)
I never thought I would try this, but I did a few days ago. Fasting. Not eating for a day, 24 hours.
You know what? When you put your mind to it, will power, it’s not that bad!
There were a few tricks that I used which made it a lot easier! I’ll give you my tips below.
But first, WHY did I do it? Actually, both Mrs.J and I fasted the same day…
WHY Fasting is Good For You
I’m no expert on this. But, there’s one glaring obvious reason why fasting can be good for you:
Lose Weight Fast!
My motivation for trying fasting for 24 hours was to see if I could do it without too much of a problem. If it worked (and it did), then I will continue to do it regularly for awhile. Why? Because I could do myself some good to lose a few pounds. And this is going to help with that!
I’m 6′ 2″ and have slipped to 220 lbs. Whoops. While I don’t consider myself to be ‘fat’ – given that I’m 6’2″ and carry my weight fairly evenly – I definitely want to trim down to ~200.
As we all age, (and you’ll find out if you’re not there yet), it takes a lot more ‘work’ to burn off those calories. We’re all different, but I noticed it about the time when I reached 50 ‘ish. As I settled into my 50’s it became apparent that it’s going to take more work and adjustments with my eating habits to keep that scale from going up and up.
It’s so easy to eat a delicious high-calorie meal (fill in the blank). But the thing is this… about 3,500 calories is ~equivalent to ~1 pound. You can eat that pretty quick in a given day (or more). But to exercise that off, is an incredible comparative effort!
I’m not saying that exercising isn’t good. But I am saying that a few minutes of delicious eating can only be compensated by rigorous and shockingly lots of caloric ‘burn’ time at working out. It’s ridiculous.
I’m a fairly active guy. But, those pounds can sure creep up. It’s good to exercise. To workout. To be active. There are lots of ways to do this. However, fasting for a day will blast away those calories – because you’re not eating them! Your body will get those calories it needs from your “insulation” instead!
Tips To Fasting
There are surely more tips to fasting. But this is how I got through it.
Coffee. Water. Chicken broth. Celery. Jello.
I drink my coffee black. Zero calories (plus I like it that way). So I had my usual morning coffee, which consists of nearly two 8-ounce cups.
Water has no calories. I drank more water than I normally do throughout the day. It helped fill the stomach (and provides for a better ‘flush’ the system too).
The chicken broth only had 10 calories in 8 ounces. For lunch I heated up a glass of the broth and sipped it. It was actually quite good! A great tip for fasting is broth.
Amazingly, I was not hungry most of the afternoon! I kept busy with my projects and didn’t start feeling hungry until later in the afternoon.
For dinner, I had sugar-free jello. There were only 10 calories in it! Mrs.J and I split one box of jello. Eat it slow. Savor it.
After the jello, I waited awhile. Still hungry (but not ‘starving’). I ate two celery sticks. Basically no calories. It worked! I made it through the day. Sure, I went to bed a bit hungry. But it wasn’t terrible.
(The Day After)
Here’s a surprising side effect of fasting. I thought that I would be famished the next morning. I was prepared for it, and had told myself I wouldn’t “make up for the fact” that I didn’t eat anything of substance the day before ;)
HOWEVER, I wasn’t hungry! Even at lunch time, I was hardly aware of being hungry. What?!
I did make a tuna sandwich. But you know what? After eating that sandwich I felt like I ate too much!
As the day progressed I still was not hungry at all. Then by dinner time I was only a bit hungry. Ate a light dinner.
So, that tells me that something happens to your body after fasting, such that you’re not terribly hungry the next day! Medically, I don’t know how that worked. But that’s a bonus if you’re looking to shed some calorie/weight.
The Takeaway
Okay, so I revealed some personal information about myself. But I was so surprised that I wanted to share the results.
Preparedness is also about your body. Your health. Being fit.
While I do feel that I’m physically fit, I want to shed some excess baggage. I discovered that fasting wasn’t as terrible as I thought it would be. It does take some will power. But it works. It also has an apparent side effect of diminishing one’s appetite the next day. A bonus.
Fasting will help put you in the mindset to be more aware of the calories that you’re eating. And how easy it is to consume thousands of calories that you don’t need – while how much comparative difficulty in burning it off.
I believe there are other health benefits too. I didn’t look those up because I’m doing it to boost my weight loss goal.
I’ll be doing this once a week for awhile. I might even try it twice during a week (maybe…).
Have any of you tried this?
Continue reading: Good Old Fashioned Physical Labor For Better Health