After my first 30-day juice fast, I was hooked and did two more 30-day fasts consecutively, eating for 10 days in between. From drug addiction to being a health zealot was a definite improvement, but my approach remained the same. Fasting and eating healthy became my new obsession. Eating a cookie brought days of guilt and shame. My thoughts dwelled on the horror of all the deadly toxins I had just injected into my bloodstream. I had to be in the gym 5 days a week. I was totally focused on my body and food. It was all I talked about and it irritated people. Now, fasting is just part of my life and eating healthy is normal. I don

Anger Can Be Motivational

Anger is a powerful weapon against addictions and habits. If you can see clearly what destruction it is causing and get angry at it, you will build the determination to quit. If your decision is unshakable and resolute, you will not fail due to temptation! Make a list of all the harmful effects of your addiction and get angry.

opt : Anne

There is a constant war going on within the body. If the immune system is healthy, parasites are kept in check. However, in this modern-day lifestyle, where people eat lots of white sugar, white flour, processed oil and fewer nutrients, the microorganisms flourish. The microorganisms are not the problem; it is their excretions into the blood. Imagine a million microorganisms urinating into your bloodstream. The metabolic byproduct can devastate healthy tissue and open the door to disease.

Candida

Candida is an example of a microorganism. It is normally found in the body, but, when the opportunity exists, it takes over and propagates, affecting the colon, vagina or bladder. Much of the harm done by Candida results from its waste product, acetaldehyde, which in turn can affect the neurological, endocrine and immune systems. Few chemicals can create as much havoc in the body as acetaldehydes. Acetaldehydes accumulate in the brain, spinal cord, joints, muscles and poison tissues. For this reason, any program in detoxification needs to address the problem of internal microorganisms.

Most microorganisms, including Candida, live on sugar. The more sugar they get, the more they propagate. The problem is that everything turns to sugar except protein, and even juice fasting supplies sugars to the blood. Water fasting is the solution. If they do not get enough sugar, microorganisms become dormant allowing the immune system a much easier time destroying them. A restricted juice fast using green leafy vegetables, garlic, carrots, beets and apples will help continue the healing through boosting the immune system.

Add fresh ginger root to fruit juices and garlic to the veggie mixtures. A Candida diet will include many salads and veggies combined with supplements and herbs. Most health food stores stock herbal formulas and supplements for parasite reduction such as caprylic acid tablets and molybdenum. If taken at bedtime with water, chopped garlic will not cause any breath odor. Throughout the night, the garlic will slowly release the antibacterial substances into the colon.

You can water fast with cayenne pepper and freshly juiced ginger root in an all-out attack against parasites. Longer water fasts are brutal to parasites, increasing the factors that make the body an unfriendly environment for growth and reproduction, such as low blood sugar, increased toxins in the blood and an immune system working at full intensity.

There is an unwarranted fear of fasting that strength diminishes from the catabolism of proteins from muscle fibers. Fasting will strip only muscle cells that are dead, dying or diseased. Even during long fasts, the number of muscle fibers remains the same. Although the healthy cells may be reduced in size and strength for a time, they remain perfectly sound.

In December 1903, under the supervision of Mr. Macfadden, eight athletes entered an athletic contest in Madison Square Gardens. Amazingly, all were on the seventh day of water fasting. Joseph H. Waltering, one of the eight, won both the 50-yard dash and the 220-yard run. Another member of the eight, Gilman Low, won first prize in the strength contests. The following day, on the eighth day of his fast, in front of 16,000 well-fed spectators munching on popcorn and peanuts, he established nine world records for strength and endurance that would stand for years. Even more astonishing are the inspirational stories in the Fasting Testimonies chapter provided at the conclusion of this book. Accounts of parents spending the whole day, cleaning house, doing laundry and feeding hungry children while fasting!

Dr. Ehret, an avid faster, walked for ten days through the mountains fasting on water. Bragg, another fasting enthusiast, walked 30 miles across Death Valley, in July, during a fast. It was an invigorating walk for Bragg, but for the ten athletic college students who went with him through the blistering heat, it was an experience they never forget. Enjoying his first stroll so much, Bragg decided to hike another 30 miles the next day. Not bad for a great-grandfather!

Your first fast will cause weakness in the early stages. Regretfully, when this symptom appears, many stop fasting due to a lack of knowledge or understanding that this weakness is not detrimental. They are unsuccessful in breaking through to the other side and encountering the abundant energy of juice fasting. It takes about 10 days for a weightlifter or athlete to get back to full muscular strength after a long fast. After that, performance will improve.

I find that long fasts are preferable to short ones because once the body is in the fasting state it cleanses systematically into the harder to get at body tissues. For this reason, most of the recoveries from illness have taken place in the latter parts of long juice or water fasts. A friend’s hemorrhoids were healed on the 21st day of a juice fast after suffering from them for 15 years. He stated “It is like they were never there.” Long fasts give the body the uninterrupted time to do the work of healing. I compare it to getting a piano tuned. A piano tuner can tune a piano in three short visits or one long one. Three shorter visits will take more time and energy because he has to drive back and forth, loading and unload his tools. The first few days of fasting gets rid of the gross waste products of digestion, but only after this can the body pull out its tools to get to work on healing.

The thirty day juice fast is a standard in European health facilities. This length of fast feels about right because after 30 day it seems like you have been fasting for ever. Less then 30 days and you can miss the best experiences of the fast.

The ten day water fast has also become a recommended number of days. Paul Bragg was an advocate of the 10 day water fast. Ten days on water will cause the same weight loss as 30 days on juice. But water fasting if far more difficult, especially if you have a fast metabolism.

The difficulty with this length of a fast it is difficult not to overeat. When I fell into temptation and ate the wrong food, instantly all the benefits I was experiencing evaporated. This state cannot exist unless the blood is clean. Any toxic food and it is gone. Even over eating fruit will cause it to reduce. I duplicated this type of fast twice and experienced exactly the same effect only to lose it when faced with the intense desire for food that comes when hunger returns after the fast.

These were rare and incredible experiences. Someday, God willing, I hope to have the discipline or the environment and support necessary to reach such a goal. Other fasting advocates claim this state can become permanent when maintaining a fruit diet. It is hard for me to envision what it would be like to live in this state permanently.

There is no greater detoxification program for the healing and recovery of your body than juice fasting because of the antioxidant, cleansing power of freshly made juices. Due to the highly toxic nature of the chemical compounds found in our present day diet, the detoxification organs need to have every nutritional resource available to assist the body in removal of toxic substances and for healing. Juice fasting is efficient in healing because the body is cleansed and the immune system is supported with nutrients. From cancer to heart disease, fasting needs to be the first defense against disease. If I break a bone, count me in for a trip to the hospital; however, when the problem is disease, ignoring detoxification and the nutritional needs of the immune system, is ignoring the body’s natural healing process.

Detoxification should be integral to the healing process of modern medicine. Instead fasting has been given a bad reputation. Mention to your friends that you’re about to start a fast and the reaction will be one of horror. Expect emotionally charged statements that you’re going to die, become an anorexic or damage your organs. It will be rare to receive a positive response. From doctors to dietitians, the opinion is that fasting is harmful to the body. It is more acceptable to get drunk and smoke cigarettes. Yet, fasting is as old as man and has been used for thousands of years for healing and spiritual awakening.

Prescriptions are more profitable than telling someone they need to eat more fruit, less junk and drink fresh juice for a few days. Also, most people want the lazy way to heal. They would rather take a pill than change their diet, yet medications cannot heal they can only alter the symptoms. Fasting is a more effective tool.

A clean cell with all its nutritional needs fulfilled is a healthy cell. For recovery from disease and for optimum health, your trillions of cells need to be detoxified and saturated with nutrients. Excess fat, mucus coatings on the intestine, industrial chemicals, cholesterol, environmental toxins, medication residues, and the sludge from all the junk food from years of toxic living, need to be removed from the cells of your body. You may feel a couple of aches and pains, headaches and see some strangely-colored slimy things pass through the stool but do not be alarmed because this is just part of the cleansing process. In this book, you will learn how the detoxification process works so you will not have any little surprises. The chapter, Battling Cancer with Fasting, goes into greater detail on the healing process of disease.

Fasting is Natural Body Function

With great patience the body waits until we fall asleep to begin its nightly work of cleansing. Breakfast is appropriately named as it is breaking a nightly fast with a morning meal. Upon awakening from this short fast, the tongue is coated, breath foul, skin puffy, and the mind foggy. These are all early symptoms of the body in a state of detoxification. Bacon, eggs, a side order of pancakes, and a cup of coffee is a sure way of halting detoxification. Of course, you feel instantly better, attributing it to a greasy breakfast.

These nightly fasts slow the erosion process and much repair work is done, but the time is too short for serious healing. For that, you need to get serious with detoxification through extended fasting.

Balanced Approach to Fasting

After my first 30-day juice fast, I was hooked and did two more 30-day fasts consecutively, eating for 10 days in between. From drug addiction to being a health zealot was a definite improvement, but my approach remained the same. Fasting and eating healthy became my new obsession. Eating a cookie brought days of guilt and shame. My thoughts dwelled on the horror of all the deadly toxins I had just injected into my bloodstream. I had to be in the gym 5 days a week. I was totally focused on my body and food. It was all I talked about and it irritated people. Now, fasting is just part of my life and eating healthy is normal. I don’t talk about the subject unless I have to. When I came to be at peace, I became balanced.

Obsession or being fanatical comes from fear of being out of control. It is a security blanket that we hang onto; something that we can control, but obsession stops us from enjoying life. Obsession with health takes all the fun out of it. It is like going on a vacation and worrying about every detail. The trip becomes a nightmare. It is all the little worries and fear that take the joy out of the fasting journey. Am I drinking too much juice? Will adding mashed banana slow detoxification? How quickly will I lose weight? Can I exercise while fasting? Will loss of weight cause flabby skin? Does fasting hurt the liver? Why do I feel dizzy?

Many questions are answered in the Commonly Asked Questions chapter. Questions are important and understanding brings comfort, but fasting is a personal journey and each fast is a different journey. There will always be the unexpected, for fasting is as mysterious as the human soul. It may be hard to let go and just enjoy the journey but that is the best way to fast.

Your Fasting Journey

Some find fasting easy and fast for 30 days on juice for their first fast. Others have a hard time getting past two days. Just do your best. The chapters, Persevering In Fasting and Principles of Fasting, will help greatly, but your fasting journey will not be without failures. It is only through failures that you can learn. With each victory, you will discover the joys of fasting. For those who press on, fasting has rewards. Clear sinuses that can smell a delicate fragrance; sensitive skin that shivers with the caress of a warm breeze; emotions that become a symphony to the soul; and a mind that can capture the profound depths of God and glimpse the joy of Adam and Eve. Instead of becoming old and sick with the coming years, you will age gracefully and be amazed at how young you feel. Hitting forty and fifty years old, life has just begun. A few more wrinkles but feeling like twenty.

To change your life in a powerful way you need to master the art of fasting. In this fast-paced money centered culture, fasting is the reset button that takes you back to who you really are. It gives you time to be at peace and find yourself. It opens doors in the spiritual realm that can free a soul or change a nation. From Christ battling Satan in the desert to the divorced cashier battling breast cancer, fasting has a power to transform the outcome.

Going Nuts at Christmas

My worst was during a Christmas. I had fasted over 20 day and was blissfully sailing though endless gorging release by the “Christmas spirit”. Friends and family were amazed by my discipline. The nuts were innocent. Cashews, raisins, pecans, freshly mixed with a roasted nut aroma that incessantly teased me. I started to avoid the room, but like a magnet, I was lured back just to try one. After a fast, one nut is too many and 1000 is never enough. My stomach was sore for three days. An aching reminder that blowing a fast is a lesson in pain.

This is the place to post your failure and make others feel that they are not alone.

Post Your Fasting Disasters

Sulphured molasses is made from young green sugar cane and is treated with sulfur dioxide, which acts as a preservative, during the sugar extraction process. Unsulphured molasses is made from mature sugar cane and does not require treatment with sulphur during the extraction process.

Basically, the unsuphured tastes stronger but has more nutrients. The suphur treated molasses is sweeter and has less nutrients.