To fast on water is a test of discipline. I do not enjoy water fasting; I do it for the results. Having a very fast metabolism, no excess fat and being muscular, my body demands a continual supply of calories. I live mostly on fruit and get hungry every two hours. About four hours into the fast, my body starts to feel the lack of calories. Twenty-four hours later, I am lying around with little energy to expend. From then on, I may get little bursts of energy but mostly I feel lazy, tired and achy. Occasionally there are peak moments where I feel amazing and faith burns bright but, for the most part, water fasting requires great resolve and determination for almost every day I fast.

Juice fasting is just the opposite of water fasting, blasting the body with more nutrition than it has ever seen. Cantaloupes, oranges, carrots, beets and pineapples create nutrient-filled juices packed with enzymes, vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, phytochemicals, cell salts and trace elements flood the blood with enough nutrition to get every cell zinging with energy. Fruit sugars keep the body supplied with perfect fuel. I get more accomplished on a juice fast than when I am eating. Except for a few dips, headaches and cankers, the detox is mostly painless.

Not so with water. You can feel the body scouring trillions of cells checking for dead, diseased or dying cells to be dissolved with micro-biochemical surgery. The dissolving, biochemical action irritates the surrounding cells. The more cells being dissolved, the more the body feels irritated. The effect is that the body, mind and emotions feel agitated and irritated. Not only do you have to endure the scouring action of catabolism at full intensity, but also the body and mind are subjected to years of toxic residues being drained from the cells.

Water fasting demands the maximum amount of calories and the body catobolizes as quickly as it can. The body is fully focused on burning up and clearing toxins, carcinogens, mucus, trans-fatty acids and other by-product of the North American diet. Water fasting is the speediest way to detoxify or lose weight but the other side of the coin is that water fasting will dump years of toxins into the bloodstream within hours and, once the process starts, eating cannot stop it. Eating will only make matters worse as digestion puts an additional strain on a toxin-loaded bloodstream and causes a slowdown of the clean up extending the period of discomfort.

If you put on weight easily, eat small amounts of food and have trouble losing weight, you have a slow metabolism. The slower your metabolism the easier water fasting will be. I have seen people with a slow metabolism who were terrified of juice fasting start out with juices and, within two days, go to water fasting because they did not feel the need for juice. One lady walked 5 miles per day, felt no loss of energy and bragged about how easy it was to fast.

When I ran fasting retreats, I often would fast with the folks who came. A new couple booked in and I said that I would fast with them expecting them to be juice fasting. They told me that they came to do a 10 day water fast. Inwardly I groaned but said sure, I will fast with you. I felt good for the first 5 days and even had some energy, but, as usual, I got a little crazy and broke the most important guideline of water fasting which is to rest, conserve energy not overexert. I had made the mistake before and was about to do it again. The day was perfect for water skiing, and I just had to show off with eight hard miles of skiing until exhaustion hit. The next day I could not even move. My two friends, Ron and Elaine, also were exhausted from the energy needed to drive the boat. On the eighth day, the retreat looked like an opium den. No one moved or even talked; only slow breathing represented life.

If you

Disciplined people create structure in their lives. A healthy, structured lifestyle, whether coming naturally or through resolute work, assuredly makes a tremendous difference in how you will feel both mentally and physically…>

Article Tracking: discipline, work, lifestyle, mental, physical, blue print, literature.

In observing people, looking for clues as to how to develop self-discipline, I was struck by a common denominator. Disciplined people create structure in their lives. A healthy, structured lifestyle, whether coming naturally or through resolute work, assuredly makes a tremendous difference in how you will feel both mentally and physically.

Nothing is built without a proper blueprint. The new structure of your life must also have a blueprint and a plan. It is time for you to draw the blueprint for your health. The structure needed to have victory over addiction should have healthy activities, be balanced and allow time for being at peace, enjoying creative pursuits and reading encouraging literature.

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.

Fasting has the power to detoxify toxins.

Today, we consume more toxic substances than all generations before us. Lead in our bones can be 200 times greater compared to bones excavated from 2,000 years ago. Our bodies are living cesspools of pesticides, food additives, drug residues and household chemicals. Within the cells you will discover dyes, bleaches, antioxidants, preservatives, chemical flavors, buffers, noxious sprays, alkalizers, acidifiers, deodorants, moisteners, drying agents, expanders, modifiers, emulsifiers, stabilizers, thickeners, clarifiers, disinfectants, defoliants, fungicides, neutralizers, anti caking and anti foaming agents, hydrolyzes, hydrogenators, herbicides, pesticides, synthetic hormones, antibiotics, steroids and over four thousand other drugs residues.

Fasting to Detoxify the Lungs from Toxins in Air

Through air, water, food and even mother’s milk as a child, there is absorption of thousands of toxins that saturate the environment. City living fills your lungs with 20 million particles of foreign matter daily such as carbon monoxide, lead, nitrogen dioxide, mercury, DDT, cadmium, PCB s, strontium 90, radioactive iodine, x-rays, nitrates, and thousands more.

Fasting Detoxifies the Colon from Food Toxins & Parasites

The colon can contain billions of internal parasites and the 7-10 lbs. of impacted toxic fecal matter on your colon wall.

Fasting to Detoxifies the Organs

Toxins in the organs increase aging. You can be 40 years old with the organs of a ninety year old. Toxins disrupt your the cells and thereby disrupt the function of the organs. If your organs do not work you body does not work. Fasting detoxifies the organs.

Fasting To Detoxify the Brain

Toxins build up in the brain. If you want to see the effect of toxins on your brain, just go a few hours without food, it will cause headaches, emotions and mental clarity are disrupted. Your blood has been overloaded with the sludge of toxic living and the blood feeds the brain. The less toxin in your brain, the better it works.

Fasting To Detoxify the Cells

Cells are the vital structured parts of the human body. The body needs the continuous supply of the right balance of nutrients to feed the cells, for optimum performance. If we continue to absorb nutrients with high toxin content, we will diminish our optimum performance. The poisons brought about by toxins in the bloodstream of any living organism can damage the cells & cause fatality. Juice Fasting is a safe, easy but effective discovery to detoxify the cells. Juice fasting cleanses the bloodstream from poisons brought about by toxins. Juice has less digestive work & amp; has a comfortable process in cleansing the cells. Detoxification of cells is a slow but thorough process. People engage in 30-day juice fasting because it takes that long to detoxify.

Read about how the author recover by detoxification from illegal drugs.

It is not advisable to water fast under the conditions of hyperglycemia, hypoglycemia, schizophrenia or a chronic heart condition…>

Article Tracking: hyperglycemia, hypoglycemia, schizophrenia, chronic heart condition, body tissue.

In combating cancer, water fasting aggressively cleanses the body tissue, which can be more beneficial than juice fasting when combating cancer. Cancer fights the body for glucose. Water fasting cuts off cancer