We live in a world that often tells us more is better. Fasting for weight loss, fitness and health may be good for the "holy" - some may say.
But the common perception appears to be that hunger -- real or imagined -- must be appeased at all times and without question.
Live to eat even if it kills you later. Immediate gratification. I want it all, and I want it NOW. This illusion is leading millions to an early grave.
Fasting for weight loss - or any change requiring sacrifice - is the last thing on most of their minds. At least until illness strikes. Then, in panic, they run to the hospitals and demand a "cure."
Food has in reality become a "drug" addiction just as destructive as cigarettes, alcohol, cocaine and heroin. Like the last days of the Roman Empire, excess is taking its victims in a nationwide carnage of obesity and food debauchery.
A Way Out
But there is a way out, and it is NOT just a DIET. From experience it has become vividly clear to me that juice, fruit and water fasting are amazing preventive "cures" many could benefit from.
Fasting for weight loss and fitness reverses years of toxic damage to the body. Fasting can also help rouse dormant motivation that can help you make permanent eating-habit changes. Fasting once only to return to gorging is not what we are talking about here. It is crucial to have a solid commitment to changing the way we view and relate to food - one day at a time.
Moreover, fasting for weight loss and fitness opens doors to insight and spiritual understanding that does not surface while overindulging on cheeseburgers and French fries. The ugly fact is this: Food truly can kill.
A Plague of Epidemic Proportions
Particularly in the US, obesity has become an epidemic - a true plague. The US, to some extent, has become what we shall call The Anti-Prevention Nation.© Why?
Here is the alarming scenario:
Millions - young and old - are swarming to hospitals seeking to be "cured" yet doing little to prevent the illness from surfacing in the first place. Allowing themselves to become obese. Toxic. Sick.
Quality of life goes down, up go visits to the doctor, unnecessary gastric bypass surgeries and all sorts of other infirmities.
Prevention - A Radical Concept
If you do not believe me - or perhaps think me an extremist - take it then from a national medical authority.
Former US Surgeon General Richard Carmona recently went on the record to say that disease prevention is still a radical concept to most Americans.
According to Carmona, America's obesity quagmire is the Terror Within. He said obesity in children is actually hurting national security because many are getting too fat for service.
A surge in childhood obesity, says Carmona, has come simultaneous to the rise in related chronic conditions as Type II diabetes and hypertension.
The fact that these are middle-age diseases showing up in elementary school children, Carmona said, is undermining the nation's strength.
This is not an editorial, by the way. I myself could have been the president of The Anti-Prevention Nation. © Fat, slothful, depressed, stricken by isolation, bitterness and self-pity. Suicidal and hopeless. Trapped.
Self-Loathing in Isolation
I wanted to be free. Yet was ashamed of my body, ashamed of my binging, feeling that everyone was better than me. That the world had the right to succeed and be happy.
But I, poor me, was doomed to failure and misery. I felt that my life was worthless, meaningless, pointless. So I ate some more. Who would want me anyways? Why try? Fasting for weight loss was my doorway to freedom.
The DIET Juggernaut
Diets to a great extent fail because, while facilitating weight loss initially, the dieter usually returns to poor eating habits once the regimen is over. The same can be said of fasting if the person believes that it will be some type of "magic cure."
What we wish to promote here is "permanent" change. Partial, intermittent fasts followed by a longer one of anywhere from 21 to 40 days and beyond - depending on your health and disposition. But even fasting one day a week or every two weeks can provide you with collective benefits - so long as you realize that the most important part of the equation is a complete shift in your eating and lifestyle.
My personal experience, along with that of many others, is that fasting for weight loss, health and self-discipline can stop the obesity plague in its tracks.
It can restore your entire being and take you to levels of clarity, energy and vitality that you never thought were possible. It can, in essence, be your own Fountain of Youth.
Fasting - NOT Starvation
Let us be clear that I am, by no means, talking about starvation or using fasting in extreme and bulimic ways. It is important to preserve nature, use moderation and visit your doctor FIRST - before you attempt a fast longer than three days.
Fasting & The Inner Battle
Topics such as juice fasting, water fasting and detoxification are often not very popular in today's NOW culture. You may have to face some who will tell you that fasting is crazy. Why?
Because it is hard. It takes guts. Fasting for weight loss forces us to confront our human appetites head on. It strips away the food crutch and exposes root emotional causes.
Fasting is a way for quick weight loss, but most of all it is the path of mastery over the flesh. In my case, hunger had had become an insatiable tyrant that craved food and more food.
Fasting Lessons from History
Looking for wisdom, we can look at the ancients. For thousands of years, fasting has been used by religions worldwide to force spiritual breakthrough. To force the hand of God -- so to speak -- and accomplish what was not otherwise possible.
While it is not my interest to enter into any dogmatic discussions, I can tell you from first-hand experience that fasting can and will produce dramatic effects in your life.
Roughly four years ago I was 60 pounds overweight and very sick from intestinal toxicity and a liver condition that was getting worse.
Also suffered from deep depression and spent most of my time in isolation and bitterness. One day I started fasting basically out of desperation, but was consumed by horrible withdrawal symptoms before I could finish even eight hours without solid food.
I was puzzled by the bad breath, white-sticky tongue, metallic taste and dizziness that I experienced. Research later led me to the realization that the symptoms were a reflection of just how toxic my body and digestive system had become.
In an ultimate low, I received the grace, strength and resolve to launch a 40-day water fast. It was very hard and painful - especially during the first 11 days of cleansing and detoxification. But I was reborn.
Fasting for weight loss, health and fitness has changed my life. It worked when traditional diets did not. I realized that, as long as I kept putting food in my body, I was not giving it the opportunity to cleanse from all the toxicity that had built up over the years.
My complete lack of control with food was a problem that only fasting was able to break. It forced me to navigate through the pains and discomfort of cleansing and detoxification.
Only then did the chains of food slavery break and I was led to freedom.
Once the fasting was over, I found - to my astonishment- that I was no longer willing to just put anything in my mouth. The sacrifice of fasting and cleansing gave me a new perspective on food. This new perspective, in turn, gave me a fresh sense of discipline that had otherwise eluded me. In short, for me diets did not work because, in reality, what I needed was to stop eating altogether for a season so my body could clean itself.
I tried all the diets, believe me. Yet I only grew fatter and more frustrated. Each failure usually restored me to the previous undesired weight and added another 10 to 20 pounds to boot. Later I realized that, at least for me, fasting and cleansing had to come BEFORE or could expect to stick to any particular diet - no matter how good it was.
If I can be of service or help you in your own fasting and detoxification path, do not hesitate to contact me.
Best Regards,
Robert D Johnston