caloric restriction – fasting

As a health practice that has survived millennia, fasting has recently been validated by science. Caloric restriction provides an amazing way to bring health to all the systems of the body.

What are you’re major concerns about fasting? Please ask in the comments section below.

Have you fasted before? Share your experience in the comments section below to help other readers.

The University of Southern California’s website reports that cycles of prolonged fasting protects immune system from damage and induces immune system regeneration, shifting stem cells like a light switch from dormant to a state of self-renewal.

So, basically what this is saying is that periodically limiting your eating turns your stem cells on! Its like an on/off switch. Just skip a meal (or several) every once in a while and it kicks your body into regeneration mode!

It is important to recognize that I wrote every once in a while. I am not advocating anorexia. Our bodies need calories to grow. So please don’t take this to the extreme.

Just skip a few meals here and there and resist our generally overly gluttonous society. Obesity is an epidemic, and as a whole, our culture can learn to skip meals.

I was listening to a radio interview with Americas oldest man (at the time). They asked him what his secret was. And he said, “Always leave the dinner table a little bit hungry.”

Easy peasy. Fasting promotes longevity.

I have personally tried numerous fasting programs. I have researched even more. the one I always return to is dry fasting. It is simple and effective.

Go one day without food OR water.

That’s it.

Can you do that? Sure you can!

Many popular fasting programs don’t even count as fasting, in my humble 😉 opinion. But I should remember that these DO count as fasting programs, just with varying degrees of intensity. Some programs are too extreme while others are too wimpy. So I suppose any reduction in caloric intake may be considered fasting. What a dry fast lacks in duration it makes up for in intensity. It is short and intense.

For a period of several months I fasted one day a week, only consuming water. There were noticeable benefits to this practice. There was the obvious cellular cleansing coupled with increase in energy. Let me tell you, when liquid is completely removed on fasting day, the effects are exponential. My mind experienced 10X the clarity. My body 10X the lightness.

When breaking fast the morning after, an enormous amount of liquid is emptied from the bowels. I generally do a salt water flush. I will drink 8 ounces of water mixed with 2-3 teaspoons of salt. I then chase that with about a liter of pure filtered water. Next comes solid food. Often I need to plan to return to the bathroom numerous times that morning. Afterwards the body is lighter and the mind clearer.

Fasting proves to be a powerful way to remove garbage from the body as well as the mind. I will refrain from calling it toxins as there is some disdain for that buzz word in the medical community. So I will just call it garbage. Unfortunately the general public uses the word ‘toxins’ and its cousin antioxidant a little too haphazardly, without having complete information. Science has shown that the body needs a certain amount of oxidation. But that is a whole other blog post.

Anyway back to Garbage.

Garbage is anything that shouldn’t be there. Like a food wrapper in a trash-can, your body has damaged cells. These cells were once the wrapper for healthy mitochondria. Over time, with use and abuse, mitochondria are destroyed and your left with a bunch of wrappers (dead cells) in your body. Through fasting we remove these and replace them with new ones meanwhile stimulating your stem cells and ramping up the immune system.

We all can agree that there are particles in the body that we dont want there, slow us down, and cause illness and other problems. This is also true with the mind. There are thoughts in the mind that dont belong. They gunk up our consciousness and create problems. When you discontinue consumption for a day you are really forced to process what you have already consumed. Maybe we have swallowed some stuff we regret, or no longer serves us. Maybe we are continuously breathing in stuff that stays in our bodies and causes problems.

While the digestion is not preoccupied with new food it has time to fully process the old. While the mind is not preoccupied with the standard habits and cycles of eating there is a vortex where one comes to understand what thoughts are hiding under the surface. This takes the form of mentally processing damaged thoughts and ideas in your mind, similar to regenerating damaged physical tissue. It is my experience that thoughts are interwoven with physical reality. So… when you effect one you effect another. One way to look it at is there are thoughts stored in the physical tissues of the body. Another way of looking at it is, there are thoughts in your mind which are woven with energy, to physical tissues of the body.

Someone may have a severe injury, like a broken limb. During the time that the physical trauma occurred, there may be seemingly unrelated mental and emotional things occurring in that humans life. All the emotions surrounding the event are woven into that persons memory as well as the physical injury. Often when one fails to heal a physical injury long after the trauma there are unresolved emotions. These past emotions are keeping that person stuck, preventing their doing what is necessary to heal.

One can take several approaches.

Begin with the physical. This is why hatha yoga, the physical practice, often leads to eventual emotional healing.

Conversely you can start on the psychic/emotional plane and address mental anguish. Often after someone fully understands their emotions, physical injuries ‘miraculously’ fade away.

You can fast for both a physical and emotional reset.

Much of modern society continuously refers to people as ‘consumers.’ After repeatedly being labeled over and over again as a consumer, one is led to believe that their only reason for being is to consume. This is an unfortunate reality. So by momentarily eliminating a dietary intake, the average human is forced to reconsider their role in our complicated universe.

Maybe there is a purpose greater than shoveling more garbage in their face. Maybe they are actually a creator. Maybe everyone creates their own reality and contributes to everyone else’s.

Fasting has often been historically used as a time of reflection. In Sanskrit the word for fasting “Upvas” is often translated as “sitting near to God.” I believe a true fast is not simply “to go without food” it means, “to be with God” You can believe in god or not. Everyone has a different relationship with the universe. The point is, while fasting, one connects to something deeper. There are layers that are stripped away to get to the pure source.

Scientific research done with mice, of course, show that fasting greatly improves longevity. Mice that did periodic caloric restriction lived 30% longer than mice on an unobstructed diet. Do you want to live longer? Some people don’t. If you want to rock out and die young, than be my guest. This is not for you. But if you value your life and want to extend it, listen to what I say. Fasting puts the systems of the body in hyper preservation mode. The cells in the body say, “oh shit! We are not getting nutrients! We must protect!” So there is created a robustness, an extraordinary resilience. Not to mention greatly reducing chances of cancer by eliminating garbage.

Yoga Synthesis

Please consult a physician before undertaking any fasting regimen especially if you have a pre-existing medical condition. You are ultimately responsible for yourself. Charles Hanford Beall is not responsible for any damage you do to yourself. The previous post is simply a suggestion and providing ideas.