Fasting Day #6

The fasting schedule of 8.00am until 8.00pm with pre-fasting breakfast worked quite well for my 8.45-5.30 job. Managed to sustain my focus at work. During the fasting period, I felt tired after 10pm and woke up at around 7am. For my usual day without fasting, I would usually sleep between 12am and wake up at around 6am.

Therefore, in my opinion, not having food and drinks for a continuous 12 hour period during the day (when you brain is working) would actually drain more brain energy than passing a day without fasting, at least for my case.

Today - Saturday, I woke up at 8.30am and missed my pre-fasting breakfast. At around 10am, I felt slight pain in my stomach. Fearing of having stomach gastric, I ate a bar of Jordan Frusli cereal bar and a glass of water. The fasting continued until 6pm.

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Came across the following blog from Dr Ben Kim (http://drbenkim.com/fasting.html) regarding the benefit of water fasting

Fasting for Health

Posted By Dr. Ben Kim on Dec 15, 2006

Historical records tell us that fasting has been used for health recovery for thousands of years. Hippocrates, Socrates, and Plato all recommended fasting for health recovery. The Bible tells us that Moses and Jesus fasted for 40 days for spiritual renewal. Mahatma Gandhi fasted for 21 days to promote respect and compassion between people with different religions.

For much of human history, fasting has been guided by intuition and spiritual purpose. Today, our understanding of human physiology confirms the powerful healing effects of fasting.

Fasting is a powerful therapeutic process that can help people recover from mild to severe health conditions. Some of the most common ones are high blood pressure, asthma, allergies, chronic headaches, inflammatory bowel disease (ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease), irritable bowel syndrome, adult onset diabetes, heart disease, degenerative arthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, psoriasis, eczema, acne, uterine fibroids, benign tumours, and systemic lupus erythematosus.

Fasting provides a period of concentrated physiological rest during which time the body can devote its self-healing mechanisms to repairing and strengthening damaged organs. The process of fasting also allows the body to cleanse cells of accumulated toxins and waste products.

Fasting gives the digestive tract time to completely rest and strengthen its mucosal lining. A healthy intestinal mucosal lining is necessary for preventing the leakage of incompletely digested proteins into the bloodstream, thereby offering protection against autoimmune conditions. A healthy digestive tract also helps to protect the blood and inner organs against a variety of environmental and metabolic toxins.

A fast that is appropriate for your situation will allow for you to experience some or all of the following:

• More energy
• Healthier skin
• Healthier teeth and gums
• Better quality sleep
• A clean and healthy cardiovascular system
• A decrease in anxiety and tension
• Dramatic reduction or complete elimination of aches and pains in muscles and joints
• Decrease or elimination of headaches
• Stabilization of blood pressure
• Stronger and more efficient digestion
• Stabilization of bowel movements
• Loss of excess weight
• Elimination of stored toxins
• Improvement with a wide variety of chronic degenerative health conditions, including autoimmune disorders

It is important to understand that the detoxifying and healing processes that occur during a fast are also active when a person is consuming food. A fast can be helpful for people whose conditions are not improving as quickly as they would like, or for people who have health conditions that require a concentrated period of healing to resolve. It is also important to understand that the most important part of a fast is how a person lives after the fast. Fasting can provide a clean and revitalized foundation upon which you can build and maintain a strong and well-conditioned body by consistently making healthy food and lifestyle choices.