How long should I fast?
There is great value in mini-fasts. You could start by occasionally juicing until dinner. This helps
your body get over the stimulation of food, and is an easy, nonintimidating way to try fasting. Two to three days is a perfectly good length of time for your first real fast. Thereafter, you can
try gradually going a bit longer with each fast, up to a maximum of eight to ten days (unless you
are under the guidance of a doctor, a fasting specialist, or colon specialist).
Please note that it’s not advisable to fast without some sort of effective bowel release. Remember,
the goal of fasting is to rest the body enough to let it draw up old matter. If this matter
is not exiting the body, fasting is useless and can even be harmful.
You can also achieve a lot without going on a hard-core juice fast, simply by eating according
to natural law, as your body is designed to eat. Like fasting, this way of eating gives the
digestive system the rest it needs to begin the deep-tissue healing that’s so integral to your health.
How much weight will I lose on a fast?
You will probably lose about a pound a day. Men may lose more.
Won’t fasting slow down my metabolism, and won’t I just regain that weight when I start
eating normally again?
No one gains weight simply because the metabolism slows down (as you’ve learned, your body
becomes sluggish when there is too much waste in your cells). It’s just that a cleaner body requires
less heavy food, so if you go back to eating the same food you ate before making the transition
to raw foods, you’ll put on weight again. You’ll be able to eat the equivalent number of
calories from whole, natural foods and keep the weight off because you’ll be keeping the waste
off. So it’s not a calorie/metabolism equation. When you fast in conjunction with the elimination
of waste, all the excessive weight that comes off will remain off.
Tips for Successful Fasting
■ Plan fun, nonfood activities: go to movies, visit bookstores, go for walks, window-shop,
clean out your home, work on a project, and so forth.
■ Fast with a friend so you can motivate each other to stick with it, as well as do fun,
nonfood activities together. Plan to meet or talk at least once a day. Shop for vegetables
and make your juice together.
■ Enjoy a day at the spa. Nothing will take your mind off food like a good massage, facial,
and haircut.
■ Keep a book about fasting with you to read whenever you need a motivational boost.
■ In the evening, take a long bath, go for a walk, or rent a great video. Nighttime is the
hardest time for fasting because that’s when we look forward to food the most. If
you have to cook for others, take pleasure in preparing a meal for them while you sip
your juice.
■ Remember, the food is not going anywhere. It will still be there when you’re done
fasting, and you will be rewarded with a cleaner, leaner, more energetic body.
■ Treat yourself with strained, freshly squeezed orange juice or (on a cold day) hot vegetable
broth.
■ Politely ignore comments from well-meaning but uneducated people who criticize you
for undertaking a fast. Their comments are probably based on their own fears; people
don’t always like their friends to change because it threatens their world.
■ Fasting frees up so much time otherwise spent on food preparation. Use that time to
get important tasks done. This lifestyle is about freeing up your life and getting to
the essentials so that there’s time for cultivating your relationships, ambitions, spirituality,
and overall happiness!
