Fasting Is Blowing Up

By: Michael Beiter

One more week, until most of the season's eating madness is behind us.

The most surprising finding from my work this year was how much clients found fasting helpful.

Over half of my client list practiced some fasting to navigate Thanksgiving or a holiday party and found it enjoyable.

This is significant because one of the contributors to the obesity epidemic is that generations of people are now entering adulthood without ever having to experience hunger without relief.

People who haven't deliberately dieted have had food available to alleviate hunger their whole lives.

Worse yet, plenty of people mistake feelings of boredom, loneliness, and thirst for hunger.

So we have people inexperienced with hunger, mistaking hunger for emotions. Yikes.

Fasting has helped my clients experience hunger and learn that it doesn't kill them. If they get busy physically or mentally, they often forget about it.

Fasting also clarifies the differences between hunger and some other emotions because of the intensity of hunger you feel with prolonged fasting.

You won't mistake boredom for hunger ever again after you have gone 40 hours without eating a calorie.

Try fasting for your Christmas or New Year's celebration. Either don't eat 18-24 hours before your big feast or eat and wait 18-24 hours to eat again.

Working out during fasts can help with digestion, which is the point of the fast. You don't have to beat yourself, but anything that gets you heated up and moving blood works.