Preparing for My Detox and Fast: Part One

Preparing for My Detox and Fast
Part One

By Tina Bell
MySpace Page
tmbell48@hotmail.com

Normally, I do my fasting in the quiet of my home with no one aware I am doing one, except household family members. I am sharing this with you, because many of you have asked me to let you know when I was preparing for my next fast, what I do personally and that you would like to do one with me. I strongly recommend you spend some time in prayer asking God for His timing on your fast and what type of fast is best for you, because my timing and type of fast might not be most beneficial for you.

You Need a Plan

I don't know about you, but if my mind is not clearly focused with a plan and purpose for my fast, I will fail. There are several things I must be clear on before tackling my fast:

What do I want to accomplish on my fast?

What foods, herbs, and supplements do I need to have in order to accomplish my detox?

What do I hope to gain spiritually during my fast?

First of all, I am doing this fast to detoxify. I can feel the toxins in my body. It seems every time I leave the country or go away on holidays, to which I just returned from Mexico, I come back feeling bloated with toxins. I normally eat organic foods and/or foods made without preservatives and chemicals, but on holidays I don't always have much choice. That overload of chemicals from food, the air I breathe, the water I drink, the soaps and shampoos I use, and everything else in my life made and used with chemicals get inside my body. As natural and as organic as my life is, it still happens. This also is a time I detoxify my mind and spirit. More on that later.

Second, what foods, herbs, and supplements do I need to have for my fast? I am on a healthy diet of fresh fruits and vegetables, whole grains and nuts, and eat lean cuts of meat, so my body is pretty much prepared to start a fast. If you are on a diet of sugar both natural and artificial, fast foods, coffee, white breads and pastas, canned fruits and vegetables; I recommend you go on a more natural diet for at least 3 weeks prior to your fast. While on this three week journey, slowly eliminate the coffee, sugar, fast food and canned produce. If you are confused as to what is a healthy natural diet, order God-given Foods Eating Plan by Gary F. Zeolla.

I need to make sure I have the vitamins and minerals I need for my body during the detoxification process. Everyone's food list and herbal teas and supplement lists will be different. Consult with your doctor or at least a good detox/juice fasting book. I'll recommend a couple at the end of this two-part article. I know most Health Food Stores provide kits for detoxing; please ask a whole bunch of questions on these kits, if possible go home and do searches on the products before purchasing them. And if you have allergies, please read ingredient lists with extreme caution.

As for me I purchase a good liver detox supplement, (from my Naturopathic Doctor called Phase I & II Formula Detoxification, made by NaturPharm; most health food stores carry liver detox supplements), and I'll continue with my Vitamin E (2@ 200 IU) and C (2 or 3 @ 500mg), Calcium and Magnesium (2:1) with vitamin D3 ( 4@ chelated - Calcium 108.5 mg, chelated - Magnesium 47.5 mg, vit D3 50 IU, Glutamic acid 62.5 mg), multiple vitamin and mineral supplement and my cod liver oil (1 teaspoon); these are the amounts directed by my doctor. I'll continue taking my supplements up to the day I start my juice fast, discontinue them during the fast and resume taking them the day I come off the fast.

Third, is my favourite part of the fast. My spiritual detox. If you have never spent hours upon hours in Our God's House, this is the time to do it. What a glorious thing it is to be so lost in the Word [the Bible] you loose track of time; you can feel your spirit within fighting to be free of your physical body so it can go home. To be wrapped in God's arms during your prayer time and to receive visions and divine calls upon your life. To lay face down at the Cross, to repent, to be washed clean, to worship in the spirit...this is without a doubt in my mind...the greatest gift I receive from my fasting time. This is the highest priority I put on my fast. My time with God.

"We are not told if He said goodbye to family, took extra clothes or sandals. What we do know is before Jesus started a three-year ministry, He walked to the edge of town, looked over a barren desert, heard eternal purpose calling at His back, and stepped from the world of living into a world of death. Jesus did not fast to heal an ingrown toenail. Such purpose would not have held Him 40 days fasting alone in wasteland. He was to be stripped naked, hung bleeding and broken before a bloodthirsty mob. He was to become a doomed world's only hope. Such purpose sustained Him 40 days on water, shaking and sweating out the courage the next three years would demand of Him.

"Lost your purpose? Lost in useless living? Before you start fasting, go to a quiet room, shut the door, sit down, and take some time to think about why you are fasting. Healing? Better health? Weight loss? Clearer thinking? Fine. But is that enough to sustain you during The Downs? Besides, they will happen anyway, all by themselves. No, go deeper. What is the purpose of your life? Your fast is as good as its purpose. (Preparing for your fast).

During my fasts, there normally comes a time when a battle between my flesh and my spirit arises. My flesh wants to be filled with food, not fruit juice and vegetable juice. My flesh wants to rule over me. And that is absolutely unbiblical. Aside from the spiritual battle that you may find going on within you, you may sometimes feel faint, weak, rashes break out over your skin from detoxing, you smell bad, your breathe stinks, you can become nasty or even bitter, you may suffer headaches and joint pain. If you are not prepared for these things you could wind up tossing in the towel. But persevere.

What Type of Fast Is Best For Me?

Solid Food Fast:

A fast you can eat food on? Yes. If you have never fasted before, or have medical reasons for not going on a liquid fast, this might be the answer for you.

Gary Zeolla writes:

As for how to conduct it, most recommend doing a juice fast, drinking only fresh vegetable and fruit juices. Others recommend eating just raw fruits and veggies. Either way would work for physical cleansing, but I prefer the latter. Drinking a lot of juice could give you a "sugar rush." I would also recommend using organic foods if possible as consuming that much produce that contains pesticides would be counter-productive.

As for length, usually anywhere from 3-10 days is recommended. But the couple of times I tried the raw fruits and veggies fast, I found that seven days was the longest I could do it." Dec 2005: Various Nutrition and Health Questions. Please read Gary"s comments at the end of this section.*

Another type of fasting is called a mono-food diet. On a mono-food diet, you eat just one type of food. Normally it is a fruit or vegetable, eaten in any form. Many people who do this type of detoxing choose grapes, but apples, watermelon and carrots are other commonly eaten foods. From the research I"ve done on this diet, because solid food is consumed, it is not considered a true fast, but they claim there are still detoxing benefits to it. "If you find fasting too difficult, a mono-food diet can give similar health benefits without the severe hunger pangs," writes Bruce Fife, N.D. in his The Detox Book.

There are different variations of a mono-food diet, but basically during a mono-food diet you eat just one food, or from one food group at a sitting. For example: Breakfast: eat only grapes, Lunch: eat only roast chicken, and for Dinner: eat only vegetables.

I have found this type of fast useful for breaking food bondages in my life. It is easier to give up one or two foods or groups of food than all food. To break a food habit or to free yourself from a food you are in bondage too can take several days to several weeks. Be patient as your body detoxifies itself. You will suffer withdraw, yet know, that you can do all things through Him.

In the book highlighted later; Detox, they include a menu plan that includes not only vegetables to fast on, but meat and fruit as well. It is not a mono-food diet that they promote; however, I recommend this book as a learning tool on how to eat a more balanced diet, how to care for your body during a fast and some basic relaxation techniques. More information on the book is given later.

*Gary Zeolla's comments: "On the fruit and veggie detox I recommend, you make it sound like I am saying to eat only one type of fruit or veggie. That is not the case. A wide variety of fruit and veggies should be eaten. I really don't see the point of eating only one particular fruit or veggie.

**I would like to add to that myself; neither do I. When I fast; as I highlight below, I always eat a wide variety of fruits and vegetables, even when I was doing the mono-food type diet to break food bondages in life. I would sit down and eat many types of vegetables not just one type. I would also like to stress the point; I did the mono-food type diet for food bondages not for weight loss.

Juice Fast:

I first want to stress to you the importance of making your own juice from fresh, organic (if possible) fruit and vegetables. Bottled, canned and processed juices have much of their nutrients destroyed and therefore are basically dead foods, with many added chemicals and sugars.

The fresh fruit and vegetable juice will provide you with nourishment, while only adding a little stress to your digestive organs. You should be able to carry on with normal daily activities without becoming overly fatigued. Heavy, hard physical labour is discouraged, but do some daily form of exercise, such as brisk walking, low-impact aerobics or lifting light weights. Save the outdoor cycling and heavy weight training for after the fast. You could become dizzy during your bike ride and fall, and although you want to stimulate blood and lymph circulation, you don"t want to expound all your energy through strenuous exercise.

Dr. Don Colbert writes about juice fasting:

Periodic, short fasts that last one to three days are a great way to detoxify your body. I believe it is actually healthier to go on a series of short fasts rather than one long fast. I usually recommend my patients start out by fasting one day and slowly work up to three. Detox fasting should be done several times a year, such as once every one to three months (Detox fasting).

Water Fast:

A water fast is just that, consuming only water. Don't worry, you won't die of starvation and if you have been eating a well balanced diet, you should have enough nutritional reserves to handle a short period of time without food.

When I water fast, it is usually only for a 24 hour period, and for a spiritual reason only, not for a spiritual and physical reason. But of the types of fasts I have done in the past, I prefer the juice fast over the water fast.

The Mind

I know some people place the mind and the spiritual part of the fasting in the same category, yet for me, they are two separate entities. To me, the spiritual part of fasting is when I seek God, whether through reading His Word, spending time in prayer and worship, on Meditating or resting in Him. There is a deeper well to dig in this, but due to lack of space, that is as far as I"m going to take this.

The Mind. This is where I try to hide my anger, my frustrations, my lack of will power, my fears, my stresses, my anxieties, my guilt, my shame, my depression, my addictions, my un-forgiveness, as well as my happiness, joy, love, playfulness, my humour, my silliness, my creative energy and my desires. Up there, in my brain, is where I choose to be on any given day. And that is where I choose to give away that which I no longer want or need.

Fasting means to give up or give away. That is what I think anyway. And never was there a better time to get rid of all the baggage that has accumulated there over the years.

Dr. Don Colbert writes in Deadly Emotions :

Emotions that become trapped inside a person seek resolution and expression. That"s part of the nature of emotions--they are meant to be felt and expressed. When we refuse to let them out, emotions just try harder. The unconscious mind has to work ever more furiously to keep the feelings under wrap. Emotions do not die. We bury them, but we are burying something that is still living. (Page 58).

And what do living things do? They grow. All negative emotions that are left unresolved are toxic to the body. All positive emotions that are left locked up inside and basically left in the dark, choked out by the negative emotions, will wilt and become sick.

This article is concluded at Preparing for My Detox and Fast: Part Two.

The above guest article first appeared in the free FitTips for One and All email newsletter.
It was posted on this site October 1, 2008.

Guest Articles
Guest Articles: Nutrition

Text Search Alphabetical List of Pages Contact Information

Fitness for One and All Home Page

Books and eBooks by the Director