Water Fasting: Motivation Tips & Quote

"Weight loss is NOT a physical challenge, it's a MENTAL one." A little motivation can help you sail through the storm of temptation.

What motivational quotes that inspired you and keep you going? Share your favorite in the comments.

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Water Fasting for Weight Loss: Top 7 FAQ About Water Fasting

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Why, it's so difficult to kick water fasting into gear. Especially when you've been eating poorly for a long time. It's only a matter of decision and determination, I guess.

If we wait until we are ready, we'll be waiting for the rest of our lives.
- Carol Zhao

Water fasting is abstaining from foods and only drinking water for a period of time. I like the idea of water fasting. It gives the digestive system a chance to rest, and it is the best way to kick start a new diet program. Thinking about clearing out old stocks (toxins) before placing new orders (healthy eating).

Water fasting, is this for you? I found this information from Dr. Ben Kim's blog enlightening, I'd like to share snippets from his post about fasting here. For further reading, please visit Dr. Ben Kim's blog.

1. How do you know if I need to fast?
Depends on your health status and goals. If a person is having a difficult time making necessary dietary and lifestyle changes, fasting can be a powerful way of accelerating health recovery.

2. How long should I fast for?
It is not uncommon for people to experience significant improvement in their health from fasting between 3 and 30 days. The idea is to fast as briefly as possible, but as long as is necessary to allow the body to restore health.

3. Can anyone fast?
Intake of certain medications, certain liver and kidney disorders, states of extreme weakness or malnutrition, pregnancy, and certain types and stages of cancer are other examples of conditions that are not conducive to fasting.

4. Can fasting cure specific conditions?
Conditions that tend to respond favourably to fasting and dietary modification include 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.

However, it's important to keep in mind that fasting is not a cure for specific health challenges. Rather, it is an opportunity to give the body a prolonged period of rest to do what it does best – heal and restore itself.

5. How much weight will I lose if I fast? 
On average, a typical faster loses approximately one pound per day during a water-only fast. Initially, the loss may approach two or even three pounds per day for the first few days if the person is retaining significant sodium and water. This can decrease to approximately half a pound per day in the later stages of a fast. From day two onward, the body begins utilizing fatty tissues for energy, thereby conserving as much muscle tissue as possible, a mechanism called protein sparing.

6. What is the difference between water fasting and juice fasting? 
During a water fast, only water is consumed. During a juice fast, any variety of fruit and vegetable juices are consumed.

People detoxify and heal more quickly with a water fast than with a juice fast. This is because with a water fast, your digestive passageway and organs are able to rest completely, allowing for all of your energy to be used for cleansing and repair of damaged tissues. With a juice fast or a cleansing diet of fruits and vegetables, your body must use energy to digest nutrients, leaving less available energy for detoxification and healing.

A water fast is most effective when you are able to get a lot of physical and emotional rest. If your life circumstances don't allow this, juice fasting is a better choice.

7. Won't my metabolism slow down during and after the fast, causing me to gain back more weight over the long haul? 
When we fast, our metabolic rate slows down because our physiological needs are lower than they are when we are consuming food and going about our regular activities.When a fast is broken and a person returns to eating and more activity, her metabolic rate increases to match her increasing physiological needs.

Weight gain or loss is always a simple function of how many calories we take in versus how many we expend.combine an unprocessed, whole food diet with a regular aerobic exercise and strength-training program to be at a healthful weight.

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Water Fasting for Weight Loss. Again.

I am really thinking about trying water fasting. Again.

I feel that this few months I've been eating mindlessly - always got the munchies even when I'm not hungry.  I did mention about weekend detox in my previous post. But that plan seems fail to tame my big appetite. Talking about willpower.

Well, water fasts may be the most brutal, but I think it's a great way to break bad diet and kick start a healthy lifestyle. I know this process is not going to be exciting. I've been there once. It kinda feel irritated when you're hungry. But I'm still considering a water fast for a few days, and see how things go. I wish i had some willpower to try and lose weight again. If you have some motivation or tips, you can share with me.

For friends who are also considering a water fast, you might want to be inspired by Olivia Cohen. She began a 40 day water fast for a spiritual reason. Even though she did not doing this fast for weight loss purpose, I think we can learn something from her water fast experience.

Vitamin and Minerals

I found Olivia's posting on CureZone and these are the vitamins and minerals she took while on a water fast.

Three times a day (with 20 ounces of water each time):

• 1 daily multivitamin for men (Walgreen's brand)
• 1 daily multivitamin for women (Walgreen's brand)
• 1 iron tablet (any brand usually works for me) 
• 1 B12 tablet (any brand with the highest RDA % per pill)
• 3 potassium pills (each from a different brand, so three brands in total each at 3% DRV)

Once a day:

• 1 sodium/salt tablet, or an empty pill capsule that has been filled with regular table salt (any brand will do for me, but I use Morton)

Drink as much water during the day as I can.

 

According to Olivia, her goal is to decrease the number of pills she have to take each day on an empty stomach, but sometimes she take them as many as six times a day because the fatigue is becoming too great and high risk of fainting involved. Fasting for shorter periods of time, or juice fasts are tempting options, but according to her, she just wanted to do something different, and better this time, for spiritual reasons. Hence, she took the pills to keep her energy at normal levels.

Olivia documented her fasting journey on YouTube. She weighed 199 lbs (90 kg) on her first day, and she weighed 150.4 lbs (68 kg) by the 40th day. She lost an a total of incredible 48.6 lbs (22 kg) in 40 days. You can found her on her YouTube Channel aaroncohen.

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Weekend Detox

Favorite

Mr husband went to grocery shopping this early morning. I had to stay at home because the kids weren't up yet. So nice of him, but the bad news was he brought home my favorite delicacy.

I haven't touch this food for so long, so today it has become a real temptation for me.

I have to repeatedly remind myself that I am on a detox.

I keep this water near me to remind me to drink enough water at all time

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Detox Diet: How to Detox Your Body After Festive Season

Happy New Year 2013!

Festive season means family gatherings, with parties and lots of food. It's the time of year when one tend to eat mindlessly. (That's me, for sure!) There is no chance of sticking to a healthy diet and not enough time to exercise. So when the holiday is over, it is mandatory to moving over and go back to eating sensibly to prevent too much weight gain.

Overindulging places a lot of stress on our digestive system and liver. Detox diet can be a complete overhaul after all that overeating on a vacation.

5 Things to avoid on a detox diet:

• Avoid oily and fatty food.
• Avoid your exposure to toxins whenever possible: if you smoke, stop smoking; replace household toxic chemicals with safer, organic alternatives etc.
• Cut out sugar, wheat, gluten, dairy and fried foods from your diet. 
• Avoid alcohol entirely.
• Eliminate processed foods and trans fats from your diet. 

5 Things to eat / do on a detox diet:

• Fresh fruits and vegetables should be part of the detox.
• Increase your intake of fibre and whole foods. Whole foods are foods that are unprocessed and unrefined. We can get fibre from rice, oat, berries, green vegetables, and fruits.
• Drink lots of water. 8 to 10 glasses of filtered water is recommended for it is the perfect drink to cleanse your system and restore the moisture.
• Engage in 30 minutes of moderate exercise (brisk walking or yoga) every day. 
• Get plenty of sleep. Seven to eight hours a day is considered ideal, though it varies from person to person.

Verseo Slim Patches can be a miracle help while you are on  a detox diet. Similar to the Body Shaping Patch I blog about a year ago, it releases a time-controlled blend of herbs into your body via your skin. 

Guarana, its key ingredient is a natural stimulant that increasing your energy level but decreasing your cravings for carbohydrates at the same time. You neither won't feel hungry nor want to eat, even though you have access to delicious foods.

Verseo Slim Patches is easy to use. Instruction: How to use Be-Slim Weight Loss Patches.

If you plan to do a detox diet or already on a detox diet,  how long you plan to stay on this detox diet plan? Tell me about it in the comments.

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