Day 3---Fasting---Intermittantly
First of all answers to questions I have gotten from Day 2. What about lemon water when you travel? If I going to be somewhere for a few days and I know they have a refrigerator with a freezer, I will take my grater and lemons with me. If I am pushed for suitcase space, I will stuff the grater with socks or other small items. Another alternative is to add lemon essential oil to your water. Now essential oils are OIL, and that does not mix extremely well with WATER, but you can stir it often while you are drinking it and it will be ok. And remember, you are drinking it all at once---this is not a sipping drink---you want to get it in your body pretty quickly and let it detox before you start adding other things to your stomach. Also, someone asked about pulling the coconut oil through your teeth and why you cannot swallow it, since coconut oil is good for you. Well, the bacteria from your mouth/teeth does not need to go into your stomach. So spit it in the garbage, not the sink or commode because it will solidify and clog your drains.
So, continuing on from Day 2, you are now ready for your coffee, if you drink coffee. A lot of health experts say "no caffeine". Others sing the praises of the wonders that it does for your body. I have read them both extensively because I was interested for another reason. I suffered from something else that I thought caffeine had an effect on---well talk about that later. So I think it boils down to whether or not you like coffee. I was well into my 20's before I ever had a cup of coffee. I just thought it was nasty drink for old people. I "grew up" one day and decided it was time to drink a mature drink. So I added sugar, milk and I said, "This is not too bad" I like sugar and milk with a little coffee in it. Then I progressed to adding the flavored Coffee Mate and I really liked the fake stuff. So really I'm not after the coffee, I'm after the sugar high. This went on for years, until I learned to read labels and what that "stuff" was doing to my body. So you say, what do you do now?
I drink coffee with coconut oil in it. When I really want to feel special, I add organic coconut milk that comes in a can. It is very thick like creamer and if you want to add some sweeter, add Stevia. It is a natural sweeter that comes from a plant. Just be sure to read labels, because some of them add other things that are not on the front of the package. I do not put this in my coffee. Now for some, having a layer of oil on the top of your coffee cup is not a pleasant sight. It doesn't bother me, but if it did, I would put my coffee in a travel cup where I could not see it. If you want to see the importance of coconut oil, Google Dr. Mary Newport and her work with restoring her husband's Alzheimer's brain. Few things can cross the brain barrier--coconut oil is one, essential oils is another. She advocates eating five tablespoons of coconut oil a day through various foods. This is tough for me sometimes, but I at least know that I am getting it one way, first thing in the morning while my body is still healing. An added plus is that this coffee time is mine and Larry's special sofa time that we have every morning to get our day off to a good start. So a sofa, a fuzzy blanket, coffee, the Bible and usually a cat, starts our day. I will cover this later as a special section on how important this is for health. To me this is a sweet time to build on my relationship with Jesus and my husband. Don't beat yourself up if your schedules in the morning cannot accommodate this time that is special for us. But give yourself--even if you are alone, a few minutes to start your day calmly. Fright or flight mode will ruin your health. And we will talk about that later. So if you are not a coffee drinker, you can't beat green tea, and if you really want to ramp it up and you can afford it, go for Matcha Green Tea. It is green tea on steroids!!!! I use it occasionally.
So, what about breakfast? Now this is where it gets interesting. We do not eat breakfast. What??????
I'm not advocating that you do this. Remember this is OUR story. You can write your own. This was very easy for me. I have never been the kind that is starving at breakfast time and actually felt bloated. It was different for Larry because he is Breakfast Man! He cooked breakfast every morning---the full menu. But I began to read about "intermittent fasting", and the power it gave to heal and restore us to our youthful body. Now don't freak out. You can do this gradually. First of all, recognize that fasting is a strong Biblical word, and we want to heal our body God's way. In Matthew 6: 16-18 it says " when you fast" not IF you fast. So this tells me that it is perfectly safe and expected. And I am not talking about extreme fasting although there are times for that. In my 69 years of living I have "water only" fasted for 40 days, 16 days, 10 days and a lot of shorter fasts. This was not a weight loss effort at the time. Now I'm not saying this to brag--I'm saying this to say you will not die. Now I just probably just lost my reward, because the Bible says to fast in secret and God will reward you openly. But at the time I did it, I did not tell anyone except my family of course because I was not eating at the table with them. I did sit and drink water just for the fellowship. And FYI--after 3 days there is no hunger at all. This was a spiritual fast, so I followed a book by J. Harold Smith, the champion spiritual faster of all time in my book. But he also reaped the benefits of health. When he was 80 he looked 40. Amazing!
But intermittent fasting is not extreme at all. What it means it that you break your fast (where the word breakfast comes form), later on in the day. Your body spends a lot of energy and effort on digestion. While it is digesting, it is not healing or detoxifying. When you prolong the digestive process, your body is in healing and detoxification mode. The idea of 3 meals a day and snacks along the way is a man made idea. You are digesting all day and your body needs a rest. If you want to start out slow, fast for 12 hours. This means that if your eat dinner at 7 at night, you would not eat until 7 in the morning. Which in means no food after supper---- so you have to give up the snacking. This was harder than I thought. I guess I didn't realize how much I snacked. Larry really struggled because he had to give up his peanut butter and crackers and BIG glass of milk. Now we do not stress ourselves out about the times. If we eat at six, then that would be six in the morning. If we eat at eight, we eat at eight in the morning. Our life is different almost every day. But if you were on a work schedule, you could be on a better schedule. With that being said--- we are on a 16-18 hour schedule, so we add four to six hours to that so if we eat at 7 in the evening we are breaking our fast between eleven and one o'clock. Now sometimes in there we drink bone broth, (we'll talk about that later). And we are drinking various types of water (later). The result? --- stomach fat started falling off. Yes we were eating a ketogenic diet---not very strictly---but the weight just started dropping with so little effort. It was amazing. (Keto diet will be later)
I have always had a "big stomach" problem. I joke that God got my body backwards. I have no hips. So if I was reversed I'd have hips and no stomach. I went to a ladies seminar one time that had breakout sessions to attend. One session was held by a plastic surgeon who specialized in tummy tucks. After the session I was convinced this was what I wanted. So I made an appointment for a consultation. Larry and I went and he examined my body and gave me his evaluation. First of all he said I did not need a tummy tuck I needed a whole slice off, that would change my belly button-- more like a sculpture. He also said that my body shape was hereditary and it would never come off no matter how much I dieted. I tended to agree with him, because when I lost weight, I did not lose enough to make my clothes look better. I would go down in a size, but I still looked the same---the same shape, the same belly, just a little smaller, but not in proportion to the rest of my body. In other words my belly still stuck out. He told me how much it would cost, but that I really needed to lose fifteen pounds first. So I started on the journey of saving money and losing weight. I wanted to wait several months to get those two things accomplished. Let's just say that I was better at saving money than I was at losing weight. The age old problem of losing weight and keeping it off, of course, surfaced and I never had the surgery. Now I would like to go back and say, "not only do I not need the surgery, but there is really very little to cut off". Heredity does not have to define your life.
I am listing the books I read, but all you have to do is research intermittent fasting and you will get a world of information. I just like the book because I refer to it a lot. It covers multiple fasting types , how to do it step by step and how your body heals during this time of fasting. Now you may say, but I don't need to lose weight. This is not a weight loss plan. Your body will naturally lose weight if that is what your body needs. If your body does not need to lose weight it will shape it up, Larry lost some weight, but he has never been what I call fat--like me. So he lost his belly Other experts in the field of intermittent fasting said they actually gained lean muscle mass and bulked up. I can site people for you to Google if you want more evidence. It is a healing program, not a diet. You still have to eat healthy. You can't fast 16 hours, eat junk food, and expect your body to heal. Your body will work against that trying to detoxify and get those fake foods out of your body. Your body will finally give up when you make it too hard and that is when disease comes. God doesn't say---Oh I think I will give this person cancer, this person heart disease, this person diabetes. NO, we do it to ourselves. He is in the healing business---not in the disease business. 3 John says, I pray that you may all be in good health. Google all the health scriptures if you need extra evidence. Great study.
So, continuing on from Day 2, you are now ready for your coffee, if you drink coffee. A lot of health experts say "no caffeine". Others sing the praises of the wonders that it does for your body. I have read them both extensively because I was interested for another reason. I suffered from something else that I thought caffeine had an effect on---well talk about that later. So I think it boils down to whether or not you like coffee. I was well into my 20's before I ever had a cup of coffee. I just thought it was nasty drink for old people. I "grew up" one day and decided it was time to drink a mature drink. So I added sugar, milk and I said, "This is not too bad" I like sugar and milk with a little coffee in it. Then I progressed to adding the flavored Coffee Mate and I really liked the fake stuff. So really I'm not after the coffee, I'm after the sugar high. This went on for years, until I learned to read labels and what that "stuff" was doing to my body. So you say, what do you do now?
I drink coffee with coconut oil in it. When I really want to feel special, I add organic coconut milk that comes in a can. It is very thick like creamer and if you want to add some sweeter, add Stevia. It is a natural sweeter that comes from a plant. Just be sure to read labels, because some of them add other things that are not on the front of the package. I do not put this in my coffee. Now for some, having a layer of oil on the top of your coffee cup is not a pleasant sight. It doesn't bother me, but if it did, I would put my coffee in a travel cup where I could not see it. If you want to see the importance of coconut oil, Google Dr. Mary Newport and her work with restoring her husband's Alzheimer's brain. Few things can cross the brain barrier--coconut oil is one, essential oils is another. She advocates eating five tablespoons of coconut oil a day through various foods. This is tough for me sometimes, but I at least know that I am getting it one way, first thing in the morning while my body is still healing. An added plus is that this coffee time is mine and Larry's special sofa time that we have every morning to get our day off to a good start. So a sofa, a fuzzy blanket, coffee, the Bible and usually a cat, starts our day. I will cover this later as a special section on how important this is for health. To me this is a sweet time to build on my relationship with Jesus and my husband. Don't beat yourself up if your schedules in the morning cannot accommodate this time that is special for us. But give yourself--even if you are alone, a few minutes to start your day calmly. Fright or flight mode will ruin your health. And we will talk about that later. So if you are not a coffee drinker, you can't beat green tea, and if you really want to ramp it up and you can afford it, go for Matcha Green Tea. It is green tea on steroids!!!! I use it occasionally.
So, what about breakfast? Now this is where it gets interesting. We do not eat breakfast. What??????
I'm not advocating that you do this. Remember this is OUR story. You can write your own. This was very easy for me. I have never been the kind that is starving at breakfast time and actually felt bloated. It was different for Larry because he is Breakfast Man! He cooked breakfast every morning---the full menu. But I began to read about "intermittent fasting", and the power it gave to heal and restore us to our youthful body. Now don't freak out. You can do this gradually. First of all, recognize that fasting is a strong Biblical word, and we want to heal our body God's way. In Matthew 6: 16-18 it says " when you fast" not IF you fast. So this tells me that it is perfectly safe and expected. And I am not talking about extreme fasting although there are times for that. In my 69 years of living I have "water only" fasted for 40 days, 16 days, 10 days and a lot of shorter fasts. This was not a weight loss effort at the time. Now I'm not saying this to brag--I'm saying this to say you will not die. Now I just probably just lost my reward, because the Bible says to fast in secret and God will reward you openly. But at the time I did it, I did not tell anyone except my family of course because I was not eating at the table with them. I did sit and drink water just for the fellowship. And FYI--after 3 days there is no hunger at all. This was a spiritual fast, so I followed a book by J. Harold Smith, the champion spiritual faster of all time in my book. But he also reaped the benefits of health. When he was 80 he looked 40. Amazing!
But intermittent fasting is not extreme at all. What it means it that you break your fast (where the word breakfast comes form), later on in the day. Your body spends a lot of energy and effort on digestion. While it is digesting, it is not healing or detoxifying. When you prolong the digestive process, your body is in healing and detoxification mode. The idea of 3 meals a day and snacks along the way is a man made idea. You are digesting all day and your body needs a rest. If you want to start out slow, fast for 12 hours. This means that if your eat dinner at 7 at night, you would not eat until 7 in the morning. Which in means no food after supper---- so you have to give up the snacking. This was harder than I thought. I guess I didn't realize how much I snacked. Larry really struggled because he had to give up his peanut butter and crackers and BIG glass of milk. Now we do not stress ourselves out about the times. If we eat at six, then that would be six in the morning. If we eat at eight, we eat at eight in the morning. Our life is different almost every day. But if you were on a work schedule, you could be on a better schedule. With that being said--- we are on a 16-18 hour schedule, so we add four to six hours to that so if we eat at 7 in the evening we are breaking our fast between eleven and one o'clock. Now sometimes in there we drink bone broth, (we'll talk about that later). And we are drinking various types of water (later). The result? --- stomach fat started falling off. Yes we were eating a ketogenic diet---not very strictly---but the weight just started dropping with so little effort. It was amazing. (Keto diet will be later)
I have always had a "big stomach" problem. I joke that God got my body backwards. I have no hips. So if I was reversed I'd have hips and no stomach. I went to a ladies seminar one time that had breakout sessions to attend. One session was held by a plastic surgeon who specialized in tummy tucks. After the session I was convinced this was what I wanted. So I made an appointment for a consultation. Larry and I went and he examined my body and gave me his evaluation. First of all he said I did not need a tummy tuck I needed a whole slice off, that would change my belly button-- more like a sculpture. He also said that my body shape was hereditary and it would never come off no matter how much I dieted. I tended to agree with him, because when I lost weight, I did not lose enough to make my clothes look better. I would go down in a size, but I still looked the same---the same shape, the same belly, just a little smaller, but not in proportion to the rest of my body. In other words my belly still stuck out. He told me how much it would cost, but that I really needed to lose fifteen pounds first. So I started on the journey of saving money and losing weight. I wanted to wait several months to get those two things accomplished. Let's just say that I was better at saving money than I was at losing weight. The age old problem of losing weight and keeping it off, of course, surfaced and I never had the surgery. Now I would like to go back and say, "not only do I not need the surgery, but there is really very little to cut off". Heredity does not have to define your life.
I am listing the books I read, but all you have to do is research intermittent fasting and you will get a world of information. I just like the book because I refer to it a lot. It covers multiple fasting types , how to do it step by step and how your body heals during this time of fasting. Now you may say, but I don't need to lose weight. This is not a weight loss plan. Your body will naturally lose weight if that is what your body needs. If your body does not need to lose weight it will shape it up, Larry lost some weight, but he has never been what I call fat--like me. So he lost his belly Other experts in the field of intermittent fasting said they actually gained lean muscle mass and bulked up. I can site people for you to Google if you want more evidence. It is a healing program, not a diet. You still have to eat healthy. You can't fast 16 hours, eat junk food, and expect your body to heal. Your body will work against that trying to detoxify and get those fake foods out of your body. Your body will finally give up when you make it too hard and that is when disease comes. God doesn't say---Oh I think I will give this person cancer, this person heart disease, this person diabetes. NO, we do it to ourselves. He is in the healing business---not in the disease business. 3 John says, I pray that you may all be in good health. Google all the health scriptures if you need extra evidence. Great study.
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