The first thing I did was fast and pray. Many people of faith did this after the attacks of September 11, 2001, and I was of course no different. But while praying for our nation, I noticed one thing. The desire for food paled in comparison to the real need for spiritual comfort that many of us felt during those difficult times.
I saw through my physical hunger (which was temporary) to my need for Almighty God and his fatherly presence (which was eternal).
The point I am trying to drive home is that in your journey towards wholeness and health, why don't you invite God along? I mean He is the one who created you. He knows what you need; what will help you or hurt you along that path toward weightloss. And while you are at it, he also is there to help with the emotional
entanglements, the stresses and strains, the sin and unforgiveness, the abuse and neglect of the past and present.
These are the things that cause many of us to overeat, to make unhealthy choices, to go the easy route in our day.
So, as I am fasting, I notice my body doing strange things. Yes, I have a headache or two, it's somewhat uncomfortable. The desire to eat is present. TV watching is a bad idea because if the food commercials. Please, go ahead and drink plenty of good, clean water. Spring or distilled. This will help clean you out and it keeps the tummy full. During a good fast of 24-hours or more, the body starts to shed toxins and clean itself of harmful things at a greater rate than normal. I don't know why this is the case, but it is so. Prepare to spend more time bathing, applying deoderants, brushing teeth and using mouthwash.
Also, you will be spending more time in the bathroom, too. But it is all for the good! See your body normally spends so much time consuming and processing food and things that it has little time to cleanse itself properly. A proper fast gives it time to do that. Here's a practical example. You know how to clean a refrigerator? You turn it off, empty it and wash it down. Our digestive system is just like that.
It needs to be turned off (by fasting) in order to be cleaned.
This was a very normal thing in ancient cultures. They endured periods of famine often and their bodies kept healthy stores of fat for those times. Did you know that a pound of fat contains 3,500 calories? That is about 2 days worth of energy. Many of us have months of stored fat and we don't experience famine on this country.
No wonder the rate of colon cancer and kidney disease is so high. We are not giving our bodies a chance to cleanse itself naturally, through periodic fasting. This, I did for a day and a half. As I returned to the world of the eating I was able to limit my indulgences more easily.
This is what I recommend: a 1-3 day fast, drink a gallon of water a day (yes, twice the usual amount), limit your activity: stay at home if you
want; reading or writing is good. This is a good start to any lifestyle change.
Tuesday, April 7, 2009
Lose 20lbs. fast, without exercise or diet!
Just kidding. This just does not happen. Sorry. It took months to put on the extra pounds and it will take months to take it off and keep it off. And then you will have to make a major lifestyle commitment to work on the areas that got you into the overweight mess to begin with.
This is not easy. It was not for me. I had a few advantages in that I had the support of my family, my church and my community. Even my employer allowed me to do workouts during my breaks. I also had healthy and safe opportunities to exercise around the home. I did not have to go to a gym.
My wife and kids were willing to make healthy food choices along with me. I found
some simple methods of exercise that didn't require much money. I was also
motivated to join the navy soon after the attacks on America of September 11,
2001. We all need to have a motivation, a reason to push ourselves off the couch
and get outside.
The facts: around September of 2001, I was overweight and out of shape. But I recently completed treatment for sleep apnea and was able to start a diet and exercise regimen. This is my story of what I did to successfully lose about 75 pounds of fat, gain about 25 pounds of muscle, go from size 50 to size 38 (I'm 6 feet tall) in a years' time.
This is not easy. It was not for me. I had a few advantages in that I had the support of my family, my church and my community. Even my employer allowed me to do workouts during my breaks. I also had healthy and safe opportunities to exercise around the home. I did not have to go to a gym.
My wife and kids were willing to make healthy food choices along with me. I found
some simple methods of exercise that didn't require much money. I was also
motivated to join the navy soon after the attacks on America of September 11,
2001. We all need to have a motivation, a reason to push ourselves off the couch
and get outside.
The facts: around September of 2001, I was overweight and out of shape. But I recently completed treatment for sleep apnea and was able to start a diet and exercise regimen. This is my story of what I did to successfully lose about 75 pounds of fat, gain about 25 pounds of muscle, go from size 50 to size 38 (I'm 6 feet tall) in a years' time.
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