quick lesson on fasting

My first day here, as Jane was telling me what she did, she mention she supervised fasting. Um…why do you need supervision for fasting? Isn’t it just not eating?

No, definitely not. At least not this version. So here’s how it works: Three times a day, we mix a tablespoon of bentonite (a volcanic clay, binds to impurities in the digestive tract) in a glass of water. Right before drinking it, we add a tablespoon of ground psyllium husk, a fiber. You have to add it, mix it fast, and chug it, because the whole point of psyllium is that it forms a gel really quickly. Useful in your digestive tract, gross in your mouth. Then, we have a tall glass of freshly squeezed fruit (apple, pear, pineapple, orange, kiwi or some combination thereof) or vegetable (carrot, celery and/or beetroot) juice, yum. There’s also coffee involved, but trust me when I tell you that you don’t really want to know about that.

So….why?!? Once your body stops digesting food, it can focus on cleaning out. It gets rid of stuff that’s been sitting in there for a while, and your liver & kidneys do a bit of detoxing. We do movement classes every day – basically, 20 minutes of trampoline stuff, and stretching and/or toning. Staying semi-active good for fasting, especially for the lymph system.

I’m not doing this to lose weight – if you do lose weight during the fast, you put most of it back on right after. I’m doing it because I watched other people do it and could actually see the changes, because everyone doing it said it’s pretty easy and I’m open to non-dangerous new experiences, and because our latest fasting guest is a doctor, and I’ve had a chance to find out a little more about the scientific logic behind it from her. Also, I think it’ll be a good mental exercise, and will help with eating healthier afterwards.

Oh, also – sauna time is mandatory once a day when you’re fasting. I can deal with that! I’ll also apparently be spending a fair amount of time in the spa because your body heat drops a little while fasting. Again, I can deal with spa time.