Fasting: A good way to detoxify your body and mind

Much has been written and said about fasting as a means of maintaining good health. What is hardly mentioned is how fasting can be a part of a great emotional transformation that leads to body awareness. It gives you positive direction and heightens self awareness. There is a huge spiritual logic to fasting, besides its scientific logic. For a spiritual person, this period can be very refreshing and introspective.

According to naturopaths, detoxifying the body opens the pathway to self-healing and spiritual enlightenment. On a purely practical level, fasting takes the strain off our physical bodies. Anything that supports elimination helps us detoxify. By drinking an extra quart of water a day, eating more fruits and vegetables and cutting off refined flour and sugar, we can eliminate more toxins and create less congestion.

Benefits of fasting

• Removes naturally accumulated waste via sweat, stool, gases and urine
• Helps shed extra weight
• Leads to improved wellness, concentration and prevents diseases, too
• Delays premature ageing and degeneration
• Regulates sleep patters
• Boosts emotional well-being
• Increases vitality
• Improves appearance and immune system

Prepare to fast

Go organic as much as possible as it lessens the chemical load, saves the environment, helps mental well-being and it’s the best form of charity you could do to Mother Earth.

• Shop for plenty of fruits, leafy greens and vegetables, whole grains, sprouts, cold-pressed oils and rock salt
• Keep the chopping board, blender, knives or food processor ready to reduce prep time
• Buy a steamer
• Buy herbal infusions

The Fasting Routine

• Commence your day with lemon water
• Have fruits till 11 A.M. Cut down on caffeine, shift to green tea and herbal infusions
• Have any vegetable juice at 11 A.M. or lemon water
• For lunch, have a salad with vegetables along with 2 bajra/jowar/rajgira or ragi chapattis or one medium bowl brown rice plus a bowl of sprouts lightly steamed. Have a fruit at 4 P.M.
• Between 6 P.M. to 7 P.M., have a salad and soup, about 20 pistachios plus two walnuts
• Do this for a week every three months. It would refresh and rejuvenate you.