Sometimes you have to let go to see if there was anything worth holding on to. ~Unknown
It happened during the 40-day fast. I did not mention it before because I did not want to take away from the spiritual focus and significance of the fast. However, I lost about 15 to 20 pounds during that fast. It is gone. It has stayed gone for nearly month with a vacation (of sorts) in between. I am thinking it will not be coming back easily and I do not need it. It is a vanity thing, I know, but I am very pleased with the way my clothes are fitting—actually I should say that I am very pleased with the way my thinner clothes are fitting because many of my jeans are just too big now.
My husband lost about 45 pounds! We both weigh about the same as when we were first married. Of course, being that it is over twenty years later that weight just does not have the same look, but we know how to shape our bodies because both of us used to practically live in the gym. My husband was a competition body-builder and trainer. He even was part owner of a gym at one time and trained a co-worker of mine, who won a number of local competitions (more than he did, I think), but I found that he had trained her after we had met later.
We have a workout area in our garage that was recently cleared of clutter (Yay!) and we have been begun using it again. We just gave up on working out mostly after the Princess was born, but before that it was not only a big part of our lives, it was one of the main things we had in common when we met. I still enjoy working out and I wanted the Princess to learn the proper ways of doing it also. She has begged us to show her since she was four years old—I suppose I should not be surprised. Then there is that whole modesty issue with it that I will have to address with the Princess, which was not an issue for me when I was working out and lived in Florida where swim suits were common wear and shockingly tiny. In comparison, I was fairly modest (most of the time).
I have digressed....
I wanted to share a few of things that this fast confirmed for me:
1. Typically, a person loses several pounds in the first 5-7 days and then usually about a pound a day until the fast gets to about two weeks. At that point, the body makes adjustments in metabolism so a person tends to slow down the weight loss; this is one of the reasons that if I am fasting to lose weight, I usually only go up to two weeks. Of course, much depends on the amount of body fat one had at the beginning and what type of fast one is doing. Our fast was supplemented with juices, broths, teas, and raw milk, all diluted with water, as well as water alone. I read somewhere that the average American has enough body fat to do this type of fast for 70 to 90 days. Unbelievable, right? I have heard people tell me they cannot fast even one day although they had no health issues to prevent it; this is simply a mind-set and fasting does help a person change his ideas about what he can and cannot do.
2. Having about two to four ounces of whole raw milk before bedtime actually stimulated the metabolism enough even after the first two weeks to continue a higher rate of weight loss for my husband. When I only lost two pounds in two weeks and was waking up twice a night and having difficulty sleeping, my husband suggested the milk before bedtime. I slept better and began losing weight also, even though I was supplementing with juices more during the day! Just a little fat can be a good thing after all! (I did do a raw goat milk and water fast many years ago and I was very pleased with the results, but that was a health experiment, not a spiritual fasting thing.)
3. On long fasts, your body will regulate its weight loss according to how much body fat you have. My husband lost more than I did, because he had more to lose.
4. Regardless of what many medical professionals have told people for years, fasting does not make you gain more fat after the fast is over and you start eating. Their philosophy is that the body goes into starvation mode and begins storing even more fat whenever you eat. Actually, the body has so much greater need to use the nutrition it is taking in that it cannot bother with storing it! (Honestly, it scares me sometimes when I think these people have degrees.)
5. Longer fasts are like hitting the restart button on your metabolism. It is definitely higher than before the fast and produces a more energetic feeling. Digestion of food is far more efficient, energy is increased from the foods eaten, and healthier foods are more enjoyed.
6. Based on recent research, fasting heightens the human growth hormone (HGH) naturally. HGH enhances healing, slows aging, encourages fat loss and muscle building, and even brings back some youthful qualities! This bears repeating: Fasting can actually stimulate muscle building and fat loss.
6. Fasting is a self-discipline that inevitably infiltrates other parts of your life.
7. After a fast, it is just as easy to maintain the new lower weight level as it was to maintain the previous weight level. I really don't eat much less than I did even before I began working out. You probably are wondering how can one be leaner eating as much as one did before? I have lots of ideas as to why this happens including many of the aforementioned benefits of fasting, but regardless of what reasoning I have, it still seems like a miracle to me as well.
Fasting has a number of other benefits such as detoxing the body, but I just wanted to address the ones that were a confirmation of what I already believed but had not really experienced since I had not done a fast beyond two weeks before. It was an amazing spiritual experience and now I am enjoying the physical advantages very much.
I could justify that we are working out to be stronger and have more endurance because we plan to do some laborious tasks planned in the coming months and that is a part of it. However, to be honest...well, I suppose it is vanity, but...yeah, I am going to say it: I do look good!
~ Thank you, my Lord, for the miraculous health benefits of fasting. ~
