Have you ever heard the phrase, ‘Never pray for patience?’ Patience is one thing that can only be learned through experience. Unfortunately, if you have ever tried to heal your body, start a new healthy habit, lose some excess weight, or break an addiction, you have had to learn patience. Healing the body takes time. The truth is our body heals the best when we get out of its way and allow it to heal on its own. The patience learned is extremely valuable and provides wisdom for the next future health challenge.
In recent years fasting has become an important tool for improving one’s health. The benefits of fasting are numerous including: losing weight, detoxification, tissue healing, cancer prevention, improving sleep, and much more. Fasting is difficult for many and patience is needed to adapt fasting as a regular part of your healthy lifestyle. We hope that this newsletter can provide some hacks to make not only fasting easier but to help you become healthier than you have ever been.
Coffee:
Coffee can be a lifesaver when you are fasting. Sipping a warm cup of your favorite coffee slowly through the morning can help you get through those extra hours of fasting. I would suggest looking for a mold and pesticide free coffee. These impurities can spike your blood sugar and many people have serious negative reactions to them. Make sure to test your blood sugar before and after your coffee while fasting to test for any spikes in your blood sugar that will wreck your goals.
Epsom Salt Baths:
An epsom salt bath can act as a major detoxifier while fasting. Fasting is known for releasing stored toxins and waste metabolites from the fat cells around the body. When these toxins hit the bloodstream they can create symptoms of headaches, rashes, joint pain, muscle aches, and more. If you are struggling with these symptoms or are looking for a great distraction from eating, try an epsom salt bath.
Continuous Glucose Monitors:
If you have played a sport, you know the feeling of looking at the scoreboard to see how your team is doing in the last few minutes of the game. A continuous glucose monitor is the scoreboard when you’re fasting. The CGM helps you understand how your body responds to stress, foods and beverages, and what length of time you should be fasting. It gives real time information as to how the body is responding at the present time. The information that a CGM can give is worth the time and effort to attain one. You can often get a CGM through many of the manufacturers for free. A medical doctor’s prescription is required.
Workout When Fasting:
If you are fasting with a goal of losing fat, try working out during your fast. A workout will create a need for energy that is met by releasing body sugar out of your liver, muscles, and body fat. The ability to metabolize body fat for energy will occur quicker when you are in a fasted state as the body digs deeper for more energy by catabolizing fat cells to meet the need. After your workout, try consuming protein and very few carbohydrates to maximize the fat burn and further enhance the development of your lean athletic body.
Measure Your Ketones:
Just as the Continuous Glucose Monitors (CGMs) can give you an instantaneous measurement of your blood sugar, a ketone meter can give you a measurement of your ketone production. A simple finger prick and few drops of blood can measure if you are in ketosis or not. Ketosis is defined as when ketones are found in the bloodstream as a result of the liver turning fat into glucose for the brain to be able to function during times of low carbohydrate intake.
Liver Cleanses:
The liver is the organ that flips the ketosis switch to start turning fat into ketones for energy use. Often after periods of prolonged stress (emotional, physical, or chemical) the liver is sluggish to make this switch. Some people can fast for long periods of time and never seem to go into ketosis. This is when cleansing the liver may be helpful. Liver cleanses can take on many forms including coffee enemas, dandelion tea, bitter greens, and castor oil packs.
Overcoming Hunger:
Hunger is the largest obstacle for both beginner and experienced fasting patients. Hunger can sabotage the best of intentions and the only way to overcome hunger is through experience. Here are some of the hacks that the most experienced have shared with me.
- Hunger can be boredom: the brain craves stimulation and when it is deprived, it will resort to the stimuli that it knows best. Food is a powerful stimulant to the brain, but so are many other things that can help you get through hunger pains. Try a few things like playing your favorite music, dancing, exercising, singing, or talking with a friend.
Try LMNT: hunger can be caused by many things including mineral imbalances. Quelling hunger can be as simple as boosting your body with sodium, potassium, and magnesium salts. Slipping these salt packets into your water bottle can make for a very refreshing drink but can also make for a powerful hunger killer. LMNT is a special blend of metabolites that will help you maintain your fast, continue to burn fat, kill cancer cells, and repair damaged tissues.- Eat A Fat Bomb: If hunger persists but you still want to stay in ketosis, try a fat bomb. A fat bomb can help you fast just a bit longer and is a great tool when you are breaking a fast of over 24 hours. It may be as simple as a spoonful of natural peanut butter or cream cheese. If you want a more fun fat bomb, try this recipe:
Keto Fat Bomb
Ingredients:
½ cup nut butter of choice or coconut butter
¼ cup cocoa or cacao powder
¼ cup melted coconut oil
⅛ tsp kosher salt
3 drops or less of liquid stevia
Directions:
Stir all ingredients together until smooth. Add additional coconut oil if the mixture is too dry. Pour mixture into a mini cupcake tray, ice cube tray, or candy mold. Freeze overnight to harden. Store in the freezer until ready to eat.
Our goal at Core Chiropractic and Wellness is to educate and inform our patients and to empower them to make better health choices for their life. We hope these newsletters provide you with something new to include into your daily health routines. You can find over 200 more just like this one on our Blog page of our website, CoreRoanoke.com. We are here to help you!
Daryl C. Rich, D.C., C.S.C.S.
