Fasting for Lyme Recovery: How to Reap the Benefits – Part 2
Different Fasting Options To Suit Every Body
This is a continuation of our first blog article on this topic, which covered juice fasting and fruit fasting. If you haven’t already, you can read Fasting For Lyme Recovery, Part 1 here.
Fasting is one of the best ways to improve health overall and accelerate recovery from Lyme disease. But you have to work with it at a pace that your body and mind can handle.
Fasting is not a test of one’s will to withstand deprivation from solid food. Quite the contrary, it should feel nourishing, energizing, and your body should be given all that it needs to support rapid detoxification and healing, albeit in liquid form.
If you’re still getting your toes wet, here are 2 more options of fasting methods that can be great stepping stones to longer or more intensive fasts in the future.
One Day Per Week Fasting
The one day per week fast allows for rest and cleansing of your body, and is an antidote for general overconsumption. Some people find it easier logistically, physically, and psychologically to fast once per week rather than 3 days per month.
Intermittent Fasting
Intermittent fasting offers another alternative regimen for fasting.
Intermittent fasting has recently gained popularity due to research showing a variety of positive health benefits such as improved heart health, increased brain function, prevention of chronic diseases, increased life span, and weight loss.
As the name implies, intermittent fasting is alternating between periods of eating normally and periods of fasting. These “periods” are open to be defined by you, and there are a variety of ways that people create intermittent fasting schedules.
Typically, the daily “eating window” is a period of time ranging from four to eight hours during which 1-2 meals are consumed. Then, abstention from solid food is the plan for the other 16-20 hours. Rather than total abstention from food, with only water allowed, some people include juices and/or fruit during the 16-20 hour fasting period.
For some, this rhythm develops naturally over time as they adopt the Uprooting Lyme holistic cleansing lifestyle routines in the process of Lyme recovery.
In The New Detox Diet, Elson Haas, M.D., offers what he calls the “one-meal- a-day plan”, which he recommends as a transition that progresses toward a one-day fast, then to longer fasting. He suggests the one meal be around 3 p.m. and consist of a protein and a vegetable, such as fish and a salad, or of a starch and a vegetable, such as rice and steamed vegetables. During the hours of abstention, he suggests fresh fruit and vegetable snacks be allowed in addition to liquids.
During your eating periods, be sure and upgrade your food choices and food quality as much as possible. Since you are consuming less, you must consider your food as medicine and make it count.
Final Thoughts
The point is not to force a rigid schedule upon yourself, but to gracefully lighten your disease and toxin load gradually over time. As you do, you come to align more with lightness than with congestion. If these fasting ideas sound radical and difficult now, eventually this type of eating schedule can feel very natural and right.
All types of fasting help bring balance, resets your nervous system, and awakens your instinctive clarity regarding what is nourishing for you, versus what is toxic.
Many people, even those who are struggling with Lyme disease, do well with these types of plans and find that it gives them higher levels of energy.
As always, approach fasting with a sense of personal responsibility and as a life practice that you will need to make your own. Everyone is individual and you have to experiment a bit to find out what works best for you at this time.
Fasting is a radical concept in the American culture that embraces eating as a 24/7 activity!
So now you have some options and can follow your body’s needs while still gaining the benefits of fasting. Note how your instincts change as the seasons change, and as you progress in your Lyme recovery.
Remember, there is nothing to lose in attempting a fast. There is no failure, because even if you “fail” to achieve your stated goal, you will have learned and experienced much of value.
With any fasting method, internal energy is freed up that can then be used toward the cleansing and healing of bodily tissues, so you always win.
My hope is that the information presented here helps you to find or create a method of fasting that feels right for you now and in the future, and that fits your goals and your lifestyle, so that you feel a motivation (rather than dread) toward a regular fasting practice.
Ready to learn how to effectively, safely detox – and literally clear the way for healing? Check out Detox For Lyme, our 8-week online course, which teaches you everything you need to know to cleanse and fast, whether you are just learning how or ready to move to an advanced level of cleansing.
How very true that, “Fasting is a radical concept in the American culture that embraces eating as a 24/7 activity!” Fasting is counter-cultural in many ways, but once I tried it I was hooked.
I have been dealing with chronic Lyme and co-infections since 2012 and started intermittent fasting several months ago. I originally planned to try different fasting schedules to see which one I liked the best. But I started with 16/8 and liked it so much I stuck with it.
The health benefits are pretty great, like you mentioned, so I’m planning to continue. Thanks for sharing this awesome post, Hillary!
HI Lori, Thanks! I hope things are going well for you and you are still on the fasting path!