Fasting for Your Own Health and for the Planet

I am a pretty spontaneous and a somewhat rebellious kind of being. Though, I do try my best to live from the heart, and in authenticity as much as I possibly am able to stomach it....pun intended (you will understand below). I do not care to live at the mercy of fear. Nor do I any longer care for social conventionality, about time, or anything most of society considers important. In fact, I kind of like to buck the norm if I am honest. I do not care much about anything except correcting the wrongs I see in the world, inspiring myself and others, and, basically, trying to leave a better world, especially for my children -- actually, ALL the children and innocent beings -- while trying to live daily in the space of Divine Love, which is not always easy.

Three things that have really allowed me to set myself free:

1. Adversity, in the rawest sense of it, in every part of my life, since I was a child.
2. Ancient and new wisdom garnered through books, people and the internet.
3. Finding my creativity again.

As counter-intuitive as the first two things may seem on the surface, it is true, because they led me to many, many wonderful knowings about myself and the whole Universe. I have always been very curious by nature, and have almost always tried to trust my inner sensings about everything.

Especially when it came to food, even as a child. A childhood nick-name given to me was “skinnyminny”, because I did not eat much, though I was often forced. I was raised to “eat everything on my plate”, the prevailing wisdom of the day growing up in a Catholic family, and probably most other Anglo-Saxon religions espoused the same. However, this was not so misplaced, because there were starving children in Africa, and as we all know, there are still starving children all over this backward world, even though we have the means to stop it. But I digress easily to one of my soapbox rants. I do not want this to be that, and instead, I want to share what may be a bit of a solution in each of our lives, and is thus why I share these boring details about myself.

In truth, and literally, in the spirit of “food for thought”, I would like to suggest something that may seem radical, or, once again, counter-intuitive to some. With the exception of reading my own commentary here, the idea after my suggestion, is to watch all the videos I am sharing in this post (all together less than an hour), because all three TEDx talks are excellent and inspiring, and will lead you to question whether or not it is something you want to do for yourself, and potentially the planet. It is one thing we all can do easily, and I am all for doable solutions to our world’s ills.

However, I must share a few more boring details before you get to my full suggestion... In my own life, I like to prove out my own “studies of one”, analysis and theses I personally come up with. Currently, I am testing out my own anti-aging formulas for a business I am in the process of creating. Living in Ecuador, many times I cannot get the latest, greatest things -- even common things we all take for granted in the western world -- and it is mostly due to misplaced governmental policies, but again, I digress... Since some of you who may take the time to read this do not personally know me, this was by choice for me and my children, when we moved from the land of plenty (and excess) of Southern California, USA. Though it is sometimes very hard, at the end of the day, I am thankful for the trials I often have here, because it has forced me to be creative and very patient, and mostly, because it removed us all from mindless consumerism, and many years of waste and excess in my own past life. I shared this all because I do what I am about to suggest, in my own life -- not only due to preference, but also circumstance and yes, for the planet.

So, here is the full suggestion:

Try fasting on a regular basis in your life. In fact, I would like to suggest fasting on at least a one-day-a-week basis, or, if that seems too much, maybe on a one-day-a-month basis. But for the brave of constitution, I would really encourage fasting on a meal-a-day basis. Any one of these choices could really help our planet if you reverse engineer it. In the US, there are over 200 million adults. This could make a huge dent in so many problems -- food production needs and all the problems associated with that issue alone, health care, distribution problems, the waste produced from the food packaging (and waste of leftover food itself), the criminal animal food industry could be rethought, and on and on...

I have researched this thoroughly and do not make this suggestion lightly. I have been an informal student of nutrition, ever since my first university nutrition course, over 30 years ago, and in retrospect should have continued, but went the business track instead. Because I have followed my own innate needs for food, and because of my own years of research in the quest to remain healthy, I am still what most would consider lean. I have never felt like eating breakfast…it kind of makes me sick. Once in a while I wake up with a huge appetite (it usually means I had some kind of high calorie event the day or night before), and I will eat early in the day. But, otherwise, I usually don’t eat sometimes until 1PM, or even later. In fact, sometimes, I only eat once a day, and the first food/meal I try to eat is fruit. This is what I find works best for me. For my children, I encourage them to eat when they feel like it, and I make sure they have at least two, complete nutritious meals a day (always with a GREEN vegetable), with healthy snacks in between. Also, I am not so masochistic that we don't eat unhealthy things once in while. Life is waaaaaaaay to short not to every now and then! :D

Furthermore, as in the first video presention, I would also agree and further posit that we have been brainwashed into thinking we need breakfast, or at least into thinking we need to eat three times a day. Think about who this serves if you do. I guarantee, not you... I believe as full grown adults, we only need to eat twice or once, with fruit or veggies as snacks, or even water instead, when we think we are hungry. I actually follow my own body's signals – when my stomach growls like a lion, then I eat. Pretty simple and easy! The third video I am sharing actually shows that we may not need to eat food at all, and that is radical, even for me at this point in my life. But, being my curious, rebellious self, I do intend to try it someday. Fasting is so healthy and healing for us on so many levels. When we are sick, it is one of the first solutions to healing our ills…anything almost: colds, fevers, upset stomachs, even very serious stuff. Animals do it, and sometimes, we need to take our cues from other living beings, as native cultures often did.

Anyway, I hope some of my friends and family consider this. I promise you, you will not die of starvation! I am now 53 (54 in a few more days), and as I said, I have been doing this mostly all of my life. I also believe it has kept me looking ten years younger than my real age, and I have mostly enjoyed excellent health, with the exception of being wheat intolerant. (But that is another post someday.) This proposition is a case of mind over matter. Just start small, and let your inner wisdom take you where it could go… Watch the videos, do a little research of your own, and if anything resonates, then be your own study of one! In Love, Truth, Light and Bliss <3