Persons interested in fasting for weight loss and detoxification frequently ask me for tips and techniques to help them maximize colon cleansing.
Some want to know whether or not it is beneficial to use liquid fiber or other colon cleansing supplements while water or juice fasting. Others already use different types of "colon cleansers," yet still have very few bowel movements and do not experience the deep cleansing and wellness that fasting can provide. The ongoing question this latter group of persons ask is: What can I do to experience deeper colon cleansing?
In this article I will present various techniques that have helped me over the years. If you are interested in losing weight and detoxifying through fasting, then following the suggestions outlined here can certainly maximize results and minimize the pain. It is my sincere desire that you accomplish your weight loss and fitness goals.
Fiber While Water Fasting?
First let's look at this issue of fiber. Today, you see fiber in many products. Fiber here, fiber there ... everything fiber for improved digestion and regularity. I am all for it and myself take in healthy amounts of fiber. But, specifically when one is fasting, this may not be the best idea.
The use of fiber while juice or water fasting is fine so long as you do it moderately. But my recommendation is that you start out with very small doses and see how your body reacts. Sometimes fiber can clump up in the stomach and cause pretty uncomfortable cramps and pains. I fasted one time and took large quantities of fiber thinking I was doing a great deed.
Within a few hours I was climbing the walls in pain and rolling around the floor like a fuddy duddy. It took several hours for the pain to go away; and I did not even have a bowel movement! While we are fasting, the digestive system either partially or completely shuts down, so anything that is ingested is best done in very small doses so as to not irritate the stomach. Imagine waking up a bear that is in hibernation! I don't think he would be thrilled about it, neither will be probably be a very good host.
Herbs & Prunes
I personally have gotten pretty amazing results with a product called Herbs & Prunes. I crush the small pills in tiny pieces and then toss the powder in water and wait for it to liquefy before drinking. While juice fasting, I take the juice and put it in a blender and toss in three or four of the H&P pills.
This is the system that has worked best for me. But that is not to say that there is anything wrong with fiber or that it does not work. It does. There are a lot of good products. What I am saying is that when your body is vulnerable through fasting it is much better to err in the side of caution rather than have to go through the many pains and misery that I did because I was "over-eager" to get clean and lean.
Keep it Simple
Fasting provides quick weight loss and detoxification, but let me tell you, it can still seem like a very very slow process. Twenty four hours to lose one pound is still twenty four hours. In my case I had almost 70 pounds to lose and I had to break it down into one 40-day water fast and a second 21-day juice fast.
So please, take it very slow and listen to your body carefully each and every moment. Now, I realize that the detox pains are no fun and that, indeed, fasting is simple but not easy. At the start of a fast one is usually filled with fire and motivation, but after several days, the furor can easily be doused by hunger pains and negative thinking. So keep it simple. If you see that you do not have a bowel movement for several days, I would suggest that you drink more water rather than going overboard with any supplement.
Tummy Massage
One of the top recommendations I can make is to get acquainted with your stomach through massage. Massaging your tummy stimulates the colon to discard fecal matter that may be strongly adhered to the walls of your stomach. This fecal matter is troublesome because it continually feeds toxins into your blood stream.
Here is a massage technique that helps to loosen stubborn fecal matter: *Lay down on a hard floor and spend some time massaging your entire stomach with both hands. Make sure you cover the upper part of the colon, the bottom, as well as the right and left side. Spend some quality time massaging your liver. *Start out laying face up and massage the upper and bottom part of the colon. *Then lay on your right side and massage the left side with the left hand. *Then turn to the left side and massage the right side of the colon with the right hand. Do this at least once a day.
Take a large swig of water before you do it, though. I can tell you that several times, this process caused me to have thundering bowel movements that even scared my cat. Well, I am exaggerating but you get the point. A lot of the fecal matter can stubbornly cling to the walls of the colon and massage helps to lose it up and induce elimination.
Trust Your Body
The body knows what it is doing and it often does not do it in our time clock. Of course, if you see that this persists, the top recommendation is that you see a doctor immediately as you may have a more serious intestinal problem. But in my particular case, believe it or not, I had a bowel moment on day 38 of the 40-day water fast. So indeed the body is very wise and mysterious, so give it a chance to do its job and do not feel that you have to step in and "over-help" it just because things are not happening at the speed that you had hoped.
Author Resource:-
Robert Dave Johnston is editor and webmaster of Fitness Through Fasting.com - where you will find a growing number of fasting-related articles and topics to assist you achieve your weight loss, detoxification and health-improvement goals through juice and water fasting.
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