Fasting with the right intention

4 May

A lot of my clients come to me with questions about fasting.

In the spiritual/wellness world, fasting is seen as a popular thing to implement into our lifestyle to deepen our spiritual practice, give our digestion a break, and our body a moment to restore & heal.

‘I used fasting as a tool to cope with my insatiable hunger.‘

During my struggle with Binge Eating Disorder, I used fasting as a tool to cope with my insatiable hunger. I thought that I would tame my inner beast, by not giving it what it craved. Even though it didn’t bring me the relief of the desire (I always went back straight to binging right after a period of fasting), it gave me a sense of control. I could decide not to eat and therefore I was in charge.

To restore balance in our eating, we need to bring balance in our actions first of all. Moving from binging to fasting is a very big swing from one side to another. We create a fake sense of balance because we are working in both extremes. When we want to come back home in the middle, in this place of intuitive eating, we need to let go of both.

‘We create a fake sense of balance because we are working in both extremes‘

The reason why most of us feel such a huge desire to eat more than feels good is easy to explain. When we are not giving our body what it is asking from us; either not enough food or not the right kind of food (or not the right attitude with our food, where we are very scared the food we eat won’t be good for us), our body gets into a state of survival. It feel unsafe with the choices you make, so it now start to send out signals to make sure that it is getting its needs met. So, our body is asking us to eat more. When we give in to the urge for a while, we often become scared and start to compensate for this overeating in some ways. This might be how we get to fasting, excessive exercise, dieting, restrictive eating, or even purging. Without us noticing, we found ourselves inside this loop.

‘We often become scared and start to compensate for this overeating in some ways.‘

Finding back balance means releasing both extremes. Making sure to eat enough, loosen the restrictions (in our actions and with our mind), and welcome the food we decide to eat unapologetically. When our body starts to feel safe with us again, we might feel some huge shifts in our relationship with food.

Eventually, everything comes down to the true intention we do something with. Everything can be poison or medicine, depending on the reason. So, check-in with yourself; Why do you wish to fast? Is the intention behind it truly loving?

‘Everything can be poison or medicine, depending on the reason.‘

Healing happens when we bake the cake in the right order, starting with creating a safe environment for our bodies to thrive in. Afterward, we can invite challenges or goals back into our lifestyle, making sure we are feeling safe throughout!

Much love & light to you,

Iza