How to Prepare For a Fast

Video Transcript

"So it's time to do a fast and you want a few tips about how to prepare for it. My name is Mark Brinson, doctor of of Oriental medicine, physical medicine and human performance specialist. Maybe I can help you out with that just a little bit. First and foremost you want to determine what type of fast you want to do, whether you want to do a complete fast or whether you want to do a juice fast or something that's a little simpler. Also the duration that you want to fast in. If you want to do a twenty-four, forty-eight, thirty-six hour fast, those are typically a little bit easier than a longer five, seven or ten day fast that are done. If you're going to do a juice fast remember that you want to pick a particular type of juice or a juice slash fruit that you're going to do and only have that during that first period of time. As long as I would take out a juice fast or a fruit fast is about thirty-six hours. If you go any longer than that you're going to get not only diminishing benefits but you could probably get some detriment as well. Now if you're going to just do a complete food fast you don't want to do any food whatsoever, the preparation for it mostly involves making sure that you're going to have plenty of fresh drinking water and that you're also going to plan around certain things like particularly the third day can be rough. Your body is getting as most toxic as it's going to be, and it's a day that you really want to plan to have off or where you can rest and deal with any problems that may occur from that. You can be a little bit emotional, you can get headache or body aches. The good part about it is it only lasts about six hours or so, and after that you're going to feel much more energetic and your body is going to recover quicker and need less sleep. So in preparing for the fast again, the fresh water, making sure that you have any of the products that you're going to need to take during that time, you also want to prepare for what's going to happen after the fast. So especially if this is a fast without food, five, seven or ten days, you're going to want to make sure that you have a few things that you can ease back into eating food with. Particularly things that have fresh enzymes in them, like vegetables are good ways to start to get off a fast. And also things with health food products with acidophilus, whether it's a yogurt or whether it's an actual pill that you take, that help to rebuild intestinal floor. My name is Mark Brinson doctor of Oriental medicine, physical medicine and human performance specialist, wishing you a happy, healthy and balanced day."