Fasting is a serious undertaking no matter what type of fasting you consider. Even though fasting is a personal choice, it is important to make sure that you are fasting for the right reasons and that your motivations have good foundation. Because the process of fasting can become very intense emotionally, psychologically and even physically it is best to have a deep understanding of your actions and not merely attempt to fast on a whim.
Why are you fasting?
Fasting is something that you need to do for yourself, not because of, or for the sake of enjoyment other people. If external forces are your motivation for choosing to fast, then reevaluate your decision and reasonably consider other alternatives for action. To be clear for what I mean by external forces I mean fasting to impress other people with your results. Fasting for spiritual purposes in hopes to achieve an outcome physically for some other person, a group of people or a circumstance to occur is something very different. Even still, despite the desired external result, the process of fasting in those situations is something driven internally. The fasting is an outward expression of the internal process.
A Quick Note about Fasting for Weight Loss
If you decide to fast to lose weight, that is fine. However, if you routinely find yourself turning to fasting as a dietary solution there are better choices that you can make. The decisions you continually make that lead you to the situation where you feel that fasting is the only option for you to drop pounds need to change.
Fasting as a weight management tool and fasting as part of a diet, is just that, a tool or a part among many that a person uses in conjunction with other routine practices as part of an overall approach to health, nutrition and wellness. Fasting is not the end all be all to weight loss. Fasting can tax the body severely if abused and even if you only do 1-day fasts, you need to maintain the understanding that the process of fasting is not something that your body takes lightly and so neither should you.
