Hi everyone, I hope you are all having a great day. i have been intermittent and extended fasting for a couple years now. The extended fasts have been tough for me as I’m starting to think I have a severe eating addiction. I have broken several addiction cycles including cigarettes and gambling. My worry is that a lot of those addictive tendencies just moved over to food and eating if that makes sense. I was also raised on a pretty unhealthy diet which I don’t think is helping. I luckily went vegan which has helped me tremendously but I am still a slave to my minds addiction to eating. Everytime I attempt an extended fast I have to battle the little monster in my head and usually it wins. Tonight, I am starting a new fast and this time I am going to make it past the 72 hour mark for the first time. My theory is that with a few long term fasts I can reprogram my brain into enjoying better food choices. I am also hoping that posting here is going to give me additional strength. Thanks for listening everyone and good luck with your own fasting journeys.
tl;dr: I have a pretty bad addiction to unhealthy foods albeit vegan. I am hoping fasting and posting here will give me strength to break these addictions.
Fasting is an excellent time to reprogram your mind, but you don’t have to limit that programing to mere eating habits. There are some modern studies being done on fasting and neuro-plasticity, but the conditioning/reconditioning potential of fasting has been known for hundreds of years. An interesting esoteric little book on the subject is “Fasting for Regeneration” by Dr. Julia Seton (1928). There are others, including a fascinating poem by Rumi, but I’ll let you discover those on your own. Tolle lege, my Friend. Happy 2022!