Nourishing the Spirit: A Traveler’s Guide to Conscious Fasting

This post contains affiliate links. If you use these links to buy something, we may earn a commission.

Fasting has various meanings in different countries and religions. The Christians have their famous Lent before Easter and another fasting time before Christmas. In the Islam there is the Ramada, the holy ninth month of the Muslim calendar. A time of introspection and abstinence from immoral behavior between dawn and dusk. The Jews have their periods of fasting, the Ta’anit B’khorot or the Ta’anit B’khorim – the fast of the firstborn. This is just before Passover.

Fasting means to abstain, to cleanse the body and the mind. For religions, it is also a way of emphasizing the connection with God. Fasting has been around for a long time. But why is it important for explorers, you may ask?

Travellers that have visited various countries, eaten the different foods and have exposed your body to various healthy or unhealthy substances. Fasting can help to you to reset your digestion and do something good for your body.

Let’s talk about digestion’s health

Do you take care of your skin, your appearance, your face? But how much time do you spend on our inner health?

The surface area of your skin is around 1,5.-1,7 m² and the surface of your bowel is 250 – 500 m². How much time do you spend on a healthy bowel?
That’s how the talk from my sister about intestines health started. My sister is a medically certified fasting instructor. That’s how I got interested in the topic. However, it took me a while to do a 7-day fasting cure, more about that later.

You shouldn’t underestimate the importance of the intestine, as it is the largest organ in your body. And it is not only responsible for digestion. It is home to millions of bacteria. The gut contains about 80% of the defense cells that are in control of the immune system.

The gut is also called the second brain because nerve fibers connect your gut to your brain, and your gut flora affects how you feel. Fiber-rich food makes the gut fit, or fasting cures.

Various options of fasting

Intermittent fasting is currently a very popular fasting method. It is simple, good for beginners and various variants carried out. In Intermittent fasting, you can skip the breakfast or dinner. It is called 16:8 Intervals. That means you can eat 8 hours of day but the other 16 hours you fast. Alternative you can increase the interval and do a 5:2 fast, where you don’t eat for 2 days a week. 

Alkaline fasting is about leaving out unhealthy nutritions. Various options of alkaline fasting, where you can eat less or more amount of food. At this fast, only foods that are alkaline are allowed to be consumed. Foods that contain a high protein of minerals and low protein. 

Modified fasting is a soft fasting cure. For everyone who can not fully go without calories. You take a small amount of protein and vital substances. You don’t take it in with solid food but with water, teas, juices and protein drinks.

Schroth cure is a vegetarian diet with a high proportion of carbohydrates and a low proportion of salt, fat and protein. With this cure, it’s important to eat low-stimulus food.

The Mayr-cure is a bread-and-milk-diet with the goal of cleaning and rehabilitation of the bowel. The Mayr-cure can also be done with teas without the bread and milk diet.

Then there are also fruit fasting, juice fasting, water fasting and various other diet forms that are good for your digestion. 

Therapeutic fasting

The fasting type I want to talk about in specific is the therapeutic fasting after Buchinger. It is not only giving your body the opportunity to clean itself, but it is also a health prevention. Allowed is only liquid foods. Such as herbal teas, vegetable broth (without salt), fresh fruit and vegetable juices and a little bit of honey or lemon.

Additionally, it is important to do a liver wrap and sufficient exercise. Another part of this method is the dry brush and Kneipp treatments.
This therapeutic fasting cure is a holistic health experience. In the foreground stands the cleansing of the body and the stimulation of the body’s own self-healing powers.

This might sound a bit like a magical trick. However, during the fast the body’s digestion process is shut down, the body doesn’t need lots of energy for the digestion process. So the body has much more time and power for its cleanse. 

Choosing the right type of fasting and preparation for fasting

Important if you are the first time fasting is that you are choosing the right fasting type for you. There is no problem with fasting for a week or longer if you fast the first time. You might consult experts before you fast. Essential is also the preparation time for your fast. It’s not very healthy to go from 100 to 0 or vice versa. Therefore, at many fasting cures, you prepare your body a week before with only eating certain kinds of food, and reducing the amount of carbohydrates.

At the therapeutic fasting, it is a week before the fast that you start to consume only foods that are alkaline. Sugar, fast-food and typical grains or not consumed. The same foods are allowed the week after the fast. The preparation time is as important as the fast itself. 

The importance of defecation while longer fast 

At longer fasts, it is crucial to defecate. If you do not do this, it can lead to re-intoxication of the body. 

There are various methods of emptying the bowels. You can either take Glauber’s salt. However, you have to stay at home afterwards because you don’t know exactly when you have to go to the toilet. Or you can do an enema. Here you “flush the bowel more or less”. You let water run into the bowel, which then comes out again within a few minutes.

If you are hungry or your digestion is making strange noises, it can help if you empty your bowels.

If you have a little panic before the enema, no worries, it is a little uncomfortable, preparation is the key. Do some research and you will be fine. After it you feel so clean and fresh.

My experience of a 7 day fast

In November 2023, I did my first time fasting. My first “real” fast. Since I love food and eating, I thought I would be much harder than it was at the end. The actually hard thing was the week before the fast and the week after. Because I could eat but not that much and only certain foods. So for me, it was much easier to not eat anything at all.
That’s how a day during the fast looked like:

Every morning, I used the dry brush on my whole body to activate the lymphatic system. Then, I had a cup of tea or a whole pot. 

After I either did the enema or I went for a walk. At the therapeutic fast you can to enema every 2nd day.
For lunch I made myself a fresh fruit and/or vegetable juice. So delicious.
After lunch, it was time for my liver wrap (I used yarrow tea). I spend at least 40 minutes in bed. Sometimes I even dozed off. I did this wrap every day of the fast and I surely liked this routine, since I rarely rest after lunch (because I work full time and it is not part of the culture). 

Then sometimes I went for a walk. It was hard to get up from the warmth of the bed, out into the cold. 

For dinner I eat an empty soup with fresh percale. I cooked veggies at least for an hour and I didn’t add any salt.
That were my liquid “meals” during my fast.

Strength or stress during fasting

I took the week off from work because it was my first time fasting. I took many walks, read and wrote, or just relaxed at home. What was really interesting was that all my senses were more sensitive. If a smelly car drove past me or I passed someone who was smoking, I could smell it more intensely. Also, I felt much colder, which is normal, I got told. So adapted my clothing.
The only “problem” I had was my strength and breath. While going for a walk in the park next to my apartment, I went down the hill and had trouble breathing. Apparently, this can happen when the body is stressed. Usually a mental thing where my mind thinks “I’m fasting, I should do any exercises. That’s too much, etc”. Of course everyone should listen to her/his body. What is also essential is to take deep breaths, as evening meditation or whenever the body is stressed.