Why Should I Clean Fast? Also, Does Fasting Burn Muscle?
Is the clean fast really that important? Also, the body prefers to burn fat instead of muscle but it needs time to switch gears. Finally, an overview of the vision for this Substack.
Happy Tuesday! Welcome to our many new subscribers. Congrats on taking a very important step to success: committing to ongoing learning. I’m getting this letter out a bit late tonight because we moved this week, and I’m just glad I could find my laptop amidst this chaos. 😆 This is how we all feel after moving:
If you like listening to podcasts, you may enjoy a show that just aired this week where I was a guest on Gin Stephen’s podcast Intermittent Fasting Stories.
Remind Me Why I Have to Clean Fast Again
I love when people ask me this question. In fact, of all the questions I get asked, this one is my favorite.
The reason I love this question is because very few people find success from blindly following rules they don’t understand. In fact, I heard a doctor say on a podcast that every time he’s had a friend ask him for a 3 x 5 card telling him what health changes to make while refusing to listen to any explanation why those changes are important, that person has always failed to keep them.
The principle applies to the clean fast. I don’t want anyone clean fasting because I said so, or because all the fasting gurus said so. I want you fasting clean because you are personally convinced of the benefits.
First, What is a Clean Fast?
The term was popularized by Gin Stephens who wrote Fast.Feast.Repeat (a great book, by the way). It means that when you are fasting you should only have water (unflavored sparkling is fine), black coffee, and black tea. You should avoid things like milk or cream in coffee, all gum, artificial sweeteners, flavored waters such as La Croix, flavored and herbal teas (peach tea, Earl Gray, lemon green tea), flavored coffees such as French Vanilla roast even if it’s black, lemon in your water, breath mints, bone broth, etc.
Why are Black Coffee and Tea okay?
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