My New Years fast and the Master Cleanse~
Happy healthy New Year!! I am so excited to kick off the new year with a time of spiritual fasting, physical detox and cleansing to help begin this year feeling great. I have done this a few years now and each year I learn something new about my relationship with God, myself and my body!
Pastor Jentzen Franklin of Gainesville, GA leads his church each year with a corporate fast and so I have learned a great deal from him on this subject. Please follow me on Instagram and Facebook for encouraging posts about my fast and also check out his page. Pastor Jentzen says “if you seek a closer walk with God, consider fasting. If you are in desperate need of a breakthrough, fast. If you desire an access and intimacy with God like you have never known, fast.” Matthew 6:33 commands us to “Seek first His Kingdom and His righteousness and everything else will be given to you” so fasting for me is an act of obedience and a surrender of my flesh to my spirit-which really should be in control of our lives. Fasting in the Bible is abstaining from food for spiritual purposes.
We are all 3 parts-spirit, soul and body. We are spiritual beings with a soul-heart, mind, will and emotions- living in a body. And we are made in the image of God. (Genesis 1:27-27). God is spirit (John 4:24) so we really should be more focused on feeding and strengthening our spiritual part or our spirit. Yet our culture has trained us to feed our flesh, focus on quickly getting whatever will satisfy our flesh, such as food, alcohol, shopping-all of my previous crazy addictions! Fasting is a great way to re-set this unhealthy, destructive and expensive mentality by placing our spirit back in control over our flesh and gain more understanding and insight of God’s will for our lives. Feeding and strengthening our spirit will renew our mind and heal and transform our mind and our body!
While fasting, it is important to substitute our eating time with spiritual exercises such as praying, talking to God, fellowshipping with other believers at church or weekly Bible studies, praising God and reading and meditating on the Bible and what God says in His Word about certain topics where we specifically need help. Use my Fit Guide as a tool during your fast for helpful tips and healthy scriptures to offer ideas and provide you with a healthy read. Also be sure to read or listen to the One Year Bible online readings here.
You will begin to crave God’s instruction book, His Word for your life and claim all of the promises found there for yourself! I have this link bookmarked on my phone and read the daily reading in the morning or listen while exercising or listen before I go to bed.
Fasting is also a great time to organize, declutter, clean out closets and finish undone projects:)
My fast is for 3 weeks doing the Master Cleanse. However, there are different fasts-a popular one is the Daniel fast eating only vegetables and fruits and things that God made. You can also fast with chicken broth or fast from sugar and meat. So consider what kind of fast is best for you and your body.
I begin by eating only vegetable soup or vegetables and drinking juiced vegetables or smoothies during the first 3 days to ease my body into the fast.
The Master Cleanse is a detox mixture of
-1 glass of filtered or spring water
- few tablespoons of fresh squeezed lemon juice
- a tablespoon of Dark Maple syrup, formerly called Grade B maple syrup
- 1 or 2 dashes of cayenne pepper
The lemon and cayenne pull toxins from our body and the dark maple syrup provides important B vitamins so we’re not totally depriving our bodies of nutrients during the fast. Drink 5 or more glasses of the Master Cleanse and water throughout the day. You can drink a cup of regular peppermint tea also. And since we are not eating solid foods and no fiber is being consumed to push out our waste and toxins, it is important to end each night with a laxative peppermint tea and begin each morning of the cleanse with a salt water flush to eliminate waste.
Salt water flush is 2 teaspoons of non-iodized sea salt mixed with a full quart of lukewarm water. Drink the entire quart of salt and water first thing in the morning on an empty stomach to eliminate waste from the body. Otherwise you could get headaches from toxins remaining in your body.
When coming off the master cleanse, ease back into eating just as you eased into the fast. The first day when you decide your fast is over, start with a day of drinking several glasses of orange juice and water which prepares our digestive system to properly digest and assimilate solid food. The next few days you can drink juiced veggies or smoothies and then eat vegetable soup to gradually begin to digest. I continue to do the detox laxative peppermint tea and salt flush until I begin eating solid food.
After the fast you will feel great and you become more mindful of eating better to honor and care for your spirit, mind and body! Fasting allows your body to eat away the toxins, cancers and unhealthy cells since no food is being digested. Disease actually begins to eat itself! God certainly has designed our awesome bodies to be self healing! Last year after my fast I realized I didn't need to eat so much-our stomach is the size of our fist😊 God made so many different kinds of fruits, veggies, beans, legumes, grains like quinoa and nuts and seeds to eat naturally and feel great each day- we don’t have to be sick! By eliminating processed foods, sugar, caffeine, white starches and too many animal products our bodies can begin to function properly.
Keep in touch on social media so I can see how your fast is coming along too. So eat less, pray more and walk with God this new year. Live supernaturally by focusing on feeding and strengthening your spirit more than you feed your flesh, allow the Word of God to renew your mind and enjoy fitness in every area of your life this new year!
