John Myers
Start fasting on the weekend
SHAPE ONLINE: Lent traditionally begins on Ash Wednesday. When is a good time to start a fasting week?
dr Eduard Pesina: The relief day, i.e. the day on which one reduces the food and prepares oneself for the fasting week, is favorable on a Friday. This is followed by the actual start of fasting with the defecation on a weekend, and there is more time and peace possible.
SHAPE: Fasting for working people – is that possible or do you recommend taking vacations in any case?
dr Pesina: You should definitely take the time to deal with your body and soul, to feel your inner impulses, and to be able to give in to them.
SHAPE: What happens to the body during fasting?
dr Pesina: There is a switchover from the energy supply from the outside to the supply from the storage facilities inside. As a result, the production of digestive juices is stopped, which results in a 30 percent energy saving and means that the feeling of hunger does not occur.
Fasting helps against cellulite
SHAPE: Fasting makes you more beautiful – what is the beauty secret?
dr Pesina: You give the body the opportunity to “clean up”. Deposits of all kinds are removed via the excretory organs. This includes the skin. You will get clean down to the pores, so to speak. And that is to be seen as “beauty from within”. In the same way, cellulite can be reduced with repeated fasting. After all, it is about the storage of deposits.
SHAPE: When fasting, you only eat liquid food. In the end, you often weigh a few pounds less than before. Is fasting a good diet program?
dr Pesina: No! Weight loss is one of the pleasant consequences of a week of fasting. But fasting just because of a possible weight reduction misses the idea of therapeutic fasting.
More well-being through fasting
SHAPE: What positive influences does fasting have on the mind and well-being?
dr Pesina: It represents a turning point in the entire course of life. Take yourself back for a while, listen to your inner self, get by with less, do without stimulants, work, and other distractions, and make room to feel yourself again! This continues to work for a while after the fast.
SHAPE: Women or men – who fast more often?
dr Pesina: I think women do that more often.
SHAPE: Who should definitely give up fast?
dr Pesina: People who need to take certain medications regularly should consult a doctor beforehand. You have to differentiate between “fasting for healthy people” and “therapeutic fasting”. This is for people suffering from an illness that fasting may change. You should only fast under medical supervision.
