I’ve found that the hardest part of fasting is breaking the fast.
If you’re not prepared, coming down from your cleanse can be very rough. Nothing can split you in half quite like an unwise meal as your reentry into eating after cleansing.
The first time I did the lemon detox diet, I was fighting off powerful cravings every step of the way. I was craving foods I didn’t even know I liked. Foods I wouldn’t normally eat. The cravings were coming out of the woodwork.
I persevered, but when the time came for breaking the fast, all those pent up cravings conspired to have me return to eating yummy delicious tempting food immediately. I literally broke my fast with a big pasta dinner with steamed broccoli rabe, pecorino romano cheese and linguini tossed in olive oil and garlic.
While the meal itself was delicious, my feelings afterward were anything but. I definitely would not recommend this experience to anyone out there!
Here, then, are some basic guidelines for the best way to break a fast.
Commit to a Smooth Transition Beforehand
If you cleanse for 10 days but didn’t realize that you’ll really need to tack on two extra days of transition at the end of that cleanse, those last two not-cleansig but not-eating-solid-food days can really come as a shock. You might not have the willpower to make it through a proper fasting comedown if you aren’t mentally prepared.
So, prepare yourself beforehand. Know that you’ll need to give yourself a couple extra days after your cleanse to come off of it and back into eating normal foods. THat way, you won’t be as vulnerable to the temptation to eat solid foods too quickly after your fast.
Start With Juice
As badly as you want to return to the world of eating solid food after fasting for a spell, hold off a day or two and drink thicker juices instead.
Pulpy orange juice is a great option for the first thing to have as you come off your lemonade fast, and after a few hours you can move on to the next juice. Fresh juices will taste amazing to you after days with just the lemonade.
Move on to Soups
After you’ve had your juices, the next step is to eat some thin soup. Nothing too intense–no floating chunks of chicken or chunky vegetables.
Miso soup is my personal favorite soup to consume as I come down off of a fast. Any soup that is thin, doesn’t have any chunky ingredients and is spiced relatively lightly is a good choice.
Eat Salad for Your First Solid Food
The first solid meal you consume after a fast is a hugely important aspect of how much detoxing you’re able to do.
If you eat a salad, all that roughage will scour your digestive tract and push out the lingering toxins and residues that your flushes weren’t able to push out of you.
Keep your salad small and simple–no heavy dressings and no crazy ingredients. Have a good helping of greens and then wait and allow that salad to move through you.
When the salad hits your stomach, your digestive tract will have to fire back up to return to its normal digestive functioning. The lighter and simpler the first food you eat after a fast is, the easier of a time your digestive tract will have.
You’re Home Free!
After you’ve eaten a salad and given it some time to digest, you can start slowly adding in heavier foods.
Don’t let all those cravings you might be feeling get the best of you, though! So much of the benefit of cleansing comes in letting us change our dietary habits so we choose foods that are healthier for us. Try not to revert to old bad food habits and instead commit to a new way of healthy eating.
If you follow a fast with lots of healthy meals–whole foods, fruits and vegetables, nothing processed or full of chemicals–you’ll be well on your way to losing weight and feeling great.
If you don’t know how to break a fast, coming down after a cleanse can be an extremely rough experience. But if you follow these pointers, you’ll enjoy the incredible feelings of well-being that emerge after a good cleanse and a safe and healthy return to normal eating.