The Herbivore Family
The Unexpected Power of Fasting Intermittent fasting is such a powerful practice. It’s even more powerful than I could ever have expected. I feel more energized. I feel more in love with myself. I feel more confident about my body, about my strength. I’ve gained a lot of mental clarity. And it is so important that you guys give it a go.
Welcome to The Raw Food Glow Welcome guys. Welcome to my channel. My name is Akoj and this is the raw food glow. Here I talk about raw veganism, the lifestyle and giving you tips and guidance to help you thrive as a raw vegan and get your glow. Last week I released my first ebook, the raw vegan glow. How to thrive on the raw vegan lifestyle. And in it, I talk about my fitness journey, losing the weight, finding myself and finding a body that I love, developing my spiritual practice as well as my spirituality, getting out in nature, and all the benefits that come with the raw vegan lifestyle. So, wherever you are in your journey as a raw vegan, whether you’ve just started, you want to transition, or you’ve been doing it for a long time, there is something very powerful in there for you. So, if you want to grab your copy, check the first link in the description box.
My Specific Eating Window So, you stop eating at a certain time and you have a shorter eating window throughout the day. And my eating window starts from 12:00 and I finish by 6:00 p.m. In the last 10 days, I’ve eaten just after 12:00, maybe 12:30, sometimes 1:00, sometimes even 2:00. And so, by the evening, my last meal will be around 5:30, maybe around 5:15, 5:30. So, I want to give myself a proper half an hour to eat my food and then I’m done by 6:00 p.m.
Optimizing Digestion and Sleep And I typically go to bed around maybe 11, sometimes midnight, and I wake up maybe between 6 and uh 8:00 p.m. depending on what I’m doing the next day. I have about, let’s say, at least 5 hours before I go to bed to begin the digesting process. And then in the morning, I have between four and six hours of continual digesting. And so I find that when I wake up in the morning, my stomach is a bit flatter than it would be otherwise. As you guys know, I do exercise most days twice a day. Since the beginning of 2024, I’ve been trying to do one indoor workout and one outdoor workout every single day just to keep my body moving because, you know, these days a lot of us have a sedentary lifestyle and that’s not what I want for myself. No, no, no, no, no. And that’s in line with the 75 hard challenge which I’ve developed into a lifestyle because I really love those principles of the 75 hard challenge. But again, I talk about this in my book. So if you want to learn more, do check the link in the description box.
Mental Clarity and High Vibrations So what I didn’t expect from intermittent fasting is the mental clarity. Wow. I’ve seen one picture long ago of different ways of fasting and the spiritual connection that you that that you get from these different ways of fasting and dry fasting is like the most energetic and and a high vibe and I can truly attest to that. I have more energy than I did on my fruit fast and I was feeling fantastical on my fruit fast. So, I’m like, “Wow, there’s there there’s something in here.”
Exploring Deeper Levels of Fasting And a lot of you guys, a couple of you guys have spoken or suggested that I do a dry uh or a water fast. And at the time, it was only like two weeks ago, 3 weeks ago that some of you have suggested that. But at the time, I didn’t think I could do it because, you know, I love to eat. Um I usually think of food the first thing in the morning and last thing at night. I’m thinking about what I’m going to eat or what I ate or what I could eat or the meals that I could make. You know, food is often uh on my mind and so I never thought I would be capable of doing a 48 hour fast. But now I’m now that I’m doing about 18 hours, sometimes 20 hours if I break my fast uh later in the afternoon. What’s I mean 20 48 not too far. So hold tight. I think maybe this summer I might be able to do a weekend fast from Friday evening until Monday morning or Monday afternoon. Wow, imagine. So hold tight for that.
Unleashing Creative Flow So because of this fast, I didn’t expect to be more creative. I released my ebook last week and the final preparation, making my website, all the finishing touches of that was a very very creative but abundant process because I chose to be enthusiastic. I chose to be optimistic. And so I get to create from a really great place.
The Ripple Effect of Discipline And then there’s a certain power that comes with with having the discipline of going 18 hours without food. And you know, I’ve mentioned this before. I love my dates, but I don’t love dates anymore. I like dates, but I’m no longer addicted to dates. I like dried fruit, but I know I’m no longer addicted to them. And so I’ve really just seen so much discipline come into my life in the morning when it’s usually hardest for me to not eat. I can not eat. It’s easy for me to wait until midday or 1 p.m. to before I break my fast. And so that discipline pours over into other areas of my life. You know, I learn multiple languages and it’s easy for me to learn multiple languages at the same time. Why? Because the discipline is very very high. It’s very easy for me to push myself in the gym or push myself in dance classes now because the discipline is very high. And I know that with discipline, high discipline is high reward. So I know that the universe is watching. The universe is always watching and trying to supply, trying to provide. And so when I put in effort, the universe is going to give me that back tenfold.
A Cleansing Morning Ritual And I should say that in the morning, I should mention that in the morning I start my day, maybe within 90 minutes of waking up, I start my day with lime juice. hot well, not lime juice, but hot water with a squeezed lime in it. And the drinking the lime water, the hot lime water, allows my body to detox, to cleanse itself, and to give me a little bit of energy in the morning. And it’s so refreshing.
Spiritual Downloads and Empowerment I really love raw veganism because I’ve never been so full of downloads. like the universe is communicating with me all the time and I’m seeing and if I don’t see immediately, I’m led down a path that allows me to see that allows me to to clean out the junk that’s in my eyes or or get rid of. And I think a lot of you will agree that it’s it’s such an empowering lifestyle where you feel like you are the creator and that you are in control of your life and that you have meaning.
Digitalizing Life for Presence And so in the last in the last chapter of my life or in this current chapter, I’m looking at digitalizing my life. And that means not using social media as much or not using my phone as much, not using my computer as much so that I have the space to create so that I have the space to be in nature so I have this stillness so that I can worship and and bow down to the universe in the present moment. So a lot of these ideas came from the books that I read by Thich Nhat Hanh. He’s a spiritual leader that uh passed a couple of years ago. But he talks he talks a lot about the present moment and the power of prayer. And so it’s a constant reminder for me as I digitalize my life to come back to the present moment. And that is really it’s it’s it’s easier to do when I fast because there’s no distraction in the morning. I’m not thinking about food. I’m not digesting. And so there’s more energy in my body to focus on creation or other things um that are going on in my life as opposed to digesting. You know, I have a lot more reserve in myself to do other things.
Grounding and Deep Nature Connection And so in line with the digitalization of my life, when I go out because I live in a city, but when I do go out, you’ll find me. I’m the crazy lady that’s walking by touching all the trees and the grass. You see me take my shoes off. You see me lie down. You see me nap. You see me just enjoy. You don’t see me with my phone. You don’t see me with my headphones. There’s nothing that I need from the digital world to fill that moment when I’m with nature.
Liberating Myself from Technology And also what I’m going to be implementing is a no phone Sunday, no computer Sunday. When I last went to the gym on a Sunday, which was yesterday, I went without a phone. And I don’t usually use a phone when I’m in the gym. I remember my weights and I I know what I’ve doing what I generally know what I’m doing because I’ve been doing weightlifting for a couple years now. But that liberation of leaving the house without anything without being tied to the digital world is really really liberating liberating and I do recommend it for you guys if you haven’t tried.
Confronting the Self in Stillness um in the place of in the place of the phone or the digital world, we get to look at some of the issues that maybe have been hidden by the digital uh realm such as anxiety, such as a low self-confidence, such as a difficulty to spend time alone in stillness. And so these are problems that we get to face in order to access a higher level of existence, a higher consciousness and more enjoyment in our life. Why not be satisfied with yourself? Why not love yourself? Why not be okay with having actually nothing around you? No distractions, just you, the universe, and the present moment.
Preparing for Love and Connection Download central. Download central. So, I’ve had some downloads about working on my love life in preparation for, let’s say, my soulmate who is somewhere somewhere. I can feel him. Woo! So, he’s somewhere. And then there’s certain there’s a certain amount of preparation that requires that just opening my heart up to more love and to more self-care and to be able to surrender and be in receiving mode. Uh, I won’t be able to do that with my soulmate if I’m not able to do that with myself and with my relationship with the universe. More conversations with nature, talking to the grass. Yes, I’m that crazy lady. I’m talking to the grass. When you see me in the park lying down like this in fetal position, best believe I’m whispering sweet nothings to the ground. We’re having a deep conversation. And this is a kind of meditation for me. This is also a form of therapy. sharing my thoughts, releasing my thoughts, and releasing energy that no longer serves me, that may have been trapped inside my body.
Building Unshakeable Confidence And another download that has come to me, it came to me, I think, the day after I released my ebook, is that I get to create a confidence course. How I found so much confidence and self-love in myself and happiness as well. How I found all of these things as a raw vegan. I was pretty confident most of my life because I had acting and I was always working towards my acting goals. But when lockdown came, when things slowed down, all the things that I was hiding behind my acting career came bubbling up to the surface. And so I had to deal with them. And eventually one of the things that allowed me to deal with them was the raw food lifestyle. That’s why I’m really passionate about this confidence course that I’m going to make. I’ve started making it. started writing it up and it’s just going to be so so wonderful. So, I’m I’m really blessed to be able to share that energy that I have in helping you guys shine, glow, love yourselves, and step into a new version of yourselves as well.
Channeling Energy into Movement Talking about the energy, I have a lot of energy, more energy than I expected, as I mentioned before. And so, today, the reason why I’m in my uh gym gear is because I’m going to go for a run. I’ve been seeing people run here and there because it’s summer and I’m like, “Yeah, I want to try it. Why not?” So, I do want to pace myself. I do want to start slow. I can run for 45 minutes, but that’ll be more of a workout. And this is going to be just a general jog. And then I’ll see how I feel. See if I can build it over the month. So, I’ll run for about maybe 25 minutes, half an hour, and then build it up if I want to over the coming weeks.
Fasting for Weight Management Well, if you’re struggling with weight and if you’re struggling maintaining your weight, having longer having a longer period of time to digest your food allows you to burn more calories as well. And you get more disciplined with your food. Because if you have, let’s say, 6 hours like me to eat food or maybe 8 hours to eat food, you have to be very conscious of the foods you’re eating that are going to serve you the most, that going to give you the most energy. Because there’s no point having a massive pizza when you break your fast knowing that it’s going to fatigue you for the rest of the day. You actually desire to serve your body with the foods in the in that best way because you’re limited in that period of time. It’s easy to choose foods that you know will replenish you and serve you and lift your vibration. So I think both the discipline of the limited eating window and the longer fasting window will help you manage your weight.
Reclaiming Intuitive Eating The second benefit for you is that intermittent fasting will allow you to develop your intuition when it comes to eating food. Ultimately, your body knows what fuel it needs and that’s an innate ability that we’ve had since the beginning of time. However, with marketing, with the amount of processed food that’s out there, with with lies um in the media, it’s easy to get confused about what your body really needs. The silence and the stillness of that 18 hour fasting window allows you to reflect and really learn what is it that works for your body. What is it that fuels your body? What is it that makes you feel good about your body and what is it that doesn’t make you feel good? And of course, if you go wrong, if you perhaps overeat in that six hour window, you still have a long period of time to actually burn those those calories off and to detoxify your body. So, it means that the next day you can wake up with more energy to course correct.
Community and Conclusion I know that there are tons of benefits to intermittent fasting and some of which I missed out. So, if that’s the case, if you got any more benefits, do share them in the comment section below. I love to hear how intermittent fasting has been beneficial for you and how long you’ve been doing it. I’ve been intermittent fasting for 12 days now and I’m going to make sure it’s my lifestyle because the benefits are just Don’t forget that you can buy my ebook, the raw food glow, how to thrive on the raw vegan lifestyle from my store on my website and you can click the first link in the description box to grab your copy today. and let me know what else you want to hear from me. If you have any specific questions or concerns about the raw vegan lifestyle, I am here for you. But thank you guys always for watching. Thank you for your comments. Thank you for your love. And let’s keep growing. Let’s keep shining. Let’s keep keep asking for more and receiving more. And let’s keep doing our best because we have one life. So why not live it to the fullest, eh? So I shall see you guys in the next article. And until the next one, stay fine, stay raw, and stay fruitful. Ciao.
