Ramadhan and fasting

Ramadan and Fasting

Every year in the month of Ramadan, all Muslims fast from first light until sundown, abstaining from food, drink, and sexual relations. Those who are sick, elderly, or on a journey, and women who are pregnant or nursing are permitted to break the fast and make up an equal number of days later in the year. If they are physically unable to do this, they must feed a needy person for every day missed. Children begin to fast (and to observe the prayer) from puberty, although many start earlier. Although the fast is most beneficial to the health, it is regarded principally as a method of self purification. By cutting oneself off from worldly comforts, even for a short time, a fasting person gains true sympathy with those who go hungry as well as growth in one's spiritual life.

Setting the Intention

When Ramadan begins, any person who intends to fast must openly or silently express to Allah the following: "I intend to fast today for the sake of Allah. O Allah, make it easy for me and accept it from me." When it is time to break the fast at sunset, the Muslim should say: "O Allah, For Your Sake I fasted, in You I believe, in You I trust, and with the food You provide I break my fast."

Fasting at a Glance

1.5 billion Muslims of the world celebrate their holiest month of Ramadan every year. Ramadan is the 9th month in the lunar year. During this month, healthy Muslim adults observe Fasting during the daylight hours. Muslim Fasting is a total abstention from eating, drinking, and sexual relations from dawn to dusk for 29 or 30 days of the month of Ramadan. Also, avoiding immoral behavior and anger and showing compassion is part of the requirements of the fasting. The purpose of fasting is manifold. Allah (the God Almighty) mentioned in the Holy Book of the Muslims, Quran, that the fasting is prescribed for the believers as it was prescribed for the people before them, so that they may acquire self control and God-consciousness. Therefore, the purpose of the fasting is to develop God-consciousness, self-control, improvement of health by reducing or eliminating impurities from the body, and to become aware of the plight of the poor, hungry, and the sick. Ramadan is a month of spiritual consciousness and high sense of social responsibility. The fulfillment of one's obligations during the month is rewarded by 70 times. Fasting is one of the 5 pillars of Islam including Announcement of Faith, Salaat (praying 5 times a day), Zakaat (the right of the poor on the wealth of the financially able), Fasting during the month of Ramadan, and Hajj (once a life time pilgrimage to Kaaba). It is an obligation on every adult and healthy Muslim to fast during the month of Ramadan. The month of Ramadan is also the month in which the Holy Quran was sent down from 7th level of heaven to the 1st level, from where it was revealed to Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) in piecemeal basis over a period of 23 years. It is a very joyous occasion for the Muslims of the world. Muslims fast during the day and pray and read Quran during the part of the night. There is a special night called the Night of Power, which is mentioned in the Quran, as a night of mercy and light and worshiping during this night is better than 1,000 months. During this night Quran was sent to the 1st level of heaven. Allah (the God Almighty) send down special angels during this night to pray for the mercy of Allah (the God Almighty) and salvation for the believers. Unlike common calendar, which is Solar based, Islamic calendar is Lunar based. It does not mean that Muslims worship moon. It is simply another way to count days of the month and the year. Like all Islamic months, Ramadan, the 9th lunar month, begins after sighting Crescent, and not the birth of the new moon. All healthy Muslim adult including homemakers, school-going kids around the age of 13, factory workers, businessmen and others among them will be fasting. Muslim get up very early to take their sahoor, a pre-dawn meal before starting their fast. At the completion of month of Fasting, Muslims all over the world celebrate their holiday of Eidul-Fitr. It is a true thanksgiving for a Muslim believer for having the opportunity to obey Allah (the God Almighty) by observing Fasting. It is celebrated on the 1st day of 10th lunar month, Shawwaal. The holiday begins with Muslims putting on their best preferably new clothes and going to the Eid congregation. Eid congregations are very large gathering of Muslim men, women and children across the world. Afterwards, people greet each other with hugs and handshakes. The children receive gifts. After the congregation, Muslims visit each other at their homes and hold lunches or dinners for family and friends.

Juice Fasting For Weight Loss and Juice Fasting For Stubborn Fat!

How much weight will I lose on a juice fast? ??????

The main benefit offered by a juice fast, to those who wish to lose weight, is the speed of the weight loss. Initially, weight loss can be as high as three-to-four pounds per day, but as the fast continues, the average loss will be one pound-per-day.

To see a person drop 30-to-40 pounds in a 30-day juice fast is to see a person totally transform his life. Self-esteem is given a boost and for the first time in their life, discipline becomes a lifestyle. The fast becomes a catalyst for a total life overhaul. People start dressing better, showing more confidence, becoming more organized, more dedicated in relationships and more at peace.

Juice fasting for weight loss and stubborn fat!!!!!!

Trying to stay on a diet can turn a simple journey to the supermarket into an epic challenge of self-discipline. How can you ignore all the florescent-lit aisles of junk food offering every temptation known to the tongue when you are hungry depressed and feeling deprived? It becomes a war of desires where your willingness to surrender is quickly rewarded.

In a culture that esteems fashion-model thinness as perfect beauty, fat is the ugly disease that must be cured. This creates an obsession with weight-loss that increases the difficulty in losing weight. It is like trying not to think of a white horse. The more you try not to think of it the more it comes back into your thoughts.

Obsession, slow metabolism and high-calorie food are a deadly combination for weight gain. The worst offenders of weight gain are starches, fats, and refined sugars. Since the biggest part of our diet is starch in the form of breakfast cereal, cookies, cakes, pies, chips and bread, it has the greatest impact on weight gain. Starches are worse than sugar. For a short amount of time, the blood sugar will peak allowing the body to store the excess sugar as body fat. Starch is different in that it is a slow release of sugar, which is perfect for long-distance runners, however, if you are inactive, the slow-releasing sugars will be turned into body fat. Excess calories equate to excess fat.

For many, juice fasting is a last ditch effort to lose stubborn fat that has resisted every attempt at weight reduction. Diets may have given you a short-lived victory, only to suffer defeat by one indulgence that escalates into a feeding frenzy resulting in being heavier than before the diet.

How juice fasting affects addiction to food!!!!!!!

My war with food addiction lasted 10 long years. I had been healed from years of drug abuse, but my battle with addictive behavior was not over. I desperately wanted control over what I ate, not for weight loss, as I was thin, due to a very fast metabolism; but binge eating made me feel like garbage.

Cookies, cakes, ice cream and chocolate were the enemies I loved. At the saturation point, where I could not stand myself anymore, I would fast and my body would recover from the damage of the abuse, but it only deepened the power of my addiction.

After 20 days of juice fasting, I would go on a feeding frenzy destroying all the benefits of the fast. My resting stomach was stuffed with the most volatile mixtures of food. Sometimes it took weeks to recover. After years of blowing fasts, the realization came that fasting was increasing my compulsiveness.

Fasting had become a drug. I longed for the freedom of the fast, that amazing feeling of being in total control. Victory tasted sweet but it never lasted. Over and over I plunged into the pit of hell, blowing the fast and enduring painful feelings of being a failure, guilt and feeling out of control.

GaLiH wrote a tips on how to overcome overeating

My book, Eating in Freedom, was written after years of my continual battles with compulsive eating in a desperate attempt to get free. I discovered principles for keeping my thought life pure and reassuring. With each chapter, I learned, and by the end of the book, for the first time in my life, I was free from food addiction.

Not only did it work for me but thousands of others. No fancy secret knowledge, just methods to change how you think, for when you change how you think, you change how you eat. Once you get your diet and thinking to this point, it becomes a lifestyle; then you will naturally want the foods that are good for you.

How the juice fasting diet affects metabolism

The fear is that while juice fasting, the metabolism will slow down and afterward there will be more weight gained than before the fast. Initially, any calorie reduction will cause a lowering in the BMR or base metabolic rate. Cleansing will bring health that will increase metabolic performance and energy output. In other words, you will eat less and feel more energetic.

The greatest impact you can have on increasing your resting metabolism is exercise. After a workout, you can be sitting on the couch reading while burning calories, as the muscles are grabbing glucose from the blood to replace glycogen supplies. The key to weight loss is fewer calories and more exercise. A diet high in raw food provides fewer, low-density calories, and higher-fiber, more-filling foods.

How the juice fasting diet affects digestion !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

After a juice fast, the body is more efficient. Digestion is better due to a cleaner colon. The colon walls have been cleansed of impacted feces, allowing improved absorption of nutrients. The good news is that greater efficiency equals enhanced energy. Healthy people burn more calories. They also eat less because they are more active and feel better about themselves. They don't need food as a security blanket.

tHaNk fOr uR aTteNtIoN.....