Thanksgiving Day is tomorrow. Traditionally, Thanksgiving is a real challenge for people trying to eat healthy. This year I"m being preemptive by choosing to do a 24-hour fast today as a counter-balance to any excess calories I consume tomorrow.
When I did my last "Six Months to Ryan Reynolds Challenge," I used intermittent fasting often to help me keep my diet in check. It is also great for hydrating your muscles because you should be drinking a lot of water and herbal or detox teas on fast days. Hydrating the muscles is important for muscle growth. As you increase the water stored within muscle fibers, your muscles function more efficiently at a cellular level and you flush the toxins produced by the repair process that happens when you create micro tears in the muscle fiber through resistance training.
Another great result of fasting is that, even though you are drinking lots of water, your body naturally expels some of the water held between your muscle tissue and your skin (subcutaneous fluid). Reducing this type of water retention can do amazing things for how lean you look. Suddenly, you can see veins you didn't know you had and small muscle definitions that weren't visible before. Some folks have designed elaborate systems of reducing water retention to look their best at bodybuilding contests or on beach vacations. A 24-hour fast gives you a similar effect -- though not as dramatic, maybe -- without the risk of dehydration.
If you would like to read more about my experience with fasting, please read this.
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