‘Clean Fasting’ for Health + My Happy Bubble

I often tell people “I live in a Happy Bubble.” And it’s true. Most of the time for me. I refer to this Happy Bubble when I tell people how I can’t watch any violence on TV or in the movies. I actually have to cover my eyes if it’s on a screen near me. Killing and hurting people is not entertaining to me. Hollywood feels whack with the level of violence they put out these days. I just can’t bring that energy into my Happy Bubble. It impacts me. It hurts my heart. It dulls things and brings my whole vibration down.

Simon & I mainly watch comedy, drama, rockumentary type themes. A lot of HGTV home renovations. Happy endings. Happy people. We have a secret obsession with Gilmore Girls lately. We only recently found it on Hulu, never watched it back in the day. There is something so happy and uplifting about it as we follow the Gilmores through their life adventures.

I remember my good friend Becky making a decision very early in her life. As soon as she went off to college at Michigan Tech, where we met and became fast friends. She was raised in some not-so-great circumstances with a lot of anger and unhappiness around her. I remember seeing her tell people off if they started bringing her down. She would look them right in the eye and tell them loudly and clearly. “I WANT TO BE AROUND HAPPY PEOPLE! If you can’t be happy, don’t be around me.”

Good boundaries, that girl. Instinctively. As a reaction to people and situations that didn’t feel good growing up. She was DONE with that and ready for happy people. As soon as she was out of the house she grew up in, off to college, and able to choose exactly who she did or did not want in her life.

For me, the Happy Bubble sort of built over time, the more I steeped myself in self-help, spirituality, inner work, and sorting my shit out so I could feel happier. I got used to surrounding myself with positive, uplifting people, books, TV, movies, etc. Good food, good people, good times. My version of that. It’s unique to everyone.

I really feel it when I’m pulled out of that Happy Bubble or something bursts it temporarily. As soon as I realize I am not feeling good physically, mentally, emotionally, or spiritually, I realize I need to get back to my Happy Bubble. For me, that means SELF-CARE. Heaps and heaps of self-care. ASAP! Stat. Emergency. I may not be able to stop and care for myself in that exact moment, but I know I need to as soon as my schedule allows.

I get to bed early, track my heart rate and sleep score on my Oura Ring, and clean up what I am eating or drinking (see Clean Fasting tips below). I try to create more space in my schedule for meditating, journaling, and just quiet time alone. These are things I know restore me to living in my Happy Bubble. I hope you have your own similar place of love, joy, peace, and comfort and know how to get yourself back there when you find yourself a bit out of whack.

This Week’s Shot of MINDSET

I have a little journal that a friend gave me which has a quote from the Buddha on each page. This week, these two quotes really stood out to me and helped me with my mindset in all sorts of areas of my life. This first quote helped me see how the mind moves so quickly and grasps on to all sorts of nonsense. Yet, I know I have the power to train my mind to slow down, see clearly, and let go of all sorts of things that actually keep me from happiness.

For me, it just takes realizing when my mind has run off and seized unhelpful thoughts. I take a nice deep breath, smile, and redirect my mind to feeling good and creating love, joy, and peace in my life. Ahhhhh… so much better!

Wonderful it is to train the mind so swiftly moving, seizing whatever it wants. Good is it to have a well-trained mind, for a well-trained mind brings happiness.
-BUDDHA

I had to share this quote as well this week. For me, it is a reminder that I am ultimately my own source of negativity or positivity, feeling bad or feeling good. Nobody is going to or needs to come save me. I can save myself. It is very empowering. It also reminds me about unconditional love for myself, being a safe place of care and comfort for my own self. I will always be there for me, on my own side, no matter what. It really is the ultimate refuge, love, and comfort.

Make an island of yourself, make yourself your refuge; there is no other refuge.
-BUDDHA

I hope you take a few minutes to absorb these quotes. I hope they help you feel inspired and empowered to shift your mind to allow happiness and love, and to care for yourself through everything in your life.

This Week’s Shot of HEALTH

This week I want to share some great ways to get the most out of Intermittent Fasting and why Clean Fasting is so important. When I have overindulged a bit like I did one night this week with a very rich dessert and a few too many dark chocolates after dinner. I was up at night with a stomach ache and had to take a homeopathic remedy, which worked like a charm.

To really start feeling better the next day, I returned to a long Clean Fast to reset my whole system. I just let my body clear everything out and I feel better in no time. “Do Nothing, Gain Everything” as one of my favorite authors on Intermittent Fasting, Gin Stephens, says.

If I really want to get into fat burning mode, weight loss, and a whole host of health benefits, I clean fast as long as I can for as many days as I can. This handy little chart shows you all of the things your body is doing for you when you give your digestion a rest and fast.

Usually the first 12 hours are simple because you finished your dinner and went to bed. So, say from 7pm to 7am, it’s no problem fasting. Then you can just extend it a little more by skipping breakfast. I can easily fast until late lunch time, especially when I’m overfull from dinner and dessert the day before. I usually finish eating by 8pm. If I push off lunch the next day until 2pm… Bam! That is 18 hours of fasting = tons of fat burning, more Human Growth Hormone (HGH) which helps the body repair & restore, and autophagy to remove damaged cells and debris from the body.

So what is this CLEAN FASTING that I keep referring to? It is a term from one of my favorite experts on intermittent fasting, Gin Stephens. It refers to only taking in water, tea, or coffee during your fasting hours to insure no insulin or digestive processes are triggered that knock you out of a fast. This article from Gin explains exactly what Clean Fasting is and all of the benefits of fasting this way for health, fat burning, and weight loss.

Once I started truly Clean Fasting, it all got so much easier! I have more energy fasting this way and no hunger. I am able to go for longer and longer fasting times and reap all of the health benefits.

If you are interested in using the power of the mind to uplevel your life, I share mindset expertise every week, along with fun & insightful stories from my own life path from 80s hair band superfan to chemical engineer to health & mindset coach (what a journey!).

You will also see plenty of health promoting tips and recipes because I am blown away by the power of intermittent fasting + a healthy diet to prevent & reverse just about any health concern Mindset plays a big part in health and healing too, the power of the Mind Body connection is pretty mind blowing.