 So what you'll find is your immune system will be much more robust, you're much less likely to get crook, you'll recover better between training because at a cellular level you're functioning better, mentally you'll be sharper, definitely that case, sleep cycles are always better when your system is clean, so you're basically cleaning your body out. It's said that we take about 30% of our daily energy spent on digestion and so when you have a rest from that for a while, it's like your body, it's like a service in tune of your car, you know. All right, so I've just had some serious trying to find a park rage and I'm here in South Melbourne, just parked the car, I'm late for an appointment and really essentially what I want to do is bring you along on a little visit, I've decided to do a five-day fast. Now, initially I was planning on doing a water fast but I've spoken with an expert, his name's Tim, I'm about to introduce you to him and he's suggesting you get the same benefits out of doing a juice fast. So it looks like that's what I'm going to do, we're going to have a chat with him now about it. The reason why I'm going to do it is one, a five-day fast apparently is very good for cleansing your whole body, your mind, get yourself laser sharp focus, a lot of my subscribers will know that I'm planning on a big block of training to win an A-grade criteria, but in addition it's very, very good for strengthening your immune system. Now, in the past when I've done these big blocks of training, got kids, got a busy lifestyle, got a job, when you start training really hard, your immune system really starts to lower and you're susceptible to catching something. Now if I catch something and I'm out of action for a week or two or three whilst training to try and achieve this goal, that could be a major hindrance. So going through this process of getting clarity in my body, strengthening my immune system could be instrumental to helping me achieve this goal. So I'm going to have a chat with Tim now and he's going to walk me through the process of what this five-day juice fast looks like. So Tim, can you just tell us a little bit about who you are and how you got into fasting? Yeah, well I was, I got into it many, many years ago, back in the mid-90s. I was a, like yourself, I was, I don't know if you call it the word, a forward and athlete, I was a paddler. So I paddled, I grew up in life-saving and then paddled kayaks. And I was training in the late 80s, early 90s, I was training full-time with the IIT national team selection and Olympic selection and what have you. And I started, I got crook. And first it was around 88, the winter of 88, and then it started to get sort of, but went away and then it started to get progressively worse over a period of time. And I got, what I understand now, what I dealt with was what we would call chronic fatigue syndrome now, but in those days, they really didn't know much about it. And I'd been sent to umpteen doctors, you know, because I was in VIS and AIS and stuff like that, I'd been sent to all sorts of doctors and they'd all say, well, there's nothing wrong because nothing was coming up. And then got that bad in the end, I went up north thinking that would make a difference. And it got that bad in the end that I kept trying to train through it and that just kept pushing there, sort of pushing it and it was not working very well. And so I surrendered and stopped training and came back to Melbourne. And so I went up north thinking the warm weather might make it better, but it didn't. And came back to Melbourne and didn't or couldn't exercise. So I got to the point in the end where I was working because I had a mortgage. And I just, I'd get dizzy. I'd walk up the street and I get dizzy and I was always tired and I was always crook. So I understand now I had chronic fatigue syndrome. The doctors couldn't help, I was lucky to get a doctor who in the end said, I know what you're dealing with and I can't help you, you just have to rest. And hopefully it'll get better and it didn't. And then I was lucky to stumble into a Russian courtesy of an old coach, a Russian doctor who was brought out to Australia on a scientific exchange via the CSIRO. He's a research biochemist and a doctor of medicine in Russia. And he'd researched all sorts of natural medicine techniques and medicine techniques and Russia. And then he was practicing as a practitioner of medicine in Russia. And he made a decision at one stage to walk away from using any pharmaceuticals in his treatments and only use natural medicines and natural medicine techniques. And he then came to Australia and this is scientific exchange and stayed here and he practices now as a, I guess, a natural medicine practitioner. And he's very well known for chronic illness and his name's Dr. Soltanov. He works downstairs here. So he works a lot with chronic illnesses. And with me he, I went and saw him and fasting was part of the treatment. Not initially, he built me up into it, but it was the last part of that treatment. And the treatment involved a lot of other things like herbs that I prepared each day. And what I understand is blood cleansing right out of a bath and I have to increase the temperature of the bath while I was in it and then get out and wrap myself up in a heated room and sweat, basically, 45 minutes. Kind of like sauna therapy. And then I did a fast for two weeks or 16 days. So that was a water, as much water as I wanted and a couple of small juices a day. And pretty much that was it, yeah. And what do you mean, how did you feel after that? Well, the first five days were tough because, well, I'd never seen or I'd never, I've not heard of it, I guess, but I'd never really, it was really not, was not very, certainly not accepted in the Western world now, like it started to become a lot more popular in those days of people. When I told people this is what I was, had been told to do though, like that's ridiculous, it's dangerous. And I, the first five days were tough partly because part of it was fear. And I got to about day 10 and I started to feel better than I ever felt in my life. And after I, and I actually said I want to keep going and he said, no, no, no. We're shutting you down in a few weeks. And so I'm then the reintroduction of a food program was probably about four weeks. And so he's very, very thorough on how you reintroduce food. So the program is, it was amazingly thorough. And I look at now the Western fast that I've seen and his programs are more thorough. They also involved enemas, basically the idea there was to clean the other end as well as if you stop supply at this end, you've got to clean the other end. Otherwise, if you're going to be thorough about it, a lot of people are spooked by that initially. But once you do it, it's actually, it's not fast, it's nothing, you're self-administered, it's nothing. So I did all of that and I felt better than I'd ever felt in my life. Not only was I, did I feel better, but I felt better clarity, better, my mental focus was amazing, my mind was like a laser, it was amazing. How long have you been now coaching people through fasting? 18 years, maybe 20 years. Wow, okay. And for somebody like me, I obviously don't have chronic fatigue, it's a different situation. I'm looking to set a foundation in order to take my training to the next level through fasting, what are some of the things I can expect to achieve? Well, you know, the same principles apply when treating chronic illness. You're trying to take them out of that, but the same principles apply when you're getting a person who's apparently normal health, which I wouldn't, most, what we accept as normal health, I wouldn't call ideal. But what we're looking to do, it's the same process, but we're taking you, exploring optimal, and most people don't touch on that very much. What you'll expect in terms of results from experience will be, once again, better energy levels, given the training program you're going to go through, you're going to push your body pretty hard, particularly when you're combining work, family life, and training solidly. You live on the edge immune system-wise, and anyone who trains pretty solidly knows that. You've got to be, you know, you've got to look after yourself because you can get crook. So what you'll find is your immune system will be much more robust, you're much less likely to get crook. You'll recover better between training because at a cellular level, you're functioning better. Mentally, you'll be sharper, definitely that case. Work cycles are always better when your system's clean. So you're basically cleaning your body out. It's said that we take about 30% of our daily energy spent on digestion. So when you have a rest from that for a while, it's like a service in tune of your car. The car functions better, and that's what we're doing. We just don't do that to our bodies as much. So when I first contacted you, I was talking about a water fast, but you said, actually, we would recommend that and you get the same physiological benefits out of a juice fast. So can you just briefly explain that? Oh, it depends on the situation. It depends. For where you're at, there's no, there's not necessarily added benefit for you. If you're a person coming to me with really chronic illness, then we might go, okay, we need a deeper level of cleanse. But that's, you know, what you do within the scope of that fast is also a lot more restricted. So a water fast, yeah, you know, it's a lot harder to, like every time I've done a fast, a two week fast. And the first fast I did was a fast with a couple of juices a day, like what you're going to do. I was able to, what I was doing for work then was I was able to work through it. You know, it wasn't physical work. So I was able to continue working and I've done five or six extended fast sins. And I've been able to work right through. I've been able to do mild exercise right through, no going for run, no doing weights, no high intensity stuff, but a good walk each day. We just did some tests. Yeah. So do you want to just walk us through why we did those tests and then the process that I'm going to go through, high level, I'm conscious that you're going to write a proper detailed program for me, but just high level, what I'm going to be doing over the next five days. And then that sort of reintroduction process. Yep. So to lead up, we do, I monitor with bioimpedance testing, which is technology that comes from hospitals. It's used in hospitals with pediatrics and with people patient to a bed with long term and measures changes in their body composition, but we can also get measurements for cellular health level of toxicity or inflammation in your system, efficiency that sells produce energy. And there's a theoretical measure for biological age, which is always an interesting one. So I use this testing a lot for weight loss, but we also use it in detox programs and cleanse programs like fasting. If it was a person, because I know you've got a history in sport, then I'm not, if it was a person who came to me off the street and they're not really active, then I would also do things like blood testing and I might send them to the doctor for full bloods prior. But a lot of time if they're sick, they've come to me and I've got a lot of that anyway. In your case, I haven't done all of that because you would have fallen over in your training anyway in a sense that that would have tripped you up if it was a problem. So we're using the bioimpedance, it just gives really good information and it gives you an idea of what's going on with your body. And the sort of when you start to clean out and when we find when your extra sale of the water levels drop, which we'll go into later, that corresponds with the time you start to feel really good. So I've monitored people and extended fast and watched the changes in their body and there seems to be a pattern whereby when the level of toxicity reduces from the test, there is a correspondence of when you feel good. And that for some person might be right at the start of the fast and go right through and other people might feel like shite for a fair while or for a few days and then feel good. So everyone's different and so that's what the testing. We use it in clinic. Yeah, I found it really effective. It's good objective measurement. And then so the process that I'm going to go through these five days, at a high level, what does that look like? You mentioned enemas before, which has got me a little bit easier. Yeah, yeah, and I will say this if we're on camera now that most people freak about that, but I actually think it's really, really important and I know from the Russian research that's one of the, that's very, very important. The idea behind it is that if you've, as I mentioned before, you're stopping intake of food. So your body is going to start eating your own stores and we don't want it to be then trying to access stores or save things, lining might bow, for example. You know, so if I've got, you might have it, you know, accumulate a bit of debris and that. And so if we can clean you at both ends, then you're going to function better. And I have read and heard stuff where people who don't do that process might have diarrhea and stuff for a few days. Whereas you don't get that with the end of the process because we're cleaning and go out. It, I think the thing with enemas is that, particularly with blokes, it's, it's more a mental thing. Once you've done it once, you go, what was all the fuss about? That was the first, when I first got told, it was like, right, first you're telling me I can't eat for two weeks. Now you're telling me I've got to do, I've got to put this tube and I was just like, are you crazy? And then I went and did it and was like, it's nothing. And I felt really clean, but you'd be careful how you do it. Same with fasting. You've got to do it properly. There's a lot of programs out there online that can be good, but they can also be hit and miss. And so we, that's why we do it supervised. Yeah. Okay. And day to day is two juices a day. Is that right? Two juices a day, similar program each day. You can have a couple of herbal teas a day and you can have as much water as you want, similar program each day. We lead in the night before, so you'll know later than 7pm the day before. And each day is pretty similar. And then, so that'll be five days for you and then we'll roll you out. The other part that I think that needs work in a lot of programs I've seen, from the West, so to speak. Those programs is the reintroduction of food is as important as the fast. If you rush that, you can mess the whole process up. For example, you can create a blood sugar level issue by introducing sugars too quickly, but your gut, you've given your gut a rest. Your stomach will shrink and it will become quite sensitive. So reintroducing food slowly is really important. Everyone's in a hurry when they finish their fast. They want to get on to, I remember eating now. You know, no, you've got to take your time. So we'll have, it'll be a 10 day reintroduction before you, what I would consider, what you might consider eating normally. So what would, I know we talked about this just before those first few days of coming out of the fast, it's broth. You're not eating chewables for about three days, four days. So the first days of broth and you throw away the veggies and you're just having the broth, but you're having, you know, two liters of broth a day, so 200 mil, 10 times. Second days of juice, same deal, just having a lot more juice. And then you go into a really dilute sort of porridge-y type thing with. And it's got a few other veggies and things like that and herbs to stimulate digestion and stimulate your bowel function and your gut function again. And how are we going to work together? So this is, this is my first session, you're going to put a program together. And I start the fast, so late, hopefully late next week. How do we sort of work with each other? Yeah, you'll be able to start it by the time you need to. So you'll have a program within a day or two. It's, the process that we do is, you know, obviously when you came in, there are questions I will ask about your health and where you're at, what your history particularly. And then we work out a program. It depends on the type of time of year, what comprises your juices. Then I'll give you a program and then it will include everything, your introduction to food, everything you do at each, you know, there are certain times of the day as you do certain things. And so we'll give you the whole program. And that fits around your lifestyle and around where you're at. And then you go away and so we'll catch up first session. We'll catch up probably either during the fast or just before you finish the fast. So probably day four to work through your reintroduction to food. And if it can't be done in person, we can do it online. So that phase definitely. But good to do a bi-impedance test there, which will need to be in person. Then we'll do another test at the end of a week of reintroduction. And then probably another one after, you know, you could do a test another week after that or you can make it two or three weeks after that or a couple of weeks after. And just to see, like last time I fasted, I lost 10 kilos. I was reasonably lean already, a little bit to lose, but I lost 10 kilos. And of that, it was about same amounts of water, muscle and fat. Yeah. So, you know, in losing that much muscle, it took me, I can base it with my exercise, I paddle with a squat on the river. And it took me about two months, take two months to three months after the fast to get back to being where I was before, maybe a couple of months. Because I dropped muscle, I was, you know, I dropped a bit of speed. Yeah. You know, but after a couple of months, I was fine. And my system was working so much better. I was worth doing it for a bit of short-term drop in, you know, muscle mass performance. Yeah. I mean, this is not something you do in a week leading up to a major event. No, of course not. That's what I'm doing. This is part of the process of seeing the foundation before I start training really heavily. Intermittent fasting is a completely different subject because you're not going extended periods. You know, going, I don't do any intermittent fasting that's longer than 36 hours. So that's for cleansing and it's for other purposes, but for a long, a fast day. It's probably the, I would say the most thorough version of a detox you could ever do without a doubt, but it's, or a cleanse that you could do. It's like giving your body a restart. But you just need to pick the time. So when you're in base training, you're great.