The 72 Hour Fast: 3 Ways It Boosts Your Productivity

By Jon Anthony

Posted 3 years agoHEALTH

Intermittent Fasting isn’t just a major fat loss system, inflammation fighting diet, or a powerful method for boosting human growth hormone.

It’s also a very effective way to boost your productivity, especially if it’s a 72 hour fast, and especially if your diet hasn’t been too great recently.

Intermittent fasting has loads of benefits, but one particular type of fasting, known as doing a 72 hour fast, is especially interesting.

With that in mind, let’s explore how you can use this type of fasting to improve your productivity and your health, at the same time.

What is a 72 Hour Fast?

A 72 hour fast is as simple as it sounds. It’s an extreme form of intermittent fasting that if you’re up to it, can completely transform your health.

Three whole days without eating, and only consuming things like water, tea, coffee, and maybe some sparkling water—in other words, zero calories. Except you decide to make it even extra and combine a 72-hours fast with another extreme form of fasting called – dry fasting. But this is highly not recommended or at least requires you to meet your doctor to make sure it won’t cause any damage to your body.

Now, you might think “but surely a lack of food makes you tired?”

Counter-intuitively, it actually increases your energy if you’ve got a little fat to burn. Food leads to carb comas, complacency and cognitive limitations, which fasting eliminates.

A 72 hour fast is so powerful, because it acts as a “reset button” on your body, and allows you to clear out toxins and get a break from digesting.

Replacing bad habits with positive habits is one of the keys to success with anything, and a 72 hour fast makes this much easier.

Why Should You Do A 72 Hour Fast?

Aside from the obvious benefits with fat loss (you can expect 8-14 pounds during a three day fast), you’ve got hormonal benefits and psychological benefits as well, improving your overall health.

From a hormonal standpoint, you’re going to experience a 300% increase in Human Growth Hormone, which is responsible for improving both fat loss and muscle gain, and also psychological well-being.

You will seriously increase testosterone if you’ve currently got >20% body fat, due to the reduction in circulating estrogen. 72 hour fasting is a powerful hack to lead to this testosterone boost.

A 72 hour fast will also come with psychological benefits (which I’ll delve into in depth here shortly), and will significantly improve your mental clarity, presence, mindfulness, and help reduce mental clutter.

Three big benefits of fasting are:

  1. Energy
  2. Clarity
  3. Time

And all three of these are going to sky-rocket your productivity and career/business growth. So, let’s look at each in-depth.

1. Increase Your Energy

Energy provides your ‘building blocks’ for productivity—it’s almost like water, and it flows into everything you do on a daily basis.

Whether it’s lifting weights, practicing martial arts, working, or spending time with your family, energy is at the core of everything, and following an intermittent fasting protocol is a great way to increase it.

But, how exactly will a three day fast help you to improve your energy?

Well let me ask you – how much energy do you have after you’ve eaten pizza or a high carb meal? Do you feel energetic and alert, or do you feel sluggish? It’s the latter, of course.

What about when you’ve had a healthier (but large) meal with the family, and a glass of wine? Or perhaps a couple of beers with your buddies? Do you feel ready to kick-ass, or do you feel ready to fall into a food coma on the couch? Again, probably the latter.

72 hour fasting short-circuits all of this by eliminating the things that lower your energy levels. This is 50% of the battle. No more carb comas, no more digestive problems, and no more alcohol lowering your energy levels.

The other 50% in case you were wondering, is making sure you’re drinking tea or coffee in the morning, and consuming adequate water. These things ensure you’re not going to be low on energy, especially on day 2 or 3.

2. Increase Clarity

Clarity of thought means you’re going to be far more efficient in your work, and you’re going to waste less time. There will be less distractions, less scatter-brain, and less stress.

Take it from me as someone who manages multiple companies – clarity of thought is ESSENTIAL for productivity and business growth.

So how does fasting help improve clarity, then?

Well, with less time eating and digesting food, you’ve got more time to concentrate on your most important tasks. But what’s really interesting is that most people seem to have laser-like focus when performing an extended fast (or even shorter ones, like a 48 hour fast).

Your stomach is your second brain. When it’s not busy digesting food and wasting energy, it becomes hyper alert (and so does your brain).

Then all this becomes REALLY powerful if you combine this with some caffeine (or maybe some nootropics) in the morning.

Caffeine on an empty stomach is a guaranteed productivity-booster that you need to take advantage of, so combining it with fasting is very powerful.

Not only will it make your mind sharper, but it also happens to blunt hunger and make your fasting experience much easier.

3. More Time

Time is the scarcest resource in the world, and the only resource that you cannot get back in the future, so you MUST conserve it at all costs.

A 72 hour fast is a time-saving powerhouse, and is pretty much the 16/8 fasting version, but on steroids…. like, a lot of steroids.

Let me ask you – how much time do you spend preparing, cooking, storing or carrying your meals every day? Breakfast, lunch and dinner? Not to mention all the plate washing and drying and other ‘low value’ tasks.

How about you eliminate ALL of this, so you can put your time to better use? More time for your work, your training, with the family or spouse etc.

It’s not just time either, it’s also stress. Most people feel stressed out because they don’t have enough time (or more accurately, they waste too much).

But you can avoid this by freeing up HOURS every single day—we’re talking potentially 10-14 hours per week, which is HUGE!

The Bottom Line

The benefits of doing intermittent fasting are astronomical—and not just the physical benefits either, but also the psychological.

You NEED to take advantage of this so that you can start building some momentum in your life, and get your own positive-upward spiral started.

Some other activities I can recommend that you incorporate on your fasting journey are meditation, yoga, and eliminating junk food from your house and working environment. These will help your productivity and fat loss dramatically when used in conjunction with fasting.

Feel free to read more on the nitty-gritty ‘how to’ of a 72 hour fast if you’d like to transform your physique, your productivity and your life. What are the other ways to increase your productivity and shake your mental funk?

6 Ways To Shake A Mental Funk

We all have days that we’re tired, grumpy, and just can’t seem to shake off the funk that’s following us around. Some of us might attribute this to “waking up on the wrong side of the bed”, but what if this feeling lingers for a while? This, my friends, is called a “funk”.

You know how it goes: you’re tired no matter how much you sleep, you’re just flat out grumpy with everyone you encounter, and you’re sad––not even the usual corny joke can crack a smile on your face

During times like this, one would be right to turn to a health-boosting CBD tincture because a lot of times our mental health can be heavily influenced by what we’re intaking. Plus, CBD has a natural ability to diminish some of that mental cloudiness and fatigue. While this is a great option you should explore, there is much more you can do to lift your spirits and lighten your mood. You can’t move through life in a “funk. We all know when your vibration is low and you’re emitting those vibes––you’ll get those back––you don’t want that! So, here are 10 ways to shake that mental funk and get back to being yourself! 

Change Your Diet

At the end of the day, some of us are just more successful when it comes to “eating healthy”. Here’s something that might change your opinion on the subject. Did you know that certain foods you eat can directly cause this funk? That’s right, those processed foods filled with artificial ingredients and sugars cause a spike in your blood sugar that ultimately cause you to crash. This leaves you feeling super fatigued and moody most of the time.

Obviously, you’re not always going to be successful at dodging that decadent hunk of chocolate cake, but the goal here is balance. So, make sure you’re eating all of your nutritious leafy greens, fruits, and veggies because those are going to be those essential nutrients that your body uses to boost your energy and morale.

In fact, certain foods like salmon and brown rice contain tryptophan and this compound is actually converted to serotonin later in the body. Serotonin is the chemical in your brain that has a huge impact on your mood. So, you see friends, it does pay to eat your veggies and grains!

Healing Crystals & Spirituality

Not all of us are so inclined to believe that shiny little stones can make us feel better, but believe it or not, all of these stones have their own potential. It all boils down to the science of energy, because the world, or better yet, everything around us–– is energy.

Certain crystals, like Black Tourmaline, work in a special way to soak up negative energy around you that’s bringing you down. You can also try reading some self-help spirituality books and… magic mushrooms. Finally, science has confirmed the benefits of psilocybin micordosing!

These books can help you focus on raising your vibration, and teach you how to manifest the things you want in life. This type of mindset shift can produce results you never thought possible! You can’t be stuck in a funk if your mindset is stronger than all of those bad vibes. 

Goal Planning

This can be stressful for some people because they’d rather look at what they haven’t accomplished, rather than what they have. Be an optimist and look at the glass half full! Look at all the things you have accomplished and take all of that into consideration to see how you’ll get where you want to be in life. Setting goals and reaching them is a great way to build self-confidence and lift yourself up.

Get Out Of The House

Sometimes you just need to get outside and take in some sun rays! They don’t call it the sunshine vitamin for nothing! Getting that boost of Vitamin D can instantly improve your mood because that Vitamin D releases neurotransmitters like serotonin and dopamine, and both of these chemicals influence mood/happiness. A lot of people have been stuck indoors during quarantine, but don’t be afraid to get out and take a walk. You’ll be amazed at how much impact a little sunshine can have on your mood!

Gratitude Journal

You’d be surprised how much you can get into perspective by writing down things that you’re grateful for. This process can reduce stress, boost self-esteem, and just make you happier in general because you’re literally taking into account everything you’ve been blessed with and everything you’ve been through. Sometimes, we’re just too hard on ourselves, and we’re constantly comparing ourselves to this person or that person. There is only one you––so be proud of yourself and how far you’ve come. 

Pay It Forward

Doing something nice for someone else, you know, making a real difference in someone’s day, is a great way to get yourself out of a funk. You might be thinking, “Hey, but I’m the one who needs help”. True, but sometimes you have to help others to help yourself. How can you do this? Simple, buy a stranger lunch, or someone who is on the street and probably can’t remember their last decent meal––get creative!  Not only will you feel better about yourself, but you’ll get some good karma in the process.

About the author Jon Anthony

Jon Anthony is a blogger, lifestyle coach, dating expert, and fitness model, who enjoys helping men evolve into their best selves. You can read his blog at Masculine Development for free.

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