For the context of this article, fasting will include abstaining from the intake of solid foods, whether that be by drinking water, juice, coffee, tea, or other liquids that contain no solid particles.

Because you’re not standing in lines waiting for food or eating out in restaurants or frying over a hot stove. All of which take up a lot of time. If you take note of just how much time is spent around the consumption of food, you will become very aware of just how much time is taken up by eating three square meals every day.

When you fast, you also aren’t doing any meal preparation and there’s no need to cook. If you were to fast more regularly, you’d be eating less, which also means less money spent on food, whether that be on eating out or groceries. With this new abundance of time, you can get more work done, find more time to garden or otherwise relax, or… somewhat ironically, do meal prep for when you intend to break your fast.

For the beginner faster, I do not recommend being around food the first several times you do fast as it is a special sort of torture to smell and see food and not be able to have it. Given time and practice, your dedication to fasting will grow and it will become easier for you to be around food and other people while you are fasting.

You may start to notice as you do more fasts just how much more time you seem to have in the day. As you spend your mornings having tea on the back patio or journaling to clear your mind for the day, you may start to experience that you are less stressed and more at ease with not “having” to figure out breakfast, lunch, or dinner everyday.

For many people, having to figure out what to eat everyday can become its own sort of burden. When you choose to fast, you have freed your mind from this task for however long your fast shall last. You may feel fewer cravings for cheeseburgers, pizza, and milkshakes (or whatever your vices may be).

For me, it began to be easier to stick to my budgets and financial goals as every time I skipped out on stopping for a pizza, I moved a little more money into my savings or investment accounts. Why not? Weren’t you going to spend that money anyway? Why not put it aside to improve your financial stability?