How Fasting Helped Me Rebuild Myself into The Man Who Stopped Lying to Himself

1. Introduction:

Have you ever felt completely out of control? Out of alignment with who you really are, what you want, and how you act? I have. And I wasn’t just “off” occasionally, I was a person who had lost himself completely. People-pleasing, lying, manipulating reality to fit expectations, and constantly distracting myself with alcohol, validation, or other temporary fixes.

It wasn’t who I truly was, but it felt like it.

Fasting became one of the tools that helped me reclaim control. Not just over food, but over my mind, my emotions, and ultimately, my life. This isn’t a blog about health hacks. This is a blog about how discipline, clarity, and intentionality, starting with something as simple as what you choose to eat or not eat, can rebuild the foundation of your identity.

I’m going to take you through my journey: the patterns, the breaking points, and the daily micro-steps that rebuilt me into someone in control of himself, someone at ease with his true self.

2. Understanding the Core Issue

Early in my life, my mindset was a mess. Insecurity, lack of self-love, and a constant need to fit in shaped every decision I made:

• If I drank too much, it wasn’t my fault,it was the environment.

• If I woke up late, it wasn’t laziness, it was the world not demanding anything else.

• If I lied, cheated, or bent the truth, it was survival, adaptation, “pleasing others.”

Every action had a reason, but none were mine. And because I blamed external factors, I never built ownership over my life.

Fast forward: I hit rock bottom. I realized that my patterns were not just harmless quirks, they were shaping my results. The way I thought, felt, and acted created a life full of chaos, instability, and disappointment.

Fasting, alongside meditation, workout routines, and other discipline-driven practices, became a mental gym. It tested me, sharpened me, and forced me to experience what true control feels like.

3. Breaking it Down: Key Areas of Impact

Fasting isn’t just about skipping meals. It’s a mindset tool, and here’s how it changed me:

Mental Control:

• Fasting showed me that I can choose. Choosing not to eat for a set period built a muscle that went far beyond food, it trained my mind to resist urges, cravings, and impulsive decisions.

• Every fast reinforced the truth: if I can control my eating, I can control my emotions, my reactions, and my actions.

Emotional Control:

• I stopped lashing out. I stopped overreacting to small provocations. Fasting taught me patience and presence.

• I realized that uncontrolled reactions come from giving power to fleeting feelings, not grounded thought.

Physical Awareness:

• I understood hunger, energy, and fatigue differently. Fasting connected me to my body, and I started noticing patterns, triggers, timing, and emotional links to what I ate.

Behavioral Discipline:

• Small micro-actions mattered. Making my bed, sticking to a wake-up time, removing unhealthy snacks, saying no when I used to say yes, each tiny win added proof that I could trust myself.

Cumulative Confidence:

• Every completed fast, every disciplined choice, piled up. I started believing in my ability to follow through. I started believing in my own worth and control.

4. How to Apply This in Real Life

Fasting is just one tool. It’s the practice of control, the mental gym, the lens through which you test your discipline. Here’s how you can start rebuilding yourself:

✅ Do This:

• Start small: 12–16 hours fasting, once or twice a week. Notice your thoughts, emotions, and urges.

• Document micro-wins: Track the tiny victories, waking up on time, choosing water over sugar, sticking to your plan.

• Layer with routines: Meditation, workout, and structured daily planning amplify mental control.

• Visualize outcomes: After fasting, picture how this discipline ripples into decision-making, relationships, and work.

❌ Avoid This:

• Don’t overcomplicate fasting with extreme rules or guilt trips. The goal is self-control, not punishment.

• Don’t rely on motivation alone, discipline beats inspiration 99% of the time.

• Don’t ignore the lessons: if you fail one day, analyze why instead of blaming yourself.

Step-by-step approach to start today:

1. Plan your fasting window tonight, e.g., 7 PM dinner, skip breakfast tomorrow.

2. Set up your environment, water at arm’s reach, meditation ready, gym bag packed.

3. Decide your micro-goals for tomorrow, small, achievable, and proof-building.

4. Follow through without negotiation. Action-Sjoerd, no excuses.

5. Reflect and record results, celebrate the proof you just gave yourself.

5. Special Considerations

• People-Pleasers: Fasting gives you ownership over one thing in your life, you. That ownership scales to everything else.

• Busy Professionals: Discipline in one area creates momentum in others. If you control when you eat, you’re more likely to control how you act under pressure.

• Mental Health Seekers: Fasting is not a therapy replacement, but the mental clarity it provides can complement meditation, journaling, and other self-work.

6. The Final Takeaway

Here’s the truth: the path from chaos to control is paved with tiny, consistent actions. Fasting is one of the sharpest tools I’ve found to accelerate this journey. It taught me:

• Control over food = control over mind

• Small wins = belief in self

• Discipline = freedom

From a person lost in people-pleasing, lying, and distraction, to a man at ease with his true self, I learned that transformation is possible, step by step, win by win.

Every fast, every disciplined choice, every small action created a ripple effect that rebuilt my confidence, my identity, and my life.

And yes, it’s ongoing. Life will test you. People will challenge you. Emotions will flood. But when you commit to the “NO MATTER WHAT” attitude, and let discipline guide your mind, you stop lying to yourself, and finally start living as the person you were meant to be.

Take the first step today. Fast. Control. Build. Celebrate. Repeat.

- Sjoerd