7 Things I've Discovered During My No-Food Fast
Fasts are supposed to confer a wide range of benefits to individuals who manage to pull through and tolerate not eating for days at a time. Although there are many kinds of fasts, such as smoothie-only fasts, and intermittent fasting, I've become intrigued with the idea of a FULL fast, in which I consume NO food, and drink water only.
I started my fast two days ago.
I've set my aim for three days, and as I finish my second day, hunger has seriously begun to set in.
You see, I work in a fine-dining restaurant, with a Top Chef award winning menu, so it's not easy to toss away a perfectly juicy dish, or turn away a manager who offers you left-over cake. And it's becoming more difficult by the minute.
In this list, I share with you a few things that I've learned on my short, yet grueling, journey thus fur.
____________________________________________________________________________
1. Everything reminds you of food, as stimuli are EVERYWHERE
This is probably the most difficult one. Driving to work, I'm so used to stopping and grabbing food for the drive. I have to scratch that idea and just go. At work, I have to skip my cafeteria meal, as others eat, and sit around as others enjoy what used to look like slop food- but now it smells and looks like the best Thanksgiving Dinner. Driving home, I can't stop and have a beer and burger, whilst I respond to my Steemit and YouTube comments, or read the latest news. This hurt and agonized me the most tonight.
2. You remember what it's like to REALLY feel hunger, and not simply a desire to eat
I've become ever more conscious of my addiction to sugar. What's driven me to eat most often hasn't been hunger, but rather either habit OR a desire to feed my rat brain it's little sugar rush.
3. You've become less selfish and moody
Surprisingly, I've had less ups and downs in my moods. It's easy to become unaware of what causes life's ebbs and tides sometimes. Sometimes it's just a sugar rush, or craving satisfaction, followed by a crash as your body is quickly depleted of glucose (or sugar). I've become much more stable, both mentally and physically. The only thing that really changes physically is that I become hungrier over time. I've also noticed that in thinking LESS of what I'll be eating, or just ate, I've changed patterns of thoughts and behaviors that have been ingrained in me, as I fill the time and space with other thoughts.
4. Your mind has become much more quiet
This is actually a REALLY nice benefit. Generally, my mind is a clutter of thoughts, as my "monkey brain" keeps spinning the wheel and jabbing at me with clusters of thoughts at all times. However, I've noticed a quieting of my mind that is similar to that I've only experienced after many days practicing meditation. This, however, takes much less conscious effort. Fogs have cleared and my mind is much more tuned, aware, and focused. I also have an ever growing state of relaxation; perhaps as my body uses less energy and stress to digest the mass of food I usually dump in it.
5. You sleep much more restfully
Usually, I eat before sleep. At my job, I have to be up for hours with no break. I also work far, meaning I can't really eat until I get home late. Restaurants. This means that perhaps my body, and this is a theory, has to spend more energy digesting as I sleep, and doesn't get the opportunity to truly rest as much. Today, I woke up after 4 hours of sleep feeling like I'd slept 8 hours, and had just had the smoothest cup of coffee ever. Naturally, I was confused, as I'm an insomniac who needs much more sleep, usually. I stayed up for a while, and didn't feel tired at all, though I expected this to be a sense of false awakeness. Forcing myself to sleep, just in case, I kept awaking with even more energy each time than the last. Epic.
6. Others try to convince you that this is bad
But increasing awareness of your own body and mind, as you distract it less with the gunk that it must process, leads you to call their bluff. Experience has taught you that perhaps they've just never tried this kind of thing, since you are actually feeling pretty damn good. Your confidence, as you are able to control base urges to eat, has grown. Your willpower is growing ever more, as you learn to tell yourself no.
7. Your wallet is thicker
Or rather you might have quite a bit more than you're used to having in your account, on a weekly basis :) This one seems obvious, but is a pretty awesome thing to notice- even after three days, when you're used to eating out regularly!
So.
The battle against my willpower grows more and more difficult, as my sense of smell has become more keen than ever. Seriously, everything smells DELICIOUS, and this is to me a GREAT sign. I'm becoming more sensitive, sense-wise, and I can't WAIT for my first meal after this is over. However, it may be the first meal in a while that I'll truly appreciate FULLY, as my body finally earns it. My mind, however, is enjoying this experience, as my soul enriches. Tomorrow will bring new thoughts, experiences, and determination to truck through a difficult day at work.
Don't try this without consulting a doctor, if you have medical conditions requiring you to eat certain minerals you lack, or haven't done some research on what to expect. This is no joke, and I don't condone anorexia. However, isolated experiences of fasting are healthy and normal to the human species, as they've been recommended by health professionals and religions for thousands of years. If you try this, you may come out learning a lot by spending very little.
Also, if you try this, your mileage may vary, as we are all different :)
Cheers, and thanks for reading!
This is pretty cool to read from my perspective.
I decided to go on a 10 day fast about 5 years ago... just because. I do stupid things in the name of curiosity all the time :D
Something interesting happened after about the half-way mark and that was simply, I wasn't hungry anymore. I drank only water and ate nothing at all and the first week was KILLER! After that though it's like something changed in my body's chemistry and the hunger just subsided.
I mean, I guess I was still kind of hungry, I did feel that ever nagging feeling like "you should eat now" but there was no physical hunger pains.
I could have pretty easily kept going past 10 days if I felt like it after that point but I only wanted to do it for that amount of time to see what it was like and what would happen so I ate after 10 days was up. Eating was weird for me after my fast...
I had read up on it and it's suggested you eat "slow & mild" don't go with heavy stuff, maybe just soup at first. I didn't do that, eating didn't really hurt my stomach but it did feel weird to finally put food in my face after nearly 2-weeks.
You keep it up, you'll be proud of yourself for toughing it out! Best of luck man, though I know you got this, you ain't need no "LUCK!" ;]
WOAH! You actually made it to ten days on your first try, and on a WHIM? The congratulations and hats off are to you- perhaps you should look into recreating the experience and writing an article on it! I'm not sure that I'm yet cut out for ten, but you surely experienced a bit more of the story than I intend to, on this go.
I know what you mean about the hunger being gone after a while, even if it's only been day two. It's really like I forget about it after a while, since the body appears to perhaps get tired of sending hunger signals. During these times, it's pretty much all gold, as the mind and body both feel pretty good and energetic.
Thanks for sharing your experience, and possibly giving me a future milestone to reach during a fast. Your support is tops, Mr. Jay! Your good wishes are appreciated :) Up-vote
You know what, I didn't even think of it like that lol. You're totally right about it being a bit ambitious, at least that's what I'm calling it. It was probably kind'a dumb to just be like "oh yeah, I can just NOT EAT for 10 days, why not!" xD
If I remember right, I had read something about what the body goes through and how it winds up cleaning it's self out when you go through a fast and how some medical practitioners even use it as a last-ditch effort to help some patience as a means to just let the body rid it's self of all the garbage making them sick... it all sounded really interesting so I just did it. A few days in I wanted to quit but I was so curious what tomorrow would be like I just stuck it out.
Unfortunately I'm the type who will get light headed after not eating for 24 hrs so I had to constantly take a knee, which is what "they" suggest you do when fasting if you ever get a dizzy spell... take a knee and chill out till it's gone then take it easy.
After that first week however, the dizzy spells went away. It was actually a really interesting experience overall.
Oh... and I ate a LOT of crushed ice just to deal with that physical habit of wanting to chew on food. Luckily my fridge had a crushed ice maker at the time but if it didn't I would have probably just chewed up a bunch of ice cubes anyway. That was all in the 1st week though. It seems like after all that typical hunger stuff went away I pretty much didn't really think about food all that much. I'd get the occasional want for something but it wasn't very strong and passed quickly.
This is really smart! I loved the way you laid everything out and all the benefits.
I feel like If I were to try this, I'd pop a couple chips or fries in my mouth without noticing it.
You work at a restaurant too? Holy cow! That Is a TON OF willpower! I can't wait to see what else you do with you life, If you are capable of something so difficult.
Serious will power there. I couldnt do it.
You never know until you try :) chewing gum and water have helped many an urge. Also, staring at Ethereum and Steemit price charts lol.
I herd somewhere smelling vanilla decreases your appetite not too sure why though.
Interesting. My concern is that I may start craving icecream. With sprinkles. Man, I can't even read food item's names- I'm losing it :) Haha, Ill see about the Vanilla. Thanks for sharing.
Hi thank you for your post I will be featuring it
Featuring it where? Thanks regardless of what you do with it!
I post up a daily pick of hidden gems. Where i find amazing hidden blogs in between all the spam and junk so that people can find it and actually get your blog seen. Here is yesterdays pick.
https://steemit.com/life/@gavvet/daily-pick-of-hidden-gems-6-featuring-dragonslayer109-as-author
Ahh..very cool! That will actually be very much appreciated and I'll be on the lookout for it's release. I'll follow you, so that when the feature is implemented I'll have a head start in catching your posts. Great idea to start posts like that, and thanks again!
I will send you the link as it is posted up. The post is not under my name and the "dolphin" is doing an author promotion to help out those authors that have great content but don't get seen.
https://steemit.com/life/@gavvet/daily-pick-of-hidden-gems-7-featuring-dragonslayer109-as-author link to where im featuring your post
Thanks!
I do 24 hour fasts every so often when my body just begins to feel like it needs it. It's a nice little reset and I find I feel more awake during the day. Did you have a similar experience of feeling extra energy?
I love these kinds of posts. And I forgot in my post to mention how people try to convince you it's a bad idea! haha so true
https://steemit.com/health/@exitmass/5-things-i-learned-about-myself-during-a-10-day-juice-fast
And I just saw that you already liked that post
Are you out of your mind! A no food fast. You just might be an extraterrestrial.
https://steemit.com/area/@steve-mcclair/area-51-steemit-has-arrived
Agree there is a lot of evidence that intermittent fasting (as long as you are otherwise healthy) is of great benefit and would have been common for our palaeolithic ancestors. That said anyone looking to do it should always get as much information as possible and check with their doctor.
There are certain cases where it can be very risky. I'm a good example because I'm a type 1 diabetic (don't produce insulin) so am at high risk of developing ketoacidosis if I don't take my insulin (obviously you only take your insulin with meals) - so fasting for prolonged periods is out of the question for me.