Fasting

Fasting

There have been surprisingly few discussions of fasting on this site. Perhaps that’s because we’d rather eat than not eat. Perhaps. Yet depriving oneself of food is the flipside of over-indulging in food, which many of us do quite well, so I’m thinking – in a yin/yang kind of way – that the time might be right for a little mid-Lenten self-deprivation. I’m not doing this for weight loss (an acceptable side-effect, but not the goal), or for reasons of religion (I think most would agree I’m pretty much in a constant state of perfect spiritual balance), but because I think it might be interesting to do without food, one of my favorite things in the world. Perhaps I will be able to re-calibrate and sensitize my palate; perhaps I’ll gain a renewed appreciation for the excellent chow we dine upon so regularly; perhaps I’ll have a vision.



I found out yesterday I’m going to need a little gut surgery later this month, which will mean I won’t be able to work out at the gym for a while, so that seems a good time to experiment with not eating (fasting and pumping iron are a bad combo, so if I can’t do the latter I might as well try to do the former). My plan (at the moment, subject to change pending wisdom generated in this thread) is to ease into total food abstinence by limiting myself at first to relatively small quantities of rice and fresh veg/fruit juice; then just veg/fruit juice; then just fruit juice; then just water.

Time frame is uncertain, but I’m thinking maybe 10-12 days, with maybe 3 days in total gustatory deprivation. As you can see, I’m not talking Biblical or Gandhi-class fasting – just a little pre-Easter cleansing.

I do intend to consult with my gastroenterologist and doctor, but at the moment, I’m not even sure exactly what I have in mind, and I’m hoping I can frame up a plan that I can propose and then get a professional medical response.

After a weekend of obscene overindulgence (hit Schwa, La Pasadita, Cafe Luigi and Simply It in a matter of 3 days), I've been doing a weekday fruit/nut/veg-only thing for the past 2 weeks.

I've been bringing 2 bananas, 2 apples, a pear, a bag of baby carrots, one other random fruit (kiwis for a few days, then blackberries because they were on sale at Costco), and one serving of cashews (exactly 1/4 cup of the thai chili/lime ones from Trader Joe's), and have been eating all that from 9am until 5pm. Then I've been going home & making salad dinners (mixed baby greens, carrots, bell peppers, onions, mushrooms, one serving of dry-roasted edamame for crunch, seasoned by sprinkling some sea salt, grinding some black pepper, and sprinkling a teaspoon of extra-virgin & a tablespoon of balsamic over it).

I feel a little healthier, and my work pants are no longer too tight on me (unlike after the crazy eating weekend, when they were uncomfortably snug)...but man, I'm ravenous all the time. If it wasn't for the small amount of protein in the cashews & edamame, I'd probably go all "Hulk smash" and devour my way through a grocery store while security tries in vain to restrain me.

I'm considering adding a protein shake (Trader Joe's sells some pre-mixed, single-serve ones that would be handy to bring to work) into the mix to see if it makes me feel a bit more full.

Over the weekend I had normal dinners on Friday & Saturday, but otherwise stuck to the fruit/veg thing.

This all ends in 1.5 weeks, when I eat my way through Madrid & Sevilla

Khaopaat wrote:This all ends in 1.5 weeks, when I eat my way through Madrid & Sevilla

Truism No. 1 About Fasting:

'Tis Easier To Fast When You Will Be Travelling To Madrid And Seville In 1.5 Weeks.

Take a look at the book Fit for Life.

I understand that you're not looking to change your diet long term but it goes through an initial fast / cleanse which is just about the opposite of what you describe i.e. Fast for 3 days (water only), then go to just fruit, then to fruits and veggies.

A few years back I did the diet in the book for about 6 months and felt great. Bacon always seemss to win though!

The book also discusses the benefits of fasting periodically to maintain internal health.

Good luck! would love to hear how it goes. I think I'm due again!

aschie30 wrote:Truism No. 1 About Fasting:

'Tis Easier To Fast When You Will Be Travelling To Madrid And Seville In 1.5 Weeks.

Aye, there's no better motivator than the mental image of hip Madrileños pointing & shouting, "¡Mire eso americano con la tapa del mollete! Vayamos lo empujan en el estómago."*

*"Check out that American with the muffin top! Let's go poke him in the belly."
Translated by Babelfish, so blame Yahoo! if it's all wrong

Good luck, David. I usually do at least two fasts a year and have experienced wonderful results. Days #2 & 3 are always the worst for me--I become aggressive and scary, convinced that my body is going to eat itself--but I always feel great by day #7 or so and totally blissed out by day #10.

I've done 3-4 day fasts with just water...felt like death. Then I got weight loss surgery, and now I eat little meals all day long. I love to eat, taste, savor. Good luck!

happy_stomach wrote:Good luck, David. I usually do at least two fasts a year and have experienced wonderful results. Days #2 & 3 are always the worst for me--I become aggressive and scary, convinced that my body is going to eat itself--but I always feel great by day #7 or so and totally blissed out by day #10.

When The Wife and I were first married, we'd do a fast every few months, and I remember just what you're describing. Very tough first few days, but it gets progressively easier as momentum builds, and then at some point, one feels just tremendously light and clear.

Khaopaat wrote:

aschie30 wrote:Truism No. 1 About Fasting:

'Tis Easier To Fast When You Will Be Travelling To Madrid And Seville In 1.5 Weeks.

Aye, there's no better motivator than the mental image of hip Madrileños pointing & shouting, "¡Mire eso americano con la tapa del mollete! Vayamos lo empujan en el estómago."*

*"Check out that American with the muffin top! Let's go poke him in the belly."
Translated by Babelfish, so blame Yahoo! if it's all wrong

This is one of the top five funniest things I've read on this site. Bravo.

A better central Spanish idiom for muffin-topped would be bien tapizado, which literally means well or over-upholstered, and is used precisely to mean stuffed into a pair of pants too small. Rechoncho is another good one.

When in Madrid, please go both Casa Mingo and Casa Botin and report back here. I don't care if they're touristy. Get the suckling pig at Botin. Get the spit chicken and fresh cider at Mingo. Go dance to the gypsy guitarists in the Puerta del Sol at 3 AM. Think of us.

Most importantly, to David, good luck with everything this month!

Sharon, what kind of fast do you do for 10 days? I've done cleanses that are two days just water then 5 days of fruit, veggies and brown rice. I have felt better but the two days total fast are tough.

jaholbrook wrote:I understand that you're not looking to change your diet long term but it goes through an initial fast / cleanse which is just about the opposite of what you describe i.e. Fast for 3 days (water only), then go to just fruit, then to fruits and veggies.

Right, yes, I thought I'd ease into it rather than just go cold turkey with water to start. Thanks for the book rec; I'll check it out.

I looked into the master cleanse a few months ago, but never actually did it. Every time I became interested there would be an event or a restaurant coming up, and it just never seemed worth it to miss out. For me, food always seems to win (a little too much, "bien tapizado" according to Santander).

Best of luck!

David Hammond wrote:

jaholbrook wrote:I understand that you're not looking to change your diet long term but it goes through an initial fast / cleanse which is just about the opposite of what you describe i.e. Fast for 3 days (water only), then go to just fruit, then to fruits and veggies.

Right, yes, I thought I'd ease into it rather than just go cold turkey with water to start. Thanks for the book rec; I'll check it out.

Jaholbrook is right -- you jump in, and then ease out. Your system can easily take stopping eating, but starting again can be hard on it (of course, how hard depends on how long you fast -- on long fasts, it's as if your body forgets what to do with food). So stop completely (except water, perhaps with a little lemon juice), and then ease back into eating with the juice, fruit, veggies, broth, and so on.

It's also actually easier to just stop than it is to ease in -- simply stay busy. I find it much harder to edge in slowly.

Wow! What timing. I am a Baha'i and our 19 day fast does not conclude until Friday the 20th. It is from sunrise to sunset. There is no consumption of any food or water during that time.
Some mornings I do not get up before sunrise, but I am finding that I am not watching the clock at sunset to break the Fast.

Each year, I find it has become easier and easier. No faint feelings, no headaches, I don't think I am particularly grouchy but you should ask my husband and Mum-in-law about that.

It is odd, however that I permit myself to eat whatever I want. I find that many processed foods, e.g. sweets and I have a huge sweet tooth, do not taste good. So they just get cast aside.

While it is for religious purposes, the biggest draw back I find is feeling especially sleepy, not tired or weak, but genuinely sleepy during this time. I suspect it is very similar to the hibernation of bears and snakes.

I strongly suggest, anyone fasting check in with their medical doctor. Mine is supportive and would stop me with any concerns.

A brief writing on Fasting as a Baha'i:

As regards fasting, it constitutes, together with the obligatory prayers, the two pillars that sustain the revealed Law of God. They act as stimulants to the soul, strengthen, revive, and purify it, and thus insure its steady development.

-Shogi Effendi

On a non-religious plane, I think it makes those of us who are food lovers value it all the more and allows us the ability to strip away those things that are not true. I certainly notice, that everything does not taste good, even things I would normally eat, but this tends to occur only with foods of low nutritional vale.

Peace.
Peace

when I was in college, we used to fast for three days during Hunger Week. Well, to be honest, I only did it once. I found it nearly impossible, but I do remember ALL food tasting absolutely heavenly when it was over. It was actually sort of overwhelming, normally bland food tasted complex and delicious. I also learned to love food I'd previously hated, like peas and oatmeal.

The first picture reminds me of a conversation I had barely 3 days ago about the self-mummification rituals of the Buddhist monks in Japan...

Some info from http://thegoodreverend.blogspot.com/2007/06/self-mummification-in-japan.html

The first step is a change of diet. The priest was only allowed to eat nuts and seeds that could be found in the forests surrounding his temple; this diet had to be stuck to for a 1000 day period, a little under three years. During this time, the priest was to continue to subject himself to all sorts of physical hardship in his daily training. The results were that the body fat of the priest was reduced to nearly nothing, thus removing a section of the body that easily decomposes after death.

In the second stage, the diet became more restrictive. The priest was now only allowed to eat a small amount of bark and roots from pine trees (mokujiki). This had to be endured for another 1000 day period, by the end of which the priest looked like a living skeleton. This also decreased the overall moisture contained in the body; and the less fluid left in the body, the easier to preserve it.

Towards the end of this 1000 day period, the priest also had to start to drink a special tea made from the sap of the urushi tree. This sap is used to make laquer [sic] for bowls and furniture; but it is also very poisonous for most people. Drinking this tea induced vomenting [sic], sweating, and urination, further reducing the fluid content of the priest's body. But even more importantly, the build up of the poison in the priest's body would kill any maggots or insects that tried to eat the priest's remains after death, thus protecting it from yet another source of decay.

The third and last step of the process was to be entombed alive in a stone room just big enough for a man to sit lotus style in for a final 1000 day period. As long as the priest could ring a bell each day a tube remained in place to supply air; but when the bell finally stopped, the tube was removed and the tomb was sealed.

The first comment from the self-mummification link cracked me up:

"Fascinating. I can't imagine slowly killing myself like that... by that same token, I'm sure they couldn't imagine Doritos."

A better central Spanish idiom for muffin-topped would be bien tapizado, which literally means well or over-upholstered, and is used precisely to mean stuffed into a pair of pants too small. Rechoncho is another good one.

Those two phrases, “bien tapizado” and “rechoncho” are definitely going into my (very) limited Spanish vocabulary!

Puppy,

I went to the link, where the leading paragraph was quite revealing:

During the Edo period, some Buddhist priests in northern Japan engaged in sokushinbutsu, a form of prolonged suicide by self-mummification that existed long before people began consuming the food from McDonald's:

The discipline to follow each 1000-day step is quite profound. While I am sure the participants didn't consider this suicide, I do wonder how this ritual was framed in their theology.

Thank you for allowing me to learn something new today.

Regards,

Hellodali wrote:Sharon, what kind of fast do you do for 10 days? I've done cleanses that are two days just water then 5 days of fruit, veggies and brown rice. I have felt better but the two days total fast are tough.

The specific format has varied somewhat, but it's always 10 days (in conjunction with different yoga & meditation intensives). I think my body (like my brain oftentimes!) is very slow, and I've found anything less than 10 days insufficient to fully recalibrate my system. Actually, the worst fasting experiences I've had have been my two attempts at 5-day fasts. The whole experience doesn't begin to get meditative for me until after about day four or so, after the grouchiness has largely subsided.

Cynthia wrote:Jaholbrook is right -- you jump in, and then ease out. Your system can easily take stopping eating, but starting again can be hard on it (of course, how hard depends on how long you fast -- on long fasts, it's as if your body forgets what to do with food). So stop completely (except water, perhaps with a little lemon juice), and then ease back into eating with the juice, fruit, veggies, broth, and so on.

It's also actually easier to just stop than it is to ease in -- simply stay busy. I find it much harder to edge in slowly.

I completely agree that the return to eating must be done very gradually and carefully, but sometimes I have needed to ease into a fast, depending on how I've been feeling--physically and mentally--in the weeks beforehand. I think it very much depends on the person, like everything. An essential part of my fasts is to be less busy and more still, to help me be more present in my body and mind. Of course, this stillness makes the initial hunger pangs much worse, but I haven't seen much benefit to fasting when it's become very consciously about keeping my mind off food and the fast itself.

pairs4life wrote:While it is for religious purposes, the biggest draw back I find is feeling especially sleepy, not tired or weak, but genuinely sleepy during this time. I suspect it is very similar to the hibernation of bears and snakes.

Sleepiness is a big issue for me, too! I was just comparing myself to a bear the other day...

pairs4life wrote:On a non-religious plane, I think it makes those of us who are food lovers value it all the more and allows us the ability to strip away those things that are not true.

Thank you, pairs4life. I love this statement. Food has actually very little to do with why I fast (and religion, not at all), but the "stripping away" in regards to food has been a wonderful benefit of my experience.

Cathy2 wrote:While I am sure the participants didn't consider this suicide, I do wonder how this ritual was framed in their theology.

Those who successfully self-mummified themselves were enshrined as "living" Buddhas, considered a great achievement. Apparently the large majority who attempted this failed, as their bodies rotted during the entombment. I believe less than 20 mummies exist to this day.

After abdominal surgery you will definitely be fasting. I had my appendix out recently. All i can say is that broth and jello are your friend

Puppy wrote:

Cathy2 wrote:While I am sure the participants didn't consider this suicide, I do wonder how this ritual was framed in their theology.

Those who successfully self-mummified themselves were enshrined as "living" Buddhas, considered a great achievement. Apparently the large majority who attempted this failed, as their bodies rotted during the entombment. I believe less than 20 mummies exist to this day.

One of my favorite things about the internets is that a user named "Puppy" will come out with morbidly-detailed, thought-provoking, historically-rooted commentary.

happy_stomach wrote:Good luck, David. I usually do at least two fasts a year and have experienced wonderful results. Days #2 & 3 are always the worst for me--I become aggressive and scary, convinced that my body is going to eat itself--but I always feel great by day #7 or so and totally blissed out by day #10.

The fast has begun. I'm at Day #1. Headed into dinner hour, I'm not at all hungry (I ate a lot over the weekend).

Odd as it may sound, in recent weeks, I'd actually grown a little tired of food. This wasn't a consistent state of mind (far from it), but every now and again, food would just start to get a little boring for me. So today, slipping into total abstinence from food was not hard...though I anticipate that tomorrow and into Day #3, it will get more challenging.

The fast has begun. I'm at Day #1. Headed into dinner hour, I'm not at all hungry (I ate a lot over the weekend).

Odd as it may sound, in recent weeks, I'd actually grown a little tired of food. This wasn't a consistent state of mind (far from it), but every now and again, food would just start to get a little boring for me. So today, slipping into total abstinence from food was not hard...though I anticipate that tomorrow and into Day #3, it will get more challenging.

I suspect you will be fine.

Peace,

48 hours without food, and no hunger experienced.

Major Benefits of Fasting #1: Forget about flossing.

David Hammond wrote:48 hours without food, and no hunger experienced.

I thought as much. What I have discovered, with each Baha'i Fast, is the realization of how little food I actually need. I also find I become more stringent about what I eat post-fast. I don't mean the type of food, Old Fashioned Doughnuts Apple Fritters would still be a part of my eating experience, but the quality. Whether the food is high nutritional value or not, it had better be extra tasty or else I don't want it, especially if the nutrient value is low.

Peace,

pairs4life wrote:

David Hammond wrote:48 hours without food, and no hunger experienced.

I thought as much. What I have discovered, with each Baha'i Fast, is the realization of how little food I actually need. I also find I become more stringent about what I eat post-fast. I don't mean they type of food, Old Fashioned Doughnuts Apple Fritters would still be a part of my eating experience, but the quality. Whether the food is high nutritional value or not, it had better be extra tasty or else I don't want it, especially if the nutrient value is low.

Peace,

Another day and still no obvious hunger pangs, growling stomach, etc.

I do know what you mean, and I do anticipate a recalibration of my food acceptability threshold when I come off the fast.

Apparently Hot Doug's is running a special just for you! (ask them to hold the fries)

Mhays wrote:Apparently Hot Doug's is running a special just for you! (ask them to hold the fries)

Don't think I've said it recently...I love Hot Doug's.