First time fasting report - Ian

Here's a report from another first time faster:

Hello,

Here is a short report on my first 24 hr fast.

I have struggled with my eating habits for 20 years, I have recently improved my eating but wished to have more control of my cravings, so after inspiration from another my first fast took place.

I decided to start in the evening 1830hrs until 1830 hrs the next day here is how it went:

The evening was quite easy, and I didn't have to think too much off to bed at 10 pm, with a glass of water.

Up at six the next day and off for a busy day at work, said yes to colleagues for a morning cup of tea, .........almost......that was habit, so I had a nice glass of water instead.

The first time I became aware of the fast was about 2pm, so I had some more water, and got ready for the drive home.

From around 1700 hrs I seemed to produce a lot of saliva, and my jaw ached slightly? Was I losing control? No!

I drove home feeling hungry

1830 hrs approached, so I ensured that my forthcoming meal was the usual small portion , or what was the point of all the effort.

1830 nice meal, and the following weeks cravings seemed more manageable!

The fast for me was a mental game, the body was fine with it, onto the next one.

Ian

The psychology of fasting

Disclaimer
If you have an addictive personality (remember as pragmatic fasters we seek self knowledge) then fasting may not be for you, at least until you have a good handle on controlling your behaviours.

On the surface fasting may seem to be about deprivation, depriving yourself of food, either to lose weight or because everyone is doing it, or for some other reason.

However fasting is not about deprivation, its not a method of self abuse, and because we need to come at it from a stable perspective, we follow procedures, such as the ones I have outlined in earlier posts and this helps to provide a context for the fasting to occur in. Defining the start and end times, and the nature of the fast before starting avoids you moving the goalposts during the fast, this is especially important during longer fasts where the urge to eat can reduce to nothing (or close to it) and you can feel like you could go on forever.

Fasting should be seen as a method to celebrate your body and its vitality, a natural way of cleansing and healing, a source of comfort and self knowledge, it's not about punishment or harming your body. It's also one of the reasons that I also advocate finishing a fast strong, that is knowing you could have gone further. I also advise a very slow and gradual build up, allowing your body the time it needs to adjust, and being sensitive to the rate that your body wants to go at. Not everyones body is ready to jump into a 24 hour fast right away, and even if you are, there is no harm whatsoever in taking it slowly.

It's also not a quick fix for binging (cycling between feast and famine can put excessive demands on your body) fasting (should you choose to incorporate it into your life) should be simply another component of a healthy lifestyle.

In summary, fasting is and can be a very beneficial experience for us all, as with most things taking it easy and following sensible guidelines allows for an effective and sustainable practise.

So what is a long fast really like?

Recently, I decided to undertake a 100+ hour fast. The family were away so I was able to not eat for a sustained period without worrying anyone.

The first thing I did was to plan my start and stop times. 10PM Sunday until 10am Friday. The fast was to be beverages only, no food. As usual i mainly drank lemon water with occasional cups of decaf tea and coffee.

Once I had my plan, I needed to be sure that I was fully committed to performing the fast, I made sure that there was no fresh food that would go off while I was fasting (this has occasionally tempted me to eat so as not to waste the food but that's just a trigger of mine).

Sunday
Went to sleep at my normal time (around 10pm) feeling happy and intrigued to see what the next few days would hold.

Monday
A busy day, an hour of martial arts in the morning, lots of chores to get done, and then 90 minutes more martial arts in the evening. Drinking lots of water and feeling good. As I always fast on Mondays I didn't expect any issues and didn't have any (This is the benefit of feeding off previous successes). Went to sleep at 10pm

Tuesday
Woke up feeling a little congested (commonly known as the low carb flu) but otherwise fine. Weighed myself and was 4.4 lbs down. A nice start! Today's fun activity was hiking in the brecon beacons (wearing a 28lb pack) that was about a 4 hour activity, the afternoon was spent walking around and getting some other chores done. Felt colder than usual this evening (often reported side effect of fasting although i only get it occasionally). Tried to get to sleep at the usual time but was literally overflowing with energy, took another 3 or 4 hours before I got to sleep

Wednesday
Woke up feeling fantastic, full of energy, not congested in the least. Weighed myself - down 3 lbs. 60 minutes of martial arts is a great way to start the day, once that was done, lots more walking and miscellaneous chores. Feeling very serene and peaceful, feeling a little warmer than usual (another common side effect at least for me). Went to sleep at the usual time, slept like a baby.

Thursday
Woke up feeling fantastic and full of energy again. Weighed myself, down 1.2 lbs. No martial activities planned for the day, but had some shopping and things to do, so ended up being quite busy and active. Temperature normalised from this point onwards. Started to think about what I would consume in the recovery phase.

Friday
Woke up feeling great (had to get up earlier) with a 2.5 hour drive ahead of me, weighed myself - down another 1.6. Had a drink, shower and then drove off. Got to 10am and although not feeling at all hungry, had something to eat. The reasons I didn't continue were that I knew I could go longer (one of my golden rules is to always finish knowing you can go further), it was my longest fast so far and I didn't want to push it too hard too soon, and that I had achieved what I had set out to.

Summary
I experienced very little hunger pangs or cravings, this I attribute to the preparations I had put in place, and the long term fasting I have performed establishing a solid base. I had also removed as many of my triggers as I could.

At the end of this fast I was down 10.4lbs, but more importantly I had learnt that I could go that long without food without any detrimental effects, physically, emotionally or spiritually.

I am currently planning a longer fast of around 8 days, until that one I will continue with my weekly 40+ hour fasts and daily intermittent fasting using a 16/8 window.

Have you given in to cravings?

Come, come, whoever you are.
Wanderer, worshipper, lover of leaving.
It doesn’t matter.
Ours is not a caravan of despair.
Come, even if you have broken your vow
a hundred times.
Come, yet again, come, come.

Rumi.



As we start making changes in our lives (in the immediate context) by fasting, we start to come up against inner resistances and blocks. Some of these can be extremely strong and powerful, very clever in outwitting our defences and inevitably at some point we may give in.

So you set yourself a target, be it a certain period of time, or not eating certain foods, or whatever it may be and then finding yourself suddenly undone - what to do?

The very first thing to do is not to blame yourself, as pragmatic people we realise that we are human, and not just that but what is done is done, and the important thing is to get back on the horse.

Failure, is not a pleasant word, it has many negative connotations, and we will sometimes strive to go to extraordinary lengths to conceal failure from ourselves and from others. However, failure is simply feedback, in this case it is feedback that on this occasion, a plan that had been made was undone. That is all it is. When we deny failure we miss learning from the experience and turning the negative feedback into a positive experience.

Whenever you encounter failure, rather than denying it, embrace it, open yourself to it, and vigorously pursue the lessons that are contained within it.

What exactly was it that led to be you being undone? Is this a trigger for you? (a trigger is anything that can have a disproportionate effect on you - for instance the smell of vanilla could be a trigger for comfort eating). What exactly about the trigger presented the issue this time? Were there other pressures or circumstances that contributed?

Take a long hard look at exactly what happened and do this as soon after the lapse as you are able - remember the more you learn from this experience, the more you turn this temporary blip into solid strategies that will prevent it happening again.


How you move forward from the blip depends very largely on what the exact nature of the blip is, in later posts we'll discuss some of them - in the meantime if anyone has anything specific they would like input on - please let me know.

Fasting go-fasters

Once you really start getting into your fasting, you may wonder how to really make the most of the time you spend fasting. After all you are resting your digestive organs, allowing the energy normally spent in that process to be put to whatever use the body decides to use it for, so is there anything else you can do? Glad you asked :)

Lemon Water
I've mentioned before, this is my go to drink when fasting (actually I drink it all the time), it's great for assisting in liver detoxification and I've also read that its great at eliminating estrogenic substances from the bodies.

Dowsing
Yes, I'm referring to pouring water over yourself rather than looking for underground rivers. As your largest organ, your skin is used both for absorption and elimination. Dowsing is a very big subject which I won't attempt to cover here, but it really can be as simple as pouring the coldest water you can get over yourself.

Detox baths
Bathing in a bath with either Epsom salts or Himalayan salts can also be a great detox, the salts help to draw impurities in the body out through the skin. You can find a lot of info on google (also a good place to look for info on dowsing)

Meditation
While you are fasting your body (by restricting food) why not apply fasting to your mind? Meditation can allow you to let your thoughts take a back seat to what's really important. When we fast (for our body) we restrict what goes into our mouths, when we fast for our minds we can restrict what comes out of our mouths.


Just a few ideas that may or may not be of interest to you.

Fasting and Exercise

The concept of exercising while fasting seems to be one of those topics that can quickly polarise people, with most falling on either the don't do it (it's bad), or do it lots (it's good).

As with most things I am pragmatic and say do what works for you :)

The common reason for exercising is based on the premise that in a time of calorie restriction (ie fasting), that exercising has two benefits over and above its normal benefits. Firstly, the calories expended have more value (ie as you are not eating you are creating a greater caloritic deficit when exercising than would be the case if you were not fasting), and secondly it is broadly assumed that your metabolism slows when fasting and exercise increases your metabolism.

There are bits of information coming out recently that indicate that your metabolism doesn't slow during a fast - at least within fasts of a certain duration (see this article: http://www.marksdailyapple.com/forum/thread29011.html - this was kindly sent to me by exercise and fitness guru Michael Rook). BTW MarksDailyApple.com is full of great information on exercise and the paleo lifestyle if you are so inclined.

So while I don't 100% buy into the metabolism slowing effects of fasting, I don't see any reason to curtail my exercising on days that I happen to be fasting. Just as I don't change my training plans if its raining, I don't change them if I am fasting.

Recently I completed a 108 hour fast (my longest to date - I will be posting an article at some point that details what I experienced day by day on that fast) during that fast which covered four full days, I did 2.5 hours martial arts one day, hiking in the brecon beacons the next, over an hour martial arts the following day, and nothing the final full day. These were the activities that I happened to have scheduled that week, and the fast just happened to align with it.

Experiment with the combination of fasting and exercise, determine what works for you, and above all have fun with it :)

Cravings - What they are and what to do with them

Cravings
Now may be a good time to think about cravings.In my view there are mental / emotional cravings and physical cravings, each needs to be thought about a little differently.

Mental Cravings
Your mind loves being stimulated (don't be embarrassed everyone does :)), whether its channel surfing, continual texting, passing judgements mentally and/or verbally your mind likes to keep itself busy. One source of stimulation is food based. It just loves to taste the wonderful foods out there, and will encourage you to eat as often as possible in order to receive that stimulation.

Emotional Cravings
These I see as a variant of mental cravings, although they are more specific in that at some level a positive association between food and happiness has been created. Not that this is always a bad thing, its good to enjoy your food, the problem begins when due to feeling stressed / tired / unloved, you are eating as a compensatory mechanism rather than because you are hungry.

Physical Cravings
These come in a couple of variants also. The first one is honest to goodness hunger, I think we can all recognise this one - but be careful it's harder than you might think. One of the indicators I will use is my stomach rumbling loudly and often - if that's not happening then I'm not hungry. I will also consider how much work I am expending vs my previous intake and decide if I am really hungry or not. Again this is where self knowledge comes in.

The second variant is similar to emotional cravings but in this case your mind / brain is addicted to food. There is a lot of material out there regarding the possibility of addiction to carbohydrates being similar to that of heroin. I am not a medical professional however I have seen from my own and others experience that giving up favourite carbs and / or fasting can be extremely difficult.

How to deal with Cravings
There are a few methods that can be used to deal with cravings:

Distraction
While I was still adjusting to fasting I would use this method a lot. You tell yourself that whatever you are craving you will have in 30 minutes if you still want it. You have to be strong with yourself on this. Then keep yourself busy / occupied - in 30 minutes or whenever you notice the craving again (after the 30 minutes) do the same again. Tell yourself you will have it if you still want it in 30 minutes. This is a great method for gaining control.

Have a drink instead
And by drink I mean water (or my preferred water beverage water with lemon juice), often times we confuse being hungry for being thirsty. Fasting is a great way to get to the point where you can tell when you are thirsty and when you are hungry. A great resource on the benefits of water and thirst vs hunger is 'The body's many cries for water' by Dr F. Batmanghelidj

Exercise
Exercising reduces hunger, and also helps you burn calories and a whole host of other wonderful things. Another fantastic resource regarding the effects of exercising on the mind and brain can be found in 'Spark - The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain' by John J Ratey M.D

Introspection
Sometimes figuring out why you are craving something can help unwind the craving trail and you'll discover you no longer want it. For instance, lets say you are craving crisps (chips to US readers), its commonly considered that the desire for crunchy foods is linked to stress. You may ponder what it is you are stressed about - this is easy when you know what it is, its more difficult when you don't, but sitting and reflecting and looking over your day can sometimes yield some useful insights. As you may have noticed across the various posts on here, I am a firm believer in Fasting as a method of personal enquiry and knowledge and it is in dealing with our cravings that the greatest insights may be found.

Thoughts
Ultimately cravings and emotions are mental reactions to various things, that is they are thoughts. Thoughts in my view are NOT your you are NOT your thoughts, however we tend to identify with them and when we do we lose perspective on who we are.
Identifying yourself with your thoughts, is one of the reasons that we will give into cravings, however, if we can maintain the perspective that the thought is just a thing that floats in and out of our mind and doesn't belong to us more than to any other person (and yes I know its hard :) ) it becomes much easier to stand apart from the craving and not give in.

Meditation is a good way to develop the mental focus that allows us to stand apart from thoughts. Just another tool in your toolbox should you be so inclined.