Josh's Blog

5 Day Water Fast

5 Day Water Fast

Today is the beginning of the second day of a five day three day water fasting effort. My last meal was on Monday, where I absolutely gorged myself on Moroccan beef and chicken served up with a creamy salad and fries. Afterwards, I went home and made a giant batch of pumpkin seeds roasted in salt and butter. It was delicious, but it also tipped the balance of conscientious health awareness into favor of action.

Water fasting is pretty self-explanatory. You go about a pre-determined number of days without anything but water (black coffee is supposed to be okay too, Ill get into that later). The goal is to break the cycle of poor eating choices, which has been more of an addiction for me lately. As well, I plan to capitalize on some fringe benefits that may come with this massive shift to nothingness. This includes stopping smoking, re-setting my alcohol consumption, firming up the mental fortitude, all the while detoxing the system  little bit. 

Im a bit perturbed right now actually (beyond the irritability that comes with not eating). You see, it has at this point been around 31 hours since my last meal. However, technically the fast has only in effect since my last intake of calories, which came in the form a several cups of honey and milk laden coffee, the last of which went down the hatch somewhere around noon or so I reckon. This means my calorie-free fast is only around 15 hours old. Damn what a penalty!

How I am feeling at this point.

I had a bit of trouble sleeping last night, however I did wake up bright eyed and bushy tailed at about 3:45 this morning. Last night I went to bed somewhere around 9 or so. So really,  I didn’t miss out on too much sleep. Every now and then I get a good little hunger pang but for the most part it is the breaking of the momentum of the habit of eating that has been the biggest challenge. Boredom is a bit of a problem now too. Usually I would eat (now out of the question) or grab a beer and smoke cigarettes outside, but since beer has calories (and I only smoke when I drink) I am unable to indulge. 

This is where the mental fortitude comes in. Today holds a full cupboard of hours that I must endure, all the while smelling the smells of a household hat loves to cook (my wife just walked into the dining room with a bowl of delicious looking porridge).  

The goal is to make five days. Here we go….

Day III     10/22/2020 – 09:56:37AM

I woke up this morning feeling surprisingly good. However that was quickly replaced by a light but persistent hangover like headache. My back is also a bit achy, and I can feel fatigue in my lungs when I go upstairs. My weight this morning is 194 pounds, roughly one pound dropped in 12 hours. Monday I was just under 200 pounds. Ive also noticed that my heart rate has actually increased to around 100 bpm at resting. The average rate is 61 to 77. I have read that this is normal, as the body enters into a fight or flight state, ready to pounce on nearby prey to eat, or flee from nearby predators that sense an easy target. Could be BS, but it makes sense enough to me 

The interesting this is, there is no way my weight can go any direction  but down while on this diet. 

Today is day 3, which is where my body has likely depleted its reserves of glucose and cells will begin the process of eating themselves, in a process called autophagy. Some studies indicate this is beneficial as the cells begin to discard bad proteins and other defective materials that were otherwise ignored when food intake was regular. 

This is the mid-way point. Saturday will be day 5. 

2020-11-03 03:29:37

Right…the update. 

In short, I made it approximately 72 hours, give or take an hour or two ( I dont know when on Monday I had my last bite of food before the fast, but I suspect around 7PM). It wa hard as hell, but I do think I could have made it to day five. The (definitely welcomed) reason why I cut it short at 72 is that my wife told me we are going to meet some friends of ours on Saturday for a sort of ‘send-off’ since I am leaving back to the US (more on that later). Had I continued on with the fast, it would have encroached on our time together, and impacted a nice cheers session. 

So it provided a convenient reason to break it off on Thursday after day three, so that Friday I could re-coup and get the system ready for a bit of alcohol lubricated festivities.

 

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