I successfully completed my 24 hour fast. I enjoyed the experience a great deal. It wasn’t challenging, particularly, and I found it interesting that I wasn’t very hungry. Drinking tons of water helped that. I did, however, find some interesting things.
1.) I think I’ll fast once a week from now on as a test of discipline.
2.) I learned more about my emotional eating points from this.
3.) I learned I have new bad habits to break.
I like the discipline of telling my body that I intend to accomplish something outside its normal parameters. Kind of like running the marathon. I told my body to expect to be thrashed for several hours, and then I executed against that. This feels the same.
When I feel emotional, I feel hungry. Stress, especially. That seems to be the biggest trigger. I also seem to still want to use food as a reward. I say this because yesterday, when I felt stressed, I thought about eating. When I finished a project I was working on for a while, I thought about getting myself a snack. So, without fasting, I wouldn’t have known.
I learned that my drive home suppers, even though I’m eating out of Trader Joe’s (kind of all natural grocery store stuff, but inexpensive), I’m eating more because of traffic stress, which is why I seem more hungry and why I’m not losing an ounce.
Scale-wise, I showed a 3 pound drop from this one day. I think that’s fairly bogus, but it’s just something I’m noting here. Definitely NOT a good way to lose weight.
When I decided to eat again, I started with a leftover smoothie Kat had made me. It tasted good, but it wasn’t satisfying. Why? Because I wanted something MENTALLY/EMOTIONALLY rewarding. Another discovery. The food was more of an icon than nourishment at that moment. And that’s interesting, too.
I think fasting, for me, falls into the category of proving that I am committed to my vision. That’s why I might keep it around a while longer. Thanks for everyone’s comments on the matter.
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{ 9 comments… read them below or add one }
Ok, man, but you be careful with that. Don’t want to go setting up a yo-yo effect with your body. Don’t want it to go storing extra fat to save up for the fasting day. It does sound like it was an intereting experiment to see where and why you are eating excess though.
I like to fast once in a while. Once a year for a three day sure tells the mind what the body needs. I start out on day one whining about wanting junk food and by day three all I want is something simple like an apple.
those are some interesting observations. i’m have food cravings sparked by stressful situations so your thoughts are very interesting. hmmmm.
I like the idea of having enough discipline to handle a fast. But the past year, I’ve tried instead to maintain a regular, consistent pattern to my eating. When I tried to fast, I seemed to make up for it the next day with too much food. I do agree with you about emotional, stress eating. And when that happens, a cleansing day is probably a good idea. A thoughtful post, Chris.
I don’t seem to be able to do any thing “fast” whether its running or to do with not eating…lol.
Interesting post, Chris, thanks for telling us about it.
Just be sure that you don’t stress yourself around a hard workout. Other than that, sounds like a good plan. I realized that I do the “physical” side of fasting about once a month without meaning to - I’ll eat lunch one day, and won’t eat again until dinner the next day. Not exactly the same bennies though. I like the idea of an intentional three-day event.
My daddy always said “Everything in moderation” is the best way to live, be it eating, drinking, running, whatever. To eat as a stress reliever is probably better than drinking for it.
I found out recently (in my “seasonal” work life) that when the stress drops the weight stays on, even if eating the same feed bag load.
Be careful, as Jon said, about the yo-yo effect.
I totally agree with you about emotional eating,, I eat when I am stressed, sad, happy,,, errr lots of eating going on!! I find it easy to fast,, I find stict diets easy, tho not for long times.. THE HARDEST thing to do is to eat in moderation. So simple yet … not what I/we always do.
Heather