My 7 Day Fasting Challenge
Reducing Mental Limitations
Mental Limitation: That I can’t go without food/I can’t go to bed hungry.
Seeing as we are all about reducing Mental Limitations of Human Potential, I had a limitation of my own that I had to reduce. I had a belief that I could not go without food for more than 6 hours, and I could not go to bed hungry.
This was causing issues for my health, as I work crazy hours and would often find myself eating late at night, and noticing a small gain in weight, my mood was a bit funny and in the morning I found I couldn’t think clearly and needed more time to wake up.
I was determined to change this as I realised how silly the idea sounded when I spoke about it out loud. So I set my sights on Intermittent fasting. For those of who you don’t know the amazing benefits of fasting, you can read them here.
My fasting challenge was to restrict eating from 2 pm until I woke in the morning, which was consistently around the 5/6am time. I knew this challenge would ensure that I would go to bed hungry and I was determined to end this crazy idea I had.
Day 1
I woke up excited and prepared. I had organised my food to eat throughout the day at work to ensure I was adequately ready. I structured my meal times to fit in three small-medium sized meals and ate my last meal at 1.30pm.
It’s not 10pm, and boy am I ready to eat the house down. I contemplated stopping fasting to eat, and I think about it seriously “I didn’t tell anyone about this challenge, just me. Know one will have to know” I said.
I said to myself, I am not a quitter so why would I start now? I reminded myself that 7 days, out of my whole life was really not a lot of days and that I need to continue things that I start.
I pushed through with the sheer thought alone of time. 7 days, broken up into hours. Small, bite-sized (punny isn’t it?) hours until I can eat again. Yeah, I can do this.
Day 2
I woke up feeling WONDERFUL. It started as I began feeling accomplished, for making it through Day 1, then I noticed my mind was so clear. I didn’t reach for my coffee or food instantly and was comfortable going straight into journaling/planning my day.
I felt on top of the world, which gave me an insane boost for the day of pure, natural confidence. I didn’t even think about hunger.
Then the evening came.
The evening of Day 2 was much easier because I had a track record, and I reminded myself through the hunger at 11 pm that the rewards of feeling good, sticking to something and the feeling of achievement is worth so much more than Avocado on toast.
True story here: I opened the fridge and thought, what’s a little toast. But still proceeded. #ytg
Day 3
I woke up feeling incredible, I ate breakfast at a moderate time.
I noticed through the day that I can rely on so much less food and that I probably overfeed myself.
I made a mental note to watch how much I actually eat in a day when eating throughout Day 3.
I was also comfortable to stop eating earlier at 1 pm.
During day 3 I felt like if I could make it this far I can do anything…
Day 4
I notice that I love my mornings, I can wake feeling fresher, more energized and not relying on anything to wake me up. This feel-good feeling carries through with me throughout the day. Today is the first day I have my last meal at 12 pm, with comfort and ease. I had a meeting at 12.30pm so I had to make do and found it realised wasn’t that bad.
This evening I had to mentally prepare myself for dinner at my in-laws. Have you ever been to an authentic Lebanese Family BBQ? Where the Baba Ghanoush has been freshly roasted, the potatoes are placed on my plate straight from the BBQ (normally) and the fresh Tabouli, with the right amount of lemon that makes your tongue water.
Yeah, I didn’t have any BBQ that night. I felt okay about it, knowing how amazing my lunch will be the next day.
Day 5
Waking up feeling more accomplished than ever, as I knew how strong I was to resist my Mother in law, her cooking, and the BBQ. Girl, this is day 5 and you have got this in the bag.
Day 5 honestly feels like a breeze. I actually have a crazy day at work and in the end, I only eat 1 meal at that is around 10.30am before I forget to eat until I look at the clock at 3 pm. I curse and realise that I can’t eat now, but also register that I am not dying or hungry or starving for that matter.
It’s now 7.30pm, I am emotional, hungry, tired and ready to give up. What was really going on is that I experienced a challenging day, and just wanted to sit down, eat, relax and be comforted by food. Now, removing food from the equation I felt a bit lost as to how I should experience comfort now without food.
Nonetheless, I was proud to have come to that conclusion and feel stronger for knowing that. I did cause a bit of havoc within my mind, and couldn’t settle myself as easily as I can when I can simply get what I want (in this case it was food). But I am, oh so proud of myself for the awareness, ability to push through and ability to accept this as a challenge I could overcome.
Day 6
I am loving the mornings, mornings are my time and this morning I brave out exercise before eating when I wake up. I do a light to moderate jog and actually finished feeling so much more refreshed.
I indulge in a big, hearty breakfast and continue on my day. I look at the calendar to see that tomorrow is actually my last day!
I have an easier and more manageable day knowing the awareness and learnings from the night before. More than hunger, I feel proud. I feel accomplished to the point where that outweighs the hunger.
Day 7
I prepare in excitement and nervousness that this will be my last day. I am excited for sure, as this has been such an eye-opening and belief building exercise that I don’t want it to end, but on the other hand, I am excited to have my evening Dinner meetings back, as I will finally be able to join in again.
Day 8
Yes, it accidentally continued to Day 8. Without realizing, my body was okay to stick to the same routine. I didn’t have a meeting or anything planned and felt I could naturally do without. I continued on and enjoyed the feeling of accomplishment.