Five Day Fast Observations
I will be writing down my daily observations of my water only fast.
Day 1:
I’ve already gone 24 hours without eating. It has been easy. The primary reason why it has been easy is because I’m used to intermittent fasting. Intermittent fasting usually runs 16–18 hours with 6–8 hours for eating. The only difference in day one has been that I’ve gone a few hours longer without eating. My body is adapted to this length so the fast has started off easy.
I have noticed an immediate increase in my sense of smell. Can smell significantly better than a day ago. I presume it is for two reasons: Mind is beginning to think heavily about food causing my body to give more attention to smells that previously would have been overshadowed by other distractions, and my body wants me to eat so any smell of food is strengthened to get fed.
I’m already beginning to feel sluggish and slow in movement. Body is telling me to eat and not feeding it makes it unhappy.
The thought of food continues to increase. Probably makes up 20% of my surface thoughts even as I do a good job in keeping them controlled.
The next 48 hours will be the most difficult. My body will really begin asking me for food.
The next few days I will begin to walk more than usual. Normally walk 3–4 miles. Will try to ramp that up to 5–6 miles. While also going to the gym daily.
I like to act like I’m out hunting and this is the least I can do.
Day 2:
I’ve already gone 54 hours without eating. It’s been far more easy than my previous fasts. I’ve felt no hunger. I think about food all the time. Conversations turn into food conversations. I’m imagining the different types of foods I will be eating.
My daily intermittent fasting routine has greatly strengthened by ability to not eat for long periods. I expected today to be difficult food wise, but it was a breeze. I did feel a heavy head and overall mental cloudiness around the 40 hour mark. But keeping busy kept it away the rest of the day.
I feel physically weaker. Went to the gym but barely felt like lifting weights or anything. Felt more like I wanted to conserve my energy.
Walked 3.3 miles today. A lot less than expected, but will make it up tomorrow. Aiming to walk 6–7 miles. Will be a busy day. Averaging 4.2 miles this week.
I’ve been surrounded by food today and felt no need to eat nor any physical hurt. The food looked amazing and I wish I would eat it but besides that not much difficulty. Looking great so far.
As I think about eating again which is common during a fast.. I think why it hurts to eat so much food at one sitting after a fast. First time I did a fast I ate everything I could find after breaking the fast (ending it). Pizza, sandwich, eggs, sushi, etc. I went absolutely HAM eating this food. This was shortly followed by a really bad stomach ache. My digestive system wasn’t ready for it.
As I think about the past evolution of humans this reaction doesn’t make sense. We should be able to eat large amounts of food shortly after not eating anything. We finally found the prey we had been able to hunt and now we eat as much as possible in preparing for the next hunt. Any feedback on this idea would be appreciated.
This being said then my stomach ache is more a symptom of my habits (fast infrequently and don’t eat lots of food every time I break fast) which makes me more prone to stomach ache as opposed to eating lots of food to break fast and make it a habit and get my digestive system used to it.
Something I will ponder in the coming days. I’m thinking about breaking my fast with a lot of food this time as opposed to previous times where I started with a broth and moved up.
Day 3:
I’ve gone 77 hours without eating. It’s surprisingly extremely easy. The fight I deal with is mental than physical. Haven’t felt any hunger pangs, not physically hungry. It’s like my body knows no food is coming and doing what it needs to do. It isn’t wasting time annoying me.
To make up for my weak showing yesterday at 3.3 miles walking. I walked 11.2 miles. Weekly average is now 5.6. Walked so much my feet hurt. Wasn’t even wearing the right walking shoes. But that’s the beauty of fasting. You can unload all this luggage to deal with during fast. Walking is simulating hunting. And today I walked 11 miles to find an animal. Didn’t find any. Will try again tomorrow. Expect to walk 4–5 miles. Maybe more.
I love watching people eat when I fast. I see the enjoyment they have. The satisfaction. Instead of eating the food I’d normally be eating. Now I have time to talk to them and actually observe how they eat (not in a weird way). And I love it. I’m going head to head with my seduction which is the food and I get to see someone enjoy it as I practice my self control. And even going through that I felt no hunger. Felt more satisfaction. Happiness.
It’s crazy but now I want to do more dinners and invite people. It shows you how important eating with others is and the importance food plays in that dynamic.
Since I haven’t been distracted by pains and have been able to control my food thoughts I’ve been able to think more deeply about fasting and food in general. It’s been great. Normally I would focus on the fact that I wasn’t getting food.
Day 4:
96 hours. The final day is upon us. 24 hours to go.
Today was similar to yesterday. I was exposed to a lot of delicious food. Either by walking past it, smelling it, or sitting down to watch others eat.
Had a lunch meeting at my favorite Italian restaurant. Had the devil on my shoulder telling me to just quit and gorge the food. Obviously didn’t let it happen, but the temptation was extremely high. Meeting went well. The smell of the food was intoxicating.
The rest of the day has been my head telling my head to give up and eat:
“I don’t need another day of this fasting. I already got the benefit.”
“You’re too skinny. Just eat!”
“How delicious does that meal sound right now.. you can eat it now.”
To make matters worse.. I’ve been watching these ASMR videos which basically show people eating food. It’s torture, but I enjoy it.
If you want to be hungry do not watch: https://youtu.be/TGincJCrBtg
The ASMR community is insanely big. Some of these videos average 500k views. Just as insane it is to watch people play video games, there are million watching people eat food! Crazy.
One aspect that I’ve found interesting is the different cultures, how they eat, and what they eat.
This is a good example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E4qq7DFPNCw
How Koreans eat and all the plates they have.
The first time I had Korean food I was completely lost and even after eating it the traditional way I didn’t know much of the “common sense” ways of eating it.
Videos like these make me learn how to eat, what works with what, and now I know how to eat these foods.
Anyways. My day has been a waste. Walked 4.5 miles. Mentally was too busy thinking about food. My sole focus is food right now. Primarily because I know I will be eating soon.
My next update will be me after eating!!! Can’t wait.
Day 5:
The day went smoothly as I knew food was coming. The thought of food reached a level of hysteria that was abruptly ended before the beginning of day 5. It felt easy. Like walking to the finish line.
All I needed to do was sleep and wait a few hours until eating. While I was ready to eat and eager. I look back at my need for food with the look of a lord looking at a peasant. Higher level me was enjoying the fast the whole time, while the animal in me kept making me think of what food I will eat and useless shit like that.
120 hours later. I’ve just finished eating a lot of food in a short amount of time. Eating was delicious. I felt I had a never ending pit to throw food in.
Now I’m full and reminisce. Eating is overrated, but too tempting to resist. I greatly enjoyed everything I ate, but felt empty. Like I was dumbed down from the weight of the food. The quality of the food greatly affects how one feels.
When you fast you have the weight of food lifted off of you. You don’t have this weight holding you down. I felt much clearer in a state of no food vs. state of food. This state radically changes based on what is eaten.
Imagine the change you’d experience going from a 5 day fast to just junk food.
Imagine the change you’d experience going from a 5 day fast to just meat.
These tests would be good to do. The changes would be visible and immediate. You go 0–100.
I had significant control over my thinking and physical feeling of the fast. Key observations were made that I can then apply with my next fast. If I am able to correct these animal cries and needs then I can focus on what is truly important. The thoughts of food and obsession with seeing food was a bit much. More time could’ve been spent on productive things.
The thought of food is very peasant. The lowest form. In the past you would be thinking of the prize the food. Now you should be thinking of the prize your curiosity.
The ability to think and question things increases during a fast. I believe you are smarter during it because you are light and need to use your brain to solve the problem at hand which is getting food.
Since you know for sure you will get food at a certain day then you can get your brain to solve problems that gets other things.
Every fast comes with new achievements and modes of operation.
The easier it gets physically, in terms of being able to thrive with an empty stomach, the more you can do.
I will be fasting more often now. Too many benefits in living, but also in thinking and decision making. Deeper insights can be gained on an empty stomach.
I was very pleased to see the amount of interest in my fast. This is the reason why I am tracking it and publishing it. (Also makes a fast so much easier when you have people expecting you to do it even if it’s online)
I will be updating this post for the next 5 days. It will be published on my twitter at @veritasnaut.
