What I Learned After Fasting for 29 Days Without Any Prior Experience
It showed me that there are always two sides to a coin.
First of all, I am a Muslim.
As a Muslim, I look forward to the month of Ramadan which is an Arabic name that refers to the ninth month in the Islamic calendar. In Islam, Ramadan is considered to be one of the holiest months of the year.
During Ramadan, Muslims are required to fast every day from dawn to sunset. During this period, absolutely no food and water is allowed.
Depending on where you live, the length of the fast widely differs. Countries like New Zealand fast for an average of 11 hours while people living in Iceland will have to fast for 17–18 hours since the number of daylight hours varies for each country.
Fasting during Ramadan is one of the five pillars of Islam and because of this, every Muslim who is able to do so is required to fast.
I am quite ashamed to say this but I have never fasted in my life.
What is the reason?
It’s just that I am too scared. I am 20 years old and am naturally very skinny. It’s very hard for me to go a long time without eating.
Where I live, the fast lasts for around 14 hours so not eating for 14 hours was naturally scary. The thought of even fasting for that long during the hot summer months was very daunting which is why I had never fasted before.
However, when COVID-19 struck last year, I suddenly had more time in my hands. Along with online classes, I started investing more of time in productivity and self-improvement.
I started reading books, watching motivational videos, making good habits while getting rid of bad habits, managing my time better, and trying to become a better person.
During this time, I also grew more open to challenges. I started viewing challenges not as a struggle but as an opportunity to change things up for a bit and to see how it affects me.
2021 came and 4 days before Ramadan was to start (April 14, 2021), I decided that I was not going to fast at all. Some people who don’t fast on Ramadan instead choose to fast for a few days during this month just to get some days completed even though fasting for the whole month is required.
However, I didn’t want to fast at all mainly because this whole month had a high-temperature forecast and I had never fasted before. But the thing is I have been attending online classes since February 2020 and I was still going to have these online classes even during Ramadan.
So even if I did fast, I wouldn’t have to waste my energy going to school thus making my fast even easier. But, I still did not want to fast due to the fear of feeling extreme hunger and passing out. Along with never having fasted in my life before, I was 100% certain that I would not bring myself to fast this year.
“It is not failure itself that holds you back; it is the fear of failure that paralyzes you.” — Brian Tracy
This quote resonated with me because I knew how accurate this was. The reason I was not fasting is not that I had fasted before and I had passed out or felt extreme hunger.
I was not fasting because I did not want to put myself in a situation where I had to suffer physically and mentally. I was not fasting because I was not prepared to not eat for a long time.
I have been in situations before where I didn’t eat breakfast or skipped a meal and felt like I was going to pass out. It’s probably because I am naturally very skinny and weigh 100 pounds.
Yeah, I weigh 100 pounds as a 20-year old. But don’t worry, there is nothing wrong with me. I eat a lot but don’t seem to gain any muscle mass or weight. My whole family is also skinny so I guess it runs in the family.
Essentially, the whole reason why I was not fasting is because of fear. I had never tried fasting so I had never failed on that. I was more afraid of fear of failure that essentially kept holding me back all these years.
So 4 days before Ramadan, I decided to not fast. However, 2 days before this holy month started, I gave myself another chance. I asked myself,
“Are you going to tackle this challenge head-on or are you going to skip AGAIN?”
I knew if I skipped again this year, I would keep skipping every year. I knew I would keep using that fear of failure excuse every time Ramadan came. Something had to change.
“The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now.”
All of 2020, I spent most of my day improving myself both physically and mentally. I would play sports for one hour a day each day while also reading books and watching motivational videos along with attending online classes.
I had improved myself so much that it would have been a disgrace if I did not fast this year. Fasting would have been a challenge and if there is one thing that I have learned it’s that,
“We don’t grow when things are easy; we grow when we face challenges.”
So 2 days before Ramadan, I told myself that not only would I fast this month of Ramadan, but I would fast all 30 days no matter what.
The truth is that it was scary thinking about fasting for 30 days when I have never fasted a single day in my life. But I was prepared nonetheless to take on the challenge.
Day 1
The first day fast was going to start at 4:50 AM so I made sure to wake up at 3:30 AM to pray and eat food before that time. After that time, my fast started. I was expecting the fast to be quite challenging and hard since my body was not used to fasting for 14 hours.
However, throughout the whole fast I did not feel hungry and thirsty which was very surprising.
At around 5:00 PM, I always go outside for one hour to play some badminton with my brother. I made sure to play slow and take regular breaks but even then, my energy was still high.
When it came time to break my fast, I felt as if I didn’t need to eat or drink because I was feeling fine.
This literally shocked me because I know that I can’t go a few hours without eating.
Because Day 1 went very well, I was very sure that all my remaining fasts were also going to go quite well.
After this day’s fast was over, I felt a little bit ashamed at not even trying to fast at least one day all these years. Had I tried for at least one day, I would have seen it’s not that bad after all.
Days 2–26
Along with fasting, I was also attending online classes, playing outside, and doing regular house activities that I used to do before. The only thing that changed was that I was waking up an hour later than usual due to waking up early for Ramadan.
Something that I noticed as the days went along was that my energy levels were slowly rising and my mind became more mentally clear and refreshed. Even though I was fasting, I did not stop doing some activities on purpose in order to save energy.
I was still reading books, attending online classes, playing outside, doing daily activities, etc.
So the fact that my energy levels started rising as the fasts went by was so surprising. It makes absolute sense to feel sluggish, drained, and tired since you don’t have food and glucose supporting you throughout the day.
However, that is not to say that I wasn’t feeling tired at all. I was but my overall energy levels rose. Along with that, I found that I was able to concentrate better on my studies and online classes.
I think this is because I didn’t have to be constantly disturbed by remembering to regularly drink water or eat throughout the day since I was fasting.
By knowing this, I was free to structure my day accordingly without having to add in time for water and food. It is true after studying for a long time, I would get a little bit mentally drained since I didn’t have water and food supporting my brain and body but I still felt as if my mind was more mentally clear.
Fasting for all these days made me feel as if some burden had been taken away from my mind and that I was free to focus my energy where I wanted to. I can’t really describe the feeling, but all I can say I was more mentally fresh and clear.
Lastly, these fasting days also went very well. I would, of course, feel a bit hungry and thirsty at the end of the fast but overall I was going through my day as if I was eating food the whole day which I really wasn’t.
Days 27–29
This is where it kind of got tough.
For some reason, I wouldn’t necessarily get hungry but get thirsty as the day went along. My energy levels also took a slight dip and my mind was getting more mentally drained due to online classes.
During these three days, the temperature was also quite high with it well above 100°F. During days 1–26, the temperature was average but on these last three days, the temperature rose.
I figured that must be the reason why I was feeling more thirsty through the entire day. But I still fasted these days like a champ.
Even though I was feeling a bit sluggish and tired, I still did all of my daily activities that I usually did.
I would gladly wait for my fast to end around the 14-hour mark so I can drink a lot of water.
What I Learned
First of all, I did not fast for 30 days because after one breaks his/her fast on the 29th day of Ramadan, countries all around the world look for the moon. If the moon is sighted, then that means the next day won’t be a fasting day but will instead be Eid al-Fitr which is a religious holiday that marks the end of Ramadan.
If the moon is not sighted, then that means the next day will be a fasting day so 30 days of fast and the day after that will be Eid al-Fitr.
The moon was sighted in my country so the month of Ramadan was 29 days of fast and Eid al-Fitr in my location was May 13, 2021.
What I learned was that I had NOTHING to fear this whole time.
I was so concerned over the years about me passing out or suffering from hunger or not going to be able to make it to the end of the day that I just completely ignored Ramadan every year.
As a Muslim, I am required to fast during Ramadan and I would feel so bad when I would not fast that entire month. The fear of fasting literally crippled me all these years and I couldn’t even find myself thinking about fasting.
But in 2021, not only did I fast but I fasted the ENTIRE 29 days. I was so surprised that I was able to do it.
It was a challenge that I decided to take upon myself and one that I completed successfully.
What also surprised me the most was that it was very fun and rewarding to fast. Not only could I focus more time on what I wanted to do, but my energy levels and state of mind clearly rose.
What Can You Learn
If there is a certain challenge that you want to complete but are too afraid to do it, my single best piece of advice would be to just try it out. You never know how cold or hot the water is without touching it.
If you try out the challenge and you feel good about it, then keep doing it. If you don’t like it, still keep doing it as long as you know it will help you in the long run. If you don’t like it all, just simply stop doing it and find something else.
“It is hard to fail but it is worse never to have tried to succeed.” — Theodore Roosevelt
Fasting had such a great impact on me that I wanted to research what fasting does to the body. Essentially, when the body enters into a state of fasting, the body doesn’t really have to spend a lot of its time constantly digesting food and water so it can spend this time on the renewal, tuning, restoration, and detoxification of the body.
Research has shown that fasting can reduce inflammation in the body, aid weight loss, boost mental performance, decrease the risk of diseases, aid in detoxification and restoration, etc.
Fasting had a profound impact on me and also proved to me that I am more than capable of starting a challenge and completing it.
Not every challenge that you will face in life will be easy to accomplish or overcome. That doesn’t matter and it’s completely okay.
What matters is that you tried to succeed and put your best foot forward.
