Monday, March 13, 2006

Fasting -- For How Long?

I've not eaten in a few days.

I take that back, yesterday I had a Corona which gave me an instant buzz and then a small cup of Paciugo gelato. I was so stuffed I was miserable for about 20 minutes.

The last food I remember having before that was last Wenesday when I crunched on 2 carrots -- I was stuffed before I got to the 2nd carrot but made myself eat it.

I've been drinking a lot of water with lime, sometimes I may crack open a Rockstar and I know on Saturday I had a 2 serving container of Odwalla Super Food....love that stuff!

I'm not sick and heaven knows I'm not anorexic by any stretch of the imagination. I think that since I have knowingly gone into a fast on a few ocassions before, that this time, my body just slid into it naturally.

There are a lot of people that fast for spiritual reasons -- that's not me. What I have noticed is that when I fast my energy level increases and stays steady all day long; I also sleep less and better. My thinking is sharp, I ride the bike fine with no lightheadedness and my skin feels softer.

At some point I will crave food again and at that time I will eat. It will usually start off with craving fruits or vegetables and then something heavier or more decadent.

If you have never tried fasting, I do recommend it. It's natural and it gives your body a break. The average American spends 1/3 of their calories digesting food -- that's an awful lot of energy. If you are interested in the benefits of fasting, definitely make use of Google and some of these sites:
Spring is almost upon us and this is the perfect time to do a fast if you've ever considered one!

2 comments:

New York City's Watchdog said...

Not anorexic? Sounds pretty anorexic to me... although I do understand the idea of detoxifying your system. Usually I'll do something similar between Easter and Memorial Day. I drop caffeine like a bad habit... drink only water (usually Poland Spring)... and kick up a high protein low card diet. Of course... come Memorial Day, it all goes out the window with the season's first funnel cake.

It sounds like a very hard fast your on... maybe take some vitamins... I hear they have new Flintstone flavors.

Helen said...

I DO NOT recommend only water. You're body needs nutrients and you should juice if you are able. At least twice as many vegetables as fruits. If you do not feed you body anything, it will begin to store fat as a defense mechanism. If you get hungry and find you want to eat a little something have a few avocado slices or half a banana. That should do it.
Spiritual fasting kicks in at about the 28-30 day. Not the way to start out. Maybe start with a 7-10 day fast. Then, what I did, was do a 3 day fast every few weeks to maintain some sort of system cleanliness.
Now you've got me wanting to fast.
;)
Peace...........