Wednesday, January 7, 2015

Day 1 -- Water Fast

Y'all, I thought the first day of my fast would be pretty simple, seeing as how I'd done a few "trial" fasts leading up to this big one. And it was, with the major exception that I was hungrier than I expected to be. It might sound sort of silly, but once your body gets used to fasting (which mine has), you can trick yourself into sort of "wishing away" the hunger. The mind is an amazing thing, and I've always had good experiences avoiding true hunger on my fast days.

This time, I wasn't so lucky. I blame the tons and tons of carbs I'd inhaled over the holidays. That, and I'd taken a break from intermittent fasting altogether, forgoing my usual two days a week of eating under 500 calories. Well, that was a big mistake. Because my mind and my body somehow decided that food was a MUST. I drank as much water as I could to overcome the growling stomach (which, let's be honest, is more of an annoying embarrassment than anything else), and sort of threw myself into my work to keep my mind off food. And luckily, it worked!

See the source imageI think another thing I had going for me (or for the fast, rather) was the fact that I stepped on the scale at the beginning of Day 1 and was absolutely SHOCKED to see such a high number. I had somewhat expected to have gained a few pounds since Thanksgiving.. but 8 pounds? Good grief. That's just ridiculous. Now I know why my clothes have been feeling so tight lately! The flip side of the coin is that every time I think about shortening my fast and having something to eat, I remember the number on the scale. That's more motivation than I could ask for!

As far as other symptoms aside from hunger, I was fine. I had plenty of energy at work and tried to get ahead on some of my tasks so that later in the week (when I expect to not be feeling so good) I don't have to struggle to get things done.

I did drink more water than usual.. mostly to curb the hunger pangs, but also because water is the best thing to help clean your system out. A lot of people do some pretty extreme things to cleanse their body and their intestines during a fast, but I don't plan on doing any of that. I believe the body naturally cleanses itself without any interference, so I'll let it do its job properly.

I'm used to skipping breakfast and lunch pretty regularly, so that didn't really phase me, but the funny thing was that by the time I got home last night from work, I had the distinct feeling that there was something I was supposed to do before getting in bed to continue my Friends marathon (hooray, it's finally on Netflix!). But I was mistaken, obviously. Because there were no meals to prepare or eat, and there was no cleaning up involved afterwards. It's amazing how much time we really do spend on planning, preparing, cooking, and cleaning up after our meals. When we take that out of the occasion, you really would be surprised how much time we can save!

I'm hoping I was able to time this fast right by starting on Tuesday. I don't plan on taking any time off from work, and Day 4 of my fast is where things may start to get a little more intense.. since Day 4 is Friday, I'll just have to make it through that one day at work (when most people aren't even in the office and things settle down a bit) and then I can spend the weekend in bed, letting my body recharge and repair while I rest quietly.

Upwards and onwards we go!

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