Monday, July 11, 2011

40 Day Fast Day Seven: 7 days without food makes one weak ha ha ha

Hello, day seven. Today I can smell WATER. Even nice, clean water. I could smell my shower. Oh, and if I don’t shower, I smell like pomegranate juice and kiwi gone bad. I smell like an over-ripe mango. I don't know what I'm going to do if my sense of smell keeps sharpening. I might have to get nose plugs.

Someone is going to pay for this mood I am in!
I've been a little irritated today. Could be circumstance, right? If I wasn’t fasting it’d be easy to blame other things. “Oh I didn’t sleep well last night” or “oh I missed breakfast.” But I did sleep well last night and I haven’t had breakfast for a week. So what’s left to blame? Hormones? Astrology? My own character? One of the worst things about a fast is that you realize that those little cracks in your character that you'd like to blame on circumstance are still YOUR CHARACTER. The lack of food isn't to blame for me being a jerk. I'm the only one to blame for that. It's pretty easy to be a nice, wonderful person when you're fat and happy.

I realized today that this fast hasn’t been particularly spiritual. It's not that spiritual things have been lacking, I've still been praying and listening to Bible talks and blah blah blah, but I haven’t really been focusing on spiritual things AS A RESULT OF my fast. I’m filling food times with juice and work instead of reflection or prayer or anything like that. This is an issue that will need some looking into.

Today is the first day when I’ve had that unconscious urge to pop something in my mouth, while holding out oyster crackers for the baby. I don't even like oyster crackers all that much. It's sort of the food you eat at a chowder restaurant when they've forgotten your order.

Also… and I don't know how to say this delicately, but I pooped today. There’s still something in there after eight days? Ew. Since we’re on the subject, don’t wear button fly jeans when you’re fasting. You have to pee a lot, and you're tired, and you're cranky, and it makes for a frustrating combination.

I tried some chicken broth today on the advice of Nurse Shasta (all natural, no sodium, etc). It was horrible. It tasted like someone had juiced a dead chicken and then warmed it up. I could taste it on my tongue. Blech.


  1. So, you're really enjoying this fast then?

  2. Bronyr8:31 AM

    Mike, do yourself a favor - if you fast, do NOT eat anything, only drink pure water. The body goes into shutdown mode and you're NOT hungry. If you keep your body fed it will nag you to no ends to eat. You can fast on pure water for a very long time - 40 days is common. When you get up from sitting/laying position you will experience a few seconds rush of the blood to your head - that's normal. You become very sensitive to pollution, so stay out of the city. Do whatever your body is telling you - usually rest or walk depending on it says.

  3. Bronyr--

    I did a juice fast, no food... my hunger went away right around this time... and I live in the city, so I wasn't able to get away from it. I didn't notice any sensitivity to pollution, but it rains a good amount here....