Thursday, May 27, 2021

4th Fast

 This one was 48 hours. Much more challenging than 36, because the second night I got only two or three hours' real sleep; I dozed a couple more, but it wasn't near enough. My body clearly thought this was no time for sleeping: I should be out tracking an elk or gathering a yam. Maybe next time I'll cut my caffeine in half; that might help.

It will be interesting to see where my numbers rebound to, as I re-feed. In previous fasts they've bounced back surprisingly little. I give myself permission to eat the food I missed, the day after my fast -- i.e. if I want to double the portions on my next three meals, I can -- but so far I seem to want only one make-up meal, and then I'm back to my usual routine. I actually expected a lot more bounce-back in the numbers than I'm seeing. If it turns out that losing weight was as simple as fasting occasionally, I'm going to be pissed. All those elaborate meal plans and finicking about macros! 

I'm joking (mostly). I had to learn how to eat way differently. I had to give up processed foods. I had to learn to plan. I had to learn to maintain a kitchen. I had to give up spontaneous eating, except on three or four special occasions per year. It wasn't going to work without that.

But still, compared to the misery of continuous calorie restriction, this is just absurdly easy. Sure, I get hungry from time to time, but I was hungrier -- way hungrier -- when I was fat. When I was fat I was ferociously hungry several times a day. I think people who have never had a disordered appetite do not have any conception of how desperate that hunger is. Compared to it a 48-hour fast is a walk in the park. Who cares? I get to eat day after tomorrow. It's not like I'm going to starve.

It's downright comical to see the graph of my weight drop like a stone, off the bottom of the chart, after so many years of grimly driving it downwards, pixel by pixel. 148.5. But we have still to see the bounce-back, and to see if cravings arise. So far, nada.

I finished the fast at 2:00 yesterday, which is more or less dinnertime in my current routine. I ate "breakfast," and then a couple hours later I ate "lunch," and I was done. Now I'm back to the usual.

3 comments:

am said...

Ha! We weigh the same now. I'm good in the upper half of the weight range for my height and you are good, after a fast, at "off the bottom of the chart" for your height at 148.5.

What I thought was not possible has turned out to be a lasting every-day experience. No cravings. Freedom from the disordered appetite that I experienced for nearly half of my life. Enjoying my life and food more than ever before. Grateful.

Dale said...

Yeah, likewise. I really didn't think it was possible. You have been an inspiration, by the way, am!

Sabine said...

Amazing that you can go back to eat normally after a fast! Good for you.

One of my favourite Irish people, the author Dervla Murphy (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dervla_Murphy) who travelled most of her adult life on foot or by bicycle and wrote amazing books about it, eats only one meal a day, a hearty breakfast. Other than that only tea and a beer or two at sundown.

I only fast now when I have the dreaded annual colonoscopy - the prep day of which is easier to handle if I slow down/cut off food intake 4-5 days beforehand. But for the next couple of days after the procedure, I am in digestive colicky hell - no matter how little and/or what I eat. I hate those days, usually spent with chamomile tea, watery porridge and a hot water bottle.