> If Christmas is a feast of eat, drink and be merry then it makes sense that the lead up to that- Advent- should be a time of less, a time of restriction and reflection and generosity.
The Asian in me makes it in reverse: eat a lot on Christmas til countdown, and then fast often til Chinese New Year. Pain is more enjoyable than the spirituality, and WhatILerned did a whole segment on how it is viable in the materialist sense.
That's funny because I did the very same experiment last year (6 days fast - nothing allowed but water and tea). And the results truly were astonishing.
There was a clear milestone by day 3 when I stopped feeling the hunger (the first two days were the worst). I guess my body realized he would not be getting food so he was just like "ok, got it. Sorry for bitching about it". Gained a very noticeable boost in clear-thinking, focus and decreased negative thoughts. Up until the end of the fast, I walked around 1h per day and I never felt dizzy or weak, but weight training was out of the equation after day 3 (could only lift 2/3rds of my usual weights and felt dizzy after a few minutes). Another funny thing was my nicotine withdrawal. I was smoking more than a pack a day at the time and when I tried to light one on the 4th day, I felt nauseous and my legs began to shake after three or four puffs. Didn't try coffee during this fast but I have a feeling it would have gone the same kind of way.
Surprisingly, my best days were the last two. I didn't have any of the issues of the begginings and I still wonder to this day how far I could have pushed it past the 6 days mark. I lost 6kgs during this experiment (65 down to 59) and I regained most of it within the next week, so not sure it's a great idea for the folks who'd be tempted to do a long fast for that specific purpose.
During those 6 days I also experienced heightened senses (esp. the touch for some weird reason) and felt more in tune with my body. And yes, of course my post-fast first meal felt like a Michelin-restaurant one.
If you're not working a physically demanding job, I highly recommend you try it, it's a really surprising and interesting experience.
This exactly echoes my own past experience, nicotine and all. And the dizziness comes from lack of minerals for if you add sodium chloride, potassium chloride and magnesium to your water you can fast for a long time and feel good.
Lifting and heavy exercise do decrease but I have found that if you eat some fruit, exercise, eat a meal and then fast afterwards you can have a routine where you can both exercise hard, fast a lot and get the best of both worlds.
Weight loss aside I am convinced now that fasting is incredible for health and that we shouldn’t eat for more than a few hours each day at most.
> If Christmas is a feast of eat, drink and be merry then it makes sense that the lead up to that- Advent- should be a time of less, a time of restriction and reflection and generosity.
The Asian in me makes it in reverse: eat a lot on Christmas til countdown, and then fast often til Chinese New Year. Pain is more enjoyable than the spirituality, and WhatILerned did a whole segment on how it is viable in the materialist sense.
That's funny because I did the very same experiment last year (6 days fast - nothing allowed but water and tea). And the results truly were astonishing.
There was a clear milestone by day 3 when I stopped feeling the hunger (the first two days were the worst). I guess my body realized he would not be getting food so he was just like "ok, got it. Sorry for bitching about it". Gained a very noticeable boost in clear-thinking, focus and decreased negative thoughts. Up until the end of the fast, I walked around 1h per day and I never felt dizzy or weak, but weight training was out of the equation after day 3 (could only lift 2/3rds of my usual weights and felt dizzy after a few minutes). Another funny thing was my nicotine withdrawal. I was smoking more than a pack a day at the time and when I tried to light one on the 4th day, I felt nauseous and my legs began to shake after three or four puffs. Didn't try coffee during this fast but I have a feeling it would have gone the same kind of way.
Surprisingly, my best days were the last two. I didn't have any of the issues of the begginings and I still wonder to this day how far I could have pushed it past the 6 days mark. I lost 6kgs during this experiment (65 down to 59) and I regained most of it within the next week, so not sure it's a great idea for the folks who'd be tempted to do a long fast for that specific purpose.
During those 6 days I also experienced heightened senses (esp. the touch for some weird reason) and felt more in tune with my body. And yes, of course my post-fast first meal felt like a Michelin-restaurant one.
If you're not working a physically demanding job, I highly recommend you try it, it's a really surprising and interesting experience.
This exactly echoes my own past experience, nicotine and all. And the dizziness comes from lack of minerals for if you add sodium chloride, potassium chloride and magnesium to your water you can fast for a long time and feel good.
Lifting and heavy exercise do decrease but I have found that if you eat some fruit, exercise, eat a meal and then fast afterwards you can have a routine where you can both exercise hard, fast a lot and get the best of both worlds.
Weight loss aside I am convinced now that fasting is incredible for health and that we shouldn’t eat for more than a few hours each day at most.
Thanks as always Sebastien.
These two videos inspired me to try intermittent fasting, and the occasional 24-36 hour fast:
https://youtu.be/4UkZAwKoCP8
https://youtu.be/Ihhj_VSKiTs
Also, this book is over 100 years old and contains an even older treatise on fasting: https://www.forgottenbooks.com/download_pdf/The_Art_of_Living_Long_1000235131.pdf
Lastly, Upton Sinclair's "The Fasting Cure" is a short read and inspirational.
Great stuff, that Upton Sinclair one especially, looks fascinating. I’ll be checking that one out for sure. Thanks Adam.
Chet Atkins, damn!
Can’t go wrong with Chet Atkins. Or Chet Baker.