Self-discipline hasn’t been my strength in the past, especially when it comes to food. In the process of writing another blog post on feeling OK in any setting I wondered how I would cope with not eating for a while.
So the challenge I set myself for last week was: Eat absolutely nothing for 5 days, except the odd apple.
Fasting from Sunday evening till Friday evening proved far easier than I had thought. Of course I drank a lot of water, and I also ate a couple of apples. But all in all I was amazed how easy I found it. Interestingly I wasn’t even all that hungry, I guess that our hunger impulse in the developed world is probably quite broken anyways because we rarely go for more than a couple of hours without food.
The experience was fantastic! During the 4th day I felt a little dizzy and had a slight headache but apart from that I had more energy than usual, got loads more done, and was feeling fabulous. Since I had never fasted before this was a great insight: I don’t need to fret about food so much – if I don’t get any for a couple of days it’s perfectly fine.
One interesting insight was that not eating was perfectly fine, but once I had a bite of food containing glucose or white flour I developed a ravishing hunger. How interesting to see the effect of insulin so directly and clearly!
Now, I’ll see whether I can apply my experiences to everyday life, to perceive food as a privilege rather than something that has to be done, and to implement the “eat till you’re 80% full” maxim of Japan.
A wonderful experience that I can only recommend for anyone to try out for themselves!
Try it while running 50km that week (accumulated), to simulate having to also find that scarce food your body needs.
hehe, good idea. My goal is not maximum miserability, though ;)