24-Hour Fast Today

Hi,

I'm in the middle of my 24-hr fast today and just wanted to blog at this point in time. It has been interesting and it is slightly different than the 16-hour fasts I had been doing. I seem to be more hungry but water and tea, which are permitted, are very satisfying, so I'm indulging as I feel the need. I drank a 12-oz bottle of water upon waking and had another when taking my supplements and one prescription. I made a cup of hot green tea but it is so warm out that I prefer to let it cool down to tepid before drinking it.

I started last night at 5 p.m. and will eat again today at 5 p.m. so it is not like I'm starving and don't know where my next meal will come from. I live in the USA and in a part of the city that has three fast food joints in a row about half a mile from my house. There are more across the street. There is no lack of food available. And THAT may be the problem.

I got out my copy of "Eat Stop Eat" for a refresher as I began and I was reminded that fasting is a normal part of the human experience. I believe that small meals must have been part of that too. We have access to so much food in the USA that we have forgotten what the real human food experience of our distant ancestors really was like.There are people in the world who still eat that way, but not so much here in the US. We do still have a few religious folk who fast but, as far as I know, there is not must fasting going on here. When was the last time you fasted?

We think of dieting as managing our food intake, or eating a certain kind of food, but have not noticed that "not eating" is actually a part of that, too. It is like type on a page. We notice the black words strung out in paragraphs but don't notice that the white space around them is what makes them usable.

To lose weight you have to eat less food. Short fasts that you do from time to time is a way to eat less food. Fasting also lowers insulin and sugar levels and allows the body to use some of its "storage." Gee, what a good idea!! Use up some of the storage. If taken to extremes fasting can cause problems but you are not going to suddenly become unhealthy because you missed a meal or two or even a whole day of food.

Some of us remember parents who sent them to bed without dinner as a punishment for misbehavior, usually at the dinner table or just before. Nobody died from missing one meal. My parents did not use that particular punishment. Maybe they should have! LOL. The point is that we often forget the simplest form of calorie reduction is to stop eating for a short time. Skip a meal every once in a while.

Brad Pilon's extensive research on fasting is contained in his book, "Eat Stop Eat" and makes for excellent reading. In it he offers his once-a-week 24-hour fast as a way to reduce weight without all the "fuss." He answered every question about fasting and health that I could think of and some I didn't think of. He is selling his PDF online for about $10 at this URL: http://www.eatstopeat.com  Well worth the small price. He covers all the misconceptions we may have about fasting and also points out the extensive health benefits, too.

There are really only two states a person can be in, in relation to eating. You are either eating, or not eating. That's it. Normally we spend more hours not eating than eating, but if things have gotten out of hand and you've been eating too much, extending the "not eating" time is actually good for the body and the mind. It can give the body a real rest from always processing food.

It is now about 1 p.m. and my fast ends at 5 p.m. so I have about four more hours to complete this fast. So it has been about 20 hours since I've eaten anything and, yes, I'm feeling it. But it is not really so bad. I'm thinking some of what I'm feeling may be because I took my supplements on an empty stomach. Perhaps when I'm fasting I should leave them out temporarily, too. I felt fine until I drank half of my tepid green tea. I'm not usually a tea drinker so maybe that is it.

I'm keeping the reason in mind. The reason I'm fasting is to use up a little of my fat. I'm thinking about how successful I will feel when I come to the five o'clock hour and then break my fast. It is only once a week. I will see if it actually helps me to reduce my weight. If it works, it is a lot easier than counting every calorie I put in my mouth the rest of the week. I'm still planning on doing my snack/meal/snack the rest of the time. This is my introduction to a possible new life style.

It always boils down to: you won't know if you don't try it out. Who knows... maybe this is the last time I'll have to try something new. If it works, I'll just plug along at it. If it does not work, well, I'll cross that bridge if I come to it.

Be back soon,

Marcia