Excuse the grotestque image above..
So after a few days of deliberation, with the initial inspiration of this article as the impetus to foster my desire -- I have decided to attempt fasting.
Why? Why would a fairly trim fellow like myself resort to intentionally avoiding food for several days? It's because of the health benefits. It's because I am sick of feeling tired, burnt out and listless. I'm sick of the way my stomach rumbles noisily as it often does without any indication of why. I'm sick of feeling gassy, as if my digestive system is converting everything inside into giant globs of methane that I have to shoot out of my bum.
It's time for a reboot, and I think fasting might just do the trick.
So this would be day number one, and I suppose it would be a good idea to chronicle the emotions and physical sensations I've been experiencing so that I can track my progress and reflect upon it at a later date. God knows it's not for the benefit of any readers out there (there aren't any) and it will double as a diary to help explain how they've found my body face down on the floor clutching an open box of Ritz crackers (that I will have stubbornly refused to open).
I'm 34 years old and my system has been ingesting crap for the past.. 15 years if not more. Cursed with a sweet tooth and a love of greasy foods; this is my attempt to purge all of the garbage out and to get myself back to square one.
Today is the first day, woke up at around 5am and thought I was going to start the fast. But at around 9am, I was like.. "ughh.. maybe I'll just have these before it gets bad.." and I'd polish off the bag of sugar snap peas I had at the bottom of my fridge. Okay, now what?
Well.. At around 11ish that same morning, I'm thinking.. "hmm.. eggs wouldn't be such a bad idea would it? It should be considered 'safe' for my body." Being that I've taken to avoiding processed/sugary foods, I figured my reasoning allowed for the consumption of.. heh.. four eggs, three slices of bacon and a 1/4 of a chopped onion. Some fast this is turning out to be.
Then of course, a coffee afterwards.. God.. I loved drinking it despite the "rules" of fasting to be the avoidance of caffeine, tobacco and alcohol.
(sighs) It's not an easy thing to do. It's 3:30pm at the moment and the final tally so far has been:
1 cup of coffee
about 1 cup of sugar snap peas
a box of chocolate covered raisins.. (I know.. I know..)
4 eggs / 1/4 onion + 3 slices of bacon
So far, the fast is going great! I can feel changes in my body already. /sarcasm
I guess I kind of want to ease into it.. Now that my mind is set on fasting, I have developed a greater awareness of my appetite and consumption. It's not going to be an easy stretch to go for maybe.. 5 days without food and only juice -- but I'll try my best.
Giving up cigarettes... coffee... sweet stuff... brutal. I don't know if I have the constitution to survive all this and push myself down the road to better health, but I know that I damn well should try. It's the attempt that matters more than the result. The desire defines my intention, and the result is nothing more than a welcome surprise. Whatever it will end up being.
Perhaps I'll discover my third eye will open up and can realize my dormant ability to levitate three inches off the ground while squatting naked in a lotus position.
One can only hope.
