Finished!

I am done with my fast. A bit early, but I by the end of day 8 I felt I had accomplished my goal of proving that I could fast for 10 days, and I felt the healthiest I have been in years. I lost a total of 12 lbs, had tons of energy, and a new appreciation for food. I realize now the importance of food as a life sustaining necessity to our daily lives. Food gives us the energy to get through the day. It is the fuel that our body uses to move, think, process. Having this new perspective has really opened my eyes to the importance of putting the right foods into my body.

It really comes back to the proverb "you are what you eat". So given the choice between a slice of pizza and a garden salad, what is going to benefit you the most? The slice of pizza has zero living qualities about it. It is heavy, full of sugar and fat, and what few vegetables that might be on there have had all the nutrients cooked out of it. The salad is fresh, uncooked, green and crisp. The fact that is still has water in it makes it healthier, and still having the properties of a living thing. The bright colors of the vegetables scream "I am full of nutrients" that your body can actually use to drive your body. It makes sense, a person, living entity, needs food to give it energy. So what is going to give you the most energy? Food that also once needed energy to live. And the closer that food is to living, the more energy giving nutrients it is going to have! Yay, what an epiphany I have had.

I am not, by any means, saying that you cannot indulge. A good portion of eating is enjoyment. Eating is social, fun, exciting. One of the things I missed, and the reason I ended my fast, is the social aspect of sharing a meal. Breaking bread if you will. The idea has been around for centuries. If the Bible is your thing, that is the perfect example. Meal time is sacred, a time when you can gather in a circle. It is a time of sharing (sharing life giving food). Oh, how I missed dining with my family. Plus, in our highly evolved society, we have created 1000's of ways to prepare food. Our pallets have definitely expand since the time when our internal organs where developing. We are born with the ability to register five tastes, but humans have created a way of combining these tastes into amazing, flavorful gourmet dishes. And they aren't always the healthiest. Because fat and sweets have the ability of sticking with you longer (stored as fat for later use). Something our ancestors really needed because in their time these things were scarce. Our brains developed a particular fondness for these tastes because humans needed to be attracted to them. The key here is scarcity. Once in awhile. Today the fatty, sweet foods are found EVERYWHERE. In fact, they have become a primary part of our diet. On the flip side, our internal organs have not changed that much from the original design of the first homo sapiens. We have bodies adapted for eating lots of plant matter and the occasional fatty piece of meat,  but our diet today contains mostly fat, with a little bit of vegetables. And all of the excess energy we consume gets stored... as fat. And so is born the obesity epidemic taking the world by storm.

What can be done? Educate people. They need to understand what food is really for. It has a greater purpose than giving us pleasure. The happiness you get from a tasty indulgence is short lived. The energy you are supposed to be getting from this food is what determines what the rest of your day will be like. So start your day off right with healthy fruit or even a salad, and you will see the difference it makes. Maybe then it will be easier to pass up that slice of pizza for lunch.    

To conclude my assessment of my fasting experiment. It is the best thing I have ever done for myself. I hope to do it again soon. I would like to make it habit because I think it is important. It has changed how I plan to live my life. A have not figured out what approach I will take to my diet, but I know it will be full of raw fruits and vegetables. I do have big plans full of great success, and I am going to need a diet that drives my body to accomplish that.

First Day Fasting

I woke up at 9am hangover free and happy as can be. The next step was picking up Jackie and hitting up the produce section of the local grocery store. We got tomatoes, spinach, celery, cucumbers, apples, oranges, pineapples, raspberries, and lemons. I felt like a flower child in the truest sense. Then it was time to juice! First glass went exceptionally well, the second quite the opposite, and the third was just plain hard to swallow.

Now, how am I feeling? I just made it through day 1. It has officially 19 hours since I had anything but fruit juice and water. All I can say is.. not bad. Not good. But not bad. It's been tough, but I've been through tougher. The hunger pain is not overwhelming, and is usually satiated by one of my juice concoctions. Work wasn't too difficult, and I haven't bitten anyone's head off in a hunger driven rage (that was what I was anticipating at least). The end of my day was by far the hardest. My lovely co-juicer bailed on our evening plans to hang out with her friends, a frustrating let down. My mother was making some fantastic foods in the kitchen, which was a miracle because she NEVER cooks anymore. And I was feeling tired, woozy, and weak. But I managed to choke down the last glass of juice, and let myself be driven home to bed and movie. Thank goodness for Dom, my unwavering support group for the day. I needed someone to listen to my griping, as well as keep positive, so that I could keep positive. He also drove me home, and was the perfect replacement for in sister's absence. He doesn't know it yet, but I am going to lock him in my room for the next 10 days that way he's right there whenever I need a cheer leader.

I will conclude with my outlook for the future. Tomorrow is going to kick my ass. But I am up for the challenge. I will eventually perfect my juice drinks to a point of tolerable tastiness. I will use my downtime to catch up on all of the me-time activities that I neglect so often. I have to finish paint by numbers, catch up on like three newspapers. And for heaven's sake clean my f-ing room already. I'm riding on this feeling of accomplishment. I made it one day, I can make it two days. And I will be happy I did in the end. At the very least, I will have a renewed appreciation for food!