Post: #21

Hi Almo, congratulations for your 5-day fast!!
Thank you for sharing your experience as well

Post: #22

Almo, how are you doing wit the post-fast eating??

Post: #23

(05-04-2011 05:52 PM)hannah Wrote:  Almo, how are you doing wit the post-fast eating??

Hey Hannah,
My post fast eating has been back to normal. As I had my first bowel movement pretty much right after I ate my first two fruit "meals", I was still cautious that night and just had chicken broth (which tasted amazing).

The day after breaking my fast, I was a bit worried after I had normal food. But my digestive system reacted fine.

Then it was back to pastry class for me, the first day back we had our petit four lesson, and I felt very sick after tasting just a couple of the stuff we made. Everything was overly sweet for me and I was not compelled to "binge" through class as it is normally the case with all my classmates.

Weight wise it's been fluctuating, but I'm still 2.1kg less than when I started the fast. Today we had another cake class, and I think I overate a bit, just because there was a fresh tray of croissants....

I also made the mistake of telling a couple of my classmates that I fasted for 4 days and they think it's a joke (I should've known!), another one of my crazy detox regimes they thought. I often attempt to inspire them into getting healthy but when I told them I tried a water only fast and didn't eat for 4.5 days, their response was "why'd you wana do that for?!!!" and looked at me ridiculously. hmmmm... I finally realised, it's a waste of my energy as they are obviously the wrong audience to "share good stuff" with which is disappointing, because it's sad to see them so out of control with their eating habits. Anyway, I didn't say much more after their reaction. Then during the class today, the chef came over and asked me about my "crazy stint", someone obviously told him, he came over and asked me whether I really did not eat anything for 4 days.... a few other students were interested and listened in, but I felt I was out numbered!! After a quick attempt to explain myself (that fasting is not weird!) they were all saying, I rather do exercise/ride my bike instead of that! I just told them, if you're really interested go do your own research on fasting, just because I detox and drink green juices and climb the stairs and don't take boxes of pies home like everyone, I'm really not weird!!! I tried my best to educate them about fasting, but I can see how they see it as a joke, in the setting I was in, it was highly inappropriate! (Luckily I had the support of one girl, who works as a cardiac nurse, she understands...)

Anyway Hannah, I'm tempted to do a proper fast when I have time now that I've done a short one and know what to expect, but the thought of not being able to do much for 15~21 days bores me already! I know anything less than 7 days is not that beneficial, so I have thought about joining you in June. We'll see how things pan out.

Meanwhile, I'll still be lurking around

Post: #24

Almo Wrote:but when I told them I tried a water only fast and didn't eat for 4.5 days, their response was "why'd you wana do that for?!!!" and looked at me ridiculously.

..they were all saying, I rather do exercise/ride my bike instead of that!

Hey Almo, sorry to hear about your classmates' (and teacher's) responses!! I certainly empathize with you. It's always interesting to see how people react 'abruptly' and defend quite fiercely when we talk about something that's fundamentally to do with lifestyle/way of living. I notice this whenever people hear about me being vegetarian/vegan or me having done a 21-day fast. A lot of the responses revolve around "I can never do this" "I love my food/cheese/meat too much" "I rather do this than that" etc. Which is quite interesting to observe, because I never broach the topic in any of the cases and I never suggest nor recommend them to try out that habit either. It's sort of like they impose the habit upon themselves, then start reacting violently based on their own self-imposition!

In any case, your fast has certainly shifted you away from mainstream habits/lifestyle, and I'm sure such violent reactions to your lifestyle choice is the first of many to come. Like you said, I recommend that you just keep such things to yourself, unless you know the person and you know he/she is open minded enough to listen/understand without pre-conceived notions. Otherwise it's usually a waste of energy dealing with outburst reactions and defensive replies. (which you experienced during your class!)

Also, no matter what happens, you always have all of us here in the community who understand your back story and about the higher benefits of fasting, so if you ever want to talk about anything fasting-related/etc you can always write about it here!

Almo Wrote:but the thought of not being able to do much for 15~21 days bores me already!

It might be easier if you identify several strong, underlying motivation for doings the longer fast (if you are to do it eventually)! For me, I felt that my body had a lot of crap/junk in the system, so I was very much looking forward to the detox/cleansing effects of the fast. Other reasons include seeing it as a journal of experiment growth, exploring/restoring my relationship with food, losing the weight, and sharing the journey with PE readers. Because of that, I was actually very excited about my fast when I embarked on it!

Another thing is that there's actually a lot of stuff you can do while fasting! Probably not baking/running around the kitchen, but you can still use the computer and get a lot done. Writing, blogging (on your new secret blog that you were saying? ), emails, etc any work that you can do on your comp. You definitely don't have to stop everything that you've been doing before during your fast!

"If you want to get something you have never gotten before, you've to do something you've never done before."
Personal Excellence - For people passionate about achieving excellence in life