Fasting: Day 0, Preparation

This is Day 0 of my 21-day fast in Feb 2011 and probably the most in-depth fasting series you will ever find online. If you’re new to fasting, get the full background here: Fasting Experiment. Access all my articles on fasting: The Fasting Series.

Hi everyone! After writing my last post on my fasting experiment, I’m now very excited to start right away than wait till next Monday! Hence, I’m starting my fast tomorrow, Feb 4 (Fri), 12 am. That means by the time you read this post, I’d have already started my fast.

If you haven’t read my original post on fasting and my intentions for starting this experiment, please read here: Fasting Experiment. I’ve included a lot of background information and resources on fasting there which I’ll not be repeating here.

In today’s Day 0 post, I’ll be writing about my preparation before my fast starts on Day 1 (which is actually just 2.5 hours away as I type this). This is to ensure a successful fasting experiment ahead.

Disclaimer

Once again, if you’re interested fasting of any sort, do spend some time to read up and proceed at your own risk. I’ve provided resources to start with at the end of the fasting article. I’m not a fasting or a medical expert. Everything that I’m sharing is the best knowledge I have based on my own extensive reading on the topic and my own experience with the fasting process. When in doubt, please consult a licensed practitioner.

Preparation

As preparation, I’ve been reading up quite extensively on fasting and watching videos of people who have fasted successfully (and unsuccessfully). I imagine by the end of the experiment I’d be pretty informed in this area. :)

Based on many fasters’ reports, I expect the first 2-3 days will be the toughest due to physical hunger cravings, which are really mental as an average person has fat reserves that can last an average of 40 days.

To overcome that, I’ll be immersing myself in fasting resources these few days. I’ve already bookmarked numerous fasting articles for further reading and have subscribed to related channels on Youtube (at the moment I’m closely following the videos by sweetp888t and ShadowOfATree – both of them have successfully fasted for 21-30 days before and have maintained their weights thereafter. I haven’t gone through all the videos but they seem quite knowledgeable in the area of fasting from what I’ve seen so far).

I also ate to my heart’s content today. *sweat* Given that it’s Chinese New Year today, that hasn’t been too hard — there are lots of food, candy, pastries, cookies, etc. everywhere you go! I think I ate like I was preparing for a famine. *rolls eyes* I can’t imagine missing food too much for a good part of tomorrow (hunger pangs will probably start kicking in the evening). A counteractive measure I’ve planned is to drink lots of water throughout the day before any hunger pangs kick in.

And where push comes to shove, I’ll take a nap to sleep off the hunger. If you’re starting the fast tomorrow (Friday) as well, there’s the weekend ahead which makes fasting easier. :D

If I manage to get past the first 2-3 days, it should be easier as the physical hunger sensations will disappear. What will happen is a lack of desire for food as the body switches to burning fat reserves for energy. The body will feel weaker during this stage since it’s trying to conserve energy and metabolism slows down.

As my appointments for the next 3 weeks are 1-1 (either coaching or personal appointments), this should be manageable. My other work is mainly brain work (writing and working on upcoming workshop trainings), so it should be okay hopefully. I’m planning to reject or postpone any social invitations during my fast. I probably wouldn’t have the energy to travel too far out, socialize, and look at people eating food all at the same time.

Kicking Off Day 1 in 10 Minutes!

Right now it’s 11:50 pm and I’m all ready to kick off Day 1 in 1o minutes! I don’t think I’ll be eating anything in the next 12 minutes since my stomach feels pretty busted from all the food I ate in the day. -_-“

I’ll go and brush my teeth now. The upside is I won’t need to floss my teeth for the next few weeks :D Ok good luck everyone and stay tuned for my update tomorrow!

Update: Day 1 is up!

This is Day 0 of my 21-day fast in Feb 2011 and probably the most in-depth fasting series you will ever find online. If you’re new to fasting, get the full background here: Fasting Experiment. Access all my articles on fasting: The Fasting Series.