Four Days of Fasting

No video today – I’ve been talking all day long and I prefer to just type. As I write this, I’ve been exactly 100 hours or 4 days, 4 hours without a morsel of food. The only things that have crossed my lips have been about 20 – 24 liters of Fiji Water and about 72 oz of fresh squeezed organic grapefruit juice – cut with 50% water.

Needless to say, I’m pretty hungry. In fact, a joke I often say to my girlfriend comes to mind -“I’m so hungry I could eat McDonald’s.” Yep, that’s a joke – and my sense of humor gets even more ridiculous the longer I go without food.

Today (Friday January 6^th) was incredible. I had three very important meetings that required over 4 ½ hours of non-stop speaking and high-level thought on my part. My business day didn’t end until almost 7pm – exceptionally late for a Friday. I will modestly admit that I performed “better than what I would consider my best.” Maybe I’m delusional as a result of virtually zero caloric intake for four days – or maybe it is the zero calorie intake that lit up my brain activity, concentrated my focus and amplified my motivation.

I call it survival mode. I believe that our ancestors possessed it and were closely connected to it. It’s nature’s self-preservation mode. If the human race didn’t possess the ability to go long periods of time without food, none of us would be here today. Think about it – how was life just a couple hundred years ago before there was transportation to ship food to stores at which we could conveniently buy it? Go back farther a couple of thousand years ago – long before modern farming practices and storage and preservation methods were discovered. What would a late frost or a drought or a flood do to the food supply? How about an ice age – or parasites – or wild animals? There are numerous ways that food supplies could have been devastated over large areas and long periods of time.

 It must be a God-given gift since the Bible references fasting for as long as “forty days and forty nights” in multiple instances. I see water fasting as a kind of “Baptism”- it washes away internal sins as it detoxifies your body.

I’ve done many water fasts – some as short as a day, others as long as a week. I’ve even done juice fasts for over 2 weeks. In retrospect, I can honestly say that I’ve done some of my most creative writing and thinking during periods of fasting. I also get unusual waves of clarity and energy during the fast – quite an anomaly considering the assumed lack of energy due to calorie deprivation. As I tap into new areas of gray matter, my intuition tells me that this anomaly is no coincidence.

Here’s my logic. If I had lived 10,000 years ago, life would have obviously been much different. Long before a short walk to the fridge or a phone call for pizza delivery existed, I would have had to have gotten off my butt and found food. This probably would have entailed a hunt or some foraging – maybe even some tree climbing. If food was scarce and competition was fierce, this would have been challenging. If I didn’t eat for a day or so and got more tired, lethargic and lazy, I would have quickly perished. I picture myself sitting under an orange tree with the fruit just out of reach and myself too weak and too tired to even shake the fruit loose, let alone climb the tree. There I would have died – and then become a meal for the vultures and the coyotes. Thank God it’s 2012!

My point is that the hungrier we get, the sharper our senses become – to help us survive and locate food. We have to be more alert, smarter, faster and stronger than our prey. I’m also referring to fruit too. Have you ever tried to climb a palm tree or crack open a coconut – I have – and believe me, it’s not an easy task!

In our modern society, things are much different. If we want to eat, all we have to do (in almost all cases) is pay for it. Paying for it is not always easy – especially in a tough economy. Therefore, our money-earning senses must become sharper. Have you ever heard the term “hungry for work”? There were actually two companies in my hometown that capitalized on this concept – “Starving Students Moving Co.” and “The Hungry Roofer.” They were both successful. I think the message implies that when someone is truly hungry, they are desperate, yet driven and determined enough to do exceptional work for the reward of – eating and surviving!

My fast is self imposed. It’s yet another test of my willpower. It’s a challenge – and I’m a sucker for a good challenge. It’s the ‘fastest’ route to accomplishing my goal of losing 30 pounds in 90 days. When I started fasting on Monday, January 2^nd, my goal was to make it until dinnertime on Friday before “breaking fast”. I chose not to eat tonight and opted to ‘breakfast’ in the morning. I look forward to two days of “sweeper salad” – by then my eight avocados will be ripe enough to eat. I will be in pure bliss when I take my first bite of one. Can’t wait!

For those of you considering attempting to water fast, I will warn you that it’s not for the weak. There are right and wrong ways to start and end a fast. If you do it wrong, the result could be the equivalent of shaking up a hornets’ nest inside your body. If you have medical conditions or are on medication, always consult your doctor. If you’re up for the personal challenge and journey – consult me.

Have a healthy, happy, hungry day.