Fasting Week Two: Feeling weak but going strong

Week Two of my fast was characterized by exhaustion, weakness, and constantly feeling cold. I lost another five pounds or so, bringing the total up to around 8-10 pounds since I began on January 2.

Towards the end of the week, though, I felt my body finally adjusting to the changes. Hunger pangs still hit throughout the day, of course. But I've found it's become much easier to sit with those pangs and know they're a perfectly natural part of this whole experiment.

As I’ve progressed through the days, I've gotten better and better at blocking out those sensations and the accompanying eating temptations that follow them.

It’s not like the whole world around me has stopped eating with me, though. I'm still going into restaurants and grocery stores regularly as a part of my job. And every time I do, food smells waft over me. That’s not something you can just ignore without having some kind of physical reaction.

Mentally, I still feel sharp and clear-headed. I haven't ever gotten the sense that I was going to pass out or even thought that this experience was somehow going to have negative effects on my short- or long-term health.

One of the main benefits I’ve noticed is that everything around me slows down. I don’t have to be in a hurry to knock things off my to-do list.

That's been one of the best parts. In our modern, fast-paced world, it's been nice to take things in at a more leisurely pace.

It feels like I'm seeing the world around me clearer simply because I now realize one of the biggest driving forces behind it - our natural human need for food - isn't a driving force for my decision-making.

Fasting Philosophies

Human beings have been willingly depriving themselves of food for millennia. There are the religious figures: Jesus, Buddha, and Muhammad all fasted. And the political: Gandhi, Cesar Chavez, and Bobby Sands did, too.

Regardless of the reasonings or circumstances behind these examples, one thing is common throughout: Breakthrough.

Now, I’m not about to suggest that you can just sit in your room sipping water and expect something to magically happen because you somehow managed to keep your fingers off those delicious chicken nuggets in your freezer.

The only thing you’ll accomplish by doing that is losing a few pounds, but you’ll likely gain them back once you start eating again anyway.

No, the people who choose to fast do so knowing they had to break themselves down in order to be built back up in new and better ways.

Personally, I’ve chosen to do the fast I’m on now for several reasons:

1. I’ve never done one before, so I was curious to try it out for myself.

2. I wanted to see what I was capable of if I challenged myself to do something I wasn’t sure I could do.

3. I wanted to usher in the next phase of my life as I progress into my thirties.

In short, I wanted to stretch myself mentally, physically, emotionally, and spiritually. And going without food for a period of time seemed like a great way to do so.

As I discussed in my previous post, I’m growing more in tune with myself mentally, physically, and spiritually with each passing day. At the same time, I’m discovering what’s really important to me and what I really couldn’t care less about.

Fasting: The Ultimate Distraction-buster

It’s amazing what falls by the wayside when you give up something that we’ve all been told is an essential part of our lives.

I love sports, but nothing about the week’s NFL scores is going to change my life.

It doesn’t matter who is sitting in the Oval Office, I’ve never had a political appointee knock on my door and offer to do anything for me personally.

I also regularly use social media to promote this blog and keep tabs on people I care about. But I'm well aware that endless scrolling through Facebook and Instagram are complete wastes of time.

I could go down the long list of distractions we’ve created for ourselves in this country.

But the fact is, if you want to do anything to change your circumstances, then it’s going to have to start with the person you see in the mirror.

Food is unique in that it’s essential to our everyday lives. But in modern America, we’ve made it out to be so much more than just a means for survival.

Food is everywhere in our country. It’s in our TVs, it’s on every street corner in our cities. It’s in even the tiniest small towns – there’s a McDonald’s and/or Starbucks in every truck stop in the nation.

And it’s especially in our bellies. The CDC and the National Center for Health Statistics found that, during August 2021-August 2023, the prevalence of obesity in adults was 40.3%.

The prevalence of severe obesity (defined as having a Body Mass Index of 40 or higher) in adults during that time was 9.4%.

And why shouldn’t we enjoy our food? America is the most prosperous nation in the history of our planet. We deserve to be well-fed. We deserve to enjoy the fruits, meats, deep-fried vegetables, and all the gravy of our ancestors’ hard labor.

So why don’t you just leave me alone and let me enjoy my Double Stuf Oreos in peace then?

Don't Take Food for Granted

Look, I’m not saying that we should all starve ourselves because of those experiencing food insecurity throughout the world.

All I want to help you understand is that the things you take for granted every day, like having three well-balanced meals in one 24-hour period, are pretty rare if you look back at history and see how our ancestors lived.

Besides royalty and those born into wealth, how many people do you realistically think enjoyed 21 meals every week even 2-300 years ago? How about just 100 years ago?

We can go down plenty of statistical rabbit holes here. But suffice it to say, no one in history has been able to take advantage of the level of abundance that we have in modern America.

So yes, enjoy that meal with

friends and family.

But enjoy the people you’re eating it with more. Savor their company. Feast on their laughter.

Fill yourself with the life-giving nutrients of their fellowship even while you chow down on turkey at Thanksgiving, ham at Christmas, and all the other delicious fare we consume on a daily basis.

Wrap Up

I’m fully expecting that, when I do break my fast and sit down for my first meal, whatever I put into my mouth will be the best-tasting thing I’ve ever had in my life.

And I’m certain that, after this fast, I won’t ever look at food or hunger the same way again.

In the past, the size of my appetite has been a point of pride for me. I've never been a particularly unhealthy or picky eater. But I knew that whatever I ate, I could just exercise and work off later.

Now when I start reaching for a snack in my down time, I might stop myself and ask if I’m about to consume that snack out of bodily necessity or because I’m bored and need something to do.

Because if the latter is the case, I ought to drop everything, get up from what I’m doing, and find something that really fires me up instead of whatever it is that I feel like is wasting my time.

Maybe then I’ll actually start making more progress towards who I want to become rather than just slowly ballooning into some stagnant, overweight blob waiting for a magic pill to come out and change my life.

Sound like you? Here are some questions to consider:

What is distracting you from making the kind of progress you'd like to make in your own life?

Why have those distractions become a part of your daily life?

What reasons might you decide to give up those distractions in order to progress like you know you want to?

What steps would it take for you to significantly reduce or altogether eliminate those distractions?

Re-read these questions and think through your responses. Write out your answers and share them in the comments if you'd like.