When I tell people that I’m fasting they often look at me like I’ve just explained my plan to overthrow the government with a can of deodorant and a cigarette lighter.
“So you just skip breakfast?” Yeah! And sometimes lunch or even dinner if I feel like it, to which there’s always the age-old retort of “But won’t that make you fat?” Well, I don’t know. You tell me! (Kellogg’s tell us that skipping breakfast is unhealthy. I wonder why a breakfast cereal company would tell us that?)
Once they’ve got their head around the idea that skipping the odd meal isn’t that big of a deal, that you get used to it and that it really doesn’t matter when you eat your calories, they start questioning your motives, as if your choice of feeding habits has to be justified before the world; and of course it’s widely assumed that it’s to lose weight and have a shit hot body for when you take your shirt of. Because that’s why anybody does anything?
Then they seem to get hung up on the details. What can you drink? Can you exercise whilst fasted? When should you eat? For how long should you fast?
Fasting is simple. Really simple. You just don’t eat for a while; 16, 18, 23, 46 hours. Whatever suits you best. And that’s the beauty of it. It fits around you or, at least, you make it fit around you. Then you eat for a while; eight hours, six hours, some people just eat once per day. During that time, you can mostly eat what you like. Of course, after the effort and hunger of not eating for 18 hours, you don’t what to mess it all up with pizza and ice-cream. Okay, maybe you do but why would you? Maybe just once a week.
When you’re not eating, life is even simpler. Just drink plenty of water, black coffee, teas (no milk, sugar or honey - no calories!) and focus on not eating – you’d be surprised how many office birthdays, breakfasts or free samples get sprung on you when you’re fasting. Just suck it up, be strong and don’t eat. One of the key things is to get plenty of liquids in. Ideally some good mineral water, rather than tap stuff. This helps. Trust me.
The thing I love about fasting is that it resets your relationship with food and eating. When I spend half my waking hours feeling hungry and looking forward to that sweet, sweet first bite of food, I try to savour the feeling, so that when I do come to eat I’m not going to blow all that effort on junk. Also, you learn to live with the hunger. Delayed gratification, I’m sure we can mostly agree, is mentally empowering and overcoming struggle (like being hungry for a few hours) is quite satisfying. Plus, there’s nothing better than turning up hungry for a good meal – you enjoy it even more.
On this note, skipping meals is something of a money saver. Way to turn poverty into a dietary lifestyle choice! As a result, we can focus more on the quality of the nutrition. The money you save on cornflakes, cereal bars and pasta, you can use to buy good ingredients, like good oils, fresh fruit and veg and even a grass-fed juicy steak bred just for you after your 23 god-forsaken hours of fasting. But it’s not just money you save! The time you save by drinking coffee instead of preparing and eating breakfast. And drinking coffee instead of preparing eating lunch. And drinking coffee instead of shopping for snacks. (I think you get it, you’ll be drinking a lot of coffee – black, no sugar, no shit!) You can use your time to make yourself one damn good meal, that you’ll enjoy even more because you’ve endured 23 hours of not eating.
Honestly, there’s probably plenty of science to back up the benefits of fasting – or maybe not. Who knows these days. But all I can tell you is that, once I got a bit used to being hungry, fasting has changed the way I think about food and eating, and leading a healthy lifestyle in general. Mentally I fell stronger. Hell, if I can overcome hunger for 23 hours, I can take on anything!
Try it for a week. You literally have nothing to lose.
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