Well, the fast experiment seems to be over. It took me 4 or 5 days to regain a desire to eat after I broke the fast, and then for a few days I walked hungry all the time, and probably was overeating. Will have to be more careful next time.

I am very, very satisfied that I did it, even though my wife seemed to be downright scared sometimes. It has probably been the most profound experience of my life. I think I understand now why people fast for religious reasons, though I am not going to bother to put it in words.

My decision to continue working through the fast was a misguided one. Both because I was not very efficient, and because fasting seems to be a perfect time to meditate, and to think about other, more important things. Big things, like life, the universe and everything, and small things, like weather, and grass, and air. Next time I will take

The very fact of being able to live without food, and not suffering from it, was a revelation for me. One day a few years ago, I bought the famous Bragg book, “The miracle of fasting”, where he advocates fasting for one day weekly, and decide to follow this approach. The very first day was rather bad; I came home in the evening feeling horribly, broke the fast prematurely, ate a lot, and fell down feeling even worse. Then I came to a conclusion that fasting is for supermen, and my genetic makeup requires me to eat regularly.

Well, this turned out to be simply wrong. Food is just an addiction for the vast majority of modern people. Once you break the addiction, you are free to deal with food on your own terms: fell to choose when to eat and when not to eat when you want, not when your body tells you to. In a sense, fasting is an ultimate spiritual experience: the triumph of the spirit over the body. My own fasting has definitely made me more aware of the power of both my spirit and my body.

On a more mundane level, one interesting result of the fast is that my taste has changed: I guess it became much sharper. I just can’t eat salted, spiced or sugared food anymore. Real, natural food seems good enough these days. I can’t even tolerate much garlic, which is a pity, because it is said to be good for the health, and I used to like it a lot.

Another result was a total loss if interest in tea. I’ve been addicted before, and though I stopped to drink it completely at some point, I reverted back later. Now I just have no interest in any kind of tea, and am quite satisfied with water.

So, the experiment was a success, and I am looking forward for more experiments!
Just for the record keeping, here is graph of my weight for the last month. I was fasting from May 24 till June 1. At the lowest point, my weight was at 130 lb; currently it seems to have stabilized around 135.
Strictly speaking, the experiment is over — I am eating for the forth day now — but it is not really over. I am still trying to adjust to the life with food, and it will definitely take quite some time. For the first two days I was only drinking freshly squeezed tomato juice (just as I planned), and didn’t feel any hunger or desire for it. I’ve probably drunk 3 tomatoes on the first day, and four on the second, and even that was too much. On the third day I decided to switch to more solid food and ate some watermelon, and today I ate more fresh fruits and vegetables, but still very little overall (maybe 300-400 calories if not less). Still no hunger, though the mouth sometimes wants to explore different foods.

The day I broke the fast was the worst throughout the experiment. Very low energy, felt quite lethargic. It is getting better, though. I was losing weight up until yesterday, but today it went up a little (from 130 to 132 lb). It can probably be explained by the contents of my stomach (I had no bowel movements yet). Oh, and my fingernails started growing again!

I need more time both to return back to the normal eating pattern, and to think over the experiment. There is no doubt in my mind it was a great thing to do, though. I’ll write more later.
Weight: 133 lb * Body Fat: 15.7% * Cycled: 16 km * Ran: 1 km

Yesterday’s energy surge has hardly left any traces. I cycled the kids to the school today on my tandem bike, and got back exhausted. However, my body fat suddenly went down a notch (from 14mm to 12mm pinched skin). It’s a rather important notch, since (according to their chart) it moves me from the “normal” to the “ideal” category. We’ll see if it holds.

Today is the last day of my fast, and it makes me a little sad. It’s obvious that I could have achieved more by fasting more, but I think what I’ve done is quite good for the first time.

Just to complete the record: almost all cracks on fingers disappeared, the pain in the liver (?) area continues intermittently, and I got another bowels movement today.

I feel no hunger at all these days, so tomorrow’s return to food will be a completely conscious decision. Breaking fast is an important and delicate process, since it is so easy to do harm by overfeeding oneself.

I decided to break the fast with juices, just as I entered it. Tomorrow I will be drinking fresh tomato juice, half diluted with water. I am going to start with very small portions (a quarter of a cup every hour) and see how it goes. If it goes well, sometime during the day after tomorrow I’ll switch to undiluted juices, and in two days will probably sample some more solid food.
Weight: 134 lb * Body Fat: 17.5% * Cycled: 40 km

Today started like the other days. Throughout the day I had intermittent dull pain in the stomach, both the right top part (where, indeed, the liver and the gallbladder are located) and the left top part (what is located there?).

In the middle of the day, something rather unexpected happened: I felt a sudden burst of energy. I was feeling like my normal self: I could go down the hall fast, and really concentrate on what other people are saying. Then it went down somewhat, but I still biked home quite faster than before, and got less tired. Very curious to see what happens tomorrow.

And finally, I had some bowel movements tonight, after not eating fro 8 days! Something interesting is going on inside my body…
Weight: 134 lb * Body Fat: 17.5% * Cycled: 33 km * Ran: 1 km

It’s interesting how uneventful my fasting is. I cycled to work again, and in took a big part of my energy again. Sat at work, was slow but (I hope) adequate. In general, I think that it was a big mistake to work while fasting. The work suffers, and it distracts your mind and body from properly concentrating on the body cleansing. Next time I do a long fast I’ll definitely take a vacation.

After work I cycled back, again at a a pathetically slow pace, and then later on ran a little bit with my wife. I noticed that I completely lost the ability to force my body to do something it doesn’t want to, but other people can help. I can’t run alone these days.

All my symptoms are broadly the same as the last few days. The skin on the fingers is slightly better, I think. The cracks on the heel are worse. I decided not to treat them (or anything else, for that matter) until after the fast. Interestingly, I just noticed that my nails stopped growing! Very convenient.

No signals from the colon, so I guess the enema might have helped.
Weight: 136 lb * Body Fat: 17.5% * Cycled: 37 km

I went to work after the long weekend. Cycling to work was nice, but quite slow. Work was acceptable. Cycling back was very, very slow. Still nice, though. I had a few mild ache-like feelings in the stomach, particularly in the top right part. What’s there? Liver? Gallbladder?

I also had a prolonged discomfort in the colon, though no bowel movements, so after some thought I gave myself an enema in the evening.

Overall, these days are not much different. I feel quite good in the morning, but get weaker and weaker during the day, especially when I can’t nap during the day. I just measured my heart rate, got about 60 beats per minute. Much lower than I usually have.
Weight: 137 lb * Body Fat: 17.5% * Walked: 10 km * Cycled: 9 km : Ran: 1 km

The fifth day without food! Unbelievable. Only a few months ago I was feeling rather bad after skipping a meal, and a thought about fasting for a few days would have been inconceivable. Actually, it is quite amazing how body is able to function with no external energy sources. I cannot say I feel great, but I definitely feel acceptable, and feel no hunger.

Today was rather similar to yesterday. I tried to run in the morning (without children) and could not make myself to, so I just walked. I thought that I was walking slightly faster than yesterday, but I still was quite tired at the end. The skin on fingers and the tongue coating are also slightly better.

I noticed these days that I get rather dizzy when rising abruptly. I’ve read about this effect in the literature; it is caused by lowered blood pressure when fasting.

Update: In the evening, I ran a little bit with my wife. I would’ve never even started without her! I also got some unexepected bowel movements
Weight: 138 lb * Boy Fat: 17.5% * Walked: 10 km

Not much to report today. Everything is more or less the same as yesterday. In the morning, I decided to take a walk instead of running, and it took me maybe 3 hours to cover 10 km. Pathetic, but I just can’t move fast.
Weight:142 lb. * Body Fat: 17.5% * Ran: 5 km * Cycled: 21 km

Today is, to my surprise, somewhat better than yesterday. In the morning, I ran again with my son, and it was pretty tough. I would’ve stopped, if not for him. Shows that children are useful sometimes! After the run I decided to skip exercises altogether and instead mowed my yard with my new cool manually-propelled mower.

I still feel weak, slow and somewhat dizzy. I guess, my overall better feeling may be explained by not going to work, and by drinking more water (I came to a conclusion that I might have had a mild dehydration yesterday). Being able to rest when you need definitely helps a lot, and I did a few times today. I sleep a lot these days 2-3-4 hours a day more than usual. I have essentially no hunger feeling today, though I must say that it does annoy me when people eat in my presence.

After three days of mil stomach discomfort, I broke down and gave myself a warm water enema. Seems to have helped.

Looking for the symptoms: the tongue is coated, but (again, to my surprise) less so than yesterday. I also notices I got cracked skin on my fingers. Hopefully, it’s a sign of toxin elimination!

My weight didn’t move much comparing to yesterday, which proves that watching daily weight is useless (we still need to record it to build the average graph, though). My body fat percent swung back to 17.5% (and I sincerely hope it stays there!).

Tomorrow I will be entering uncharted waters for me — I have never fasted beyond 3 days. I am quite excited to see what it looks like!
Weight: 142 lb. * Body Fat 19.2% * Ran: 3.7 km * Cycled: 3 km

Practically no hunger today, but I feel rather weak. Ran 3.7 km this morning with my son, and got pretty tired. Then went through a few exercises from my strength training routine. Was rather slow going, but not too terrible, until at some point I got dizzy. I find it hard to concentrate, to speak loudly and to move fast. It is, again, worse than day #2 from my 3-day fast (as far as I can remember).

My tongue is white-coated, but not too bad. No other visible symptoms, as far as I can see. Except that I can’t type properly — every word gets misspelled or with letters in wrong order — I wonder if my coordination got worse.

About statistics: I am three pounds lighter than yesterday, but of course it can’t be all fat. Probably water. To measure my fat percentage I use special calipers (which I described here). They are graduated in 2 mm increments, and I currently fluctuate between 14 and 16 mm (of the skin pinched in a certain location), which, according to their chart, corresponds to 17.5% and 19.2%. So even though I went from 17.5% to 19.2% in a day doesn’t mean that I suddenly got a lot of extra fat. It’s just within the measurement error. (If you are really interested in my body fat percentage dynamics, you can see a live chart here.)
Weight: 145 lb. * Body Fat: 17.5% (barely) * Ran: 6 km * Cycled: 39 km

So, here it is, the first day. When you start a journey for a first time, it often looks so big, so daunting. And the way you handle it, of course, is just to move forward, step after step.

I had similar thoughts this morning, when I ran a 6 km loop, my record for this season (and for many, many years). When I started, I couldn’t believe I would be able to make it. So I just kept going, and eventually get used to the pace, and finished with relative ease.

Since the morning, things went a little bit downhill though. Today was worse than my typical one-day fast. I felt some hunger couple of times — not much, but more than I expected — but worse than that was a constant feeling of low energy. I am not sure how to accurately describe in words. Dispirited and light-headed, maybe?

Well, let’s just keep going. Let’s see what tomorrow brings us. Unfortunately, I won’t be able to do any cycling tomorrow — have to drive to work — but probably I can run in the morning, if I have enough time.
So, this is it. I drank a last cup of freshly squeezed juice, and I am done with eating for more than a week.

I’ve spent the last two days according to the plan. Yesterday I ate only fresh fruits and vegetables (and managed to overeat, to my surprise); today I only drank juices.I like the juice fast days the most: really delicious.

The goal of this preparation is to make sure that the colon is more or less empty when one enters the fast. In certain circles, it is considered obligatory to take laxatives before the fast, and to administer enema during the fast. I flatly refuse to the former, an will do the latter only if really necessary. Luckily for me, a day or two of juice fasting seems to take care of the colon in a pleasant and natural way.

Well, I am really looking forward to tomorrow. Better to have more patience, though. I know from experience and from the literature that the good things only start after three-four days.
I mentioned many times that I wanted to do a longer fast (so far, the longest I did was a three day fast), probably about a week long. Yesterday, I suddenly realized that I keep postponing it because “the conditions are not right”. That is either I “need” to eat for some reason, or I “need” the energy for some reason.

Well, you know what, my dear brother Simpleton? The conditions are never right. The conditions don’t choose when you do something: you choose. And my new simpleton philosophy is very, well, simple: the future doesn’t exist. The past doesn’t exist. There is only now. Either you do something now, or you never do it. Every second of your life, that’s your choice.

It’s nice to have a simple philosophy. You just follow it. So I immediately decided to start fasting next week. I call it “the Fast Experiment”, because I have never done it before, and I truly have no idea how my body will behave. I am going to blog every day to report my progress here.

The timing is somewhat complicated, because I am still going to go to work, and some things are just much easier done at home (for example, when you need to drink fresh juices throughout the day). I am going to be home next Wednesday, though, so here is the rough plan:

Tuesday, day -2: only fresh fruits and vegetables and juices, unlimited
Wednesday, day -1: only fresh fruit and vegetable juices, unlimited
Thursday, day 1: first day of the fast

Friday, next week, day 9: last day of the fast
Saturday/Sunday: breaking fast with juices
Monday — ?: continue to break fast, solid food

From my admittedly very modest experience I have learned that it is very important to correctly enter and break the fast. I am going to try doing it with juices this time. I would’ve wanted to have much more time to do it slowly — a few days of juice fast both before and after the real fast, maybe — but well, I have as much time as I have.

Since I expect the fasting be sometimes challenging, I am going to define the rules beforehand. The first rule is, of course, that I am not going to eat anything at all, and only going to drink plain water. I am going to continue to lead an active life: to work, to bike and to jog. I might scale down or even stop my weight training depending on how I feel. I am not going to break the fast prematurely, unless I am in serious prolonged pain that prevents me to functioning normally. And I am not going to fast beyond the ninth day, unless I am feeling especially well, or there is some specific process in my body which I’d want to let finish naturally. I think both cases are unlikely, but who knows?

So, the plan is here. Please stay tuned to the reports of the Fast Experiment.

Update: You can see all the Fast Experiment reports under the fast-experiment tag.

June 2025

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