Okay it’s the second week in January and my quest to elevate my fitness level is back on track – BOOM! I took the past few weeks off for the holidays. Well, I didn’t actually take them off I just relaxed a little around my eating and activity – okay, maybe I relaxed a lot. I didn’t worry about eating sweets and didn’t exercise as much – come on, it’s the holidays! Besides it was a highly unusual holiday as we were locked down due to the pandemic – it felt like half holiday, half hostage taking.
My brief hiatus ran from the middle of December through to the first week in January. I ate and drank what I wanted – although still no alcohol. I enjoyed a Santa sack full of Christmas cakes and cookies. In the end it cost me about 3 pounds or 1.36 kilos (kilograms are fantastic when you gain weight because there’s not as many of them, but they suck when losing weight for the same reason). It wasn’t a disaster but also wasn’t really necessary. Now it’s time to get back on track. And what better way to do so than with a good old-fashioned fast.
Yes, I said fast, as in not eating anything. Before you mistakenly believe I’ve drunk some wild ass health nut Kool-Aid hear me out. I decided to do a three day fast. Now trust me, fasting is way out of character for me. I’d just as soon swim in shark infested waters wearing a Speedo made of ham than miss three days’ worth of meals. But I happened to read an essay on Medium that piqued my curiosity. Now maybe it’s the time of year or cosmic synchronicity but several other articles and podcasts on the same topic suddenly popped up in my feed. (Read into that one conspiracy theorists!) All of them made compelling cases for periodic fasting. I was curious, were these health benefits real? Could hunger have made all these people be crazy I wondered.
Now I must tell you that during the past 4 months I have been doing “intermittent fasting”. In the world of fasting, it’s like having a part-time job. Intermittent fasting limits the time that you eat to a 6-to-8-hour window and then you fast the remaining time. I found it wasn’t a big deal to skip breakfast and then have my first meal between 11 am and 1 pm. I’d have a snack in the afternoon and then dinner around 6 pm. That would be it until the next day. I credit this type of fasting for helping me drop twenty-five pounds in the last six months – I’m going to look so good in that Ham Speedo!
Fasting isn’t just the latest fad diet. It has been around for millennia. Every major religion references fasting in some way. Jesus, Buddha and Mohamad all promoted the benefits of fasting. In fact, our bodies have evolved to survive without eating for periods of time. Evolutionarily speaking, food hasn’t always been as available as it is in most of the world today. Need a snack? You just head to the fridge. Yet through evolution, our bodies have developed the capacity to withstand periods where food isn’t available. It is in our make-up. Yet this ability has been swept to the fringes by our modern society. Thanks to big food companies that promote the western diet, fasting is seen as something to be avoided. Afterall fasting’s not good for their business. Yet we shouldn’t be so quick to kick fasting to the curb. Here, briefly, are some of its benefits:
- Weight management – When done correctly, fasting can be an effective way of managing your weight.
- Decrease in Insulin levels – Your body uses insulin to help convert food into energy that cells can use. Having your insulin levels drop is a really good thing because it helps improve your insulin sensitivity. When your insulin levels are always high your body can become resistant to it – it stops working. This is the first step towards Type II diabetes. Diabetes is something we really want to avoid as it’s been linked to an increase in heart disease, stroke, Alzheimer’s disease, weight gain, high cholesterol, and high blood pressure among others.
- Growth hormone goes up which is good because it helps increase the availability of fat for fuel and has significant anti-aging benefits. Who, who doesn’t want that!
- Helps lower your Cholesterol and Blood Pressure. Who doesn’t need that?
There have also been some interesting studies on the correlation between fasting and cancer and cancer treatments. I encourage you to listen to this podcast with Dr. Alan Goldhamer, a fasting specialist, on the Rich Roll podcast. If you’re not familiar with Rich Roll, and are interested in Health & Wellness, then check him out it is worth your time, he is one of the most thoughtful podcasters around. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yaWVflQolmM)
The idea behind a fast is that by withholding food you nudge your body into resetting itself. The body has to switch from burning its primary fuel, glucose, to burning fat – lord knows I have enough fat to fuel me for a year! The liver stores a supply of glucose but once its depleted it calls up the reserves – the fat reserves. Through a process called Ketosis our bodies convert fat into a form of energy it can burn. I’m clearly simplifying the process but if you’re interested there are all sorts of resources available on fasting. I encourage you to read The Complete Guide to Fasting by Jason Fung, MD. He’s a Toronto based endocrinologist who’s written this easy-to-follow guide.
The first day of my fast went pretty well. Rather than eat, I drank gallons of water and green tea until I nearly drowned. I managed to get in a good long run and generally felt well. I was hungry but it was manageable. However, by 8 pm I was cold, exhausted and ready to turn in for the night. That’s exactly what I did. I was in bed before 9 pm and out cold shortly after. Sleeping is never easy for me as I fall asleep without a problem, staying asleep is another story. This night was no exception as I was up several times thanks to the copious amounts of tea and water I’d consumed.
The next morning, I awoke feeling like a zombie had been gnawing on my gut all night. I hadn’t eaten anything in 36 hours, and I had become part of the living dead. My brain was foggy, and I had trouble focusing. Trying to work was a waste of time as I obsessed over the fact that I hadn’t eaten and wasn’t feeling good. I’m sure if I had something, anything to take my mind off the situation it would have been tolerable, but I didn’t. I felt miserable. Finally, around 1 pm I had enough of this self-inflicted torture, and I decided to break the fast. I made 43 of the 72 hours planned. Not bad for the first go at it.
Everything I had read about fasting said the first two days are the roughest and then it gets easy. Once your body shifts into ketosis many people report feeling great and full of energy. Well, I couldn’t wait around for that boost. I packed it in before the easy part started and I ate like a fiend. By super time the zombie had departed, and I was back to my usual self. That night I slept straight through – 8 full, uninterrupted hours of glorious sleep! I haven’t slept like that since Nixon was in the Whitehouse. I also managed to drop a couple of pounds. So, I’m declaring the experiment a success. In fact, I’m planning on doing it again to see if I can make it the full three days. One of the conclusions I’ve arrived at is that much of my discomfort was mental not physical. It wasn’t that I was ravenously hungry but mentally obsessed. I couldn’t get over the fact that I wasn’t eating. The experts also say fasting gets easier each time you undertake one as your body’s ability to switch fuel sources improves. So, I’m willing to give fasting another shot as the research on its benefits is very compelling. With any luck I’ll make it through this time and look younger for it! In the meantime, pass the nuts!