I completed a 4 days fast. A majority of it was just water and chicken broth, and the 3rd and 4th days I did a few of the regimented pieces of these well branded “fasting” challenges. I think this one was Kroma.
I had done a 5 day one 6 months ago, I don’t consider myself a “Fast” person, but it seems that I have started to think of these as an option in my dietary well being.
Why did I do it?
I had been eating poorly and I have health goal for the year of 2023. I felt this could be a good experiment for a hard “reset” of my healthy eating. My wife and I decided to try one together.
The other reason is that my friend Ryon Nixon, once described the process to me as a way for your body to heal. How I visualized this was a “redistribution of digestion energy to the rest of the body.” And I’m not positive that’s how it works, but it definitely has positive side effects.
Also I generally love challenging myself to ridiculous challenges to see if I can do them.
Was it hard?
I had weird sleep on night 2, but other than that, you are largely just hungry throughout the day, so your brain focuses on projects it can check off one by one. I don’t feel my sense of humor was 100% for days 2 and 3, but I was incredibly effective through my work day.
Additionally, my co-founder Brayton is the one who originally got me to start trying a fast, and he said “genuinely, your day is just longer, you have no food in the middle of the day or anywhere in the day, so there’s more time to work.” He is completely right, that is the most surprising bit - understanding how long the day was.
Were there any downsides?
I talked about it non-stop. It turns out we talk about food a lot throughout the day without knowing it, so when you don’t have food to talk about, you talk about the absence of food. It’s probably why Vegan’s have the brand of always talking about being Vegan.
How did you start?
Nothing really crazy, just stopped eating and made sure to drink enough water. And at the end of the day did some chicken broth.
I did a 5 day fast, just water. Day 2 was hard. Day 3 was easy. Day 4 was ok just really tired. Day 5 was terrible, just couldn't wait to eat. :)
For me the environment is very important, it is easier when I am away from home or even living somewhere else. Another factor is stress, if you are under pressure the cortisol can be very high and it can be counterproductive.