i think the common pattern for fasting is that you don’t notice anything the first day, the second and third days are terrible, and then by the fourth day, you feel like you could go forever. needless to say, i’m happy to be at day four.

the solid food cravings were incredible. getting home from work and not grabbing the walk-in-the-door-snack of a handful of almonds made me feel like something was missing. putting lettuce into the juicer instead of into a big bowl for eating also felt so wrong. because i felt like i was depriving myself, my mood wasn’t great either. however, that was yesterday, today is different. getting home from work, juicing four apples and some ginger was absolute magic. i upped the calories somewhat and my mood has improved.

when you first go raw, there’s such a drastic change in your body and mind — you lose weight, feel super-light and energetic, sense that everything seems way sharper and way more vibrant. and then about a year into it, you adjust and that’s your new normal. i think that this yearly fast is my way of trying to get back to that feeling. i get why people become liquidarian (no solid food) and breatharian (no food or water at all). those aren’t steps i see myself taking, but i get why people do it — the feeling of lightness is really compelling.

i know what i’m learning from this fast: when i get back to solid food (probably sunday), i need to keep it to a more low-fat raw diet. it’s not that i don’t eat any cooked food, but on the days when i’m not going out to dinner, i need to keep it low-fat raw. tahini dressing on a salad, ok. nervous-energy pacing-around-the-house four-tablespoons of almond butter, not ok.

it feels good to have a plan.

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 8th, 2009 at 12:00 am and is filed under raw foodism. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.