Day 4: PM

If the hunger pangs don't go away, I'm not sure how long I can continue this. I feel fine and am not particularly tired or weak or fatigued, but the feelings of hunger are pretty hard to ignore. Taking a nap helps. :-) Some possible side effects of a therapeutic fast are a coated tongue (I have that slightly), feeling light-headed (I have that sometimes normally when standing up too fast, especially from a kneeling position), nausea or vomiting (5% chance ... I don't have this problem), rash (nope), darkened and/or cloudy urine (nope), itchy skin (nope), and a "running" nose (nope).

My parents are home now, and I just returned from picking them up at the Evansville airport. I'm planning to stay at home all day tomorrow. It'll be a nice change from venturing out twice (or more) a day. I need to wash the car and get rid of the rest of the dust and dirt from the myriad of gravel roads I explored yesterday.

Day 1: Monday, 02 June 2008

I've never been one to run to the doctor or taking a drug for every little (or even large, for that matter) ailment, ache, or pain. I am, however, tired of feeling lackluster, tired of some niggling aches, tired of feeling crappy. So, what to do? Look around for alternative ways of feeling better. It started with books on relieving depression naturally which all sounded promising but generally involved taking a bunch of supplements. Then it was on to investigating eating more naturally which sounds best of all for the long run. From there, to jump start it all, I read about therapeutic fasts. Bingo! Good place to start for me.

Today is the first day of my first-ever therapeutic fast. A therapeutic fast means drinking only filtered or distilled water. It is a time to rest and relax with little physical or emotional exertion. It is a time to allow the body to heal or fix itself without also having to deal with the normal daily onslaught of work, heavy exercise, digestion, stress.

As usual, I woke up hungry. I really wanted my usual bowl of Kashi GoLean, skim milk, blueberries, cinnamon, 1/2 oz sunflower seeds, and a little Splenda, but I dutifully drank a glass of water instead. At this point, I was wondering how long it would be before my Diet Coke/caffeine-withdrawal headache would occur. It hit around 11:30 am and progressively worsened through the rest of the day into the night.

I was very hungry ALL day. I napped for a couple of hours in the afternoon just to take my mind off the hunger pangs. Toward evening, my energy levels were flagging considerably, and I felt tired and "down." And, of course, my head hurt.

Theoretically, the headache and hunger pangs should lessen over the next day or two.

Morning Stats

weight: 155.8 lbs
bf: 31%
bp: 117/75
pulse: 57 bpm
bg: 88 mg/dl