4 Days Without Food

A friend of mine brought up the idea of how she wanted to fast for 5 days, she’s done it before and then told me about the benefits of it. I thought she was crazy, I never heard of people fasting other than religious reasons and even then, I thought one day was extreme.  However, the following day I thought more about it, I read up on it and realized there are many benefits, one of which is resetting the GI tract and expelling the harmful toxins and bacteria from your body. It’s like getting your car serviced each year.  I don’t know what happened to me and when, but now it seems like everything I eat causes some type of stomach discomfort; I can no longer drink beer or carbonated drinks, too much sugar has me in the bathroom, it doesn’t seem like I can escape from anything. So, I thought I’d give a two day fast a try. I wanted to see if I could.

Tuesday
Even though I stopped eating Monday night, the morning of the next day is the true beginning of the fast. Not even a day in and I was already struggling and thinking about food I wanted to eat. I was slightly light headed and could feel the effect of not having food on my mind. My body felt fine, it was my mind that seemed to be weakening. Skipping lunch was tough, skipping dinner was even harder. I decided not to climb the 14 flights of stairs to my apartment like I normally do. I also decided I’m gonna go for a 4 day fast and finish it with my friend.

Wednesday
“On Wednesday at school we always play volleyball, I’m interested how my body will react to physical activity a day and a half in.” Written on Tuesday

I had some really weird dreams, most of them were about wanting or eating food. Food was the main focus of them. The start of the day I felt the lack of food in my stomach. “While the first day my body was fine, I believe the second day will begin to have more of an impact on my body.” Going down the stairs I felt some ache in my bones and the lower back right side of my head was pulsating. At noon it was difficult to skip lunch, especially because I always eat with my co-teacher, it was also one of my favorite meals, Black Chinese noodles called Jajangmyeon. Also for some reason I kept burping, which I thought was strange, but apparently it’s normal. I got through volleyball without fainting, but only because I didn’t do much. The times I did jump and block, or actually move around felt bad, my heart rate increased quickly and I got a bit dizzy. Luckily we only played three games.  The worst was afterwards, they had Chinese food; sweet pork, dumplings, cherry tomatoes, and noodles, some of my favorite stuff, but I could only sit there and watch while they all ate. It was torturous. I also had the weird experience of watching everyone eat and finding it slightly disgusting.

Thursday
Wednesday night I went to bed early, but I didn’t sleep well. I kept waking up throughout the night and morning (one of the side effects). When I woke up the only thought on my mind was food. My heart rate was also getting elevated from doing easy activities. I did my routine shoulder exercises and 5 minutes after finishing my heart rate was still pumping faster. I started to ask myself, “what the hell am I doing?” Even though I was drinking a lot of water I had a dry mouth as if I was dehydrated. At noon I felt the lack of food in my stomach, I couldn’t  stop thinking about food. I could also feel my heart beating harder. I started watching those 1 minute food recipe videos, longing for when I can have food again.  “All I have to do is get through today and there’s only one more day left.” Thursday was really difficult because I was off from school, I was hoping to go to the county driving office to exchange my license for a Korean one, but my license didn’t come, so I sat at home hoping it still would (if it came at 2 I would have still been able to go).

Friday
My last day fasting and the day Kim Jung Un met with the South Korean president, making history in the process. I had more dreams about food and another night of weird sleep with constant wakening and being wide awake through it. Brushing my teeth,  toothpaste and mouth wash was the only change in flavor since Monday night, it feels extremely strong in my mouth. And even though my sleep was sporadic, I felt more mentally awake. That changed a few hours later when I just felt tired.  Walking around my legs felt achy, kind of like how your body feels when you have the flu. When I got to school they were eating Korean rice cake, they offered me some and it was so hard to not eat it. I wanted to. It could have been so easy to give in.  It’s not cold, but my body was sensitive to the weather, so I felt cold. Teaching was definitely harder, it’s hard to be energetic and enthusiastic, kindergarten was especially tough because even on days when I have food, they’re exhausting. One thing that has changed is my senses have become heightened, food opened around me instantaneously reached my nose and lingered, my ears became more sensitive to sound and my eyes to light.

Saturday
The end of my fast, I went to bed as excited as a kid on Christmas Eve. I couldn’t wait to get up to eat. How you get out of an extended fast is extremely important so I planned to have a couple slices of pear and some blended up tomatoes for juice.

Foooooooooddddddd, I can eat food again. I couldn’t sleep because I was too excited to eat, I woke up at 6:30 and at 6:40 I broke my fast with a couple slices of pear, some tomato juice and half a strawberry. I couldn’t eat anymore because I felt full after so little.

The fast was an interesting experience, never in my life did I think I’d go 4 days without food let alone do it voluntarily. As difficult as it was during the process I was extremely aware of my body and it’s needs as well as my mental thought processes. The will to go through with it was something I could not have done if my friend wasn’t going through it as well. Talking to her about the process and what I was going through while she was doing the same was extremely helpful. It didn’t make the desire to eat go away, or the longing for food disappear, but at least I knew I wasn’t alone in the suffering.