48 hours WITHOUT food

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Have you ever starved yourself intentionally?

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Probably not, sounds stupid right? Well, it turns out fasting is actually extremely healthy for you! Crazy right? In fact you might be surprised to learn that most religions around the world support fasting for one reason or another. Not that I am religious, but I find that extremely interesting. Even ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics talk about the benefits of fasting, so this is nothing new. Fasting has been around for thousands of years, maybe more. Maybe there is something to this whole fasting thing....

I started intermittent fasting over a year ago and it was the best thing I have ever done for my body. Intermittent fasting is when you fast for a 16 hour window and only eat during an 8 hour window over a 24 hour period. (So if you ate breakfast at 9am then you would have to eat dinner by 5pm and then no food for 16 hours). There are multiple ways to intermittently fast, this way just suits my lifestyle best.

There are many health benefits to intermittent fasting so I wanted to give it a try. I lost a bunch of weight and felt amazing so I continued doing it pretty much everyday. Sure there are days when I want to eat breakfast early in the morning, so I do. It's not something you have to do religiously, but 3-4 times a week will make a big difference in the long run.

I have read a lot about long term fasting and its benefits so I wanted to try it. Typically I try to do a 24 hour fast at least once or twice a month and one 36 hour fast every other month to keep me feeling on top of my game, you would be surprised how good you feel after a fast. Not only do you feel better physically, you also feel like you accomplished a lot mentally. It is hard to go without eating food (especially since we have been conditioned to eat at certain times of the day not whether we are hungry or not). It's hard when your body sends you hunger pains, your mind keeps telling you to eat, everywhere you look there is food, it seems like every commercial on TV is some kind of food advertisement! It is mentally draining to be honest, but it is so worth it. To over come those thoughts and feelings and push through your urges shows you how strong you really are. It really is a great feeling, so I thought I would push myself even more and go for a 48 hour fast this time.

Until now I had never tried a 48 hour fast because it seemed to hard. After 36 hours of fasting I am usually extremely weak, I find it hard to get up and move around so I thought 48 hours would be like torture. But I decided to go for it anyhow.

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My 48 hours started at 6pm Monday night after a healthy dinner of vegetables and rice. I find it easiest to start at this time because it gets me through the first part really quick because I'm sleeping through 8 hours of it! BOOM 12 hours down by the time I wake up at 6am. The first part of the day (Tues) was easy for me, I usually don't eat "breakfast" until noon because of my intermittent fasting so the day started normal with a hour long walk with my dogs and a light workout. I exercise at this time everyday because after you fast for 12 hours your body starts burning fat as fuel instead of sugars or empty carbs that have been hanging around since your last meal, so you are really doing something that matters. It is impossible to work off the food you eat throughout the day so its best to work out when your body is in fat burning mode.

I tried to pass the time quick Wednesday by being on steemit a lot. The trick to fasting is keep your mind busy on other things, do things so you don't think about food. I was getting really hungry when I got to the 24 hour mark (6pm Tues) but I wasn't going to give in that easy. I knew if I could hold out a few more hours than I could just go to bed and at least sleep until my 36 hour mark (6am Wed) if nothing else. As I laid in bed Wed night I didn't know if I was going to make it another 20 hours, it seemed like an eternity away and I couldn't get food off my mind at this point. I thought at the very least 36 hours was still good. I would make my decision in the morning.

Surprisingly, when I woke up on Thursday morning I felt pretty good. I still felt weak but no hunger pains and my mind wasn't working against me anymore, I decided to continue on with my fast. Only 12 hours left at that point and I was feeling optimistic. Surprisingly the second day actually seemed to go by quicker than the first! The hunger pains eventually came back pretty strong in the after noon and I was feeling rather weak by 3pm but I was soo close to 48 hours! My mind kept telling me to eat but I only had a few hours left so pushed through them and hit my goal. It felt amazing to complete the challenge, and even more amazing to eat! LoL.

It really was such a sweet sweet victory! I ate a honey crisp apple Wed evening to break my fast, they had been taunting me for days sitting on the counter staring at me so I thought was good revenge (lol). I made scrambled eggs and toast after that because it's important to break your fast with healthy foods not junk food, for obvious reasons. Eating something after fasting for 48 hours is unexplainable, everything tastes so amazing!

I was thinking about the fast after it was over and it seemed that a 48 hour fast was somehow both harder and easier than I had thought it would be. I think it was actually more mentally difficult than physically difficult for me this time around. Maybe that's because I am getting use to fasting or maybe it's because I put on quite a few extra pounds since my life got turned upside down :/ either way I'm glad I decided to try it because I am incredibly proud of myself for finishing it.

Do yourself a favor and get proactive with your health, you only get one body so take care of it!. Look into fasting, both intermittent and long term, see if something suits you. It is incredibly healthy and an easy way to shed some extra pounds while making your mind stronger too!

There are so many benefits to fasting:

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I really hope this inspires other people to try fasting :)

Peace, Love and all that hippie shit