Things I Learned From Fasting

This Fall I went on a trip that has changed my whole perspective on life and also food. Not being able to cook anything aside from instant coffee up until lunch and high level of physical activity did not only help me look great but also taught me a few things about fitness, food, and hunger.

First of all, hunger felt easier in a different hotter climate. Food hasn’t seemed so essential, unlike water. And it certainly helped me to ease into the involuntary intermitent fasting. And right after a few days came realization that hunger isn’t the end of the world. I don’t have to eat right whenever I want but when I can. It was also liberating as I spent less time worrying about counting calories or weighing my food since I ate pretty moderately and rarer now.

Another thing I noticed was that I muscle mass wasn’t fading right into oblivion as I couldn’t train for the time being. My physical activity only included walking and it worked wonders on the way I looked. It would’ve been ideal if I could also weight train but it was a good enough experience to show that muscle doesn’t go anywhere as fast as you might think or be led to believe.

Finally, a diet is much more pleasant to stick to when you can spare a few more calories for a hearty meal later in the day rather than spread them thin on some tasteless low-cal meals throughout the day. This certainly takes a good measure of self-control not to eat a horse after fasting for more than 12 hours but you can find your own mechanisms of control in calorie counting (it just doesn’t have to be as precise and strict) or some other thing.