The Fast Report

9:00: 14 hours of "fast". The morning hasn't been too bad. I've had a mug of black tea and another of warm water. I usually wait to eat until the kids have been fed and Sprout is off to school. So there wasn't a lot of temptation and I wasn't too hungry. I'm suddenly very cold though. That's not abnormal for me, but this feels worse. Maybe it's a blood sugar issue. This feels very do-able.

12:00: 17 hours in. 2/3 of the way there! Another mug of warm water--probably should have been more. I had a two hour conference call which helped distract me. Bird offered me some of her cashews and didn't like that I wasn't eating. It's hard to explain to a 4 year old. Serving her lunch was difficult. All of the cues to eat were there, at the fridge, the pantry--even just being in the kitchen. I didn't stay with her while she ate. It made me a bit more emotional as I became increasingly more hungry, just trying to contemplate the uncountable number of people--and children--who are hungrier than I, with no end in site. My stomach does feel crampish now, and I just feel a little light headed. 7 hours more will be interesting.

3:00: This really isn't so bad. The weirdest part is fighting my brain, which seems to be quite confused about why I don't just go eat something! I noticed around this time that water started to taste sweet. That continued through the rest of the fast.

5:00: With dinner time drawing near, I'm starting to feel a bit more anxious, and the 2 hours seems like a long time. On the other hand, I'm surprised at how much easier this has been than I expected. I realize at this point that I'm not going to break my fast lightly, and we resolve to hold off dinner until 7:00 and all eat a meal together.

7:00: Cheese pizza for dinner! I am really hungry and it feels good to eat, but it also feels a bit sacrilegious. I definitely want to break my fast with a cleaner, healthier food next time. My stomach did cramp just a bit a few minutes after eating, but it wasn't terrible.

Overall, the 24 hour fast was much easier than I expected it to be. It's definitely something I want to continue doing. It was so interesting to break my normal (sometimes mindless) eating habits, and in a much different way than doing Weight Watchers did that. I felt more mindful throughout the day, able to focus as my instincts rose up and I consciously had to suppress them. Of course I can't tell if I came out technically any "healthier", but I don't think that I did any damage. I do feel, just inherently, that it was a cleansing experience for me. I'd love to hear about your own experiences if you fasted with me or have fasted on your own.