I Did a 24 Hours Fasting
Hi everyone, I hope you are all staying safe and well.
Before I continue, I didn’t know how to address this topic or if it was a good idea to do so because I didn’t want to come across as opportunistic. But I didn’t feel comfortable ignoring it either.
Last week has been incredibly eventful. It’s heartbreaking to see that there are still so many injustices happening because of skin colour. The world is far from what I thought it would be by now. On the other side, the last few days have proved that society can do better and I want to believe that the way the system is being addressed will result in a more positive and fair future.
In my previous post, I mentioned my decision to try very short fasting in order to give my body a break from food and see how I felt both physically and mentally after going through it. If you are interested in trying it, I will resume my experience fasting for 24 hours.
For context, I am used to eating/snacking around 5 times a day, and sometimes even more if I count the snacks individually.
I drink a hot beverage minutes after I wake up, which can vary from a coffee to a peppermint tea or sometimes even a “Glow Skin” infusion. After that, I ingest a Yogurt or a protein bar.
On my nasty days (especially during those days of the month), I indulge myself with chocolate for breakfast and, if I am feeling especially sleepy, I have a second coffee. I often listen to my body when it comes to lunchtime. I can devour a Mediterranean salad and feel satisfied. Other days, I will use some of the pre-cooked rice and mix it with veggies, cheese or anything that makes it flavourful.
However, the worst time of the day is the evening. My cravings start at around 4pm. That’s the time of the day when I find more difficult to control myself. For dinner, I usually have a piece of meat, roasted veggies, or 2 eggs.
Due to my struggles to fall asleep, I didn’t want to go to sleep feeling hungry, so I decided to start fasting after dinner, at 8pm.
The only liquid I ingested during the fasting was water. Some studies consider that like coffee and tea (without sugar) don’t interrupt the process of fasting, but considering that I was doing it for only 24 hours, I stuck to water.
The morning was pretty easy. My body was empty but comfortable and I didn’t feel hungry.
Around 3 pm I started to feel a bit weird…I guess my body was requesting the solid foods it’s used to digest. I didn’t think much of it. I also followed the advice some of you guys gave me of keeping myself busy so I wouldn’t suffer thinking about food.
Around 4:30 pm I start feeling week. I decide to go out for a walk and clear my mind. Also with the purpose of avoiding being stuck on my couch, 3 meters away from the fridge.
When I came back, it was only 6pm. At this point, I was very hungry. I started counting the minutes until I could eat. I was excited about feeling the mental clarity effect people talk about.
Instead, the only thing growing in my mind was a headache. The problem with the headache is that I didn’t know if it was due to not eating at all or simply the result of not having the mandatory cup of caffeinated drink.
At this point, the time seems to have stopped. When I think it’s been half an hour, I look at the clock and face the fact that it’s been only 5 minutes.
After fasting, you can have a rebound effect called “Refeeding“. This is extremely dangerous after longer fastings, but I wanted to avoid any type of discomfort in my body when going back to eat. So I bought a cucumber and tomatoes to break the fasting with a salad and help your body regain the minerals it needs.
After completing the 24 hours and eating my cucumber salad, my body felt relaxed and satisfied. 30 minutes later, I had a piece of salmon. I didn’t have any stomachaches or cravings.
The following day, I was more hungry than usual. I felt like eating carbs, so I had rice and didn’t notice any side effects on my body.
Of course, with such short term fasting, I didn’t notice any massive changes. That said, the following days after this experiment I didn’t notice any cravings, which was pretty nice.
Apart from that, I don’t know if I lost weight. I forgot to weigh myself and I didn’t care much about that aspect because I wasn’t trying to lose weight, but apparently, it’s a very effective practice if you are looking to losing some pounds of fat without losing muscle.
I am not sure if I will repeat the experience, but if I do, I will make it last for longer than 24 hours to increase the effects of changes in my body.
How about you, have you tried fasting? What are your thoughts on it?
18 Comments
Emma Crawford-Nash
Very interesting to see what your experience was with the fasting (I am not brave enough!). So in that case, if you were to do this again you would do it for a longer period, is that right?
Kiira Smith
Exactly, I didn’t notice much difference so if I do it again, it will be for a few more hours 🙂
Jamie
A few months ago when I tried fasting for the first time, I thought it was such an interesting experience (a bit hard to handle of course). I haven’t done it since so hopefully your post encourages me to get new strength to do this!
By the way, I think it is great that you took a moment to acknowledge all the injustice that is happening lately. It speaks volumes about you!
Kiira Smith
Great, just don’t push yourself if you feel your body isn’t handling it well.
Thank you Jamie 🙂
John Malone
It is great that you decided to talk about the protests. It is of course a very controversial topic but people should respect each other and support each other more, no matter the race.
Great post as always!
Kiira Smith
Yeah, I feel we should all be on the same page on that matter 🙂
Lucy
Great to read about your experience with fasting. It’s never discussed too much, the importance of nourishing properly when breaking the fasting so I loved that you mentioned it!
Kiira Smith
Yeah, it is extremely important to break it properly, otherwise the fasting can be really harmful to your body!
Brianna
Loved it
Kiira Smith
Thank you!
Shawna
As a back woman I really appreciate that you mentioned what has been happening lately. It’s great that you spoke about it
I have never done any fasting but sounds very interesting so I will give it a shot! See what happens hahahaha
Kiira Smith
Thank you so much Shawna I really appreciate it 🙂
Good luck with the fasting!
Emma
I tried 24h fasting once and felt super bad.. but it could just be caffeine addiction as it may have happened to you!
Kiira Smith
So frustrating that we don’t have a way to know it for sure!
Amy
Great update! Let us know if you ever try it again!
Kiira Smith
I will, thanks Amy!
Thomas
I think fasting is great. At least I get a lot of energy when I have been a few hours without eating it is all very strange. But it is quite hard to pull off sometimes
Kiira Smith
And you must have a great amount of willpower to succeed in doing it regularly!