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09.00 After six and a half hours sleep, I came downstairs to sit at this computer. I have a glass of warm water in front of me. Shirley has already gone out to the gym where she is a frequent attendee. Lying in bed, I thought to myself that sitting around in the house would not be a good way of suppressing food cravings so I am going to have a shower very soon and then go out to the retail park at Norton to hopefully purchase an umbrella for Phoebe and a replacement large coffee cup for me. Shirley accidentally smashed the old one that I have been using for the past sixteen years, Frances brought it back from Birmingham Southern College in Alabama. It was an Alpha Omicron Pi sorority mug. So far, I am happy with the warm water and feel calm about the unusual day ahead.
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01.30 Back from the retail park at Norton where I bought two new mugs, replacement kitchen tongs and an umbrella for Phoebe so that if we again have to pick her up from school on a rainy day she will stay drier than before.
I have just sat down with a glass of warm water. Nothing to eat yet and no particular cravings either. My tummy is not rumbling and I do not have a headache. So far so good. I will see how I am feeling at around 18.00 when we usually have our evening meal.
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19.00 I have been doing some sorting out in this study, wondering why the hell am I so bad at throwing stuff away.
Still no food has passed my lips. Shirley had her evening meal half an hour ago though I did not prepare it as I usually do.
Thoughts about food have crossed my mind but no urgent cravings. I am okay. I keep drinking glasses of warm water. Is my face a little flushed? I think it is. Perhaps not eating has weirdly pushed up my blood pressure. I will test it in a little while.
Taking my evening anti-hypertension medication was something I hadn't really thought about before. Does it count as food? I am supposed to swallow those particular pills in the evening at mealtime - Atorvastatin, Ramipril and Lercanidipine hydrochloride. Surely, one day won't matter.
I think I have been a little hyperactive this afternoon. I changed the cartridges on our "Canon" printer and reformatted three pieces of memoir writing from this blog that I plan to give to Richard and Jackie when I see them on Friday. He asked me to do this.
I have also riffled through some old papers and keepsakes that I had not looked at in years. Why do I keep them?
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23.45 Still no food all day. Just warm water. I have been trying to avoid the news fallout from the horrible Epstein business over here in Great Britain. In my judgement, our prime minister, Sir Keir Starmer will sadly have to leave office very soon. It's hard to imagine him carrying on even though he never even met Epstein. But in order to curry favour with Trump, he asked Peter Mandelson to become the new British ambassador to the USA. This is widely being seen now as an act of bad judgement, inflated by political opponents and right wing newspapers.
I like Keir Starmer. In my opinion, he is a decent, intelligent democrat who has worked hard for this country in difficult circumstances but the wolves are out to get him. He will have to go. Shame we can't say that same about America's current political leader who was Epstein's best friend and no doubt still holds on to a lot of significant information that could benefit the victims' cause.
About my day of starvation - or brief fast if you like - I have noticed one visible result. You may not like to hear this but the urine I am passing has become the same colourless, crystal-clear hue as the warm water I have been drinking.
I could eat something before going to bed having just about passed the twenty four hour target but I am not going to. I will sleep on an empty stomach and eat a bowl of porridge in the morning.
It has been a lot easier than I imagined it might be.
I would need caffeine. Apart from that, I can quite easily go a whole day without eating anything, but it catches up with me by the end of the day and I find it difficult to go to sleep on a totally empty stomach.
ReplyDeleteAll my life I have had a ravenous appetite and food has been my drug of choice.
DeleteI used to do intermittent fasting but it wasn't helpful because I would tell myself I had fasted and then just eat anything I wanted in the 8 hour eating window. If I eat regularly it's harder to justify poor choices.
ReplyDeleteYou make me laugh with the pee thing, you know it's not the fasting , right?
Bravo Mr Pudding. It will do you the world of good
Food also comes in liquid form - soup, milk, cocoa, beer etc..
DeleteSo you are on a starvation diet, my friend ?
ReplyDeleteAnd this evening the 47th President of the United States tucked into a Ten Pound
Tom & Jerry steak with Baked Potato garnished with Black Pepper & Butter followed by Vanilla Ice Cream with Lychees & Peaches.
Before retiring The Donald enjoyed a Chocolate Milk Shake, ruminating on the imminent downfall of Comrade Keir, the imminent criminal trial of Lord Mandelson, and the possible conviction of Andrew Mountbatten Windsor in America.
Here's the best bit. Sir Tony Blair had Jeffrey Epstein INSIDE Number 10
Downing Street. On the advice of his soul mate, Lord Peter Mandelson.
Yeah... Although Sir Keir is being pilloried over the Mandelson affair, Blair has been invited to join Trump's so-called "Board of Peace" that was sprung on the world without forewarning. Who is questioning Blair's "poor judgement"?
DeleteSir Blair's lies, self deceptions and elaborate evasions will destroy him.
DeleteI hope I live long enough to see his downfall.
Even now Blair defends his decision to send British forces into Iraq in 2003. 179 British service personnel died there but none of Tony Blair's family or friends.
DeleteMy question is, why are you fasting? I tried it once when I was younger and I did not feel good, but it sounds like it was easy for you. I wake up hungry and if I am not fed on a regular basis I get extremely hangry. It's not pleasant for me, or anyone around me.
ReplyDeleteMy answer to your question is clearly stated in the introduction Pixie. It was an experiment - caused by curiosity. Simple as that and besides I am on a mission to lose weight.
DeleteI often go all morning without eating because I start doing stuff (I'll just get this done before breakfast and that too and..) but I get up at 7am at Lola's insistence and by 1pm I really need to eat something so I have my bowl of porridge as lunch.
ReplyDeleteDo you make your porridge in the microwave?
DeleteYes.
DeleteMost of us eat too much.
ReplyDeleteWell, here in the west we do. Not so much in the Sahel Belt.
DeleteEvery so often I do a day of fasting. I find it makes me feel better.
ReplyDeleteI don't know that I could, or even would, do two days in a row. Maybe two days in one week?
To have a day without food - it was somehow cleansing. I might do it again.
DeleteAs one day was fine, why not try for two?
ReplyDeleteFor good health and energy the body generally needs sustenance but yesterday morning I was not ravenous for my promised bowl of porridge. I could have continued.
DeleteWell done, you.
ReplyDeleteThank you Joy. I appreciated those very simple words of encouragement.
DeleteI regularly have to fast when I go for my regular gastroscopies (I've got another one coming up in 6 weeks). When I had the tumour removed from my stomach ten years ago, I went 4 days without eating. It's surprising how you can manage when you have to.
ReplyDeleteGoogle AI tells me that a healthy adult can easily survive for up to two months without food as long as plenty of water is consumed.
DeleteA friend of mine puts in a fasting day once a week. He says it is not only good for his body but also for his mind; he feels more alert, better able to focus and concentrate on complex issues on those days.
ReplyDeleteI can go for quite a while without food (but why should I?), but then I reach a point where I feel that if I don't get anything to eat RIGHT NOW, I'm going to faint. Also, having to go without food for longer than normal makes me grumpy and unfocused.
In connection with medication that you are supposed to take with or just after a meal, I would consult with my doctor before embarking on regular or longer fasting.
PS: I am sure you are delighted to read that my urine always looks like water, because that is what I drink all day, every day, apart from a coffee in the morning and (sometimes) another one in the afternoon.
PS : Is this what the kids mean by Over Sharing, Meike ?
DeleteOnly kidding ! Clean water is a global asset.
Hemingway in Cuba observed the diuresis process carefully.
He kept samples of his urine in glass bottles in the bathroom.
The doctor's son was a big rum drinker. So was Mary Welsh his wife.
* Interview d'Ernest Hemingway. * YouTube.
What colour is your urine Sir Haggerty? Green and white or blue, red and white?
DeleteWhen I empty my Vesica Urinaria, I always close my eyes.
DeleteMy Slovakian nurse, a bonny girl of 29, takes away the catheter.
* Wery nicen colour Maister Haggertee, * Kristina says, * like Chablis ! *
I am thinking of taking Kristina to see Doctor Strangelove which is being
rescreened at the Glasgow Film Theatre.
Then we can go for a Paesano Pizza and drink Chianti.
Blood pressure medication is not food. As far as I can recall, when fasting for medical reasons like before certain tests or procedures I've always been told to take my regular pills as usual, with water.
ReplyDeleteIn a way I was kidding about the tablets being food.
DeleteWell done - you've proved you can do it without detriment to your health or mental acuity.
ReplyDeleteStaying well hydrated is key to maintaining health. Eating is a habit and most of us probably eat too much.
Thanks for your kind encouragement Janice.
DeleteI think the beginning without food would be easy but days without food could get very hard.
ReplyDeleteI agree.
DeleteMy problem is snacking between meals, and I am making a conscious effort to stop that, but some days it is harder than others. I think staying active helps.
ReplyDeleteMaybe you could treat yourself to healthy snacks - fruit or nuts for example.
DeleteThere was a program on my PBS station last night about the women and children starving in Sudan. Women and children are dying because aid groups cannot get food to them. The photos were so tragic. It just made me react differently to your "starvation day".
ReplyDeleteI understand where you are coming from Ellen. A similar reservation had crossed my mind too.
DeleteI haven't fasted in years. I remember doing it for one day during Ramadan when I lived in Morocco, in solidarity with the Moroccans around me. Like you, I was curious what it was like. I was young and I got VERY hungry and it was not my favorite thing to do. I suspect now it would be easier. During Ramadan, after the sun sets, muslims break the fast, so I didn't go all through the night -- in fact I remember eating a fairly large meal around 11 p.m.
ReplyDeleteI've never purposely gone without food but have successfully used food diary apps to control my consumption.
ReplyDelete