Dear Reader,
So I’m just now finally pulling together some thoughts about this recent 3-Day water-fast experiment. In general, I was happy that I did it and wish I had done a bit more prep in order to have set myself up to go an entire 5 days. During the 3 days, I was able to work out every day of the fast. On Thursday I got a bit too cocky and trained hard cardio for an hour in the morning and then in the evening I did an hour of kick-boxing followed by an hour of wrestling. Surprisingly I was able to get through these workouts without feeling too bad. I was even able to go past my original 3-day goal (having started Monday at 10pm) into Friday morning. However, by mid-day on Friday it all caught up to me and I felt totally spent and completely ravenous. The potassium/magnesium/calcium supplementation was super helpful for those first three days in terms of helping to hold off cravings, but I think pushing it super hard on Thursday training-wise just put me into a space where I was mentally prone to tapping out (which I eventually did the day later). Were I to plan to do a 5-Day water-fast next time (which I WILL do sometime within the next 3-6 months), then I would make sure to make the fast my top priority and to not over-do it with the training frequency, volume, and/or intensity. The more I think about it, for the 5-Day water fast, I will probably take an entire training week off and instead just focus on fasting and contemplation exclusively, with maybe some light stretching, saunas, and walks in nature. So that would be the main piece of advice I’d give to someone wanting to do a 3, 4, or 5 day version of this as a beginner. Prioritize the fast and de-prioritize your other ‘normal’ activities.
Philosophically-speaking, I can’t help thinking about how traditional Catholics were typically expected to fast two times a week. Nowadays, the typical American misses a single meal and their mood, psychology, productivity, emotional self-control, and comportment entirely unravels. I say this not as a general critique of other people but mainly as a critique of myself. For the most part,
I am the typical American consumer.
I don’t homestead. I don’t garden. I don’t hunt or fish. I don’t grow or can my own vegetables or raise my own chickens. If the global supply chain suddenly broke down tomorrow, then, in all likelihood, after a few days, I would be one of the ‘in the way’ people looking or asking for food as opposed to those who could help loved ones and neighbors stand themselves back up. This is a tough pill to swallow.
That said, my hope in the coming months is to really focus my efforts on fostering the two core practices of fasting and frugality, to be more productive and self-reliant rather than consumptive, and to bolster myself against the myriad forces that keep trying to nudge and tempt us, in evermore sophisticated and evermore sinister ways, back onto that never-ending hedonic treadmill towards consumption, sin, and perdition.
The purpose of fasting is to loosen to some degree the ties which bind us to the world of material things and our surroundings as a whole, in order that we may concentrate all our spiritual powers upon the unseen and eternal things.” - Ole Hallesby
It's incredible how well the discipline that one gains by fasting translates into self-control against other temptations. Essential!