So fresh back from our delightful little holiday where we enjoyed many indulgent BBQ's and chilled Pinot Gris on a sun drenched deck, I announced that I was going to go on a fasting diet which involved sipping a detox drink for five to seven days or even 10 days if you could cope with it, no tea or coffee or alcohol. The blurb claimed that I could lose 3-6 kg over this time. Now despite doing boot camp training up and down the beach for several weeks before the Christmas break and through sheer hard work and total exhaustion and a very restrictive diet I had only managed to lose about 2 kg which over Christmas had gone straight back on again. Phil had also been following the diet with me - high protein and low carbs - and doing lots of swimming and so was in reasonable shape but was becoming increasingly obsessive about his stomach. (Middle aged men do tend to become a tad obsessed about their middle aged spread). He would squeeze a moderate little roll of fat around the stomach and say emphatically that this is what had to come off. Despite me telling him that he is in pretty good shape he wanted to know all about my diet so that he could do it too and shed a few kilos. At this point we were both around the same weight but I was feeling increasingly large and becoming slightly concerned that I was at risk of becoming bigger than him. (What is it about women that if they can help it they find it disconcerting to be larger than their man!)
Now when Phil said he would do the fasting diet with me I was a bit sceptical as he's never been a day without coffee or a beer let alone food. It was going to be hard enough for me as I have very rarely gone without a cup of tea or two every morning. All very well, I thought, good to have the encouragement. Besides, I have told Phil time and time again that he's looking very good especially for a man approaching 50. You have the body of a 20 year old, I've told him to which he purred with delight. It was the tiny little roll of fat on his middle that he would pull up and down and say this is what he has to get rid of. But, I said, what about doing a few sit-ups and perhaps its just a bit of sagging skin …. Well that comment went down like a dead weight!
Now fasting occurs across many cultures and is an integral part of many of the major religions including Islam, Judaism and Christianity. There is a belief that fasting can do wonders for the human body apart from shedding a few kilos. When food is no longer entering the body, the body turns to fat reserves for energy. Human fat is valued at 3,500 calories per pound, a number that would lead one to believe that surviving on one pound of fat every day would provide a body with enough energy to function normally. Another benefit of fasting is the healing process that begins in the body. Energy is diverted away from the digestive system due to its lack of use and towards the immune system. There is often a reduction in body temperature but often a feeling of rejuvenation and extended life expectancy. Apparently there is an anti-aging hormone released more frequently and produced more efficiently. (I like the sound of that, bring it on!) A study was performed on earthworms that demonstrated the extension of life due to fasting. One worm was isolated and put on a cycle of fasting and feeding. The isolated worm outlasted its relatives by 19 generations while still maintaining its youthful traits. The worm was able to survive on its own tissue for months. Once the size of the worm began to decrease, the scientists would resume feeding it at which point it showed great vigour and energy. The life-span extension of these worms was the equivalent of keeping a person alive for 600 to 700 years. (Not that I wish to be compared to an isolated worm or live 6-700 years).
So into day one and then day two of our fast, starting off with vigorous dry skin brushing before a morning shower to get the circulation going and then just sipping our detox drinks for the rest of the day. Nowadays in our instant fast food world where we have instant gratification for everything it began to be quite an interesting lesson of self control and discipline not to put some food in your mouth. And it sure took a lot of self control. In fact it was damn hard! Mahatma Gandi was an ardent advocate of fasting as a way to change character and to find joy in the present replacing the relentless compulsion to get and to have. For Gandhi "hurry and overwork are always sins". Even the Zulus have a saying "The continually stuffed body cannot see secret things". Have we perhaps lost ourselves in a maze of desire destined to bring us only ignorance and misery. I was about to find out if I could build a road to higher levels of consciousness that rip away the blinding shrouds of ignorance.
By the second day I already began to feel lighter and the scales began to go into reverse mode. It was so exciting! Phil - who could not believe that he had gone through two days without eating or having a beer - was not feeling too good, aching bones all a bit like flu. But on waking in the morning, the first thing he did was bounce out of bed and jump on the scales and then come beaming into the bedroom with the latest lost kg news. The weight was just falling off him - well it does on a man doesn't it - and he was now officially smaller than me! Grrr!
And now the kids started to take bets on who would be the first to break the fast as Phil announced that this is good and he could go the whole 10 days on this diet. (mmm …. Interesting where the word breakfast comes from). We're not competing I retorted. In the beginning when the diet was my idea I was going to do it for 5 - 7 days. What is it about male machismo that they have to turn everything into a competition? What is this, a race for the perfect BMI? And he was drinking all my detox mixture so now it had run out and I had to go to the other side of town to buy another pack. (Suppliers had run out as everyone is dieting at this time of year.)
On day three and four the diet was taking its toll on our mind and bodies in slightly different ways. Perhaps its a sign of a good marriage when you find it quite fascinating to discuss each other's intimate and varying bodily functions. Its certainly very bonding. Phil was becoming increasingly vain and admiring himself in the mirror especially his now very slim stomach. I was wondering how much smaller he wanted to get. You don't want to go getting too small now do you? I asked cautiously. And then, because I was getting rather tired of a persistent dull headache, how much longer do you want to go on this for? But Phil squeezed his midriff saying "Its this blub I want to get rid of, I think we should go the full 10 days". Aaargh!
One of the most fascinating things about doing this type of fast is how much more time you have on your hands when its not spent cooking and eating. I am so used to spending my time in the evenings, cooking and eating and chilling out with a glass or two of wine and I suppose becoming a bit of a couch potato. Without any of this activity (apart from cooking quick kids meals) there was so much more time available. I found myself needing to be busy with my hands, picking things up and tidying things around the house, sorting out my cupboards, doing some gardening and playing my ukulele. One night I even gave myself a manicure and pedicure, something I would only have done on a very lazy Saturday. I watched several videos and didn't fall asleep on the couch. Often, come midnight I was still wide awake reading my book in bed. In fact, we both were, engrossed in our books and sipping Senna leaf tea, the companionable silence being broken by the sounds of rumbling gurgling stomachs. There is something faintly comical about resting your ear on your nearest and dearest's stomach listening to the deep groans and growls of the bowels, although I can't say its erotic. My heart, often prone to neurotic palpitations, was quiet and calm and in a happy contented space, as I, often with reflective contemplative thoughts, slipped into a deep restorative sleep.
As each day passed, we both became increasingly self absorbed and obsessed with our bodily functions and changing body shape. I too was obsessively weighing myself and finding the scales dropping every day was immensely satisfying. In fact it was thrilling! By the fifth day I did begin to long for the sensation of some food in my mouth so I had a grapefruit. It felt quite radical. The taste was sensational. I savoured every little segment of flesh with a veneration I've never had before. It is said that there is nothing routine about eating after a fast. Each meal is a celebration as fasting heightens your awareness as well as an appreciation for food and we learn to eat with reverence.
Our fast eased off after a week and we were both lighter and more invigorated than ever before. I lost about 3-4kg and Phil 6kg (weight does drop off a man so much more easily - its not fair!) Our food bill certainly came down and our usually overflowing recycling bin was empty. It certainly made us aware of how much we usually consume. Its been a great way to start the year, to have the opportunity to pause, reflect and decide how to conduct our lives in a new more positive direction. That and the fact that my thighs don't chafe (as much) when I walk anymore!
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