Lets Fast!
- Thread starter Firstmark_Bannor
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Have fun! I recomend that as soon as you feel like passing out you start to eat. You could go a week without food but the kind of people that do that sort of thing train their bodies to do it. I can't last a day with out food. The best i can do is skip breakfast and lunch but then i have to have dinner. Sorry im not going to join you in your fast. But i will support you if you need motivation to keep it up.Firstmark_Bannor said:
You know, one of my favorite scenes, from one of my favorite shows (Mad Men) has Donald Draper talking to a group of people who are looking to create an anti-smoking campaign. They're talking about how tobacco companies keep drawing in new customers from the younger bracket even though everyone knows at this point how bad they are for you. Don says to them, that they're able to do it "because people in that age group are not yet old enough to know that they want to live."Firstmark_Bannor said:
If your profile is to be believed, you're a couple months older than I am. This kind of attitude is hardly uncommon amongst people our age. Hell, I felt that way when I started smoking, and partaking of some other even less than savory pastimes. And I haven't quit yet either. But I work hard every day to try and cut down. I'm down to two cigarettes today, which is much better than I was doing.
I'm not doing it because I know that I want to live yet. I don't know that. But if Don is right, as are the many other adults I've heard say similar things over the years, isn't it wise to hedge your bets? You don't think you'll regret it right now... but will you then? You can do what you want, but, maybe you should just think about it a bit. Think long and hard, and ask yourself if you're really sure that you don't care whether you live or die.
Did it take you that long? Well, hate to break it to you, but 'the world', for the most part, already knows why breakfast has its name.RGman said:
But it's cool. Heck, I learn stuff that I really should already know on almost a weekly basis.
And then I forget it. Such is life.
Haha, I don't smoke cigarettes. And yes i am quite sure. Being that I've suffered massive kidney problems since i was young, I never really expected to live this long. I'm happy with most aspects of my life and if it ends today, why should i be upset about it? This is just a simple week long fast. I've done far more dangerous things.Kpt._Rob said:
If you want to fast a week, be my guest. You will be able to survive it, but at the point you are now, your body (considering you are not overweight) has run out of caloric energy and will start breaking down amino acids in things you might want to keep, such as your muscles and eyes. But losing that, of course, takes months and months of carefully, willingly denying yourself what keeps people alive.
So, some signs, then, of when to stop. Your stool should be easily passable and a regular color (aka not black). If you stop needing to use the bathroom, you've definitely reached the point where your body has nothing more to digest than itself. You will be exhausted, naturally, and a solid REM cycle will be harder and harder to achieve. That great mind-clearing experience from fasting isn't much more than adrenaline kicking in - a natural last resort to have the energy to go out and find some damn food. Then the sleep deprivation and the adrenaline mix together into a lovely concoction of hallucination and paranoia. That's probably after eight to ten days of fasting.
Oh, and for those who think fasting "clears the mind," to be more specific about it, the reason why humans feel the need to eat more on a regular, daily basis is because the brain in itself uses up roughly 25% of the energy our body processes. Starving it for any span of time is like saying that your car can consistently run on fumes. Because we have a brain with the capacities, so far as we know, no other animal has, we pay the price for the "gas guzzler."
Anyway, back to you. I'll decline fasting, since I have a chronic disease whose medication prevents me from denying myself food for more than eight hours. I can't guarantee everything I've just written is textbook-accurate, but it should be close. Losing your appetite for food could be a vicious circle - the more you don't feel the need to eat, the more your stomach constricts, making you want to eat less food and achieve homeostasis at a level of relative lack of appetite. For you, what that means is that the random nature of your fasting and eating is stressing your body more than it would to fast for a week and then return to eating in what is considered a healthy manner for a month, then fast again for a week, etc.
So fast the week. Watch your hands shake. Clear the mind. Feel like Buddha.
Just remember what he died of - an overdose of pork.
(That was all slightly off-topic, may the mighty thunder of the Mods strike me down, but it's what went through my head as I considered your offer.)
So, some signs, then, of when to stop. Your stool should be easily passable and a regular color (aka not black). If you stop needing to use the bathroom, you've definitely reached the point where your body has nothing more to digest than itself. You will be exhausted, naturally, and a solid REM cycle will be harder and harder to achieve. That great mind-clearing experience from fasting isn't much more than adrenaline kicking in - a natural last resort to have the energy to go out and find some damn food. Then the sleep deprivation and the adrenaline mix together into a lovely concoction of hallucination and paranoia. That's probably after eight to ten days of fasting.
Oh, and for those who think fasting "clears the mind," to be more specific about it, the reason why humans feel the need to eat more on a regular, daily basis is because the brain in itself uses up roughly 25% of the energy our body processes. Starving it for any span of time is like saying that your car can consistently run on fumes. Because we have a brain with the capacities, so far as we know, no other animal has, we pay the price for the "gas guzzler."
Anyway, back to you. I'll decline fasting, since I have a chronic disease whose medication prevents me from denying myself food for more than eight hours. I can't guarantee everything I've just written is textbook-accurate, but it should be close. Losing your appetite for food could be a vicious circle - the more you don't feel the need to eat, the more your stomach constricts, making you want to eat less food and achieve homeostasis at a level of relative lack of appetite. For you, what that means is that the random nature of your fasting and eating is stressing your body more than it would to fast for a week and then return to eating in what is considered a healthy manner for a month, then fast again for a week, etc.
So fast the week. Watch your hands shake. Clear the mind. Feel like Buddha.
Just remember what he died of - an overdose of pork.
(That was all slightly off-topic, may the mighty thunder of the Mods strike me down, but it's what went through my head as I considered your offer.)
The messiah has arrived!RGman said:
We need to spread the word to everyone in the world, even the ones that don't speak English.
OT: I can understand how someone would forget to eat. When i get hungry i can ignore my stomach for a bit and it'll stop trying. I usually remember again when i see something i like to eat. You still need food though. Nothing will change that.
If you do find a way to change it though, I'm sure the starving people all over the world would like it.
I'll be sure to avoid bacon when i start eating again. And how did you know I am a Buddhist?ObliviousGenius said:
Most time I've forgotten to eat for was about 32 hours. College finals needed my complete focus... that said, I haven't actively avoided food whenever I was hungry.
I would join you if I didn't start college on Monday. C'mon people it doesn't hurt to practice a little self discipline every once in a while. There are worse things you can to to yourself that aren't nearly as difficult. Challenge declined but appreciated my good man.
You sir have the right idea. Perhaps you can take up my next challenge, when i come up with a suitable one.Glass Joe said:
Aww... see, now I feel like that asshole kid in elementary school who tells a preschooler that there's no such thing as Santa Claus. And that Barney is just a guy in a stupid purple dinosaur outfit.RGman said:
But you know what? I'm sure that, if you looked, you could find plenty of people who had no clue what the word "breakfast" meant. Don't let me get in the way of your dream to spread the word to the masses.
I'm going to be honest. I didn't know you were a Buddhist. And it wasn't that he'd eaten too much pork after fasting - he'd just eaten too much pork (this particular bit I learned from a book written in the '70s, so it may be completely wrong; feel free to scoff at it jovially and dismiss it if you choose). The founder and leader of the Jian was the one that fasted to death.Firstmark_Bannor said:
Now that I know you're a Buddhist, I can see why you're not troubled on a mental level rather than a physical one. Denying earthly pleasures is the path to Enlightenment, but it's where you no longer need to deny earthly pleasures is Enlightened, transcended. Forgetting to eat may be on that path, but it's not to the food itself you have to grow beyond, but your attachment to it. From your descriptions, it sounds like you've basically done that.
Forgive me for asking, but what will you consider as you fast? Is there a greater purpose?
I'll admit that managing to completely drown out your instincts for 3 days is a feat to behold but at the same time I don't think you should prolong that sort of thing. BTW fasting allows you to have some basic sustenance for the sake of survival, during a specific time at least. This isn't a fast, this is starving yourself.
Gracias señor, for your kind words... May I clean you windshields now? Perhaps I could paint your house? My little brother Pepe can help your señorita with the kitchen...Dr Snakeman said:
Ok, only in the very unlikely case that you're not playing along: you are aware that there are some people that don't have english as their native language right? People like me, from the wild jungles of the island of Brazil.