Ranok's Ramblings » fasting

Complete!

ranok — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 02:07:56 +0000

It’s done! My 7 days without food has ended and I’ve begun to slowly add solid foods to my diet. I had a meager dinner of a banana and 6 baby carrots, taking great care to chew them slowly to get my system ready for a challenge. They went down quite well, except when I was helping my suite-mate move in, and had to lift some things, but other than that, everything went fine. I later had a few peanuts and some more carrots with hummus (which was excellent!). I’m planning on trying some granola with soy milk in the morning, perhaps with an apple. My lunch will be a toasted multi-grain tomato and pesto (I made it this afternoon, the whole apartment smelt like heaven) sandwich with some carrots and hummus on the side. I will try to post pictures of my meals when I can and post instructions for their creation.

I’ve been looking for a typical ’starving college student’ meal, one that’s cheap, quick and will fill me up after a day of study. I know the most common is Ramen, which is cheap, but also quite unhealthy and rather foul. I came up with what I hope to fill that gap, and it’s vegan to boot! With my rice cooker, I’m going to make brown rice (it has a timer so it’ll be cooked when I get home!) and steam some broccoli in it at the same time. Then mix in a little peanut butter (all-natural, unsalted) and some soy sauce to make an Asian-inspired meal. If I have the time, I can saute up some tofu and sesame seeds and add for a little something extra. When I get my rice cooker, and I get my stomach ready for such a meal, I’ll let you know how it is, and a more detailed recipe and pricing.

Peace and chow,

Ranok

Decision

ranok — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 17:36:54 +0000

I’ve decided to start drinking diluted fruit juices tomorrow to start weaning myself off the fast, but still no solid foods until Sunday night. I know it takes a while for your body to start digesting again, so I’ll be starting early to make sure my transition back to solid foods is as smooth and painless as possible.

Drink juice and be merry,

Ranok

Over the Hump!

ranok — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 12:49:07 +0000

Well folks, it’s been officially 3.5 days, half of my 7 days without food. I feel quite tired (though I got very little sleep last night) but other than that, I feel quite good considering. I’ve noticed how important food is to our lifestyle and culture, taking it out entirely is very strange, but somewhat liberating, you no longer have to worry about getting feed, and you can be more free to do as you please. I’ve also noticed that my nose is much more sensitive to food smells than before, it seems I’m always smelling tasty treats that I want but cannot have. I’m quite excited for the breaking of the fast, and will ease into food by having a glass of orange juice in the morning, raw carrots and tomato at noontime and a quinoa salad with avocado, tomato and cilantro for dinner. I also found a delicious sounding recipe for a vegan pizza with a whole wheat crust, which I’m very excited to make and eat.

UPDATE: After making the pizza, it was very good, but took quite a while to make, I would use about 1/2 the amount of honey called for and make sure o spread it out very well as it rises quite rapidly. Here is a shot on the pan, and on the plate.

Wish me luck on the final few days,

Ranok

Done With Day 2!

ranok — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 00:25:20 +0000

So, today I finished my second day of fasting, I felt very nauseous this morning and vomited up a rather bitter yellow fluid this morning, then felt better. My hunger pains are gone, just a soreness in my calves. I’ve really been enjoying my teas, I have a Yogi Detox tea steeping next to me as I write. Energy wise, I feel only a little more cloudy than usual, but I have no problems walking around campus or socializing. I finally got to a scale today and I weighed 145.6 pounds and when I took my blood pressure after walking to Kinney’s yesterday, it came out to be 124/76 (not too bad). Today when I went to the food co-op I came across some excellent ideas of foods for phase II. Again, if you’re interested in more regular updates you can follow me on Twitter.

Peace and no chow for me,

Ranok

The Day Before

ranok — Sun, 17 Aug 2008 14:10:02 +0000

Tomorrow Max and I start our fast, and while it’s for fun and to see if we feel better after it, I think I’ll be trying to take some more objective measurements. Tomorrow I’ll try to get weighed (I was 145.5 lbs last Tuesday) and get some other simple tests (BP, %BF, Cholesterol) and then after the fast and after the month I’ll repeat and post the results along with photos. Today, I’ve been thinking of a sample day of food, and I came up with granola and soy milk in the morning, carrots, humus and tomatoes and pesto for lunch, and either quinoa salad or curried quinoa for dinner.

Wish us luck,

Ranok

Follow me on Twitter!

The Plan

ranok — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 12:14:20 +0000

After reading ‘The Way of the Peaceful Warrior’ by Dan Millman, Max and I have decided to try a more natural diet, starting with a 7 day water + herbal tea fast. After we’ve cleanse ourselves out, we’ll be eating vegan (maybe we’ll have honey) but no refined sugars or enriched flours. After a month of this (we’ll keep you posted as we go, with how it’s going and good recipes, etc…) if we feel great, and want to stick with it, we will, or we’ll slowly move back to a more conventional diet. If anyone has any suggestions or comments, please feel free to reply and let me know, as I’ve never done anything like this before. If you’d like to keep tabs on how I’m doing, I’ll be updating my Twitter regularly.

Peace and not-chow,

Ranok