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Day 1 (Pre-Fast)

David — Wed, 20 Jul 2011 00:07:34 +0000

For seven minutes now it has been officially my first day of fasting… During the last couple of hours I indulged in all of my favorite destructive habits… I’m not sure what my calorie count was for the previous day, but I’ve eaten something like 3 pounds of various meats, maybe 2 pounds of fries, at least 500 ml of gravy, two big handfulls of curd cheese, and at least three liters of cola…

If you are curious what the actual meals were, you can look up smoked meat, poutine, St-hubert chicken… and you will understand.

If you read my bio, I’ve been eating in this unhealthy manner for the last 60 days… gained an amazing amount of weight, and now I really feel like crap…

In any fasting manual out there, you will notice that all of them suggest that you weed off slowly from food, eating more veggies, cutting out sugars, and refined foods… I say bullshit. I’m starting this fast cold turkey.

My goal during this fast is to lose weight rapidly, and to settle once and for all that fast weight loss is possible, and can be maintained after the fast with minor changes to your diet. I’m a hardcore foodie, so becoming vegetarian, or vegan, is not an option, thus I have no choice but to adapt little things to keep the weight off. My official weight-in will be in the morning and I will also take pictures everyday to make a time lapse video at the end of my 40 days…(actually 42 days).

I’m very excited about the outcome of this experiment, and I hope that I will be able to demonstrate that loosing 80 pounds of weight can be done quickly and without much effort. In fact if I can motivate only one person to do the same, my mission will be accomplished!

I have a long day ahead of me tomorrow, so I’m off to bed, hopefully I won’t be dreaming about food…that would suck.

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Warning: I DO NOT OFFER MEDICAL ADVICE or prescribe any treatments.This blog is only my opinion. It is not medical advice or diagnosis. Only opinions based on my own personal experiences or information detailed in medical/academic journals or other publications is cited. Please consult with a medical professional before making any diet or nutrition changes. Refer to the full disclaimer for more information.

Day 1

David — Thu, 21 Jul 2011 13:30:24 +0000

This morning around 11h I did my official weight in to have a benchmark for this whole experiment. My weight is now an astounding 281,1 pounds and my gut measures 49 inches! I’ve tried various diets over the years but I never took the time to actually measure myself to track progress.

So far today I’ve been mostly hydrating on lemon water, as we are in a heat wave in Montreal. I didn’t drink any juice yet, as I don’t feel the need for it now. I will make myself a fresh apple juice and drink it before I step out on my date later tonight.

I’m doing very well mentally and physically; no food cravings, no hunger pains, no noticeable weakness, no drowsiness – everything seems under control.

It’s quite strange but I really feel in harmony, while fasting. On my previous ”test-fast” I noticed that I gained a lot of mental clarity, and I was really productive in my work, so I’m quite curious to see if I will experience the same effects during this prolonged fast.

Even if I regained a little less than half of the weight I lost initially, due to my hazardous way of eating, I’m still about 20 pounds lighter than what I was in the beginning of may… That by itself is quite an accomplishment. When I’ll drop another 80 pounds I will be extatic!

I’m really glad that I’m going public with this process as I have no choice but to achieve my objective, since I am somewhat more accountable for my actions.

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Day 2

David — Fri, 22 Jul 2011 13:38:31 +0000

Day two is going great! I’m full of vim and vigor! Yesterday I skipped my apple juice that I was planning to take in the evening, so I spent a day and a half on water. Today I was explaining the whole experiment to my mom (of course she is worried, what mother wouldn’t be?) and she was curious about my new juicer, so it gave me the chance to juice some fruits and test out some new juice recipes!

Fasting is quite a straight forward process but what happens in your body is not quite as simple… You need vitamins and minerals for hundreds of different specific functions. Although I’m no health freak, I’m not stupid either… The goal of this experiment is not to make me sick, but to make me healthier and possibly gain some spiritual enlightement…who knows?

So I took it upon myself to make sure that I will have a sufficient intake of vitamins and minerals on a daily basis to support my body’s vital functions and remain in a peek mental state. As day two is slowly comming to an end, I cannot emphasize enough how great I’m feeling! It could still be the sugar boost from that fruit juice!

One element that I’ve incorporated into this longer fast is lemon water. As you fast, weird things start to happen in your body; you start canabalizing your fat and every other toxic waste that is deposited in your system. Thus the pH balance of your body may shift to the acidic side. Lemon water acts like an alkalizing agent to restore your body’s pH balance.

Making lemon water is quite simple; you either squeeze fresh lemon into a pitcher of water, or you can use my method of cutting your lemon in slices and letting it sit in cold water, slowly infusing it’s flavor and nutrients.

You must be wondering, how drinking an acidic beverage can help you alkalize your body? When you drink lemon water, it actually changes into an alkaline solution when you matabolize it and then it helps to shift your body’s pH balance, to detoxify your liver and kidneys, and a multitude of other positive effects on your body!

Short video on Lemon Water

I took a quick peek on my scale, and I’m shedding quite a lot of weight! (When I say weight, I don’t mean fat!!) It’s been so hot here in Montreal, and I’ve been spending most of my day in my improvised office on my balcony so my only fair guess is that I’m loosing water weight, which is probably not a bad thing. It’s now 4:00 pm and my weight is 274,6 lbs! That’s a whopping 6,5 pounds of something!? I expect my weight loss to normalize within the next week, but 6,5 pounds (even if it’s water weight) is a very nice start to this whole experiment!

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Day 3

David — Sat, 23 Jul 2011 16:36:28 +0000

Day three is slowly ending and I still feel great physically! I’m full of energy, thus I had a nice and productive day. The only little shift that I noticed compared to the other two days, is that small hunger pains where omnipresent during the course of the day. My solution for those was to simply drink more liquids and wait them out.

In my opinion, hunger and hunger pains manifest themselves as two different animals. Hunger is actually a pleasurable feeling of lightness versus hungerpains, which can literally be a little painfull, and make someone really uneasy. During my first fast, my best remedy against hunger pains was any hot beverage, especially green tea. I’ve been drinking at least one cup of tea per day since the beginning of the fast, usually at night or right before going to sleep, as it relaxes me, and gives me a warm cozy feeling, as tacky as it sounds.

Another thing that I notice is that when I go a couple of hours without drinking fresh juice, I get weird thougts that enter my mind. Usually it’s strange pessimistic ideas about this project, and if there is any food stimuli around (images, tv, actual food) I do get a mental craving for it. I know that it’s a mental craving since my body is fine most of the time, as long as I keep it hydrated.

To counter all my negative thoughts, I reframed my fasting experiment in my mind. Instead of giving myself the option of quitting or stopping at any moment, I imagined a scenario where I’m in a waiting room and I have no choice but to wait out a specific amount of time to achieve my goal.

I can have the worst thoughts, the worst hunger pains, or whatever my body is able to come up with, but my only way out of it is to wait… In the past I used to have a system called ‘thinking forward’, but I will write more on that tomorrow.

Just before sitting down to write my daily log I went to weigh myself, (I know that weighing myself everyday is probably not the best idea) and my weight is at 274 pounds, which is esentially the same as yesterday. The heat wave is stronger than ever, so I’m drinking water like there is no tomorrow, so that might explain the static weight…

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Day 4

David — Sun, 24 Jul 2011 14:09:48 +0000

The sun is now setting on day 4 of my experiment, and everything is under control! I just weighed myself and the scale indicates a number which I have trouble believing: 268 pounds… I’m not sure what causes such big variations of weight loss from one day to another, I guess the simple fact of drinking less water might have a great impact on one’s weight… Also, during the last couple of hours, I’ve been doing some strenuous excercise in very hot conditions, involving a lot of sweat, so that might have evacuated some extra water.

Today I wanted to write about ‘thinking forward’ but I will leave that for another day as something quite intreresting happened that made me realize a key element to anyone’s success, in anything, not only weight loss. This morning I woke up and I wasn’t in the best of moods…I was quite grumpy, a little foggy, plus my body was acting up, evacuating toxins in an unpleasant manner. I was meeting a lover in the evening, and I was feeling so bad that I almost cancelled on her.

But something inside me was telling me to go with the flow, and above all the date was a movie night anyways. When she arrived at my place everything changed, I was suddenly noticing my body, and my negative ideas less, and having more and more fun with her.

Not only did we watch a great movie, but we talked and did other fun things, which really took an edge off my fast. And although I’m sure that she is not 100% in peace with what I’m doing, somehow through her words, and actions I feel that I do get some support in my process of self-transformation.

Me and her are both foodies, and on our way to the fruit store we popped into some high(er)-end food stores just to window shop. The amount of interesting foods was almost overwhelming, yet at that point I was in such a great mindset that all that food surrounding me was not even remotely tempting! Of course I’m excited about being done with this fast, and eventually resume eating. Yet at that point in time I was fully aware of myself and my situation, and all of that fine food was there to tickle my senses, and give me ideas on how I want to break my fast in a couple of weeks.

The moral of this story, really revolves around having key people surrounding you (and most of us have them!) that are very special in your eyes, that you are able to forget what is bothering you, and simply live in the present and not think about anything else than the moment that you are immersed in. You can get through any situation since your attention is shifted to more pleasurable sensations.

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Day 5-6

David — Mon, 25 Jul 2011 17:34:33 +0000

As you may have or have not noticed, I’m one article late, so this is a condensed version of day 5 and day 6. Yesterday I had one of the most amazing days ever, and I only got home in the early morning hours, and was so exhausted by the walking that I did during the day that my pillow won the fight.

I know that I’m extrapolating a little, but yesterday reminded me how beautiful Montreal really is, especially when you are making another person discover nice little spots! I’m not sure if this has anything to do with my fast, but when you spend a day/evening in great (awesome) company and there is no verbal filter whatsoever, I feel that it has a major impact on one’s mood. This positive energy can be transmuted into anything: be it creativity, productivity, the will to continue a project, or whatever else a person can come up with.

It’s been quite a long time since I’ve been out on an evening, which was so intellectually, emotionally, or should I say holistically liberating. Coming back to my fasting, I now realize even more how a good mind space can have an impact on this type of endeavour.

I have to admit that my previous fasting experiment took place in a sub-par mental setting, and I was experiencing a lot of negative psychological elements. Versus this time around, where I’m stimulated by positive people, positive events, and spend time in positive environments on a daily basis! I feel like I’m on the top of the world! It’s awesome! I wish that everyone ought to experience this feeling at least once in their life.

I feel so lucid, ready for action, ready to pounce, to achieve, to help, get involved, sing, dance, play the drums, roll down on a grassy hill, laugh, make others laugh, play, have fun…

I’m not sure where all of this euphoria is from, but I like it.

P.S. My weight is now 264,8lbs.

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Day 7

admin — Thu, 28 Jul 2011 00:34:38 +0000

As I may have mentioned earlier (or at least in my bio), I’m a full time internet entrepreneur/marketing consultant, and a part of my job consists in doing some IM (internet marketing) training with the companies that I work with.

Today I had a training which was pretty much a one-on-one session that lasted about 4 ½ hours. When I do trainings I have to give it my all, ask any questions, brainstorm with my clients, so it’s a very draining experience (I really do love teaching though). When I came home after the training I relaxed a little, and did some outstanding email work and phone calls and then I just crashed… (At this point I still had not taken my daily juice) I slept from 4 p.m. to about 6 p.m and woke up quite refreshed.

My secret trick that I use during fasting is sleep, when I have really big hunger pains, or I simply don’t feel good I know that a power nap should do the trick.

After waking up I made myself a delicious juice, and now I feel quite good… What is very interesting is that after I drink my juice, (always on an empty stomach of course) I never get a huge sugar rush, or If I do, there is no big crash, which is always appreciated.

Also, I started getting little mental cravings for food before I drank my juice, but they disappeared rather quickly after I consumed my beverage… I guess I can say that it’s been a week of fasting officially! I’m ready for another one!

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