Over this past New Year I did the longest fast I’d ever done.
5 days with no solid food. Just some green juices and teas.
My previous best, from many years back, was 3 days. Here my specific aim was to get to the point where hunger ceased. This typically happens around the fourth day and was my experience as well.
Ketosis kicked in and I was good to go.
But that wasn’t the only part of this challenge. I decided to go on a long hike. A four to five mile hike up to some old growth redwoods.
The uphill parts were tough!
Not going to lie and say it was easy. It was not. I had to take breaks after the hill climbs. But I persisted and made my way to where I set out to go.
We talk mostly about strength and fitness here. In this day and age, the gym is one of the best places you can challenge yourself. Not just to work hard, anyone can do that. But to set and achieve goals. To transform yourself…both inside and out.
And it is not the only way.
I feel that fasting is one of those things that more people ought to engage in.
You can look at it for the health benefits. The stopping of digestion so that energy can go elsewhere. The huge increases to growth hormone (see more in Upgrade Your Growth Hormone), induction of autophagy to eat up damaged and cancerous cells, the most natural way to enter into ketosis, your alternative metabolic pathway that too few people have access to.
If shedding a few pounds is your goal, then make fasting an intimate friend.
You can look at it for the mental benefits. If you want mental toughness, forget working out, just go without food in our society.
And then there are the spiritual benefits. There’s a reason fasting is included in some form in all of the major religions.
Indeed, I was out in nature doing this faster hike to tap more into the spirit that lives there. A vision quest if you will.
If the thought of going 24 hours without food scares you, that’s all the more reason that you need to do it.
Then, just like progressive training, you can build upon that further and further.
Next time I’ll be going for a week or more.
And it’s not about the big events either. This makes it so that your body becomes more adaptable. Don’t have time to eat breakfast? No big deal. Traveling and only have access to crappy food quality? Just fast instead.
It’s about greater living by choice.
Comments
Dear Logan
firstly, thank you for all your of your efforts to share some superb knowledge and experiences. Loving how holistic your approach is.
I am very interested in your efforts on hand balancing and general strength and movement, but this article really struck a special chord. I have been Intermittent Fasting for over a year now, and it is a highly rewarding lifestyle change that takes minimal effort just some will power to learn that hunger has been totally programmed by modern abundance of food and not something we need.
This fasted hike though, is some next level sh*t!! Incredible, I would like to ask whether your outlook and mental clarity was affected by this fast and hike? It’s hard not to relate this to a kind of pilgrimage of sorts. I’m not a religious person but I am very interested in how the mind can be affected by such action.
I plan to sometime in the near future attempt a 2-3 day fast and my question is what fluid you were consuming. You mention green juices, what were they?
Thanks Logan
I’m not sure the specifics on the juices at this time. A mix of all kinds of stuff, and my wife mostly made them for me.
I was pretty spent by the end of the hike, so that was my outlook then. Besides that, I felt great throughout the fast. Starting to plan the next long fast I’ll be doing now.