This is the post for 21st February, 2018.
Of late, I've been trying some experiments which are supposed to help my discipline and slightly reduce my negatives. I'm cherry picking the ones that are easy to perform, such as skipping dinner on Wednesday.
Please note that this isn't a recommendation but plainly an observation and a recollection of my experiments and the associated experiences. This is also why this blog will not cover in great detail the benefits and/or procedures of the experiments, as that material is far more beautifully published in various other blogs. My go to source is Tim Ferriss's blog here for almost everything.
The other reason that this blog will contain few details is because I'm not qualified to authoritatively speak on the subjects. The actual reason is that I'm plain lazy. :)
So here's what's happening. I'm skipping dinners on Wednesday with the intention of being able to slowly improve my tolerance to be able to go 24 hours without food. And if that happens, hopefully to go 36 hours and so on.
Why would I want to do that? There are a few different reasons that Tim comes up with and I'll summarise the ones that stuck with me. Yes, you'll hear about Tim a lot, and not only in this post. Bear with me, he's worth the attention.
There's two diametrically opposite reasons for the starvation - one scientific and the other philosophical. Or a couple of different reasons from two different branches of science if you consider philosophy as a science.
The bio scene is that as a species we weren't eating three (or more for some of us) meals a day for a very long time, and time here is in the scale of about a couple million years. Therefore our bodies can survive with very little food for a decent amount of time and this starvation results in the generation of ketones, which are the reserves of energy that the body uses during periods of low intake of food. To massively oversimplify everything, this planned starvation helps keep the reserve system well lubricated and polished. Of course there are other benefits too, which require a much more detailed information.
The philosophy scene is that you rehearse uncomfortable situations so that you are not completely caught unawares, should some such event actually occur. The philosophy is called Stoicism and practising or rehearsing the unwelcome moments of life is only a tiny part of it. One of the masters of Stoicism named Seneca put on the worst robes he could find and ate minimally or ate food that wasn't the freshest or the best, all the while asking, "is this the condition I fear?"
Keep in mind that I've massively oversimplified both the reasoning schools. Also, I'm a long way away from actually getting into a much more stringent effort at controlled starvation. But I'm confident that I'll reach there by the end of this year.
Is it easy? In part. When I'm not around food, I'm now able to not feel hungry or constantly think about food. Initially it was not easy to ignore my stomach's grumblings but later on I'd barely notice them. Nowadays I'm not even aware of my stomach complains on Wednesdays after nightfall. Have I seen any benefits? I'd guess and say yes. I'm easily awakened and much fresher on Thursday mornings and my business in the loo is faster and more satisfying too. Of course the hunger pangs kick in but a tall glass of water and/or a banana satiate them until proper breakfast is consumed. All in all, it's quite interesting and apparently hasn't adversely affected me so far, which is why I'm gonna level up in the days to come and increase the durations. Let's see how that goes. I'll keep you posted.
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