I Starved myself for 7 Days, Here’s What I Learned

To put it simply, I love food. I love going to In-N-Out and getting a double double. I enjoy spontaneously going to Canes at 1 in the morning with my friends. The simple craving for a satisfying hunky burrito from Chipotle.

….. So as one crazy person might think, the best way to get out of my comfort zone was to rid myself of food for 7 straight days.

It was only after the challenge that I research the benefits of fasting, and the effects it has on your body. For one, your liver and digestive system are able to detox and clean out chemicals and toxins that a lot of foods have.

Getting energy from not eating is actually not crazy. When the body is low on Glucose, a simple sugar created after eating food, it actually starts the process called ketosis.

An alternative process for creating energy for the body that can be credited for a lot of anecdotal fasting stories of people having a higher state of focus and more consistent energy state.

It is fascinating that our body has an actual biological mechanism that accounts for wild anecdotes like mine!

It also generally helps with healthy blood pressure, stabilizing cholesterol levels, boosts metabolism, among a load of others that is really eye opening.

For an entire week, my breakfast, lunch, those little snacks in between, and dinner would consist of a hefty glass of H2O. Now you may be wondering how I survived? That can’t be healthy, right? How did you have the energy to get through the day? These are all valid concerns which is why I'm sharing my biggest takeaways from this experience.

Let's be honest, if you miss breakfast or lunch, you might say to yourself, “man I'm starving.”

One of my goals in doing this was to push my mind to somewhere it has never been. I had read about people fasting for days and even weeks and was fascinated because of how counterintuitive that is compared to how we are grown up to think. The first and second day were by far the worst of them all. When I went downstairs to have my first water meal, my stomach ached, and my mind was hating myself. I even opened my fridge just to see all the food I couldn’t have.

Though somehow, I made it through that day. The next day was probably even more miserable; my body ached, I had trouble doing my work, I was constantly thinking about how stupid I was to attempt this. Despite all of that discomfort, I made it through Tuesday and somewhere during my third day It kind of hit me, I HAVE NOT EATEN FOR TWO WHOLE DAYS. That realization that I was actually doing it gave me so much energy and motivation. Those next five days, I had so much energy, I was hyper focused in my work, and I was enjoying life. Now of course, there were times at the end of the day laying in my bed and hearing my stomach move, that I thought about how good a burrito the size of my head would be.

If you told me that I would make it through the 7 days… and somehow enjoy it, I’d call the bluff. This type of thing was supposed to be for weird superhumans, the David Blaines that spend 24 hours in ice, but no. An average guy like me shattered my own perspective on what it means to push my own mind and body.It came down to barriers in my life and what I thought was possible for myself. Far too often individuals allow society, big marketing companies telling people to eat triple pounder burgers stuffed with cheese that's dipped in butter(I wish that was hyperbole), and other people to shape how one thinks. Too often I caught myself falling into this trap, having outside forces dictate how I view myself and the world. This experience really made me question what else I can accomplish that I don’t think is possible.

If you’re thinking of doing a challenge like this, I absolutely recommend it. Whether it is 2 days or 7, it is really meant to shift the way you look at your mind, your body, and the relationship you have with discomfort.