Improve creativity, productivity and sleep with this simple hack.

So this is me, ya, I know I'm posing like I'm on to release the greatest album of the year, probably because I got something significant to tell you. 

No, I'm not about to clickbait you, and no, I'm not going to sell you a dime, but follow me while I let you in on something.

What really happened?

Remember that time when we used to be kids and play all day long? We'd decorate mud like cakes, build sandcastles on the beach. Laugh till our lungs hurt. Cry till we out of tears and no one forced things to be okay, we just observed as we let them pass.

How about that time when you could color on the outside of the pages? No one told you how to do it, so you would do as your heart pleases - until the teacher came and forced you to colour inside the page.

How did that feel - what would you pay to have that freedom back? Would you give it all to go back in time? What about your health, would you starve for 36hours if I told you that's what it takes to have freedom and creativity, like that?

We lose our freedom every day when we let someone else's bondage become ours. We lose our liberty every time we allow someone's narrative to become ours.

Today I'm here to take you on a little adventure of what really happened when I fasted for 36hours twice in a roll. The things I discovered and most of all how it made me more creative and productive. And managed to give me better sleep.

How it all started 

One night I was scrolling on Instagram after ordering some Chinese on Ubereats, cause that's what you do after rice, noodles, sweet ribs and the fortune cookie tells you to look beyond reality.

10 minutes in, 

My iPhone: "Dingggg!" 

That was Ubereats asking for their review…

If only he came earlier, my Chinese food wouldn't have been lukewarm like baby diaper water. Don't ask me how I know what diaper water feels like. Like I always say, 

"I've been airing since the invention of diapers", 

been live since. You supposed to laugh…

So I told him, don't worry, I always leave a 5 star as long you don't try to hit on my girlfriend. Uber drivers out here have a thing where they call my girlfriend's phone thinking she will pick up, but get scared shitless when they hear a guy on the phone - we share the same Ubereats profile.

"HALLO, THIS IS TYRONE - WHERE MY ORDER AT? " Damn, gotta love catching these drivers off guard.

Where was I? 

Oh, I was talking about creativity and fasting, ya that - gotcha! As I was saying:

I was on social media late at night. I was looking for something to motivate me cause I'd been doom scrolling too long.

Skeptic much? 

The death of George Floyd, a missing female soldier. Her name…., Vanessa Guillen. News like this breaks my heart - a lot. In 2020 I thought we'd have flying cars, and people would be more peaceful. Instead, we have to be locked inside, not see our neighbors for months to protect our livelihood.

After doom scrolling for 10 seconds, in reality, 3hours; I noticed some video of this guy called chakabars. You should follow him if you like staying healthy. This video caught my eye on what he was talking about.

Shining his fancy vegan bottle, I wasn't yet enlightened. He made a point that stuck with me about fasting. He said if we fast for 36 hours, amazing things will happen.

Like any skeptic would, I took it at face value. After all, he wasn't clear about how and what really happens when you fast for that long - it was really vague. What he did though, was stress the point why it's crucial for mental health and productivity.

I'd been aware that fasting does have some excellent benefits spiritually, so they say.

I flunked badly

Day 1 came, it was an "easy challenge". More like easier said than done. With curiosity burning in me, I hopped on the guinea-pig treadmill, trying shit I wasn't sure of.

The first day sucked. I flunked badly. In 8 hours, I was back to eating fried chicken, sweets, and baguettes. Not to say it's bad, but I would eat fatty foods with high cholesterol regularly. This wasn't doing it for my acne. I started to break out - badly.

With day 1 failed, I had two choices; debunk the myth as false or give it another shot. I did the latter. This time I lasted 16 hours with no sweat. Yes, I lasted that long, I know what you are thinking.

Get your head out of the gutters.

Day 2 and 3, I managed to pull it off. I officially did 36 hours with no food in my stomach, just water.

Ketosis, was like I was a new person

By day 3, I realized what had been holding back. My strong bond with sugars and glucose held me captive. See, they say glucose is what you need daily, but I disagree.

Fasting for the first 36 hours, I never felt this way like I did before.

When my body entered ketosis, it's like I was a new person - no kidding.

When you are in ketosis, the body depends on reserved energy to function at peak. In fact, better than when it's running on glucose. 

The truth is glucose energy is excellent for an instant boost, but it's not safe for our minds in the long run, we crash. After a big meal, like that Chinese I had, I started feeling down and tired. No disrespect to Chinese food I still love it. It's not just mainstream Chinese food that does this, it's all junk food. 

When our emotions are incapacitated, we engage in destructive behavior. 

Why you think comics always draw a guy wearing a wife-beater, with a big pizza slice next to him, while in front of a computer getting ready to grab some tissue and lotion? You know the rest from here…

It's comical because, if eating healthy wasn't a big deal, maybe bad behaviours wouldn't be linked with poor diets, causing poor sleep, bad productivity, lack of creativity - and any other complications that come with junk food. 

First time for everything 

Back then, my workouts would've been trash by the second hour, cause I ran out of energy.

One day 2, in the last 18 hrs, I decided to hit the gym. I've never felt that strong at all. And I'm not exaggerating. My Apple watch was tracking my performance all along, and I managed to clock in 2300 calories during my workout. That's over 80% of what I eat in a day.

The first test of my experiment was done. I proved to myself that I could have better workouts on an empty stomach than I did with food.

Phase two was now to see how it would affect me on a psychological level.

For those who haven't tried this, I don't suggest this if you've never gone 12 hours with no food. It's not safe to just jump in because you can get dizzy and pass out. Leading to more complications, listen to your body. 

Don't bite more than you can chew.

They say the first time for everything is always hard, and the second time is twice the charm. Fasting became easy because my body grew a tolerance, and a new limit.

Steady energy boosts focus.

One night alone, I managed to write 5, 800-word blog posts that I'm still editing. That already was enough of a hook to pull me in. My productivity went up because I had better focus.

Remember how I mentioned earlier that glucose is unstable? Well, simply put, when my body entered ketosis, my brain depended on the liver to generate ketones for it. The liver would extract energy from fats. 

Fat is denser than plain sugars; it can extract steady energy that boosts focus.

Here is proof, I measured my self this week, beginning of my 36 hours fast again.

Yes some of it is water weight, but in 2 and half days you can already see how quick your body can change drastically. 

What I eat on my off days

When I'm not fasting I love to cook, have some jams and enjoy some homestyle cooking. 

I only eat one meal a day, I try to make it as healthy and filling as possible without going overboard

Don't fight the feeling

We don't have a way to measure creativity using any metric; there is no ft-lb scale for how creative you were yesterday compared to now.

I know one thing, though: our positive and negative feelings significantly affect our creative output. When we are extremely angry or sad, we are highly creative cause we are creating out of survival. When we are happy, we're very creative because we are creating out of affluence - to share with others.

36hours with no food did it for me. I felt happier. And on the sad days, I could manage to be okay with sadness. It wasn't an overwhelming type of sadness; it was a healthy kind.

The better you can stabilize your emotions, the better you can focus and become more creative. Don't fight negative feelings cause you will need them for inspiration one day.

Better sleep, more energy, killer workouts

I wrote a lot of poetry. I mastered the courage to start writing the book that I always wanted to write. I managed to crush my workout goals. My stomach was empty, but I learned a lot through the experience.

Like a serene child, I would blank out and passed to sleep in front of my journal. I had some of my best sleep since. 

Fasting helped me focus better, produce more content without feeling stressed. My workouts were killer, I think you should try it and let me know the comments.

For those of you wondering of my dimensions, I'm not that big, I just have a lean athletic build. I was a linebacker in high school if that counts...