Welcome to this week’s Reno News & Review.
This week, one week after Thanksgiving, I’ve started Fast Thursdays. Basically, the idea is not to eat anything on Thursdays for a year. I can drink non-alcoholic fluids, and I’ll take my usual vitamins, but that’s it. Originally, the plan was not to consume anything, but I’ve got to drive to work, and I have power consumption at home even when I’m not there.
Today, the first effort, I stopped eating after dinner on Wednesday, and I’m not going to eat until Friday breakfast. Next week, I may modify that to eat breakfast on Thursday and then eat breakfast on Friday. It’s not as elegant, but it’s closer to the 24-hour cycle.
I’ve got a lot of reasons for the experiment, but mainly I’m just trying to change my perception of things. I’m hoping it will raise my appreciation of this life of plenty I live. I expect it will affect my health and metabolism, although I don’t know how.
I think, because I have an intention of fasting, that I’m not light-headed or distracted by food the way I’d be if I was just an hour late for lunch. I also note my sense of smell is heightened. I don’t feel irritable, although I’ve barely been tested.
My simple theory—no science to back it up—is that the idea that the metabolism instantly shuts down without constant fuel doesn’t really make sense from an evolutionary standpoint. If Fred Flintstone couldn’t get a brontosaurus burger for 24 hours, I think his body would actually fire up to better enable him to hunt and gather. A day isn’t really enough time for the body to adjust to a lower calorie count to cause it to go into “starvation mode.” We’ll see, I’m at 212 right now. If it were as simple as calories in, calories out, and I eat 2,000 calories a day, and I don’t change otherwise, I should weigh 182 by Thankgiving 2013.
My friend suggested I’m engaging in enantiodromia. I’m willing to go with that.