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The third day was hard for me! It was hard mostly mentally, but a little physically as well. Perhaps it was knowing that the next day I’d be eating (even if only a tiny, tiny bit), but I felt physically hungry late at night. It’s interesting getting to know the difference between feeling physically hungry and just psychologically hungry. The last three day fast we did the third day was the easiest for me, since by that point I had gotten mostly past the cravings. Interestingly, I lost no weight today. I weighed the same as the previous night all the way through the day. I can’t wait to eat tomorrow!

Day two was also easier than in the past. Perhaps I’m getting used to this. It also helps that we have absolutely no responsibilities right now and plenty of quiet. In the past I got a little grumpy fasting, but since I don’t have to interact with anyone but Kim and we have plenty of time doing our own thing there’s nothing to agitate me.

We did a lighter yoga session today, which was good. For juice we did some stuff with carrots today. We also have a cup of vegetable broth that Kim prepared with organic veggies. As far as cravings, there weren’t any that I remember. At one point I felt hungry, but I had a spoonful of honey and was immediately reenergized.

I again lost two pounds from the other day. I do wonder where that weight comes from since by now there’s nothing really coming out of my body except for water, and I’m replacing that with a lot more.

One more day! Of course, after that breaking the fast is gradual process. For example, the first day of solid foods all we eat is an apple and some potato soup. Even though I’m not having massive food cravings, I definitely miss just chewing something.

This first day of the fast was surprisingly easy compared to past fasts. I was barely ever hungry, although I think a large part of that is due to my decreased appetite eating raw for the previous five days. There were a few food cravings for bread mostly, but once again, I think that carries over from the previous days of eating raw.

To help the fast along, as usual, we took about a tablespoon of Epsom salt in a warm glass of water. It’s really disgusting to drink, but man does it empty you out. For juice we had beets, apples, spinach, and a few other assorted veggies. Later in the day we did a juice with watermelon (juice the rind too, there’s vitamins and stuff in there) and mint that was tasty. We did an hour of yoga which may have been a little too intense. We also drank some herbal teas and a ton of filtered water.

I’m always surprised how much energy and concentration I have while fasting. However, this is accompanied by occasional feelings of weakness and dizziness, especially if I stand up too fast. The first day I don’t usually feel crappy, like often happens the second day when the toxins are supposedly leaving en masse. Other physical symptoms include a lot more sweat than normal and a huge layer of guck on my tongue that I scrape off. Again, this is supposedly the body’s way of releasing those toxins. So far I’ve lost two pounds from my morning weight to my evening weight, although, again, the goal of the fast is not to lose weight. The weight lost during the fast usually comes back pretty fast anyway since when you start eating again your body stores calories like crazy.

On to day two!

In preparation for our current fast, Kim and I have been eating only raw food for the last 5 days. We were only planning on doing 4 days, but we made more food that we thought and had a lot of leftovers. Most people to prepare for a fast will go vegetarian or vegan for a few days, but since we’re already eating vegetarian we thought we’d try something new. Eating raw means that the food isn’t cooked above 105 degrees. The idea is that raw food has more nutrients and energy.

It turned out to be fairly difficult to stick to a raw diet, mostly because the food was incredibly fatty and left you craving carbs. Mosty of the food was made from a lot of nuts which are very high in fat. Examples of meals were partly what you’d imagine in cold soups (nut based), salads and dressings, but the entrees were pretty interesting. Kim made a taco with nut based meat and a cabbage leaf for the shell. After a few days of eating like this I started having a piece of bread with the meal and that helped a ton. Everything was very tasty, but it’s like trying to eat 6 avacados, it’s delicious at first but the fat just starts to get old.

Anyway, now that we’ve done 5 days of eating raw (mostly at least), we’re onto what will probably be 3 days of juice fasting. I’ll post more on how that goes this time. We might do more than three days, but three is usually our max because we tend to lose a bunch of weight in those three days (weight loss not being the overall goal, it’s just that losing too much at once isn’t healthy).

Kim and I have been enjoying some downtime to do whatever we want these last few weeks. I’ve picked up a ton of books and video games among other things. One thing that I’ve finally done is create a “best of” set of photos on flickr for our South America trip, so instead of looking through the overwhelming thousands of photos taken over seven months I’ve narrowed it down to under 200. I’m also working on a slideshow presentation with music and narration that should be ready soon.

I’ve begun a job search and been very surprised at how many recruiters started contacting me as soon as I posted my resume on dice.com – a ton. So many in fact it’s gotten annoying. Recruiters really don’t seem to in general know squat about technical jobs and have been forwarding me so many job descriptions for things I’m not even remotely interested or qualified for and in places I have expressed no interest in. It was nothing like this when I was looking for a job in 2004 out of college and the tech market was seemingly dead. Since Kim and I won’t actually be in Portland until mid June I haven’t followed up any job to seriously.

Kim and I will be doing a fast during the next few days, something we try to do twice a year. We’re currently eating raw food for four days before the fast. The idea behind these dietary changes is to clean out toxins that have accumulated. Kim also has been wanting to learn more about raw food lately. I’ll be posting more about this as it goes on, but I’m sure Kim will have even more detailed information on her blog if you’re interested in learning more.