Do we really need to eat so much food? Who says? For most of us, eating is about the relentless search for satisfaction – nutrition happens to be a convenient side-effect. Desire for food is more fundamental than desire for sex. We engage with food three or more times a day, by adulthood most of us are enslaved to it – we simply “have to get something to eat”. But do you want to be a slave to your digestive desires? What’s the other option?
Seeing some slightly obsessive qualities in my own eating, the idea of fasting made a lot of sense. Weight-loss is the excuse, but the real reason is to just confront food like an addiction.
Going without is an undeniably radical act. Simply choosing to fast for a short while will so shock your mates you will meet cries of derision. But my question is this – how can a person ever gain a balanced perspective on what they need versus what they desire if they are shopping for, preparing, eating or digesting food almost every hour of the day?
Fasting is surprisingly easy. It is weird on the first day, strange on the second, and you’ve forgotten about it by the third. But prepare to get to know yourself – an addict will tell any lie to themselves to justify more eating. Some mental toughness is required. By day 4 though, it’s a relief – the cycle of eating seems like the tyranny of the glutinous.
In Western culture food surrounds you – on the way to work, in the train station, at the petrol shop, on TV. The effect of this bombardment is to overwhelm and destabilize. When you’re off balance you make bad choices. The first capability you lose is the ability to tell what “enough” is.
With fasting the weight-loss is great. You also get a massive detox/ cleansing experience. But over and above the health benefits are the philosophical ones – a chance to step back, re-educate your senses, and gain some distance between yourself and the subject. You can only make a choice if you are calm, balanced and detached, and that’s what fasting gives you.
An obese friend of mine who was actually diagnosed as a food addict once explained to me that she’d prefer to be addicted to booze, or cocaine, simply because you can walk away from drugs, but you can’t walk away from food. But with fasting – you can go “cold turkey” and come back with a new view.
Fasting results in sudden weight-loss. No doubt the reasons to avoid this are valid, however — if you are trying to break bad habits, why just tinker at the edges? Sudden weight loss might be a bad long-term strategy, but how many dieters do you know who spend their lives in a dance with their own appetites. For many of us food has become a comfort, a friend, and a source of excitement – a short 7 day fast helps bring it back to what it is.
Progress Update
Weight-loss Status Update: 68 kilos and counting down…
Fitness Status Update: Exercise isn’t really the go while fasting – oh well, just have to lounge by the pool.
Stress Relief Status Update: Nah – can’t get too stressed when you have nothing to do… not even shop, cook or wash dishes.
Yours,
The Dark Mistress
The Balance Blog – A reflection on virtual life versus embodied life; ostensibly finding sunshine, holistic fitness, natural weight-loss and stress relief for an obsessed workaholic screen addict, with the occasional dig at the World Wide Web.
