Post Diwali.

Happy Diwali to all. May the festival of lights usher light in people's hearts.. It is now more than 72 hours, from the time I broke my fast. And it has been just awesome! 

I broke my fast with vegetable+fruit juice. Had couple of fruits after that. Later in the evening my sweet tooth woke up and had couple of sweets. Eating the first morsels of food was really joyful. It felt like a pleasure... Nothing short of a luxury! After eating a bit of food, I had first bowel movement in three days and it felt sooo good! And I was drinking water like crazy. I must have taken around 3-4 liters of water just in that evening. After having a bit of food, I went for a walk around our campus to see the lights and so on. It was a pleasant 1-2 KM walk. Later in the evening, I felt cramps in my legs - I had not felt cramps during the fasting though. I went to sleep around 11PM.

Woke up around 7AM, was feeling quite energetic. The sleep was much better than the previous days. I had a slight backache though - which subsided in an hour or so. Had some fruits + juice+ a pan cake for breakfast. Had some pongal + boiled vegetables for lunch. Surprisingly I was not feeling hungry much. And I was drinking water like crazy. My work efficiency was pretty good. Could do quite a bit of work during the day. 

In the evening, I continued my good form. Could do some more work. Made mixed vegetable soup + pan cake for dinner. But did not have much hunger. Even though I had only prepared quite a small amount, I found it hard to finish.

Today morning, I woke up around 7AM. Had a bowl of cereals (with nuts sprinkled on it). I was not feeling hungry much till lunch. I must have taken around 2+ liters of water till then. I normally have a foot-long Subway sandwich for my lunch. Today, I had just 6" sub, and even that felt heavy! In the afternoon, again drank a lot of water. Came back home and have boiled some vegetables for dinner. Will make a soup or something like that.

Somehow the hunger is gone! It looks my body is requiring much less food than it usually does. I am really surprised. It is definitely asking for water, but much less food. I am feeling energetic like normal time. Probably things will come back to normalcy (I eat like a pig, normally). Let us see.

I am feeling light, energetic, and alert. I am feeling that I am loving the food more than before (may be, it is just in my head - don't know). And energy wise - I am feeling just fine. All of the weakness is gone - today I cycled to my office like a normal day, and am going to play badminton now.  Overall, there is a feeling of satisfaction.. Let us see, how long this continues. 

Cheers.

Diwali is on.

Today is Diwali, and you bet! All the fervor is on. Like every other Diwali, I can see all excited people around. And you ask, what has happened to my experiment? Well it is going on, with minor modifications, though.

Today (Saturday) is the third day. Thursday went without much of an impact. Could cycle to office and back. In the evening, I drove for couple of hours do run some errands. Felt quite fine. Came back home and drank lots of water and went to sleep. Before sleeping, somehow avoided questions about my dinner, raised by wife+parents. On Friday, I was thinking that I will work from home. Decided against it. Drove to office (instead of walk/cycle), and took the lift instead of daily staircases. No issues. Had a good time at office. Just that I was walking slowly, and it gave an impression that I was in a contemplative mood. No issues. Came back home, and drove to a grocery shop and bought some fruits, fruit juices, and some diyas as well.

I had made up my mind to break the fast after three days, instead of the planned 4/5 days. And that's why bought the fruits - to break the fast today. Today is the third day. Plan to break the fast today evening. It is around 3pm now; hope to break the fast in a couple of hours. In the morning, spent sometime dusting the house, arranging the Diwali electric lights, and setting the house in an order. Cleaned the old diyas for the evening, made some more arrangements for the puja. It was good. After taking the bath, walked to the nearest temple, and while coming back checked my weight. I had lost around 3KGs. Not too bad. Should gain it back, once I start eating.

What all has happened in these fasting days? Lots of interesting stuff.

• One negative thing: When I am alone, wife+parents keep asking about what food I am preparing, and what I am eating. While, I have not broken my promise of truthfulness, it has been awkward. I have kept changing the topic, and felt sad. I wish I could have told them in the beginning itself. But I am afraid, they won't support such (mad) activities, and may instead act as deterrents.
• Another minor deviation from my initial plan: Instead of just drinking water, I took lemon water (a lemon squeezed in about a liter of water with a pinch of salt) twice a day, besides loads of normal water. I read somewhere that drinking lemon water, while fasting makes a lot of difference. I can say that those lemon water drinks were just sumptuous. They were nothing less then feasts.
  
• Yesterday evening when I went to the grocery shop, I could go up two/three floors up the steps; felt a bit tired, but not too bad.
• Each of these three days, I could walk for 1-2 KMs without much of an issue.
• Did I feel hungry? Surprisingly no. Normally, when I undertake weekly one-day fasts, I feel very hungry by the time it is evening. Sometimes get slight headaches, and more. But this time, it is nearly 65+ hours that I last had anything solid. I am not feeling much hunger, do not have any headache, just a touch of weakness and that too when I do some strenuous work.
• One interesting thing was that every time I felt a bit dizzy, it was a signal for water! Taking water was enough to clear the dizziness. And when did I feel dizzy? Mostly, when I talked a lot. Surprising though...
  
• I read Ramayan only once, and spent meditating only once; kind of a grand failure on that front. Could do a long puja today, tough.
  
• Just sometime back something awesome smell came floating. Being a food lover, I could easily what's being prepared around. And it was the first temptation I felt, from the time I started fasting.
• Could do a good bit of work on Thursday, and Friday. On the work front, could have done better. But no issues. One of the reasons for my breaking the fast one day early is that, I wanted to do a bit more work tomorrow. Somehow, I feel that brain is a major consumer of energy, and lack of food makes a difference to think; surprising that I am able to do other physical activities more or less okay. But thinking is becoming hard with no food!
• One surprising thing that happened was that in the last three days, my beard growth has been extremely slow. Not sure, if it is just my imagination, a coincidence, or a side effect of fasting.
  
• The circumference of my waist and back have come down by one inch or so. My guess is that, it would be back to normal, after I start eating. Such short duration fasts normally don't have much effect on fat (my guess).
• I somehow feel that my senses are more aware - especially my nose.
• I am excited that I could water-fast for three days, and hope to have fruit/juice fast for another two days.
  
• Today being Diwali, multiple people invited me for dinner after knowing that I am alone. Politely turned the invitation down - I told both of them that I am fasting today, and want to break the fast with fruits only.

I want to start with some fruits, raw vegetables, and curd. Tomorrow and Monday, I want to continue the experiment with fruits and raw vegetables again. Hope to start my normal food schedule starting Tuesday. Hopefully, the next two days will be more productive in terms of work.

Diwali preparations.

Diwali is approaching. From the time I have come back to India, every year it has been one of the awaited days. Like many other festivals, Diwali is best enjoyed with loads of friends and family members. With due apologies to all the environmentalists, we have always loved the color, light and noise of Diwali. We have regularly indulged in bursting crackers to our hearts content, lighted our house with many different types of lights, and rangolis around the house have colored the occasion like never otherwise. This time however, it is going to be different.

For instance, for the first time in my life I am in India during Diwali, and have no woman folks at home (who perform the puja, do Aarti, and so on). As a matter of fact have no company. People at home have gone to different places, and incidentally I am alone at home. But I am not much disappointed. For, I am planning for something new.

When I was in my graduate school, I used to undertake long fasts (unlike the short-one-day fasts that I undertake every week, these are slightly longer), lasting upto four days. After coming back to India, I have not been able to do long-fasts even once. This time, with family away for a longer period, I am trying to see if I can undertake a long fast. Minimum 4 days, maximum 5 days. Starting yesterday (Wednesday) night, the goal is to do a water-only fast till Monday evening. Yesterday evening, before I started the fast, I had a fruit+milk+yogurt based last supper. Such a supper, keeps the body light. Today is the first day. Not sure, if I can do it or not. But I am pretty excited (and also a bit anxious). What are the goals? Well, many.

The goals I have in my mind are too many. Some of them are obvious, some of them are hard, some of them are hard to imagine. But well, I like to have lots of goals, so that I have motivation for further work. Here is a list of goals that I think I have:

• Increase in my focus. One of the things I want to achieve is to increase my focus in whatever work I am doing. Currently, I feel that my mind is hyper-excited most of the time, and that leads to less than optimum results.
• I have a chronic dandruff problem. I feel that fasting may slowdown the dandruff. Why/How? I do not know. But I feel so!
• I feel that fasting helps reduce the work body does (digestion etc). Thus, may help increase the awareness of senses. My prior experiences support this thought. But no guarantee.
• Weight loss: As a byproduct of fasting, weight loss is a guarantee (though, the weight loss is typically short-term and hard to realize in such short period fasting - People who undertake longer fasting, e.g. 10 days water fasting / 30-40 days juice fasting etc report severe weight loss). Since my body weight does not vary much, I don't expect a significant weight loss.
  
• Reduction in fat: One of the main advantages of water/juice fasting is that body starts using the reserves (that is fat). Hopefully, because of this fast some of the reserves will be used up.
  
• I want to use the time I save in spiritual reading. Every minute I save in cooking/eating/cleaning, I want to use in reading Ramayana and Bhagawat Geeta, and meditating. I hope that this Diwali time fasting lets me illuminate my inner self.
  
• I want to make stupendous progress in two side projects that I am doing.
  
• I want to test if my body can sustain such fasts.
• Fasting gives me a kick. Especially, after the fast has ended.
  

Please note that, many of these goals may not be achievable by fasting. But still. they still are part of my goals. As I have a feeling that they are somehow interlinked.