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.