Well, I can now add a 52 Hour Fast into my personal history of odd things that I've experienced. I'm still trying to figure out what caused a persistent lack of hunger? I'd love to say it was a personal strike for Climate Change, but it wasn't actually planned out like that.
I came back from Bali to Shanghai, tried a mooncake around 1pm on Tuesday that had been gifted to us by a guest, and then crashed for a mid-day nap, still not really feeling here or there from the half-sleep state of an overnight flight. While there is no time difference between Bali and Shanghai, I still experienced the kind of jet-lag that comes from only getting 3 scattered hours of sleep between two overnight flights connecting in Hong Kong.
Over the course of 24 hours, I just hadn't slept enough, so I was bound to crash. When I woke up, I wasn't hungry and it was dark, so I tried to go back to sleep but ended up awake most of the night, and then asleep most of the next morning. Why is travel so brutal to the body? Thank goodness I didn't have a commitment to anyone during the time when I crashed hard.
By the time I woke up again, around 1pm on Wednesday, I still felt between places, but I finally felt as though I got the full amount of sleep I needed and that my biological clock had been reset in some way. I still just wasn't hungry at all. I can't remember a time when I didn't feel hungry or even thirsty at least once over a 24hr period.
Since I had already accidentally fasted for 24 hours, a part me was just mildly curious how long this lack-of-hunger would last? I did a little research and found out that it's really not that harmful for a few days, but to make sure that I was still getting water to support all the normal movements of fluids. I also wasn't exerting myself or going anywhere, so I wasn't burning a ton of calories. I was just working on my computer and phone, doing some research and writing.
My body mostly felt the same for the first 24-36 hours. My kidneys hurt for a little bit, and that was my reminder that I needed to drink some water. I got a minor headache, and again, it was a reminder to drink more water. I did a bit of yoga and stretching because I felt some tension building in parts of my body- which could have been not enough water as well- but the yoga and stretching helped. I got a full night of sleep, and everything seemed fairly normal otherwise.
By the time I woke on Thursday, I was fascinated that I still did not have an appetite. My routine for the last decade or more has been wake-up, have coffee, and have something to eat. Somehow, I just didn't feel like doing that. It had been over 40 hours. Was there something mysterious in the mooncake I ate that suppressed my appetite for this long? Was I having an Alice in Wonderland mysterious "eat me" cake moment? I looked at the box for clues, but good luck trying to read ingredients written in Chinese characters in black ink on a navy box with Google Translate!
Thursday I was still in a curious observation mode, but also realizing that I should probably just eat something that day even if I wasn't hungry. This wasn't a hunger strike, and I didn't feel too sick to eat, and I didn't need to put my body through stress just to see what it would feel like. Yet, I was still a little fascinated to observe how my body would respond and I wanted to see if anything would trigger my hunger again.
I started to feel my brain metabolize differently, and a sense of my digestive system working in different ways. I could tell that this was a different metabolic process, because it felt different internally, like different movements of energy in the body. I've never done a keto diet, but based on what other people have said about their experience, this is probably the same thing that people experience when they enter into ketosis and metabolize their own fat.
I carefully monitored my mental and emotional state during this process to make sure that I wasn't experiencing depression or altered mood during this time. I know that when hormones shift and move in different ways, so can mood and emotion. I did notice that I didn't feel as capable of multitasking while I was likely in ketosis. My mind became very one-track minded. I really only focused on one thing at a time, where normally, I'm a very multi-passionate and multi-tasking person. I had more fixations than usual, but not with emotions attached to them, just spent more time wrestling with things rather than finding solutions and moving on.
I do feel like my body started converting its own fat storage into energy and calories after about 36 hours. Apparently that's how long mooncake can feed your body before it actually has to put in some of its own work! Another interesting observation was an increase of mucus in my ears and an increased density of vaginal fluid (too much info?) It felt like a reverse hydration process happening in the body, like my body collecting mucus and sending it where it needed to go. Can the lymphatic system work in reverse? I don't think it can, but it was a little weird to feel fluids moving into my ear canal.
By 48 hours, even though I still didn't feel hungry, I started to think I should probably eat something just because I wasn't trying to set any world records and my body might appreciate it. Now, because it was taking longer for me to make decisions, and I was getting fixated on things more easily, it also took me forever to decide what I would eat to break my fast.
I've never spent 3 hours deciding what to eat... ok, I take that back... I'm sure my husband and I have debated for 3 hours over what we'd have for dinner at some point in our marriage. However, I'm normally a very intuitive eater when I'm dining solo and don't need to accommodate anyone else. I usually have a specific craving, and that's what I go for. Without any cravings or hunger, choosing food options seemed like I was just reading the news, and it all seemed about as interesting as eating paper. I asked for people to send me food inspiration on facebook, hoping food photos would trigger my brain to crave something.
A photo of taco salad casserole was shared by a friend. Ah yes, one of my family favorites. Yet, a good taco salad is hard to come by in Shanghai. I thought of my family's taco salad that would be very difficult to replicate here in Shanghai. I thought of my favorite vegan taco salad in NYC at By Chloe. Then I thought of the jackfruit taco salad I came to love at Peloton Super Shop in Bali. No other food photos inspired me... but taco salad has many layers of joy and family reunions entwined into it. The thought of it made me happy and just a tiny bit encouraged to eat.
Unfortunately, I hadn't found a favorite taco salad spot in Shanghai yet, but I did know of a place called Pete's Tex Mex that came as close to the flavors as I'd found. I also remembered that they delivered via the Sherpa app once to our apartment before, which was important since I didn't have much physical energy at the 50 hour mark of fasting to commute to another neighborhood. I did not end up ordering a taco salad- for fear of disappointment- but I did order some enchiladas and bean dip that I knew would fare well a second day if I just couldn't eat much the first day.
I went back into my work and almost forgot that I'd placed the order, until a knock came on the apartment door. My first thought was not food, but that I was happy I didn't screw up the apartment address in the app for the delivery person. After I paid with cash and laid everything on the table, I looked at my clock and realized I'd been fasting for 52 hours. From Tuesday around 1pm to Thursday around 5pm. I said a little prayer of gratitude, then I had my first bite.
It wasn't a mind-blowing first bite. It wasn't like the first bite after a medical or religious fast where you are battling cravings during the fast and your brain lights up with joy to satisfy a craving. I still wasn't actually hungry- I was just eating something to avoid being mean to my body. I could only eat about a third of the enchilada I ordered and half of the dip and chips before I felt too full. But I was happy that everything tasted just as I'd remembered and close enough to that taco salad flavor I was looking for even without it being actual taco salad. Ordering Tex-Mex in a city where nearly all of the ingredients need to be imported to make the food is always a risky choice, but thankfully I'm in a neighborhood with enough expat residents that things like this exist and can even be delivered to my door.
I gradually had a little more food each day after that. Friday, a simple PB&J sandwich, apple, water, and half a coffee. Saturday, a PB&J sandwich, water, half a coffee, and some left over dip and chips. With the carbohydrates and caffeine entering my system again, I also felt my energy to get up and go returning rather than being a hermit home behind the computer researching and writing. I felt my ability to make decisions and solve problems becoming easier again. I was less fixated and more multi-tasking again. I also felt happier in general and noticed my mental mood feeling a little brighter and lighter, more agile and flexible, rather than slowly processing one thing at a time. I've read reports that other people feel more clear when they are in ketosis, so perhaps my body and hormones respond differently to ketosis than their bodies do?
I guess what I learned is that if I'm ever in a travel situation where I don't have access to food, it's probably going to be fine for a few days as long as I have some water that's drinkable. The first 40 hours I don't think I drank much more than 12oz of water, so I could likely survive on one sport bottle of water for a couple days if the weather isn't too hot and I'm not exerting myself. It may not feel good to the body, but it's possible. I may have also learned that mooncake may actually be a pretty decent survival food if it can get you through so many hours of fasting!
This is something I never thought I'd be writing about during this adventure year, and certainly not while living in such a foodie town like Shanghai, but I guess stranger things can happen. I just keep showing up, observing what happens, and hopefully living to tell the tale. I never really know what life is going to throw at me next, so it's as much a surprise to me as it is to you!
I came back from Bali to Shanghai, tried a mooncake around 1pm on Tuesday that had been gifted to us by a guest, and then crashed for a mid-day nap, still not really feeling here or there from the half-sleep state of an overnight flight. While there is no time difference between Bali and Shanghai, I still experienced the kind of jet-lag that comes from only getting 3 scattered hours of sleep between two overnight flights connecting in Hong Kong.
Over the course of 24 hours, I just hadn't slept enough, so I was bound to crash. When I woke up, I wasn't hungry and it was dark, so I tried to go back to sleep but ended up awake most of the night, and then asleep most of the next morning. Why is travel so brutal to the body? Thank goodness I didn't have a commitment to anyone during the time when I crashed hard.
24 HOURS
By the time I woke up again, around 1pm on Wednesday, I still felt between places, but I finally felt as though I got the full amount of sleep I needed and that my biological clock had been reset in some way. I still just wasn't hungry at all. I can't remember a time when I didn't feel hungry or even thirsty at least once over a 24hr period.
Since I had already accidentally fasted for 24 hours, a part me was just mildly curious how long this lack-of-hunger would last? I did a little research and found out that it's really not that harmful for a few days, but to make sure that I was still getting water to support all the normal movements of fluids. I also wasn't exerting myself or going anywhere, so I wasn't burning a ton of calories. I was just working on my computer and phone, doing some research and writing.
My body mostly felt the same for the first 24-36 hours. My kidneys hurt for a little bit, and that was my reminder that I needed to drink some water. I got a minor headache, and again, it was a reminder to drink more water. I did a bit of yoga and stretching because I felt some tension building in parts of my body- which could have been not enough water as well- but the yoga and stretching helped. I got a full night of sleep, and everything seemed fairly normal otherwise.
40 HOURS
By the time I woke on Thursday, I was fascinated that I still did not have an appetite. My routine for the last decade or more has been wake-up, have coffee, and have something to eat. Somehow, I just didn't feel like doing that. It had been over 40 hours. Was there something mysterious in the mooncake I ate that suppressed my appetite for this long? Was I having an Alice in Wonderland mysterious "eat me" cake moment? I looked at the box for clues, but good luck trying to read ingredients written in Chinese characters in black ink on a navy box with Google Translate!
Thursday I was still in a curious observation mode, but also realizing that I should probably just eat something that day even if I wasn't hungry. This wasn't a hunger strike, and I didn't feel too sick to eat, and I didn't need to put my body through stress just to see what it would feel like. Yet, I was still a little fascinated to observe how my body would respond and I wanted to see if anything would trigger my hunger again.
I started to feel my brain metabolize differently, and a sense of my digestive system working in different ways. I could tell that this was a different metabolic process, because it felt different internally, like different movements of energy in the body. I've never done a keto diet, but based on what other people have said about their experience, this is probably the same thing that people experience when they enter into ketosis and metabolize their own fat.
I carefully monitored my mental and emotional state during this process to make sure that I wasn't experiencing depression or altered mood during this time. I know that when hormones shift and move in different ways, so can mood and emotion. I did notice that I didn't feel as capable of multitasking while I was likely in ketosis. My mind became very one-track minded. I really only focused on one thing at a time, where normally, I'm a very multi-passionate and multi-tasking person. I had more fixations than usual, but not with emotions attached to them, just spent more time wrestling with things rather than finding solutions and moving on.
I do feel like my body started converting its own fat storage into energy and calories after about 36 hours. Apparently that's how long mooncake can feed your body before it actually has to put in some of its own work! Another interesting observation was an increase of mucus in my ears and an increased density of vaginal fluid (too much info?) It felt like a reverse hydration process happening in the body, like my body collecting mucus and sending it where it needed to go. Can the lymphatic system work in reverse? I don't think it can, but it was a little weird to feel fluids moving into my ear canal.
48 HOURS
By 48 hours, even though I still didn't feel hungry, I started to think I should probably eat something just because I wasn't trying to set any world records and my body might appreciate it. Now, because it was taking longer for me to make decisions, and I was getting fixated on things more easily, it also took me forever to decide what I would eat to break my fast.
I've never spent 3 hours deciding what to eat... ok, I take that back... I'm sure my husband and I have debated for 3 hours over what we'd have for dinner at some point in our marriage. However, I'm normally a very intuitive eater when I'm dining solo and don't need to accommodate anyone else. I usually have a specific craving, and that's what I go for. Without any cravings or hunger, choosing food options seemed like I was just reading the news, and it all seemed about as interesting as eating paper. I asked for people to send me food inspiration on facebook, hoping food photos would trigger my brain to crave something.
A photo of taco salad casserole was shared by a friend. Ah yes, one of my family favorites. Yet, a good taco salad is hard to come by in Shanghai. I thought of my family's taco salad that would be very difficult to replicate here in Shanghai. I thought of my favorite vegan taco salad in NYC at By Chloe. Then I thought of the jackfruit taco salad I came to love at Peloton Super Shop in Bali. No other food photos inspired me... but taco salad has many layers of joy and family reunions entwined into it. The thought of it made me happy and just a tiny bit encouraged to eat.
Unfortunately, I hadn't found a favorite taco salad spot in Shanghai yet, but I did know of a place called Pete's Tex Mex that came as close to the flavors as I'd found. I also remembered that they delivered via the Sherpa app once to our apartment before, which was important since I didn't have much physical energy at the 50 hour mark of fasting to commute to another neighborhood. I did not end up ordering a taco salad- for fear of disappointment- but I did order some enchiladas and bean dip that I knew would fare well a second day if I just couldn't eat much the first day.
52 HOURS
I went back into my work and almost forgot that I'd placed the order, until a knock came on the apartment door. My first thought was not food, but that I was happy I didn't screw up the apartment address in the app for the delivery person. After I paid with cash and laid everything on the table, I looked at my clock and realized I'd been fasting for 52 hours. From Tuesday around 1pm to Thursday around 5pm. I said a little prayer of gratitude, then I had my first bite.
It wasn't a mind-blowing first bite. It wasn't like the first bite after a medical or religious fast where you are battling cravings during the fast and your brain lights up with joy to satisfy a craving. I still wasn't actually hungry- I was just eating something to avoid being mean to my body. I could only eat about a third of the enchilada I ordered and half of the dip and chips before I felt too full. But I was happy that everything tasted just as I'd remembered and close enough to that taco salad flavor I was looking for even without it being actual taco salad. Ordering Tex-Mex in a city where nearly all of the ingredients need to be imported to make the food is always a risky choice, but thankfully I'm in a neighborhood with enough expat residents that things like this exist and can even be delivered to my door.
I gradually had a little more food each day after that. Friday, a simple PB&J sandwich, apple, water, and half a coffee. Saturday, a PB&J sandwich, water, half a coffee, and some left over dip and chips. With the carbohydrates and caffeine entering my system again, I also felt my energy to get up and go returning rather than being a hermit home behind the computer researching and writing. I felt my ability to make decisions and solve problems becoming easier again. I was less fixated and more multi-tasking again. I also felt happier in general and noticed my mental mood feeling a little brighter and lighter, more agile and flexible, rather than slowly processing one thing at a time. I've read reports that other people feel more clear when they are in ketosis, so perhaps my body and hormones respond differently to ketosis than their bodies do?
SO WHAT?
I guess what I learned is that if I'm ever in a travel situation where I don't have access to food, it's probably going to be fine for a few days as long as I have some water that's drinkable. The first 40 hours I don't think I drank much more than 12oz of water, so I could likely survive on one sport bottle of water for a couple days if the weather isn't too hot and I'm not exerting myself. It may not feel good to the body, but it's possible. I may have also learned that mooncake may actually be a pretty decent survival food if it can get you through so many hours of fasting!
This is something I never thought I'd be writing about during this adventure year, and certainly not while living in such a foodie town like Shanghai, but I guess stranger things can happen. I just keep showing up, observing what happens, and hopefully living to tell the tale. I never really know what life is going to throw at me next, so it's as much a surprise to me as it is to you!
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