I’ve been engaging in ascetic abstention from food recently. I went three days without food, primarily in the attempt to reach my target weight of 160 pounds, but during those abstemious days, I realized many things, the most important of which was that my intellectual capabilities to focus, digest and retain a text were enhanced tremendously, as if my hunger for food was sublimated into intellectual consumption. After my fast, I contemplated more on the practice of asceticism and decided to make it into a lifestyle. Though it’s tainted by the execrable slavishness of Christian asceticism, I feel like it’s worth discussing and re-viving.
Asceticism need not be a form of hyper self-denial, like monasticism. The form of Asceticism I practice - and will delineate subsequently, is not an unbalanced extreme, nor based in the slavish submission to some transcendent signified; mine is somewhat akin to the greek “askēsis” or training, whereby I select a given amount of days to abstain from certain indulgences, in the attempt to build up endurance and self-control.
Asceticism is symbolic of the masculine principle of control and order; it’s a turning away, a salubrious regression or nostalgia for the absolute -the singularity ( near absolute order ). The contrary is hedonism, which is a surrendering to the flow, the towards near absolute chaos. Both polarities, in their extremes, are undesirable. The noble and beautiful way is the middle way, a harmonious relationship of self-control and indulgence. I believe that self-control should supersede indulgence, but indulgence should not be done away with completely, but strictly moderated - ancillary to the primary practice of self-control.
To conclude this entry ( I will add more in time, mostly of texts ), the fundamental distinction between my asceticism and that of the monastic, is that mine is aimed towards self-mastery and the other is aimed towards self-enslavement.
Didn’t you mention that you’re a physically active boxer? If so, I really hope you’re being facetious or hyperbolic when you say you’ve been without food for three days, that’s extremely unhealthy for anybody.
160 pounds? You looked about my height in your boxing video, I’m 180 and pretty fit, also have less muscle than you.
You do realize that along with the fat you’ll also have to lose muscle to reach that weight? And that without sufficient protein intake, muscle catabolism will begin? If you’re going for that skinny-ripped look (not very optimal for a boxer I think BTW), you do it by isolation exercises, lean foods and a lot of protein - NOT by starving yourself.
If you insist on hurting yourself fine, I just felt obliged to inform you.
I’ve done this before. Honestly, I didn’t lose any vitality. Actually, I felt even more vitalized, ironically, as if the cleaning of my system brought upon a pristine sense of liveliness. I’m going for a leaner look for modeling, but this goal is also confluent with my boxing endeavors to achieve a lighter weight. I may move back up to 168-173lbs. But for the time being, 160 is my goal. I appreciate the affable concern, but I shall be fine.
I don’t agree with asceticism in general, which mean the consistent and long term practices of it.
However, the short term practice of some of the elements of asceticism is definitely useful for any human being, e.g.
A 10 day mindfulness retreat of solely meditation, silence, no socializing, etc. minimal eating, etc.
A 7-30 days nutritional balanced fasting. This is a sort of fasting solely on pure fruit juices that contain all the necessary nutrients supplemented with vitamins and minerals. One will definitely loose weight on such a program (minimal 10 days). Note such fasting must be done properly via a systematic process, the initial and ending phases are critical.
The human body is a self-maintenance system.
When we indulge in complex food (heavy red meat, carbs, refined sugars), drinks (alcohol) and other junk food that normally tax the body resources to process their poisons, most of the internal resources are directed to and engaged in processing these heavy food and getting rid of their related toxics and poisons.
However when we fast and maintain a minimal intake with fruit juices, there are excess and available capacity for the body to undertake the necessary self repairs and ‘renovations’. The minimal fruit juices and minerals are necessary materials and energy to facilitate the repair and maintenance job.
Eric: Once in my life, i went overboard on fasting. I wanted to eat notjing for two weeks. I did succeed to do it for ten days. I was on water. By the eleventh day, i felt very confident i could make it to fourteen days, but i was beginning to hallucinate a bit. On top of tha i became restless, but was very determined, to prove to myself i could make it. I didn’t make it, because on the eleventh day we went to a paizza place, and upon leaving, i noticed that someone left a slice of pizza, with all the toppings on a table top. By a surge of irresistable impulse, i grabbed it, and wolfed it down. I felt bad, but in retrospect, felt i did the rightthing because i was going down.
Incidentally in relation to sleeplessness, i recommend the Utube video-'Russian Sleep Study,'to see how deprivation of sleep can go awfully wrong. It has nothing to do with food deprovation, but it has significance in terms of appreciating how deprivation in general can cause very serious problems.
Yes, I have…when I was a practicing catholic I did lol for world hunger…once a week no food for a few years. Then I had about enough of that. I’ve since then come to realize that money is a bit more advantageous than starving myself. If I’m not mistaken, I think that you might have mentioned somewhere in ilp that you were thinking of or were fasting 3 days a week. That’s not a good idea…you lose too many nutrients and it’s not good for your gray matter either.
I feel re-invigorated by walking or simply by stopping looking listening breathing in the air, looking at the trees among other things or reading a good book. …etcetera.
I like the image above. I don’t know if he’s being narcissistic or more self-conscious (consciousness).
I don’t need to stop eating to keep my body energized and healthy to prove anything to anything/one. Just doesn’t sound healthy. There is a reason we eat.
There’s nothing wrong with eating ascetically… eating only when hungry as nature intended, but total starvation is unnecessary to drop weight quick as cutting carbs out completely would yield the same result without the deprivation or excessive muscle loss.
I’m surprised that you guys are shocked over a mere three days of fasting; there are people that go 40 days without food! Haha.
I’m actually doing it a bit differently starting today; I’m going on a 5 day Smoothie ( fruit ) fast. I will have 2 servings a day; one after my morning workout and one around 5 pm. Much easier than water fasting, but still you lose a lot of weight, real fast.
It’s not a “mere” 3 days, Erik. It’s, as you said, every week also. You know, at some point it will end and your body will rebel against you. You’ll put it all back on.
How much sugar will your smoothie have?
You might just drink loads and loads of water as I do and cut out most sugar and white flour products.
In addition to fasting, I also do 1 hour of cardio daily. I burn about 600-700 calories. Fasting is ancillary to cardio, because it puts the body in a state of ketosis, which causes energy sources to be derived from body fat, as opposed to, say, the food in your stomach. So, it’s not mere water weight that is being lost, but body fat too.
Not sure how much sugar they contain. I simply pour some apple juice in a NutriBlend container, add some frozen fruit and amalgamate it.
I lost all my weight due to anxiety/stress. I lost like i’d say 40-60 lbs. I couldn’t eat for a while and had to go to ER. It can mess your stomach up with acid as well, since when you’re empty stomached it is just sitting in there.
As I understand it, by three days you’re well into catabolism. You’re burning at least as much muscle as fat, especially if you’re also exercising. If you want to debulk, that’s fine; but for cutting fat, somewhere around 24-36 hours is the most you should be doing. Of course, nutritional science changes by the day
I usually do a 24-hour fast once a week, it keeps my blood sugar stable. There’s a definite buzz from it, too, although that’s not necessarily a sign of it being healthy.
