Last winter I had dinner with a friend who just completed five days of fasting. He told me about the day-by-day change in his appetite and body. His storytelling of the experience sounded as exciting as the first time I heard about the New York City Marathon: music and scene change borough by borough that piqued my curiosity.
So this May I embarked on my own five-day-long fasting. So curious to monitor how my body would adapt.
The day before we had a big party and I ate a lot and drank a bit. Not the orthodox way to start fasting, but I just couldn't find time enough for preparatory steps of a few days of rice porridge diet. I took the crash course into fasting.
The first day was very hard. I woke up in the afternoon, with a mild headache. A bit of salt really helped. I went shopping and came back home after 8pm and slept.
The second day was harder. Especially between noon and 3pm. I traveled to Seoul and met with a friend. Then we went shopping from 4 to 9pm. Of course my friend skipped dinner with me. That really helped. At night I read a depressing novel but couldn't continue when I came to the page where a character was having instant noodle. I had to close the book.
The third day was unexpectedly easy, except for the morning part. I couldn't pull myself out of bed before 10am. My family all went out for lunch, and so I could do some web surfing, killing time. In the evening I found another unfortunate friend who stayed with me at a cafe drinking tea till 10pm.
The fourth day I had to attend a workshop. During lunch time I stayed in the session room working and chatting with colleagues. Hanging out at an event was a nice idea 'cause I could just sit down and chat with friends as much as I wanted. In the evening I forced yet another friend to skip dinner with me. At night just before I fell deep into sleep I had a dream of my friend feasting on lamb, pork and beef. As if it were a TV, I had to consciously turn off the dream to get some sleep.
In the morning I woke up with a dream of me having o-deng (fish balls) with friends. The last fifth day I had a full-day schedule from 10am to 7pm. I was completely exhausted. Every now and then I had to stop thinking and just breathe. I was not dizzy, but slow, very slow. I came home after 7pm, and went for a 40min walk. Then a little bit of TV, but then too many food commercials. Not my thing for the day. I fell asleep uneventfully.
This morning I woke up with a dream of me eating noodle. I don't dream much at the first place. Suppressed appetite is a strong force behind my latent desire, I believe in Freud. I had a bowl of rice porridge and it was anti-climatic: not particularly tasty. I had a few spoonfuls and stopped. During the second to the fourth days I felt feverish, but on the last day I had a chill. Rice porridge hasn't helped much with the chill yet.
I lost weight steadily over the course of five days but don't expect to keep it down. The weight will bounce back. One of the main benefits of fasting is the shrunk stomach and so I should keep it small. I didn't experience any nasty pain or bodily odor my friend had reported. That means I'm basically healthy without any major health issue.
The experience gave me much confidence that I could control my mind and body well. Would I do it again? Probably not.