Ten Things I Learned From Fasting Without Food for a Week

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Last week I fasted without food for seven days. It was a challenge that stemmed from a desire to break my pattern of drinking too much coffee and wine. I started with a day of fresh squeezed juice (400 calories worth) and did the rest of the fast drinking only water. Besides some observations of my body (I could feel my pulse all over when I lay still, my blood pressure dropped, my temperature dropped etc), here are some things I learned from my fast.

1. 1. You need support to try hard things. I talk about this in business as well – you need to feel safe in most areas in order to take big risks. Having my partner Heidi support me by letting me get as much rest as I needed, not having to take care of our baby son as much, and not asking me to make too many decisions really help keep my energy levels up.
   2. Not eating makes you more productive. Because I didn’t need to take time out to eat (or poop or plan meals), I had one of my most productive weeks of the year in terms of creative output and financial income. Once you can eliminate that constant subconscious need to find where your next meal is coming from, you free up a ton of creative thinking.
   3. The idea of fasting is catchy. I knew that I wanted to cut out coffee and alcohol for a couple of weeks. When I met a new friend who has completed a 30 day fast this year, I realized that I wanted to do a week long water fast. As soon as I started my fast and started talking about it, another friend of mine was inspired to start fasting as well. I went to a party three days after the fast ended and everyone wanted to talk about the fast.
   4. It is empowering to choose a hard challenge. As men, we are constantly asking ourselves, Do I have what it takes?” I’ve answered this for myself over and over in the form of adventure and physical challenges, and it felt good to give myself this new mental challenge. And yes, fasting was more of a mental than physical challenge for me.
   5. How you do anything is how you do everything. After five days of fatigue I was ready to throw in the towel. I started bargaining with myself reasons why it was OK for me to stop early. Then I realized I have a problem in my life with starting things and not finishing them. And if how you do everything is how you do anything, I needed to finish the full 7+ days of fasting, so that I could make sure I’m prepared to finish business initiatives or not bail from my relationships when they get challenging.
   6. Looking forward to something is so delicious. Just like Christmas as a kid I was looking forward to eating more and more each day of the fast. I noticed that half of all businesses seem to be related to food – groceries, restaurants, spice stores…everybody is eating all the time! And that first bite of fruit really was the amazingness I had been expecting. My head nearly exploded!
   7. I don’t need food. I think I frequently eat food out of boredom or because tasting something is a fun diversion. It is really handy to not need food when you are doing a 24-hour transpacific flight sequence, or after a workout. When I was a professional cyclist, I used to always carry around at least 400 calories of energy bars because I was paranoid that I would totally bonk from not having enough food intake.
   8. Everyone has an opinion. When I would talk about fasting, almost everybody had an opinion to weigh in on the topic. Whether it was “Oh I could never do that,” to “You shouldn’t be fasting at this time of year” to, “You should be doing an enema every day during a fast”.
   9. You need to be physically healthy to attempt other challenges. During day four and five when I was at my most fatigued state, I had a harder time finding the motivation to do challenging mental work. I was still getting plenty of rest, but I was tired and it decreased my motivation. You body is the vessel for your mind, so if you want to think premium quality thoughts, you need to have your body running at its best.
   10. It’s hard to give yourself permission to rest. As an entrepreneur, my income is still largely connected to the work I am doing each week, and the success of my new projects requires input in the beginning. So I find it really hard to allow myself any rest at all. Combine that with the fact that if I am not working, I am taking care of my son, or going on long runs and bike rides, so any rest at all is such a privilege.

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Photo Credit: Getty Images