As I am writing this I am at the start of a 24-hour food fast, no food just high-quality H20. I won’t pretend I am only 6 hours in and I am suffering, I can not wait to eat those Crosstown doughnuts and cookies tomorrow.
Let’s take a step back because if you had told me I was purposely fasting for 24 hours and at times as much as 48 hours just when I was in Sixth Form / College or High School I would have laughed at you. It did not start there. I officially started intermittent fasting during my undergraduate when I met this lovely girl from Eastern Europe completing her Master’s in London and I have been loyal to it since
Her pitch was:
- It slows down ageing. I’m pushing 30 in a few years and I’ve never felt time fly by faster than during COVID. You can sign me up for anything that buys me more time.
- It fights cancer. You don’t have to tell me twice. I’m terrified of it after having just lost my fiancee’s mother to it
- It improves the impact of your workouts via hormone optimization. More pumps per rep? Count me in.
- I could stay lean and muscular all year round as well as upper and lower body muscle strength and endurance according to this study
But, I recently discovered the most profound benefit of fasting, and it’s not a health-related one.
Fasting is a forcing function for respecting food.
Modern society has turned our sacred relationship with food into a transactional one. We’ve gone from sitting down for a meal and savouring every bite to eating protein bars on the go. Food is more than just the fuel we need to outpace competitors in our daily rat race. Breaking bread with one another is how we build relationships.
Fasting made me realize I was taking my relationship with food for granted. We all do to a certain extent. This is why we invented factory farming, soylent, and instant coffee. We’re in such a rush, we forget to slow down and smell the bacon.
I’m not suggesting that we turn every lunch into a sit-down meal. But, we can benefit from a practice that helps us slow down and give our undivided attention to the food we eat. Fasting does that. When you’re deprived of something, it becomes more precious. I now make more conscious food choices. It’s made me healthier and happier, just not when I’m at the tail-end of my fast (I still get hangry.)
Even an occasional intermittent fast can serve as a powerful reset button in your relationship with food. And, when it’s time to break your fast, nothing will distract you from savouring each bite. I have never had a negative relationship with food, for years I ate the same meals and only saw it as fuel to keep me going but that may not be the same for you, you may indulge in comfort eating like many of my family members.
Ironically this time of my life was aligned with when I first became familiar with the philosophy of stoicism. One of the famous Stoics was Epictetus, who advocated that we act with discipline and take the good of others into account. The person who wishes to be self-controlled must free himself of all of them and be subject to none. One way to become accustomed to this is to practice choosing food not for pleasure but nourishment, not to please his palate but to strengthen his body.” He saw food as a daily means of testing our willpower. Will we eat wisely, or will we eat croissants from Paul?
This brings me to one of the most important benefits of fasting for me which was strengthening my willpower or my resolve. Aristotle wrote that you build virtue by performing virtuous acts. To me, this sounds similar to the idea of exerting willpower so that you no longer have to exert as much willpower to attain the same end. Your character is who and what you always are and your willpower is the effort you exert to act contrary to your character
In the book Willpower: Rediscovering the Greatest Human Strength, the authors describe how willpower can be depleted and lead people to lose self-control and make bad decisions. However, they also describe techniques to build willpower and use it judiciously.
One of the most interesting concepts the authors mention is something called the hot-cold empathy gap, which is “the inability, during a cool, rational, peaceful moment, to appreciate how we’ll behave during the heat of passion and temptation.”
For example, if you just ate and are completely stuffed, it’s easy to say “I’m going on diet and will give up junk food for the next six weeks.” However, the next time you walk into a grocery store while you’re hungry, you’ll find yourself loading the cart with chips, pizza
From strengthening my willpower to abstain from food for 16-18 hours a day I have found my willpower to do other things such as run every other day, wake up at the same time all of the week for example but more importantly it allows me to avoid examples such as the one alluded to above
Bedroom 2 Boardroom 🚀 