Let me share with you some of the things I have learned and observed from fasting, based on my experience. In the last five years, I have probably gone forty days without food, mostly just water. Some of these are short, just two sleeps, basically a day of fasting, some of them are long, having gone for as long as eight days.

I started experimenting with fasting in Bali, because a lot of people do juice fast. They are just a big, healthy-eating culture. I wanted to see what it was like. How much will you know about yourself if you go without food? I started mine with baby steps. I started with one day, and then going longer. Here are some of the things that I have noticed, having recently been, three weeks in a row, in a 36-hour fast. I noticed some patterns coming out of it. I just want to share with you, if you haven't done any fasting, what you might expect, or if you have done fasting, what you may have experienced, whether it be similar of different.

I needed less sleep. If I normally sleep eight hours, I wake up feeling refreshed after six and a half hours. I also feel very light.

You save time and become productive. In the first couple of days into the fast, my mind is generally working really well. If you couple that with not having to take time to eat and brush your teeth, and just all those things you are saving a couple of hours each day, so you end being very productive in the early parts of the fast.

After some time, it becomes tiring. Some people say they maintain high energy levels for an entire fast. I experienced that I was very lethargic after three to five days of fasting. I find it really hard to physically move my body and I just felt weaker and this process of your body wherein it is somewhat starting to eat itself off. Autophagy happens, or when your body gets rid of older cells and cleans it out. You really feel amazing after, but, during that process it is a very tiring feeling, at least, for me.

Food starts to smell really good! My kid was eating a rice cracker and I thought it smells amazing! Of course, that first bite of food after a fast is so much more delicious. Like many things, absence makes the heart grow fonder.

My body temperature goes down. I will be wearing sweatshirt and pants because I get the shivers. I think that is because I eat a pretty high-sugar low-glycemic index diet, I have a lot of fuel and my body temperature runs pretty hot, but then when I am fasting, it gets cold.

Working out becomes hard. I tried to do some work outs, runs, frisbee, and dancing, and it is all just really hard. I would expect that maybe, without the lightness that I feel, that sometimes when I run, I feel really good. However, I feel physically willing myself each footstep to happen or if you somehow forget that you are working out, for few seconds, you quickly remember because your body is just complains. Fasting should be a time of not pushing yourself because it would be harder to recover.

Change in body odor. One really interesting thing that I noticed is that I smell really bad. It's a totally different smell from my normal body odor and maybe perhaps that is from the autophagy.

It becomes hard to ramp up after fasting. You really have to ease into it and sometimes it takes two full days before you can eat certain complex food. I usually start with a banana or some juice. You can actually feel the food, sitting in there, in your stomach, before your digestive system realizes that there is food.

Losing the anxiety from lack food. Besides doing it for the health benefits, that you can feel good and have clarity and productivity, one of the best things that I have noticed is that just not needing food. I always had a lot of anxiety about not eating. I always had food with me because, what if I get hungry? Now, if I miss a meal, or a day of meal, I know that I am going to be fine. I may be a bit hungry but that is okay because in days that I eat three times a day, I still get hungry. It really just helps provide a little bit more security and safety around food knowing that I can go for a week without food. There is just less pressure to run out and eat the next thing. I think that it has been programmed into us that we should eat as much as possible, that is why we have so much obesity. We are genetically conditioned to try to eat. If you can take away that anxiety around eating, then you can be a little bit more intentional and you can optimize your diet. It all depends upon picking the right lifestyle for you.

I invite you, if you haven't done any fasting, then do a little bit of reading about it and see if you want to do maybe, a day, without food, or maybe, three days, on a juice fast. Definitely ease into it and don't do a week-long fast or a multi-week fast right off the bat, because that would be a huge shock to your system. But if you can start to ease into it then maybe you'll find that something about it is really good for you.