Eric Stendal

I’ve just commenced my three day water fast. I began last night after my ‘last supper’ of Swedish meatballs that we bought when Shelley, Maggie, and I went to Farmboy to pick up a couple of items.

So it’s now the next morning and is now 11:40 am and I’m getting my first hit of ghrelin. Ghrelin is a hormone secreted in the stomach that essentially stimulates appetite, increases food intake, and promotes the accumulation of fat. It’s the ‘hunger hormone’.

Yet, it’s not the Master by any means. You can push through the feelings of “I should eat something,” or “I’ve GOT to eat something!” quite easily. It usually takes roughly fifteen minutes for any feelings of hunger to pass. You’re not going to starve. Many of us have a number of months of eating being carried around on our bodies. It’s just that the way we eat and what we eat is preventing us from accessing this excess storage we carry around everywhere.

Now to the point of this entry. I would dearly LOVE to enjoy some ‘tato chips. Or maybe a cookie. Wait, we don’t have any cookies. There’s popcorn in the pantry! Noooo…..

Honestly, I’m not truly hungry in the sense that if I don’t eat something I’m going to cause harm. I just have my stomach saying to me, “Hey Bud, just letting you know that if you ‘wanted’ to eat something – anything – we’re standing by waiting for you and will help anyway we can”. Thanks.

History of Snacking

For the ease of reading, I’m going to extrapolate the following information from a CNN news article from last year (link below). It’s well worth reading the whole article.

Three square meals a day? We never used to eat like that. This construct came about as a result of the Industrial Revolution. “You would want to have a meal prior to heading to work to fuel you through the day,” says the article. Then, “there would be a midday break, to refuel your energy … and then a post-work meal.”

In the 19th century, snacks like peanuts were sold by street vendors, and stigmatized for being associated with the working class and poor. Eventually, snacks from the street made their way into homes, and it took off from there.

Interestingly, the article reveals that after “World War II, more people started buying their groceries from mass retailers, rather than their neighbourhood green grocer.” Suddenly there’s a huge warehouse type store full to the brim with aisles and aisles of snacks, cakes, breads, and cookies.

CNN article in full

Back To Me

So here I sit and it’s 12:27 now…the feeling to ‘eat’ or ‘snack’ has passed a while ago. I’m not even aware of when it passed, but it has. I carry on with the fasting.

It’s important during these times of temptation to remember the ‘why’ behind what you’re doing. Without that, I’d be rummaging through the pantry looking for anything that would suffice as a snack. But, because I’ve outlined my why and think about it all the time, I’m not going to give in and have that snack. Nope. What snack? See? It works.

Now, all of this to say that it’s not like I won’t ever have a snack again. That’s so unrealistic. I ate potato chips yesterday for heaven’s sake. It’s that I want to be fully in control of where, when and what I eat as a snack, and by doing so, I will enjoy it so much more. I will appreciate the hit of sugar or savoury depending on what I grabbed. I like the thought of that, and I’ve even experienced it yesterday with those chips.

Time to head over and start my entry about this fast.