Intermittent Fasting: master-level play
I hadn't seen my beloved Sijo Steve Muhammad in over ten years, and we were hanging out in his hotel room. He was sitting on the edge of his bed, looking at a bottle of water on the dresser. Just…looking. Calmly. The conversation dwindled as I watched him watch.
Finally I couldn't handle the suspense. Maybe his back or knees were hurting him, I thought.
"Are you thirsty?" I asked.
"No," he said quietly
"Can I get that for you?"
"No."
I was confused. "Do you want it?"
"Yes," he said. Was that the hint of a smile?
Finally I couldn't stand it any more. "What are you doing?"
"Testing my will power," he said.
And I got it, instantly. I was totally blessed to have a chance to witness this, the play and practice of a master. He knew that in martial arts, and life, there are many times you have to do things that hurt, or create fear, or are risky. And sometimes you have to act, and will have only a moment to do so or the opportunity is gone.
The ability to separate your intentions, and the actions that will drive them, from your delusions and hallucinations and negative emotional charges.
You have to be able to see clearly. Decide what must be done. And then do it. And study the way the universe responded to you. If you like the results, do more. If you don't…do something else.
Master-level play.
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So I think I'm "stuck" on "on" right now. Was active through the weekend again, rather than resting. That activity was teaching FIREDANCE LIVE on Saturday, then entertaining Dan Moran his wife Amy, and Julius Francisco. On Sunday I did yoga, then the Paperback show, then had to drive around in the rain to do some shopping.
So today I think I want to FORCE myself to rest. That means only the Five Tibetans (Five Minute Miracle style) and organize. Get a very clear idea of how I'm going to deal with all of the work over the next year. And clarify some goals:
Manila
Fiji
Japan
Want to price it all out, get a sense of what my perfect year would cost me in terms of time, energy, and money. Discipline. I am lacking some core discipline right now, but will fight to fast more powerfully, starting today. Intermittent fasting three days a week, say Monday, Wednesday and Saturday. I can get a huge amount from that single touchstone. Ideally, that would be taking in as close to zero calories as possible, but under 400 no matter what. That little bit of wiggle room allows me to take in vitamins and some vegetable oils and so forth.
But lets look at the things I believe I would get from really locking fasting more deeply into my schedule.
Weight loss. Obvious. Fastest, simplest, and in some ways easiest way to lose weight, and I have 10 pounds to drop in the next ten weeks.
Clarity. If you are really healthy, the voice in your head saying "you have to eat or you'll die!' is pure b.s. A healthy hunter-gatherer had BETTER be able to run, hunt, fight on an empty stomach, or their family will die. So it is a way of connecting to who and what we really are as animals, and that is the start of really understanding your human machinery.
Check with your doctor if you are uncertain, but Intermittent Fasting has been found to actually have a positive effect on low blood sugar problems and insulin sensitivity.
Time. If you take every other day "off" from eating, you save time. How much? 1-3 hours per fasting day, I'd reckon. Invest that time in, say, exercising and you have a dynamite health plan that adds ZERO time to your schedule, and actually adds time.
Improved diet. I have found that the day after a fast, I am MUCH choosier about what I want to eat, especially the "fast breaking" first meal. No one breaks a fast with Cheesy-Poofs. You tend to contact your REAL hunger, for REAL nutrients, not just "tasty" stuff.
In a way, it is easier than counting calories. And believe it or not, eating NOTHING is easier than cutting calories as well because of a phenomenon called "limbic hunger." If you eat NOTHING you get fewer hunger pangs than if you just eat one cookie. Bizarre, but true. Again, I suspect it relates to the realities of hunting for a living. A hunter who is distracted by hunger pangs might well miss the shot.
Frankly, hunger sharpens the mind. A full belly dulls it. Again, this is survival. I suspect that a closely related phenomenon might well be more than apocryphal: sexual abstinance before a boxing match. To the degree that male animals fight for mates (observable in lots of the animal kingdom, although it rarely leads to serious injury) it would be reasonable that we work harder for things we lack than things we have. We get MEAN. And channeling the emotions AND physical drives into a single powerful laser-focus is a seriously dynamic process.
Those are five things in its favor. But its valuable to also notice the negatives:
Social time. It can be hard to fast when others are eating, ESPECIALLY IF THEY GUILT TRIP YOU. I don't have THAT problem, but yes, it does seem that people talk more about food when I'm on a fast. Maybe that's just my imagination….
It is not comfortable. The mind wanders to food, and you get to listen to all the excuses and justifications for just ONE bite. The demons that lie to you and tell you you will die if you don't eat (again, check with your doctor if you have any doubts about your health, or the appropriateness of the fast). Learning to accept discomfort is POWERFUL if you can calibrate it properly.
Energy can drop, especially if you are not aerobically fit. If you can train your body to burn fat for fuel rather than sugar, that is HUGE. Hunter-Gatherers did, and their bodies are hyper-efficient to the point that they can walk hours a day and burn no more calories than sedentary office workers! (this, by the way, is why exercise weight-loss can be so difficult with any steady-state activity. Use metabolic conditioning, intervals, "Tabata" style work. Far superior). So a little caffeine in the morning, combined with nootropics, and little exercise breaks (during the Pomodoro breaks, perhaps?) help to "jump" the energy during the day.
The social time thing is solved through negotiation with family. We can spend time together without my needing to eat, and if I tell Tananarive ahead of time, she doesn't make fancy dinner plans for me. Discomfort is just weakness leaving the body-mind (a useful attitude, not entirely serious), and learning to manage my energy is just the work of life.
So…I expect that fasting is manipulating the unconscious controls of my body-mind system. It is the "dog", the directly manipulable behavior. I suspect the "cat", the unconscious non-direct behaviors will align themselves as I organize my internal resources to accomplish something unnatural (Intermittent Fasting) I suspect that my ability at Lucid Dreaming (still weak) will strengthen.
So…in terms of this year being MASSIVELY important in terms of
Launching Jason
A masterful writing year
Having kick-ass fun in Manila in March 2024
Will be dependent upon daily behaviors, which will be driven by clear intents, intelligent strategies, powerful emotions and acceptance of discomfort to reach a worthy goal. Ideally, I'll get more control of lucid dreaming and sleep time, which will lead to deeper body-mind integration.
That's the hypothesis. I have to get the fasting back in place, and then I'll see.
The "dog". Then, the "cat."
See you on the other side.
Steven Barnes
Join me on my journey to next-level excellence
on the FIREDANCE LIVE show.
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