40 Hour Famine 2011 part 3.

I've now completed my 40 hour food/iPhone/house phone/laptop/desktop/internet famine!
In some ways it wasn't as hard as I expected it to be, as the hunger didn't really bother me so much, not as much as the effects of hunger did.

I had a fairly good and mildly energetic day of running around with the dogs and picking firewood at my parent's place, maybe not the best activities to do when running on empty, but it was good to get out of the house and keep busy.

I had planned to do all these wonderful things like organise my Tupperware cupboard, clean out my pantry, read my board, look through and organise my old course work to start to get a feel for what I will be teaching next year. None of this happened, I was just too lethargic. Instead I just hung out on the couch, watching TV, for about 8 hours. I couldn't concentrate on words on a page or anything even mildly physical from about 2:30pm.


Having said that, the first 24 hours were the easiest, even though I did feel a bit weak and tired, it was right around the 24 hour mark that my hunger pangs kicked in, for just a little while then they went again. It was around then that I started to feel a lot weaker and more tired.
I had a great "meal" of juice for dinner, followed by my 3rd and final barley sugar for the day.

I woke up this morning and weighed myself, I lost a whole 2kg (4.4lbs) in 48 hours, I know this isn't "weight" it's probably just fluid, and by tomorrow I will probably have put on a kilo again, but I was very surprised how much had gone. NO I WILL NOT STARVE MYSELF TO LOSE WEIGHT!! And neither should anyone else! This was not a comfortable experience, and nor should it be, it's supposed to make you feel crappy so you understand how people living in poverty around the world feel every day. Carl looked at me last night when I was looking woeful and said "Imagine feeling like this walking long distances to a refugee camp with a baby on your back." I could not ever imagine how horrible that could ever be!

I've eased my way back into eating as I actually felt too weak to eat. At about 12:30 I had a small bowl of Sultana Bran, around 2pm I had some gluten-free crackers with Nutelex and Vegemite and shortly I will eat an apple. This is so I don't make myself sick and to gradually get my energy back as I still feel really crappy! And now I'm just waiting for my veggie delivery, which is late(!), so I can figure out what to cook for dinner tonight.

Don't forget, if you haven't donated yet it's not too late just go to my 40 hour famine profile page, here you can see how much I've raised and who has donate.
Every little bit helps.