Day 7 of Fast: Wooziness, Food Porn and Self Care
Enjoying one of my last solid meals at Alchemy, my favey fave raw vegan resto.
Day 7 of fasting: I feel pretty good although with fasting the short bursts of energy cycle back into longer stints of lethargy. I feel warm and peel off layers, then I get chilly and pile on layers and adjust the thermostat. All that is normal. Yesterday I was light headed but otherwise feeling good! I got out yesterday in time to take a pranayama class yoga class just in the knick of time to avoid a huge all day and evening downpour. I spent the rest of the day in the room, fatigued, watching Netflix. I don’t watch TV here so it felt like a guilty pleasure.
The past few days my stomach has been in a bit of a knot that would tighten and relax throughout the day. I have that to a much lesser extent today.
Fortunately I was able to push through the hunger and get to the other side. I usually find that the first few days of a fast are the hardest in terms of not wanting to eat. Now my body feels fine with just drinking plain green teas and water.
I’m longing for a matcha latte!
I had a session with an Australian naturopath here, by the way, just to ensure that this kind of fast and cleansing would be good for me, not too hard on my body. She highly approved of my plan. However, it’s important to listen to your body when doing a cleanse like this and I’m taking it day by day. There are so many benefits from extended fasting but I’ll get into that on another blog post.
Yesterday, mostly confined to my room and having just finished an excellent novel by Haruki Murakami, I found myself researching raw and vegan restaurants in Bali. I pondered where I will break my fast and about all the dishes at the various raw and vegan restaurants I want to try before departing Ubud. Nom!
Food porn: A close up of that scrumptious salad from the salad bar at Alchemy. You get 5 toppings but there are over a dozen choices and they all look good!
The more I looked at pictures of food, the more I could taste elements of each dish. I tried to replay any taste and texture memories of dishes I’d tried, and made a great effort imagine any dishes I saw online that I hadn’t had yet. I felt myself getting excited by this food porn journey during my fast. I continued down the rabbit hole of food porn and it was extremely satisfying! I might have a twinge of a craving but it would pass quickly. Many more hours of food porn have ensued since then. I can even smell a nearby restaurant or home sauteing shallots and garlic and breathe deep the rich aroma but I can still keep myself from getting hungry. I even sat with a friend at lunch today sipping tea while she had two helping of food from the divine Garden Kafe. Smelling her delicious food and watching her enjoyment of eating it was satisfying for me too.
More food porn. This is the take out container from Alchemy. How beautiful is that! I borrowed this pic from baleudang.com. I fully intend to go back to Alchemy as much as possible while I”m in Ubud and try every dish.
I’m continuing down the food porn rabbit hole with a purpose. I’m considering taking the professional level raw chef certification through Alchemy next month so I’ve been doing more research and looking at more food photos. I’ve been draw back to eating raw and living food because my body is requesting it. So it’s a great excuse to look at all their dishes and fantasize about eating them when I’m back to solid food. Here’s one that I hope to learn how to make.
Raw vegan sushi from Alchemy - photo from Happycow.net
Vegan raw sushi? Yeah totally!
Continuing in the spirit of food porn I think I’ll watch some cooking shows later.