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Hey TL. Fasting SUCKS. Nuff Said, btw incoming 1st world probs post. + Show Spoiler +
FASTING SUCKS THE D
BUT FOR REAL YO IT DOES
Today is Tzom Gedaliah, or for those who don't speak ancient hebrew, its the fast of Gedaliah. Now Gedaliah used to be a Roman appointed leader of Israel back when Rome was pretty much the world ruler of you know... the world. I say used to be, not because its in the distant past, because a bunch of religious zealots murdered him miserably. This caused the destruction of the second temple and the eventual Diaspora that the Jews have never come out of. Remember guys, never be religious zealots, or you might cause a Diaspora . Jews remember this amazing event by fasting, sunrise to sunset.* + Show Spoiler +
Now I don't know how many of you have fasted before, but Jews (who are somewhat religious) tend to fast about 5 times a year. Most all Jews that practices even somewhat tend to fast on Yom Kippur. Fasting sucks. It just sucks so bad. Its so hard to explain what its like to know the night before that you won't be able to eat until sundown. Whats worse is that you will have every person who normally jokes with you ask you, "you look down," "why so glum," "BRO WHADAFUQ IS WIT DA LONG FACE," (well maybe not so much the last one), and then most proceed to flaunt food without even realizing it. Food flaunting I will go into later, but for the most part, being hungry all day while still having to go to work/school/being a hobo, what have you, is not fun.
In Defense of Those Who Flaunt Food would be a fiiting counter-argument to the laywaste that I am about to unleash, except there is no fitting counter-argument. Sometimes there are people who do stupid things, sometimes stupid things happen to stupid people, and sometimes STUPID-FRIEKING PEOPLE DO STUPID FRIEKING THINGS. If I had a quarter for everytime someone flaunted food in front of me, that would be about $11171387123981273891, ok maybe thats a bit of an exaggeration. Why would anyone do that? Do people actively go up to vegetarians, vegans, people who don't eat things that haven't been touched by The Buddha and say, "HEY BRO DOES THIS LOOK GOOD *starts eating with sexual sounds disproportionate happiness*, DOES IT?" Well they do that to me. This year was the first year that I just all together avoided anything having to do with food and people together. Even when the people mean well and don't mean to be assholes about it, the best school lunches are on fast days -_-;;;. + Show Spoiler +
Well TL this is a shorter blog of mine, I'll probably still write the [Girl Blog] / [GF Blog] that I have planen for Friday, but just in case, just know that I'm raging about fasting over her. Also I'm not incredibly religious, but I am to some extent. Fasting just happens to be my least favorite thing to do.
*Not all fasts are sunrise to sunset, some restrictions apply, see Tanakh and related writings for details, in some specific cases sunset to sunset may be required, raging is permitted even further on those days. p.s. if there are any out there fasting right now, my heart is with you lol.
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I actually intentionally fast 16-18 hours every day and I don't find it troublesome at all. I prefer it, actually. Though I do drink non-caloric fluids like tea and water. Are you allowed to drink during this time?
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On September 20 2012 09:02 TroW wrote: I actually intentionally fast 16-18 hours every day and I don't find it troublesome at all. I prefer it, actually. Though I do drink non-caloric fluids like tea and water. Are you allowed to drink during this time? Nope, no drinking is allowed, no food intake whatsoever .
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TLADT24920 Posts
Fasting is great, I love it lol. I feel more efficient and less having to worry about what I eat or drink, etc...
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Nope, no drinking is allowed, no food intake whatsoever . Ah, well that would make it a lot less pleasant. If you were to do fasts where you can drink non-caloric beverages more regularly it might make the days where you have to dry fast easier, but I can't be sure. Of course then you would be fasting even more often , but on balance it might work out in your favor.
Of course, you could always make sure to eat more the day before a fasting day if you are really bothered by hunger pangs and the like. It has been demonstrated multiple times that rats on an alternate day fasting regimen (eat one day, don't eat the next) usually eat twice as many calories on the day that they can eat, so that their weekly caloric intake is essentially identical to the intake of control rats that eat every day.
However, the rats in the fasted condition, despite eating the same amount of food on a weekly basis, also reap health benefits very similar to what is seen with caloric restriction - fewer visible signs of aging such as hair loss, greater endurance and strength into old age, slower cognitive decline, lower incidence of obesity, longer life span generally. So even if you must suffer there may well be a longer-term benefit to fasting often that your gluttonous peers will miss out on.
edit: fixed a sentence
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I have some stomach issues and the one year after I was diagnosed that I tried to fast... it caused me to have a lot of issues for a month or so afterwards, so I don't fast.
Have an easy one yourself as well as next week. I definitely feel your pain though, bro. (Not sure how Muslims do it every day for a month.)
Edit: Also for those wondering (or not), the fast today as well as some of the other days of the year (17 of Tammuz, Fast of the First-Born) are only sunrise to sunset but on Yom Kippur you're supposed to fast for 25 hours. It's really tough.
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On September 20 2012 09:25 WaveofShadow wrote: I have some stomach issues and the one year after I was diagnosed that I tried to fast... it caused me to have a lot of issues for a month or so afterwards, so I don't fast.
Have an easy one yourself as well as next week. I definitely feel your pain though, bro. (Not sure how Muslims do it every day for a month.)
Edit: Also for those wondering (or not), the fast today as well as some of the other days of the year (17 of Tammuz, Fast of the First-Born) are only sunrise to sunset but on Yom Kippur you're supposed to fast for 25 hours. It's really tough. The fast just ended for me. Its pretty good now, I just ate a whole personal pizza, I just kind of dominated/downed it lol. Also yeah yom-kippur is the worst -_-. Also thanks to everyone in here talking about fasting in general, I had no idea there were on people on TL that did this fairly often .
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why do you deprive your body of what it needs on purpose for the sake of atoning for what you have done wrong this past year?
are you now a better person or something? will u get a better seat at next years service?
and on a completely non-religious note, whats the point of fasting if youre just gonna binge eat as soon as youre done?
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On September 20 2012 10:17 ParkwayDrive wrote: why do you deprive your body of what it needs on purpose for the sake of atoning for what you have done wrong this past year?
are you now a better person or something? will u get a better seat at next years service?
and on a completely non-religious note, whats the point of fasting if youre just gonna binge eat as soon as youre done? haha not exactly binge eating i'd say, its a personal pizza, nothing enormous, I just ate it fast. Also its not atoning really, its more of a sad rememberance of the Diaspora. The atonement is by prayer and charity, at least thats how the prayer goes. I'm actually not that religious so it would make sense that I might fib a bit of the rules haha.
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try wrestling. Its fasting with a ton more work involved.
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I'll never understand why people do fasting, just seems weird and I could never deprive myself willingly of food for all day.
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On September 20 2012 10:27 MysteryMeat1 wrote: try wrestling. Its fasting with a ton more work involved.
if by a ton more work you mean cupping lots of testicles then i would have to agree
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On September 20 2012 10:36 blade55555 wrote: I'll never understand why people do fasting, just seems weird and I could never deprive myself willingly of food for all day. If you find yourself curious enough to find out you ought to read this series of blog posts on the health benefits of fasting regularly. It's pretty accessible reading and hits a lot of the high points in terms of what physiological changes can occur during fasting on a short and long term basis. Other people do it for spiritual reasons, but I find those less compelling than the physiological ones, personally
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interesting reads, thanks trow
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On September 20 2012 10:45 TroW wrote:Show nested quote +On September 20 2012 10:36 blade55555 wrote: I'll never understand why people do fasting, just seems weird and I could never deprive myself willingly of food for all day. If you find yourself curious enough to find out you ought to read this series of blog posts on the health benefits of fasting regularly. It's pretty accessible reading and hits a lot of the high points in terms of what physiological changes can occur during fasting on a short and long term basis. Other people do it for spiritual reasons, but I find those less compelling than the physiological ones, personally
The health benefits are definitely huge, I personally am very skinny, BUT the healht benefits are enormous . It also is a strong showing of ones own discipline since not eating is against a primal instinct. It shows a lot of mind over matter, which is cool imo.
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I used to do the occasional liver cleanse and fast but never really felt *good* afterwards. Since, I've seen something on TV where they got some people to do a liver cleanse, and some to not, and then did medical tests on everyone involved. Turned out the livers of those who fasted were under stress - because our bodies are actually designed for consistent food intake. So if you're reading this and thinking "wow, fasting is going to change my life!" do some research first, research done by people with reproducible results... not just anecdotal or emotional evidence. There's just as much evidence out there to say that lots of small meals (5-6 per day) is really good for you as well. I suppose as long as you're not a breatharian it's not all bad
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On September 20 2012 11:42 DRTnOOber wrote:I used to do the occasional liver cleanse and fast but never really felt *good* afterwards. Since, I've seen something on TV where they got some people to do a liver cleanse, and some to not, and then did medical tests on everyone involved. Turned out the livers of those who fasted were under stress - because our bodies are actually designed for consistent food intake. So if you're reading this and thinking "wow, fasting is going to change my life!" do some research first, research done by people with reproducible results... not just anecdotal or emotional evidence. There's just as much evidence out there to say that lots of small meals (5-6 per day) is really good for you as well. I suppose as long as you're not a breatharian it's not all bad
Well there is research on fasting and its benefits; to say that it's just anecdotal or emotional evidence is to admit ignorance of the scientific literature on the subject. Also, "liver cleanse" and "fasting" are not coextensive terms. You may be fasting while you are liver cleansing, but that doesn't mean you are liver cleansing every time you fast. People ingest specific compounds to (supposedly) facilitate a cleansing of the liver. So any "stress" on the liver that was found in this TV experiment may be caused by the liver cleansing agents and may have nothing at all to do with fasting. (As an aside, would you not expect an organ undergoing a genuine "cleansing" to show signs of stress? How else might it be cleansed than by vigorous cellular activity of some sort?)
And there is no reason to suppose, from an anthropological or evolutionary point of view, that human beings are designed for an unending stream of nutrients. Quite the opposite; our ancestors would have endured periods of famine/fasting far more frequently than the average person today as a result of the changing seasons, periods of drought, success or failure on the hunt, or (more recently) the loss of a harvest, etc.
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On September 20 2012 12:27 TroW wrote:Show nested quote +On September 20 2012 11:42 DRTnOOber wrote:I used to do the occasional liver cleanse and fast but never really felt *good* afterwards. Since, I've seen something on TV where they got some people to do a liver cleanse, and some to not, and then did medical tests on everyone involved. Turned out the livers of those who fasted were under stress - because our bodies are actually designed for consistent food intake. So if you're reading this and thinking "wow, fasting is going to change my life!" do some research first, research done by people with reproducible results... not just anecdotal or emotional evidence. There's just as much evidence out there to say that lots of small meals (5-6 per day) is really good for you as well. I suppose as long as you're not a breatharian it's not all bad Well there is research on fasting and its benefits; to say that it's just anecdotal or emotional evidence is to admit ignorance of the scientific literature on the subject. Also, "liver cleanse" and "fasting" are not coextensive terms. You may be fasting while you are liver cleansing, but that doesn't mean you are liver cleansing every time you fast. People ingest specific compounds to (supposedly) facilitate a cleansing of the liver. So any "stress" on the liver that was found in this TV experiment may be caused by the liver cleansing agents and may have nothing at all to do with fasting. (As an aside, would you not expect an organ undergoing a genuine "cleansing" to show signs of stress? How else might it be cleansed than by vigorous cellular activity of some sort?) And there is no reason to suppose, from an anthropological or evolutionary point of view, that human beings are designed for an unending stream of nutrients. Quite the opposite; our ancestors would have endured periods of famine/fasting far more frequently than the average person today as a result of the changing seasons, periods of drought, success or failure on the hunt, or (more recently) the loss of a harvest, etc. Yes I have to agree with you - didn't meant to paint things so one sided. My view is, whatever you do, think about it first rather than just doing what everyone else says works. You know what? My whole trigger for my post was my sister-in-law who grabs any "health buzz" idea she can and makes it her personal religion for a week or two, and makes a point of telling everyone she meets that they are bad because they're not doing what she is - and yet she's a very unhappy and fairly unhealthy human being who would probably won't feel better no matter what she eats/doesn't eat without actually dealing with the root cause of her unhapiness.
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Guys I have to say that though there can be some health benefits, both of you are right, one should not take it too far, and on the other hand, sometimes fasting, if you do it when it makes health sense to do can be good. That said, for me, fasting is a pain just because I am already underweight and it presents me with a harder day than normal. But both of you make great points .
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On September 20 2012 12:41 DRTnOOber wrote:Yes I have to agree with you - didn't meant to paint things so one sided. My view is, whatever you do, think about it first rather than just doing what everyone else says works. And on that we are in agreement
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