This morning, I completed another 24-hour fast.
Actually, it was more like 36 hours.
I ate dinner Monday night and then didn’t eat solid food again until a bowl of oatmeal this morning before heading out to pole vault practice.
This was supposed to have been my third consecutive once-a-week fast, but I completely spaced it last Tuesday. Forgot all about it until the next day. Could I have done it Wednesday, instead? Sure, I could have, but on fasting days, it’s pretty tough to work out, which I like to do without fail on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, not to mention that Tuesdays are usually pretty easy days schedule-wise, and I also use Tuesday as a rest day from the gym most of the time.
So Tuesdays works best as a torture — I mean, fasting — day.
Anyway, fasting is a good way to cleanse the ol’ body. Give it a break from the hard work of digestion and let it use that energy to clean itself out. Remove toxins and clear up inflammations. There are other benefits, as well, but I tell you what, the one that I’m really liking is the clearing up inflammation thing.
My left knee is always a little sore and stiff — sometimes not too bad and sometimes not so good. According to a doctor, there is some osteoarthritis in there and some bone spurs, and, of course, the infinite wisdom of medical science says there’s nothing much to do about it, but grin and bear it as it progressively gets worse over the years, take pain medication as needed, and eventually get a knee replacement.
Ahem … uh, bullshit!
Sorry, but I ain’t doin’ that.
Here’s the deal.
I do my best to keep my knee healthy, with various exercises and physical therapy-type stuff, regular massage and myofascial release treatments, stretching, etc.
When I fasted two Tuesdays ago, I noticed the next day that my knee was very nearly 100 percent pain- and stiffness-free.
It was remarkable.
It started coming back a day or two later, but there sure was a difference for a while.
Earlier this week — Sunday and Monday — my knee was killing me. By 3 o’clock Tuesday afternoon, I was sitting cross-legged on the floor watching TV, with no pain in the left knee.
Freakin’ amazing, man.
And also this morning when I got out of bed, nearly no lower back stiffness/pain that is usually there.
I may never eat solid food again.
Yeah, right.
I already had oatmeal, remember?
But I am going to start cleaning up my “diet” quite a bit from here on out.
I put the word diet in quotation marks because that’s a nasty word. What are the first three letters in that nasty word, huh?
That’s why I prefer to say nutrition, or eating habits.
So I’ll clean things up some this week, and report back on the results.
Fasting — it does a body good.
