Issue #105: My Story of the 4-Day Fast
Good morning. It’s Friday, January 13th. I made it - 4 days of fasting. Unlike Thor (Chris Hemsworth in Limitless), I didn't free dive to spearfish for my first meal, but I might have enjoyed it just as much!
“Man is a genius when he is dreaming.”
Weekly Insights: Summary of Deeper Sleep
Inspiration: Story of My 4-Day Fast
Friday Flex: Supine Twister Stretch
Brain Games: Getting Lost to Find Yourself
% of adults in the U.S. that report feeling "sleepy" at least one day per week. On avg, men were sleepy 2.7 days per week, women 3.4 days per week. (National Sleep Foundation)
Weekly Insights
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Thrive25 Partner Spotlight
After years of fueling athlete, actor, and executive clients with this proprietary blend of beneficial fats and performance enhancing ingredients, Mary Shenouda (@paleochef) created Phat Fudge to share her masterpiece with the whole world.
Eat Clean. Play Often. Crush Life. That’s the Phat Fudge motto. Short and sweet, like the ingredient list - you're too busy crushing life to worry about weird, hidden junk in your food. Check it out HERE.
Inspiration
Just completed my first-ever 4-day fast.
Many have asked WHY do such a thing…well 3 reasons:
Longevity: I’m more convinced by the data that 2-4x per year a multi-day fast can increase lifespan. It eliminates all those senescent (dead zombie cells) taking up space in our body (correlated with aging), creates more rejuvenating stem cells, boosts immunity, and helps us become more metabolically flexible - burn glucose (sugar) and fat. (Source: Valter Longo)
Thrive25: You deserve not just third-party research, but a real-life experience of the tips and research we present here in Thrive25.
Mental Toughness: I wanted to see if I could do it - about 90% of the challenge this week was mental.
For 96 hours (7pm Sunday - 7pm Thurs) I woke up with hot water, salt, squirt of lemon juice, and then just had water or tea (green tea in early afternoon, mint at night to avoid caffeine late in day) for 4 days straight - no food or snacks (I didn’t even lick the knife after making my kids peanut butter toast).
So what happened?
Day 1: piece of cake (well not literally, but…you know what I mean). Felt normal all day - full of energy. Weird not eating dinner, but not a huge deal.
Day 2: started out great. Went to a strength class and noticed my sweat was like water and I didn’t smell at all (bizarre). All good until about 5pm - hit a wall! No energy at all and a struggle to manage kids to bed. Slept horribly.
Day 3: woke up feeling pretty bad and thinking 7pm Thursday is a long way away. I wasn’t hungry - I actually don’t think my stomach rumbled once. It was completely mental that my brain was saying I needed food. By that night I was also really cold. My body temp dropped over one degree (96.8) - this is normal as you create heat from digestion and all your blood flow goes to your adipose fat. Definitely a little irritable and questioning why.
Day 4: First time I woke up thinking about food in a long time - a little tired, but excited it was almost over. Decent energy all day and my body had warmed up. Not sure I ever felt a “euphoric” high of ketosis or that feeling you can go forever without eating that some say they get. Those tacos tonight were pretty incredible.
In summary - I lost about 6 pounds (not the intention - want to get that all back and rebuild my muscle), had to tighten both my belt and my Apple watch. Might be random, but - for the 4 days I never burped (or the other way), cleared my throat, or even sneezed. My stomach never made a noise.
I also never experienced body aches or headaches - but I did notice on Day 3 the rising cortisol (fight or flight). I could feel the blood flowing everywhere and was just “tense."
I’m glad I did it - feels like an accomplishment. I think it hit the reset button for my body and put food (in all of its abundance) into perspective for me to really appreciate and savor it again.
Oh - and one of the reasons I lasted the full 4 days was the support from so many people. The positive texts and gifs were awesome and really kept me going - so thank you!! 🙏 Just shows the power of community.
Ever looking to try a fast? Let me (or the entire Thrive25 community) know - we’ll be there for support and to help you through it!
BONUS: Max and Thrive25 reader (and all-around good guy) Ryan F. have taken the 56-day meditation challenge. So far so good 13 days into the year. Lots of text messages of encouragement and philosophical discussions about tear ducts, virtual reality (and reality), enlightenment, and The Matrix.
Friday Flex
A little ab workout, but mostly stretching it out for the weekend with a supine twist to take care of our spine and a spiderman lunge - which I think is one of the best stretches out there - for your hips, hamstrings, and calves.
Click HERE to view the workout on our YouTube channel.
Workout and video courtesy of Connor J. Obrochta. Check out all of Connor's workouts on Playbook!
Brain Games
#1 : 2-min Break - Subtraction
How can you take 2 from 5 and leave 4?
Why: Expand your logic and problem solving skills.
Credit: Riddles.com
#2: 10-min+ of Focus - Shift Tech from Primary to Memory Backup
Shopping lists? Who needs them - well pretty much everyone.
Test out your memory. Shop at the grocery store without that old school tech (paper). Use the shopping list as a backup before your leave so you don't get frustrated. Try it a few times to see if you can remember more and more items.
And what about Google Maps or Tesla's navigation - put the phone down or turn it off for the day. Maybe getting lost you'll find yourself.
Why: build new neural pathways for your memory
Credit: VeryWellMind
**For answer, scroll to the bottom of the issue
Thanks for another great week!
🎾 The Australian Open kicks off Sunday! Russians and Belarussians are in. Alcaraz, Venus and Osaka are out. Novak made it into Australia and on the opposite side of the draw as Nadal. In the US, catch AO on ESPN / ESPN+.
Finally, in honor of my very first concert back in 1993 - The River of Dreams (in the middle of the night) by Billy Joel - enjoy the weekend everyone!
Check out the latest workout videos on our YouTube channel
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** Brain Games Answer **
#1: Remove the letters F and E (2 letters) from F I V E and you have IV - the Roman numeral for 4
Why Thrive25
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The information in this newsletter is for informational purposes only and may not be appropriate or applicable based on your individual circumstances. Thrive25 Labs LLC does not provide medical, professional, or licensed advice. Please connect with your healthcare professional for medical advice specific to your health needs.