Post Water Fast Day 7

It has been one week since I finished my water fast experiment. How did I do? Honestly, I'm still in limbo. Physically, I quickly regained my energy and while I can definitely feel the affects of losing muscle, I can carry on throughout my day without losing breath and having to lay down.

The second day of the post fast I consumed some fruit and then I had some brown rice porridge in the evening. Although my stomach was a little reluctant to digest in the morning, it perked up after a bit of banana. The following days I returned to my regular diet consisting of a medley of vegetables and fruits.

Reintroduction of Foods
I wanted to try eating some items to see their affects on my body. One of the first things I tried was a white bun while I was working at the Marketplace. I didn't have a chance to look at the ingredient list, but I suspected some sort of dairy was in the bun because my stomach soon started feeling displeased. It rumbled and I felt a little bloated. A little while later, I tried a small bite of brioche. Brioche is a rich bread filled with plenty of sugar, milk, eggs, and butter. Very soon after I started feeling pressure mid-torso and it persisted for an hour to two hours afterwards. As sad as it is (brioche is one of my favourite breads), I will have to try to avoid it in the future.

The next day I tried a slice of vegan whole wheat bread. Other than the slightest bloating (less than the white bread), I felt perfectly fine.

Vegan chocolate didn't seem to affect me adversely at all (major yay!).

Another morning I also ate a slice of tofu plain. No problems there. Phew!

I decided against drinking a glass of milk. From looking at the effect brioche had on me, I felt it wasn't necessary to subject myself to a full frontal dairy attack.

Weight
Half of my weight gradually came back. I suspect that was all water weight as I did still track my calories. The number of calories I ate could in no way cause me to gain weight as quickly as a pound a day, so at least 5 out of the 10 pounds I lost was water weight.

Other Noticables
A change I noticed is I am now having troubles sleeping. The first day off the fast, I felt fully rested and alert despite not sleeping well. I had gone to bed at midnight and then woke up at 5am. The following days, however, I had the same disrupted sleep schedule and have started feeling its toll.

I have also been finding it difficult to stay hydrated. I have been suffering from perpetual dry mouth this past week despite drinking upwards of 2 litres of water a day, much more than my pre-fast days.

My skin has continued to keep the smoothness I gained while on the water fast. Probably due to my increased water intake.

Eating Habits
I am still working this part out. My stomach will start growling, but I know that if I just wait, the feeling will go away. I have been yo-yo-ing between not eating enough and eating too much.

This yo-yo-ing has led me to realize that I feel best when my stomach is empty. It is like a feeling of peace and my digestion is simply content. This past weekend I attempted to eat three controlled meals a day. Talk about total crash and burn. In fact, I found that by eating breakfast, I ate more throughout the day! I used to believe the common belief that eating breakfast would help to curb food cravings later in the day, but it was the exact opposite for me. I felt hungrier and sluggish. I did gain one bit of insight through all those mouthfuls this past weekend - I realized I felt actual hunger at night. The "hunger pangs" earlier in the day were more mental cravings than anything else. If I resisted the initial pangs to eat breakfast (eating breakfast was something I trained myself to do years ago), I also gained mental resistance to cravings. It was a similar mental wall to when I was water fasting. I may suddenly think of chocolate and how tasty it could be, but I would have no urge to reach into my desk and pull out my stashed chocolate bar.

After Word
I googled around and found something called The Warrior Diet. It is a type of intermittent fasting where you "undereat" throughout the day and then "overeat" at the end of the day. This is based on an internal clock that was set by prehistoric human habits of hunting and gathering during the day for one large social meal at night. You can read more about the diet here. The basic overview is that during the day, you consume small amounts of fruit or vegetables, just enough to keep hunger at bay. Then in the evening, you have a large meal starting with salad and progressing to more complex cooked dishes.

Now, you're probably thinking I'm just going to jump from diet to diet, and you're right...somewhat. There is just one issue about that first sentence. I am not looking for a quick-fix diet, but a new eating style, a way of redefining my relationship with food such that I can be at peace and love it. The water fast was great for proving to myself that it is okay to be hungry and that I do have the willpower to fight my food addictions, but it is not sustainable. Water fasting is a way to clean the slate and start new. The most important part about water fasting is what you do after. Ideally, a post water fast should be filled with fresh whole foods and while I had that intention, I slipped up. I'll admit it. But that doesn't mean I get down and cozy with a huge batch of brownies. It simply means I am not being kind of myself. Trying to redo what didn't work for me before is bunk and it is time to step back, look at what patterns I have, and work with it.

For this next week, I plan to loosely follow the timing of the Warrior Diet in that I will generally wait until the evening to eat, but if I my stomach truly demands it, I will have a small snack to quell it. The timing fits very well into my schedule and it is actually quite nice not to have to spend time eating in the morning. My goal for this week is to see if this new eating style agrees with me.

I will be returning to the baking labs starting next week so I will be able to resume my pastry eye candy for you all! But before that, Halloween is tomorrow! Are you doing anything fun? I don't plan on going trick or treating but I definitely made sure to carve a pumpkin! This is Finn from the cartoon Adventure Time.

Happy Halloween!

Picture Post

Mice rum balls

Random fondant cake at the Marketplace

Tangled themed

This is made entirely of marshmallows and
gummies! The hair is gummy sharks!

One of the posters for a bake sale my class is setting up. If you're in Calgary, come on down! We'll have plenty of Movember themed goodies!

Movember Madeness Nov 1

Post Water Fast Day 1

I'm sure you can tell from the title that today was the day I decided to break my water fast. I had been ruminating about when I should end when last night, as I was thinking about ending it today, I felt an energetic tingling-like sensation throughout my body, as if my body was excited to end the fast. That was when I decided to end it today. I was also feeling my mental strength waning and decided that ending the fast on my terms was better than suddenly grabbing something and devouring it, wasting all my efforts.

Did I achieve all my goals? Not really. I do feel that I have changed my relationship with food, but not entirely. I still feel that my fear of hunger resides deep down inside, but I believe that having this experience as a reference will aid me in continuing good eating habits. As for true hunger, it was unrealistic of me to expect to experience true hunger in such a short amount of time. Even some fasters who have gone as long as 40 days did not experience true hunger in the end.

Although I won't say this water fast was a success, neither was it a failure. I definitely made progress in facing hunger head on, and I am impressed I made it as far as I did. I don't think that I fasted long enough to go through deep detoxing, but I did detox to some extent and allowed my digestive system to take a rest. And honestly, seeing the numbers of the scale was definitely nice, even if that wasn't my goal and that most of it was water weight. :)

I planned to enjoy some fruit today and onto tomorrow as I feel I need it. The day after, I will reintroduce simply cooked vegetables and gradually move towards more complex dishes and foods. Depending on how I feel, I will shift the reintroduction of foods accordingly. After I am able to consume food regularly, I plan to test my body with a few foods I have had suspicions of not agreeing with my digestion: wheat, tofu, vegan chocolate, and milk. I have always had some minor issues with consuming a glass of milk but trying it again may show some interesting reactions. My diet thereafter will be almost entirely vegan. I say almost because I will still try very small samples of items I produce in baking class. I also plan to track my calories for the next month to help reorientate myself on portion sizes and to ensure that I am not going back to bad habits.

On to what happened today. I started the morning with a third of a kiwi. I made sure to chew it thoroughly and take as long as I could. There was no immediate reaction, but soon after I felt weird. I have no idea how to describe it other than my stomach was trying to wake up and it felt groggy and grumpy. Two hours later, my stomach calmed down. It felt empty again, but content. Physically, I felt no surge of energy and was actually still weak. I let my stomach rest until later in the afternoon where I ate a slice of apple. This time the food was more readily accepted and I had no digestion issues. In fact, I started feeling like I had more energy. Two hours later, I ate a few more slices and noticed that taking the stairs was significantly easier.

Later in the evening, I slowly indulged in a persimmon. Soon after I had a strong urge for something savoury and drank some no-salt added vegetable broth. What a life saver! I was completely satisfied and felt almost as energetic as I did pre-fast.

In the end, I was glad I did this fast. I am not a person who can do things (related to food) in moderation. I needed a shock, something extreme, to bring myself back to reality. I am considering this a clean start and intend to follow through with clean eating via a vegan diet concentrated on leafy greens and vegetables.

I will write another post fast update at a later date in case anyone is interested in how I do in keeping my promises to myself. :P I hope the past week was at least somewhat interesting. A water fast isn't for everyone in the sense that one has to believe one can succeed. And that is perfectly fine. If how you eat now makes you feel good and how you feel is optimum, I say continue on. I am an advocate of doing what makes you feel best instead of following the hard and fast rules laid by others. If you don't feel well or that believe you could feel better, why not try something different?

Summary

Water drank: 1.5 litres

Weight change: -1.0 lbs

Total weight change: -9.6 lbs

Water Fast Day 7, One Week Later

The end of today marked the end of an entire week on this water fast. Can you believe it? It still blows my mind that I have had nothing to eat except water for so long, especially when I used to eat almost every two hours.

Today I awoke feeling physically weak again. I figured this was the consequence of overexerting myself yesterday. Walking home from class, some mild chest pains came back, but eased after resting. Then, while walking later in the day, I felt my chest become stiff and I could feel the strain of moving around. Even lifting my water bottle required effort. Definitely a day for rest. The chest pain returned later in the evening when I was just sitting. I have read that many other fasters experience chest pains (some much more strongly than I) and I wondered what issue my body might be healing.

Fasters often experience much more vivid dreams. I also have been having more frequent and vivid dreams, though I don't remember them all. And yes, I have had dreams about eating food. I once had a dream about eating at one of my favourite restaurants. Earlier during the day, I had cravings for a roti dish there, but when the dish appeared in my dreams, I refused to eat it! I would also often wake up at around 5am and toss and turn. It felt like my body wanted to be in a very specific position but I could never find it. Despite the tossing and turning, I have yet to feel the sleep deprivation I used to always feel before the fast no matter how much I slept.

I had mentioned before that I was experiencing soreness in my calves when I walked around campus. The soreness in my legs has disappeared, but now I find that if I slouch while sitting, soon after my back will be sore. And that soreness persists the rest of the day.

My tongue has cleared up and so has my breath. From research, this is possibly a sign that my body is storing up energy for a major cleanse soon.

My weight loss has been a lot more rapid than expected. I knew the first few days I would lose a lot of water weight, however, I was expecting the loss to decrease to about 0.3-0.5 lbs a day. I calculated this by looking at my daily caloric needs and comparing it to 3500 calories per pound. I suspect that a lot of the weight the last few days may be from muscle since the body will resort to burning muscle if not enough energy is supplied by fat.

I find it very interesting that I either have not experienced many of the typical detox symptoms or the symptoms are very mild such as weakness, headaches, nausea, dizziness, back pain, etc. I think perhaps this is due to my fairly clean eating the past couple of months and that the detox process has not yet tapped into the fat stores from my older eating habits.

Here are some gum paste flowers that were sitting in the classroom today. I think these ones were made by the chef as they were very refined compared to the rest.

Cute wedding cake toppers!

Tomorrow will be my first shift in the Marketplace and hopefully everything will go well. Starting tomorrow, us helpers will be bringing the baked goods up to the Marketplace rather than having them delivered which means I will be walking around a moving lots.

Summary
Water drank: abotu 1.5 litres
Weight change: -1.4 lbs
Total weight change: -8.6 lbs
Overall feeling: Weak from yesterday with some chest pains which indicate I need to rest more and stop moving around so much!

Water Fast Day 5&6, Pastry Chef Showcase

Update: I made a boo-boo on the photo's and switched Whippt's dessert with Brulee's. There is a more comprehensive overview of the entries at the showcase here.

I decided to combine yesterday with today's post because nothing major happened yesterday. I woke up feeling less physically weak than the days prior and my energy levels continued to improve throughout the day. I even went out walking during the evening in that ridiculous snow storm for 40 minutes. No noticeable detox symptoms other than my tongue seemed to be clearing up.

Yesterday's energy levels continued today where I woke up feeling good. Today was the Pastry Chef Showcase wherein twelve pastry chefs and their companies compete for a People's Choice award and the Professional Pastry Chef award. You can read more about it here.

It was a full day for volunteers starting at 8:45am to 5:00pm. We started our day with a tour of the Ranchmen's Club, a luxurious club with walls decorated in expensive artwork and mounted animal heads. The event was to take place on the third floor and the chefs insisted on taking the stairs. Normally, I would not have been opposed (I prefer the stairs, actually), but during this fast, I was definitely lagging behind everyone else. Our three main tasks for the day were to direct and help competitors set up, direct guests to the third floor, and assist the Club staff in clearing plates and keeping the venue as clean as possible. The first two tasks were no problem as I did little moving and there was always a big cushy chair nearby. However, during the last task, I encountered some issues. It must have been the strain of carrying stacks of plates, but I started experiencing chest pains. The sharp pain radiated out along the front of my chest every time my heart beat. I retreated into the volunteer room to sit and rest but half an hour later, the pain hadn't subsided. I made the decision to go home before the event was over. At the very least, I got to participate in the funnest parts of the event (there was only clean up left). I went home, drank some water and laid down. I felt better soon after and my energy returned.

While the chest pains were alarming, they are not unheard of during a water fast. Many people who go through a water fast also experience chest pains at around day 6. I was not very concerned as they didn't become severe. I think that must have been a warning sign from my body to tell me to rest and to stop moving around so much.

I didn't drink that much water today because 1) while I was volunteering, I was so cold I didn't want to drink water (my lips were almost completely blue)  and 2) my body did not feel like it needed as much as other days. Water consumption is very important but drinking too much is also detrimental. It puts unnecessary stress on the kidney to process more liquid. I had always knew drinking too little water was bad, but I never though drinking too much was also bad.

An interesting observation I made today was in regard to my desire for food. I have noticed that while there is no food present, my mind might develop a desire for something (sometimes it felt like my stomach rumbled in response). Lately it has been for broccoli, rice, or congee and not so much the chocolate cake and cookies I had desired before. But here's the twist, once I am around people who are eating, I lose the desire completely. This struck me both at lunch time while the other volunteers were munching on sandwiches and chips and while I sat with my boyfriend during dinner at a busy restaurant (we confused the waiter when my boyfriend took the whole plate of food for himself :P ). I will continue to ponder as to what this means to me and my relationship with food but I believe this still indicates that I am not ready to break my fast.

Here are pictures of most of the twelve dishes. Unfortunately I cannot tell you what is in each dish as each one had a giant list of ingredients.

A dessert based on Halloween candy

SAIT's plated dessert

Manuel LaTruwe's dessert

Brulee's plated dessert

I believe this is a beet cake

Crave Cupcake's peanut butter dessert

Sheraton Suites, winner of the Professional Pastry
Chef award

Whippt's apple pie, winner of the People's Choice award!

A beautiful chocolate piece by Sheraton

A mini chocolate centerpiece by SAIT

Inbetween sweets, guests were encouraged to cleanse their palates with wine, beer, and cheese. In the centre of one of the rooms, there were cheese boards heaping with a huge variety of cheese and breads. It was demolished by the salt-craving crowds.

Heaps of cheese no match for over-sugared crowd

Summary
Water drank today: 1 litre
Weight change today and yesterday: -2.6 lbs
Total weight change: -7.2 lbs
Overall feeling: Good energy levels which led to me over-exerting myself during the afternoon, but energy levels returned after some rest. Probably my best day in the fast so far.

Almost all the dishes I cleared had the majority of the dessert leftover. I feel there is often a battle inside me to simply eat until satisfied and the childhood belief that I should clear my plate. Nevertheless, I was sad to see the garbage bin full of partially eaten treats.

I believe that the belief of clearing your plate, while based on good intentions, often leads to overeating. Many people have lost the knowledge of what is a serving size and simply eat everything that is placed in front of them, sometimes way past the point of feeling full. Do you have a similar struggle?

Water Fast Day 4

Some more cute photos of finds in the Marketplace for your eyes.

Halloween decorations

I will never know what that blue one is

This morning started out similar to the previous mornings but I only needed 8 hours of sleep versus yesterday's 10. As I walked across campus, my calves cramped up and continued to be sore for the rest of the day. Annoying, but bearable. One tip: stretching is a very good idea while water fasting.

The day went by fairly quickly and with little incident other than some minor food cravings here and there. Today I sat beside friends as they ate their (good smelling) lunches and while I enjoyed the smell, I didn't have a terrible urge to lunge at them from over the table and devour their food (and their fingers if they got in the way). Wouldn't that make a fun news title: Water Fast Ends Due to Tragedy - Faster Eats Friend. :)

My tongue started out fairly white in the morning and gradually became pinker and my cheeks were about as smooth as they were yesterday night.

I have not noticed any other changes other than bad breath. I was told I smell like ammonia. :/

I started pondering whether I have gotten over my fear of hunger yet. I have already gone 4 whole days without any food whatsoever, but I'm not sure I am. That may sound silly but I think that if I stopped the fast now, I would eventually go back to my bad eating habits. I am a terrible mindless eater and that is a major habit I want to solve. One experience I read about described a day in which the blogger's mind suddenly had a switch in thoughts. She no longer craved the junk food she had during the previous days, but now only wished for whole foods. That is when she decided to break her fast. I am hoping to have a similar experience which will signify to me that I have achieved my goals on this fast.

Summary
Water drank: about 2 litres
Weight change: -3.0 lbs
Total weight change: -5.6 lbs
Overall feeling: Pretty much the same as yesterday but with a bit more energy and milder food desires.

I hope this doesn't offend anyone, but it made me laugh.

Worn by my female classmate

Water Fast Day 3, National Chocolate Cupcake Day!

Happy National Chocolate Cupcake Day!!! Do you have a cupcake jammed into your mouth right now? No? Are you on a water fast? No? Then what are you doing? Go get a chocolate cupcake right now! There were no cupcakes at the Marketplace, but there were slices of chocolate cake. Good enough I say.

Mmm, chocolate cake

There was also a really cute lemon meringue pie! The bees were made out of marzipan. Cute to look at, not very tasty to eat, the bees that is.

Lemon meringue pie!

I slept 10 hours and woke up feeling good, but with absolutely no motivation to get out of bed. When I finally got up to take a shower, I felt very weak physically. It was quite the challenge to finish the whole showering ritual. Even sitting has become a challenge. While I listened actively in class today, I had barely enough physical strength to remain sitting up, much less to speak up and contribute to the discussion.

Do you know what else today was? Today was the day to pick up my good food box! A good food box is a grocery program at SAIT where you pay for a certain weight in groceries and you get a box of goodies once a month. It is 20$ for 20-25lbs, 25$ for 30-35lbs, and 30$ for 40-45lbs. Pretty awesome if you ask me. The only hitch - trying to carry 25lbs of food when you're struggling with just walking. I made it, but I had to take a few breaks even though the walk was only about 100m from the pick up to the dorms. Here's a picture of all the goodies I got this time. Pretty much the same as I had received last month with the addition of green bell peppers and grapefruit.

Fresh food galore!

Everything that was in the box:

• 5lbs potatoes
• 2lbs carrots
• head of celery
• head of cauliflower
• two heads of brocolli
• a field cucumber
• four tomatoes
• three large onions!! (seriously? three?)
• two heads of garlic
• three green bell peppers
• three bananas
• five granny smith apples
• five oranges
• five kiwis
• two lemons
• two limes

Part way through class, I started fantasizing about food again. All I could think about was Indian food, specifically an awesome meal I had at Narayannis' in Edmonton. (Highly recommended, especially for vegans. Their chocolate cupcakes are soooooo good! And look, it's Chocolate Cupcake Day! Go go go!) Although my stomach was fairly quiet, my mind raged at me, telling me to eat. It continued to complain viciously until I returned to my room where it calmed down....a bit. Only to pick up again for a few moments throughout the evening.

I noticed a scar on my arm is starting to fade and my tongue was white and bitter tasting. From reading, the end of a detox can be signified in a few ways. The idea signal is the return of true hunger. But clearing of the white coating on the tongue can also be another indicator. Also, the hot and cold fluctuations calmed down a bit today. It mostly affected me in the morning, just after getting out of bed.

Summary
Water drank: 2-2.5 litres
Weight change: -2.6lb
Overall feeling: Physically weak and during the afternoon, I became very mentally weak. I was thinking of breaking the fast, but I waited it out. The bitter coating on my tongue made plain water rather unpleasant to drink.

Water Fast Day 2, Just Keep Swimming

I woke up today feeling fine, but when I tried to get out of bed, I was overcome with weakness and mild nausea  As I walked to the bathroom, I felt like vomiting. I went back to lying on my bed, but eventually dragged myself out and changed clothes. I had read that some water fasters turn to sparkling water to ease their hunger pangs. Luckily, I found the one place on campus that sells sparkling water and I bought a big bottle. I'm normally not a fan of sparkling water. The carbonation makes the water taste bitter, but the brand I got wasn't bad. The bitter taste was much milder than Pelligrino. Drinking it seemed to do nothing for me initially. But after a while, my stomach felt even worse! It felt like it had gone from being a little grumbly to being a gaping black hole. That was unpleasant, to say the least. The feeling eventually subsided as I alternated between sparkling water and plain water. Despite the nasty feeling from before, it was a really nice change to plain water.

One thing I forgot to mention on Day 1 were my temperature fluctuations  One moment I would be freezing cold, the next I would be sweating like I had just ran 8 miles. After a while, I would be fine. This started occurring yesterday evening and continued today. I found that keeping my feet warm helped a lot in keeping my temperature and energy constant.

I have no updates on my weight today because I forgot to weigh myself! When I first got up, all I could think about was getting some water because my stomach was being unreasonable.

The blue tinge on my lips still remain even after a hot shower but my face has gotten smoother. Definite plus. : )

Part way through class, my legs started to feel sore. This soreness, though, is one I know well - menstrual induced soreness. I decided to stop taking my birth control pills during this fast and I expected to eventually have menstrual symptoms, but I wasn't expecting soreness already. Detox symptoms perhaps? Usually fatigue would accompany the menstrual sores, but not this time.

Towards the evening, my hunger pangs and desire for food diminished. I felt like I had more energy too. I reveled in the feeling of freedom from hunger pangs and weakness. Since my hunger pangs and desire for food subsided, you may be wondering how I reacted to the presence of food around campus and in the dorms. I actually enjoyed it! Around 5:30pm, a really delicious and savoury smell wafted into my room. I let myself indulge in the smell but I felt no urge to eat nor any desire for food. I was simply content smelling it. The thought of food also didn't linger. It went like this: I'm surfing the internet, I smell food, I enjoy smelling it and wonder what it could be, I go back to whatever I was reading. After enduring last night's food fantasy, this was like freedom! I am still staying away from looking at too many food pictures though because I know I am a visual eater. I hope this indicates that my body is now switching to ketosis and the detoxing will begin.

Summary
Water drank: 2.5 litres
Weight change: Unknown
Detox symptoms: Possibly the soreness, but I think not, so none.
Overall feeling: Started out weak this morning, mildly nauseous, but as the day went on I felt better and better, aside from the leg soreness.

Two photo snaps from the Marketplace! Gotta make sure you get a dose of sweetness. :) I must say, the products in the Marketplace keep improving. At the beginning of the year, most of them looked...well...student made. But products are looking more and more professional.

Cute little mousse cakes sprayed in red colored
 cocoa butter

Halloween themed doughnuts! (The middle one is a
witch's hat)

Water Fast Day 1, Into the Deep End of the Pool

(Note I wrote this yesterday so day 1 is referring to Tuesday.)

How about a change in topics? Something quite a bit less sweet and with less "substance".

I will be stuck in a class room for the next three weeks instead of a baking lab and so I have decided to try a new adventure I have been contemplating for a while - water fasting. Some of you may have just cocked an eyebrow or did a double take. :P Yes, a water fast - a fast in which all I consume is water. For the next three weeks, I will have time to relax and rest as the class is only two hours with five shifts of four hours in The Marketplace (where we will practice the customer service skills discussed in class). This will be a good time to attempt the water fast since readings indicate to expend the least amount of energy as possible and to minimize stimuli.

During the summer, I tried a three day juice fast, followed by a period of being raw vegan. Why do I do this? Why not? I am always up for an adventure, especially those geared towards improving one's health and one's relationship with food. Readings and research claimed that the juice fast (and raw vegan diet) would bring about detox symptoms, however, I never experienced neither the detox symptoms nor the heightened mental clarity I was hoping for. The only side effect I noticed was that my dreams became more vivid, which was actually very cool. I believe the main factor is that I did not fast for long enough. I have been reading Celestine Chua's articles documenting her experiences through a 21 day water fast. Her research showed that detoxification doesn't fully kick in until the 3-5 day.

Despite common belief, a healthy person should be able to survive solely off their body fat for at least a few weeks. The 3-square meals a day system isn't necessary. After the glucose from our food and liver is depleted, the body will turn to muscle as a source of energy. However, after a few days, the body then will switch to using fat. This is known as ketosis. Our fat cells are what stores the majority of toxins in our bodies and as the body burns it for fuel, the toxins are released and detox symptoms occur. These manifestation of the detoxification can often be weakness, dizziness, bad breath, aches and soreness, mental fog, as well as a purging of old deeply hidden emotional and psychological issues. This site is an easy to read reference on not only what fasting is, but what to expect during it. I believe that my juice fast ended too early for my body to switch into ketosis and that is why I didn't experience any detox symptoms.

Another fact I found interesting was the idea of true hunger. True hunger is not the rumbling we feel in our stomachs but a feeling in the throat. I have also read that in books advocating a vegan eating-style. I am really interested in how this feels. Currently, this idea seems very foreign to me. Eating is so integral in my life. I think about food almost all the time, many social events involve food, and, of course, I'm surrounded by food in most of my classes. My future career will be about making food! The idea or act of eating is never out of reach.

Celes did a lot of research beforehand and I won't repeat it here, but if you're interested in learning more about it, go here. She documented every day of her 21 day fast and it is a very interesting read.

My goal with this water fast is to rebuild my relationship with food. Over the years, I have lost my ability to discern when I am hungry and when I am not. Some days, I can eat and eat and eat and never reach that "full" feeling, but neither would I feel "hungry". It was strange and disturbing. I believe this stems from a fear of hunger. That may sound strange, but I would always make sure to have some sort of snack on my person. At the time, I reasoned that that snack was to be a preventative measure against snacking on less healthy and immediate options. But upon a deeper inspection of my feelings and relationship with food and eating, I realized that I felt anxious when leaving trusted sources of food (my fridge). Deep down, I really really didn't want to experience any sort of hunger. As soon as my tummy would rumble, I'd stifle it with the closest edible item I could find. I had never truly experienced hunger, but I feared it and did anything to keep it at bay.

This leads to my second goal of experiencing true hunger. To not have food cravings and desires on my mind until I absolutely have to eat sounds liberating. I am not saying I will stop thinking about baking, not at all! I would just like the incessant nattering in the back of my mind of fake food desires to stop. :)

My plan is to go one day at a time with the intent of completing 7 days. From there, I will decide if I will continue or not. Ideally, I want to water fast for 14 days. That will hopefully give me enough time to ease myself off the fast and get ready to be back in the baking lab for the following Monday. You  may be concerned that this is not healthy. Water fast are, in fact, the fastest and most direct method of detoxifying your body. Also, I can choose to stop the fast whenever I feel things aren't going well or something is wrong.

Ideally, one should spend at least a few days preparing for a fast. It is important to gradually transition into any type of restrictive plan (it is just as important to transition out of it gradually). Truthfully, I should have followed a fruit and juice diet for a few days prior and I may regret this later, but we shall see! It seems that the biggest obstacle is enduring hunger pangs the first three days. After that, many stop experiencing hunger entirely. For the next while I will be posting my feelings and experiences, be it a success or failure.

I had actually intended today to be a preparation day. I had planned to visit the library for some reading material and to eat only fruits and juice. Then I was going to embark on my water fasting adventure tomorrow. But, I was too excited. I dived right in.

Day 1 Summary

Right on time, my tummy started grumbling at 8am for breakfast. It wasn't an intense hunger pang, just a gnawing feeling in the background. It continued for a couple of hours and lessened slightly around 11am where it spiked with intensity. I still went to the library but started feeling mildly nauseous on the train ride back. Good thing it's a short ride! Aside from the gnawing, I felt cold and weak. Not very cold, but a cold deep inside, the kind that's hard to shake. I checked the mirror and my lips were tinged blue.

I made it through class and then slowly walked back to my room. The rest of the afternoon went by fairly smoothly. But when evening hit, so did the hunger pangs, with vengeance. All I could do was think about food. One thing I did notice, however, was that the strong desire to eat originated from my mind more than it did my stomach. That's not to say my stomach didn't feel like a gaping hole caving in on itself. I laid down and let my mind indulge itself in fantasy world of food. After a while, the pangs subsided slightly and I passed the rest of the time until bed playing games.

I guess overall the first day went fairly well. While I knew I was going to be feeling weak and cold eventually, I wasn't expecting it to happen so soon. Interestingly, I found walking more difficult and tiring than going up stairs.

Summary
Water drank: About 3 litres
Weight change: 0lbs
Detox symptoms: none so far
Overall feeling: physically weak and cold, but mentally strong and determined

I visited the Marketplace on my way back to my room and look at that! My checkerboard cookies are on the sale floor.

Choux Paste Day 1

Last Friday was my first day on the choux paste station. Choux paste is a roux made of flour and water. Since the water and flour are cooked, the starch in the flour begins to gelatinize and allows the batter to absorb 300-400% more water! Using that fact, eggs are added to give the final product structure. The resulting paste is used to make cream puffs, eclairs, paris brest, and a number of other hollow shells for delicious fillings.

Cooking the flour and water

Strawberry and raspberry cream puffs

Unfinished eclairs and one lonely strawberry one!

An extra paris brest shell we filled with chocolate
 mousse and strawberry buttercream for ourselves

Due to some interesting scheduling, we made the cream puffs, eclairs, and paris brest on day 1 rather than on day 2. To use up some extra fillings, we filled the cream puffs with strawberry buttercream and three lovely raspberries and the eclairs were filled with chocolate mousse. As per tradition, the paris brest were filled with a mixture of hazelnut praline paste and pastry cream. A paris brest is actually shaped after a bike tire. It was created in celebration of a bicycle competition that ran between Paris and Brest. If you're wondering how it's pronounced, it does, indeed, sound like paris breast. :P

Paris brest

So what's the best thing to nibble on at this station? Absolutely, without a doubt, the hazelnut praline paste. Imagine a Ferrero Rocher, but as a spread! It's like a taste of heaven! I used to work at a bakery that also used this paste and when a bucket was finished, I would grab a spoon, scrape out every little bit, and savour it down to the last lick!

We also made unbaked cheesecakes. Here's a photo of V piping in the first lemon-flavoured layer of our unbaked cheesecakes.

Piping for even layers

The unbaked cheesecakes consisted of three layers. The base was a mixture of feuilletine and hazelnut praline paste. It was then topped with a citrus layer and then a berry layer. In this case, it was raspberry. For presentation, we spread on a sparkly layer of gel then top it with whipped cream, chocolate cigars, and raspberries. Very cute! (Feuilletine is like broken up pieces of waffle cone, except very thin.)

Finished unbaked cheesecakes

Remember I mentioned some interesting scheduling? For the next three weeks I will be in a theory class for customer relationship management. That means, unfortunately, that I will not be baking and subsequently, there will be a lack of pictures for a while. (Sadly, the dorms I live in have no oven! I only have a microwave, toaster, and stove top at my disposal.) Therefore, tomorrow will begin a series of posts about an experiment of a personal nature. Hopefully you will find it interesting. :)

Ou ou ah ah!

Cookie Test

Tadah! My tray of finished cookies waiting to be marked. It was a long day today. The other groups left well before we did. Perhaps our group is just slow? Unlike them, though, we never take breaks. Either way, we all spent extra time trying to make everything perfect. For myself, my langue de chat turned out much better! I managed to find 24 fairly consistent cookies to pair up and present. (The last langue de chat looks extra chocolately because I accidentally flipped it over while moving it between trays.) If you dig into the tray, you might find some oddly shaped oatmeal raisin cookies, but luckily the chef didn't find them. :P

Langue de chat victory!

Cookie love by V

There was a bake sale at the Marketplace today. Unfortunately, I couldn't make it because my class started at the same time. There were still some of these gems leftover though so I snagged one for my roommate. Can you guess the flavour? It's bacon and pecan! And guessing from my roommates moans, they were very very good.

Adding savoury elements to traditionally all-sweet goods has been quite the trend. What do you think? Would you try these bacon pecan cookies or does the thought of bacon in a cookie make you crinkle your nose? I love the mix of sweet and salty. I think it opens up opportunities for so many more flavour ideas.

Cookies Day 4, The Cookie-stache

Right into action, each of us picked a cookie recipe and set off. We all felt confident and as a result, worked much faster. Today I was responsible for coconut macaroons and after 6 trays, I joined V in practicing piping for the langue de chat.

V made a template for us so we had nicer and more consistent langue de chat today. Woot!

The template was a huge help!

We still had a few funny ones though. Remember how I said to always make sure to have fun? We had a blast playing around with some of the odd shaped langue de chat.

Cookie Alien by V

Cookie-stache!

It's after Thanksgiving, but I saw this bread turkey sitting on the counter at the Marketplace. I love his cute smile!

Gobble gobble bread!

It's Thursday tomorrow already! Yay for short weeks!