Hunger Strike

The term 'hunger strike' means something different to me than to the mainstream radicals. They quit eating in protest, to further a cause, or to stop an injustice. When my hunger strikes, I have to throw food at it to stop the violence. Now fasting, on the other hand, is completely different. Some people fast for religious reasons, for better clarity of mind, for bodily cleansing, and for health reasons. I've had to fast a couple of times before going to visit the doc. He is wise to make me do this if he's probing where he shouldn't be. I've seen what exits my body, and I surely wouldn't want to be on the receiving end. But I've never had to go more than 24 hours without food. Actually a person can go several weeks without food, before perishing. The body starts to live off of fat supplies. The chubbier the individual, the longer you'll survive. Now water is a different story. A person can only make it for about 4-6 days tops, without some H2O. It doesn't matter what your size is, you will dehydrate like a worm on the sidewalk during a sunny day. Back to fasting though. Every single day, each one of us unknowingly fasts. When you tuck yourself in at night, sleep for eight hours, and awaken, you've fasted on a short term basis. So to 'break' the 'fast', you put those two words together and viola! BREAKFAST. I've been thinking about trying to fast for a short period of time (other than just between sittings), to realize first, what the hunger pang feels like beyond my normal routine of meals. Occasionally I skip lunch, but never two meals in a row. I'd like to pay attention to my moods and my energy level. Most people experiencing hunger, along with low blood sugar, get hangry (combination hungry and angry). But this probably goes away in a short period of time. The times where I work through lunch, my stomach will rumble around noontime, but if I ignore it, it soon subsides. Moods would be hard to monitor depending on the environment you've created for yourself that day. You could be angry from hunger, or you could be angry at the individuals around you, in which case, their lives could be in danger because of your lack of food. Please keep in mind, if you try this experiment, cannibalism is frowned upon in most societies. Energy levels are fairly easy to monitor. After a big meal, you're sluggish from your body working overtime to digest the millions of calories consumed. After a snack or sensible meal, one may experience a burst of energy. When I've worked through lunch, I seem to have more than the usual amount of energy, but after awhile, the tank is on 'empty', and time to refuel. I also think it's good to feel hungry from a lack of food sometimes, for a moral sense. This way you're aware of what hundreds of thousands of people feel every minute of every day of their lives. Please, don't feel an overwhelming amount of pity because you have something to eat and they don't. There's not much you, personally, can accomplish to change their lot in life, but it just makes you conscious of their plight. No need to add yourself to the statistics if you have the means to feed yourself. So next time you're standing in line to order your triple whopper with cheese and everything else available to pile on it, think about the hungry folks around the globe, and DON'T supersize your meal.