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Fasting helps me stay focused. I wake up at 8:30 am and have my first meal at around 4pm-5pm, and I just don't get hungry, and the lack of blood sugar level spikes doesn't get in my way.
Fasting appears in many of the world's religions. I'm curious about the roots of fasting that have been codified into religious practice. Did the ancients discover that fasting was good for you?
Supposedly fasting also promotes longevity by affecting gene expression, and the same effects can be obtained from resveratrol. Additionally, small fasts are meant boost human growth hormone, hence the warrior diet: only eating at night. Fasting before and after exercise boosts it the most.
A doctor I once knew said the reason they put new doctors on such long shifts is so they stop thinking and behave more according to text book.
Anyhow, check out this article/podcast about a fasting, and in particular regarding someone grossly obese for 1 year and 17 days: http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2012/07/24/3549931.ht...
"His weight dropped from 207 kilograms to 82 kilograms. Some five years later, he had regained only 7 kilograms."
I wonder how mentally active he was during that time.
It only takes 24-48 hours for your body to adjust, your fat to start melting and your blood-sugar levels to stabilise. You also stop feeling hungry. I found that while I was generally a little 'light-headed' my powers of concentration were fine and I returned to full productivity.
At first I tried drinking only fruit juice but that gave me an upset stomach so I switched to water and the occasional tea. Once I'd got through the first day of 'starving' hunger I felt great: full of energy and positivity.
As long as you have fat on your body you should be fine, however I'm not sure it would be a good idea if you are all muscle: while shutting down your digestive system saves a load of energy, if you have no fat your body it will convert muscle.
Pros:
* No blood sugar swings
* No hunger
* Fat loss
* A real sense of achievement
* Greasy skin
* Zits
* Keep exercising to prevent muscle loss
* Drink lots of liquid
* Eat something light if the starving hunger returns
* Be careful if you are already very skinny
* Talk to a doctor
* Binge eat every night as you'll feel starving again the next day
* Ignore a return to hunger
* Drink lots of fruit juice
* Binge at the end. Gradually introduce food back to your system.> Let’s just say fasting isn’t one of them. All of my co-workers; I have worked with past and present have been extremely understanding and respectful of the [month-long] fast. Also as a by-product of this kindness they have coined the term: "Ramadan code". If I were an employer, after reading this...
> If I were an employer, after reading this... There isn't much you can do; at least you can't make religious fasting the reason for your actions unless you are interested in lawsuits and tons of negative publicity. What does it take to start a new religion? What if I start a new religion which says working more than 4 hours a day is against my gods? Can employers deny me jobs? Or if they don't deny it, are they boun…
It would be somewhat easier to just start your own company if you wanted to work four hours a day. Though with a good marketing department, some cold reading and a truthy sounding manifesto I'm guessing you could probably pull it off if you wanted to.
> prayers 5 times a day, month long fasts,
IME, not many muslims outside muslim countries actually pray five times a day, and as demonstrated by this thread the ones that fast seem to do as much as possible to align their religious obligations with their employers interests.
> pregnancy
Why is this a problem? Would this extend to paternity too? It doesn't really count as discrimination in my book, as barring any social or biological obstacles in your path, applicable to you should you choose to have children.
If I were a full-time employee and by implication not independently wealthy, I would expect an employer to fund some time off to deal with babymaking. I think this is one of the primary benefits of being a full-time employee (especially since as I'm a consultant now, it costs five figures in potential fees to take two months off).
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> If I were an employer, after reading this... There isn't much you can do; at least you can't make religious fasting the reason for your actions unless you are interested in lawsuits and tons of negative publicity. What does it take to start a new religion? What if I start a new religion which says working more than 4 hours a day is against my gods? Can employers deny me jobs? Or if they don't deny it, are they boun…
> What if I start a new religion which says working more than 4 hours a day is against my gods? Then they'll pay you for four hours work. I don't think any law will force your employer to make unreasonable accommodations for you.
Who is in-charge of making the call, and on what basis? What is to say working while starving is more reasonable than say, coming in drunk to work which my religion mandates. The funny thing with religious mandates is you can selectively choose the mandates. Someone whose religion dictates head gear isn't required to wear head gears whole of his life to contest that he should be allowed to wear head-gear while passing through a security check, or withdrawing from a CCTV monitored ATM, etc. My religion says you should work drunk; I can ignore it when I am not drunk and when I am drunk and called out on it, I will claim persecution.
These folks are my heroes http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Missionary_Church_of_Kopimism Someday I hope to start a religion whose sole purpose is to benefit people like me and is as unreasonable as I can get away with, because hell, why not. It's not like a lot of unreasonable behavior isn't already excused based on religious grounds(not particularly about fasts; I am talking about other extremities).
- MSM,
- Caffeine (less is more - just a sip of coffee, or half a cup of green tea; too much of it actually downs me after the first high),
- and regular consumption of "allowed" carbs (lentils being my favourite) and fat (peanut butter, olive oil,...). Native coconut oil is a real brain booster, I feel super-focused after having eaten a spoonful.
MSM does really do much in this regard for me, it feels as if it's helping my body renew its energy stores. I can go a lot further with less food when having taken it - and I do need to take it in order to seriously lose weight.
Eating nothing for more than 4 hours shoots my focus down for hours, and is hard to rebuild with low-carb food.
(Disclaimer: I'm a militant atheist now) I think I would find stopping five times a day for prayer to be a bit of a distraction, though I imagine the short bursts of meditation would be good for my concentration overall. I tended to gain weight during Ramadan, but that's probably because my family made a big deal of every iftar, inviting extended family members, eating out and having big greasy Pakistani meals almost…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> If I were an employer, after reading this... There isn't much you can do; at least you can't make religious fasting the reason for your actions unless you are interested in lawsuits and tons of negative publicity. What does it take to start a new religion? What if I start a new religion which says working more than 4 hours a day is against my gods? Can employers deny me jobs? Or if they don't deny it, are they boun…
> What does it take to start a new religion? What if I start a new religion which says working more than 4 hours a day is against my gods? It would be somewhat easier to just start your own company if you wanted to work four hours a day. Though with a good marketing department, some cold reading and a truthy sounding manifesto I'm guessing you could probably pull it off if you wanted to. > prayers 5 times a day, mont…
I do own my own company, and I work more than 4 hours a day. Let's say my religion permits working 2 jobs regardless of state laws(they permit multiple wives, multiple husbands. What's the big deal with multiple jobs), but you can work for more than 4 hours only for your company.
Let me try this:
The lord sayeth thou shall not work more than 4 hours; except for the company you have more than 35% stake in.
> IME, not many muslims outside muslim countries actually pray five times a day,
That's not the point. The thing is you are allowed to do so, and the employer doesn't have a say.
EDIT: So let's assume my religion is an exclusive one, and there is only one member - me. Does that mean I should be allowed to work 4 hours a day, come in drunk etc. because only a few people(exactly 1) does that; or else I shout persecution and give my life savings to a legal team.
> pregnancy >> Why is this a problem?
Sorry about that. That was my failed attempt at political correctness. My examples were particularly about Islam, and I thought I should include something non-Islam.
> Let’s just say fasting isn’t one of them. All of my co-workers; I have worked with past and present have been extremely understanding and respectful of the [month-long] fast. Also as a by-product of this kindness they have coined the term: "Ramadan code". If I were an employer, after reading this...
I am currently working in Saudi Arabia (here, fasting is a national rule , however I eat because I'm a Indian and non-Muslim) as a programmer, and I've noticed one funny thing - people just become nocturnal. They eat and work in the night and sleep during the day. This is simply the normal routine reversed. Fasting has minimal effects on them, its not fasting, just the time in which they eat is changed! They work sho…