How about life without nonsensical ancient superstitions? I am very much not being purposefully offensive when I say that. The initial premis of needing to fast is highly flawed when looked at rationally.
Fasting & Programming
111–120 of 180 posts
Re: Fasting & Programming
#112Hi, HN readers!
As a Christian I would like to tell you my opinion on this subject. Very often people tend to forget that fasting differs from dieting. Hence, there are all these advices on various "tricks" and "optimizations" :-)
What is missed here is that when you are fasting - you are not trying to reduce your body weight or improve your mental abilities :-) In fact, the fasting has nothing to do with you - this is done by you only to praise The Lord, who has created you, is looking after you and forgives your sins.
And if one finds fasting too hard and starts making a shortcuts, it is better not to fast at all - there will be no value in this "eating trickery" for you :-) (or anyone else).
The fasting is all about God and He gives you the strength to fast - but you need to ask Him by praying, reading The Bible, caring about your brothers and sisters, helping other people, giving to poor. And if you find fasting too hard - most probably you are trying to fast for wrong reason or your dieting has nothing to do with The Lord.
Personally, when fasting four times a year, I try doing good Christian things - helping people around me, charities, those in needs. Trying to put my own interests even further away, making peace with enemies, asking for forgiveness of people that I hurt somehow. Working on my project "Read and Think: The Bible for command line people" :-)
This is what fasting is for me and these are my "special tricks" :-)
The best source to read about fasting is The Bible:
................ == THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO SAINT MATTHEW == ................... === Chapter 6, Verse 16 === 16 Moreover when ye fast, be not, as the hypocrites, of a sad countenance: for they disfigure their faces, that they may appear unto men to fast. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward. 17 But thou, when thou fastest, anoint thine head, and wash thy face; 18 That thou appear not unto men to fast, but unto thy Father which is in secret: and thy Father, which seeth in secret, shall reward thee openly.
Thank you,
Re: Fasting & Programming
#113I'm currently on Ferriss' low-carb diet and I have found constant carb-withdrawal hard to bear on days on which I do much programming (basically every working day). There are some tricks though which help me keep up focus: - 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 bei…
The carb withdrawal is only for like, the first week, right? Then you'll be scot-free! Or so I thought.
In low-carb diets, one of the major withdrawal symptoms is actually from a lack of sodium. Your body starts emptying it's water stores when there is no carbohydrate intake to process (carbs need a lot of water to work with), and that takes tons of potassium and sodium out of your body.
Eat or drink something with lots of sodium, and it should hep with the carb withdrawal symptoms quite a bit (the 'keto flu').
Re: Fasting & Programming
#114Earlier quoted context omitted.
The majority of edible animals are not big game (by nature of the food pyramid), and a even a decent chunk of big game are not predators of humans. Plus, it's easy to overwhelm them if you have more than one person. I've never hunted before, but I can't imagine at all that it's a fair fight. Humans have been known to trap them, net them, flank them, shoot them at a distance, lure them, corner them, smoke them out etc…
Your post specifically said SPEAR hunting. You do not hunt small game with a spear. Trapping is usually the most effective way of getting meat in the wild. Off topic but some of the best traps are large modern mouse-traps. Just make sure to drill a hole and tie it to a tree with a strong rope so the animal doesn't pull it away. Set it, and you will almost certainly capture a small mammal within a day.
He might have edited it, but I read "spear hunted fish", not "spear hunted". That does not look dangerous on TV.
Re: Fasting & Programming
#115Earlier quoted context omitted.
The majority of edible animals are not big game (by nature of the food pyramid), and a even a decent chunk of big game are not predators of humans. Plus, it's easy to overwhelm them if you have more than one person. I've never hunted before, but I can't imagine at all that it's a fair fight. Humans have been known to trap them, net them, flank them, shoot them at a distance, lure them, corner them, smoke them out etc…
Your post specifically said SPEAR hunting. You do not hunt small game with a spear. Trapping is usually the most effective way of getting meat in the wild. Off topic but some of the best traps are large modern mouse-traps. Just make sure to drill a hole and tie it to a tree with a strong rope so the animal doesn't pull it away. Set it, and you will almost certainly capture a small mammal within a day.
Makes me wonder: when did trapping start? 5,000 years ago? 20,000?
Re: Fasting & Programming
#116Earlier quoted context omitted.
Humans are funny creatures. To believe on the one hand a god laid down these rules, and then in the same thought think "Well I bet he didn't think of this loophole"
Isn't there whole sections of Judaism that work out loopholes to God's laws?
One of my favorite Talmud stories illustrates that the opinion of the community is more important than the voice of God - which, in my opinion, is one of the many things that make my religion great.
Going to badly paraphrase here, but a group of Jews were debating an obscure point of law, and a single person was in the minority. He said something like 'if I am correct, let this tree demonstrate it!' The tree was suddenly torn from its roots and flung far away. The rest of the people scoffed - 'a flung tree doesn't prove anything.' The solo dissenter cried out 'if I am correct, let this stream prove it!' And all of a sudden, the stream began running backwards. Everyone else said 'what does how water flows have to do with this issue?' Finally, the one guy said 'If I'm right, let the voice of God cry out!' And they all heard the voice of God, saying 'why do you keep disagreeing with this man, when all the forces of Heaven keep demonstrating his correctness?'
A rabbi spoke up - 'it's nice that you say so, but it's not for Heaven to decide - the Torah is not in Heaven, it's down here with us. You gave us the Torah at Mount Sinai, and from now on, it's up to us to interpret it.'
God was delighted, and burst out laughing, saying 'My children have defeated me, my children have defeated me!'
So yes, you might think of them as loopholes, but we prefer to think of them as the legitimate interpretations of the community. A good thing, too - have you ever read the Torah (aka the Old Testament)? Without the wisdom of the community, the religion would be unworkable - many of the laws within aren't remotely relevant for modern life.
Re: Fasting & Programming
#117IANAN (I am not a nutritionist) but I strongly suspect that the physical and mental exhaustion is primarily related to dehydration (as Mahdi Yusuf himself indicates by bolding "drink"). Looking at some of the comments here, the main difference between those who describe positive experiences with fasting and what the author describes is that the former drink water throughout the day. In that light, let me quote from a…
I recently grabbed a metal water bottle from a startup event. For the past week or so I've been drinking a full water bottle every hour or so. Totally anecdotal, but I've felt more productive and less exhausted, even as I've largely cut down my caffeine intake.
Re: Fasting & Programming
#118Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Another con is 'seriously bad breath' Goes away after a few days. And probably good for you - it means your body is finally getting rid of some stuff it should have gotten rid of before and didn't.
> And probably good for you - it means your body is finally getting rid of some stuff it should have gotten rid of before and didn't. That sounds like the sort of pseudo-scientific, unsubstantiated nonsense you hear all the time from New Age healer types. Do you have a source to back up your claim?
No, I do not have a source to substantiate it; I'm not sure what the study would be to look for. It is based, however, on personal experience and experience of other people I know (disappearing of bad breath coincides with other very positive and welcome changes, like injuries that were healing very slowly starting to heal at an amazing pace, disappearance of snoring, and similar things).
Just a question - would you have reacted the same if I wrote "it isn't bad for you to eat 20 eggs a day", or "eating cholesterol isn't bad for you"? because both of these "accepted wisdoms" (limit egg consumption; dietary cholesterol is bad for you) are unsubstantiated nonsense you hear from everyone (laymen, nutritions, doctors), with no study to support them. And yet they are almost never challenged.
Re: Fasting & Programming
#119Earlier quoted context omitted.
Too weak to throw spears, maybe not. Too weak to churn out top quality code may be another matter, however.
You are severely underestimating the mental difficulty of spear hunting in relation to writing a couple of lines of code.
Mental activity requires a lot of glucose, whereas muscles can run on fat, protein or glucose. Additionally, people are adapted to minimise their mental output. So if you're low on blood glucose, producing a lot of mental output for >6 hours is a real stretch.
Re: Fasting & Programming
#120Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Another con is 'seriously bad breath' Goes away after a few days. And probably good for you - it means your body is finally getting rid of some stuff it should have gotten rid of before and didn't.
> And probably good for you - it means your body is finally getting rid of some stuff it should have gotten rid of before and didn't. That sounds like the sort of pseudo-scientific, unsubstantiated nonsense you hear all the time from New Age healer types. Do you have a source to back up your claim?
It's ketosis from ketones being produced as a byproduct of converting fat into glucose. Nothing to do with toxins.