[Steve_Seattle]

I'm currently on the last day of a 10-day self-imposed diet in which I eliminated meat, fish, poultry, pasta, milk, cheese, butter, bread, pastry, potatoes, corn, alcohol, soda, coffee, tea, and fruit juice - all of the things I like. I've been surviving on fruit (mostly apples, bananas, and grapes), vegetables, Scottish oatmeal, nuts, water, lemon water, and tomato juice, and my daily calorie intake has been about 700-900, probably less than half of my norm. I've lost about five pounds. My only "wobble" was when my son took me to a basketball game and I had some movie-style popcorn.

Somewhat to my surprise, alcohol and soda are the things I've missed the least. Also pasta. I find myself imagining burgers and pizza and even a peanut butter sandwich (I love fat calories).

Also, to my surprise, I was not particularly hungry during this time - IMAGINING good food was far more difficult to deal with than actual hunger. I made no effort to reduce salt intake, but that happened naturally because of what I was eating and not eating.

[Yardstick]

I recently did a three day fast after reading about the health benefits. This was no food, just water. I was surprised by how good I felt for the first two days — very energetic, in fact more energetic than normal, and no sense of hunger. Then on the third day I made the mistake of looking at some Southern soul food recipes online. I couldn’t think of anything else for the rest of the day and wound up breaking the fast with pinto beans and ham hocks.