Day 5: Hunger Strikes

If yesterday was my strongest day yet observing fasting during Ramadan, today was certainly my weakest. 

I'd been feeling for a few days that I was really having to rush my evenings between getting two meals, drinking six pints of water and getting to bed before 1AM! So, quite foolishly, I decided to stay up even later last night and 'enjoy' my evening with a movie inbetween meals - 'The Fellowship of the Ring', if you want to know what I watched. 


On one hand this was a nicer way to ensure my food and water intake targets were hit, without rushing it all down. On the other hand, I'm absolutely shattered today. This unnecessarily added fatigue has had a significant impact on how hungry I feel. After only getting six hours sleep a night since fasting began, and then only four or five last night, I'm feeling it quite a bit. Beyond feeling hunger since around 9AM, I've also been quite demotivated throughout the day and have decided not to train as a result. Today was an easy day regardless, but I think I should have used my time more effectively to avoid this feeling of lethargy. I'm never that kind to myself mentally when I've refused training.

It seems obvious, but before fasting like this I didn't really have an idea that tiredness could play such a strong role in promoting feelings of hunger. Nor did I realise how tight for time it would be to eat enough food, drink enough water and get to bed at a reasonable time. I fully see now why many people choose to go to bed and then wake up before the end of Sehri to eat a highly nourishing pre-prepared meal. 

With daylight hours lengthening as we approach summer months, the eating and drinking window is only getting shorter each day. I'm going to have to seriously consider this earlier bed and 2AM meal idea, especially now that I am back at work Monday to Friday for the remainder of Ramadan.

Despite all of the above, the positive that I can take from today is that despite feeling so sluggish and so hungry, breaking my fast hasn't even been considered. I'm fully committed to this process. 

Sorry if this has seemed quite negative and isn't the good read I normally try to offer. I know it's self-inflicted and not Ramadan's fault that I've not trained. I don't really want to write a lot more about it either. I'm tired and I'm really hungry. It will be essential tonight to get enough sleep so that my training schedule is not affected further.

Tomorrow will be a better day!

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