It seems it truly is mind over matter. It’s strange that every year this happens, almost as if a switch is flipped inside me that says “time to fast so no point in being hungry or thirsty”. Of course it helps that the weather this time has been kind as well. Although there have a few hot days, overall it has been fairly pleasant. In addition the rest of the household is also fasting so that too helps.
The only downside has been the lack of energy. Although I am moving around as much as usual, or some days more than that, it just seems more difficult. Getting up in the morning to start the day is also much more difficult.usually these have been the days when I have missed the alarm for the pre-dawn sehri and have had to leap out to get something in me before the fasting begins. This is approximately at 2:00am so I get generally about 2 hours sleep before waking, eating, prayers and then hope to get my head down for a couple of hours before the day properly starts.
But the hunger is totally abated. Maybe it is the fact that at iftar (the time at sunset when the fasting is over for the day) I am eating more than usual. This has been the same in the past, however, so something else is going on. Strangely I feel hungry in the minutes just before the fast breaks, maybe because I know that I will be eating soon.
It is always these last few minutes which are the hardest anyway as the stomach prepares to gladly receive the food which is on its way!
Liquid intake has been more than adequate as shown by the fact that I don’t feel thirsty at all. I am also drinking more plain water (hurray) so that cannot be a bad thing. The only exception to this is with the sehri where I am drinking a chilled drink of fruit flavour dextrose powder mixed with water. The reason is to top up my glycogen levels in my liver ASAP. Cool grapes straight from the fridge also make a delicious dessert. This has meant that my urine is almost colourless, which is the true sign of hydration. In normal circumstances you need at least 3 colourless urinations per day to show you are adequately hydrated. This is a lot more reliable indicator instead of the assertion to drink X glasses of water (what size?) or X amount (which depends on how big/old/sex you are) and so forth.
Sipping the water helps me to hold onto more of it. So after my meal and as soon as I wake at 2:00am I tend to sip instead of gulp. Every little helps as they say!
2 weeks down, another 2 to go.
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