Fasting in the Heat

Just as a test run for next month, I tried to fast today. Oh boy!

Keyword: "tried".

I don't exactly know how I did this last year. Perhaps because last year I was waking up at 10 in the morning, there was a lot less day to last through. Nowadays, with my better sleeping habits, I wake up at 7:30am everyday.

In any case, I thought, it's a physical challenge but I'm tough. I can handle the extra time. I prepared last night by drinking tons of water, and eating a lot of plain yogurt right before bed.
Well, all the water went right to waste on my morning trip to the little girls' room. And while the morning started out fine, after going off to university, waiting around for the bus in 40 degree C weather (which of all days, decided on this one to be late), and getting back home, let's just say I started breaking down. It wasn't so much the walking or the sun. Just sitting in the shade and breathing air in this weather, you feel it sucking the moisture right out of your lungs.

Seven hours after I woke up, it was 2:30pm and there was still at least 5 more hours to go. The hunger didn't faze me, it was the thirst. I was laying on my bed with the worst headache imaginable, feeling nauseous, and thinking, "this is not good. This is worse than I've ever felt, even last year after an entire day's fasting and dehydration!" I decided risking fainting was not a smart plan, and I gave up. Drank water, had soup, and spent the rest of the day gulping down huge amounts of water! I think my body was taking revenge for denying it water earlier.

Clearly, fasting cold turkey will not work very well this year. Especially since this year, I'll be active for around 12 hours instead of 9 while fasting and the weather is hotter. I will be needing some endurance training. My body didn't seem to understand in the morning that we were in water lock down mode, probably because I spent the last month teaching it that water was a-plenty during the day. I need to get used to drinking in the evening and hoarding that water for day time. So the plan is to start drinking less and less during the day, and hydrate at night, until I can last the day.


It's so important to come up with a plan and do some preparations when fasting in very hot weather. It doesn't work like winter, where you just wake up and not eat, and then all goes fine. One needs to stay away from dehydrating foods and excessive carbohydrates. Waking up just before dawn to gulp down a glass or two of water is crucial, and training yourself slowly to drink at night rather than during the day will prevent you from suffering from headache inducing dehydration those first few days of fasting, while your body gets used to the new schedule.
Also, take it easy. Stepping out at noon in 40C weather is probably not the smartest of ideas.