I was in my mid-twenties in the late 1970’s. It was “FAD” everything in those days. Disco was BIG! People were dancing the “Bump” to Donna Summers. You’d bump your butt against you’re partners, slowly and sensually, (alright, you had to be there). This was the “old fashioned” prelude to the “bump and grind” that the kids do today (which is just as bad!). Diets were “in.” Everyone wanted to look like that twig-thin English model, “Twiggy” (very appropriate name). Goldie Hawn was on the “Laugh-In” show every week in her teenie-weenie bikini. She was really cute and skinny and danced around gyrating her body long enough for every girl in the country to want to do the same. But of course, you couldn’t go around gyrating your body in a teenie-weenie bikini, unless, you had a body like hers! Every young woman I knew back then was trying to get a body they could show off in a bikini. It hasn’t changed much since then. If anything, it’s gotten worse. Today, the young women wanting to show off their bodies, are no longer just in their mid-twenties. Not even, in their early 20’s. Now they start thinking about this at age 11 or 12 and some start even earlier than that.
In my early 20’s, I was reading a book about meditation and I came across a chapter on “fasting”. This would be my first experience with weight loss. The book suggested a week-long “juice only” fast for the purpose of “cleansing” the body. I think it talked about giving your digestive system a “break” from solid foods. I knew very little about nutrition and body needs and processes at the time. This “break” idea made sense to me. So began my journey into fasting. I would eat nothing solid for 3 days out of every week. Monday through Wednesday, I drank only light juices like apple juice. On Thursday and Friday, I ate very light foods, like toast, and gelatin, and mashed potatoes, introducing a little protein here and there. The weekends were free. I could eat anything I wanted until starting my fast again on Monday. Of course, anything I ate went right through me, since the body couldn’t handle these regular meals after fasting. It seemed easy to me at the time. It must have been the age. I couldn’t go now for an entire day without eating anything (I recently tried it and failed). What I found was, that as time went by, I didn’t even want any juice. I started drinking only water and diet soda. I was never really hungry. My fasts started getting longer and longer. First four days in a row, then five days, and finally, I would go for six days with nothing to eat. I would eat a lot on the seventh day. I did this for months. I am 5 feet 2 inches tall, and I weighed 102 at the time. If you look at those height/weight charts, the minimum weight for 5′ 2″ has always been between 102lbs. and 105lbs. I’ll tell you right now, that is WAY too low. It started to scare me a little. I’d lost about 22 pounds and I felt tired all of the time. I started working at a hospital clinic that required an employee physical. I’d been working there for about a week, when one of the clinic doctors came out to my desk and asked if he could speak to me privately. He had the results of my employee physical in his hands and he hadn’t even waited for an appointment to talk to me about it. He asked me if I was on a diet. I told him I was always on a diet. He said that my body was in “Ketosis” and that I was burning body fat at a very quick rate. I remember laughing and thinking that this had to be a “good” thing. Then he got really serious. He said whatever I was doing, I needed to stop, because I was physically at a very dangerous level. He said that what I was doing to myself could kill me. I thought he was kidding and I jokingly asked him how long I had to live. He remained serious and said that If I kept it up, I would die very soon! I couldn’t believe it! That was the end of my fasting experience. About that time, the Atkins Diet had “hit the scene” and everyone was talking about it! I figured it couldn’t be as bad for me as the fasting had been. I bought the book, and dove right in!
A. zudro
