Last August I did a 10-day media fast. That meant no consuming media of any kind for a week. No social, no podcasts, no YouTube, no newsletters, no articles.
I really enjoyed the process, and the biggest takeaway was that it led me to make better media choices afterward.
Because of that, my social media consumption is way down, and I got the habit of “trading up” to better media.
I thought another media fast might make me want less media. It did the opposite, it just made me want the good stuff back.
The biggest thing I’ve learned from another 5 days of quitting media consumption is actually the same lesson for food:
If you consume high quality media or food, you don’t need a break from it.
This time, I see that my life is not better without media. I love reading and media of all kinds. I love books, podcasts, essays, interviews…
It’s the poor quality clutter in your feed that drains me.
The cool thing about fasting is it helps you see your relationship to that particular thing you’re taking a break from. You remove it to get a sense about it. I left this one wanting high quality media back.
The Food Fast
I’m using Prolon for the 5-day fast. kit with everything you need. It’s a fasting-mimicking program, so you get a small amount of food each day while still keeping your body in a fasted state. There are soups, olives, bars, teas, and a few other things.
Day 1: Felt great. I’ve done a lot of 24-hour fasts, so I kind of knew the drill.
Honestly, I think a 24-hour fast may be one of the optimal versions for me.
Day 2: Every type of feeling.
Great, tired, sick, great again. I think day 2 was when my body woke up and said, wait, what the F are you doing?
Day 3: I woke up euphoric, almost like a mild altered state. Tons of ideas were hitting me in the morning. Very productive work day.
Then the back half of the day was probably the hardest. I wanted to quit.
Interestingly my sleep was fantastic, even if I thought I didn’t get a great night. AND my HRV went through the roof.
Day 4: The best way I can describe it is that my mind felt like a calm lake with a clear sky.
Not the same euphoria as day 3, but very lucent and still.
Day 5: Ready to be done, and good to neural energy.
I actually am stopping early because I feel like I know my body and I feel “good.” Not stopping to exit I feel content with it.
Would I recommend it?
Maybe. Reading online I think people who are not as attuned to their health have bigger breakthroughs, but also they find it way harder.
I think for me I’ll keep doing 24 hour fasts on occasion, and then mayyybe occasional 3-day fasts. There are a lot of deep biological benefits from going 3+ Days so I’m happy I stuck it out for that.
People really dislike the taste of soups from Prolon, I didn’t mind them that much. And the bars and snacks tasted great.
What I would recommend is any type of small “fast” from something to better understand your relationship to that thing.
It’s smart to subtract something and then see, do I want to add this back in? The point is not a short term fix but a long term shift and adjustment, and fasting I see as a nice intervention to creating that longer term change.
Ask: What can you subtract?
Any questions/comments hit reply!
xx David
More posts on media fasting…
