‘Starve’ is Such an Ugly Word

A day without food can be a neat experience (neat like the chicken pox {you only ever want to go through it once}). You begin to understand the many ways your body has control over your mind. You begin to understand that you can resist your body’s urges (urges other than those of a sexual nature {some people still can’t resist them}) to a certain point (we’ll call it ‘the terminal hunger point’ {or ‘Jack’ for short}), at the cost of some fatigue and good spirits (not the drinkable spirits {or the drinkable fatigue?}). It gives you an appreciation for the fact that a person can in fact go months without food, but that it is not a good thing to do.

Some people purposely starve themselves (though they call it fasting {even though they’re slowing down}). For whatever reason, they decide to no longer eat. For the first few very uncomfortable days (starting day 1 {or night 1}) your body uses up any carbohydrates it has remaining. After this your body starts breaking down (but not like a car {or a hip hop dance}) fat. Because your body has no more glucose, your liver ends up being the organ that breaks down the fat. Doing so creates keytones of various sorts (to open different locksounds? {add an ‘s’ in the middle and you can hold up arches}), which can cause discolored pee and horrible breath, and worse (worse than horrible breath? {maybe that’s why the dragons died off}). Once the fat’s depleted, the body systematically eats away muscle and organ until you waste away into nothing (or waist away {discarding food adds to waste, eating food adds to waist}).

Though some people have been recorded to have lived through months of fast, most people don’t make it more than 2 months (most people aren’t very healthy to start with {ironically, because of what they do eat}). Gandhi, a wonderful spokesperson for pacifism in South Africa and India (in Civilization IV the Indian special unit is called the ‘Fast Worker’, but it only refers to their speed {how would I know that in an asylum?}), is famous for his many fasts. However, no one fast lasted for more than 21 days (that’s it? {3 weeks, 1 weak}).

I’m just finishing day 1. I watch those around me eat the remaining rations, and I know that they need it more than I do. As long as we have water, which is provided by faucets, I will be fine. You can live months without food, but not nearly as long without water.