Ramadan Day 7

Last night was perhaps one of the most difficult yet. I was so tired and thirsty by the time dinner rolled around that I really didn't enjoy my meal as opposed to just wolfing it down as fast as I possibly could... also, not good for digestion. My stomach hurt as I fell asleep, and again, I had another night filled with trips to the bathroom from excess water. It's been a really hard week. I've been doing this for only 6 full days, and then today is the start of the 7th, and I've already lost 5 and a half pounds. I'm sure that most of that is water weight, but it surprised me as I wasn't really "dieting" or doing anything abnormal other than just changing the times I eat, and cutting out water. I'm also losing more hair than normal. This morning my hair brush revealed a larger than normal amount of hair.

Last night I was seriously close to just giving up. We had one hour to go, and I was so thirsty, that I couldn't even get excited about baked potatoes and chicken nuggets (a rare luxury item that occasionally pops up in the market.) All I could think about was water. Then, when I could drink, I felt like I couldn't get enough in my body fast enough. So of course, too much water + drinking too quickly = stomach ache.

I have one week before summer camp starts. When it does, I'm seriously questioning if I'll be able to continue. At camp we usually have a lot of physical activity from about 730 am till around 11 pm when the staff is able to finally wrestle everyone into bed, and then argue with them to go to sleep for another hour. I fear that with the already unrestful sleep, that I will be too exhausted to continue fasting at that point. There are a lot of exemptions for people to not fast for Ramadan... if you're menstruating, ill, disabled, weak, pregnant, or physically unable to fast in a way that does not add problems to your body, then you aren't supposed to fast. In addition, if you are travelling many people refrain from fasting. However, these people who start, then stop, are supposed to resume fasting and ADD the days to the end... so it would just lengthen out the whole process. I'm a little apprehensive about adding days by taking time off, so for now, I'll just keep trying as best I can.