Day 2

It's 7:17am...thought it was 8am so woke up but I was wrong and can't fall back asleep...fast related or just seeing things? or seeing things cause its fast related? or didn't see just dreamt it was 8am?

Currently:

It's been approximately 36 hours since my "Last Meal" and my head seems OK, a little groggy but that could be the result of the way I woke up. My arms and shoulders feel kind of heavy and my stomach is chatting with my intermittently as if it remembers its hungry every few minutes so has to tell me all about it. Washing my face and brushing my teeth got my heart rate going...it's at 72 beats/min (it's at 60 bpm when I'm just sittin' here typing)

progression/regression:

So last night I decided to add two studies or tests to this experiment. Each day I'll conduct the tests and record them on iMovie and I'll post them on the blog as soon as I can figure out how (if you know how please advise).

Test #1: knitting while fasting. I will knit a row on an undetermined object I am making.

Test #2: reading while fasting. I will read one page of Naomi Wolf's The Beauty Myth

Here's last night's mug shot comparing Monday night, December 14th to Sunday night, December 13th. Note: Only eye liners were used on Sunday but no make up was used on Monday.

I think in the 2nd picture I actually look darker. Both images were taken in the same lighting conditions but I think its way too soon to see any changes in my complextion. The only physical change I can think of is that my hair's puffier because I washed it yesterday morning...didn't think I'd have the energy to wash this mane the rest of the week.

gotta see it's:

So over the next week I'll also add some links to videos or articles I've found on the net about to light vs dark skin preferences. Now there's a lot of them but I'm only going to show those that piss me off, make me laugh or are just plain gotta see it's.

This is a Fair & Lovely ad from India. In 1978 Unilever launched Fair & Lovely in India and is now sold in over 30 countries world wide (info sourced from their website).

watch me or me (cause mom can save the day too)

more to come later!

cover my ass:

This artist does not endorse or reject any product, idea or concept referred to on this blog.

Day 1

Monday, December 14, 2009 @ 10:15am

Goal:

To test the theory that if I fast, my complexion will become paler.

Why:

A while back I had heard that sometimes (emphasize sometimes because I definitely don't want to generalize) an Indian bride would starve herself before her wedding day so that her skin would become paler and therefore she'd be considered more beautiful. This belief seems to be prevalent in India which has the largest growing industry of skin whitening products on the market.

Not just products but methods too...so far I've read or heard of the following ways to achieve that desired skin tone:

• Fasting
• Drinking Vinegar
• Rubbing lemon juice on the skin
• Creams like:
  • Fair n' Lovely (for the ladies)
  • Fair n' Handsome (for the men, so they'd stop using their sister's tube)
  • something called 9x (I have no idea why it's called that)
  • and many more I'll mention over the next week
• and ...I just read an article online (I know, can't always trust what you read online, but I'll look into it later)...anyway in this article, "Letter From Bombay: Could You Please Make Me a Shade Lighter" by Alex Perry, he mentions how at beauty salons they blast skin with tiny sand blowers...wild hey?!
• and I'm sure there's other methods too so if you know of one not mentioned here please let me know.

Fasting:

So here I am testing the first one...Fasting. Last meal was at 7pm Sunday, December 13th. Eggplant and aloo dosa at House of Dosas on Kinsgway and Knight...the best dosas in town and now its open 24 hours folks.

After dinner the fabulous Chris phaji, as well as the menacing but lovely Sandy and Francisco came over to help me set up the spare room as a photo studio. Chuck went home to dial wrong numbers.

Lights are in place (thanks Manolo for the loan) and my digital camera is

set up along with my daily instructions to ensure I take pictures with the same settings each day.

Min 5, Max 7:

Thats the number of days I'll fast for. Basically nothing but water from here on until at least Saturday morning, December 19th or if I last the full 7 days, water until Monday morning, December 21

st. At around 7pm each day I'll head into the blacked out spare room, turn on the lamps, close the door behind me, turn on the camera and sit myself down in front of the tripod.

Currently:

17 hours since my last meal and I'm just a little peckish but OK. Of course it doesn't help that I started my period this morning so gotta take control of cravings.

p.s. Here's a test picture we took last night...you knowthe beforeshot. No foundation, just a little eye shadow, so just little ol' me.