by Kevin Yarr, CBCNews.ca

As a great lover of eating, the news that I would have to go 38 hours without solid food was quite distressing to me.

It was my turn for a colonoscopy.

I will say no more on the procedure itself. It's not appropriate to a food blog, nor is a event that you are virtually unconscious for particularly noteworthy.

But 38 hours without food…

My appointment was for 11 a.m. Friday morning, and the instructions from the doctor said no solid food after midnight Thursday. At a little before 11 p.m. Wednesday I was sitting down with a sandwich, preparing a quiet farewell to chewing for a day and a half. I followed that with a pear and a yogurt, and went to bed feeling very unsettled.

Breakfast was a large glass of white grape juice. As my family bustled around I tried to avoid watching them eat, a difficult task when you are trying to get your kids organized and off to school. Then they were gone and I settled down to work with a cup of tea.

I was quite surprised that I wasn't all that hungry, and that didn't change as the day progressed. I was, however, continually distracted by thoughts of food, though again not in the way I might have expected. It was not visions of barbecued ribs, cheesy lasagnes or coconut cream pies that were distracting me. It was little things. "I think I'll just grab a cookie," would pop into my head, as if it was someone else. "No. You won't," I would respond.

The idea would fade without so much as a whimper, only to reappear as, "How about a cheese biscuit," 20 or 30 minutes later.

And it made me wonder about eating. I have watched my kids want to eat because they were bored, or go for long stretches without because they were deeply involved in something. How much were my distractions prompted by hunger, and how much by moments of boredom, or simply by habit?

I can think of at least two occasions in the last week where I have felt hungrier than I ever did during that food-free day and a half.

By 1 p.m. on Friday I was all done, and ready to go. I had thought before about some elaborate celebratory lunch to mark the end of my fast. But still my hunger, perhaps simply by a learned lack of expectation, was at bay. I had a bowl of chicken rice soup, a biscuit, half a date square and a cup of tea.

And that was all I wanted.

Have you fasted or gone without food for a time? What was your experience?