Adrian Parsons on Dec. 29, the 22nd day of his hunger strike. Photo by Matt Dunn

And after 25 days, he ate.

Adrian Parsons, the performance artist and activist who spent the final weeks of 2011 wasting away in a protest over the District’s lack of full congressional representation, finally broke his hunger strike last night with a swig of coconut water outside Mayor Vince Gray’s house.

Beside some multivitamins Parsons ingested during the three-week fast, the liter of Vita Coco he drank last night was the first real nutrition his body took in since the strike began December 8. Along with the potassium-rich beverage, Parsons’ first meal included a dish of chicken broth prepared by his mother.

Parsons, 29, said the decision to eat again was motivated purely by health concerns. As his body consumed muscle and fat mass—the six-foot tall activist weighed 150 pounds before the hunger strike—it produced more and more ketones, which are byproducts of liver and kidney functions that burn fatty acids for energy. By the end, he had lost 27 pounds, more than one-sixth his starting weight. In recent days, Parsons said, the ketone levels in his blood and urine continued to spike, and that a sensation of pain in his lower back was related to his renal system beginning to break down.

“My family is absolutely relieved,” Parsons said in an interview today. “We’re joking that I’m ‘normal’ again.” During the strike, Parsons was looked after by his parents as well as his sister, Samantha, who is an intensive-care nurse in San Diego. She returned home yesterday before her brother’s 7 p.m. fast-breaking, though she had been told it would happen.

Ending the hunger strike outside Gray’s house on Branch Avenue SE in the Hillcrest neighborhood was a followup to a hunger strike event last week at which Parsons and his fellow protesters had expected the mayor’s attendance. Gray did not show up to the press conference on Thomas Circle, where Parsons announced three new initiatives by his group, Occupy the Vote D.C., including a voting-rights petition, a shared 51-day “solidarity strike” and a proposal for a new city government office that would act as a watchdog over federal legislation targeting the District.

Gray did not appear last night either, and a Metropolitan Police Department officer stationed outside Gray’s house—which was still festooned with Christmas decorations, including an over-sized inflatable Mickey Mouse dressed as Santa Claus—told Parsons and the other protesters Gray wasn’t home. Still, Parsons said, he has a meeting scheduled with the mayor tomorrow.

Parsons, who spent much of the past three weeks laying in bed, looked almost ghostly at the press conference and appeared to be holding on to the podium to keep from falling over. “Friday was about as bad as it got,” he said, adding that his blood pressure had dropped to about 95 over 60 and that his pulse was down to 55 to 60 beats per minute.

Now eating again, Parsons’ recovery process is “really just building muscle back after I get past the dietary” shock, he said. Since the meal of coconut water and chicken broth, Parsons has also eaten a bit of granola, egg whites and kale cooked with garlic and Sriracha sauce. “My energy level is just insane with the introduction of sugars,” he said.

In response to a doctor’s recommendation that he ingest more protein, Parsons has also been munching on mixed nuts, though this caused a histamine breakout in his mouth and face.

“I know I’m allergic to a nut,” he said, “I’m just not sure which one.”