63 hours and one to go

Well, I completed another long fast. I am on hour 63 and plan to break my fast at 12 noon in one hour with a lunch of stir fry with broccoli, carrot, snow peas, bean sprouts, zucchini, cauliflower, chicken, beef, noodles and rice with teriyaki and soy sauce. I will also get my favourite onion rings to have as a treat and some dessert of peanut butter cups! MMMMMM....

I have been dreaming about food since last night. It is definitely more of a challenge doing these extended fasts. Especially when there are nothing but food commercials and people eating around you all day and night! But, I managed to get through it and this morning the scale showed a loss of over 7LBS since I weighed in before the fast!!! Pretty amazing. I think the number was a bit inflated though because I had done nothing but drink wine and eat restaurant food for a week so I am sure I was retaining a lot of water due to dehydration and too much salt. But in any case, I am back to the number I was at when I left for my vacation so that was the goal.

I am definitely going to incorporate these extended fasts into my routine. I needed to kick it up a notch to break this plateau and I really think that this will help me out. I tried eating less during my eating window and although I still will try and sometimes I am successful, it seems harder to me than having an extended fast once every month or two. I guess that is why intermittent fasting works so well for me rather than counting calories or eating small meals of veggies and protein every two hours or any of the other deprivation diets out there. I find it easier to eat nothing at all, for a certain amount of time, rather than to watch what I eat every meal, every day...so, whatever works.

I am very grateful for fasting and how it has helped me change my life.

Another long fast

Well, I am back from vacation and back up the 5 Lbs I lost before I went!!

Not really too bad considering I had a lot of wine and restaurant food on my vacation! And a lot of dessert! So 5Lbs isn't too bad.

Today I am beginning another long fast journey to try to correct the damage I did on my vacation. I stopped eating yesterday at 8pm and plan on fasting until Thursday at 12noon. That will be a total of 64 hours fasting! I am working my way up to a 72 hour fast. I think I would really like to incorporate these long fasts into my routine. Once a month do a long 60-72hour fast to fix up any extra calories that are consumed in the month.

I had a great time in Las Vegas and Texas this past couple of weeks. The weather was AMAZING! Sunny and hot every day. So nice to escape the rain out here in Vancouver and lay in the sun for a change. It went WAY too fast, but it was really great to see my best friend again who lives in Austin and to play with her two beautiful children who are such angels. Thanks to her and her husband for such wonderful hospitality.

So far I have been fasting for 19 hours. I feel fine, have had no hunger at all yet today. I look forward to going to yoga tonight as well and hope that after I complete my fast on Thursday afternoon that the scale will be back where it was when I left! Wish me luck!!

Intermittent Fasting (for the newbies)

I know there are a few newbies reading my blog and so I wanted to address the questions from them. Alice says that it is her first 3 days and she has noticed a weight gain of two pounds.

I understand that it can be very frustrating and scary to see weight gain, but don't be discouraged! Go to Dr. Herring's website, create a username and password and download his book, FOR FREE. It is a small 30 page book that will help you to understand the science behind intermittent fasting. It is helpful to determine if what you are doing is the absolutely correct way of fasting.

Dr. Herring does mention that you could see no weight loss for up to two weeks...and that it is normal to overeat or binge in the beginning until you are used to the schedule and your body adjusts. Don't worry, it is normal.

You could have a weight gain for an infinite number of reasons.

That time of the month

Water retention (too much salt, or not enough water)

Not enough bowel movements

Time of weigh in fluctuating

Food still in the stomach

Also, it is possible that during the fasting period, calories are getting in somehow. Milk in coffee for example. Sometimes, even artificial sweeteners will stop the fasting process. Dr. Herring's book explains so well how the fasting process works. We need to keep our bodies in the fat burning state for as long as possible. Artificial sweeteners can trick the body into thinking it has had food. Some diabetics can't even have sweeteners because it increases their insulin levels. Even chewing gum during the fasting time could hinder your progress at first.

The other thing you need to consider is how much you are eating now in comparison to how much you were eating before. That is the real key. We need to reduce the amount of calories we are eating. Fasting is a way to keep us in line, we can skip two meals and eat our one meal as we would have before which would actually reduce the amount of calories we consume.

However, if in your eating period, you are eating more than you ate before you started fasting and were having three meals a day, then yes, you would probably see weight gain. If you are finding that you binge a bit when your eating window opens, don't stress to much about it, eventually you will find that you calm down a bit and eat less. This is something that I have struggled with though and so may be a stumbling block. I suggest that you try to think of your eating time as a normal meal that you would regularly have when eating, not a licence to eat everything you ever wanted. Moderation is the key here. Have dessert but don't eat the whole cake.

Take all of the above into account and stick to it! You WILL see results.

Fasting on Vacation

A lot of people ask me what I am going to do about my eating when I am on vacation. I always find this question a bit comical. I have been eating this way for over a year and I have taken several vacations. If I was going to throw my eating habits out the window while I was on vacation, it really wouldn't take that long for this lifestyle to fail all together.

When on vacation I eat the way I always eat. I fast for 19 hours per day and eat within a 5 hour window. Fasting on vacation is no different than fasting at home. The only difference is that I move my window usually to dinner time. This is because dinner seems to be the most important meal during vacation. Where ever you are, who ever you are with, it will be easy to determine which meal is the "important" meal of the day. Usually there are plans for what to do in that day, or where to go. With this information, you can easily determine which meal will be the dominate meal. That is when I eat. During that "special" meal of the day with whoever I am traveling with or visiting.

I have been doing very well while on vacation. The only difference is that there is much more restaurant food than in my day to day life. I have found that this has only a small effect on the big picture, so I really don't worry about it much.

I have been in my swimsuit quite a bit, the weather is hot and it is so enjoyable to lay in the sun and swim in the pool. I feel so confident in my swimsuit, much better than ever before. Confidence. Confidence is beautiful. I really notice a difference. Confidence is the key.

Who to tell and when

One of the most common things I hear from fellow fasters is that they get lots of criticism from the people around them about how they choose to eat. It is natural that people would react this way. What we are doing is against the norm, against society and against what everyone is being taught by the food and diet industry.

Diet industries don't really want us to get thin and stay thin. They want to keep selling books and powders and pills. How better to do that than to create a diet that is impossible to stick to long term, you would then re-gain the weight and go right back to them, buying their "updated version" of the book and the newest powders and potions.

Food industries want us to eat, and eat lots. They make BILLIONS of dollars getting us to do that. TV sells us the midnight snack and chips and dips for that big game. It is all about food and lots of it. They say thinks like, "Breakfast is the most important meal of the day." "Your body neads fuel to run, you wouldn't drive your car with no gas would you?" "Your metabolism will crash if you don't eat regular meals every day."

I have being fasting now for over a year, others who follow this blog have been fasting double or triple that time. We will all tell you that the claims above are simply not true. Our experience backed by countless research studies highlighted on this blog prove that it is not true.

But, everyone needs to do what is right FOR THEM. There are lots of healthy people out there who eat three square meals or six small meals a day. There are lots of healthy people out there who eat no carbs, or do the zone, or follow weight watchers or have surgery to make their stomach smaller. All of these methods are great, if they work for you then all the power to you! And by "work" I mean long term maintainable results that last!

It is ok if not everyone shares your enthusiasm for fasting. If it works for you, ignore them all. In the beginning, I would strongly suggest that you tell very few if not no one what method you are trying because the truth is that they will have a hard time buying into it at first glance without seeing real results.

I got TONS of slack in the beginning. I tried not to tell too many people, but the people I told were not very supportive. BUT, once I had lost a significant amount of weight and the people around me began to see the changes in me, their criticism had less effect on me and frankly less effect on them too, they couldn't deny that it was working for me. I was looking better and feeling better and acting better too. I was happier and calmer, they saw that.

After a while people just began to accept, and those who didn't, my standard response was, "It really works for me and that is all that matters, we all have to do what works for us."

For those of you who are new to this way of life, keep intermittent fasting under your belt for a while. Eventually your belt will get so big on you that intermittent fasting will have to be revealed and by then, the argument will seem irrelevant.

You have to do what works FOR YOU!

I MADE IT!

Well, I have successfully completed my 60 HOUR FAST!!! YEAH!! It was pretty good. I didn't have any trouble with it except for around 6pm last night when I got home from work I started contemplating giving in...but I didn't! I stuck it out and didn't break my fast until 12 noon today which put me dead on at 60 hours!

I did have trouble doing my workout though. I tried to do my weight routine but felt a bit tired and woozy so decided to sit it out instead. I will try again another day to put the weights back in. But I will be going to Yoga tonight so I will get that exercise in.

I drank tons of water and one cup of tea yesterday which really helped to keep me on track. I think that is why at 6pm I was wavering a bit, I had been on my commute for over an hour with no liquids. The liquids really help in keeping the stomach in check. Last night I noticed in the mirror how flat my stomach looked. It was nice to see the progress I have made, sometimes I don't notice it because it is so slow, but I certainly saw a difference last night.

I felt really good this morning, full of energy and happy and excited about the day. I was calm when I went to get my food. I got a bit over excited when it was getting close to eating it but I just put myself in check and calmed myself down. And when I did eat, I was careful to eat small bites, put down the fork and chew slowly. It was really nice because I really enjoyed my food and I feel full and satisfied.

I wasn't successful at just having a salad and some snacks though, I decided that I would be in danger of getting more food from the vending machine or the coffee shop downstairs if I didn't have enough food for my lunch. So, instead I got a stir fry with broccoli, cauliflower, snap peas, zucchini, bean sprouts, carrots, and some chicken and rice. That was really enjoyable but also chalk full of nutrients.

I am pretty happy with the results on the scale. IN TWO DAYS I LOST 5LBS!!! I know that some will come back after eating etc. But if I keep it in check today and don't eat anything else, I should keep most of that off. So hopefully this will mean that I have broken that plateau finally. But we will see how it goes in the long term.

But for now, I am really pleased and I think that I may try this again next month. Maybe make it a new part of my routine. Since I already do one long 38-48 hour fast once per week, it isn't really that hard to extend it to 60-72 hours once a month. It would add that little extra I seem to need to get me to the next level.

60 Hour Fast Progress Report

Well, so far so good. I am on hour 38 right now which is nothing new for me so no big deal there. I have done up to 48 hours before and regularly do 38 hour fast once per week. But this new 60 hour fast will be a first for me.

I feel really good. I have lots of energy, I am being really productive at work and I feel really alert and happy. I have ZERO hunger right now. I feel kind of like you feel a couple hours after you eat, not full, but not hungry either...It is kind of weird really, not having had any food at all for 38 hours and NO hunger...the body is an amazing thing.

Yesterday I didn't have nearly enough liquids so today I am trying really hard to drink lots. I have already had 3 huge glasses of water and a tea.

I plan on lifting weights tonight. My weight routine is usually about an hour long. I use the Venus Index Workout, although, I haven't been doing it for a couple of months now. But, tonight is the first night of me going back to that, so we will see how I do since I have been fasting for so long.

Tomorrow I plan to break my fast at 12 noon and make it a slow progression to food. I will have a salad and bring some nuts and fruit for a snack later on and try to keep it at that. I will wait until Wednesday to completely return to normal and eat my regular lunches and snacks.

I am really interested to see what the scale has to say after all of this. Hopefully most of the weight I release during this time will stay off! Just in time for fitting into that swimsuit on Friday!!!

The BIG long fast

Thanks to a comment from one of my readers, Todd, on Plateau Hell, I have decided to take his advice and try a really long fast so shock my body into getting back on the down low! He suggested a 72 hour fast with a workout and then breaking the fast really slow with no big celebratory meal but small healthy snacks instead. With the help of intermittent fasting I have managed to release close to 50LBS, but I still have a way to go and would like to release 30 more. Hopefully this long fast will kick start that to happen.

I am also adding some exercise into my routine. I have begun doing yoga twice a week and I really enjoy it. And I would like to get back to my weights, I have neglected them for some time now but on Monday I plan to put them back in practice and try to do weights three times a week and yoga twice.

The other thing I am committed to trying is to eat slower. My husband is the youngest of 10 and had 6 older brothers! For him eating fast was survival. He had to eat fast to get any food! But lately, he has been trying to eat slow, putting his fork down between each bite and taking smaller bites. He has really noticed a difference in the amount of food he eats. I want to try that as well. I think living with him for so long, I have picked up his habit of eating too fast. I want to see if eating smaller bites, slower means it well help me to not overeat during my eating window.

And so, today, I will begin my long fast. I intend to try to make it to 60 HOURS! I last ate at midnight last night and intend to fast until noon on Tuesday. Today will be a breeze because I have pottery class from 10 am to 5:30 pm. I rarely think of food on Sundays. Monday at work should be ok too because I find that once I have fasted for over 24 hours, I feel ZERO hunger at all. I think my body kind of just gives up and doesn't bother asking anymore. We will see how Monday evening goes, because I intend on doing my weight workout in my fasted state. I have done that before on a 38 hour fast with no problem so I am sure it will be fine.

I will let you know how it all goes and who knows, if I feel fine on Tuesday at noon, maybe I will increase it to the 72 hours that Todd recommended.

Wish me luck!!

Great Weekend

This weekend was really good as far as over eating goes. I did really well and didn't go overboard or eat outside my window. I completed an all day fast today and when I break my fast tomorrow it will have been 38 hours. YIPPEE! Hoping the scale will be nice to me tomorrow.

I had a really great day in pottery class today and made some beautiful vases. I have really turned a corner with pottery and feel like my stuff is getting close to the sellable state. If only I could just quit my job and become a full time potter, what a dream.

Back to work tomorrow but not too long and I am on vacation! Got to do well for the next couple of weeks so I can look good in my new bathing suit!