Little Fox's Blog

Fasting Day 3

Another bad night. Struggled to get to sleep and woke around 2am and really struggled to get back to sleep. Woke again some time later in the night, but didn't check the time and again struggled to go back to sleep. Woke with another stress headache.

Overall though, I am feeling fine on the fast. I haven't really felt hungry. I mean, I can look at food and think it looks very nice, but it's not a challenge to avoid it. That's actually been quite a surprise, I really thought I'd struggled more in the first few days. I have also read that day 3/4/5 can be quite bad for hunger and fatigue, but I haven't experienced any of that so far. 

The only thing I'm a bit cross with myself about, is that I didn't bring my scales with me, so I haven't been able to check on a daily basis to see the impact of the fast. But it's not the worst thing in the world to have to wait until Sunday morning. Obviously I'm hoping that there will be a significant shift. I will be disappointed if it's not, as by then I'll be into my 6th day of fasting. I'm secretly hoping for approx. 10lb down, so 9st 8lb on the scales...so we'll see. 

I also had a bit of a worry today about the amount of water I am vs. should be drinking each day. Online info seems to suggest about 2.5 litres and I suspect Day 1 and 2, I drank more than that. I don't feel I'm overdoing it at all. But I don't want to over drink and have issues with lack of electrolytes and minerals. 

Here's my drinking plan for the day:

• Breakfast - 500ml water with apple cider vinegar; 300ml coffee
• Mid morning - 300ml water
• Lunch - 500ml water; 300ml marmite broth
• Dinner - 300ml water; 300ml green tea

This is a total of approx 2.6lts

I did experience a little bit of heart palpitations when I lie down...plus folks baking cookies in the house did make my mouth water a bit...but still no challenge to avoid. Oh and a couple of other observations - my face looks a little less puffy and without make up or anything, my complexion is looks healthy and freckled. Plus my rings are swinging around on my fingers, so they must be less puffy. I don't feel that much has happened weight-wise yet...my tummy doesn't seem to have started to shrink at all. But it's early days. 

Another good day, with no real symptoms or challenges. Roll on day 4!

End of Day 3 @ 12am = 73 hours of fasting

Fasting Day 2

Feeling okay this morning. My stomach is a little rumbly, but we'll see if that continues. Around 11am, I got a tiny bit of heartburn. The apple cider vinegar is supposed to help with that, but clearly it hasn't completely knocked it on the head. But it actually didn't last long at all. 

I read somewhere that it was a good idea not to look at insta photos of food, watch TV where loads of food adverts might appear, etc. etc. Unfortunately I naively thought reading a travel magazine would be a good idea, but forgot about the food porn photos that would be included in some of articles. A beautiful photo of a plate of pasta and truffles made me super hungry. 

Family lunch and a marmite broth and green tea for me. I have to say, sitting down to lunch is a little bit torturous. Everything everyone else was eating looked so good - avocados, flageolet beans, the cheese. But I am feeling okay and not hungry. It's not hard to be strong and focused.

I went for an early evening walk up into the hills to look for blackberries. I was a tiny bit light-headed when I stood here and there and had that feeling of being delicate and brittle. However, I would say that the blackberry picking is a lovely occupation and I thoroughly enjoyed myself. The best part is the distraction and having something to do other than food shopping, prep and eating.  

All in all another day that was okay and not too tricky. 

End of Day 2 @ 12am = 49 hours fasting

Fasting Day 1

Starting weight = 10st 4lbs

I started the fast on 13th at 11pm...that was the last time I had something to eat/drink which had calories. It was a bit of strange transition in terms of mindset. Obviously on Day 1, I was very keen to get going and wasn't hungry. However, I completely managed to forget I was fasting when I was preparing lunch and ate a tiny bit of food. It was a teeny tiny amount and nothing to be upset about...probably no more than about 10-20 calories. But still annoying nonetheless. 

I had water, obviously. But also had a matcha green tea. And thankfully I did really experience any hunger. I think the eating mistake, came more from habit and mindless eating than anything else. I did take all my supplements too. So that's multivitamins, Rise and Kado, and a hair and nail tablet.

First night's sleep was pretty poor. I didn't feel very well in the night and had some kind of rapid eye movement, which left me with a horrible stress headache the following morning. I also didn't manage to get to sleep or sleep for long either. I think my sleep app on the watch said 2am to 6.20am.

So now, I am waiting to see what nasty symptoms crop up on Day 2. All in all, Day 1 went well. 

End of Day 1 @ 12am = 25 hours fasting

 

Fasting - Introduction

Today, I've decided that I am going to do a fast. A few years ago, I watched Michael Moseley's BBC documentary, "Eat, Fast and Live Longer". In that, he goes on a 3-day fast, with dramatic results in terms of reducing health risks.

For me, I'm not sure exactly how long I will be fasting for. I think I need to make a start on this journey and see where it takes me. I will definitely be aiming to go to a minimum of three days. I've read quite a bit about water fasting and I've also been looking at keto fasting - initial fasting and then moving to intermittent fasting. I am planning to tailor my fast to what I think is going to be right for me. Obviously as I move forward on my journey, I can adjust and adapt to make sure I'm not doing something wrong. 

So my plan is to start tonight, once I've had my last calorie intake. I will be drinking:

• Water - sparkling and still (filtered)
• Apple Cider Vinegar - 3 teaspoons in water in the morning
• Green tea - max. 3 cups a day, but preferably 2
• Coffee - black and only first thing in the morning
• Teaspoon of marmite in hot water at lunch and at dinner
• Supplements: multivitamin, Rise and Kado, hair and nail tablet

I've roughly (and probably) over-estimated my daily calorie intake on the above at roughly 50 cals. 

I'm hoping despite the marmite 'soups' and the supplements, I should get my body into ketosis within 1-3 days. From there, we'll see how long I can go. I've heard that days 3-5 can be pretty mentally tough, with a lot of exhaustion, and then the hunger disappears and your energy levels should start to increase. There's even the possibility that you'll get highs and feelings of euphoria, once the brain starts to function from the ketos. 

Once you've used up the glycogen stores in your body and move into ketosis a detoxification process begins. The toxins that are stored in the fat cells start to be released, as the fat is broken down for energy. Another affect of prolonged fasting, is that the body looks for other resources to break down for energy and it focuses on breaking down the damaged, older immune cells. This gives your immune system a reboot essentially. In addition to this, by fasting you give your whole body a chance to focus on repairing and healing, as your body isn't simply focused on food processing. There's obviously the added benefit of rebooting your relationship with food and allowing your gut to reset itself. 

Anyhow, the reason I've not decided how long I will go, is because fasting is not a simple one size fits all. You need to listen to your body to know when to stop. I know I need to try to aim for over 5 days. I am hoping at that point the hunger will have disappeared. And from that point, people can go different numbers of days. I mentioned that you need to listen to your body, as you know your fast should end, when you re-experience the hunger pangs again and genuinely believe you can't and shouldn't go further . That's theoretically when your fast should come to an end. We'll see how I get on. I would like to get to 10 days, but I'm open to this being shorter or longer depending on how I feel.