Day 31 and 739 hours fasted on water, coffee, bone broth, electrolytes, and occasional heavy cream. A great day with our granddaughters and I am getting so much better at not eating. Here are my numbers for today:
Today is the last day of excluding heavy cream. Both my blood glucose and blood ketones have risen slightly: 10mg/dl for glucose and 0.3mmol/l for ketones. The numbers have stabilized nicely so far and I will starting adding the heavy cream again tomorrow, Saturday, to see if the numbers will change. I have not been weighing myself the last few days as I am on the road but will step on the source of many peopleās frustration on Monday morning to see what changes have happened.
Even though the glucose rose it did not get to a level that changed the fuel my body is using which is fat as indicated by my ketones being over about 0.2mmol/l. We will see what happens when I start adding in the heavy cream to see if my glucose goes back down into the 70s again. I am not sure how to explain the details of that but as I hypothesized the other day; because I was not ingesting the fat calories, my liver may have generated more glucose to make up any energy difference. What a fun experiment!
A little over 2 weeks to go until Easter and I am still imagining all of the great meals I can have when I finish this fast. It is not bothering me too much now but if I donāt control it I know from my other fasts that I will end up obsessing over all of my options. I am working to avoid that if I can so I can go directly into a more regular plan of eating.
I donāt need everything in one day but will plan different menus for the days after the fast. I will find out through my refeeding program how often I really need to eat, not when I want to.
Being that Easter Sunday is when I will begin eating I am considering what my refeeding strategy will be. In the past, with my 7-9 day fasts, I just jumped back into eating with both feet and had some bowel issues from it. I have been listening to others to see if I can make the transition a little more pleasant.
Since it will be Easter we are having ham for dinner so I will try starting in the morning by waking up my digestive system and starting up the peristalsis that has stopped or slowed since there is nothing to move through my digestive tract. Many suggest using a few high fat foods like a hand full of nuts and 5 or 6 olives to start things moving in the right direction.
I plan to take my time consuming the ham and may have some vegetables with melted butter. Some cheese on the side would be a nice touch as well. The key will be to only eat until Iām satisfied and it may not take much for satiety to kick in since I havenāt eaten in over 7-weeks. I will continue these posts for a while after I end the fast so those following along can see what happens.
Depending on my control, Iād like to convert this fast into a 20-4 intermittent fast which means that each day I will fast for 20 hours and allow myself a 4-hour eating window, probably 4PM to 8PM. Intermittent fasting gives me a lot of the benefits of the extended day fasting and especially after having fasted for so long I may be able to prolong some of the extended fasting benefits like increased resting metabolic rate (RMR) and increased human growth hormone (HGH.)
I mentioned yesterday that obesity is not caused by calories as we have been told for many decades but by the foods we eat and the action of hormones. The greatest news is that we are not the weak willed gluttons we have been made to feel like by all of those pushing the high carbohydrate diet! High carb (low fat) diets have never worked and of the 89 studies that are available: including 19 before the guidelines were issued, to make all of us part of the largest dietary experiment ever, 88 of them refuted the advice and indicated that a low carb diet was most beneficial!
Using the logic of the low fat diet the Womenās Health Initiative (WHI) was the largest ever study of 50,000 women where they had 1/3 of the women reduce their calories by 500/day and it was estimated they would lose 1 pound a week, 52 pounds in a year, or 156 pounds in the 3-year portion of the study. At the end of 1 year the average weight loss was 6 pounds and at 3 years it was no loss at all! It has been shown over and over that the low fat diet fails 98% of the time!
I changed from that mentality in July 2015, lost over 80 pounds while never being hungry, reversed my pre-diabetes, had my doctor tell me I no longer needed medications for high blood pressure or cholesterol as all of my numbers are great! It is a form of nirvana that I can eat a large variety of fabulous foods for the rest of my life while maintaining my health and possibly prolonging my life!
