First EF - aftermath not so good

(LeeAnn Brooks) #1

I did my first EF of 40 hours (that is EF right?)

It came completely natural. I wasn’t even planning it. I was going to do OMAD, and when I got to dinner, I was too tired to cook and not at all hungry, so I thought “what the hell. Let’s give this a go.”

It went very smoothly until about 9:30 this morning. I was starting to feel off, so I ended the fast with an entire package of pork rinds.

Since then I have felt weird. Like a mellow I’m not used to. If it were just the mellowness, I’d be fine with it. But now I’m getting nauseous. My fast was over almost 5 hours ago. I’ve had water, a zipfizz and my supplements. And I’ve been sucking on salt which usually takes the nausea away within minutes, but not this time.

Any thoughts?

(icky) #2

I’ve mentioned before on the forum that I did 10 years of several EF’s per year (up to 3 weeks each).

In EF communities, we have quite a few rules, some are REALLY strict.

I don’t really see ANY of them being followed by people fasting on this forum, so I dunno.

One rule of my EF community is that you eat a TINY amount of food when you break a fast.

Maybe 1 - 2 teaspoons. Or 1 - 2 tablespoons.

This is so your stomach/ bowels can SLOWLY adjust to food again.

In my EF community this is also done to avoid “re-feeding” syndrome.

Eating an entire package of pork rinds to break a fast would be considered “insanity” in my EF community. I’m NOT saying that to be judgemental - just to give you feedback of how that would be viewed there - as an absolute “no go”.

I am part of a very tolerant, flexible EF community - much like this Keto forum - so definitely no “EF Police”.

The few strict rules we have are based on the member’s decades of EF experience.

Obviously, everyone is n=1 and if other approaches work for other people, that’s cool.

I can only share what I’ve learnt from 10 years of EF and from my (positive) EF community.

(I can’t rule out that those EF rules may be incorrect tho… Just sharing what I “know”.)

(LeeAnn Brooks) #3

Okay, so next time no pork rinds.

I can see that causing the nausea (and a touch of diarrhea) but would that cause this really down feeling? Not depressed, not quite tired… but like I said, very uncharacteristly mellow for me. Sort of a fog.

(icky) #4

As I said, I’m only sharing my “knowledge” but many here may successfully break a fast with a package of pork rinds, who knows :slight_smile:

For me, it would be a big red flag re nausea tho.

Not sure what’s going on re emotions/ foggy-ness…

Maybe it was just a bit much all together - your first fast and then a non-gentle breaking of the fast with nausea - maybe your system just feels a bit overwhelmed?

I read that you also did the fast after a biiiig amount of physical work, so maybe a lot of factors combining?

Maybe someone else will think of something re feeling down.

I’ve never experienced it when breaking a fast or heard of it, so I don’t know.

I’ve certainly heard the very nauseous thing re breaking a fast too heavily a LOT, so I assume that’s contributing.

Also, you can get a “fasting high” during fasting - maybe you can get a “post fasting low” ?? Who knows?

(LeeAnn Brooks) #5

Yes, I did a massive amount of physical stuff yesterday, and then I also ran 5 miles this morning still fasted. I was fine at the time. That’s when I was really thinking of going 48 hours, but about 3 hours latter is when I started to feel this fog, and I had to go into work, so I decided to break the fast. It was a quick decision on my way out the door and I didn’t have anything prepared since I was planning on continuing the fast up to dinner tonight.

I thought having something small would be like snacking, thus grabbing the pork rinds and making a meal of it in the car on the way to work.

(icky) #6

I think it’s great that you gave this a go and that you trusted your instincts and intuition and listened to your body.

As with anything new, there will be hiccups and weird experiences at first.

My only advice would be to try and pamper yourself today, as best you can, so your mind and body don’t remember your first EF as something negative.

Try and find a way of rounding off your day so it turns into an overall positive experience, with a bit of a blip that will serve as a learning curve for next time.

I had a LOT of fails when I first started learning to fast - just as we all had quite a few Keto fails as we were learning the ropes :smile:

All that matters is keeping the size/ impact of the fail within reasonable limits, so you don’t feel discouraged or averse to trying it again, when you feel ready.

Hope the rest of your day picks up and you are double nice to yourself today!! :heart:

Your first EF is a big achievement and a cause for celebration! :cherry_blossom::sunny::tada: :clinking_glasses:

Hope the nausea/ feeling low stops soon, so you can enjoy the achievement! :blush:

(LeeAnn Brooks) #7

I took off work early. Somehow even when you’re legitimately ill, being off work makes it feel better.

(Katie the Quiche Scoffing Stick Ninja ) #8

Thank you for sharing that information, can you explain any other differences between your EF community and this one? Your rules for fasting? It’s piqued my interest and I’d like to learn more about the stricter rules as I may choose to follow when I start.

(icky) #9

Yup, I’ve book-marked this, to reply to in-depth later on.

I’m going to have to give it some though :smile:

For one thing, it feels like “Sum up fasting [or Keto] in 20 words or less” and obviously, there’s a bit more subtle/ complex stuff going on.

Also, I’ve been fasting for so many years now, I do it all on auto-pilot so I’m actually going to have to rack my brain to make sure I don’t miss any of the basic info! :thinking:

(Roy D Rushing Jr ) #10

I’ve read that people do have some trouble in day 2 of a fast anyway. Seems like part of it is just their body crying out for food because it’s used to getting it at regular intervals. Part of it could also be a kind of lag between your body drawing down hard on it’s fat stores and using food for energy. Supposedly day 3 is much better. So much so that I’ve heard people say that doing a fast for less than three days feels kind of like a waste, since they get all the negative parts of a fast and very few of the cognitive and energy benefits of it.

(Dom DePlume) #11

The biggest thing here is the breaking of your fast, and how you did it (as some above indicated). Many people think of the stomach as a gas tank. When it’s empty, fill it full of fuel and you’re good to go.

This is really, really wrong.

Your stomach is more akin to the fire-box of a furnace. If you let a fire-box get cold, then dump a bunch of raw fuel in it and spark it up, all sorts of bad things happen. Too much fuel too fast in a cold box will damage it with thermo-shock, soot, and all other manner of badness. When you have a cold box, you build a tiny fire, and build back the heat over hours. This reconditions the box, making it more efficient over-all, but also making it ease in to its ideal temperature, so that it can take as much fuel as you ideally need it to.

(Dustin Cade) #12

I’ll normally break any fast longer than 36 hours by just having a boiled egg with salt and some water. give it about 30 minutes to an hour and have a normal meal.

(icky) #13

Annie, are you feeling better today?

How did your afternoon/ evening end up going yesterday?

(LeeAnn Brooks) #14

I was tired all last night and decided to play a little hooky from work today. Very uncharacteristic for me, but my son has a ball game and I still wanted more sleep this morning. I slept until 9. REALLY uncarachteristic for me. And when I got up the whole room was spinning like crazy. My husband actually jumped up to grab ahold of me because he thought I was going to pass out.
Too much laying down and getting up too fast I guess. I get that a lot, but never as severe as this morning.

I had some salt and water and 8 slices of bacon and I’m feeling great right now!:grin:

(icky) #15

Glad you’re feeling okay again now!!