JAN. 2022 IF/EF Chat Thread (All Welcome)

#3

Hi guys! December wasn’t so great, let’s not talk about that. I went close to OMAD in the last days and now… I will go even closer! Today I had tiny bites after 2pm but it’s good enough for now :wink: It’s almost 4:30pm and I will eat soon, I guess. But not immediately. I ate more than enough in the last days, I just don’t feel fasting could work for me.

I plan to do NOFUSS (no food until sunset. it’s winter here, sunset is around 4pm) from now on as I already did it a lot in the last months and it should be easy as I almost never get properly hungry earlier.
OMAD is the plan but with my super strict carnivore for January… It’s possible I just can’t eat all my food in one sitting every day. I do my best to do 22/2 then but I only want a small eating window (somewhere between 4 and 8pm, late eating isn’t for me, usually) and a cute calorie deficit on most days. And carnivore. And maybe EF on the monthly group fast but we will see!

I am getting ready and determined for my best than ever January since a long time, January is always my strictest month anyway, after the never very great December so I am quite hopeful. I even had enough of my struggles so I mean business now! :smiley:

Have a great month and year, fasting wise and in other ways, everyone!

I can’t even imagine that… Well once I was busy with programming all day and didn’t eat but it was once in my whole life! :smiley: I am thinking about food almost all the time, one of my goals is stopping that.

Oh, fasting goals for 2022… Let’s see.

  1. I want my OMAD to become my default and very common thing. Natural and easy on most days. I lost the need for my already not early lunch around 3pm some months ago, not every day but often so I finally am ready for this.

  2. If I can do it comfortably, I wish a 48-72 hour fast every month. Well I want a proper, honest attempt and if I see my body is incompatible with it, I give it up. But I could do it just fine while having less fat so I think the problem is more like habitual, mental…

  3. I focus on drinking mostly water in my fasting window. Maybe occasionally tea. I do my best to get rid of my daily coffee drinking. I definitely won’t drink it before noon, that’s usually almost effortless already.

(Robin) #4

Good plan!

(KCKO, KCFO) #5

I am eating today but will be fasting, starting after dinner, for at least 36 hrs. I will just ride the wave for as long as it will take me.

I plan to revisit Dr. Westman’s pg. 4 protocol after that fast. I have bounced a bit the last two months and want to get that under control.

Fasting for 48 hours
(Jane) #6

I will be starting a 60+ hour fast tonight after dinner.

Haven’t fasted in nearly a month so looking forward to it. I will be traveling next week on business with a colleague so can’t fast next week.

KCFO

(Bob M) #7

I don’t think I can fast this week. I’ll try for next week, though. Would like a 4.5 day fast. We’ll see.

#8

Meanwhile I finally managed a small eating window today… About 3 hours? It’s good enough for me right now.
I had some slight difficulties with my usually stricter carnivore. As my appetite went negative and it stays there for most of the time and I often don’t want any food but I must as my body wants it. There are better and worse days but I eat too much. Okay, I got used to this style (with the relaxed days when needed), now I focus on my IF! OMAD gets harder the lower I go with carbs and now it’s normally 5g a day, more on relaxed days so my new goal is NOFUSS only. Sunset is at 16:18 tomorrow, I should be able to do it :slight_smile: I really hope I won’t go over 2 meals that way. My first meal is biggish already so 2 proper meals hardly fits.

I learned I really can ignore tiny, not proper hunger, it easily goes away. I will keep eating every day for now, I go for EF on the monthly group fast and we will see what happens later but I really want to stick to a tiny eating window, no matter what. It’s more important than my woe (not like I can go too far from it anyway so I don’t need to focus on that so much. but I easily eat too many meals a day and that’s not nice).

One reason I ate early sometimes that it was such a precious thing to get a tiny appetite at lunchtime! It’s horrible when eating is a chore but I can’t skip that, I can’t function when my body wants its food. So I focused on my woe but now it’s my timing while not ruining my woe but I won’t, it’s easy to stick to it even when eating itself isn’t exactly easy…

2022 should be my year! I plan an EF in every month.

(Jane) #9

24 hours in and easy day with no hunger. Not even the waves I normally get around noon and 5 pm when we typically eat our TMAD.

I’ll take it! :smiley:

Shooting for 60-hrs so no food tomorrow - will break sometime on Thu.

KCFO

(Jane) #10

37 hours in and enjopying the empty-no-digestion-going-on feeling this morning. Going to stay busy and looking forward to breaking tomorrow midday.

eta: (since the software won’t let me talk to myself LOL) 41 hours in and cruising along. It is amazing how much time we spend shopping, preparing, eating, cleaning up, etc just to eat. I think not having to decide what to cook for dinner is my favorite part of fasting!!!

(Robin) #11

That surprises me, because your food pics always look so scrumptious, I assumed you loved to prepare and cook meals!

(Jane) #12

Oh, I love cooking but day-in and day-out it can get tedious and nice to have a break from it.

(Jane) #13

Coming up on 60 hours. Had trouble falling asleep last night and didn’t get to sleep until after midnight. Not unusual for me on a multi-day fast. I guess w/o digestion the blood was all in my brain instead of my gut LOL.

No hunger this morning and going to break around midday as planned.

Interesting note on hubby: He has always supported me and fasted with me and before when I was traveling I would fast when away from home as long as I didn’t have colleagues with me I was obligated to eat with. I could do 72-hr fasts and he could barely mange 36-hr ones. He would get up at 5 am just so he could fix him something to eat.

I asked him one time if he was really hungry when he got up after not eating the day before. He thought about it and said no… he just wanted to eat, so it was psychological.

When I had to stop traveling and work from home in 2020 we would fast together and I would do the 36-hr ones with him. I didn’t like that because I was breaking my fast at the time ALL hunger was gone and I could keep going, but I didn’t say anything because I was happy he would fast with me, even if just for 36 hours.

He is on a bowliing league and bowls every Tue and eats out for lunch before they bowl. One week I decided to start my fast on Monday night, he would start after dinner on Tue (his usual routine), we would both fast all day Wed and then break together midday on Thu. That gave me 60+ hours, him his 36 and both were happy. He only had to eat dinner by himself Tuesday night.

Well, one time he came home from bowling and announced he would start his fast now and skip dinner. That gave him an extra 6 hours fasting (42 hrs). He still wanted to eat breakfast on Thu but it was getting later and later in the morning… 9 am instead of 5 am.

This morning FOR THE FIRST TIME he said he wasn’t going to eat breakfast because he wasn’t hungry. He said he planned to because he was a bit hungry before he went to bed but it was gone when he got up. YAY! He is listening to his body instead of his head and his body is responding like it does for most people who fast.

(KCKO, KCFO) #14

This is me. I like the creative part of cooking the most. Trying new combos, etc. But deciding and having to cook day in, day out, UGH. Luckily, I have taught my DH enough about cooking that he steps up a few days of the week.

My fav part of fasting is not deciding what to eat, for sure.

#15

Decision is one of my fav part but it’s super easy for me, I don’t have many options (theoretically. I can complicate 2 items just fine. even one).
Cooking for 2 persons separately, that can be much sometimes when some shortage happens or I get bored of everything.

I like when spending more than minimal time on cooking isn’t a MUST but an option. I fancy playing with food sometimes especially during fasting. But I don’t want it a constant big chore…

I still couldn’t do a proper OMAD yet but I get closer… It’s interesting that whenever I manage not to get triggered at lunchtime, I am quite fine even hours later lately… But I want an established OMAD before I experiment with waiting until I really need food hoping it will mean skipping dinner as well.

(Jane) #16

Broke at 63 hours with no issues :slightly_smiling_face:

Will probably fast again next week since week after next traveling with a colleaug on business. I already told her I wanted to eat at Chipotle’s in Dayton because there is one near the airport and I can get a burrito bowl with no rice or beans and load it up with meat, cheese, sour cream and guac - totally keto.

#17

Good for you. Meanwhile I start to break down… I was so, so patient with me and tried things… I just get hungry late even if I already overate using mostly carni food :frowning:

I make the step and ENFORCE NOFUSS now. No food until sunset! My SO’s lunch triggers me this week so I go away or something. Today I was fine until he was finished but then… And it was still fine and dandy but TMAD is nearly impossible for me, I just get hungry a few hours after my 2nd meal, no matter if it’s the big or the small one… So I MASSIVELY overate today (and I don’t care it’s not some reasonable hunger, I CAN’T handle hunger, I can’t handle even lack of satiation, for Heaven’s sake. I need perfect satiation and the inability to eat late at night or else I probably will eat). I see that food choices don’t help enough with this (though I will try to restrict them even more but that’s super boring and I rebel, it’s only for certain times when I am fine with it), I need my dinner OMAD back!

And maybe next week I will be able to do EF. I can be super stubborn if I lose my patience…

(Robin) #18

I do the exact same thing at Chipotles when I need to get something to-go. Yummo

(Jane) #19

I wish there was one around here but sadly a 3-hr round trip. And it is so new the line to order was out the door! (Jonesboro, AR). I passed.

Today I broke my fast with a beef tostada with no lettuce and scraped the goodies off the tostada w/o eating it.

(Butter Withaspoon) #20

I had an awesome fasting reset yesterday after so much eating away from home lately with more carbs and processed food than ideal, but company and sea was worth it. So yesterday I had an almost fast, with a snack in the middle of the afternoon. I could feel the fizz of ketones and high energy during a resistance workout, such that by the end of the day it was almost a shame to eat a good dinner of lamb and greens and veg.

So just one day of TRE with lots of movement can feel fantastic. Finding your own fasting is the key

(Robin) #21

Good job reading the room, er, your body.

(KCKO, KCFO) #22

A little late posting this but if you want to participate in the monthly fast for even more support, etc. Here is the link: