January 2020 IF/EF Chat Thread (All Welcome)

[Momof5]

That is the great, I wish you success and great Autophagy benefits =).

[Brennan]

Good morning all!
61 hours in, got a solid 7 hours of sleep last night. (Which is more than I can usually pull off during an EF.) Ready to tackle the day
Lots of energy and an ambitiously busy day of laundry, housework, running errands, finished off with an evening of playing Unstable Unicorns (card game) with friends!
Also looking forward to day four fasting brain at work tomorrow, I always get so much done on fasting brain!
Best of luck to all starting/continuing a fast and congratulations everyone finishing theirs!

[cervyn]

playing Unstable Unicorns

I want to play this game just based on the name! Are they emotionally unstable

I wish you success

Thanks.  Here's to a healthy hormonal system and losing more weight!

For the hell of it, it’s Sunday I am not rushing anywhere, I took my blood measurements first thing this morning at 15 hours: bg=106, bk=2, gki=2.94
It’s pretty atypical for me to have bg >100 but I hope that means I was burning off some old fat cells that were storing something nasty. Pleased that after 2 days of feasting I still had ketones of 2.

It’s Sunday, so I have lots of stuff to do around the house, removing xmas decorations, getting my hair done before my stylist goes for his surgery, prepping for our new kitten! And English Country Dancing this evening. Hopefully I will barely think about food.

kcfo folks. We are all brilliant!

[Brennan]

I want to play this game just based on the name!

That’s exactly what I said when I found it on Wish!

They’re super cheap on Wish, I think $5 + shipping for the starter kit. Or the starter kit with all 5 expansion packs was like $13 + shipping! The black box vs white box is apparently the same starter kit just in a different coloured box. And I haven’t cracked open the expansion packs yet. But this game is awesome!

“Build a unicorn army. Betray your friends. Unicorns are your friends now.”

[cervyn]

Unicorns are your friends now.

LOL hysterical!! I hope you all have a great time or else what’s the point? point… you know… unicorns… never mind.

Here I am at 24 hours, just took my blood measurements. This would typically be the time of day I would take them.
bg=82, bk=3.3, gki=1.38
So I am pleased with that, starting to feel a bit hungry but not too bad. Exercise will be a good distraction for sure!

See everyone tomorrow for …meal-less Monday…

[Brennan]

Well first EF in months, I said 120. I’m calling it at 72. Not hungry, feeling good.
I just forgot how much ya miss f**d!
I’ll be back in a week or so, good luck y’all!

[Momof5]

Congrats on the 72 hours, Brennan, that is still terrific =).

[NorthwoodsPat]

I’m calling it at 72

72 is completely honorable! Congratulations!!

[Justin_Jordan]

Fasting today. Had to break here a bit ago because blood sugar was getting a little too low. Better that than a hypo.

Some randomness:

Last week, I really wanted to eat the days I ate. Wasn’t actually hungry, just wanted to eat. But I ended eating almost exactly the calories my predicted RMR is. May or may not be coincidence. Still seem to have lost a couple pounds.

[KetoCancerMom]

Had to break here a bit ago because blood sugar was getting a little too low. Better that than a hypo.

Did you break just because of a low glucose reading or because you feel bad? Personally, I’ve gotten down to a glucose reading of 40 with no problems (I did have high ketones to compensate for the low glucose).

[KetoCancerMom]

I’m going to hold off on fasting for a week or two.
I just need time to see what happens with my glucose on this new medication before I throw fasting into the mix.

I’ll be here to cheer people on, however.

[Shinita]

If I ever needed some fasting, it’s now. No idea why but I ate a ton lately and I often felt I was starving (this combo is quite annoying). My weight is probably the highest in the last 8 years too, a significant
amount is surely temporal but still, my “real” weight went a bit up too, odd. I usually stall forever with a surprisingly stable weight, no matter how I eat (by my own will. I have my limits, to put it lightly).

But I focus on my health and well-being. I am not really unwell but feel a bit burdened right now. My body has its hands full with doing its stuff with all the food it received, I drink coffee and tea and can’t imagine eating today but we will see. I will eat well in the next two days and then comes my first ZornFast where no idea what will happen but I will finally wait until I get properly hungry! Slight hunger is kind of easy but I don’t often wait for even that, I feel a too strong compulsion to eat lunch after I cooked it, together with my SO, at the same time I eat my first (and possibly last) meal since ages. Maybe it’s usually okay but not always and it will be nice to meet my proper hunger again (and weaken this compulsion already).

So, longer fasting and waiting for hunger, two things I wished to do since long and it will happen this week. And some relief for my poor body though it handles things pretty well. It will be a good/interesting week, probably.

[Shinita]

After you kind of understand all of that, you realize - “Wait, I am not weak, or a bad person, or stupid. I am an electrochemical computer and my dopamine circuit was overriding my norepinephrine circuit at that time” or something along those lines - I am just cobbling together the words to get the concept across.

It is interesting… I usually just think about my different selves in me. My hedonist self, my rebellious self, my inner critic and the others. My inner child is probably a mix from some of them, it’s too complex. Even human psyche is a tad more understandable for me as chemistry, that’s my weaker subject. But it’s good to know things, I hope I won’t forget to read about such things more.

My logical self actually does its best sometimes even if it’s not in control. It’s still present, it has knowledge so some negotiation is possible. And it’s not nice when I decide about the right way and go in the opposite direction in a sudden other decision. I don’t do that too often, I like to think, it’s usually my logical and maybe hedonist self to give it up for a while and chaos ensures. To some extent, good habits are useful and my body has its say. It actually can vote anything if it really “wants”, it does it even against my very strong hedonist self that is usually in control to a big extent. But my hedonist self isn’t a simple one. It listens to my logical self a lot as it isn’t hedonistic to do whatever we desire at the moment and pay a huge, unpleasant or even painful price later.

Whatever the case is, it’s fortunately not random. That would be horrible. Some chemical whatnot and I become a new person? Wait, actually, carbs do that. It’s just an old familiar thing, my hedonist self can relate to some extent anyway so I don’t get freaked out.

So really and truly, my executive process (me) was aware of the very strong desires to eat something, and I did have to resort to some tricks to shut those up because otherwise they would eventually wear me down, and I would “logically” decide that I had fasted enough

That’s quite familiar to me. There is so much reason to eat after some already decent sized fast, my logical/stubborn/whatever self has little chance if all the others are enthusiastic about eating. I don’t resist temptation anyway, basically. My hedonist self has some control almost all the time but it’s often conflicted.
But if I wake up my Determined Self, it has almost total control. So if I want to do something for a short while and it’s completely unrealistic for my normal self but not physically, I need to get determined, stubborn, curious. But mostly determined. Even my very respected hunger turns off then, my body doesn’t do its passionate temper tantrums about not getting its usual food and I am able to look at my earlier and even healthy favorites without temptation. It’s a blessed state, fortunately I never neglected logic and knowledge about the human body or myself when I got determined. That would be dangerous (though I would probably feel something is wrong. some people aren’t this lucky). I prefer to do safe and easy things.

But what I eat, that’s always conscious in the end. I can’t unconsciously consume something, my very rare sleepwalk involves shutting up alarm clocks, nothing else.
It’s a tiny comfort, it changes little. My other selves are pretty good at persuading my conscious self too. I might still think it’s not a good decision but I don’t care, I accept my reality or something. So it rarely cause extra problems like quilt and I know I am not a particularly strong one if it’s about eating in a way I don’t harm myself very much. It’s not even a problem, I just need to be more creative to ensure I desire what is good for me. Forcefulness would be wrong and useless. I love chaos anyway. Definitely more than ruled by my logical self all the time. I can’t even imagine it. It’s more like an advisor, often present but not a ruler. My strongest, hedonist self listens to it so it’s fine.

Maybe I got carried away but it’s a very interesting topic. I can’t help but see myself as several little parts arguing, working together, some of them disappearing and coming back sometimes… There are often multiple voices and opinions at the same time. My biggest (mostly peaceful) fights happen between my mind (that I feel “me”) and my body. We never seem to agree about the ideal amount of my body fat (too bad my body has most of the cards, oh well, I like challenges even if it takes ages to make sure we “both” win. I trust my body about nearly everything as it clearly knows better - but not that), the rest is way better.

[NorthwoodsPat]

it will be nice to meet my proper hunger again (and weaken this compulsion already).

@Shinita, I wish you well on your first ZornFast and the learnings that will come from it!

[Justin_Jordan]

It wasn’t super low - 87 - but I was starting to feel it.

[cervyn]

It wasn’t super low - 87 - but I was starting to feel it.

Well you are the expert of you!! Love to hear about your self care!

For me 87 is what I consider a desired reading at a normal level upon waking. But then, I am sorry I can’t remember @Justin_Jordan if you are trying to reverse diabetes, I have never been diabetic. (and we are all different any way)

This has inspired me to take my blood measurements at approx. 40 hours fasted bright and early: bg=89, bk=3.7, gki=1.33 Pretty much as expected.

I’m going to hold off on fasting for a week or two.
…
I’ll be here to cheer people on, however.

@KetoCancerMom I hope you adjust to your new meds easily and that they are super effective. Also thanks for cheering us on! I am over halfway through the Clark Protocol.

On with meal-less Monday! (or feeding if that your thing today)

[Shinita]

Thank you very much!

[Justin_Jordan]

But then, I am sorry I can’t remember @Justin_Jordan if you are trying to reverse diabetes, I have never been diabetic. (and we are all different any way)

Yeah, I’m type 2. And my blood sugar versus hypo thing is a moving target - I was carby around the holidays, so I’m reverting to normal now that my eating is back on track. In another week or so I probably wouldn’t feel it until I got in the fifties.

But I know when I do go hypo I end up bingeing on carbs, which is not good, so whenever I start to feel it I usually eat something small to avoid eating everything later.

[gesine]

I’ve started a 7-day fast today! I’ve been keto since Aug 1, 2019 and lost 60 pounds so far (with 100 more to go). I mostly eat 2MAD, at 18/6 Monday through Friday. Twice a month I do an almost 3 day fast on the weekend. I have been bouncing around the same 4 pounds now for a couple of weeks. My husband casually mentioned today that he was going to do a 7-day fast. I quickly said, “Me too!” So, without a lot of planning or forethought, here I am in the middle of day 1 of my 7-day fast. Here I go!

[ctviggen]

Good luck!