I just ended my fast at 64 hours; I was pretty hungry and felt that I had accomplished enough. I will end today's TRE earlier, by 2 hours, so I can stick to my 6-hour eating window. I like this change: it will give me 66 hours of fasting back-to-back, but allows me to eat around 10am or so, (if I am hungry), and eat "dinner" earlier. I like to eat by 5pm anyway so that my digestive system has time to fumble about earlier and I'm not full at bedtime. I don't sleep well when my tummy is full and active. I still am IN LOVE with these 2 day fasts! I love not having to worry about food or what I will eat for two full days instead of thinking of menus and fast-breaking meals every other day or half day. It really works for ME! Plus these 2 full days of fasting give me similar psychological and physical feelings of "emptiness" and healing that I get from longer EF! It's a mental boost with physical results. Eating was WEIRD! For about the first 5 or so bites, it was exciting, then the food and the event of eating dwindled into normality: sustenance and nourishment, but nothing special. Unlike the major event that Breaking The Fast has been in the past. To me, this is a major NSV! I enjoyed eating, but I didn't ove-renjoy it! I want to enjoy eating, but not obsess or overeat. I want to enjoy eating after my fast, but lose the novelty. I want to enjoy eating, but I also want eating to become a way to rebuild my body after fasting to sustain and improve my health, rather than an event that causes over-excitement and fixation/anticipation. I started getting full 1/3 of the way through the meal, because I was eating quite slowly, but I managed to eat a little over 1/2 to 2/3 of my Kindy-size plate. Every bite held a strength and robustness in its flavour! Each of the 5 tastes was distinct. Kalamata olives were sour, sweet, bitter, and pungent all in one bite. The zucchini in my egg and zucchini frittata tasted sweet. The bacon was salty and umami (oh, how I savoured the bacon like candy LOL). The avocado tasted sweet and mild. And the cherry tomatoes were sweet and salty. I was craving veggies (I am craving!), so I made sure I had a lot of squash! I've noticed my preference for a wide variety of food to eat during a single meal, and this can create the problem of too much food on my plate. Even though I use small plates and eat small portions after an EF. I will have to practice putting only a couple bites of each food on my plate so that I am not overfull at the end, or feel like I am depriving myself. After my meal, I felt full, but not stuffed. I don't have any sweet- or carb-cravings, which is fantastic! I'm enjoying a very creamy coffee after brekkie, with some 1/2 & 1/2 and ghee. I used to drink an occasional after-lunch cuppa and enjoy that habit, since it was a habit of moderation. With the 66-hour fasts, I'm only eating 2-3 days out of each week, between each 66-hour fast, soI'm good with that amount of caffeine and cream intake. Overall, I feel really good about the fasting interval on which I have finally settled! It's taken me two months to figure it out! And that's okay, too! These 64-66s will work (I've lost 3 lbs, but expect to gain back 2 on eating days, so a net loss of 3 each week is fantastic!), and then when I need to change it up, I will. I want to reach my goal by my Birthday at the end of August. So far, my weight has been up and down since starting the fasting journey at the end of March, but overall, I've lost 10-15 lbs. I will do another longer fast of 7 days around the end of July, which will be right at 2 months since completion the my last long fast of 8.5 days, ending May 26. It's been an interesting process, this fasting life, and I am so grateful to my friend here in MS, who got me into it! I'm also grateful to everyone at TFM, including all my fasting peers, who have succorred me through this period. Many positive changes are occurring in my life, emotionally, mentally, and physically. I'm re-learning self-compassion and self-kindness in my inner dialogue and in relation to food and eating. Self-compassion and changing my relationship to eating are more important than weight loss because they will result in health and weight loss by default! I leave for TX to visit fam and friends next weekend, then I'm off to the mountains of CO for a few months to house-sit and hike and fast and write and work! I'm thrilled! I've had the gift of three months on a remote farm, where I've had the opportunity to relax and reset my nervous system, and to fast and heal. Now it's time to continue forward movement in that area, but add work and income back into the mix! I feel extra-good today! And we're not even going to NOLA! LOL!!
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