You may be thinking… What the heck?! Well, honestly so am I

Okay okay, so can I just admit that I sorta, actually completely suck? So, I ended up joining the military and of course with all that rigorous preparation I didn’t follow through with my fast. However, when I was freed up and actually able to re-visit it; I screwed around now for almost 2 years and here I am; once again boring you all to tears. Disappointing and discouraging all would be fasters from even trying because you all get to see me fail.

Well, here I go… I am not perfect. And I do know that the biggest difference between those who succeed with something difficult and those who do not succeed is that the successors ( is that even a legit word? … I mean within this meaning? ) is that those who succeed never give up. I have given up and have quit but if people who quit smoking gave up after a few failures barely anyone would ever be able to say that they succeeded. ( I guess it takes an average of 7 tries before a person is able to kick the habit for good ! )

So, I am not only annoyed with myself but I need to re-learn how to use this blog.

Wish me luck, once I figure it out information should update fairly regularly.

 

Water Fast Update

Oh my goodness. I just realized something… or I think I did. I have been using biotin supplements, magnesium suppliments, some melatonin and valarian suppliments and baking soda with apple cider vinegar. Ihave chewed a couple peices of gum every day because I am very breath consious.  Okay, so I know this may not seem like a big deal in fact some people think taking in anything except distilled water is detrimental to the fast. 

 I have a fellow faster who started a few days ago and he just decided to have a peice of gum. This guy has been throwing up ‘spit’ all day just from chewing gum!  His tongue is coated white and covered in patches. Mine is still only about as white as it is on a typical morning, which usually clears up when I eat.  I amnow really suspicious of my progression into detox due to the supplements I take on a daily basis. These are things I always take and since they are not food I didnt give it much thought.

I am gonna stop taking everything for a few days and see what happens. I am guessing there may be a little bit of a toxic backlash that I wasnt prepared to experience at this stage.  I feel like an idiot in some ways but that is why I am doing this blog. I am learning a lot as I go and hopefully some will learn from me as well. When its all over I will have a very complete do’s and don’ts page that will be easy to follow. 

The great news is I dont care about giving this stuff up! It brought me no comfort or pleasure anyway 🙂

I need to go pray for my fasting friends and my Alex who chewed the gum because I told him I thought it would be ok. 😦

 

Water Fast Update

I am about to lose my mind…. Is food my ONLY ‘public’ coping mechanism? I am going nuts trying to find someone who will do a hydrostatic weight for me. Or a bod pod. I dont want to rely on my little handheld body fat monitor. I can’t caliper myself and I have read the ppl who are calipered by some people end up with ridiculous numbers. I dont want to rely on human skill and risk human error.

I am embarking on a huge journey and I want to have a huge blog and write a book! I need a reliable body fat documentation to feel like I should move forward. What the heck. Maybe Im overeacting but I have been looking for something online for nearly 2 weeks and I am just really worried it is not going to be available. 

I will have no proof. Grrr…. No reliabel before and after. I will have people saying “Well, she must have lost a bunch of muscle, or bone mass, and water……” I dont even know if photos and a journal will be enough to silence the critics.

I think part of the reason I have had some issues with little bites here and there and those two big cheats is because I want to start this right and do it for an incredibly long time once I start so I can prove to people it can be done and can be done without losing tons of good lean body mass.  I have to come up with something.  Does anyone have an idea?? I am spent.

 

Water Fast Update

Yesterday was a really nice day.  I took my kids swimming and the food was being wolfed down all around us. I don’t understand why every event or activity in America is loaded with extreme overeating.  I watched people, many of them, eat nearly the whole time they were there. They couldn’t possibly have been hungry.  Food addictions in this country are literally everywhere.  I am certainly grateful that I am doing this in the middle of the summer.  I see people drenched in sweat while I go on as comfortable as ever.  I am not drinking large amounts of water anymore. I am simply listening to my body and responding to thirst in order to decide to drink water.

Okay,so I promised an explanation as to why I think long water fasting is a better route than intermittent fasting.  I will give you this information but if intermittent fasting is something you can do and a long fast is something you cannot do, then of course lose your weight the way you can! I want you to unload extra fat, however you do it just do it and move on so you can keep it off forever.

When you fast, the first 3 days are the most difficult. They are the days you will be hungry, a little nauseated, achy and anxious.  Once your body has settled into the fast and that rapid detox is over the fast becomes much more comfortable.  At that point all you are doing is allowing time to pass by.  You don’t really have to think about anything at all.  You just have to refrain from breaking it with a bite here or taking in juice or green tea or something. its like an airplane that climbs and climbs and then it reaches cruising altitude and then it goes on auto-pilot. It becomes a smoother ride. 

That is what happens that you can feel. What happens that you cannot feel is that your pH rises and your small intestines begin the sterilization process. Your body uses up all of the glycogen and sugars that have been stored and is now beginning to burn up primarily fat for fuel.  If you break your fast day in and day out you will always be burning up a storage of glucose.  Intermittently fasting isn’t really fasting. It’s just skipping a few meals here and there. It will give you a head start on your caloric deficit but the actual detoxification and purification process brought about by fasting will not take place in your body with this method of dieting.

Now around day 10 or so the fast has another speed bump.  Up until this point the body is burning fat as well as about 20% of its caloric needs come from skeletal muscle mass.  It makes a switch around this point to protein sparing.  It recognizes the fast as being a longer fast than it thought and it begins to switch to 99% pure fat burning by day 14. At day 10 or so there is a little bit of a mental struggle with eating again in response to this physiological change.  If you push through this moment you are now in a protein sparing fast.  No fast under 10 days is a protein sparing fast.  I have seen that there is a new ‘trend’ in fasting where people are creating what they call a protein sparing modified fast.  They are eating nothing but protein. This is not a fast. This is a protein feast! It is not necessary to help the body get into protein sparing.  In fact these people who are eating protein are adding protein to their diet, but still in the mode where their body is burning 20% of its calories as protein.

So, they are missing all of the detoxing benefits from fasting, also lowering their caloric deficit.  It simply is not Gods way of doing it. He doesn’t need your help! You just do the fast and he will take care of the rest.  They will also never enter the ‘sweet spot’ of no hunger. It simply doesn’t make sense but they heard about protein sparing and decided that they needed to find a way to do this.  Well, the body will do it, if you just fast on water for long enough it will happen.

Also wanted to share a little tidbit with you.  Fasting actually raises basal metabolic rate in a 30 day fast! The lowering of the BMR only comes on at the point of starvation. Starvation is when the body has utilized its fat reserves and true ravenous hunger returns. When this comes back and your tongue is dark pink again you know its time to break your fast. If you ignore these signs your body will begin starvation. It will lower the BMR by 20% and also go OUT of protein sparing mode and will begin to use skeletal muscle ( not heart etc ) as fuel.

An excerpt from an article below where a doctor combed through the science about fasting…
“Efficient adaptation to famine was important for survival during rough times in our evolution. Lowering metabolic rate during starvation allowed us to live longer, increasing the possibility that we might come across something to eat. Starvation literally means starvation. It doesn’t mean skipping a meal not eating for 24 hours. Or not eating for three days even. The belief that meal skipping or short-term fasting causes “starvation mode” is so completely ridiculous and absurd that it makes me want to jump out the window.

Looking at the numerous studies I’ve read, the earliest evidence for lowered metabolic rate in response to fasting occurred after 60 hours (-8% in resting metabolic rate). Other studies show metabolic rate is not impacted until 72-96 hours have passed (George Cahill has contributed a lot on this topic).

Seemingly paradoxical, metabolic rate is actually increased in short-term fasting. For some concrete numbers, studies have shown an increase of 3.6% – 10% after 36-48 hours (Mansell PI, et al, and Zauner C, et al). This makes sense from an evolutionary perspective. Epinephrine and norepinephrine (adrenaline/noradrenaline) sharpens the mind and makes us want to move around. Desirable traits that encouraged us to seek for food, or for the hunter to kill his prey, increasing survival. At some point, after several days of no eating, this benefit would confer no benefit to survival and probably would have done more harm than good; instead, an adaptation that favored conservation of energy turned out to be advantageous. Thus metabolic rate is increased in short-term fasting (up to 60 hours).

Again, I have chosen extreme examples to show how absurd the myth of “starvation mode” is – especially when you consider that the exact opposite is true in the context of how the term is thrown around.

I guess some genius read that fasting or starvation causes metabolic rate to drop and took that to mean that meal skipping, or not eating for a day or two, would cause starvation mode.”

If you are interested in fasting physiology, I’d recommend you read the whole article. Scientific references are included.”

I hope everyone has a great day.  I am doing great. By the way my weight is 154.2 today. Body fat impedance 31%

 

quick update to my last post

Ok Im not gonna be able to get too lengthy here but I did take anothe look at the woman I told you about from Youtube. I noticed her last video was uploaded only 2 weeks ago. It is very possible for her to have lost the 80 pounds in 6 months. I am breathing a sigh of relief and very much looking forward to some of her videos. she probably broke and began several fasts. This is called intermittent fasting and usually happens by accident but still can create a very large caloric deficit adn lead to rapid weight loss. I disagree a little with this method unless its the only way to go. I will cover that and more when I update tomorrow. I have scientific reasons for my preferred method

Lovey lovey, Me:)

Water Fast Update

Today I am sitting at the park in smalltown- USA.  It’s a beautiful day.  A little overcast, just enough to keep the glaring sun off of the playground equipment. My kids are playing together and they have the whole place to themselves. 

I was on youtube yesterday and I was so surprised by what I saw.  A woman who was attempting to lose loads of weight with water fasting had made several videos over the last year or so. In fact back when I began to research water fasting for weight loss I subscribed to her channel.  She had made several very good attempts but failed to stick with it time and time again.  How sad it was to see her riding high one day and then her next video showing a long amount of time since the previous video had her sadly detailing how she broke the fast and failed yet again.  I was so sure she would never be able to find the strength within herself to see it through.  I had really just given up on her entirely.

But what I saw yesterday was actually really shocking.  It was a video of her stating that she had finally lost 80 pounds with water fasting. It showed pictures of her before and pictures of her after. Definitely an 80 pound difference.  But when I went to her youtube channel it seemed like the videos of her chatting about her fasting experience were somehow missing.  I couldn’t find many of the videos of her that I know I had seen of her previously talking about her fasting escapades.  I was dying to see how she had done it. How she had finally just finished up a long run of fasting. To hear her triumphs and daily updates would have been a real treat but they just weren’t there.  I did notice that in her final video she directs people to a new website and blog about her fast and so I decided to go and check it out.

I was ecstatic when I saw her site. It was exactly what I was trying to do with my own site. Of course I think it is a great idea.  It looked like it was designed to have loads of fasting info and support as well as one woman’s long journey to health and freedom through fasting.  Immediately I began eagerly pouring through her posts and videos and it was really just more of the same old videos and blogs entries from her previously failed fasts.  I was so bummed that she had not given an account of her success. But instead, gave a couple pictures of herself showing before and after and nothing in between regarding the experience or her progression.  I am still, however, so happy that she was able to stick with it for the long haul.  She looks to me as though she could lose another 80 pounds or so and be at a very healthy lean body. I hope she pushes on…she is already half-way done!

Then, one of my followers suggested that perhaps this woman hadn’t succeeded at all.  Her before and after photos may actually be after and before…Weight GAIN that is.  Like she had some old pictures of a thinner time in her life and had used them as her supposed ‘after’ shots.  This supporter pointed out to me that her last attempt at fasting was in January of this year and her final video showing her success was not likely enough time to lose the 80 pounds in fasting or to grow her hair out from boy short to past shoulder length.  I literally felt sick and immediately wanted to turn to food for comfort when this possibility was presented to me.  I went to all her videos again and was hoping that she would have a recent one showing her new self or something else, anything  to help me dispel this theory.  But I could find no such thing.  In fact her site had no articles on it even though the homepage promises that ‘they’ write articles that their readers want.  The site is about 6 months old and there has been no new activity since around the last time she created a video on youtube or began sending people to her site from her youtube channel.  So, it is with great regret that I have had to hit my ‘skeptical’ button on this fellow documenting faster.  She definitely has my full attention, and I am so hopeful that the fear that she is a scam is false. Perhaps she is hoping to BECOME a success story, and supportperson to others and so she is in the” fake it’ til you make it” mode. If that is the case she still has my full blessing and support. She has a dynamic personality and a great story to tell. I hope she re-claims her voice and is able to cease a victory in this game of weight loss.

I did subscribe to her page and send her an encouraging message before the idea that she may be not what has been portrayed was presented me. I haven’t heard back but I will keep an eye on her and remember her in my prayers. I do believe if she hasn’t already done so that she deserves to be freed from food addictions like I do.

In any case, I was delighted to see that other fasters are putting up water fast support sites full of information and forums.  I hope fasting puts the weight loss industry out of business and more people discover the healthy, completely free way to drop weight and toxic buildup.

I do intend to document my experience from start to finish and continue to document on a less regular basis my lifestyle when I break the fast and maintain my new body.  I am actually looking into reliable body composition testing so I can have an accurate before and after to add to my story.

If there is anything else that you would like to know about the process please be heard. I don’t want people combing my site when I am all done looking for information that I never gathered and now its too late to create it. So, please give me your input. I would love it!

I am off again for the remainder of the afternoon

Warmly, Me 🙂

Water Fast Update

 

Yesterday was a blur. A surreal, disconnected blur.  I am finding out that although I LOVE fasting, I would probably love it even more if I had no work or appointments. I definitely find the day slipping away from me somehow. I don’t know how I managed much busier days and still had the time to abuse myself with food on a regular basis!  I also am happy to report zero hunger. None whatsoever.

Today I am sort of tired, not energy wise, sleepy wise. I can easily do all the things I need to get done but I would really like to sleep if I had my own choice. But nonetheless, I had some client appointments today, laundry and of course this blog. The blog is surprisingly taking up a lot of my time.  I sort of click around and try desperately to figure out how to add features like comments, subscriptions, videos, and pictures, and contact forms, and forums for community support.  I was able to do a couple of those things but I ended up emailing the theme creator to ask him about some other things that I just cannot figure out.  At the end of the day I should really just lay back and enjoy the fast but I truly desire to share as much of the moments as possible with other aspiring fasters so I plug on and try to find my way around cyber space.

I am going to update my weight ticker ( once I figure out how to add one ) and put one into each of my updates so that in the end there will be a way to see how the weight fluctuates and moves throughout a typical fast.  In the beginning it was like 3 pounds here 2 pounds there then I had one day where my weight sort of jumped up- I assume that is from water weight due to my period coming on soon. If I can figure out how to insert a graph in the end I will do that as well so it will be visible at a glance.

You know, I was thinking….. perhaps telling people how much fat I wish to lose is pointless since everyone has a different idea of what they would like to look like. So I am going to give it to you in a more ‘relatable’ way.

I am 5’2″ tall, and I currently wear a size 12. Last week I was in a 14. No one ever believes I am sporting those big sizes, I guess ( they think ) I carry my extra weight really well. Or they may be just trying to be kind. I would like to get back into a size 2 or 4, which is where I belong.

Whatever your starting point and wherever you are hoping to end up, we are on the same journey and I do wish you safe and happy travels and with fasting I also can wish you Gods speed.

More later, I have to go see a client now.

Warmly, ‘Chicklets’

Water Fast Update

Last night was such a welcome event.  My youngest son went to be easily and I was able to allow my body and mind to wind down from the days activities.  I enjoyed the deep relaxation I felt as I lay on the bed.  I felt so lucrid, and my head was iliterally devoid of thought or concern.  I never understoon how someone in the midst of this crazy world we all live in could find a quiet place within thier own mind but I do beleive that is where I was last night in my bedroom.  my husband peered over the top of his book at me and sort of giggled and said “what?”  “I simply replied I am so….relaxed.”  I had no aches or pains, no sounds of digestion or stomach rumble. No worries or cares or fears. What a blessed moment. I do live a very ‘real’ life. we are very concerned about money, and weather and animals and breaking down vehicles and leaking buildings and pests that are destroying our crops. but at that particular moment I was free from those thoughts and it was perhaps one of the most enjoyable experiences I have ever been given.

Today is turning out to be an amasing day.  I slept well and am reaping the benefits of an empty stomacn and a clear mind.  The security that sets in after a while is like a fast from extreme emotions. The body is cleasnsing and clearing and the mind and emotions are following along. I am looking forward to the spiritual clarity and connection that I am certain will become a part of this experiecne and carry me through to the end. It will be an experience that i will never forget.

I have so much joy in keeping this blog because of the reminders of how much of a blessing fasting was at this time.

I have yet to get my camera to fully cooperate trhough the capturing of images, uploading saving and editing that must happen to be able to log them here. But with Gods grace 🙂 he will instill a sense of deep concern for getting that task tackled within the week.  Its funny but I did put about 2 hours into trouble shooting the whole ‘photo for the blog’ and all the issues I was encountering and I just can’t bring myself to be hassled with it anymore today. I think I am being spoiled by the relaxation and lackadazical feeling that has come over me in this last day.

It will happen but I will not allow it to rob me of a blessing. I want to cherish each good thing that comes my way during this fast

 

Water Fast Update

Today was one of ‘those days’… I felt like I walked around completely disconnected from reality although I was fully submerged in it and wrestling with it every step of the way. I dont know if I was tired, but I was definately spaced out most of the day. I would be talking with someone and my mind would just wonder away. I feel bad about that. I dont want people to feel like I dont value what they have to say, and in fact Im not really thinking about anything else… Im literally just floating away for a second or two into no-where.

I had no hunger today but even though I was very busy I felt that old familar anxiety coming on. I know what that means. Typically it leads to eating something I shouldnt and is a result of my just wanting an excuse to put off things I really need to do. It almost always is something I dont really want to do and eating something is a way to take my mind off of it for the moment.

Tomorrow I will make it a point to complete things I am dreading right out of the gate so I dont have to think on them and ruin my whole day with negativity. It was a really hot day by most standards like 97 degrees. I was very comfortable at this temperature and was very cold in the house at the standard 72 degrees.

I need to also get more water. I am very thirsty right now and I know I need more water even now.

After last night I am really looking forward to sleep tonight. It is such a nice break 🙂 Ah, the little things 🙂

Water Fast Update

Day 2: -3 lbs

So, I didnt sleep well last night at all. The restlessness lasted all night long and I was pretty cold most of the night as well. I think I will employ the heating blanket and sleep on the couch so I dont roast my husband while I am doing this. He is not cold because he is not fasting.

I was actually lighter in body weight in the middle of the days yesterday than I was this morning which is further confirmation that I am indeed nearing that time of the month.

I havent moved my bowels yet today and as advised by many of the books I have read I will be doing a colon ‘flush’ twice today. I am a colon hydrotherapist so I will use my equipment but if I did not have this equipment I would do a simple gravity fed large volume enema. Doing enemas can be detrimental because it can actually stretch your bowels out making them too large to function under normal pressures created by the daily digestion of food. I know my bowels and know I have adequate bowel sensation and I fill my bowel slowly and cut off the flow if I feel any pressure. If you need an enema you should do your research and make sure you apply healthy standards to the practice.

I will also be doing some more body wraps when my product arrives. I am very excited about the wraps and the added inches I will lose instantly from doing them.

My goal today is to get my errands ran- I have about 3 or 4 hours of things to do and I would like to get in some exercise to burn up this extra energy and help my chances of sleeping soundly tonight