Today is my first planned IF…

After several unintended several-hour fasts last week (“ate small breakfast, just not hungry for lunch, not skipping dinner”) and an unplanned fast yesterday (“ate a big breakfast, not hungry for lunch, how long can I go before eating dinner, ah not very long at all”) I’ve decided to try fasting on purpose today. Yesterday I ended up eating dinner earlier than normal 'cause the hunger pangs were just too much. Big tip, and a tool I’ve used in the past is that sleep beats hunger. I slept from about 1:00 to 4:30, ate, watched videos, then slept again at 9 or so and woke up this morning at 5:30 feeling refreshed and ready to try this thing.

So, my last meal was last night at 4:30pm and about 6:30am I had my morning coffee of 1/2c espresso + 1/4c heavy whipping cream and one of those teenytiny-scoops of stevia powder but I haven’t eaten anything else. At 6:30am that was 14 hours down.

My plan is to ignore hunger pangs, drink water, and have dinner at 7pm as my breakfast, bringing my first fast to a 25.5 hour fast. I’m going to a meat-up tonight in Morro Bay, CA, at a restaurant and I’d like to do some social eating at the gathering. If I get a headache or nausea I’m not going to push it, I’ll just eat something small and fatty, like a handful of walnuts. I don’t want to feel crappy and I don’t want to have a car accident on the way to the meat-up.

It’s only 8:50 am and I’m already having hunger pangs and growling. Poor belly monster is sad and crying. 

Last night I watched several IF videos of Dr. Fung, Dr. Berg, Dr. Barry, and some guy named Thomas DeLauer. I have so many questions, mainly because it looks like everyone defines fasting differently because of the different specific purposes of fasting, and depending on your definition different things are considered to take you out of a fast. The two purposes I’m concerned about are 1) fasting to not raise BG and insulin so you improve insulin sensitivity and burn fat better and 2) fasting to initiate autophagy to reduce inflammation, reduce the loose skin, and help with aging. Those two purposes seem to best achieved by two different types of fasting, Number 1 can be achieved by daily intermittent, short-eating-window fasting and I believe it was Dr. Fung who said that Number 2 is best achieved by 36 plus hour fasts. Or maybe that was Dr. Berg. I don’t remember, I was half asleep watching these videos. 

Anyway, I’m going to keep adding to this little mini-blog today as I suffer through my first little fast. Let’s see what happens.

9:37 - Hunger pangs/growling are mostly gone but I just had this sudden urge to get up and go get a snack. As someone who went through a lot of binge eating disorder therapy last year I recognize this habit, this unconscious urge, the lull moment between finishing one work task and starting another during which you want a break to assess what you’ve done and what you have to do next, also maybe with a little celebratory feel to it, or maybe a slight sense of boredom. Yeah, you should get out of your chair and walk around to stretch your legs, a la pomodoro method, but stay away from the break room. Water bottle is almost empty. Have the next one prepped.

10:52 - Is it because I’m purposefully trying to not eat that I’m getting so hungry? Is this what the first fast normally feels like? Not even lunchtime yet and the belly monster is making LOTS of noise again. This is when I normally eat so I guess I just have to calm the belly monster with more water and more work distractions.

11:43 - Second bottle of water done. Time is crawling and I’m thinking about food almost constantly. Is there a point at which I get past the hunger? Hopefully so and hopefully soon or I’m going to have to eat.

11:59 - Ok, headache has arrived. Not pushing it past the headache stage. Eating lunch now. If I ignore the 200 calorie coffee this morning that "fast" lasted 19.5 hours. I've had unsolicited layperson advice that the 200 calories in the heavy whipping cream breaks a fast. There are doctors on Youtube that say it doesn't, so I'm going to just go with what's easiest - coffee & cream. :)