Adventures In Fasting – Part One

Fasting For Weight Loss? Not So Fast…

Definition: fasting – abstaining from food.

fast
intr.v. fast•ed, fast•ing, fasts
1. To abstain from food.
2. To eat very little or abstain from solid foods, especially as a religious discipline.

I'm abstaining from solid food, drinking primarily water with lime juice, herbal teas, one morning cup of coffee and one protein shake before bed. So far, I've fasted 37 hours.

I admit this is not an example of intermittent fasting, as described by Dr. Michael Eades and recently popular among low carb dieters and advocates . But I started this fast due to illness – a still ongoing dastardly allergy attack – and a involuntary loss of appetite.

Starting stats for this guinea pig, taken on my regular monitoring day, Sunday, without fore knowledge of any pending fast: age 46, sex female, 119 pounds, height 5 foot, body fat approximately 21 percent, lean mass in pounds approximately 89, body fat in pounds approximately 30. (Bio-impedance meters aren’t totally accurate, these are approximations.)

My fasting adventure went like this:

Monday night, 8 pm, meal 5 of the day, I ate a ½ cup of home grown, garden fresh tomato and zucchini drizzled with hazelnut oil and ¾ of a 4 ounce bacon wrapped steak (I stopped eating when full.)

Tuesday morning around 2 am I awoke with a killer allergy attack and drank water (about 4 ounces) and went back to sleep. I got up at 7 am and had black coffee (Millstone Chocolate Velvet, if you must know.) I drank three cups of Exotica herbal tea and 1 gallon of ice water with a teaspoon or so of Key Lime juice (0 calories) per 28 ounces throughout the day (pretty average for me.)

I had no withdrawal symptoms (headache, irritability, fatigue) through out this first day and actually felt better as time passed, losing some of my allergy symptoms during the first 12 hours (the wind was blowing and eventually cleared the high desert air of smoke, and maybe some sage brush allergens as well.)

Then my allergies worsened around 2 pm, and progressed to “Yowza, my nose and lungs burn like a habenero pepper!” by 7 p,m. The Five O’Clock news reported a new wildfire much closer to us, outside Truckee, CA, and the winds had escalated. We could taste the smoke, despite running two Ionic Breeze machines. We’re living in a smoking zone, yippee.

I spent the evening watching (and enjoying) Food Network for several hours as a test (30 Minute Meals, Good Eats, Rachael Ray’s Tasty Travels, Road Tasted, Throw Down With Bobby Flay, Unwrapped, Emeril Live – boy, he’s getting fat, by pork fat or beans and rice?) Visual exposure to food evoked no cravings or emotional effects.

I didn’t experience hunger sensations until 5 pm and they were nothing to write home about. I chugged water and lime and was good to go. Overall, I had a mellow yet productive day on my ‘Fat Tuesday Minus Food’.

I worked out Monday afternoon (1 pm) and evening, (8 pm while watching Dancing With The Stars), getting two 30 minute jogs on my Urban Rebounder, working up a decent sweat.

Tuesday I did a good amount of housework (I always go on a housework binge when I’m sick, don’t ask why, I don’t know.)

Tuesday night I did a 30 minute jog at 8 pm despite annoying respiratory symptoms due to MORE smoke. I was watching House MD and Dancing With The Stars – distractions you love raise your serotonin levels - while jogging. Later I broke the fast (sort of, no solid food) at PM. Recipe Below.

Before hitting the sack, I whipped up my usual ‘after a heavy weight workout’ homemade protein shake (8 ounces light regular flavor 8th Continent soy milk blended with 2 scoops Twin Labs Vege Fuel soy protein powder, 1 scoop LaBrada creatine powder, 1 scoop Branch Chain Amino Acids powder, 1 scoop glutamine powder, 1 scoop L-Carnetine, 1 capsule Max CLA, 1 capsule Seabuckthorn seed oil, cocoa powder, 1 tablespoon cinnamon, ¼ cup water and crushed ice. 190 calories, 36 grams protein, 4 grams carbs, 4 grams fat.) My goal here being to spare muscle mass, not to satisfy any nagging hunger.

All those powders had me thinking, if I we’re a drug pusher I’d combine them and sell them as cocaine. I can here Eric Clapton singing…

I went to bed at 10 pm and slept as well as I normally would with allergies. I kept having strange dreams about stability balls. I figured it was due to seeing a soap opera scene Tuesday with two lovers frolicking in a gym – with stability balls blocking crucial anatomy.