try intermittent fasting

So… the 2 day fast thing!

Yesterday had breakfast at about 8 and started eating this evening at about 6 – so that makes 34 hours by my calculation. If we factor in the inadvertent milk drinkage at 11 yesterday and the couple of vegetable crisps at 5 today (chiefy was threatening to have a drinks session, and I didn’t think that would be wise on an entirely empty stomach! it then didn’t materialise after all, phew) then it was 30 hours.

Either way, I skipped lunch and dinner yesterday and breakfast and lunch today. Today was much easier than expected. I genuinely wasn’t hungry at all. My stomach did rumble embarrassingly in the middle of a meeting but fortunately someone was talking at the time so I don’t think anyone heard ;)

This is working well for me at the moment – I feel good, it’s simple to follow and it’s helping me address my inherent greediness!

Now I just have to not eat everything in sight this evening, but am still not particularly hungry so it will just be a normal dinner. If only this would translate into some fat loss, I’d be even happier. Think I might alternate 24 and 36-ish hour fasts for the next few weeks to see what happens.

added milk to my 11 a.m. coffee, and then had a dreadful dilemma as to whether to drink it or throw it away. I drank it. Oh well!

I have been Biscuit Resistant today at least so it’s not going too badly ;)

Went all right. I didn’t eat between about 8.00 yesterday morning and 7.45 this morning – so almost 24 hours. Did have black coffee and tea and water.

Ok, I was in a foul mood for part of the day but I don’t really think that had anything to do with it.

The main reactions were: mental clarity – feeling sharp and alert – and boredom. It’s weird how not having lunch leaves a hole in the middle of the day and deprives you of something to look forward to. Even weirder is not having dinner and therefore having 5 hours stretching out in the evening with no focus. I’m pleased to say I got a lot done – some admin bits and pieces, some reading, some writing and some DVD watching, but there were periods of just wishing the evening would be over.

Am trying to decide whether to continue doing this. Initially I did it to prove I could. I also like it as a diet technique as it’s very easy to follow and also cheap! But it’s too early to say whether it will have any long-term impact. I think I’ll do it again next week and just go on a week-by-week basis.

decided to get on with this – today I skipped lunch and then mid-afternoon I suddenly thought, if I skip dinner too then that will be a 22 hour fast. With G being ill he’s not going to tempt me with open bottles of wine as would so often happen, so it’s a good opportunity.

The ebook I read on the subject said ideally one should do 24 hour fasts once or twice a week but as this is the first one I think 22 hours is reasonable. I did have a couple of liquorice sweets mid-afternoon before I decided to do it, so have cheated I suppose but never mind. They were very small!

The main thing stopping me from doing this before was the fear of feeling hungry. And I did feel a bit hungry this afternoon but it went away again. I’ve been drinking water with lime juice in which helps, and am currently feeling quite zingy and alert. Also doing it from breakfast to breakfast means I get to have the all-essential coffee in the morning (black coffee is allowed anyway, but I like milk in mine). So far so good!

in the concept of intermittent fasting for some time… the mainstream bodybuilder fat-loss sites (Tom Venuto, Will Brink etc.) tell you to eat 5 or 6 times a day which I find totally impractical. Now I have no desire to be a bodybuilder but I would dearly like to lose my spare tyre(s) ;)

I’ve been following the Paleo diet for about 8 years now with some cheats e.g. dairy, coffee and alcohol. I’m not perfect and I do succumb to carby treats from time to time (especially when socialising) but left to my own devices, I avoid processed foods as much as possible and I’ve noticed the following benefits:

• my year-round hay fever has gone away completely – I used to be on pills, nasal spray and eye drops but now I can’t remember the last time I went to the doctor
• I very rarely get colds. Basically the only time I get them now is after I’ve been on a conservation holiday and eaten lots of bread
• I haven’t had a new dental filling for years
• I feel much more alert
• I very rarely feel hungry

I do think Paleolithic principles are the right ones to follow based on evolution. My problem is that I eat (and drink) too many calories and IF could be a way of dealing with that.

There’s a basic guide to it here. I just need to pick a day to kick off and I might try to do it once a week for starters. Basically no breakfast _{I do hope coffee is allowed} and no lunch and then a fuck-off great big dinner ;)