I am fast over, being fat and fifty

So I can't change the second part of the equation, but I can certainly fix the first! In the last post, I left off sharing that I had decided to change. Deciding to change is always the first step in the journey, but most people stop at the decision point. They want to change, but the commitment and work that goes into the change doesn't happen. The truth is that it is hard work, but in simpler terms it is only work, and we can all do the work if we commit to it. My book, mentioned in the previous post (fat and over fifty), is one tool that can help with this journey, but we all have our own ways to adopt change. In this series of posts, I will discuss my journey and the changes that I made to transform my life and achieve the goals I was aiming for.

Fasting... It's not so hard!

The first change that I committed to in my journey was a change in my eating habits. In the past I had always found that I could work off any weight gained by simply exercising. This was the one simple variable where I could put in the effort and I would see the results fairly quickly. But now something had changed. Training by itself was no longer the solution to getting myself in a good place. I would soon realize that the way I felt was not just a result of my training efforts, but rather a result of my overall lifestyle. To do this, I committed to a 5 day juice fast. I dreaded saying yes to this, but I knew it was something I had to try.

Our boxes arrived on Thursday. We had been waiting for the shipment to come in and hoping it would make it in time for the start of our planned fast. We opened them with excitement (more like dread) to see what would be awaiting us in the coming days. Inside the box we found our bottles of juice along with some boxes of tea, and vegetable bullion. That was it. This was going to be hard, but I had committed and I was going to do this!

A rough start

If you decide to do this, please do not do what we did. In preparation for a fast you are advised to ease your food intake, drink extra water, limit alcohol and slow your activities. Instead, we ate heavy meals, skipped the water , drank alcohol and went out late the night before the fast. We woke up on the first day of our fast with headaches and asked ourselves if we really should start the fast like this. Being the stubborn person I am, I would not defer this project and firmly committed to sticking with the plan. We were on!

One of the items I left out of the fast kit, is an evil little thing called Glauber salt. This is the first thing you take before starting the fast and it's purpose is to cleanse the bowels. And cleanse it did. If we didn't already feel terrible starting the fast, we now were fully dehydrated and free from any possible traces of food. Tracking our bowel movements was a sport for the next few hours and days.

Small rewards

The difference between a juice fast and a water fast is that you may not actually experience full ketosis. In addition, with a juice fast, you do get some rewards along the way. In our case, that meant we could have small cups (and I mean really small) of juice along the way, but they were only allowed according to a strict schedule. We chose to not allow ourselves to have coffee and to follow the plan as closely as possible. Our first reward was a small cup of juice, and while not filling, this small cup of juice was greatly appreciated and would come to be a source of excitement for days to come.

The first day went by slowly as we were quite tired and could not do much besides wait for our next sip of juice. In hindsight, when choosing a start date for a fast, I would choose a weekday where I was distracted by work and could think of other things besides food. Instead, we did it the hard way and spent a lazy Saturday watching TV and craving food. Somehow, we survived the first day and woke up Sunday feeling a bit better than the day before. This pattern of feeling a bit better each day would continue for a few months as I slowly adjusted my lifestyle and developed new habits.

Appreciating food

One of the other items included in our juice fast was a small amount of bullion a few times a day. We came to appreciate this as much if not more, than the juice and the smallest piece of carrot in the bullion would bring a smile to our faces. Even with this, day two was the most difficult of days as we really had to fight through the cravings and adjust our bodies to this challenge. Suddenly time slowed and it felt like we had nothing but time, isolated in our little bubble of a juice fast. We were committed, but this was tough!

We woke for day three early, as we did most days, finding that suddenly our sleep was a bit better and we surprisingly had energy when waking. That full feeling, the bloated feeling we often experienced was gone and any swelling from food was now gone. Day 3 turned out to be much easier than most days as we were now adjusting and in addition, I was back at work and fully focused on something else other than food. We were making it but we were still not in the best of moods and the slightest of incidents could still set us off. One such incident was the night that my middle child decided to cook a vegan egg sandwich. I have always loved egg sandwiches, and we had finally discovered a way to reproduce these in a vegan alternative with vegan bacon. On this night, the smell of this sandwich set me off and the words shot out of my mouth like flames from a dragon. I stomped off to bed with the smell of that sandwich permeating the house.

Day 4 turned out to be easier than expected and we were now getting the hang of things. S0 much so that on day 5 I decided to fast without juice to guarantee that I could reach full Ketosis. Still, although easier, we were counting down the days to food and discussing what our first meals would be like.

Easing back in

We made it though 5 days, actually 5 and a half days, and we were now ready to take the next steps. We had gained an appreciation of food and what we put in our body. It is critical that in the first day after a fast you don't just dive right in to your old habits and eat a big heavy meal. This is extremely important as your body has adjusted and your digestive tract will need to react to the foods you add to your stomach. We chose a avocado with herbamare seasoning salt. It t was the most delicious food that I have ever eaten. We ate lightly for the next few meals, allowing our body to adjust slowly, all the time being conscious of how our bodies reacted to new foods and drinks. We were feeling great and full of energy, and really wanted this feeling to last.

The result and next steps

Though we lost a healthy amount of weight in this short fast, we also learned the foods we were eating affected our bodies. I had not felt as alert and awake in years, and the afternoon naps that were previously needed were no longer required. I quickly realized that it was because of the foods that I was putting in my body , and that it was more than just exercise that made my body feel better. It was no coincidence that I had also started sleeping better which was the third variable in the health trifecta that I could control. I had stopped alcohol completely during the fast and in order to properly cleanse my body, I decided to abstain from alcohol for 5 more weeks (it ended up being over 8). We slowly introduced coffee, but instead of drinking 8 cups a day like I had in the past, we limited ourselves to only 2-3 cups a day, and none after lunch. Though we did not do this, I would highly recommend keeping a food journal and tracking how your body reacts to the foods that you eat each day. I personally did something a bit different , but I will share more of this in my next post. It is time to get those much needed zzzz's.