Woke up early, wrote my blog post, failed to do anything else.
I think I’m slowly reaching the end of my rest period, though, I am starting to feel like doing things again.
I spent the day mostly sitting in front of TV again. I didn’t spin quite as much because I was doing a spindle project and didn’t want to work on it.
This is what we had for lunch:
This is me in front of TV (exciting, I know):
And this is dinner (still in front of TV, the Giro was later than usual):
So not the most strenuous of days.
You might have noticed that these are the first pictures of food in about a week. Well, that is because I spend the time from Monday morning until Saturday afternoon not eating anything.
Remember how I told you about me skipping dinner? I have been reading and reading and it seems that the secret to lose weight or to not get fat is a) eat low carb and healthy fat and b) do some sort of fasting from time to time. You can do the thing I did the last few weeks where I ate two meals, no snacks and nothing else in between, or you can do just one meal, or you can eat one day and not eat anything the next, the possibilities are endless.
And it seems that that, the not eating part is really helping with losing weight and with overcoming and out-of-whack metabolism and with treating or preventing diabetes.
Now I am in no way diabetic, but a seven-day fast about once a year is also recommended for cancer-prevention. And I thought it would help me shed those last pounds of fat faster.
I know I’m not fat. I still am having quite a bit of fat on my stomach and my thighs, though. And when I started this I was still quite a bit heavier than I had been back last summer. Still am, actually.
So the last meal I ate was lunch on Sunday. Yummy paella. Then I had two beers in the evening (I know, bad habit) and no dinner. And then I just didn’t eat anything for a few days. Whenever I got woozy, mostly in the mornings about half an hour after my morning cup of black tea I would drink a glass of water with some salt (not yummy at all) and I’d feel better immediately. I drank plenty of herbal tea and water. I felt about as hungry as I usually do between meals. I stopped eating snacks when I started losing weight and have gotten used to feeling somewhat hungry for a while every day. I mean, if you’re not hungry at all you won’t lose weight.
I was a bit scared of Tuesday because the book I had read said that the second day was usually the worst for people. I waited for the big hunger pangs but they never came. Maybe Monday had been my second day, who knows.
By Tuesday evening I wasn’t hungry anymore and had no problem sitting right next to my son while he was eating dinner. I even did the grocery shopping for the whole week with no problems. Food still smelled good and I wanted some because I like the taste and feel and smell but I was not hungry. Not at all. Weird.
Wednesday I went out to meet people at a restaurant and I just drank water. That is so unlike me, not having a beer while going out. But nobody even made a remark. Again, the guy sitting next to me was eating some kind of dessert and I looked away and had no problem not eating anything.
Wednesday was also the first day I had some bone broth around lunchtime. From the paella we made on Sunday we had leftover chicken bones and such and my husband was kind enough to make broth from that for me. Wednesday was actually the first day I had time to have some. So I had a bowl each Wednesday through Friday. It tasted really good.
I mean, if all you taste all day is tea and water and more tea (and the pills you’re taking) then homemade broth tastes pretty amazing.
All the time I did my usual running. Monday I felt great, the other days not so much. I don’t think it really was because of the fasting, my guess is that I was really allergic to everything out there.
Because all the time I had a ton of energy. My mind felt clear and focused. It was great. I didn’t feel bad in any way. I even liked the way my stomach felt when it was completely empty. And yes, I wouldn’t believe me either, but that’s the truth.
Some time Friday I started thinking about food all the time. I was really looking forward to breaking the fast and being able to taste food again. Not because I was hungry, just because I really, really like eating. Also, this whole thing has made it clear to me how important cooking and food and talking meals together is for us as a family. My poor husband was slaving over the meals and doing the dishes all by himself. And while he and the boy ate I was elsewhere, alone. No fun.
Saturday I started feeling a little weak, which was strange. All afternoon I was hungry, and it was a different kind of hungry. Not the kind that waxes and wanes and is gone after a short time, more like a low, burning hunger that was just growing and not going away. And I felt nauseous all afternoon.
I sat outside in the sun, reading a book, and around five I realized that I might need to eat something again soon. I had already told my husband that I wouldn’t wait for Monday before eating something, as I had planned, and suddenly I had the deep and urgent need to eat right this instant.
So I had a few almonds at 5.30.
And at seven I had dinner. And I felt fine and I really enjoyed that meal but my stomach felt uncomfortably full.
When I started fasting Monday morning the scale said 68.2 kilos. This morning it said 64.5. I think my body started rebelling against the fast once my weight dropped below a certain point. When you have a BMI of 21 or lower you shouldn’t fast. Which is why my husband didn’t join me, his BMI was 21.4 from the beginning. Also, the boy is to young to fast at age fifteen.
I am expecting a weight gain of one or two kilos soon because when your body stores carbs it needs water to do so, Which is the reason why you drop between one and two kilos fast whenever you stop eating or go low-carb.
Still. This experience was amazing. I wouldn’t have thought that I could feel that good without food. On the other hand I wasn’t without, not really, there is lots of food still stored on my body. That’s what it’s made for. Being alert and energetic while looking for food would be an advantage in nature. Oh, and I didn’t need as much sleep as normal as well.
In a way it was great. Not in any way spiritual or something, just very freeing.
When I was a skinny little girl who didn’t eat well my beloved grandmother pulled me aside and told me that if I wouldn’t eat properly or even, heavens forbid, skip a meal, my stomach would shrink. And then it would be so small that I wouldn’t be able to eat enough anymore, and I would wither away and die.
True story.
Subconsciously I have been afraid of starving every time I didn’t eat the second I got only remotely hungry. Turns out I can go without eating for days and days and my stomach still didn’t shrivel and I didn’t die.
Which is a very good. thing.
Starting tomorrow I will go back to the ‚intermittent fasting‘ (that still seems like a pretentious name for it) and skip dinner and eat no snacks. Until my stomach fat has melted away.
I have never lost weight so quickly and I have never felt that good while doing it.
Amazing.
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