The End of Day 21 by exposure Blog entry

Blog: Fasting Logbook - Progress & Experience
by exposure

The End of Day 21

Entry 21 days in, having a chat about the ADF.

Date: 11/7/2012 6:12:49 AM ( 12 y ) ... viewed 10107 times

It's 21 days today, and I do feel settled in now.
I am finding that now I'm getting more accustomed to the longer fasting periods, I get into it very quickly with minimal fuss - and now that I've been going for longer than two weeks it seems to smooth right out.

Each fast is it's own journey, taking into account different states of health, weather, what-have-you that you might be dealing with at the time. Now, 3 weeks in, it feels great to report that all the dizziness I had a week ago with my period etc is gone, and the fast feels solid and stable and is going very well now - better than ever. I am seeing the beautiful results of my discipline, want to keep it up for a while yet - maybe 40 days, 60 would be awesome - I have little doubt I can do it, it's more if the boredom factor of not eating gets the better of me at any stage.

I've been reading up on the ADF - Alternate Day Fasting - which is what I'm interested in practicing when I come off the full fast & learning about what I need to do to stick to it. Seems pretty straightforward - Day 1 - you eat whatever - Day 2 you eat a restricted diet of 400-500 cals. It has so many benefits, and I think it is quite easy for me to manage. I want to adopt it as a lifestyle after the end of this fast and see where it takes me. I've been needing to make a permanent dietary change for years now, and have found fasting to be the most helpful thing personally during all this time. Eating wholefoods only was also great & while I never stuck to it all that long, I totally felt the health giving benefits of cutting out everything processed.

It is too tough for me, believe it or not - to work out a diet and stick to it, long term, or get results enough to be encouraged - I have done some awesome diets and got good results in a short time, I have done other ones and got nada - in the end though, I am a lover of food, flavor and gourmet cooking - a bit of a social one, and end up in environments with others who love to cook me something beautiful or at a party etc - so trying to stick to a diet doesn't last, it always crumbles into my lifestyle and I like to either be a purist or just forget about it & in today's world that's too hard basket. The 1 day on, 1 day off means that I can do whatever on the days on - seems to be incredibly beneficial for brain development, health in general and all the things I want from it - and is something I feel confidant about being able to incorporate into my life being already a very confidant, experienced and successful faster.

I tend to eat pretty healthy anyway - and would like to also work more towards the wholefood thing as a rule. I guess big serves of veggies is also going to do a lot more good than lots of filler - Thinking a bit about what I could do on the "Fast" days with the 400-500 cals, big salad with tuna or some steamed fish seems pretty easy. Maybe some kind of brown rice nori rolls I make up. Something I need to play around with and come up with a plan for. A bowl of tsampa if it's wintertime :)

The other thing I'm going to finally splash out on is some version of a Vitamix-type blender. Instant hot soup out of a carrot, bit of lemongrass, bit of chili, tomato and mushroom with a piece of coconut - Totally awesome - stuff like that, work out the cals and what I can put in it on the Fast days.

Starting up on that kind of lifestyle after a long fast will be not only easy, but actually very helpful - I always find when I do come off the fast, it's nice having the first few meals - but going back to eating every day again is too much, too soon and you quickly feel your digestive tract getting compacted and unhappy. The day on day off thing sounds like a great way forward & initially it might be more of a day on 2 days off and slowly slowly working back towards the more standard ADF.

It's really something I've got to give a good 6 months and see where it takes me - 6 months, a year. Can still do my spring time fasting and few full fasts a year - might not need to, I might just like doing them though ;)

Having come this far - I am feeling pretty good, gettin more flexible, keeping up the yoga and adding more variety to it, starting to really feel the need to do it, and the blah's if I don't lol! Once you start, you do get to need it - provides such a cornacopia of everything for your body, mood, health...

To all you other fasters and readers out there - Keep it up, it just gets better and better with practice! Hope the info I'm getting and relaying abt ADF and my experience helps!