Re: re-feeding day two:STEAK!!!!

well tomorrow will be day four since i broke my 40dayWF. i feel great and feel it was a total success. i was in philly with my brother yesterday and had a philly cheesesteak(i ate the whole thing)and im presently back to eating how i would eat anytime. i havent run into any problems but im kind of suprised by this because of all i read about how hard it is to break a fast.

Congrats again on your success, i am very happy for you :). Yes it's amazing how fantastically varied people's experiences can be in breaking their fasts and even the same person's experiences over different fasts.

In my own example, i had a mere 10 day fast about 15 months ago and was showing clear signs of breaking it too agressively with far less complex foods (only raw fruits and raw veg) than you have been able to enjoy after 40 days, forcing me to step back into strictly juices for a couple of days.

In stark contrast, after a 30 day fast to completion (return of genuine hunger) about 11 months ago i would probably have been fine in breaking it just as you were able to (though i didn't realize it at the time).

Then the following 30 day uncompleted fast (which ended about 3 months ago), i had to take it very slow and experimenting along the way continually reminded me of this... for the most part needing to stick to juices and fruits for 7 days before moving onto even whole vegetables. A handful of almonds on day 8(which i very much believed my body was telling me it was ready for) made me quite unwell, where you were able to have a similar handful of nuts on day 2 (or was it even day 1?).

This past 36 day fast lies somewhere in between and i was able to enjoy and tolerate soaked and cooked organic brown rice and beans on day 4 and 2-3 tablespoons of organic peanut butter on the same day.

Truly it seems that no two experiences are alike and i think the most important thing is to be as cautious as necessary... as you were for the most part. You started slowly and graduated to greater and greater challenges making sure that you felt fine, even good each step of the way.

but agien i didnt fast for health reasons and am excited to put some weight back on and start working out agien. i worked out on sunday morning.

Yes it's great :). Of my estimated 24 pounds of temporary loss (water and intestinal contents), i have already replaced 10 pounds in 6 days (with light eating). Today i re-initiated the training of my muscles, easing back in with some moderately strenuous isometrics.

does anyone think i should keep an eye out or be worried about any problems arising because of how if been eating? from day one i slowly started re-introducing everything into my body in small amouts:

fruits
veggies
nuts
milk
bread
meat

Since the pursuit of optimal health is not what you are after at this time, from a purely acute sense i think you are fine... and if there was any obvious over-taxing of your digestive system i believe it has had plenty of opportunity to manifest itself if it was going to... in the form of nausia, weakness, stomach ache or pain, or intestinal pain to name a few possibilities.

The nearest you came was in feeling weak after the whole philly cheesesteak sandwich on day 2, perhaps the least of all possible symptoms. The fact that your bowels are moving is another very good sign.

By the way, you mentioned in one of your videos about the complications people can encounter with dried fruit. Dried fruit is digestively challenging compared to "undried" fruit, and certainly compared to juice, but is quite simple compared to a handful of nuts or especially a cheesesteak sandwich.  By eating that sandwich, i believe you have demonstrated that you can eat anything at this point :).

i was pretty much eating in small amounts non-stop over the past couple days and im back to work tomorrow(and very glad)so its time to get back on an regular eating schedule and i can weigh myself at work tomorrow.the last time i weighed myself was tuesday and i had lost 50 pounds.im curious to see how much i gained back so far.

However much or little you eat, your temporary water loss is likely about 30 pounds and will likely be back on your body within about 3 weeks of breaking your fast. I'm not sure if this is what you're thinking, but unless you are anxious to gain back fat on top of that i wouldn't encourage you to be in any particular hurry to gain a lot more weight :). If you are working your muscles, the normal "body building nutritional protocol" would be a good idea though, eating slightly more calories than you'll be burning.