Monday, June 24, 2019

My annual summer fast...

It seems like each year at the end of the school year my eating habits go downhill.  Busyness, end of the year activities and parties (this year add all the graduation celebrations!), and the stresses of being tired and ready to finish they year all take their toll.  So every summer for the last few years I have kicked off my summer with a longer term fast. 

For me a fast has more benefits than just dropping a few pounds.  It completely resets my relationship with healthy eating, breaks the cravings for carbs, candy, sugar, and reminds me that I don't have to be controlled by my flesh.

Since I had a rough beginning to last year's fast, I decided to do things a little different this year.  Starting Monday I embarked on a 95% fruits and veggies diet.  For lunch I would saute onions, mushrooms, spinach, and peppers and for dinner I'd have a nice salad.  In between I'd eat fruit and drink fruit/veg juice.  My thought was that when I began my fast it would be less of a shock to my system.

I have now completed 24 hours of my fast, and it was the easiest first day I have ever had.  WIN for the easing into fasting with fresh fruits and veggies.

Thursday: last meal was a salad at 5:30pm

Friday morning:  106.1 
Drank plenty of juice, some coffee, chicken bouillon.  Taught summer school and worked in my classroom most of the day.  When I came home I decided I needed a Netflix series to watch.  Summer is literally the only time I regularly watch a TV series on Netflix.  I've watched The Mentalist (took 2 summers) 2016 and 2017, Dowton Abbey (2018), and now I am watching Designated Survivor (2019).

Saturday morning: 105.4
Drank plenty of juice, water, coffee, chicken bouillon.  Rested at home a good part of the day, then went out for my life group Bible study.  It just so happened that we had to change locations and held our study in Saizeriya an italian fast food place.  It smelled good, but I'm never really tempted to break my fast once I  am this far in

Sunday morning: 104.3
Very nauseous this morning.  Decided to eat an apple.  It's important to listen to your body when fasting.  I actually ate about 2/3 of a small apple and fell back asleep.  When I woke up I was fine.  I spent the day alternating between binge watching Designated Survivor and cleaning and organizing around the house.  I drank a lot less juice today trying to get closer to a true water fast.

Monday morning: 103:3
Trying to enter a true fasting state for at least part of my fast so I have not had any juice today.  I will try to only drink water and green tea today.  I will listen to my body, but so far I feel good.  I made banana bread- half with blueberries and half with chocolate chips and wanted to lick my fingers and the bowl sooooo bad.  But before I could give in I through the spoons and bowls in the dish water.  PHEW.   I decided to make this day a no calorie day.  So I had green tea in place of coffee and didn't have any .juice.  Later in the day I did have a little coffee with a tiny bit of milk... so I guess it was only an almost no calorie day.

Tuesday morning: 101.6
I will break my fast later today.  I feel pretty good still so I am not in a big hurry.  I'll make some soup with veggies that I cook for a long time and eat that.  And maybe some fruit.  It is really important to break the fast properly so that your digestive system can wake up gently.


What's next?  
As I explained, fasting really helps me reset my relationship with food.  It makes me desire more healthy options and less carbs and sweets.  It also makes me realize that my appetites or cravings don't have power to control me.  Going forward I plan to keep doing some form of intermittent fasting.  Either a condensed eating window, or perhaps one fast day a week (which results in a 36-40 hour fast.) .  But honestly, I find this harder to maintain than a long term fast. I start out with good intentions and over time my resolve wanes.  Maybe this year will be different.

Here's a good article on both longer term fasting (he calls it "block fasting") and intermittent fasting.  It also has advice on breaking a fast.