Well. So trying to ramp up my fasting so quickly turned out to be a disaster.
I managed to get through my forty-eight hour fast and gorged myself -- not sure if this is expected and permissible or not -- and then embarked on my twenty-four hour fast... and just ran out of steam. I was completely miserable. I missed eating. All this fasting meant very few eating opportunities. I even missed cooking vegetables!
So I stopped at 22:30 and ate a big keto-friendly meal. And then added in some (slightly stale) potato chips. Though I'd like to ?brag that I didn't come close to finishing them. And added in two digestive biscuits for good measure. Both are foods I miss when I'm keto'ing... though I don't remember to miss them most of the time. But fasting is a good time to think back on the foods I've loved over the years.
The next morning my ketones were down to 1.0, which actually seemed pretty great, considering. And the next day they were up to 1.2 after better eating, though today they were mysteriously down to 0.9, despite eating pretty well yesterday. I'm guessing the artificial sweetener in the sugar free Jello mix I sprinkled on my heavy whipping cream was the culprit?
I'm trying to be a lot more gentle with myself, and backtrack a lot in fasting. I was doing really well with 16-22 hour fasts over the vacation when I got too big for my britches and inspired by the Obesity Code folks on FB. So the last two days I only fasted 12-14 hours overnight. Last night I was really hungry so I ate early with the girls and mentally closed the kitchen by 6 pm which ended up being really great because it was relatively easy to fast until noon today... eighteen hours!
I had a nice brunch, perhaps followed by a little too much dark chocolate and almonds but oh well. Progress, not perfection. I feel like I need to handle myself with kid gloves for a few more days. Anything that isn't cookies and chips is a win!
My goal is to fast 16-18 hours a day for the next few days until it feels really good and easy ?again. (Did it feel easy before? I think so but it's hard to remember!) When I get there, I'll start trying to stretch out my fast every other day to get it to twenty-four hours or so on alternate days. And once that is easy, I'll very gently try to stretch that to thirty-six or even forty-two hours. And then that's it! The IDM Network says 3 x 36 or 42 per week is ideal for losing weight. So there's no reason to go to forty-eight hours.
Getting to twenty-four hours hasn't been too bad in the past but the mental hurdle of going a whole day without a meal (with a twenty-four there's one meal a day) is significant. I think I need to be very, very careful with this or I trigger obsessive thinking and then binge in response. Not good. So I am trying to remember not to rush. And my main goal is just to remain in ketosis. If I can at least do that, I'm doing great!
I have decided to stay off the scale because it doesn't do anything good for my sanity. If I'm focusing on ketosis and intermittent fasting as a way life, as opposed to a diet, the daily ups and downs of the scale simply don't matter. (Right?) I can tell that my skin is softer and smoother from doing keto. And my pants are too big. Whether they are too big since last month or last week, it doesn't really matter, right? I'll keep measuring my ketones every day to make sure I am keeping them in check and otherwise, TRY to relax. Not easy for me!
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