not just me fasting this time

Okay, i know i've neglected this journal horribly over the last month.  All i can say is, i've both been exceptionally busy having a good time, and the victim of some bad internet service.  It's not that i didn't WRITE, i just didn't post.  I have quite a few observations jotted down, but by the time i had a good opportunity to publish, the right moment seemed past.

We're back home, but going to be taking off AGAIN after the first of next month.  Dropping off the dog and bird in Texas again, we'll make a quick flying visit to relatives in Arizona before returning to TX, then flying off to Florida to visit the Disney and Universal parks with the grandchildren (and their parents).  J has never been to the former at all, and i went to the original California site, half a century ago.  Things have changed significantly since then (today's understatement).

This last "outing," though, hit J's waistline pretty hard.  I stayed more-or-less level, but i STARTED that adventure with more subcutaneous fat than i can bear seeing in photos.  :-P  So despite the last half of our vacation including 50 miles walked and 344 flights of stairs (including the equivalent in hill-climbing), SOMEBODY (okay, both of us) really wanted to lose some weight before the next trip....

J joked, not for the first time, about simply NOT EATING to accomplish his goal.  I took up the subject, and told him that if he does it right, fasting can be very effective  He knows i sometimes fast briefly, in recovering from a feast or because i don't feel particularly good for whatever reason.  He decided to give it a try.

The day after his birthday, which we celebrated low-carbily, we had our morning coffee as usual, and toward mid-day took off in the rain to buy some more plants for the garden.  By the time we got home we were no longer hungry, so San Pellegrino was our "cocktail" of the afternoon.  The evening passed in reading, word games and a long hot soak in the bathtub for me.  We turned in around the usual time -- no fasting-insomnia with either of us -- and i woke up refreshed after only about six hours of sleep.

The absolutely BEST thing about being in ketosis, for me, is how clear my head is.  All of my adult life, i'd wake with horrible brain-fog ... until i discovered Atkins.  It was so extreme that i noticed at the time, after about the third day, that ... whoa, this is how "normal" people feel when they wake up! It was a revelation.  A favorite writer once observed that we accept as inevitable anything we're used to -- when it comes to diet and other "paleo" practices, this is definitely profound.  We accept the symptoms of aging as unavoidable, when "our brains on ketones," our knees without gluten, and our gut without problematic plants tell us that there IS something we can do about it.

J got on the scale this morning to observe that he was down four pounds.  Even though it's almost all water, nevertheless one feels so much better when one's cells are not bursting with superfluous liquids.  He feels very up for continuing.  I gave him the next instructions -- that losing water this fast can result in malaise which can be remedied with the use of broth to resupply electrolytes.  I don't know how long i'll continue with the regimen;   I'm not as overweight as my husband is.  But fasting together is even easier than being LCHF together.  No meals to make or to clean up after, no shopping to do (we have plenty of allowed liquids) -- i'll be enjoying this period, as long as it lasts.

...And now to finish my coffee and started figuring out where to put the plants we bought yesterday....  While we were gone, it rained about half the time, and my garden hasn't been thriving -- the seedling tomatoes and peppers are hanging in there, but panting for more sunshine.  The zucchini are larger, but in the same boat.  The leeks are doing okay, but i fear for the scallions.  On the other hand, the herbs look very happy, and i think i might harvest some chard to put in the broth, some time this week.

We bought hosta and colei and some other shade-lovers to plant under some of the trees;  we got some more mature tomatoes to add to the previous plantings;  we got some flowers, too, to add more color.  When we break our fasts, i anticipate meals of gazpacho and white wine, and of mezes and retsina (J fell in love with tzatziki in Athens), or sushi and sparkling saki out among the day-lillies and iris.  ...Which reminds me, i still need to get some snapdragons, foxgloves, and other old-fashioned cottagey flowers....  :-D