Wednesday, May 18, 2016

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

11 comments:

  1. ... you sound very relaxed, which is great.

    I love old-fashioned cottagey flowers - it's always fun to plan out plantings.

    All the best Jan

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    1. I am! :-) It's a lovely, golden May day here -- i wish everybody could sit in a garden and enjoy it!

      I'm not very good at the planting-plans, though. I have to start with bedding-plants and place them where i think they'll look good, one by one. I SHOULD spend some time on the Farmer's Almanac website -- i think they have some tutorials on garden design.

      Hope your day is as pretty as it is here! Best regards!
      T

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  2. Congrats on getting your man to try what works for you! He is lucky to have your example.
    I don't know why the lost of "water weight" is routinely disregarded. It is less to carry around , it at least it feels great - clear head + lighter body.

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    1. Thank you -- i hope he sticks with it. He kinda has an eating-while-bored issue.... :-) Yes, i think the first loss of water-weight causes the greatest RELIEF! Bloating is reduced, edema magically disappears, and often vague aches go away, too.

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    2. He will remember how great it feels. Probably, it is a difficult transition from the idea of eating to get a pleasure to limit eating in order to feel lighter and more functional. Also, eating a wrong food after a fast feels totally terrible. We all are guided by sensations.

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  3. My energy levels are remarkably different depending on what I eat. I've been through a few sugar hangovers lately and that's been a big motivation to get back on track. I was good today and had the energy to finish planting my flowers and spade up a place by the chain link fence to plant some green beans. Might as well turn that bug (a chain link fence in the front yard) into a feature.

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    1. Sorry i hadn't replied to this long ago -- it's been a crazy-busy spring, and i'm afraid a lot of things have fallen into the cracks, and i wasn't even aware!

      :-) Yeah, the people two-doors-down have an old chain-link fence, but it's hard to tell in some spots, because of the plants climbing it!

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  4. J. loves to cook, and it almost always coexists with obesity in guys. After it came to my mind that a love for cooking is just one of symptoms of a food obsession resulted from a particular metabolic state which leads to a metabolic syndrome in general and obesity as part of that syndrome, I started to find more and more examples which supported such guess. I yet to meet a thin guy who loves to cook, however I am sure such people exist, but they are motivated by something other than an inclination to think about food too much. My husband likes to tinker with substances in a chemical lab, some man may feel about food in the same way.Females could be motivated by a motherly instinct to keep her charges from being hungry. My degeneration as a cook continues as a result of LCarbing because my interest in food keeps falling. I think it is a positive development and one of manifestation of my healing. I look nor fat nor thin, eat everyday, but variety of my menu became very limited. Of course some food obsessed people keep popping in fast-food places, but others make their food - which is actually faster and more convenient.

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    1. I'll repeat my apology for neglecting your comment so long!

      I too cook much less than i used to, and for many of the reasons you state. When J was working out-of-town and i was experimenting in ZC, i clearly saw how much time and thought go into "normal" food-production in the home! It's so much easier to buy good meat, simply-cook good meat and eat it.... Being a hedonist, though, we do a lot more than that nowadays! :-D

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  5. Great point about the inevitable just being what one's used to - fasting is on its way back
    http://whatthefatbook.com/six-facts-on-fasting/

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    1. I'm sorry i missed your comment, too, for almost a MONTH! :-O We certainly DID have a busy and enjoyable June, though....

      I can't take credit for the quote, unfortunately -- one of my favorite esoteric writers observed it, and it impressed me enough to stick in my memory. I'm glad to see that not only is fasting being clinically-approved, but being credited for SOME of the good results of a "Mediterranean diet." ;-) Keys wasn't always wrong, but he DID have an oversized ego....

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