Thirty Thirty Thirty Six Hours To Go

I am being brave and doing my first ever 36 hour fast today! I decided to do this because my weight has been stagnant in the 186-188 pound range for weeks. I am factoring in that I have started to exercise and have been working out 6 days a week and can tell I am building back lost muscle. I know muscle weighs more than fat, but it still bothers me when I see the scale not budging. 36 hours is the magic number for a metabolism reset. Dr. Mindy Pelz calls it the "Fat Burner Fast" where your body really uses up the stored fat for energy. Longer fasts like this are best done the week your cycle starts and should not be done the week before your cycle. I had been waiting because my cycle was supposed to start last Wednesday but didn't. I finally decided to act as if it did and just go ahead with it. I know I can always eat whenever I need to if it comes to this. I thought I would document how it is going throughout the fast in case anyone is interested, and also so I can refer back to this the next time I do this or even if I attempt a 48 hour fast. 12/18/22, 4PM weight: 188.6 12/18/22. Last food for the day at 6PM. I meant to not have my liquid stevia drops in my water but put them in by habit. Some people, especially those who are not fat-adapted or not in ketosis, will have an insulin spike with even natural sweeteners. I have been doing keto for more than a year now and even though I don't have a glucose monitor I am going to assume my body knows how to burn fat for fuel at this point. 12/19/22 5 A.M. I slept really good and woke with my 5AM alarm. I took my 200mg caffeine pill. This is habitual, but I do find it helps my morning workouts so I will continue it for now. After a week of not fasting and a few non-keto foods over the weekend, I really noticed that my mindset was not on fasting at all, and I was trying to talk myself out of it. This is a situation where I am going to start out and I know my mind will catch up. No workout this morning because I have an obligation that requires me to be done at 2:30 today. I will consider doing something this evening depending on my energy level. 6AM (12 hours fasted): Started work with some iced black coffee. I am not a fan of black coffee but putting cream or sweeteners in can spike insulin (which is the exact opposite of what you want while fasting) so I will cope. 7 A.M. (13 hours fasted) A few minutes of yuck and I discovered the cause-my cycle started. That makes this perfect timing. Took my morning vitamins (B complex, C, D3, garlic, magnesium, probiotic,zinc) and my blood pressure pill. Some purists don't take vitamins while fasting because of the caps they are contained in or the D3 is suspended in oil. I have vitamin D deficiency and also need magnesium in order to avoid cramping, which I used to have until I started taking magnesium. I decided to have a branch chain amino acid drink. This helps prevent muscle from breaking down while you are not eating. Mine is a sugar-free blue raspberry flavor, it's delicious. I don't miss food yet. 9:31 A.M. (15.5 hours fasted) First stomach growl. I am drinking water with minerals and salt added, and hot herbal tea. Work and watching Extreme Weightloss is keeping me distracted. 10:19 A.M. (16 hours fasted) The stomach growlgrowling is consistent now, and I am catching myself thinking 'I'm so hungry' then I realize it's because I'm fasting. 16 hours is my normal baseline fast so my body is used to eating after 16 hours. Sipping some hot mango tea and rocking through it. 12:00 PM (18 hours fasted) My stomach stopped growling before 11 and while I can tell I'm hungry, I am not focused on food at all, even after sitting with my husband while he ate his lunch. The tag on my tea says "A cup of tea is all you need. Indeed! 1:39 P.M (almost 20 hours fasted) My stomach is growling again but my energy is still high. I dislike how plain water makes my mouth feel, like my tongue is dry. I added some cold brew herbal tea bags to my water. 2:30 P.M. Work over for today. I always feel a bit of an energy slump right after work and today is no exception. I have to go out in very cold temperatures so that should wake me up. My stomach isn't growling. It's like, my stomach growls then it figures out it has all that stored fat to use for fuel. Once I get 20 hours in a fast I feel this amazing inspiration of the challenge. I really like to conquer things that are difficult to prove to myself that I can do hard things. 3:00 PM (21 hours fasted) Went to pick up my son at work. So very cold. We were waiting for a call to pick up his car after repair, I was expecting it all day and skipped my workout in case they called. It's an excuse, I know, but with my cycle starting today and fasting I just wasn't feeling it. Still not feeling hunger pangs at this point. The tea is making this possible. 7:00 PM (25 hours) I spent 3 hours doing my new favorite hobby, painting rocks! I am practicing dot mandala. The technique is not hard but getting things symmetrical without getting paint all over is tricky. This was a brilliant distraction and I didn't think about the fact that I am fasting at all.

We typically go to bed between 8:30 and 9PM because my husband gets up at 3:30 A.M. and I get up at 5 A.M. The hours I spend sleeping will be the easiest fasting hours of all I imagine. My stomach is lightly growling but I feel almost Euphoric. When I put my painting supplies away in the basement just now (the same place I work out) I had an amazing feeling of happiness wash over me thinking about working out. I plan to work out in the morning before I eat. Fasted workouts yield the best results in autophagy (cell renewal) and insulin sensitivity. Then I will eat, triumphantly. I only hope (really really hope) that I can sleep deeply tonight. 8:10 P.M. ( 26 hours) my stomach continued to growl lightly so I had another amino acid drink. After drinking unsweetened tea and water all day, this tastes like ice cream to me! I normally drink about 1½ gallons of water per day but today I would be shocked if it wasn't more than 2 gallons. I will try to remember to weigh in tomorrow. I'm sure some of anything I lose will be water weight but I'm also on my cycle. Ultimately, the scale weight doesn't matter, I'm hoping this revs up my metabolism. 12/20/22 5 A.M (35 hours fasted) Sleep was a little shaky for the first couple hours, I woke up a lot and tossed and turned. After that I slept really good and felt energetic when I woke at 5 A.M. I was surprised to have no headache or stomach growling. I took Mt morning caffeine pill and took my dog our. I noticed myself feeling almost joyful as if I had been given a gift. I'm not sure if the fasting is a factor in that, but there's definitely a sense of empowerment and accomplishment. 6 A.M. (36 hours) I had some amino acids while going through a grueling full body strength session on my Peleton app. This was my 12th Peleton workout in December so I crushed that goal! I feel amazing and can't believe all I have done in 36 hours. What once sounded impossible feels not really that bad once I set my mind to it. 6:30 A.M (36.5 hours fasted) I looked down at my plate of keto foods and knew I was going to eat as planned, but I also knew that I absolutely could have made it to 48 hours if I wanted to. That fast is for dopamine reset, which I don't really need at this point but I know it's possible if I want it. Before I started keto I never would have even tried fasting. I loathed having to fast for labs because my body was so accustomed to burning carbs for fuel that I could only go a couple hours without eating or I was miserable with headaches and nausea. I feel really good today and would consider doing this again. Results and my final thoughts on this fast will be in my next post!