Never Too Late

Halloween is my absolute favorite holiday! Ever since I was a kid I could hardly wait for it. I love love love the bright orange decorations against the darker night, the whimsy and electricity. I have been making a tradition of taking Halloween week off just to revel in the joy of the season, and did so again this year. We did not get any trick-or-treaters last year and ended up eating a big bucket of candy. This year my sons asked me not to get candy because they didn't want that hanging around tempting them. I was fine with that! The weather has been unseasonably nice where I live, so Monday morning I took a walk down to the beach. Lake Michigan sunrises never disappoint!

On my walk home I was calculating how many hours I had been fasting at that point (18) and got the idea that it would be the perfect day to try a 24-hour fast. I was feeling super confident and even a bit excited to challenge myself since I hadn't done more than 18 hours before then. I had eaten "dinner" at 3:30 pm the night before so that fit in perfectly with our special Halloween dinner I had planned. I started really feeling it at 20 hours, some nausea set in briefly. I was constantly switching between hot salt water (electrolytes), hot tea and cold water. My mind was ever aware of the growling in my stomach, which didn't really hit hard until the 20 hour mark. The liquids definitely helped. I also kept myself busy with food prep and cleaning. I had already had over 8,000 steps on after my morning walk, so you would have thought I would be exhausted but I was feeling pretty good despite the hunger. Once I only had one hour left, I knew it was no big deal and finished easily. At 24 hours of fasting, the gut starts repairing itself because it finally gets a break from all that work. I broke my fast with broth, something easy on the gut, but I felt so hungry still that after 1/2 hour I ate a keto pizza slice that I made from scratch. My body got a euphoric buzz. By the game I had our Halloween dinner prepped I wasn't really hungry but I ate anyway. We had brisket, homemade Mac and cheese, baked beans and for dessert, one of my absolute favorite things on earth to eat, pumpkin pie. That's the most carbs I have had in one sitting in a long long time and my stomach was so bloated and stuffed I was miserable! The temporary enjoyment of those items was not worth how miserable I felt. Lesson learned. Needless to say, I have been on track with my food since. I am trying to get some exercise in at least 4-5 days a week. Friday and Saturday are a little trickier so I don't stress out about setting goals for an every day type of scenario. I am already feeling stronger. I have done mostly yoga, but I did do a couple Peleton workouts too, with mixed results. Today I was doing a move that has been so hard for me, which involved interlacing your fingertips behind your back, then as you fold forward you bring your arms away from your body) and today I could actually do it partially, instead of before I was not able to pull my arms away from my body. Today I also tried on a ring that just a couple months ago would only fit my pinky finger, and now it nor only fits my ring finger but there's a little extra room. I took measurements on Monday and Hage lost a full 3 inches in some areas, but all areas have lost inches. The most dramatic change was 3 inches off both my hips and bust. So things are definitely happening! I am finding that this way of eating makes it so I'm just not that hungry. I am consistently fasting 13-14 hours with ease. My next challenge will be a 36-hour challenge, but I am going to wait until later this month to do it. I don't know if I'll need these longer fasts a lot but it will be an interesting experiment to see if I can do it. Sometimes I think back to how much I used to struggle with obsessive thoughts about food, and I never would have thought I'd be able to go so long without food, but now that my body is using fat for fuel I don't really feel the same about food. Yes, it tastes good and makes me feel good when I eat the right stuff, but I no longer think about food constantly. In fact, some of my longer fasts are unintentional because I will realize too late that I forgot to eat (I don't eat after 6PM) and instead of eating late I'll just fast until morning. As great as it is to lose weight and better my physical health, one of the biggest gifts has been losing the obsession over food. It doesn't have power over me and I didn't have to willpower my way through it or get therapy, I just had to get my body adapted to using fat as fuel. I wish I would have known this earlier in life, but I'm grateful that I know it now, before it's too late.