Fast day 3. This is totally doable

So, this is essentially what Dr. Fung calls bariatric surgery without the surgery. Weight is melting off super fast. I have pretty great energy levels although a bit of insomnia is setting in. I'm hoping that resolves on its own. Hunger is pretty well gone. I'm subsisting on coffee, tea, water and some cream in said coffee. I figure (or at least I'm hoping) that having fatty cream in the coffee will prevent the formation of gallstones, because the fat in my intestine should prompt regular bile release. I should also mention I'm supplementing with a multivitamin, vitamin C and salt, as well as some magnesium and vitamin D. I'm down 8 lbs in 8 days (including 3 days that turned into non-fast days because the cravings were too intense to resist). I'd like to press on and get down into the obese class I weight range (which is 10 lbs away for me) before halting the fast if I need to. Honestly, I'll just keep going as long as I feel okay, because truly this is bariatric surgery without the surgery. It's far less risky and I'm monitoring how I feel and will definitely listen to my body if it's telling me to stop. I'll check in in a few days to update.

Fast day 1: again

I've returned to restart my fast twice now. The headache spurred lascivious thoughts of delectable nut butter and I just. could. not. resist. On both day 2s.

Apparently, day 2 is always the most difficult. This is my third day 1. I'm sticking to a water fasting protocol as described by Fung in the Complete Guide to Fasting. Only small amounts of cream in coffee. Otherwise, water, tea, broth and salt are permitted (and vitamins). I'll report back tomorrow. Regardless of the triple start, I'm down 6 lbs in 6 days.

Fast Day 2: The Day of the Headache

Most of today has been consumed by a massive headache, despite drinking sufficient fluids (and caffeine, and salt). I'm down three plus pounds from yesterday, however I'm sure the three pounds (if not the plus) are from stored glycogen loss. I'm experiencing NO hunger, just a rollicking headache. I've just taken ibuprofen and I'm hoping it works. Otherwise, I'm soldiering on. This fasting thing seems to be absolutely no trouble at all as long as I don't have any sweetener. I've had a dash of cream in one of my coffees and it didn't stimulate hunger, so I'm guessing that what derailed me the other times I've engaged in fasting was the sweetener added to my coffee (Torani sugar free). Maybe the sweet stimulates enough of a cephalic insulin response that it gets my tummy ready for food.

It's been another year and I'm stalled. Enter: fasting.

I've decided to water fast (well, tea/coffee and water fast) for a while. I'm stuck at 220. Calorie restriction when eating is too hard for me--the appetite-stimulating effect of the food itself creates some pretty intense hunger and that sucks. Not eating at all is actually much easier, so I'm going to give that the old college try. I recently read Fung's book on fasting (The Complete Guide to Fasting) and am pretty confident I can do this for a prolonged period, safely. I've done a few days here and there before, we'll see how long I last with this, but so far so good. Today is day 1. I'm sort of hungry, it's almost 5 p.m., but I'm fine. I'm sure tomorrow will be harder than today, and when I've done this before I've found that sleeping is a real bitch. In any case, day 1 is nearly over. Day 2 report will come tomorrow :)

It's been over a year: Over 75 lbs down

Yup, it's been over a year now and I'm never going back to eating carbs. Because screw carbs. They are crap. I'm losing about 5 lbs a month now. I'm good with that. I'll get to where I want to be by next April. :)

I started weightlifting in December and can now do what I'm calling 'Skinny Girl Chin Ups' - which is basically lat pull downs using 120 lbs. I weigh 210 lbs, and if I didn't I'd be able to do them skinny girl chin ups. Eventually, they will come. Benching 100, too. That's pretty sweet.

Today I made a sugar-free mocha cheesecake. The batter tasted delightful. Here's the recipe:

For the crust:
1 cup almond flour
1/4 cup butter
2 tbsp powdered Swerve

Melt the butter, mix all together, put in the base of a 10" springform pan and bake at 350 for 10 mins, until browning slightly around the edges.

Meanwhile, in a stand mixer, combine:
3 bricks of cream cheese, softened in microwave
4 eggs
1 cup granular Swerve, mixed with 1/2 cup cocoa powder, 1 heaping tbsp instant espresso, and 1/2 tsp salt

Beat the cream cheese, then add the dry ingredients and eggs alternately, and blend well in between.

Remove the crust from the oven when browned around the edges. Scrape in the filling, and return to oven. Lower the temperature to 300 degrees and bake for 1 hour, until middle is almost set. Turn off oven and leave the cheesecake inside to finish cooking and then cool. Refrigerate when COMPLETELY cool.

Each serving (1/8 of the cheesecake) is 484 cals: 47 g fat, 9.5g (4.2g fibre) of carbohydrate, and 12.7g of protein.

Of course, I haven't bitten into a slice yet, but gauging from the taste of the crust batter and filling (because I'm a bowl licker after the fact), it's going to be spectacular.

It's January 10th!

I'm down to 226.6, I'm now well under class III obese and I will never return there. "See ya, big numbers. I'm gonna hang out over here, with the smaller numbers."

That is 61 and a bit pounds lost. That's thrilling. The weight loss slowed for the month of December because I picked up weight lifting again, but it's speeding up now because after the initial muscle gain of 6 to 8 lbs (I'm guessing), gains slow right back down and losses start to show up again. :)

Bloody Fats!

OH YEAH - lipids results! My triglyceride level is down about 15% (from 0.95 to 0.81), which is great. My HDL is up from 0.91 to 0.93 (probably not even statistically significant, but I'll take it because it's also good). My LDL is up from 4.38 to 4.63, but I'm not worried. LDL levels GO UP when you're experiencing fat loss, because fat mobilizes stored cholesterol. So it's not necessarily a bad thing so much as an indicator that I am actively losing fat, which I am (59 lbs off, I guess still a ways to go but 59 lbs ain't shabby).