Day 25 – EFS!!! 🎄- Ireland
Happy Christmas everybody! 🎄 🎅 ♥️ I hope you all have a lovely day today and for those of you who find this time of year tough sending you hugs and strength for the day…
@shinything – great to see you back for a visit! Hope all’s going well 🤞
I am waking up with Mum and Dad as our fantastic Carers are off for this special family time and it’s also a very precious time for us.. it’s a long time since I’ve stayed with them on Christmas Eve but there has been lots of change this year… we are so fortunate to have wonderful people looking after the most of the time 😇 and I am very grateful to them.
Dinner with the rest of the family at my sister’s later this afternoon which will be fabulous food and lots of fun – we still have some believers 🤗 and I’m off up the country to fly to my OHs family tomorrow..
Have a wonderful day 🎄
Onward and downward ⬇️
We rise by lifting others 💕

Day 25 USA NFD

Merry Christmas to one and all! Of course, this won’t be a fasting day! Lots of fun, family, and food ahead today! Have a great day everyone! 🙂

Day 25: Gloucestershire, UK, NFD:

Taking a break while the family are playing the dreaded Scrabble! Our daughter is with us and her SO, it’s been a lovely day. DH has produced far too much food!
I hope you are all enjoying your day too.

Happy Christmas xx

Merry Christmas!

Day 25 USA (Illinois) NFD

So glad to see no one is trying to fast today! Beef fondue for us and cherries jubilee for dessert. Red wine.

DH and I are getting used to new FitBit activity trackers today – sharing our low heart rates! 🙂

Onward and downward.

Day 25
Merry Christmas everyone ❄️⛄️🍾🎄

Day 26 – South Africa 🇿🇦 – NFD 🍗🍷

Day 26 – Japan – WFD

I’ve been fasting a bit irregularly, but this should be over number 90 for water fasts. I’ve been busy trying to figure out how to get to retirement, or at least how to change my work to something I want to do vs something I have to do. I’ve also had a lot of travel this last year.

My weight has been stable, running from 80kg to 82kg. 7 years ago I was at 106kg. So I’m pretty pleased that the weight is stable. My eating isn’t always that great but it is much better than it was, so I’m sure that helps.

I’m trying to build more strength. Fasting is helpful to a point. In fact I don’t believe it is necessary to have a “calorie” surplus or even a protein surplus to build muscle. However, it does tend to slow down progress. Lately I’ve been gaining strength and I’m at an advanced enough age (60) that I need to go with the flow a bit. So I’ll move my fasts or shorten them if I get a good opportunity to stress my muscles. Since I mostly workout outside, it isn’t always possible to plan completely. It is one thing to deal with blisters from bars and another thing to deal with mud and cold rain.

My currently fast may last longer than 36 hours, I haven’t decided yet. I might let my body dip in to ketosis more than normal. I don’t really believe there is anything special about ketosis or that ketones are a preferred fuel. (If they were so preferred, the body would probably hold on to them rather than release them in breath and wastes.) I also haven’t experienced any improvements in concentration, in fact it typically is a distraction because it makes me slightly edgy to be deep in ketosis. That could be related to diet. I don’t drink either because that does reduce my ability to think and I have to hold on to the little I have. To me, ketosis is just an indicator that my body is using fats and that I’m not starving.

My wife isn’t very healthy, in fact she is under weight, but has at least bounced back a little. Her BMI dipped below 18 for a while. However she is now more supportive of my fasting. I think she can see I didn’t have the many problems she started to have. I have two healthy children. One is in a top high school in Japan but struggling because it is extremely hard, the other is in his first year at Princeton university in the USA. Both of them are healthy and at healthy weights.

I don’t know how often I’ll post for a while, but I sincerely wish everyone here success and a good new year. When I was newer to fasting, people here were very helpful. Thank you.

Day 26: Gloucestershire, UK, NFD:

DD and her SO have left us now to move onto his family in West Sussex for the rest of the day. It was lovely to have them here. It almost seemed as if DD had never been away in Australia for a year so neatly did our relationship slot back into place. They are obvoiusly very much in love, and so the hope is he’ll soon get his visa to join her in Australia. He almost has a job lined up, so that would be the icing on the cake for them.
To join @michelinme and someone else (sorry, can’t remember who….) with broken, infected or damaged teeth over Christmas…..I have cracked the crown on a HUGE molar on my best biting spot…..scarily awful. Can only eat gingerly, and not sure how to get to the dentist. I’m back at work tomorrow and it’s all holiday right now…

Day 26- South Carolina- USA- FD

Enjoyed my family for the holiday. Now back home in the morning. Had a good CD yesterday. Avoided most of the sweets. Although I did enjoy a homemade brownie and a cookie or two. Still stayed below my TDEE. I’m looking forward to the new decade. Going to commit to doing it right each day. Have a beautiful day everyone!

Day 26 Ohio, US — NFD
Day 24 — NFD
Day 25 — NFD

It’s been a little busy over the holiday. I didn’t keep track of mouthfuls and just ate as I was hungry. One thing that has definitely changed this year is that I definitely ate much less than I did a year ago on the same feast. Although progress at times seems impossibly slow, a recurrent food intensive event like this one, really shows that this WOL and this group of support have been responsible for a long-term change in eating behavior. Thank you all!!!

P.S. We’ll have to see what the scales have to say about that on Saturday. Today I had another acupuncture treatment, so the FD this week will have to be tomorrow.

@rabbette Eggnog can be a big calorie bomb! That’s why I’ve started to make my own version that has somewhat fewer calories and a lot more protein. At least that way something good comes along with the something naughty! And I hope that the leg pain continues to clear up!

@therealwil78 That’s a great intention! Wish I could be so controlled around brownies and cookies as you!!

Patient endurance attains to all things!

Day 27: Gloucestershire, UK, NFD:

Back to normal with getting up for work, today and tomorrow…..phew! I think may….MAY…stay dry today too, a bonus! It was really good to have our daughter with us over Christmas. She goes back to Australia on the 2nd. I may see her one more time, but it’s more likely only DH will, because I won’t be home in time on the only day she can visit.
@dykask: It’s good to see you back on the forum. You are still our water-fast champion too. Glad to hear that you and your family are well.

OK, must fly. See you all later xx

Day 27 – Cumbria UK – CD

Just popping in, going to get back to things on Monday, all visitors will have gone and we can return to sanity! Weather been pretty wet as well so hardly chance for a decent walk!

Must admit, the food particularly has been excellent, no drunk too much and didn’t have trifle!

Take care all.

Well, work was busy….all the junk mail is back….with a vengeance! Holiday brochures, sale catalogues, buy this, buy that….continue to BUY things!
The weather has been very grey, almost foggy, very low, damp cloud basically. We’re back to doing the lapsed round (split between us) thus saving a job for Royal Mail. Unfortunately my bit is the biggest and adds nearly a whole hour to my round. Moaning makes no difference though…I’ve learnt that. So, finished three-quarters of an hour beyond my time.
Still having to nurse my badly cracked molar. The dentist was only working during the morning today….so I’ve made the next available appointment, after work on Monday. My eating is now controlled by FEAR…fear of it breaking apart completely, exposing….God knows what underneath….it’s a crown and will not only be terrifying to fix, but extremely expensive too, I’d guess.

Day 27 USA (Illinois) NFD

Had a very good FD yesterday. Hope you’re all finding some relaxation time this holiday season. We’re doing well.

@ciren2 – oh no fun with that tooth issue! Ugh. May you be able to cope until your dental appointment!

@rabbette – I try to avoid egg nog, but DH loves it! Even had to get more nutmeg for garnish… I have other beverage vices though. Ha ha!

@matpi – good to see you back. I expect Ohio is experiencing much the same mild winter so far that we are in NW Illinois?

Silver Sneakers classes all cancelled this week, so I found a YouTube of one. NEED TO GET MOVING! My new Fitbit keeps buzzing when I sit too long!

Onward and downward.

Day 27, London, UK, NFD

Well, I last posted on Xmas Eve and mentioned getting a FD in before the Xmas day excesses I had planned. I was glad to bank that one; however the Xmas Day EFS I had anticipated didn’t exactly go to plan, as I woke up on Xmas Day with a tummy bug from hell!!! So, very little food & perhaps one glass of vino for Xmas Day, yesterday felt fairly normal, a bit excessive on the vino, but limited food-wise because the tummy is still a little delicate, but today the bug is back with a vengeance!! I’ve been nibbling on all the wrong things but I’m so weak and I need to eat, so hot buttered toast it is!! I’ll count it as a CD and look on the bright-side, since I had a FD on XMAS DAY!!! I know it was enforced, but I’m taking it!!

I hope everyone here had a fabulous time and didn’t attempt any EFS world records!!!

Lovely to hear from @dykask and @shinything, I’m sure there’ll be loads of returnees and newbies for the January challenge ready to put Dangerous December behind them!!!

Stay strong everyone …………………………. ‘Tis the season to be mindful!!!!

January challenge —

Has anyone put in to manage it? I really ought to … would need help transferring the database.

Gwynne in NW Illinois

Day 28 – Japan – WFD 3rd in a row

I’m mostly feel fine, a bit light headed after the workout. I just checked and my blood glucose is 80 mg/dl (4.4 mmol/l) which is low considering I just worked out. So my body is probably adapting right now to mostly surviving off of fat. I have no fear, I could likely survive a 90 day fast!

Thanks for the support. While most of my fasts are water fasts, it isn’t that much of a strength. I find it really difficult to just eat like 1/4 of my TDEE, for me water fasting is just easier.

Update: My weight this morning was at 78.8kg, down 3.3kg but that is mostly water. I’m not dry fasting but do tend to dehydrate while water fasting.

@matpi, many times I have to fight temptations especially on NFDs. It can be really hard then. I admire you for resisting the cookies!

Day 28 – Ireland 🇮🇪 – NFD

It’s turned out to be a rather quieter Christmas than we thought, as DD was not able to visit on the 26th due to our Grandaughter having some vomiting bug that’s doing the rounds, then yesterday we were expecting the middle DD and her girlfriend for an overnight but she had to work unexpectedly (she is in the police).

So myself and DH have spent lots of time alone together, so while that is good, we are both really looking forward to today where we head out late afternoon to meet up with my brother, his wife, and my Dad and we are going for food and drinks in the nearby town.

Scales are not good, despite not eating too much rubbish….it’s the vino for sure. And on it rolls.

2nd January will be when I hoist myself back into the wagon DH said he will join me in trying to lose weight and will try this old fasting WOL ☺️

Day 28 – NFD – UK 🇬🇧
Hello all… very chilled times here which I am enjoying… MIL has just left to travel back to her home and we will now get out for a decent walk…, need some exercise as we’ve been very lazy 😄
Hope you all have a lovely day.
Onward and downward ⬇️
We rise by lifting others 💕

Day 28 Canada NFD

Slowly climbing back on the wagon!

@daffodil2010: A shame two of your daughters didn’t make it for the Christmas plans, but they both had very good reasons and here’s to another meeting very soon. Enjoy the meet-up with your brother, his wife and your dad. xx
@bellyblast: Keep climbing back….then drag me up after you!
@songbirdme: What is this database that needs transferring? I never did any of that! If you mean the spreadsheet….I don’t know that people really need it, do they?
@dykask: You never cease to amaze me…how long is this water-fast?

Good news is that the outer half of my cracked crown fell off today….with no pain. It seems to be just a veneer and underneath there seems to be a solid structure, which should stay intact till my appointment….great relief! At least I now know the nerve isn’t going to get exposed.

USA Day 28 NFD

I am so glad everyone has had a lovely Christmas. I don’t think I overate too much on Christmas but I ate a lot of meat, which I don’t usually do. I have felt full ever since and seem not to be able to eat much, so that should help me take back off the few pounds I have put on! Hope everyone is enjoying their weekends!

USA Day 29 NFD

Thank you, SongBirdMe, for taking on the new challenge!