I’ve been doing all sorts of diets over the years from both sides of the spectrum (raw vegan or juice cleanses on one side, to pure ketosis, steak & eggs on the other side). My favorite diet overall is paleo, but even on paleo I want to have some pizza occasionally or perhaps go to the noodle house with my mates. Still, I’m pretty terrible at being paleo since I would inevitably cheat often or drink heavily at times.

When I saw the Mosley documentary (and I’ve watched it probably five times now), I was inspired as I was always intrigued by the prospect of intermittent fasting, but I never knew all of the scientific benefits. I am currently around 240lbs and want to get to 190lbs, so I am actually doing alternate day fasting since this may be faster than 5:2. I also find myself more disciplined when I know that today I am fasting, tomorrow I am eating what I wish. I tried 5:2 before but I would usually forget the days!

Anyway, I am going to aim to be mostly low carb/paleo on my feed days, but if I have some pizza or chinese food I won’t be crying. 🙂 Tomorrow is my second feed day (I started on Saturday), and I have a doctor’s referral form for blood work including IGF-1.

I figured the best baseline time to have my blood work done would be 24 hours after my last meal since that is guaranteed to be around 600 calories and 0900 in the morning.

My goal is to do ADF for the next 2-3 months. I do intend to exercise as well, with a goal of heavy lifting on my feed days and light cardio (jogging 5K, yoga, pilates, etc.) on my fast days.

When I decide that I’m done on ADF and going to switch to 5:2, or fall off the wagon, I will get another blood test to see how things have shaped up.

My only concern is that I have a slight discomfort in the right side of my stomach that may or may not be due to stress, but I am seeing a gastroenterologist this week to get it checked. The reason I mention this is that the slight stress of fasting does affect that area, which seems to be right around the gallbladder.

Here’s to fasting!