Mood stabilized phenomenally

This topic contains 6 replies, has 4 voices, and was last updated by hondakawi 10 years, 10 months ago.

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hondakawi

7:33 pm
24 Jan 14
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A few months ago I finally got off all of my mood stabilizing, anxiety and mental focus meds. Took YEARS to do this(under doc supervision). I noticed during my 9th fast day, about 3½ weeks into the program, I had an unparalleled feeling of peace during my fast. I even saw a suffering butterfly dying, and I noticed I didnt feel the DEEP pain I would normally feel (I have a BIG weakness for critters).
I did make a change to the way I fasted this day (I changed from 5 small meals-450 cal total, to one 250 cal meal total-eggs and a banana-in the morning).
Now this feeling was waaaay better than ANY of the meds Ive ever taken. Thing is, I actually want this feeling all the time. Its wonderful.
Is this feeling only going to be there when I fast?
If so, I may change to ADF to keep up the Zen feeling.
Maybe I’ll end up part of the CRONIES crowd?
Well, one thing at a time…
I do also wonder about all those residual drugs stored in my fat cells. That stuff will probably be released into my bloodstream when I burn fat right? I better drink some cleansing drinks I guess.
I look forward to any comments or feedback 🙂

effy

9:21 pm
24 Jan 14
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Wow that’s really great to hear!
Congrats to being of medication, it must feel realy well to know that you can deal with your own mind and thoughts again without help:)

I sort of experienced the same in the last 3 days (just started with 3 fasting days)
I’m mentally more stable (although I might be on a high period as well, no way to tell until you go down again) but I seem to deal with dissapointment and failing a lot better now as I did before!
I also want to keep up this feeling, it feels like I ditched an adiction (food on my mind all. the. time.)
Do you think it might be an option or way to do this all the time without risking your health?

hondakawi

3:44 am
25 Jan 14
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Hi Effy! Yes so great to get off the drugs. I needed them 4 quite awhile to be able to ‘get along’ in society with out telling people to “f off” and control the rage. I grew up with a scary alcoholic dad. That f’ed me up good. After 7 years of Alanon I finally was able to wean off meds. Yay.
In the book(I did the Audible book) Michael mentions the CRONIES.I just joined their online group to find out more (crsociety.org). They believe in Calorie Restriction with Optimal Nutrition type diet. Nutrient dense foods and supplements so no need to have excess calories. These r super healthy ppl. They eat approx 10-25% less calories than their BMR. I read that they experience the feeling we had on regular basis. For now I’m just going to stick with my 2 fast days a week and watch my non fast day calories. If I feel blue I’m gonna do an extra fast starting from that point (i.e.2pm to 2pm style).

Stef.

2:32 pm
25 Jan 14
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Welcome and great news on the meds!

Eating 10% under your BMR over a prolonged period is not healthy as BMR is the minimum(!) of calories your body needs to function. Your body will think you are in a famine situation and your metabolism will slow down. You will feel tired, cold, lethartic and your body will go into alarm mode, hanging on to your fat storage by slowing you down.

The idea of 5:2, 4:3 or alternate day fasting is to exactly avoid the above situation. You should eat close to your TDE on non fast days so that this “famine” situation does nor happen.

Nothing wrong though with doing ADF (alternate day fasting) or otherwise called The Every Other Day Diet, as described in Dr. Krista Varadi’s book, who has been quoted by Dr. Michael Mosley. But again…on non fast days you need to eat.

Best of luck
Stef.

hondakawi

12:03 am
26 Jan 14
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Oh hi Stef.!
Thank you for your response 🙂
Ya I’m just researching the CRON thing right now…I don’t want to go into starvation mode so i am making myself eat more on non fast days. Never thought that would be a problem-not wanting to eat on purpose (because of the positive mood effects) :-P. I still feel the old cravings, but now I pause and ask myself “this food I want-will it make me feel good or sluggish?” Wow. Now that’s a new thing 4 me. Yay.
Time does seem to be standing still the past couple of days tho. I guess things r always like that when ur waiting for measured results. But since I have lost this same 35 pounds at least 10 times over past 25 years and have always lost it very quickly, and gained it all back-I will be very very patient with myself this time because I want this to be the last time I lose it. I have been incorporating the optimum nutrition part of the CRON diet because that makes sense to me. I say to myself “Nutrient dense foods…of course?! I’ve been eating too much ‘fluff’!” I don’t really understand the part about eating under my BMR because I won’t want to lose anymore weight once I hit my goal…So that part doesn’t actually make sense to me-thus the research 🙂 Though I have heard many times in the past that being SLIGHTLY underweight is healthier and extends lifespan. So we will see how I feel 30 pounds from now 😛
Now one question that I see pop up that wasnt addressed in the book or online, and noone will give a straight answer to, (except me of course, I answered with what my friend told me) is; the TDEE, are you supposed to calculate this from the beginning weight or the goal weight? I was told by my friend who lost weight on the 5:2 to calculate TDEE based on goal weight and eat a quarter of that number on your fast days. I think this needs to be a main topic but noone seems to know the answer specifically. Maybe Michael needs to put this info, once answered, under ‘How’ section 🙂

dlroseberry

12:38 am
26 Jan 14
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I think it should be calculated on your current weight to be most accurate. It’s just an estimate as getting an accurate number is impractical. Zero calories would be best if you can stand to do it. I tried it once and it was much harder for me, and I do less than 300 calories normally.

The CRONies are very healthy. The issue is doing it. It would be almost impossible for me but people are different and some people like it. I read a piece by Dr. Mattson (he’s in the book, from Johns Hopkins, not sure of spelling or first name) addressing CR and IF. He reports that IF does have advantages over CR, specifically related to brain function and nerves (his specialty). So it’s possible that CR would not work for you as good as intermittent fasting does.

hondakawi

8:06 am
28 Jan 14
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Thanks Dlroseberry!
I will check out the book.
I have ended up doing 225-325 for last two fast days. It wasn’t that bad. I could try zero on a fast day to test it out. Would be interesting to log hunger throughout that day. I did that for 1st time today and found it quite revealing. I logged time of hunger and severity. Hungry 6 times, mostly only medium severity. Not ‘high’ severity like I would have predicted. I decided to change things up from 5:2 and do 4:3 for my 5th week. Also, I’m already seeing the difference in my body in just 1 month of IF! Yay!