Restart Day June 15th 2016

This topic contains 116 replies, has 4 voices, and was last updated by mama2two 8 years ago.

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mama2two

2:07 am
31 Jul 16
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I totally agree that if the diet becomes too restrictive I’d eventually fall off the wagon. Life needs to be enjoyable, it’s a gift after all. That’s great that you can enjoy bread. Ice cream seems fine with me (in moderation), but I had some bread stuff at a restaurant on Tues & saw weight gain & puffiness in my face. I haven’t paid attention to potatoes. I’ve been making some vegetable stews lately & have been adding potatoes. I know they’re a high carb food, but as I’ve mentioned before, it’s been such a forbidden food for me that I’m really enjoying it. I’ll have to pay attention though to see if they impact my rate of loss, so thanks for the tip. I’m definitely not ready to maintain & don’t want something to cause a plateau. FD for me too today!

BTW, I’m reading that book I mentioned, ‘Periodic Fasting’ by Cristian Vlad Zot. It’s really good, but a head twister. It’s nearly constant reference to studies & uses a lot of scientific terms that I’m not really familiar with. I’ll let you know what I think when I’ve finished it.

Kcaun4

8:36 am
1 Aug 16
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Thanks, after you mentioned that book I went and got it on Kindle. I have just started it and it looks very interesting. It really helps me to have a constant influx of new things to read on the subject.

I am starting to eat a little less on regular days. I no longer feel as if I have to have everything I have ever wanted or might ever want to eat. 🙂 I have been quite indulgent and that has actually helped.

Oddly enough, chips seem to be ok but potatoes as part of a meal seem to pack on the pounds. There is an idea about resistant starch in cooked, cooled potatoes but that always sounded odd to me. Perhaps it is the temperature after all.

mama2two

3:40 pm
2 Aug 16
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Which book did you get? Jasun Fung’s “Obesity Code” or Cristian Vlad Zot’s “Periodic Fasting”?

That’s great that you’re eating less on feeding days. I’m not quite there. I mean, I’m trying to make wise choices & usually do, but it is still a mental effort. My weight creeps up on feeding days & then goes down after fasting days, with a slow but steady trend toward weight loss. I’d like to get to the point where my weight maintains on feeding days so that my fasting days are more successful. I’ve felt that my no snacking/no food after 7pm goals have not really been getting the effort they deserve for the past week or 2 and perhaps that’s why I’m losing at a slower pace than I’d like. But at least I’m 100% dedicated to the fasting days, & we’re 6 weeks in, so that’s a pretty big achievement. I feel like the fasting days are pretty close to the lifestyle zone. That doesn’t mean I always ‘like’ them! Sometimes I’m really not in the mood, but I do them anyways & they absolutely have helped me to lose some weight, so I’m grateful for them… it’s a love/hate relationship I guess! The no snacking/no food after 7pm goals are far from lifestyle, but I’m sure as I put more effort into it & get some successful weeks under my belt it’ll get more second nature.

Kcaun4

6:37 pm
3 Aug 16
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I read the Fung book a few months ago and just started the Zot book. I skim them at first and then go back to them later.

I always gain weight back after regular days. I figure that I lose some glycogen and all the water that goes with it on FDs and then gain that back on regular days. If I did LCHF instead of having bread that might not happen. 🙂 Early in the day I can do LCHF but later in the day things go carb-awry. As long as the average weight is going down, sloooooooowly, then things are going well.

I agree about some FDs being less than enjoyable. I had one of those yesterday and ended up eating about 200-300 calories which is more than I usually have. It is definitely easier to have virtually nothing. Carrots, pickles and tea are my staples.

I do not remember reading this in her book but I thought this was interesting from Varady:

“Drinking black coffee or black tea is a good way to stave off hunger (for periods of 1-2 hours) on the diet day. A recent study published in the Journal, Obesity, suggests that appetite suppression can be achieved by consuming 6 mg caffeine/kg body weight. Just for reference, most drip coffees contain 150-200 mg of caffeine per cup. ”

http://www.eoddiet.com/faq

I have found iced tea and hot coffee to be very helpful. Coffee has always felt like a meal to me and iced tea (several glasses a day) gets rid of hunger. Oddly, though, I find decaf iced tea just as good so maybe it isn’t just the caffeine.

Hoorah for 6 weeks in.

Kcaun4

11:24 pm
6 Aug 16
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I may have settled in at 1 lb (maybe a bit more) loss per week. Given that the alternate days have restaurant meals and dessert, this is not a bad outcome!

mama2two

1:25 pm
7 Aug 16
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1 lb loss is pretty good, especially over the long haul. & I totally agree about the coffee & tea- I drink quite a bit of each throughout the day on fast days!

I had a rough week. I had cake & it set me back for a whole week. It took 4 days to lose the puffiness in my face & around my eyes & I’m still not back down to what I was a week ago. The scale skyrocketed. That said, the good that I can take from this is there should be no doubt now as to the effect that wheat & sugar (in combo probably, since ice cream or chocolate didn’t do this to me) has on my body. The bummer, of course, is obvious… I packed on some pounds.

I’m going to make some changes to my plan. I was doing so good with the no food after 7pm/no snacking goal & my weight loss was slow but steady. A few weeks ago, I rearranged my 3 FDs so that 2 of the 3 FDs were consecutive days & got rid of the 500cal option. Well, that wasn’t a good idea. If my goal was to lose weight fast for some event in 2 weeks, well, that would make sense. But my goal is to change my lifestyle and have sustainable weight loss & the changes have not supported that. The increased duration/intensity of the FDs has totally decreased my satisfaction with this plan & my feeding days have gone haywire where I’m eating anytime whether I have an inkling of hunger or not because of this sense that I’m not going to be eating for a long time. And to top it off, I’m not losing weight at a faster pace because I’m gaining so much on my feeding days. So, I need to step back & return to what I was doing at the beginning, take it easy & focus on the little changes that will be sustainable.

Kcaun4

8:33 pm
7 Aug 16
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That is quite a reaction to wheat and sugar. Do you think it is the gluten? I only say that because everyone around me is on the gluten-is-toxic bandwagon. I even bought some gluten free bread awhile ago which has been sitting in the freezer, uneaten, since.

The potatoes (and lots of other carby things) added about 4 pounds…in a day! I don’t weigh enough for that to happen. 🙁 It just lasted for that day and then picked up where it was before. Still, it was alarming enough to avoid a repeat.

I was thinking about doing 3 consecutive fast days as an experiment but only managed to get to the afternoon of the second fast day and said….I don’t think so! OTOH I have increased my exercise so that will have to do for now.

Just when I think weight loss has slowed I get up today and am ahead of schedule. It is all very strange.

Kcaun4

2:09 am
9 Aug 16
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It took almost two months but I finally ate too many carbs. I started getting a little twinge of heart burn which happens when I eat too many carbs for too long. At any rate, I associate the two so now I actually have to lower carbs on regular days.

Sigh.

mama2two

4:47 pm
9 Aug 16
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I am having a hard time getting back into the swing of things. I have 2 days left of this week to get my 2 fasts in & have zero motivation, other than that an utter failure would probably lead to a hiatus & I really don’t want that. I’m in my pms week too, which is not helping at all. Can’t wait till I start my period & my hormones can balance out.

Kcaun4

7:27 pm
9 Aug 16
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I agree with you! I fell off the first time I tried the 5:2 diet even though my results were really very nice.

I wish I had kept it going and transitioned to the ADF I am doing now. In hindsight, things were going better than I thought they were at the time and I should have just STUCK WITH IT. I really regret not having STUCK WITH IT at the time.

One thing that has helped me is to keep Varady’s comment about ‘eat absolutely anything’ during the regular days. I have to ease up on french pastries (!) and ice cream and pizza/bread because my heartburn will come back but I have had a good 2 months of serious indulgence and am getting a bit bored of being overstuffed with carbs.

That indulgence, however, is really important for me. I cannot do an everyday diet like the JUDDD version of ADF which counts calories on both up and down days. Even with this over indulgence or because of it, I will average a bit under 2 pounds/week loss.

At some point it will slow and even stop for a long time. This time around I intend to have faith that things continue to change on the inside even though nothing much changes on the outside.

I have had a few days when I couldn’t do the ADF. I just started ADF up again at the first opportunity and it didn’t seem to cause much of a disruption.

My 2 cents!

Keep going! That is my other 2 cents. 🙂

mama2two

5:25 pm
10 Aug 16
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THANK YOU SO MUCH for your words of encouragement! I did not do a fast day yesterday, unfortunately, but I’ve decided to not feel guilty (this is a challenge, but it usually leads to quitting for me), but rather accept that I’m going through a rough patch & need to pull out of it as soon as possible- today is my intention. If today is a success, then I’ll have only missed 1 FD since we started last June… not a failure, just a hiccup. I know this diet is working for me – which really is a big deal because my body is usually so resistant to shedding weight. I realize that I over did it. I need to go back to the basics I had going at the beginning of the summer (5:2 FDs w/ 500cals, no snacks/no food after 7).

Kcaun4

8:17 am
11 Aug 16
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That’s great! Those days (or weeks) where nothing moves very quickly are truly frustrating so it is terrific that you have gotten right back to it.

I have been experimenting with adding more variety on FDs. I added some crispbread which made me super hungry so that experiment was a bust. I did some samples (tiny) and that made me a little hungry but it wasn’t terrible. I then reverted to carrots, cucumbers, peppers and pickles which are my new best friends.

I am currently settled into doing around 33/15 during each 48 hour period. During the 33 hours, I figure I get 200 calories or less and most days it is fairly easy. I definitely get hungry but it doesn’t bother me as much as it used to since it is now routine.

Some days I really look forward to FDs and some days it is a bit of a bore. Oddly enough, regular days have the same issue.

Kcaun4

12:17 am
13 Aug 16
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I am beginning to read “I Contain Multitudes” by Ed Yong. After I saw the video interview, I thought about eating more fiber to feed the lean microbes in my gut…if I have many or any!

FDs are almost all fiber and maybe (big maybe) that is helping. I can imagine future spa experiences that consist of antibiotics followed by a fecal transplant and then spa (rabbit) food.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BopJGDNUGok

mama2two

12:31 am
13 Aug 16
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haha! sounds like a real nice vacation!

btw, I had a successful FD on Wed. yay! It wasn’t really that bad. I did the full 500 cals & I think that helped.

Kcaun4

5:31 pm
15 Aug 16
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That’s fantastic! It takes persistence to get back on track when results remain hidden. I do think that water weight hides fat loss results which then magically appear.

On the ADF Varady is a champion of the 500 calorie FD although she doesn’t seem to know why it works better than 0 calories. That’s a mystery.

I am a bit under 30% of the way to my initial goal.

I figure that this was the easy part in regards to weight loss but the harder part in regards to ADF. I still get hungry on FDs, that does not go away probably because of too many carbs….uh oh…french pastries today.

🙂

Kcaun4

8:20 pm
18 Aug 16
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Is there water retention during hot days? I certainly hope so.

I had a day of being very thirsty (regular day, too many salted foods perhaps) and am a couple of pounds above what I thought I would be. I actually ate moderately.

2 cups of water = Starbucks Grande = 1 pound

Kcaun4

6:21 pm
19 Aug 16
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Drink more water, lose weight. The study is questionable but it is an interesting idea especially during the hot summer months. Drinking more definitely helps during FDs. I don’t find much difference between drinking hot coffee, iced tea, sugar free sodas and water on appetite. They all seem to have the same effect of getting rid of hunger in the moment. 🙂

http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2016/03/the-water-diet/473124/

mama2two

3:34 pm
21 Aug 16
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I’m heading off for a long camping trip, so I won’t be using the internet for about a week. Hope you have a successful week!

Kcaun4

4:23 pm
21 Aug 16
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Have a wonderful vacay!

teresamack

3:50 am
22 Aug 16
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This is teresamack,
This is the best diet I have ever tried and I have tried them all but it really has to be a lifestyle change.
I had a number of difficulties this last year, lost my father, best friend and spouse was in intensive care. None of these events are excuses and not really explanations…just information for me and others who start to slip. I absolutely know this diet works. I was exercising, eating healthy, gave up alcohol and sweets and did not miss it then the slippery slope began again. I lost down from 153 lbs. to 128 lbs. and went from a size 12 to a size 6 and often a size 4. Now I am back in my size 12s. Not only did I gain back all the weight I lost but and additional 5 lbs. I weigh 158 now.

I am beginning again tomorrow 8/22/16. Please wish me luck and I would love to hear from others.

Kcaun4

2:45 am
23 Aug 16
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Hi teresamack,

Congratulations on starting up again after such a rough time. Good luck on all you do.

Your experience is very familiar. I am a little over 2 months in (doing ADF instead of the 5:2 I had done before) and I can see things starting to slow down a bit. I am happy with the first two months and surprised that ADF isn’t as difficult as I thought it would be.

I intend to continue this indefinitely regardless of the near term results but will continue to experiment with tweaks. ADF is not as flexible on the days so I can have two consecutive FDs or two consecutive regular days. I think I am going to stick with two consecutive regular days and trust that the blip will not matter over the course of a few weeks anyway.

Kcaun4

3:46 pm
25 Aug 16
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Things were stalling there for a bit and I was becoming nervous. I think of plateaus at coming after 6 months, not 2 months.

I thought it could be a result of watching what I eat on regular days (counterintuitive) so I returned to eating more liberally and weight loss is resuming. I did try some LCHF on regular days but that didn’t seem to do anything.

It is slow but that is to be expected since it is more than 2 months in. I like a diet that can incorporate some puff pastry and still maintain weight loss. It may not be as healthy as avoiding white sugar and flour but it is much more fun and sustainable for me.

Kcaun4

11:58 pm
26 Aug 16
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It is hard to believe but I may be losing at least some interest in food. Other helpful things that are happening:

– eating much more fiber since fiber is a great alternative to calories on FDs
– drinking much more water and liquids in general also as an alternative to calories
– running through the list of foods to eat on regular days and finding them to be not that interesting after all
– exercise is the same on FDs and regular days and has more to do with bad weather than anything else

The ADF schedule (not the actual FDs) is a pain and going to 5:2 in the future will be a relief. At this rate, it would be in the spring. This is a long journey!

Kcaun4

4:53 pm
29 Aug 16
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It is slow (slow!) but the weight is still going down and the slow way may be the permanent way. I have added some calories to FDs but still way under the 500 calories. As the days become colder, that might change. Soup sounds good already.

The trick seems to be timing on the regular days. If I am not hungry in the morning, why eat? I don’t really like breakfast so I can push it to a snack mid morning or wait until lunch. Yesterday was a fast day and this morning I am not hungry.

I am not physiologically hungry. I do not feel an emotional need to eat. I do not eat. How do I keep this threesome going. Of these three, the first is the easiest and very common on both FDs and regular days. The second and third are difficult.

mama2two

2:38 pm
2 Sep 16
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Hi Ladies! How are you doing? Things are good over here. Had a great camping trip & while I didn’t stick to the firm 500, I did have several days that I was pretty close, so it wasn’t too terrible in the dieting regard. I’ve had 1 FD since I’ve been back & today is another.

I’m still struggling to get back into my rhythm, but I finally feel like my heart is back in it. I refuse to think of all the weight I could have lost if I hadn’t overdone it & then tapped out. I overdid the FDs, then my feeding days turned into feasting days & then I started skipping FDs here & there without reigning in my feasting days. Well, I gained back about 1/2 of what I’d lost. I got over confident & over filled my plate, just as I said I shouldn’t. But I’m back, with my head on a little straighter. I’m going to focus on the FDs for a while & get it back to the lifestyle zone that it was so close to being in. I had actually gotten to a point where I looked forward to my FD’s & I want to get there again. 2 – 3 days/week, but definitely no consecutive days. I’m also going to leave off the no-snacks, no food after 7pm thing for a while… 1 thing at a time, ya know?

Anyways, I hope you’re doing well!

Kcaun4

8:06 pm
2 Sep 16
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You sound very chipper after your vacation. That must have been a great time.

Terrific job in getting back into fasting mode. Having faith in the process in the face of occasionally dispiriting results is the key for me. I do like experimenting and tweaking things but the general plan is the same.

I am continuing the ADF as before. The weight goes up and down all the time but the general trend is a slow downward slide.

It is ‘let me eat cake’ week. I made a cake (really uncommon for me) and had a slice. The slice was very sweet and more than enough. Since I am eating more carbs on regular days, they are no longer that interesting. Last week was wine tasting week. I am not a big drinker so that one was easy and didn’t involve much food anyway.

I have more outside meals coming up and that will be more of a challenge since I will have to add in another regular day or two. If I feel up to it, I will try adding in two consecutive FDs and see if that actually works.

Good luck!

Kcaun4

11:45 pm
4 Sep 16
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Making plans to do a full week of LCHF during regular days. This upcoming week has, unusually, no restaurant meals (the following week has many) so I am going to try reverting to LCHF and see what happens.

I don’t lose weight on LCHF but I feel better and I can see that my regular days are trending too high in carbs. I will give it a shot and see if I can last more than half a day this time!

mama2two

3:18 pm
5 Sep 16
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Good luck with the LCHF this week. I really believe in the health benefits of that way of eating. I intend to move back into that way of eating also, but not until I get the basics ironed out.

I stumbled across a possible epiphany for my own body. Yesterday I ate dinner at 3pm (which is usually when I start to do the “snack” thing. I even had a few bites of home made ice cream at 6pm (when I’m usually cooking dinner). Nothing after that except for a couple cups of tea w/ cream. Basically, everything happened about 4 hrs earlier. I stepped on the scale this morning & am down 2 lbs. I broke through a plateau that I’ve been at for nearly 3 weeks. Maybe it was a fluke, or maybe I’m on to something. I’m excited to try recreating this on my feeding days to see how this works. It sure made the “no snacking” goal struggle-free & I wasn’t even focusing on that goal. I know this is not a long term lifestyle, because I believe in the importance of eating together as a family, but maybe I can do this until I’ve lost all the weight & maintained for a few months. I’ll keep you posted!

Also, what days are you fasting this week? I know we’ve been doing our own thing, but I thought I might fast along with you this week while I’m still getting back into the swing of things. Maybe it’ll help to know there’s someone out there doing the same during those difficult moments.

Kcaun4

5:41 pm
5 Sep 16
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That’s great!

Plateaus are very strange things. That’s great that you found a tweak that is working for you.

I took a hike and then a walk and put in about double the normal amount of steps in a day, did my regular day thing of eating too many carbs and am now about 2 pounds behind schedule! I assume it is due to inflammation and water retention from exercise. It is a mysterious thing.

Today is a FD. I can keep this schedule for the rest of the week and most of the next. I have to flip some days at the end of next week and will see if that means putting in an extra FD or an extra regular day. I hope that LCHF means I can easily do two FDs together.

I am kicking off LCHF tomorrow with a nice rib roast. It has been too hot for roasts so this is a beginning-of-fall treat.

Kcaun4

10:54 pm
7 Sep 16
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1 LCHF regular day yesterday and now back on schedule for weight loss again. That glycogen/water loss is not bad.

LCHF is not very low carb, definitely not induction or VLC. Guessing that it is around 50-75 g of carbs but a big change from before. As expected, I am not that hungry today so that is a boon.

At around the 3 month mark, I am quite happy with this plan. The weight loss is fast enough and it includes ice cream, pastries, cream soups and beef roasts!

Kcaun4

7:59 pm
8 Sep 16
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If I counted correctly, 12 weeks in and down an average of 1.5 lbs/week. I’ll take it. I will also take going down 1 lb/week in the future and, perhaps, a smooth glide to the finish in summer 2017.

The LCHF was the jolt my system needed to wake up and get losing again. Next week where LCHF is not really possible things will be more of a challenge and may look like a stall as glycogen stores replenish. I will take these short term plateaus as temporary water storage issues and nothing more.

If I remember correctly, this is where the 5:2 diet petered out. I wasn’t losing much and I was tired of it. I couldn’t see moving to ADF and I started giving up on it. The giving up was a slow process and took the rest of the year to finally give up. I lost at a similar rate as I am on the ADF (interesting) but I feel I can easily continue on ADF and sometimes add in LCHF or other jolts to the system. Very odd!

mama2two

1:32 pm
10 Sep 16
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I had a FD yesterday & bought a huge fresh green juice to sip on throughout the day. When hunger hit around dinner, I had a couple mugs of salty home made bone broth. It was the best FD I’ve had in a while. I didn’t feel deprived- which I had been this past month doing water fasts & I didn’t have the problems I often have when I chew my 500c (which is a stoked appetite & then a day of willpower). I think I’ll keep experimenting with the juicing.

Kcaun4

5:26 pm
12 Sep 16
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This week it’s back to the One Rule Diet: less than 500calories every other day. The LCHF was interesting but probably too restrictive on top of the One Rule.

I need things to be simple and I am fairly sure that I eat more on LCHF since it isn’t low enough in carbs but very rich in highly palatable foods such as roast beef. I can easily eat steak with no potatoes!

I do drink artificially sweetened drinks on FDs. I treat them as meal replacements. I mostly avoid them on regular days so they are a treat for fast days. I prefer suclarose but prefer the taste of aspartame sweetened cola.

I have never been much for green juices (or fruit juices) but that sounds like an interesting idea when fast days become monotonous. I noticed that Mosley used a packaged miso soup with 50 calories on the video. I have to look for that as the weather turns cold.

Good for you for making home made broth! I have tried that before (still have bones in the freezer) but the results were fairly mediocre.

Kcaun4

9:40 am
14 Sep 16
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I feel as if things are stalling even if they are just slow this week. I haven’t been able to exercise as much this week and that may be the real difference.

I hope the idea of cooler weather doesn’t cause a slowdown in metabolism. I don’t really need a layer of fat to get me through the winter.

mama2two

4:52 pm
14 Sep 16
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I’ve been tracking myself on an excel spreadsheet (weight, nighttime snacking, FD, etc) & I’ve found that I plateau &/or gain during the 2 weeks prior to my period & lose during the next 2 weeks starting day 1 of period. Are you by chance in that part of your cycle?

Kcaun4

7:57 pm
14 Sep 16
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Right, it’s just a quibble on my part! Things were going more regularly during the first few months and they have just become less regular.

I thought I could count on significantly more progress by the end of this year but now I see it is more like summer. I just have to wrap my head around this and not let it annoy me. Maybe I miscalculated and it is really the end of 2017 🙂

I take into account daily and monthly variations as you mentioned and I track it on a calendar. I need to plan on the gym when the weather turns colder since exercise does make a difference for me.

I just need to keep tweaking and working at it.

Kcaun4

5:21 pm
17 Sep 16
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Plateau time appears to be here. This is really annoying.

At this point Varady, rather blithely, says to add another FD. Since she advocates strongly for 500 calorie (as opposed to less than 500) FDs, that would be three, 500 calorie FDs in a row. That sounds pretty extreme. Then again, doing ADF for 3+ months used to sound extreme.

Since I have been eating 200 calories or less during FDs I am going to try and increase calories on FDs like today and see if that gets things moving. The last FD ended up being a water fast and that didn’t seem to do much so I am going to try the counterintuitive approach.

mama2two

7:18 pm
17 Sep 16
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I don’t know, 3 days in a row for a couple of weeks is what made me fall off the wagon for a while. Then again, they were water fast days. Maybe try to do a consecutive 2 day approach?
I have been trying something different. I watched “Fat, Sick, & Nearly Dead” on youtube & have decided to do a juice fast. I’m on day 9 & feel pretty great (so different from water fasting). I have more energy & I’ve already lost 9 lbs. Maybe that’ll help with your plateau also? Check out the movie & read some success stories on rebootwithjoe.com if you might be interested.

Kcaun4

12:52 am
18 Sep 16
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Good point, I might try the 2 day thing but I am going to wait until I figure out if I really am stalled or just impatient. I have seen the film but don’t really juice.

Are you doing just green juices for 9 days? That weight loss is amazing.

I have gone back and looked at what I did before. I am only doing about 40% of the exercise now and that might be the difference. I have to get back to hiking/walking on a more regular basis.

The good thing is that I do not feel like stopping ADF. Even if it becomes more difficult heading into the holidays, I am planning on keeping this up for a long time which is, apparently, what it will take.

mama2two

2:04 pm
18 Sep 16
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Ya, just veggie & fruit juice, plus a mug of salty home made bone broth & grassfed gelatin for minerals & protein. Oh, & my morning coffee (this is a non-negotiable for me!)
Today is Day 10 & I’m down 10! This is unheard of for my body. He recommends a 80%/20% ratio, with veggies being 80%. I’m pretty close to that ratio, though I strive for a 90%/10% to keep the fructose low. It’s amazing that I’m having way more carbs than I can usually tolerate w/o gaining & I’m actually losing. I probably have between 75 & 100 carbs. I usually have to keep my carbs at 50 to maintain, around 25 to lose & above 50 results in a gain. It makes me wonder about the different types of carbs & their effect on my body… veggies vs all grains/sugars…
I started this as a 5 day goal, since I haven’t done my 5 day water fast in 3 months (intended to do those every month to beat these tumors), I just couldn’t seem to muster up the get-go to do it. So I decided to try a juice fast (though I’ve read it is slower for cellular cleaning, I figured it was better than nothing).
I also felt that my eating habits were getting over-indulgent & out of control on eating days. It’s like 5:2 gave me a freedom to eat & I took advantage of it, the classic give an inch & take a mile. I was plateauing for the past 5 weeks on 5:2 & I know it’s because I was eating way too much. I felt like a bad habit was forming & I needed to somehow break the buffet attitude.
I watched the FS&ND movie & some youtube videos & was impressed by the health benefits people got, plus it fits in with my fasting approach. Day 1 sucked (always does), but by day 4 I was hooked. It is soooo much easier than a water fast, I have so much energy, both mentally & physically. Water fasting felt slow motion, like reaction time mentally & physically was delayed. Juice fasting is the opposite. So I decided to go until my doc check up & make sure all my vitals are still in good order, if they are I will probably continue for a bit longer.
Hopefully I can have a fresh start to make a new relationship with food when I break this fast. I’m feeling really optimistic right now & that’s usually a good sign! When I go back to eating, I will keep juice fasting as my FD for 5:2.

Kcaun4

4:47 am
19 Sep 16
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Those are such great results, I will have to try it out. Are you using primarily apples for the fruit?

Just when I thought I had enough gadgets, now I’ll have to go look for a juicer :).

I have been very indulgent on regular days and it hasn’t stopped weight loss (slow but still happening) but I am starting to get a little tired of the indulgence (I never thought that would happen) so I wouldn’t mind doing something very different.

mama2two

1:27 pm
19 Sep 16
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that’s great that you can still lose even though you’ve been indulgent. Maybe that’s a big difference between ADF & 5:2.
I’m using apples,pears, lemons, limes, oranges & grapefruit for the fruits, depending on what I’m making. I almost always add 1/2 Granny Smith apple & a lemon & a bit of ginger for anything that I want to taste sweetish.
I use carrots (supposedly great for tumors), celery (great filler w/ neutral flavor), & spinach as bases for most veggie drinks, but I pretty much use any other veggie that would taste good together if they were cooked. I’ve got a ton of recipes that I’ve tried, that I could share with you. I love my Salsa Juice recipe- 1 bunch cilantro, romaine, fermented salsa, 1/2 apple, 1 lime, tomatoes, celery, carrots, bell pepper, & garlic. Ginger, orange, apple & carrot is really refreshing. I read Joe Cross’s book “Reboot with Joe Juice Diet” & there’s quite a few recipes that are good in there. But I’m mostly experimenting with what I happen to have. I’ll buy for the recipes, but my hubby will come home & make some juice concoction & then I’ll be short on ingredients, so I just improvise.
Just make sure to buy a strainer to strain the pulp from the juice as you pour it in your glass, it makes it more palatable to not have little chunks.
Good luck & let me know how it goes for you!

Kcaun4

6:23 pm
19 Sep 16
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Thank you for the juicing information. I have never heard of fermented salsa. I have heard of tumeric possibly being helpful for tumors. I agree on the coffee. I drink it black and have at least one large (large!) mug in the morning and sometimes another large mug later in the day.

Are you blending or do you have a dedicated juicer? I have blenders (stick and regular) that I can use to make green smoothies as opposed to juice only. I have been reading up on Vitamixes and dedicated juicers. I don’t mind getting the fiber and some of the smoothies might make good soups for cold weather.

I cannot imagine failing to lose weight on ADF but it becomes so slow that doubt creeps in anyway. Yesterday and today have been much better. I have very recently nixed pastries and the 1000-calorie pints of ice cream simply because I am no longer that interested in them. I still have bread which is my primary source of carbs. I do not try and limit eating on regular days but I have to really want something in order to eat it. I have become very picky and that helps tamp down the indulgence.

I will try out some smoothie recipes during my regular days. It would be useful to have a regimen to boost weight loss especially during the tricky holiday season.

Kcaun4

6:08 pm
20 Sep 16
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Another good FD and weight loss resumes! I will just have to settle in for fits and starts and not get too excited when it looks like a plateau.

mama2two

7:54 pm
20 Sep 16
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yay for the weight loss! I’m juicing, not blending. They’re both really different- blending is really great for a lot of things (smoothies, soups, ice creams) & you get all the fiber, but juicing is good for getting extremely large quantities of veggies/fruit. I put more veggies/fruits in the juicer than I would typically eat in a few days (& I usually eat a salad every day) so I’m getting a ton of vitamins, probably better than the multivitamin I’m taking. I have the Vitamix for a blender- one of the greatest investments my family has made in the kitchen. I have an Omega for a juicer. I’m down 11 lbs! I have a doc appointment on Fri. looking forward to seeing my lab results after this juice fast.

Kcaun4

8:29 pm
20 Sep 16
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That is a fantastic loss!

Thanks for the information. I ordered an Omega and will try it out this weekend. I have a few restaurant meals out this week so I will get those out of the way and stock up on produce.

This will be an interesting experiment.

Kcaun4

11:24 pm
23 Sep 16
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Juicer (heavy box) has arrived. Now I need to go haul a ton of produce home.

Amazing to read about the $65/day juice ‘cleanses’ which consist of packaged bottles including two that are basically lemonade.

mama2two

2:06 am
24 Sep 16
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great! good luck & let me know how it goes. I’m on day 15 & feeling good. Kind of bored of drinking, missing the full bodied flavor of food. But I’m going to keep going. I’m committed to another week, but it’ll probably take 2 more to get down to my goal weight. I’ve lost 13 lbs now & if I could just lose 10 more, then I could work on maintaining & get off the weightloss roller coaster. Just settle back into a nice healthy 5:2 & stop working so hard. We’ll see. I saw my doctor today & she was really supportive. Anyways, let me know how it goes. & remember the 1st day is the hardest, by day 3ish you should be smooth sailing! I’m leaving for camping on Sunday for the week, so I probably won’t have access to the internet, but I’ll check in when I get back.

Kcaun4

6:09 pm
24 Sep 16
Permalink

Have a nice vacation!

Your doc must have been amazed. I am amazed at the speed of loss and your dedication to seeing it through. I watched the second of the Fat, Sick, Dead movies and he lost a great deal of weight and then, over the years, saw it go up some and then down some. Using 5:2 to break the juice fast is a sound idea for maintenance.

I will start with the celery, cucumber, salad greens, apple, lemon, ginger etc. concoction once I figure out what all the attachments are for. There is a nozzle for bread sticks :).

I am looking forward to trying it as an experiment, thanks for the idea and the inspiration.

Kcaun4

9:47 pm
26 Sep 16
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I am trying the standard juice concoction:

apple, celery, cucumber, lemon, ginger, kale.

I would say it is an acquired taste! I can take a small glassful at a sitting. I was surprised that ginger/lemon really adds to the flavor since I am not a fan of ginger. The hot house cucumber is better peeled, I am not sure I can taste any celery or kale and it is much better iced.

I like the Omega juicer as it is pretty straightforward once I figured out what all the pieces are for. It is easy to clean and not too noisy. I did try adding in some random salad greens and it was awful. I am sticking to known recipes.

This is Day 2 for juicing. I did have coffee with a little crisp bread in the morning (maybe 50 calories worth) and yesterday was a FD anyway. Today is a regular day and I woke up with no appetite! I also slept well which is a bonus.

I did have coffee/crisp bread again and am feeling a little hungry in the afternoon. The kitchen smells strongly of cucumber with a hint of ginger :).

My original plan was 3 days juicing, 1 day regular day. I will see how it goes for tomorrow. Even making this 2 days juicing and 1 regular day extends the ADF. I do not think I can do this continuously but it is a nice option if it gets me off the slow rate (still losing) of weight loss.