Interesting Fasting Documentary

Hi,

I've been watching a documentary video on Youtube that was produced by the BBC and stars Michael Mosley. It is called, "BBC Horizon 2012: Eat, Fast and Live Longer." It appears that Michael is one of those guys who makes a living trying out bizarre things and filming it for the BBC. What he had on his mind when he did this one was his own health.

Here is a link in case you would like to see it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&NR=1&v=Pfna7nV7WaM

There were two approaches to weight loss and improving health that he presented that I am interested in. One of them is very similar to what I am already doing which is to fast for one day a week, but Michael is fasting for two days a week (not in a row) and eating normally the rest of the time with no actual dietary restrictions. It seems that when you start fasting in this manner your body gets used to eating smaller meals and you don't actually overeat to compensate on the days in between. Also the fast day actually includes one meal of about five hundred to six hundred calories depending on whether you are male or female, so it is not actually a total abstinence of food on the fasting days. (Right now I am actually fasting for 24 hours one day a week with no food for the duration.)

The other approach involves alternating fast and feast days. With this approach, you also eat one five to six-hundred calorie meal every other day. In between you eat what you want. I suppose if you simply did not count Sunday as one of the days, you could always fast on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, and Feast on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday -- leaving Sunday as simply a day off which will obviously be a feasting day for the normal human being. This then works out to be three fasting days per week on alternating days. I like the idea of managing it this way because it turns into a regular schedule that is easier to remember and manage if you always do the same thing on the same day of the week.

One of the things that attracts me to the alternating day fast is that I might be able to lose weight faster and also will not have to stress about what I eat on the feasting days. I could simply eat normally for me.

Another thing that attracts me to the fasting protocols is the idea that your health actually improves because you are eating less. Blood sugar levels normalize. Fat begins to disappear. Cholesterol gets into good ranges and IGF-1 levels reduce so your chances of getting cancer and heart disease drastically drop down to much lower levels. According to more than one of the researchers in the film there really is no better or faster way to improve your health than with fasting.

I dropped off a lot of water weight a couple of weeks ago and do not seem to be putting it back on. Yet. I did notice today that I seem to be a bit swollen. I believe it may be due to what I think is a yeast infection as a result of having taken an antibiotic. It is quite uncomfortable and I've been doubling up on probiotics to try to get past it. I'm beginning to think I might call my doctor to see if she might give me some fluconazole to speed up the process and reduce the discomfort. It not only affects me in the normal female way, but in my sinuses and my eyes, too. I have one more thing I'm going to try tonight and if that does not work, I'll definitely call my doctor tomorrow.

I am considering trying out the three days of fasting per week to see if I can (or will) comply with it, and if I do, wondering if it will take some more of this weight off at a faster pace. I'm not in a hurry, I'm just tired of wasting time. I've been at this for going onto two years and have only lost 45 pounds. I want more and I don't want to be held back any more. I see others who lose twice and three times that much in a third of the time, so surely, I should be able to move along at a better rate than what I've been doing. I'm not interested in fad diets, I want something I can maintain for the long haul -- perhaps the rest of my life.

I suppose if I cannot do the three days per week, surely I could do the two. Perhaps I could alternate weeks and do two fast days one week and three the next, making sure to eat healthy in between. That is just me thinking. I seem to get carried away some times. Since I just completed a twenty-four hour fast, perhaps this is a good time to start. I will have to give it some more thought and preparation.

I need to iron out the details like when do the fasts start and when do they finish. I have the idea that what they are talking about is

Monday: sleep/one meal/sleep (all fasting days)
Tuesday: sleep/ eat normally / sleep (all normal days including Sunday)

Right now, with the one-day fast, I time it from the last meal on one day to the same time the next day. It seems that no matter how you calculate it you never really go an entire day without actually eating something. It is just a matter of deciding when you are going to eat your one meal on the fast day because there will be a few hours between eating and sleeping that will need to be managed consciously in order to make it work.

On the fasting days you can drink water or plain tea with no sugar or milk. I suppose for those who drink coffee they could probably do coffee without much trouble, too. I'm not a coffee drinker so I'll stick to water and tea. Hot tea seems to satisfy my tummy. I also chew Xylitol gum on my fast days, too. So it boils down to water, tea, and gum for me during the hours I'm not eating. Having one meal a day seems, from this perspective of not having yet tried it, to be perhaps easier than the twenty-four hours. But on second thought, perhaps it is not, because the twenty-four hours start on a day when food was eaten and end on a day that food will be eaten so doing the sleep/one meal/sleep may actually turn into more hours of not eating. It just seems more doable because you can eat that one meal -- and you can have your one meal at any time you choose.

So how do you plan the exercise? I usually exercise on the days I've listed as fasting days, so I suppose I would want to eat my one meal after I exercise. From the reading I've been doing I find that most experts advise that it is best to exercise during a fast and then eat right after the exercise. I guess I won't know how it will go until I try it.

Another thing. There were no discussions of what kind of food to eat, except for one man who suggested moving to more of a plant based diet, but not advocating vegetarianism or veganism. Eating meat is OK -- just a little less of it, and a few more plants. I have some of my own ideas about that, as you may well know, so I will continue to eat what I believe is healthy for me.

I know what my body reacts to: starchy carbs, wheat and grains, fruit, dairy, and mixed nuts, basically, so I will continue to limit those things. This still leaves an entire array of things I can eat from salad veggies to beef, pork and eggs. I can have fish, but I don't like fish, so "fish" means tuna to me. Occasionally I have some sardines. Chicken is good. I like to make chicken/vegetable soup.

I wanted to buy some more curry powder from Sams and discovered that they don't carry it anymore. I guess I'll have to search for the Tones brand on the internet and get it shipped to my house.

Anyway. As you can see I'm still open for new diet adventures and always have the weight loss goal in mind. My next target is 299. I want to be under 300.

My blood pressure seems to be settling down at a lower level than I had been experiencing and I'm happy with that.

Check out that video. I thought it was really interesting. (see link above)

Love you,

Be back soon,

Marcia