Healing on the Fast Lane

Journals - Major Programs
#61

Fasting Journal: Day 7

  • Subliminals: None (Rest Day)
  • Blood Pressure: 110/85 at a 84HR with an irregular heart beat. So I did a second measurement which came out as 109/83 at a 88HR and still an irregular heart beat. Really messed up. Curious to see what tomorrow brings.
  • Temperature: 38.3C/100.9F right after waking, 37.4C/99.3F a few hours later.
  • Weight: -5.5KG/-12.1lbs total, -3.3KG/-7.2lbs body fat, -1KG/-2.1lbs lean body mass. The rest would be water-weight. Not bad. Also measured hips, waist and chest, so next week I can post the visual decrease as well.
  • Water: 1.6L/56oz.

I finally crashed. I went to bed around 02:00, was lying awake for about an hour as expected, then fell asleep and slept for almost 18 hours. Definitely not exhausted now. :slight_smile:

The downside (apart from “losing” a day off) is that there is no way I can go to sleep in a few hours, I will have little choice but to stay up overnight and go to sleep early tomorrow night. I may try to sleep though.

More on this erratic sleeping down below in the comments.

Another unfortunate side-effect is that the Oura doesn’t understand sleeping through the day, so it claims I haven’t slept at all and insists I probably sat my lazy butt on the couch all day. No cute little graphs for today.

You may notice there is very little going on that can be easily attributed to the subs. As I mentioned before, I rarely notice them. Doesn’t mean there isn’t more healing going on now as compared to if I hadn’t been running them. And I’m still hoping for some emotional epiphany that so many people have around day 21. We’ll see what happens. Just don’t think I’ve forgotten all about the subs, I try and evaluate every day to find something that I can “blame” on the subs.

Taking a rest day is still hard for me. If I don’t notice the subs, doesn’t that mean I can handle more? But in this case I’ll do my best to follow Saint’s directions. He knows what’s in the warm and fuzzy center of the subs and if he tells me I need 2 rest days, I’ll take two rest days. As a side-effect, without wearing my headphones all the time I’m moving more during the rest days.

After 18 hours that first glass of water feels great. Makes me wish it was a glass of juice, which after a long fast I can literally feel going down my body, waking up everything with excitement on the way. But even this water feels nice.

For the record, my urine was still clear. It usually clears up as soon as I’m in full ketosis, no matter how much (or little) water I drink. I expect this has something to do with the fact that burning body fat actually creates water as a byproduct. I’ll elaborate if you guys want.

I’m definitely a bit weak. If I had jumped out of bed I would have fallen right back down from dizziness. So I sat up first, then stood up. That gives the heart the opportunity to defeat gravity.

I don’t recall the last time I measured my fast in such detail (usually I just measure my weight) so I’m wondering if the blood pressure, heart rate and temperature are normal or if those Hero modules are doing something.

I have no idea what those are. :slight_smile:

I try to avoid anything not natural to the body during a fast, since any external input may have adverse effects.

My experience during a fast is that I get an initial messed up period after which I end up sleeping about 5 hours a night. Once I reach that point I’m fine.

I will admit that this time it is a little bit weirder than before. I don’t feel concerned yet, but I don’t feel as energized and happy as I normally would either.

2 Likes
#62

@DarkPhilosopher I would recommend taking strong sleep supplements during an extended fast.

#63

What do you recommend?

In the past, I’ve taken 5-HTP or valerian root.

1 Like
#64

Fasting Journal: Day 8

  • Subliminals: None (Rest Day)
  • Blood Pressure: 113/71 at a 63HR. Back to normal.
  • Temperature: Around 36.7C/98F averaged.
  • Water: 1.6L/56oz.

Not much to report today. I didn’t sleep overnight, felt better around morning and did very little for most of the day.

Also, I seriously want food. My willpower is the only thing keeping me from eating right now. I think it’s the fact that I spent so much time at home, I have too few distractions. All I can think about in my spare time is how nice it would be to watch some TV and eat something. I wish I was able to use the time more efficiently, but so far I haven’t been motivated enough to do much more than my daily routines.

This fast is definitely harder than any of my previous ones. At least, it feels that way. Maybe they were all this tough and I just don’t remember.

I will keep going, since I want the benefits it can bring, and I’m not too vain to admit that right now I am most motivated by the weight loss.

So I’ll sign off here and go to bed. Hard day at work in about… 6 hours.

Apologies for the lack of detail today.

By the way, the Oura didn’t register any sleep for today, but it put yesterday’s 18 hours of sleep a day late. If you’re interested, I can post those mages. Suffice to say it was very happy with me finally getting a good nap.

Really? I always will my way through it until my sleeping pattern normalizes. But, like RVConsultant asks, which supplements would you recommend then?

1 Like
#65

Unisom—it’s one of the few that I’ve found effective.

#66

Fasting Journal: Day 9

  • Subliminals: Paragon Complete (2x), Dragon Stage 4 (2x), Blueprint (2x), Alchemist Stage 4 (4x)
  • Blood Pressure:107/70 at a 63HR. Looking good.
  • Temperature: Averaging 36.7C/98F throughout the day.
  • Water: 1.6L/56oz.

Good news, I finally fell asleep fast, slept well and apart from a bit of yawning in the morning woke up feeling fine. Did I finally make it through the hard part?

The Oura wasn’t too happy with me for not sleeping that long, but boy do you see the amount of deep sleep?

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Either it’s because I skipped last night or because of the fast. Either way, I like it. Lots of healing taking place. Too bad it always takes away from REM and not light sleep.

The high HRV doesn’t make me happy though.

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But since my blood pressure is back on track, I’ll wait and see.

And I’ll give the Muse another go tonight.

I’ve switched back to speakers for my overnight listening. I really wish I knew of some quality earbuds that would still be comfortable when lying on my side. I have SleepPhones which are really great but they keep slipping off overnight. Not to mention they seem to be interfering with the Muse’s ear sensors.

So far I feel pretty good. Don’t ask me to run a marathon, but I’m okay. Thinking about hiding my latte-maker though. :slight_smile:

Seriously, every time I walk into the kitchen I’m staring at it, drooling at the memory of that taste, a little voice in my head going “it’s only 45 calories, it won’t break your fast” with my hand going towards it like Gollum’s to the One Ring.

Now listening to my first loop of Alchemist Qv2. Finally no more volume adjustments. Thank you, Saint!

Since Qv2 removes the alpha scripting from the core, would that mean my stack now no longer has any alpha scripting in it?

I definitely have a bit of a vacuum in my intestines now, leading to a slight but noticeable cramp in my lower abdomen.

Had a very busy day “at” work, followed by a fun time here on the forum. It’s already past midnight, so I’ll wrap up a few things as fast as possible.

Powerwalks around the corner to go and hide while mumbling something about setting examples.

That does not come cheap around here. I’m still curious how much the body likes introducing barely pronounceable ingredients into it while fasting. People also always recommend to stop taking medication when possible during a fast.

Hopefully I’m now past the bad phase and it gets easier from here.

Thanks for the recommendation though, I will keep it in mind. I may try some rooibos and chamomile tea first, those can help calm down the nervous system before bed.

#67

Fasting Journal: Day 10

  • Subliminals: Paragon Complete (2x), Dragon Stage 4 (2x), Blueprint (2x), Alchemist Stage 4 (4x)
  • Blood Pressure:109/77 at a 71HR
  • Temperature:36.7C/98F
  • Water: 1.6L/56oz.

I definitely think I’m back to normal. I felt tired, but given that I got so few hours of sleep that is easy enough to explain.

The Oura doesn’t like me because I went to bed waaaay too late. Even so, once again there’s a lot of deep sleep.

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HRV is down. Let’s see if it stays that way.

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The Muse once again went all weird. It told me I was awake for all but 34 minutes. Makes me very curious what it’s measuring, since this time the sensors appear to have been fine.

Beat Saber can be quite intense when eating, even more when fasting. Wow.

I’ve been wondering about something. Since most of the bad stuff I experienced last week comes from the switchover to ketosis, does that mean that if I were following a keto diet and thus was already in partial ketosis all these things would not have happened?

Anyway, nothing else to report today, I’m gonna dive into bed.

#68

Fasting Journal: Day 11

  • Subliminals: Paragon Complete (2x), Dragon Stage 4 (2x), Blueprint (2x), Alchemist Stage 4 (4x)
  • Blood Pressure 106/71 at a 63HR
  • Temperature:36.8C/98F
  • Water: 1.2L/42oz.

Still stable where temperature, cardiovascular and sleep is concerned. It took little over a week, but I’m now in a fully fasting state.

The Oura is getting ever less happy due to continued lack of sleep, but look at those beautiful sleep cycles. And the still increasing amount of deep sleep. Almost half of my sleep is made up of deep sleep. Meaning a lot of healing is taking place.

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It is normal as you get older that deep sleep decreases, which is cause for one theory of why the body slowly starts breaking down with age. Some people use expensive supplements, binaurals and more to increase their amount of deep sleep. I simply stop eating. :slight_smile:

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The downside is that although I’m physically in a good place right now, mentally is another story. Life is already more monotone with the COVID isolation, but now my mind has nothing left to distract itself. And that is starting to take its toll.

Part of it is due to the principle of anchoring. You know, that thing that earned Pavlov a Nobel prize for torturing a puppy.

Over time, most of my recreation has become linked to having the occasional snack. Without recreation, no snacks. And without snacks, no recreation. So since I can’t have snacks, my mind is unable to go into recreation mode.

You see this a lot with couch-potatoes. They eat snacks while watching TV. At some point, much like Pavlov’s dog, the moment the TV turns on they get an irresistible urge to grab a snack.

For me, this principle results in a daily schedule of work, sleep, repeat. I agree, if all I do is those two things, how do I still manage to sleep for only 5 hours? Honestly, I put too much on my plate (pun intended). Getting through my daily todo’s simply takes up too much time.

Anyways, add the fact that my brain is now moving faster causing a time dilation effect and the days are very tedious with on one hand me not knowing what to do and on the other not wanting to do anything.

But it is what it is. And one of the most important things one can do in their life is accepting that everything is the way it is. Right here, right now, in this present moment, we can’t change anything. But we can set the groundwork for future moments. You see this principle in religions and philosophies all over the world.

And so, accepting everything the way it is, we’re moving on.

I’ve been thinking a lot about what to do after this. I think that I’d prefer shorter fasts. But I still like all these benefits. Which would mean that I would have to find some way to stay in or frequently return to that keto-state.

Now I could do a 72 hour fast every week (supposedly it takes 72 hours to reach 100% of the benefits), maybe even a dry fast. That should allow me to prevent the boredom and cravings and slowly but steadily make changes in my diet and habits. It is also likely to train my metabolic flexibility, the ability for my body to rapidly switch between fat and sugar burning. Like untrained muscles, this ability gets lost after a lifestyle where food is always available.

If I did, I would try my best to maintain at least a 16:8 IF schedule on the other days. I’ve been doing that for ages, but I’m probably eating so many carbs in my current diet (curse you, bread!) that I still end up with 0 ketones in the body, as we saw at the start of this fast. Which would mean I’d have to go through those horrible first few days every time I did one of those 72 hour fasts.

Hence the question I posed yesterday: would a keto-follower also have these side-effects when they go fasting, or would it be smoother for them since they are already in ketosis?

Another alternative would be ADF, eating every other day. It would take a bit of getting used to but once my schedule adapts to it, it should get relatively smooth. Still, I would not have the full benefits of ketosis and autophagy. So I may have to do one of those 72 hour fasts once a month.

OMAD would be hard for me, considering I still like that latte. Also, in the weekend I tend to eat more spread throughout the day. I suppose if I had my dinner right after work, I can probably get the latte while it is cooking and still be early enough not to affect my sleep.

I really wish I could simply go full keto-diet, but I’m a lazy cook and most of my meals contain rice as their main carb and little meat. Which is how I discovered how many awesome things you can dump in the rice cooker.

Anyways, I’m open to suggestions.

Ugh, my lower abdomen are really cramping. I wish I could blame the hunger Gremlin, sorry Ghrelin, but unfortunately the feeling does not affect the brain at all, it’s just in my abdomen.

Speaking of food, I can’t help but keep thinking about it. And unlike earlier fasts, although I can easily maintain the willpower to not eat anything, I can’t seem to resist buying food, As is evidenced by the 144 cookies in my kitchen cabinet. And the… well, I suppose I had better show you.

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What do you think? Are 20.134 calories of mixed nuts (no, not me, JCast & Hoppa, but actual nuts) enough for a few days? :wink:

I’m truly saddened by the fact that nuts contain so many calories, since they are so yummy. It’s one of those foods that will make you fat unless you’ve learned to actually count calories. Fortunately they are also quite expensive, so I don’t get them as often.

I’m almost scared what I’ll buy next. Fortunately it’s all still relatively healthy. I mean, those 300 bags of tea I bought today are all herbal teas…

I really wish I had more to share with you guys but as I appear to have stabilized not much is happening.

Oops! I fell asleep behind my computer while getting ready for bed. :slight_smile:

3 Likes
#69

How is your morale?

#70

Fasting Journal: Day 12

  • Subliminals: Paragon Complete (2x), Dragon Stage 4 (2x), Blueprint (1x), Alchemist Stage 4 (2x)
  • Blood Pressure 108/82 at a 78HR
  • Temperature:37C/99F
  • Water: 1.2L/42oz.

Well, I did it again. Looks like my body in a fasted state is very proficient in catching up on sleep, I woke up early evening. And once again it confuses the Oura into thinking I didn’t sleep at all. But this time I was prepared for it to show up on the next day, so…

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Of course it’s happy with me again, even if my HRV is on the high side.

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On the plus side, I feel refreshed.

I do think that if I were asked what the best thing I can do for my health right now would be, it’s actually go to friggin’ bed on time! Honestly, that is the one thing I haven’t been able to do in ages. Last time I went to bed on time was when I was unemployed, because then I didn’t “lose” 8+ hours of my day and I could actually get my stuff done on time.

So, the TrueNorth Foundation in Santa Rosa, CA, which uses a whole plant based diet combined with supervised 21 to 40 day water fasts to cure things like Type 2 Diabetes (which is pretty easy, granted) and Cancer, has done research into exercise while fasting. They recorded the amount of fat (visceral and subcutaneous) and muscle loss between exercising and non-exercising patients and found that the protein demand during exercise is too high for the fasted body to provide so they recommend not exercising and simply resting, which according to that research will actually burn significantly more fat. The paper should be published somewhere this year, if it hasn’t already.

Which means I will cut out what little exercising I did and focus on meditation and stretching only.

I just saw the coolest thing on IndieGoGo. A tent that’s mounted on the roof of a car. You drive somewhere, park the car, pull it out, climb the ladder and sleep on top of your car. Makes me wish I lived somewhere with wide open countrysides. To add to the coolness, you can connect it to other tents by the same brand to create a whole complex of tents and tunnels. Ah the joy one could have if they had money, time and no job.

I’ve been thinking a lot about what to do after the fast. I won’t have reached my weight goal yet, so I would need some kind of plan. Plus, I have to do the refeeding right. Should I do another extended fast in July? Should I go ADF so I can actually keep exercising? Should I fast 3 days of the week? Maybe 18:6? It’s tough. It takes 3 days to hit the maximum benefit of being in a fasted state. Possibly more if there’s a lot of glucose in the body from eating a lot of carbs.

But the fasting so far gives me no drive or motivation. I feel fine, sometimes even pumped, but at the same time I don’t feel driven to take action. So on one hand I want to see if I can keep this up until I reach my desired body fat percentage, which could take up to the end of the year. On the other, I want to feel the motivation to get on with my life.

Before I sign off, I’ll share a fun fact. Did you know that right now I’m actually growing new brain cells? I feel smarter already. :slight_smile:

Well, I finally figured out what this is. Wow, that is one complicated and contested topic. I am wondering why you see a connection between it and the use of subliminals though.

In my recent research (I’ve been doing a LOT) I actually discovered there’s a second definition. Apparently after 4 weeks to 12 months(!) the muscles learn how to use fat/ketones for energy as efficiently as they now use carbs/glucose. At that point, one can actually exercise normally in a fasted state without noticing any difference.

Clearly there’s a lot of research that still needs to be done in the area of fasting.

Very good question. I’d say it is… neutral? I’m happy and energized yet bored and longing for food and recreation. Ready for anything yet unwilling to do anything. It’s an annoying place to be.

I still remember how in previous fasts I got super-elated and productive, This one is a bit heavier. Maybe it’s because my diet and activity levels during COVID have been pretty bad. And now my body is rewarding me by releasing all that bad stuff into my bloodstream as punishment. Lesson learned, I hope.

4 Likes
#71

Thank you for posting the diet information. As for this above quote, in my recent fast I did the math. When all was said and done, it appeared I had lost 6 pounds of fat in 5 days. Do the math and in theory that’s over 3000 kcal per day. How the heck I burned that much energy per day I’ve no idea, but that was the best conclusion I could come up with. And I was not exercising. So it seems that research is pointing to something that I likely experienced.

Yep! That’s what I thought! This might explain why I can go to the gym before my first meal, lift to failure on all exercises, and experience little soreness the next day or two. Actually sometimes very little soreness at all.

@Azriel tagged because he’s awesome and might find this interesting.

1 Like
#72

Who told you BP coffee isn’t calorie-heavy? I make mine with 2tbsp of grass-fed butter and a generous splash of table cream (18%). Not strictly BP, but I’ve never liked black coffee, I always have cream in it. I estimate my coffees each morning are 400-500 cals. Not that I count calories, I’m much more focused on controlling insulin as per Jason Fung.

3 Likes
#74

@DarkPhilosopher

For electrolytes, how about ConcenTrace Trace Mineral Drops?

1 Like
#75

Fasting Journal: Day 13

  • Subliminals: Paragon Complete (2x), Dragon Stage 4 (2x), Blueprint (2x), Alchemist Stage 4 (4x)
  • Blood Pressure: 117/73 at a 67HR with an irregular heart beat. Now that I’m paying more attention I can really see the effects on my body when I sleep badly.
  • Temperature: 36.7C/98F
  • Water: 2L/70oz.

No pretty pictures for today, since the Oura was too confused to realize my oversleeping happened a day earlier.

I feel fine. Was a bit slow and weak-ish in the morning, but it picked up. I even went to my local community center (which was hard since they regularly receive food from local supermarkets which is nearing its expiration date, and so close after Ramadan they had a LOT of yummy food). Also dropped off some old electronics and a bike I haven’t used in years. I’m trying to eventually reach a more minimalist lifestyle. A deliberately homeless friend that works over there was very happy with the bike.

I love how most people that hang out with Muslims have accepted the idea of fasting but still won’t believe me when I tell them I don’t eat at night either.

I also noticed myself actually wondering if I should go and study something again. I have spend most of the COVID “era” studying myself and have gotten behind on my industry certification. Being in IT I may not have many fancy degrees, but I have a LOT of certification.

I’ve been trying to figure out a way to get enough sleep. I think my main problem is that I use a social accountability tool for my recurring ToDo’s (Habitica). It’s not great for projects, but for all the things that come back every day it works wonders. However, it also means that when I’m questing with my party, any task that I am not able to do will cause HP damage to the rest of the party. So I stay up as late as necessary to do everything. Maybe if I give myself permission to check off the ones I missed as long as I at least tried? Then I could start forcing myself to go to bed at a more decent hour.

I did a meditation with the Muse. Something is definitely happening with the brainwaves. I think they are more stable, instead of all over the place as they usually go in a fed state. How that affects its sleep measurements I’m still not sure of. Either way, I’m at the point where most random thoughts are no longer popping up during meditation, so it’s blissfully still.

Well, today was a day off, so I got all my stuff done and can go to bed at a (for me) respectable time. Now to see if I can actually fall asleep…

I still find it odd. 1 pound of body fat is supposedly 3500 calories. Times 6 that makes for 21000 calories. Divided by 5 would even make 4200 calories per day. Since you’re running on your BMR (Basal Metabolic Rate) plus a little movement, it would either mean you are intimidatingly large (no offense) or something else is going on. But hey, gift horses and all, it is great you lost that much.

As for me, I fully expect my total loss will have decreased to about half of last week, we’ll find out tomorrow. Who knows, those Hero modules may be recomposing my body as we speak.

It takes a while to get there, the more active you are while you are still burning glucose, the longer it takes. Although it might take less time if you’re already keto.

There’s also the principle of metabolic flexibility, which is when the body gets trained to be able to switch rapidly between sugar- and fat burning. That’s why ADF is so interesting to me. It would be great if I could eat a carb-heavy meal on one day and the next day - once the carbs run out - my body switches within an hour back to ketosis without the grogginess. Like flipping a switch.

As for the soreness, the fasted state actively reduces inflammation. Hence less soreness.

The Internet, when I googled what it was and ended up in the wrong place. I now know what it is. Doesn’t look too appealing though. And may be unfeasible since my main meal tend to have a lot of calories. Including those nuts.

I think I’ll probably end up doing an 18:6 schedule (apparently better than 16:8) with dinner right after work. That allows me my latte in the afternoon. Until I run out of coffee pads, at which point I’ll simply stop drinking coffee. Never really needed it, I just like the taste of the warm milk in it. And sipping the foam.

Jason Fung is great by the way. I think I have one or two of those “Code” books collecting dust somewhere.

Too late, I already quoted you. :wink:

Thank you for the laughs, I was thinking the same thing. I’m sure you know what it means though. Cows that are fed through grazing rather than artificial pellets or whatever creepy processed things they feed cows in mass production farms. Much like how you have free-range eggs. I’ve never seen an egg walk around outside of cartoons and yet there they are.

The first instance of it was actually Tibetan Yak butter tea. It’s been around for a while and is a favorite with keto people because it’s a saturated fat-bomb with no carbs. I have no clue what it tastes like though. Looks like a foamy latte.

Now to channel my inner JCast concerning Bulletproof Coffee:
“I’m fairly certain a bullet would still go through that coffee. But then again I’m no coffee connoisseur.”

Did I do okay?

I’ve been looking for electrolyte supplements in my region, but outside of the usual carb-heavy sports isotone drinks they are not as widely available unfortunately.

I did start drinking a daily glass of water with pink Himalayan salt in it somewhere last year, which would take care of my Natrium. It’s Potassium that I haven’t quite found a good source for. And those are the two that are most needed during a long fast. Both in a water-soluble form.

Although last year I also ran out of Magnesium. That is extremely annoying.

With shorter fasts there’s not much of an issue. The Potassium won’t run out as fast and the Natrium is replaced with Ammonia if I’m not mistaken. Keto people are usually recommended to supplement a little.

1 Like
#76

Tastes like a latte, absolutely MUST be good quality butter though. Kerrygold is the gold standard (no pun intended) but any good quality grass-fed butter works. And it should go without saying… UNSALTED! And, finally… stirring is not sufficient. It needs to be emulsified. I use a battery powered milk frother from Amazon, but the real BP coffee nuts use a high powered blender. (Vitamix, Blendtec, etc)

#77

Not quite. Missing the cynicism, nihilism, and a few other ism’s

1 Like
#78

@DarkPhilosopher Bullet Proof Coffee? Is that the Dave Aspe thing or whatever his name is?

#79

yes (getting to 10 characters in 3…2…1…)

#80

@DarkPhilosopher

For potassium, I ordered KCl from bulksupplements.

#81

I used Dr Berg’s fasting powder and real salt for electrolytes.