Just finished. It comprised a couple of strict weeks and then a gradual relapse into mere healthy living for the remaining 6 weeks, with a few drinks as a reward. Turns out, as hoped, it was a useful further move along the path to righteousness [!] as it consolidated my LCHF lifestyle, with exercise and meditation as core activities.
I also gained greater awareness of FASTING and conclude that 16:8 will work for me on my 3 exercise days. Exercising without breakfast obviously promotes fat burning and naturally moderates one’s consumption for the rest of that day. It sounds easy but involves breaking the breakfasting routine that I’ve done for a lifetime. But the upside is its a relatively painless thing to do as I forget hunger when doing spin/gym for a couple of hours and enjoy plenty of water instead. I’ll aim to finish eating by 8 pm and not eat until ~1:30 pm on the next day. In this way I can eat what I want from the LCHF menu, with occasional drinks, and maintain a sensible waistline and fat content.
On the reboot I lost a further 11lbs, a couple more inches off my waistline, including one that had mysteriously reappeared, and got my internal fat to 12%, with general fat to 22%. I’ll be happy staying around this level now +/- a pound or two. Most of my cravings for old-fashioned treats like cakes, sweets, pizza, pasta, pork pies etc are long gone. Chocolate is still on the menu with 85% cacao and a square does the job. I found I didn’t enjoy some Green & Blacks organic milk chocolate I tried recently as it was too sweet. My alcohol consumption is now modest but enjoyable, and it’s good to be able to eat cheese and fats generally without feeling guilty, rather feeling full instead of hungry all the time.
I’d recommend Dr Aseem Malhotra’s Big Fat Fix as an entertaining film that touches on all the important dietary facts arising from Ancel Keys original work on Med Diet, and how that was corrupted. It also includes fresh insight into mindfulness, fasting, posture and exercise-movement. Well worth watching, and if you follow his work you get links to all sorts of pioneers in the field: Harcombe, Noakes, Unwin etc. Quite an education.