Arcticfox, thanks for your kind words. I think as long as we are on the journey, we are at the destination no? Just have to keep going… Well done on your long fast and resisting the urge to eat. I am currently fasting and so far so good- I actually haven’t realized I was fasting until now that I’m talking about it- if you know what I mean! I don’t have an end goal in mind but lets see how far I manage to get to.

Sunshine-Girl its ridiculous whats going on! Thankfully I’ve not been banned or I would not be able to keep going without the support and camaraderie but they really need to do something about it!!

I do know what you mean, Happysnap. I just kind of fell into another fast this morning. I’m not eating breakfast these days anyway, so it makes it easy. I had 2 meals yesterday after I broke my fast, and it was actually a struggle to eat my evening meal. I ended up just having a mushroom omelet so I could be sure I was getting some protein and fibre into me. Wasn’t hungry this morning, so just carried on. A bit hungry now, so I’m just having a cup of green tea. Not sure how long I’m going on this one. At least 24. We’ll see if I want to go for another 36 or 42 later. I’m just starting to see some results now finally, so that is motivating me. I pulled out a pair of goal trousers from the closet this morning. I can get them on but they are still tight through the hips and waist. They used to be a favourite pair and they look good on me when they’re not skin tight! I’ll try them again in a couple of weeks and that will by my way of measuring progress as I’m not weighing.

Hi Arcticfox!

I’m so happy that you are starting to see results. I’m sure you’ll love wearing those trousers, hopefully real soon!
I am around 40 hours into my fast now and feeling fabulous so not stopping yet… Lets see how long I can keep this going! I made another big pot of broth to have a big stash in the freezer.

Thanks for being on the journey with me!

Hi everyone,
I am posting on this thread as suggested by sunshine-girl, wondered if you could help please? I tried this low carb way of eating some years ago and couldn’t manage to stay on it long term, as I got bored with the limited food I was eating.

But then I didn’t try fasting. I am vegetarian. My GP surgery are now suggesting low carb and fasting for approx 16 hours, they think the two combined is the answer. I am giving it a try.

When fasting I normally just have water and black coffee. Just wondered if anyone knew if Marigold Bouillon would spoil my efforts if I have it as a drink during my fast? Obviously I wouldn’t want bone broth.

Having read a bit more – I think the answer is to not have it. Is half a teaspoon of marmite OK in hot water, or also a no no? Also possibly a slice of lemon in hot water?

Thanks for any suggestions.

Hi everyone,
I made it to 38 hours on my current fast, and was planning to break it but somehow managed to get busy doing a deep clean on the kitchen and then started painting the living room walls. Not finished yet, and this was just a white primer coat whereas the final coat will be sage green, but it looks sooo much better. Still have a bit of plastering to do in 2 areas and then will be able to get a full coat of primer on. It’s been a big job. The last people who had this house had 6 young kids who were so hard on the walls. Painting hasn’t been a priority for me since I moved in, but I just got fed up with looking at all the holes and chips everywhere.
Anyway, now I’m at 44 hours and will call that a success and break this fast.

barby – 16 hours isn’t very long, so I would think you would want to get the most out of it by trying to stick to water only as much as possible. If you are desperate and need something to get you through while you are getting used to it, black coffee and tea, and herbal teas (not fruit ones) are the best options, followed by some broth if you have to. I’m a vegetarian too. I tried keto a few years ago, but my system doesn’t do well on a higher fat diet, so fasting tends to work better for me to get into ketosis. I eat moderately low carb on my eating days, but still lots of pulses, etc. that people going keto would not. If you eat eggs then those are a good protein option and easy to cook, and greek yogurt and cottage cheese too if you eat dairy. Otherwise tofu, tempeh and other fermented soy products are good. I just don’t eat those as I have a soy allergy.

Back to fasting for me!
Arcticfox, how are you getting on? Are you still fasting?
JGwen, how have things been on your end? Hope you’re OK, looking forward to having you back here!

I was seen by a consultant last week for papilledema, which is swelling/pressure on the optic nerve. My optician freaked out about it and sent me to the eye hospital-basically consultant wasn’t too concerned and said that the swelling is caused by a build up of debris and old cells… if that is not an invitation for autophagy, I don’t know what is!

So here I am. My first target is 30 hours, until tomorrow evening when I have a function i’m invited to. Will try my best to keep it low carb but not sure what the options will be. After that i’d like to attempt a 72 hour fast.

Lets keep this going… I need the companionship and encouragement to keep going!

TIA

Good timing, happysnap! Well, not about your optic nerve issue, but with the fasting. I’m ready to get back into it now too. I’ve been struggling with very severe acid reflux that came on very suddenly right after Christmas. I’ve been on medication for it for 3 weeks now and I finally feel like it is calming down and that I can fast again. I was ending up in pain and with even worse reflux when I was trying to fast before the meds really kicked in.
I’ve been skipping breakfast again and doing 16:8 this week. It’s so strange because all the standard medical advice about acid reflux says to eat little and often and low fat, high carb meals. They do say to eliminate the ultra processed food, but everything else is the opposite of what I had been doing. Also hard was the fact that they said to not eat things like citrus fruit, as lemons and oranges contain diosmin which is good for my lipedema swelling. So anyway, I’ve spent the last 6 weeks swelling back up to the size I was before I started fasting in the fall. I’m really ready to give this a try again. I have to take my meds on an empty stomach in the morning and not eat for at least an hour after, so that already lends itself to skipping breakfast. I read in Dr. Bikman’s book that actually they are finding now that low carb diets can often relieve acid reflux really quickly, so ready to also ignore standard medical advice and see how I go.
I’m having to go to a professional meeting this afternoon and it includes a lunch. I’m hoping there will be salads and such. I could just fast through, but I’ve paid for the lunch and these things are an opportunity to network with other professionals as well and it looks a bit weird to just be sipping water while everyone else is eating. So I’ll probably do another 16:8 today and then maybe see about something longer for Friday-Saturday.
Good luck with your first 30 hours!

Hi Both,

Articfox I really struggled with acid reflux for the first time in my life with Long Covid, the advice to add a drop of lemon or lime juice to my water when fasting has worked well for me.

Fasting has really helped me get on top of Long Covid, getting some energy back. I had some good success with longer fasts last year, but had struggled to get back on the wagon after Xmas. I didn’t buy lots of goodies, but did buy my first loaf of bread for months so indulged with a sandwich or something on toast for a few days in a row. It was surprising how much the long covid fatigue returned just in response to a handful of days. I have to admit that if I don’t stick to TRE and low carb I can struggle with brain fog and periods where I start to nod off at the drop of a hat

I have been feeling a bit lost, I have got to that time of life where I am questioning what life s about, when I want to retire, how I can change my life to be more joy and less “should do” Sometimes its the little decisions, but I am also thinking about the bigger issues like when to sell the farm and move to a smaller property, and how it will hit my finances. –

I have a bit of a busy weekend, as well as a busy day on Saturday I also have a bee keeping training day to attend in the Midlands on Sunday. So A 4am start and driving back over night. because of the difficulties in arranging for cover around the farm for an overnight stay away. – I can see me needing a few coffees. So no fasting for me for the weekend, leave that to next week.

I think I need to focus on reversing Insulin Resistance, which is a mnimum of 72 hour fasts. I also am on a waiting list for a 2nd echocardiogram. I really really, really want to sock it to the sceptic nurse in the cardio team who informed me that its nor possible to reverse damage to the heart and I should take my medication and have multiple small meals a day. I need to maximise autophagy, get weight and blood pressure down before the echocardiogram. No idea how long the waiting list is, but I have my list of treats as I hit targets along the way and if I get to target (dress size 16) before my appointment I plan to go private as my poor result when tested during covid is going to make travel insurance expensive.

Thanks JGwen – good to see you back btw! I have been trying apple cider vinegar in my water and that seems to help too. Interesting about the lemon and lime juice as I was told to avoid citrus. So interesting how what actually works is opposite of the standard medical advice. Dr. Bikman was showing the corelation between acid reflux and insulin resistance in his book. And yet the standard medical advice is to eat little and often and low fat. Sometimes it’s like the people who are supposed to be supporting our health are just making stuff up as they go along! I am really motivated to try to make some progress in the next few weeks before my outdoor growing season kicks off. The reflux makes things much more difficult. Even pushing a wheelbarrow when I’m mucking out the horses can cause me to reflux. Standard medical advice is also to not do any heavy lifting or physical work within 3 hours of eating. I just laughed when I saw that – so I guess I’m full-time fasting then? And it doesn’t even help. I muck out the horses first thing in the morning when I’m more than 12 hours fasted and I still reflux when pushing the wheelbarrow or lifting water buckets.
Lunch at the professional meeting went well. There was some very nice cod and salads, so I managed just fine. Skipping the chocolate brownies for dessert was easy as I was full from lunch and knew I couldn’t eat anymore of anything without triggering the reflux.
Today I’m fasting and we’ll see how far I get. I need a lot of mental focus this weekend as I’m down to the final crunch on my business planning and need to have my documents completed by Monday. So I’m hoping the fasting will also improve my mental clarity and help me push through.

Hi again!

JGwen, I also fell off the bandwagon over xmas and just could not get back onto this WOE. But thankfully I seem to be back now. 30 hour fast went well, meal wasn’t too carb heavy and now i’m 15 hours into my hopefully 72 hour fast- with the purpose of starting to reverse insulin resistance.

Arcticfox, I hope you are not too stressed out about your business planning. I know that could derail me very easily so lets hope you’re managing to stay on track!

Wishing you both a good day whether you’re fasting, TRE or just low carb!

I completely understand how the acid reflux feels ArcticFox – I was getting it when bending down, made making up the 22 beds in the bunkhouse “fun”.

I am back after an intensive day, yesterday feed round and then leaving the house by 4.30 am, 212 miles driven in rough conditions with lots of water on the road after very heavy rain. A day of talks on bee keeping, then head home via calling in to visit a friend for a couple of hours. I did pull into a layby a couple of times for a snooze on the way home, and got home in the early hours this morning, so alarm switched off this morning. . After lots of time research ways of making a living from the land bee keeping seems to be the best option, have you thought about doing this yourself? In the UK, if you are both making and selling a couple of nucleus of bees from each hive to sell as well as taking the surplus honey you can be making a reasonable profit per hive and can be doing the wood working / maintenance of hive parts indoors in the winter and longer days working the hives when the weather improves.
——————————————
Happysnap. I think that IR is the next issue I really need to focus on. I was inspired by a post I saw last week. where someone is not thinking about the full length of the journey, just focusing a a short three months program. I heard the Archers last night as I drove and one of the themes was a character giving another a pep talk on how a mountain is climbed by focusing on moving from base camp to the next camp, and then the next. It made sense to me, a couple of months of focusing on reversing IR. not thinking about weight loss, building muscle. Just make improvements in Insulin sensitivity.

How is everyone doing?

I am really, really hungry and finding it hard to ignore…
Hope I won’t give in to temptation.
I really, really want to do this…

BTW on the topic of acid reflux, I find that for me personally fasting makes it the worst- I don’t know why, but as soon as i’ve passed the 10-12 hour mark I have terrible heartburn. Not sure why. But anyway hopefully you’re all doing well.

Hi happysnap,
I find including coconut in my eating window helpful at controlling the hunger. – Some of it is caused by the gut bacteria which digest sugar using their link into our brain to try to nudge us into feeding them. – Coconut is really good for balancing the gut bacteria by both killing off the bacteria which cause inflammation and balancing the ph of the gut. I buy a couple of coconuts from a local fruit and veg shop at a time when I feel I need to. I find its a good way of getting back on track after eating carbs.

Do take care, half a coconut in the course of a day can trigger a bit of a gut clearout. as in a “never trust a fart” experience.

Hi happysnap and JGwen,
I’ve been doing ok this week. I managed a 30 hour fast Tues evening through Wednesday, but only because a stressful work week made my appetite completely disappear. I’m so fed up with dealing with workplace drama and ours seems particularly bad at the moment. But at least I’m back on track. I’ve done 16:8 Thursday and today, so will look at doing another fast on the weekend.
JGwen – I’ve been concentrating on cut flowers and garlic for now. Chickens can be quite profitable here, but growing meat would push my insurance rates way up, so I haven’t ventured into that. Bees are interesting. There is a honey producer up the hill from me and I think their bees come down to pollinate my flowers. As much as I like seeing them in the garden, it is tricky with the flowers because once they are pollinated they don’t last as long in the vase. So I’m constantly trying to get to the flowers before the bees do!

Hi Articfox,
Not fasting chat, just carrying on our smallholder chat. In the UK there is a strong demand for fertile eggs and with special packaging these can be posted. Chicken poo is a useful fertiliser. So I am thinking slightly out of the box, learning wood working skills and constructing chicken tractors. Units which can be moved on a daily basis onto fresh grass (keeps feed bills down, fertilises the land) and each tractor can hold a breeding flock of 7 birds (6 hens) of a specific breed where the eggs sell for £1 plus per egg.)

Bees fly for up to 3 miles to gather nectar and pollen. I have been reading a book on how bees communicate, they have organs that produce a scent on their feet and when they get to a hive having found a good source of resources they share the location with the other bees in the hive. The angle of the line reflects the direction relative to the suns position, straight up is fly to the sun. The length of the line indicates the distance. I didn’t realise that flowers don’t last as long once pollinated a quick search online and I found articles on how with some flowers their colour fades after pollination so that bees will be attracted to visit the new flowers that need to be pollinated. Isn’t nature wonderful? I will ask on the forums for advice on what plants can be incorporated in hedges that the bees would prefer rather than flying on past the hedge to your flowers.

I have been to a couple of talks about making bee keeping profitable in the last month and thought it worth sharing. The money to be made from bee keeping is not just the sale of honey. – A percentage of bee colonies do not survive winter and there are always people starting out in bee keeping, so there is a market for starter colony’s. Each nucleus of bees sells for around £200, and you will easily get 2 or 3 from a hive each year. You would want to keep one per two hives for yourself to replace your losses over the winter, but even so you are looking at around £500 profit per hive per year once you have built up the skills to look after 10 plus hives. The workload is spread with winter being the time to maintain and make hive parts, and the management of the hives in the summer. Once you are experienced you are looking at 10 to 20 hours of work per year per hive.

I would be interested to hear how that compares with the income from plants and flowers. I have wondered about fruit tree grafting. – Heritage apple and pear trees sell well for quite a lot, I just need to learn the skills to keep the root stocks going for a year after the graft so I have something to sell.