Eating Later

“Delay, Don’t Deny”  (2017©)  —  book review
Today’s book is “Delay, Don’t Deny“, written by Gin Stephens.  The book was loaned to me by my sister while we were visiting for the Labor Day BBQ at her house.  The book is sub-titled: “Living an Intermittent Fasting Lifestyle“.   Basically, the book is a cheer-leading exercise for the “One-Meal-A-Day” (OMAD) intermittent fasting protocol which the author feels should be adopted not as a “diet”, but as a “lifestyle”.  In other words, once you start, you can’t go back.  The author’s claim goes beyond that.  She believes the benefits will be so obvious to you that you will choose to never go back (to your old eating habits / lifestyle).
The book is very short – only 155 pages.  It is written in a very friendly and easy to read style with short chapters and a few photos thrown in.  I would estimate a reader could speed through this book in a day (evening) if you were motivated to just sit still.  It took me a couple of days to get to it and then I read a couple of chapters a night before turning off the light.
In full disclosure:  I turned my sister on to Alternate Day Fasting, which is one form of intermittent fasting, so I am already a “true believer”.  I believe in fasting as a jump start to a healthier lifestyle and have done strict veggie broth fasts and veggie / fruit juice fasts of various duration’s over the last thirty-five years.  I have tried (and consider myself still on) an alternate day fasting protocol and it was working for a couple of weeks before “life” got in the way.  Besides my excuses, I feel the ADF or “modified ADF”  (MODF)- which is what I am / was trying – is a workable lifestyle for me.  Prior to reading this book, this (a MODF) is what I was planning to return to when I finish my current (12 completed days) veggie-juice / blended fast.  After reading this book, I think I will substitute the OMAD for the MADF.
So, what is a one-meal-a-day fasting lifestyle?  According to the author, you can eat anything you want and as much as you want, but only for / at one meal a day.  You have a window for eating each day.  The window may be as long as eight hours or as short as one hour.  The remaining hours in the day, you are fasting.  “Fasting” means water, black coffee or unflavored green or black tea.  No sweeteners.  No creamers.  The more common windows are: “8/16”, “6/18” and “4/20”.  This varies from the traditional alternate day fasting in that with OMAD, you do eat EVERY day.  In the ADF, you eat no more than 500 calories (female) or 700 calories (male) on your “fasting” days and you eat whatever you want (whatever you normally eat) on the alternate eating day.  An eating window is also recommended for both the ADF and the MADF.  In fact, many proponents suggest you water fast on occasion just to super-charge the process.  The water fast is also frequently added to the “5:2” version of the ADF.  In the 5:2, you eat within an eight hour window five days a week and then water fast for two days.  You can pick the two days and they don’t have to be consecutive days – just any two out of the seven day week.  The 5:2 is briefly mentioned in the book, but the author does not favor it.
The author does not discuss sleeping, but this is a critical part of the ADF protocol.  You are expected to get 7 to 8 hours of continuous sleep each day for the ADF protocol.  This is where I definitely have a problem with ADF.  I typically can only manage six hours and almost never get over seven.  This is mostly a bad “lifetime” habit of mine.  As it’s not mentioned in the book, I guess the author doesn’t feel it’s that critical for OMAD.
The strength of this book is its approachability, both in ease of reading and in terms of the protocol.  She says:  “Try it.  You’ll like it!”  In fact, she believes you’ll like it so much, you’ll feel comfortable dropping it for special occasions (vacations, holiday weekends, Christmas, etc.) and then you’ll recognize you are out of sync with your body and want to drop back into the protocol.
The book has a particularly useful section listing the author’s favorite books (15) about alternate day fasting and intermittent fasting.  The author says these books contain all the science which she has chosen not to include in her own book.  She writes a paragraph or so on why each book is recommended.  Many of the authors of these books I was already familiar with from watching their videos on YouTube.
Final recommendation:  Very highly recommended!!  I fully intend to give this protocol a go whenever I finally come off of my current blend fast.  I will be sure to include updates in future posts.
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On This Day In:
2018	Here And Hope
2017	Choose
2016	All I Ever Wanted
2015	Compassionate Toward Yourself
2014	All And None
2013	Voices In The Dark
2012	Does Uncommonly Flexible = Flip-Flopping?
2011	A Modest Review Of A Modern Day Classic
	Encouragement Is The Path To Immortality

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Day 11: 49ers Win

The end of day eleven and the morning of day twelve…
Morning weight: 355lbs.  (on Day 12)
I am down / down “1/18”.  As in, 1lb down from yesterday and 18lbs down from my fasting start weight: 373lbs  (the morning of Day 1).
After walking Shiva, I went up to my brother’s (Sean) house to visit and to watch the San Francisco (actually the San Jose) Forty-Niners play the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
I went up in the morning so we could have some time to kick it before the game started.  We did that for about an hour and then spent most of another hour reviewing the movies and TV shoes my brother has been binge-ing on.  He has kidney failure and goes to dialysis four times a week.  Most of the remaining time he is recovering from the dialysis and watching the tube.  He says half the time he is sleeping and the tube is watching him.  He is really starting to get into foreign entertainment (Asian, Middle-Eastern, Indian and some European).  We were joined by my sister’s husband (Art) for the game itself.  The Niners won and it was a satisfying victory keyed more by the defense (two interceptions for touchdowns) than by the offense.  Still, a win is a win.
After the game and drive home, I relaxed for a minute and then went for an evening swim (7:10pm-8:10pm), so I did get a little bookend exercise for the day.
I stopped drinking three hours before bed and, again, did not have to get up during the night.  I’ll give it a few more days, but it certainly seems like that’s going to end up being a key to losing weight (a restful sleep).  For some reason my FitBit gave me an extra two hours of sleep – including an extra hour of “deep sleep”, which started before I even went to bed.  I guess it just can’t tell when you stop moving and your heart slows and when you are actually asleep.
As of this morning, I consider myself to be losing actual weight now.  As I’ve frequently mentioned, the best estimates are that you (we / I) have between 7 and 15 pounds of stomach content at any given time.  This is food “in processing” along the pipeline from mouth to bum.  When juicing, most of this gets eliminated after the first few (4) days.  This explains the rapid weight loss during the first few days of a juice fast.  It also explains the rapid weight gain when you come off the fast and begin to refill the stomach content.  From my reading, the 7 to 15 pound range is the best estimate for average adults and not reflective of obese or morbid obesity.  I assume morbidly obese folks will have even larger stomachs than average adults and therefor would start off with more stomach content and more weigh to shed.  I don’t know if this is a fact or just my opinion, but assuming it’s valid, this means that at 18 to 20 pounds loss I am probably finally stating to get to my non-content weight loss.  I am certainly hoping that is true, anyway.
I’m now more than halfway through week two and proceeding day to day…  And, so it goes…
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On This Day In:
2018	Worry (x2)
2017	Still Working
	Gold In The Morning Sun
2016	Power Inside
2015	Sometimes I Feel Small
2014	It Slipped Away
2013	Corollary
2012	Working Retired
2011	The Web Is Not Authoritative! (Really?)

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Day 3: Still Difficult

The end of day three and the start of day four…  Starting Hump Day for the first week of blend fasting.
Morning weight: 367lbs.  (on Day 4)
I am up / down “2/6”.  As in, 2lbs up from yesterday and 6lbs down from my fasting start weight: 373lbs (morning of Day 1).
Yesterday was a difficult day.  I am still very tired – physically and sleep wise.  I was dreading going to the pool, but when I finished (1hr of treading water), I felt refreshed.  Then, and hour later, exhausted again.  The struggle is maintaining the correct blood sugar level so as not to want to go to sleep, not feel excited and not feel hungry.  It’s a fine balance.  I will be happy when I get my “fasting second wind.”
This time (this fast), I’m finding the sleeping difficult.  I got in a bad sleep habit when Hil was gone earlier in the year and the habit got reinforced with her latest trip.  I’m readjusting, but it’s slower than usual.  I’m sure this is due to the modified alternate day fasting (trying to) and the current juice / blend fast.  I remain amazed at the body’s ability to quickly adapt to changing conditions and then it’s reverse – slow adaptation to returning conditions.  It’s like the body is saying, “Yes!  I can do that!”, but then says, “Wait a minute, we just changed from that…  Why are we going back?”  Eventually, the body comes around, but then it’s even more resistant to the next change.  I think this is the problem with yo-yo dieting (which I am guilty of).
So, the elephant in the room is that I gained 2lbs since yesterday morning.  What’s up with that?  Well, as mentioned in yesterday’s review (post), I dropped 6lbs from the prior day and that was not a sustainable rate of loss.  I said it was probably a combination of stomach content and water retention (loss).  Given I didn’t eat yesterday and I did drink, this means the ratio was probably more than 50 / 50 between water (fluid) loss and stomach content.  As a gallon of water is a little over eight(8) pounds, 8.34 to be precise, a two(2) pound gain is about a quart of water (fluid) retained over what I was carrying yesterday morning.  Not a big deal if the over-all trend remains downward tomorrow and the next day.  This is why many sources recommend only weighing yourself once a week instead of daily.  So I have to remind myself: “It’s the trend that counts, not the daily drops and bounces.”
Today, (Day 4) should be another “difficult” day as we are going to my sister’s house for a family BBQ to celebrate Labor Day.  We’re bringing the deserts, which my wife stocked up on yesterday.  Every time I opened the fridge to get some juice, cake and chocolate fudge brownies are staring me in the face…   Can I feel some luv???  Or at least a little sympathy…  LoL
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On This Day In:
2018	A Thought For Those Continuing To Support President Trump
	Day 36: Pushing On
2017	Imagining Humor
2016	So Go On And Deal With It
2015	From A Letter To A Friend
2014	Your Part (Here)
2013	Complements
2012	Sound And Light
2011	Two Politicians Visit A Farm…
2010	Labor Day And Honorable Men

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Day 2: All Things Considered

The end of day two and the middle of day three…   End of week 1 already looks to be in sight!
Morning weight: 365lbs. (on Day 3)
I am down “6/8”.  As in, 6lbs down from yesterday and 8lbs down from my fasting start weight:  373lbs (morning of Day 1).  Obviously, a 6lbs weight loss in a single day and 8lbs over two days is not sustainable.  It was mostly stomach content (digesting solid foods) and some water weight.  Most adults hold between 7lbs and 15lbs of stomach content, so the first few days of any “cleansing” diet will be mostly the elimination of that content.  Most fruit juice and veggie juice diets tend to be “cleansing” diets by default.  So, the loss was expected and no big deal.  Losses of 1/2lb to 1-1/2 lbs per day tend to be more realistic (from my experience).  Managing the fasting to stay near the bottom end of that range (.5lb / day) is where the “art” of fasting comes into play.  Most of that “art” is listening to your body tell you what it wants / needs.
Yesterday I walked the dog (30 minutes) and went for a swim (60 minutes, Breast Stroke.  44 lengths X 25 yards == 1,100 yards.  18 laps == 1/2 mile. 1 lap == 2 lengths.)  The swim felt much more difficult than normal because I felt like I ran out of energy about 45 minutes through.  After that it (swimming) was just a gut check to finish the time.  Anyway, I got it done.
I was very tired for most of yesterday, but the flip side of that was I felt I got a good night’s sleep.  My FitBit (FB) doesn’t really agree with that assessment, but whatever.
I have a FitBit Blaze.  It’s my second FitBit.  The first was a hand-me-down belt attachment, which I only used for a couple of months.  I didn’t feel it was accurate and it was difficult to remember to keep moving it between clothes.  My latest (the Blaze) is a wrist-watch style and was a present from my daughter (Rebecca) for Christmas 2017.  So, I’m about halfway through my second year of wearing it.  I got it more as a Heart Rate (HR) tracker, but it is only of limited use in that regard.
My Blaze is VERY accurate on providing my current heart rate.  Since I suffer from Atrial Fibrillation (AFib), this is important for me to marry up with my sensations of palpitations.  This allows me to exercise cautiously.  The problem I have with the Blaze is it actually doesn’t record your heart rate by the minute.  I downloaded and reviewed my HR for the first couple of months and found the information was recorded at set intervals which have nothing to do with AFib or exercise.  I don’t remember (this was Jan / Feb of 2018) anymore what the interval (5m, 10m or 15m) was, but I remember being dissatisfied enough to stop downloading the tracking.  I don’t expect 60 second per minute tracking, but this seems to me to be periodic “snapshotting”, not tracking.  As a person who also suffers (a bit) from Obsessive / Compulsive Disorder (OCD) and from years of practicing “you can’t manage what you don’t measure”, you can kind of guess at my initial level of frustration.  LoL.
My second “issue” with the Blaze is that it doesn’t “stay” on what it’s set to do.  I swim.  The Blaze doesn’t “track” swimming.  This means I have to tell it I’m “working out” to get it to track my HR an calorie effort while swimming.  Fair enough.  The Blaze doesn’t support swimming and it says so in the documentation and on the company web site.  The site says the Blaze is “water resistant”, which means okay for heavy sweat and a quick shower, but not bathing or swimming.  In fact, over this last 20 months I’ve used it while swimming for over 150 hours and never had a single problem.  Well, almost none.  Remember the “staying” mentioned above?  Randomly, when water brushes against the Blaze it turns off or pauses the tracking.  The result is I am forced to pause between pool lengths to check if it is still tracking.  Yeah, that’s annoying.  I guess that’s what you have to live with to enjoy touchscreen activation.
This is my first wrist-based HR monitor and other than the two bits mentioned above I REALLY like my Blaze and I would definitely recommend anyone looking into buying a HR monitor consider FitBit’s line of products.  Having said that, I don’t think I will replace it when it finally dies.  One, the Blaze is no longer offered by FitBit.  Two, I feel their products are inordinately expensive.  The regular cost was $150.  My daughter got it as at a closeout price of $99.  Maybe it’s just the dinosaur in me, but I can’t see paying $100-$150 for a watch with a pedometer and a HR tracker – particularly if the tracker doesn’t really “track”.   In fairness to FitBit, their newer models DO “track” swimming as an exercise, but since I don’t own one of the newer models, I can’t speak to how they do it or how functional it is when doing the tracking.  But, if you are in the market for a good Heart Rate monitor, I guess you’ll get what you pay for.
Well, those are my thoughts about Day 2…  I hope I haven’t bored you all too much and you’ll come back for (and enjoy) some of these longer posts.
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On This Day In:
2018	Ryan, McConnell & The Republican Controlled Congress
	The Proud Dad
	Day 35: Five(5) Weeks Completed!
2017	Serving Is Proving Harder Than Winning For #DumbDonald
2016	Come Again…
2015	At Five
2014	Touching The Past
	The Supreme Question
2013	Children Will Judge
2012	Liar, n.
2011	Freedom To Doubt

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Love Like This…

Something Just Like This (cover by COLOR MUSIC)
[On this date, 35 years ago, my Hil came back to me (from Liverpool) and we began our life together…  And our love is still new and growing.  The “official” video by the original artists (with lyrics) appears off of my “Poems” tab.  —  KMAB]
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On This Day In:
2018	Open Hearts Find Strength
	Day 32: Planning The Future
2017	Thinking Out Loud
2016	Fighting Change
2015	Get Change
2014	Trapped (Again)
2013	Someone Else Believes
2012	The Practical Value of Science
2011	Seize Gladly The Difficult Task
	A Constitutional Conversation
2010	The Fierce Urgency Of Now…

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Welcome Home

My better half has been visiting her family back in Liverpool, England for the last seven weeks.  Her mum is doing poorly (Parkinson and dementia) and we thought she might pass when she developed pneumonia two months ago.  My Hil went back to be with her.   Her mum bucked up and has stabilized, but she is still in hospice, so Hil is coming home.
I’ve missed Hil terribly and this song always makes me think about her and smile…
The title is: “Your Song“.  The performer is: Sir Elton John.  And, my favorite line is:  “How wonderful life is while you’re in the world.“
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On This Day In:
2018	The Cells Are Right
	Day 19: Broth
2017	Be Responsible
2016	Thinking About November 8th, 2016
2015	Lonely Teardrops
2014	Pleasurable Law
2013	Room For Justice
	In The Minds Of Others
2012	Extinction, n.
2011	Snap!

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Four Days To Go

Our chief want is someone who will inspire us to be what we know we could be.
―  Ralph Waldo Emerson
[In four days, my wife returns from visiting her family in Liverpool.  —  KMAB]
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On This Day In:
2018	No One Man
	Day 15: Tired (Again)
2017	Strongly Convinced
2016	Me, Myself & I
2015	God, Give Us Men!
2014	Got Any Bezzy Mates?
2013	On Being A Nerd – Awesome
2012	Writers Write
2011	And History Has Proved This Correct
2010	Fascinating Discontinuity
	Tasted Bacon?

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