Dealing with hunger on my 5-day fast

I’m currently on day 5 of a 5 day fast, and I must admit I haven’t been particularly hungry. I had no hunger on day 1, and the hunger I’ve had since then has been mild— not like the hunger I get a couple hours after eating carbs, when I’m ravenous for more carbs. My fasting tips are below.

Start by being on keto:

I was on day 25 of restarting strict keto when I began this fast. I had gotten over any initial ‘keto flu’ symptoms and was feeling fine and energetic (which is rare for me.) I started the fast when lunchtime rolled around, I hadn’t eaten, wasn’t hungry, and didn’t want to bother with cooking. I know Dr. Jason Fung starts off his diabetic patients with a prolonged fast, but without doing keto first I just couldn’t manage that.

Minimize temptation:

When I was cheating on my keto way-of-life, I often drove to the local dollar store every day and came home with carb-laden food (or non-food.) And of course when I bought a family-sized bag of barbecue potato chips, it was gone by the end of the day. Even though my family consists of cats who aren’t interested in potato chips and couldn’t get the clips off the bag if they did. Now if I came home with barbecue-flavor mice….

I didn’t go anywhere the first three days of fasting, and so wasn’t tempted to buy junk. The fourth day I went to Menominee, MI (30 miles) to visit my 91-year-old mother, and also to go to Jack’s Market of Menominee, where I could buy Kerrygold butter, miracle noodles, and smoked salmon. (They didn’t have any frozen duck, so I’m going to go get one in Trenary, MI.) 

I was a lot hungrier when I was in Menominee, because normally while I am there I get to eat stuff that I can’t get back home on the farm. But the hunger wasn’t that bad, as I have said.

Anti-hunger measures:

What do you do when you feel hunger pangs? Here are my methods. 

1. Get busy. Preferably away from the kitchen. I did a lot of cleaning in my garage, while listening to a Jimmy Moore podcast.
2. Drink water. You need to stay hydrated while fasting. And if you stay busy you may forget to drink.
3. Drink plain tea (or coffee.) Dr. Jason Fung allows plain tea or black coffee as a fasting fluid. The tea seems to suppress my hunger. I don’t know about coffee since I don’t drink it.
4. Drink a cup of home-made bone broth. (If you don’t have any, try Broth of Life dehyrated, organic bone broth. Use 2 teaspoons per cup, Dr. Jason Fung allows home-made bone broth as a fasting fluid. It’s actually better fasting if you DON’T resort to bone broth, but experienced, regular fasters tend to quit their use of bone broth while fasting naturally, as their bodies adapt. 
5. Semi-bulletproof beverage. When the hunger pangs are hard to ignore, Dr. Fung allows a bulletproof beverage, though discourages a FULLY bulletproof beverage. On days 3 and 4 of my current fast, I had a ‘semi-bulletproof’ beverage with 1/2 T MCT oil and 1/2 T heavy cream. Once it was in tea, and once in bone broth. The bone broth had 1/4  tsp. Himalayan pink salt added. 

My favorite MCT oil (Amazon affiliate link.)

Blood sugar results:

If you are diabetic you may be interested in what my blood sugars have been doing, before strict keto, during strict keto, and while fasting. Here are my results:

Cheating on my keto: 329, 277, 500, 186, 261

During strict keto, before fasting: 184, 187, 170, 201, 127

During my 5-day fast: 102, 94, 111, 91, 97

I should note that I did some fasting before I started the current fast, and my strict-keto readings are before I did any 24 hour or longer fasts. 

Have you tried fasting yet? How was your experience? Are there things you will do next time to prepare yourself for fasting? Share your experiences!

Disclaimer: 

I am not a medical doctor or dietician, and nothing in this blog should be construed to contain medical or dietary advice. Check with your own doctor before making any changes. Preferably, with a doctor that knows about the benefits of keto and fasting. In addition, know that if you are on diabetes meds, you MUST, MUST, MUST consult with your doctor before fasting, since you will need to reduce your meds.

Some days we shouldn't do our Intermittent Fasting

Intermittent Fasting, or fasting for less than a full day, can give many health benefits. But sometimes it's not the right thing for us on an individual day.

The easiest way to start off with Intermittent Fasting is going on a ketogenic diet, like the old-fashioned Atkins diet is at the Induction level. Ketogenic diets allow you to eat, and help suppress your hunger. On a good ketogenic day you may skip a meal by accident, even if you were a big eater formerly.

But Intermittent Fasting, or The No-Breakfast Plan, may not be the best thing to do some days. Here are some circumstances where that might be so.

When you have been getting hungry for carbs, and can't resist them at lunchtime.
Sometimes--- like when you are not in a state of ketosis (fat-burning) --- going without food in the morning makes all your ravenous carb cravings come forward, so instead of that great keto/lowcarb lunch you had in mind you run out and buy a bag of potato chips or a fast-food carb burger.

When you are hungry in the mornings.
Especially when you feel a lot of hunger that isn't going away. For me, this happens when I've been eating carbs the previous days. A good low-carb breakfast may be what you need.

Sundays.
Did you know that if you are Catholic, the "fasting" or food restrictions done during Lent are skipped on Sundays? That's because Sunday, the day of resurrection, are always a day of celebration. Sometimes making Sunday special by having a nice breakfast or brunch is what you need when you've been being very good on your Intermittent Fasting and your keto meals. If you are Jewish, of course you might use your own Sabbath for the special breakfast day.

Breakfast or Brunch with family.
If your family is having a bit of a reunion and celebrating with breakfast/brunch, taking part with keto foods can be a good thing. And the great thing is that there are low-carb foods that are a part of breakfast/brunch menus: eggs, bacon, sausage, ham.... Sadly, you can't trust restaurant omelets or scrambled eggs not to have carb additions like flour in them. But often this is the meal where you are likely to get food you can actually eat without going off your diet and feeling unwell.

What do you eat for breakfast-eating days?
Keto-diet acceptable foods, of course. Especially things you consider comfort foods. This morning I made myself a serving of Cheese Pancakes, baked in a muffin top pan so they wouldn't be so thin and runny. I also made a bit of maple syrup from maple extract, sweetened with Swerve sweetener. Very tasty. (Will share recipes soonest, but Cheese Pancakes are in Dr. Atkins Diet Cook Book of 1974 by Fran Gare and Helen Monica, and the maple syrup recipe I Googled for.)