Re: [fast5] Hi, new member with questions

Sunday, October 3, 2010

Re: [fast5] Hi, new member with questions

Yes, my own natural way of eating has always tended towards an evening bias, because I was just never hungry in the mornings, and if I ate a large lunch I couldn't concentrate on my work. Also, I typically have a big appetite when I start to eat, and regular eating patterns just make my weight balloon. So actually I found it quite straightforward to gradually transition (through a "warrior diet" period) to water-fasting during the day, even when exercising for longer than my regular workouts (eg. days spent skiing or hiking). I guess I've been on a day-fast regime for about 10 years now, but occasionally I do eat something light if I have a lunch date, or even more on big social occasions, generally just adjusting my evening window down to compensate. My wife has never formally day-fasted, although she does tend naturally to eat infrequently and lightly during the day, but differences in this area have never caused any family issues.

After all this time I don't find it to be a problem being around food when I'm not eating - in fact I find that I can often enjoy the aroma of food as a separate sensory experience, without it necessarily stimulating the desire to eat. I think this comes from a combination of things - my metabolism adjusted a long time back to the point that I'm usually just not hungry outside my window; I've become sensitive to - and want to avoid - the way that digesting food temporarily saps my energy; I'm more resistant now to the attraction of the "entertainment factor" of eating, or at least I've adjusted psychologically to postponing gratification until the start of my window. Actually, that last point was a really important insight for me - i.e. the extent to which eating is constantly presented in our culture as an entertainment, or a way of passing the time. Of course, eating should be a delicious and enjoyable experience, but it is consumer culture that "needs" us to have this experience all day every day, not our bodies, although of course that selfsame culture constantly promotes the myth that we'll sicken or die if we don't eat constantly.

So I suppose that my view would be that if you're destined to be a long-termer at this WOE, you need to come to love it, and the benefits it brings, not merely endure it. Exactly the same applies to exercise, in my experience - my heart always sinks when I hear people complain about "having" to drag their butts to the gym, or outdoors for a run, to lose weight, or whatever, because I know that few of us can out-run that feeling of victimisation over the long-term. I think you have to positively tune in to the new sensations that start to emerge as you get into fasting and appreciate them. Over time, you start to notice with pleasure how much better you feel during the day when you are light and agile, burning stored energy rather than absorbing and processing it. You start to notice more strongly the contrast with the immediate period after you break your fast, when your energy turns inward to digest and store nourishment. Ideally this becomes down-time - pleasurable, yes, but preferably not a time to be very active. When you get tuned-in to this extent, you don't need external support to convince you that this is the way the body feels and functions at its best - you just KNOW it.

David

On 3 October 2010 00:40, Heather Twist <HeatherTwist@gmail.com> wrote:

I can't say for other families, but my family has always tended to eat this way
no matter what. When I met my husband, he only ate once a day and I was
the one who nagged him into eating breakfast and lunch. These days, I just don't

cook those two meals: if he wants to snack, he snacks.

My kids do snack whenever they want. There is lunchmeat available, and
cheese, and fruit, and milk products, toast, and cookies (gluten free, in our case).

I make one big meal. Mostly that's plenty. Mostly they are happy when I don't
nag them to eat.

We've never actually had the issue where kids skip a meal and then pig

out on candy, so it's not something I've had to address. They tend to dislike
most candy except very high-end chocolates.

And yes, it's just a way of life at this point. It's pretty much the habit I had

when I was in college, and how my husband lived before I met him. We cook
almost all our own food, and doing 3 full meals is just too darn much work.
My daughter though thinks the constant preoccupation with food is kind of

weird, when she's around other kids who are always eating. She says they
are "hobbits", eating 6+ meals a day. She refuses to bring food to school,
because she says she'd rather do other things at lunchtime. Both she and

my husband though have the habit of having sweet milky coffee for breakfast, which
is interesting because that is the tradition in Germany too.

On Sat, Oct 2, 2010 at 11:58 AM, hsmom73 <no_reply@yahoogroups.com> wrote:

Hi, I'm glad to have found your group! I have several questions and hope there are some people who can help me.

1. How do you Fast-5 with kids? I am preparing and handling food ALL day long and am finding it so hard. The book talks about extra time once a person doesn't have to prepare and eat several meals and I wish for that, but my kids expect to eat! :) And how do you prepare food if you can't taste test it?

2. When do you exercise? I've always exercised around 8pm, but now that is during my window and am finding it slightly uncomfortable exercising with food in my stomach.

3. Is this a permanent way of life for most of you? How has that been? What does it look like over the course of years?

Thanks!