Day 15

Day 15... and I'm starting to feel normal doing Fast-5.
The weight loss is not going as well as I'd like -- I'm just one pound lower than where I started.
But here's some motivation from the yahoo group forum: I didn't lose anything at all the first 3 weeks or so. The fourth week I lost 2. The fifth was back to nothing. I was ready to pitch it yesterday. (End of week 6) I got on the scale yesterday and am down another 6 pounds. So - just be patient. There's hope!

I have been reading old posts in the forums. I appreciate everyone sharing their experiences -- it's always nice to see you're not the only one going through something.

I am feeling good. My clothes are fitting well. I've been hungry on recent afternoons and I've read in the forums that increased hunger seems to usher in weight loss. I've been cheating a little on the eating window -- sometimes eating from 5 to 11 because of late dinners. I'll work on getting back down to the 5 hour eating window.

In other news, I did a 10k race last weekend in 59:10, my best time to date. Very pleased! :)

dark urine

Good thing this is anonymous...
Since I've started the 19-hr daily fasts I've noticed very yellow urine, even when I drink quite a bit more water than I'm thirsty for. I suppose it could be a detox symptom. Has anyone else noticed this?
Thanks for any replies.

blasted scale

A couple of days ago I had a traumatic run-in with my scale -- the numbers had gone down by 3 lbs, then from one day to the next they went back up by 4 lbs.
Obviously, I am no longer speaking to the scale.
How often to people weigh themselves? Daily, weekly, monthly? What works best?

magnetic fridge

The refrigerator has a magnetic attraction for me. Without knowing quite how I got there, I'll find myself opening the door to browse the shelves even when I have no thoughts of eating.
I'm counting the minutes until my eating window opens. This only happens when I'm home, bored, and just steps away from the kitchen. Yet another reason to get up and get out of the house!

Reactions

People have the strangest reactions to fasting.
I have done multi-day fasts and one of the hardest things about it was convincing people that I wasn't anorexic, or crazy, or going to faint if I hadn't had a doughnut in over three hours.
I was also surprised at how defensive many people became, as if I were doing it just to mock their six-meals-per-day strategy. The act of not eating lunch offends some people unreasonably. They seem to assume I'm staking some sort of moral high ground or acting sanctimonious. Basically, some people think my fasting is about them, a commentary about their habits, rather than about myself. At this point I generally don't mention fasting to people who aren't close friends.
Fortunately, I also have many wonderfully supportive people in my life. Many friends do regular multi-day fasts, keep Ramadan, or are at least familiar with the idea and the many benefits of fasting. Many do yoga or other movement practices that get them in touch with their bodies. My boyfriend thinks it's strange but is supportive. (It helps that we can share a big dinner together, his favorite meal.)

Has anyone else had strange reactions from other people when talking about fasting? How do you deal with this?

Fast-5 diet

http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/fast5/ (active yahoo group)

www.fast-5.com (free e-book)

Day seven of the Fast-5 diet.
Others explain it better than I would (see links above).
I keep a mental countdown of the hours to go before I eat. It's more mental hunger than physical hunger. At first I had a constant inner dialogue: "How many hours to go? I can't believe I'm doing this. Do I feel hungry? Am I feeling weak?" That constant train of thought is starting to go away, thank goodness, as I begin to trust that I am in fact fine.
I realize that after a large, late meal (10pm) I still feel full through early afternoon the next day. Not just "not-hungry," but actually "full."
I've decided to only weigh myself on my home scale, for the sake of continuity, but I'm rarely home these days because of work and travel. I weighed myself on day four and was down 3 pounds.
My running (barefoot) is also going well. My first 10k is this Sunday. :)