S2E2 21-Day Water Fast Journal

[Compdude]

1/20/20 - Day 0/21 - Part 1 of 2

NOTE: For my current friends on the forum, skip to the next entry as this entry is providing info to new readers.

Welcome everyone to my daily journal. For those who don’t know me, here is some info:

I began on 8/9 of last year because I got “mad as hell and I wasn’t going to take it anymore!” I had followed the standard medical advice for those suffering from chronic progressive diseases of “Eat Less and Exercise More” and despite my best efforts my health deteriorated. So I did research and when I felt I knew “just enough to be dangerous.” I began with a goal of becoming “medication free”. My initial timeline was 6 months to a year and I achieved it in 4 months and 5 days on 12/13. Specifically that means I’ve reversed my T2 diabetes, cured my hypertension, high cholesterol and gout. I’m still working on reversing my CKD (Chronic Kidney Disease); but, I’m confident its just a matter of time as I’ve eliminated the 2 causes of CKD: diabetes and hypertension.

Professionally, I’ve got over 30+ years in computers primarily as a software guy. I bring this up because I tend to take a logical and problem-solving approach to anything I tackle, come up with a plan and then execute it. I also took a 5 year break by being a CPT (Certified Personal Trainer) where I essentially did the same thing that I did for corporations and small business and just did it for people.

Other relevant experience: 4 years as a Certified Windsurfing Instructor for the UCLA Sailing Club and 3 years of amateur competition which included state and nationals.

I got to achieve my primary goal of becoming “medication free” by taking things in bite-sized chunks. The chunks were:
14 days breaking my Carb/Sugar addiciton
11 days of I.F. (16:8, 18:6, 20:4 and OMAD)
68 days of Prolonged Water Fasting with intervening ReFeeds (4, 5, 7 & 40 days).

Hopefully this information will provide an understanding of how I approach things.

[Bri]

waiting for a motivational video… needing some motivation already… lol

[Compdude]

1/20/20 - Day 0/21 - Part 2 of 2

Prologue: I’ve thought long and hard how I’m going to structure the entries based on my 2 research projects examinIng member failures and successes of the Oct/Nov fast challenge, Fastmas and the current Jan fast and my own experience. This is what I’ve come up with.

I’m infusing my data-oriented approach with motivational/inspirational elements. In other words, a reprogramming of both the body and the brain approach. It’s because I’ve found providing only answers is not enough to help people reach their fasting goals.

So each of my daily entries will have a motivation video, quote or pic. Let’s begin with today’s motivational/inspirational video:

You still with me? LOL

Here’s my starting baseline:

Height: 5’8”
Age: 60 (Told you I was older than dirt!)

Starting:
Weight: 216 pounds.

Fitness Level: Aerobic: Moderate - Can walk 3 miles
Flexibility: Poor - Lower Body, Moderate - Upper Body
Strength: Poor - L.B. and Moderate - U.B.

Goal:
Weight: 184 (32 pound loss)
Based on results of last fast of 1st 21 of 40 days.

Fitness Level:
Aerobic: Moderate - Can walk 3 miles
Flexibility: Moderate - Lower Body, Moderate - Upper Body
Strength: Poor - L.B. and Moderate - U.B.

NOTE: Can’t add Lean Muscle Mass during a water fast even though HGH production is increased and the body fulfills its protein needs through autophagy and cannibalization of dead cells. It’s due to the fact that adding muscle is highly resource intensive, the body has higher priorities during a fast and will delay it until refeed. HOWEVER, I can work on increasing my flexibility.

Therefore, fasts are reserved for losing weight and working on flexibility. ReFeed for converting stem cells produced during prolonged water fast into new cells. Workouts for adding lean muscle mass and increasing aerobic endurance.

Ok, tomorrow officially marks Day 1 as I will create a new entry after completing 24 hours of fasting.

See you tomorrow!

[phree_jay]

I’m here with you! We got this!

[Rebecca_Hughes]

My former housemate is a software engineer and he, like you, takes the logical route with everything. I love how that is they way you tackle problem solving! I learn so much from you logical folk. I describe myself as 90% emotional, 10% logical. So it’s no surprise that I seek logical men to be around, it totally balances me out. I was reading an older journal entry of yours and I have to tell you, I am so impressed how to essentially taught yourself photoshop, making and maintaining websites, marketing etc. Such an inspiration for me! I have been paying for the entire Adobe suite for over a year now with a similar goal to teach myself design, whether it be websites, commercials, flyers, banners, product labels etc. However, I have yet to do any of that! Ugh. I’ve been letting life get in the way. I have told myself once my office ser up is complete (I have recently moved into a new home), I am working on teaching myself essentially what you taught yourself.

[Rebecca_Hughes]

See you tomorrow!

[Compdude]

I think all you need is to get experience. Remember I started with creating a YouTube video on a Flip camera for a fitness client just to show her the power of YouTube for free. She was so impressed that later on she brought me on board and essentially paid me to keep on learning.

Here’s another story on getting experience…

When I was living in Seattle I met a recent college graduate who had majored in Physics. She wanted to break into the hi-tech industry. IMHO, Physics is a harder academic discipline than Computer Science. Yet, she couldn’t land an interview. So here’s how I helped her land her first job in the industry.

I knew of a Children’s Theater on Mercer Island that needed a marketing database built. So I got the Children’s Theater to get a computer donated from one of their patrons. I called Microsoft and got them to donate the Access Database software. I gave the donated computer and software to my friend and gave her the task of building the marketing database for the non-profit.

She got the experience which she then leveraged to get her first paying job.

Hope this helps!

[Rebecca_Hughes]

Oh wow, that’s awesome! I love how you start so simply, yes this helps!

[Compdude]

1/21/20 - Day 1/21 - 24 Hours completed

Weight loss: 3lbs
Exercise: 2 mile walk

Hopefully, all of you here accomplished your daily goal. For me it’s my daily walk. It was a round trip walk with stops at WalMart (I use their free blood pressure and weight measuring machine) and at the grocery store (bought a can of soup for my refeed).

I’m providing 2 videos today. The first one is dependent on watching yesterday’s David Goggins’ motivational video in yesterday’s post. If you haven’t yet, please go back and watch it as this video won’t make any sense. This video is an example of the type of accountability partner he recommends. This is.a clip from the movie, “Good Will Hunting”.

Prepping for 21 day water fast:
30 days of alternate day fasting. The version of alternating “light” and “heavy” meal days. Light being 2 meals total of around 500 calories. Heavy being 2 meals no calorie restriction. Kept it no reprocessed carbs and no sugar. Kept it within a 4 hour feeding window. Also began 1st thing in the morning when the body is most insulin sensitive. I was primarily working on increasing lower body flexibility, adding lean muscle mass and increasing my aerobic walking capacity. Final 2 days were OMAD.

Day 1:
Start of the 3-day transition period going from sugar to fat burning. Insulin levels don’t start dropping until the last bit of food exits the stomach for the intestinal tract, a process that takes 12 hours. The reason that the minimum IF was 12:12 updated to 13:11 at the beginning of this year.

Only had hunger pangs in the afternoon. Interesting to hear that whisper of “come on have a few walnuts, after all they’re good for you!”
Ignored it.

Because of the long period of practicing A.F. On top of everything I had done before, I hoped that I had transitioned from being “metabolically inflexible” to “metabolically flexible.” In other words, making the transition between sugar to fat burning and vice versa easily. It appears so, because around the 13th hour I began urinating like crazy for about 4 to 5 hours as my body started burning through my glycogen (stored carbohydrate) in my liver and muscles. The glycogen molecule is composed of 3/4ths water and when its used for energy dumps the water, hence the term “water weight”.

So today’s weight loss is all water weight.

Motivation/Inspiration

This is famed Austrian and now U.S. citizen Arnold Schwarnegger as today’s “guest speaker”:

Your assignment, if you choose to accept it, is to write down what YOUR vision is for yourself. In other words, what is your BIG Hairy Assed Goal?

Keep on grinding folks and see you tomorrow!

[Compdude]

1/22/20 - Day 2/21 - 48 Hours completed

Weight loss: 3lbs - Total 6lbs water weight
NOTE: Cool, all the weight I gained from the previous 30-Day Flexibility & Endurance phase was water weight, like I figured as I’m back to 210lbs, my starting weight for that phase.

Exercise: Quad stretch - 1 mile walk - LB Flexibility workout
Energy Level: (Range: Sucks, Good, Totally Excellent)
Misc: Toothbrushing and Tongue Scrapping

Hey you made it to Day 2! Hopefully you all are staying on track.

Day 2:
Slept 7 hours last night. The energy I used for the long walk and for the transition took a lot out of me. Feel much better today. Not urinating as much so now that I’m past 48 hours I’m assuming that my body has exhausted the liver’s glycogen stores and is going after what’s stored in my muscles which I’ve speeded up the process with yesterday’s and today’s exercise.

Started getting that yucky feeling in my mouth, a harbinger of the dreaded Keto Breath so I used the tongue scrapper. Will brush teeth and tongue scrap twice a day to hold that off as long as possible.

Not using supplements for electrolytes yet as I figure I have enough from my last meal until I get through the transition phase.

Exercise Plan:
1/21 - 2 mile walk
1/22 - 1 mile walk & LB Flexibility workout
1/23 - Long walk

Motivation/Inspiration

Hope all of you had a chance to watch the Arnold Schwarzenegger YouTube video because today I’m going to be playing off of it.

If you had sat down and written out your vision of who you want to be that’s GREAT! BUT, its not enough IMHO. In my personal experience, I needed something tangible I could look at and touch. A “totem”.

Oh, I forgot to tell you what my vision was for my last fasting journey was. It was to be “medication free” as I was really sick and overweight. Here is what I did for totems:

Here are all the medications, including my insulin injection pen:

What I did was I kept all my pill bottles right next to my iPad so I would see them everyday. I kept the insulin injection pen with me everywhere I went so if I felt like I was giving up I would touch it to remind me of my vision.

As you choose your totem, keep in mind which of your senses has priority for you. For me, it had to be visual and tactile. For you, it could be hearing a song or for this person she choose to create this fasting blanket with each color representing a completed day in her fasting journey.

So that’s your assignment for today, choose or create a totem for yourself.

Here’s one more GREAT example of a visionary totem by the famous actor, Jim Carrey:

Keep on people, you got this and see you tomorrow!

[Compdude]

1/23/20 - Day 3/21 - 72 Hours completed

Weight loss: 3lbs - Total 9lbs water weight
Exercise: Dynamic calf stretch - 2 mile walk
Energy Level: (Range: Sucks, Good, Totally Excellent)

Mom’s BGL: 134

Congrats on completing Day 3!

Day 3:
You may have noticed the new data item, “Mom’s BGL (Blood Glucose Level)”. I’m helping my 84 y.o. Mom with reversing her T2 diabetes. It’s a challenge but we take it day by day. Happy to report that the 135 was the lowest reading in awhile for her. For those unfamiliar with T2 diabetes, a normal reading is below 100. For myself, my BGL for this morning was 58 as a point of comparison. Yes, I still track my daily BGL and I will continue to do until I see my Primary Physician in June.

Slept 5 1/2 hours last night. Hit with hunger pangs for the 3rd consecutive day each time around late afternoon. However, each day they get fainter. The stretches and Flexibility workout is having an impact on my walking, my stride is lengthening and my aerobic endurance is improving.

At my weekly Toastmasters meeting, I was asked to MC the meeting. I was a little nervous as it had been over 9 years. But, I told little stories playing off of the speakers’ presentations ,and kicking off and ending the meeting. It ween surprisingly well.

Exercise Plan:
1/21 - 2 mile walk
1/22 - 1 mile walk & LB Flexibility workout
1/23 - 2 mile walk
1/24 - Short walk & LB Flexibility workout

Motivation/Inspiration

Today’s guest speaker is the award-winning actor, Denzel Washington:

Specifically I want to talk about “Commitment & Consistency”. The last 3 days we’ve been dwelling on finding that accountability partner, having a future vision of yourself and creating a totem to remind you of that vision.” But it’s NOT ENOUGH.

Scranton University did a study and found that only 8% of people who made New Year’s resolutions completed them. So what do we need to do to make sure we are not one of the 92% of people who fail?

Commitment and consistency. In other words, a “plan”. If you noticed, in the Exercise section you can see a plan I created for myself. The reason is because it makes me daily “commit” and it makes me “consistent”. In other words, it builds a habit. I always take my walk first thing in the morning after I weigh myself and take my daily BGL reading. EVERY SINGLE DAY. Being a Type A personality, I can’t just passively “NOT EAT.” I want to take an active role in accomplishing my personal change and this is my way of doing it. It’s also for medical reasons, walking helps the lymphatic system and more importantly it helps the vascular system adapt to all the fat loss.

So today’s assignment is creating a daily plan for yourself. Because when you start piling commitments on top of each other it strengthens your “commitment and consistency” habit.

Keep on people, you got this and see you tomorrow!

[Bri]

I have book marked specifically your journal, I really love the motivational videos they make a big difference for me!

I think it is good to have a long term vision, but also I think short term plans in the beginning are also important, or maybe its just a difference in personality thing?

I have built in several channels of accountability for my 4:3 challenge this time, but I only wanted to commit to 30 days because 60 for example felt/ still feels too big, although I suspect at the end of the 30 days I will want to keep on going.

I want to build a totem, so far I have been trying to find music that motivates me. I have found one song thus far, its not about weight loss but it is about transformation and coming out from a dark place. Especially these lyrics speak to me.

Stars hide your fires
For these here are my desires
And I won’t give them up to you this time around
And so I’ll be found
With my stake stuck in this ground
Marking the territory of this newly impassioned soul

[Compdude]

Nice. Look forward to seeing what playlist you put together for yourself.

For some odd reason, I’ve been on Avril Lavigne kick lately. I put together 3 playlists on my YouTube channel for whatever mood I’m currently at.

Play it day by day as you have a really stressful job. Look forward to reading your journal entries as you’ve chosen a different way of getting to your goal.

[Compdude]

1/24/20 - Day 4/21 - 96 Hours completed

Weight loss: 1lb - Total 10lbs - (9lbs water - 1lb fat)
Exercise: Quad stretch - 1 mile walk - LB Flexibility workout
Energy Level: (Range: Sucks, Good, Totally Excellent)

Mom’s BGL: Not taken yet

Congrats everyone on completing Day 4!

Day 4:
Finished the transition into Ketosis. I know this because the weight loss has dropped to a single pound. Also my mouth has that yucky feeling and needing less sleep. Down to 5 hours last night. Also no hunger pangs.

Exercise Plan:
1/21 - 2 mile walk
1/22 - 1 mile walk & LB Flexibility workout
1/23 - 2 mile walk
1/24 - 1 mile walk & LB Flexibility workout
1/25 - Long walk

White Tongue and Why You Need to Use Your Tongue Scrapper
NOTE: This was provided by a fellow forum member who got this from Quora

The surface of your tongue has 4 types of eminences or bumps called “papillae” : Filiform, Fungiform, Circumvallate, and Foliate papillae. The most common is the Filiform. They are small and conical in shape. Unlike the other three, Filiform does not have taste buds. Instead, the surface covering (aka epithelium) at the tips are keratinized . This just means that the surface is covered by dead cells with no nuclei and with a protein called keratin . Keratinized epithelia is also found in the skin (most of it actually) and when it sheds off, it is the dust that gathers in every corner in your room (no kidding!). The same goes with the keratin in your tongue, but because it is soaked in your spit and trapped in your mouth, it just gathers on your tongue, and your papillae acts like a brush, trapping it in between the crevices. When you eat, you can say things are dramatic in your mouth, so the food just rubs off the layer when you swallow. But when you decided to lay off food for a while (like in fasting) the keratin just stays there, nowhere to go. So if it is just a thin layer, this is a perfectly normal happening.

Fun fact, if you look at the tip and body of your tongue, you could also see small red dots. No, that is not chicken pox, that is the Fungiform papillae (you can guess the shape by its name)

Now, about the pseudoscience, the traditional Chinese medicine does look at the tongue- its shape and color- to figure out what is going on. So to calm your nerves, use a spoon or a toothbrush and brush the keratin off your tongue. if it turns red again, then you are fine. If it stays white, with or without the keratin, then you probably got a problem (especially if the layer is carpet like thick, that would be a fungal infection).

Motivation/Inspiration

Today’s guest speaker is the award-winning actor, Will Smith:

The reason you need to have a plan is so you can set both a daily goal and an intermediate goal. When I achieved my goal last year of becoming “medication free”, I had set 3 phases: breaking sugar/carb addiction, prepping the body for prolonged water fasts and then prolonged water fasts. Within each phase I had my daily goal and then the phase goal. In other words, having phases and a plan within each phase allowed me to focus each day on laying the “perfect brick” while seeing each brick as one step closer to building that wall.

Bottom-line: It’s all about building the “commitment & consistency” habits that will get us to our goal; BUT, more importantly its about maintaining what we’ve achieved and then reaching higher.

So today’s assignment is what is your “daily brick” and what do you need to do to lay it down “perfectly” each and every day.

Come on folks, you got this and see you tomorrow!

[Rebecca_Hughes]

I can’t believe how emotional it is making me feel seeing all of those empty medicine bottles. What an inspiration to this generation. We live in such a time where we are made to believe getting sick and “old” is the way of life. Not so, obviously. Alipio, I so admire your inner strength. We are so blessed to have you and your determination in this group.

Edit: omg, I wrote this in response to your day 2, somehow it made it’s way to the bottom. Anyway, I am now reading your day 3! Amazing! I love that you are helping your mother with her T2, who is even older! So awesome, my legs are buzzing lol. Good for you guys. Big hugs your way and double high fives!

[Compdude]

@Rebecca_Hughes @Bri @Anna @TanInLan @phree_jay
How do you like the format? A mix of personal, science and motivation/inspiration. If the feedback is good, I might adopt this format for the book.

My goal is to give readers the proper mix of personal narrative, information, motivation and a roadmap that gives them the best chance to succeed at achieving their fasting goals. As a computer guy, its frustrating to me to watch so many people fail. As @Bri knows, as computer folk we try to build systems that try to make the uncommon common.

Look forward to everyone’s feedback! And thanks in advance.

[Anna]

I enjoy reading it! Like you said, mixing both the personal experiences and the progress in numbers creates possibilities for a broader audience, since different people have different interests!

[Compdude]

Thanks for you valued feedback! How goes the academic life?

[Anna]

It’s going pretty well thank you, although it’s stressful like usual when trying to balance it with other things in life at the same time!
But I guess that’s true with most things in life!

[Bri]

Yes I really like your style of writing and I like especially how you’ve been able to circle back to your “why” through a lot of it. Keep up the good work!