Yes it’s a process. Celebrate the win which provides motivation for the next tougher goal. I did a 4, 6 and 7 day before tackling my current 40. Good job!
Sara's Daily Journal
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Day 9
Scale moved again. ;D 94kg today.
I needed the extra motivation boost too, yesterday actually turned out to be a bit rough. I was feeling very faint all day, slighly flushed cheeks again, and my stomach hurt a bit too (I’m pretty sure because I’ve been drinking too much carbonated water)
It was actually so demotivating for me that I was considering breaking the fast early, but I’m glad I have my husband’s support in this. He has been a bit concerned at times, because he obviously isn’t as well read on the topic of fasting as I’ve now become, but since he has seen how good I feel from it he supports me a lot.
I was considering if I should break my fast so that I’m eating on saturday (my hubbie’s birthday) anyway, not for the cake though, because the plan was that we’ll be playing laserdome and I don’t want to risk feeling lightheaded and winded then. But as it is now, my husband’s knees have been acting up again so I’m thinking I’ll just call it off and we’ll play some VR at home instead. If that will become the case I’ll fast during the weekend as well.
Not much more to add today, still feeling pretty good, though slightly faint, but I’m drinking a lot of mineral water (un-carbonated) with himalayan salt, some ACV now and then, so I should probably be fine. 
Happy fasting!
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Day 10
Welp… Broke fast at 3 am this night. 
Yesterday started good as usual, but as it went on I kept getting colder and colder, and feeling really hungry, not just cravings, but real stomach growling hunger. At first I ignored it as just another hurdle to get by, but it kept getting worse, and when I went to bed I had to have double and triple layers of clothing, and two duvets on, and I STILL was freezing.
It kind of freaked me out a little bit. (Also I had some WC related issues I haven’t had before during a fast, but that might be a bit TMI)
So, I decided to break my fast next day, or just see how I felt and maybe continue anyway, but after lying several hours unable to sleep because of the hunger pangs I decided to have some olives and saurkraut.
I think fasting can be a challenge, but it shouldn’t be torture.
Feel both disappointed that I didn’t make it to 14 days after all, but at the same time, my initial goal was actually just to beat my previous record of 182 hours (which I’ve done now, 222 hours) and get to 95kg (also done, 93kg this morning) but I got caught up in the success hype I think, and extrapolated that if I kept going for 14 days I might actually reach 90kg even, and so I changed my goal to that.
But I should feel proud that I lost 7kg this fast, that’s really good. I think it’s easy to lose perspective of how quick the weight loss actually is, if you keep focusing on what you want to accomplish next all the time. The usual recommendations for weight loss with just calorie restriction is usually like 0,5-1kg a week, and here we are losing like 1kg a day!
I’ll have some kefir with nutritional yeast and berries today, and later maybe an avocado, and tomorrow I’ll probably eat some cooked veggies or something. After I’m done refeeding I’ll do keto OMAD full time for a while before settling into the plan of doing keto OMAD during weekdays, optional on weekends.
Oh, also. Here are my after pics.
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That is so great for you! And it’s okay to broke your fast.
You can start a new one soon when you feel better.
In the meantime let’s keep this weight off and not take it back You’ll be fine <3
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Yes celebrate the win! 
Motivation for the next fast.
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You did so well Sara!!! It’s better to be safe than to try and reach an arbitrary goal in fasting. That’s why I’m fasting “to completion” rather than deciding on a certain number that might not correlate with what the body actually wants or needs.
If you have trouble with coldness again, I’ve found a hot Epsom salt bath before bed is amazing for warming the internal temperature, and the magnesium is so relaxing. Having said that, it’s getting into summer here, and I really admire all of you fasting in winter, I’d find that so much harder.
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New fast: Day 0
My new water fast starts tomorrow when I wake up (well, technically it starts NOW, I guess)
I’ve had some really bad days since my last fast, unfortunately. I debated whether to recount what happened or not, but I ultimately decided to go with the attitude that Yasemin conveyed in some of her videos that I watched: the past doesn’t matter, it’s all about failing forward.
So, in the spirit of that I won’t try to justify the circumstances in which things went south, I’ll just celebrate the steps forward I’ve decided on from there.
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I rescheduled my plans for christmas so that I won’t be spending them with my in laws, since I got to experience just the extent of how much they stress me and press all my binge eating triggers, more then probably any other situation. Me and my husband will celebrate christmas separately, which will both lower my odds of over eating, and also I will not be criticized for how I do or do not eat.
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This water fast I want to get below 90kg, which I suspect will take me about 12-14 days if the averages are the same as before. When I’m at 89kg or less, I’ll continue with intermittent fasting and keto, since I’ve noticed I tend to get caught up in my achievements and move the goal posts a lot. Deciding beforehand what my goal is will keep me grounded and not disregard the progress I do make by being distracted by goals further down the line.
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I’ve discovered that I don’t actually enjoy sweets and carbs that much anymore. I still feel I have an addiction problem if I do eat them - I get this stressed feeling of wanting ”more” or something that comes ”next”. Not a feeling of enjoyment, even if I do allow myself something ”guilt-free”. Right now I feel like my addiction is purely the comfy feeling of following a well established habit, not any actual enjoyment of the food. This makes it feel a lot easier to eventually conquer.
My husband will actually be joining me on this water fast too. No idea for how long though, since he’s never gone more than 20 hours without food. His brother was kind of an asshole to me this weekend when word got out about my fasting (his brother is a real gym rat, and he keeps giving out unsolicited advice for us on how to get slim) and since my husband has seen for himself the drastic change in my health and mood since I started water fasting, he’s really motivated by spite towards his brother now, to get slim, healthy and energetic by fasting. ^^
I love my body and I trust it. I know I’m strong, smart, and determined to see my goals through. I have patience with myself and with others. I don’t let setbacks stop me.
Nice recognizing how much family interactions play a role in your efforts at improving health and taking the appropriate steps to address them. Recruiting hubby will definitely improve your chances of success. Good luck to you both!
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Day 1
Yesterday ended up being an OMAD day instead of a water fast, unfortunately. Both me and my hubbie had some stomach problems (no doubt from the food we’ve been having the weekend of his birthday party) Also my husband has a regular issue with migraines and he felt a bit in the danger zone of getting one, so we broke fast and had a homemade keto burger in the evening.
Today I think it might’ve been a good decision anyway. The 20 hours fasting yesterday put us both in ketosis at least, and having a keto meal after that felt like a good transition step into the water fast.
I feel pretty good on the fast like usual, but I do feel a bit frustrated and restless with myself. Only because of the scale having gone up on me again. I feel so angry that I make all this progress and sabotage myself just because someone’s birthday is coming up.
I have a real hard time breaking with food for celebrations, it’s stupid how attached I am to it.
Also, I let some stuff family members said about fasting really get to me. The usual schtick about how I will put all on back again once I start eating, and since I had carbs and sugar this last weekend it sort of made them right after all. It makes me so mad because it’s not like I haven’t read up on stuff before trying this. Obviously it’s a journey where I keep learning new stuff all the time, but it’s not like I dove into this blind. I do know you can’t keep eating like you used to after a fast, if you want to keep the weight off. But since I stumbled I feel like I can’t make any arguments, and that they were just proven right.
I’ve sort of moved on from letting this affect my actions, but as you can see I’m still bothered by it.
I guess because it pokes at a big insecurity I have about myself; that I’m naïve and don’t think things through. I feel like a lot of people around me don’t have very much faith in me, so I want to prove them wrong, but at the same time, even a slight misstep and I feel like “well, I guess they were right all along”.
I have a hard time trusting myself. I often let others decide things about me, and I internalize their feelings into truths.
I know I do this, but I can rise above it.
All success I’ve had in my life has been because of my own decisions, my own intuition and my own capability. No one believed that I would make a living off my drawing skills, but I didn’t need their approval to get where I’m at today, I just needed to focus on what was important to me, not their feelings about it.
I am not predisposed, I decide for myself what I want, and others feelings about my life are none of my business.
For the new year I want to leave my obesity back in the 2010’s, and start the 2020’s with my journey from 80-something kilos to 70-something kilos.
There are no occasions or other distractions that are more important to me than this. I WILL do it this time!
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New start (again)
Been struggling with mental health lately, like a lot. Have made a couple of attempts at fasting during that time but they all fizzled out. Eventually I decided that maybe I need to sort myself out a bit first before going on another serious attempt.
It’s been real tough. Apart from my own struggles, our room mate has had some real unfortunate struggles that affected their mental health as well, and our household has been mostly people walking on egg shells around each other. Not a good place to start new challenges.
So, that’s pretty much what I’ve been doing. I’ve been trying to mitigate my daily stress and just tried to focus on getting work done, try to do things that make me feel happy, and not worry about anything else for now.
I felt so bad for not reporting back the positive attitude and good results as I did the first times I wrote in this journal, and after having a few slip ups I felt like it just became silly to report “Well, I failed again” many times in a row. I almost wanted to not return here at all because I felt ashamed of my own failures.
But one thing that really stuck with me from Yasemin’s videos is that this is a marathon, and past failures don’t mean anything as long as you don’t decide to give up. I’ve heard those ideas communicated so, so many times before, but for whatever reason I feel like they really stuck this time.
Our room mates situation has turned around a lot, so they feel a lot more stable. I myself do to, and I’ve started lately to feel pretty sick of the food I’ve been allowing myself to indulge in, and starting to miss the feeling of a completely calm stomach that I get on fasting, so this is the time to start again.
I have a work trip to go on on the 8th, so my plan is to fast on the weekdays up until then, and eat during the weekends. Once I’m on the trip I’ll either eat keto or continue the fast if I can. I’ll do what makes me feel less stressed about it.
Phew. I feel a bit better after getting this off my chest somewhere actually.
100kg currently, looking forward to seeing those 2-digit numbers once again.
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You are approaching in the right way. Eliminate as many obstacles upfront as possible before starting your next fast, since fasting by its nature is stressful. I did a 14-day Potato Diet, boiled potatoes and water only, to get rid of my carb/sugar addictions before starting Intermittent Fasting.
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Second day
Not sleeping that well currently. I’m on a long streak of either broken nights sleep or not being able to go to sleep until extremely late. Hope to get my weighted blanket back from my room mate, but I’ve felt so bad for them that I don’t want to have that discussion. It’s stupid, but I feel like my anxiety is more at bay by not adressing it, even with my sleep issues.
Other than that, I do feel better now. It feels very empowering to know I’ve already fasted 40 hours, and it has not been a struggle whatsoever.
My stomach has been hurting some days before the fast, and yesterday there was an actual turning point, so that’s a relief.
Scale pointed somewhere between 99 and 98kg today, that’s nice. It feels great to take my walks again too, it’s really scary how quickly a well established habit can be completely undone. Not long ago I always took 2 walks a day and sometimes 3, then was a period where I skipped some and it quickly turned to not doing any walks for some time. Now I’m doing at least 1 walk again. I want to get to 2 again, but not pressing it.
Yesterday I made a good deal on a Zbrush course I’ve been wanting for a long while, so I feel excited to try that out, and it’ll be a good thing to keep me occupied with to not focus so much on food or weightloss.
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Third day
Slept pretty well tonight and woke up more energetic than I’ve been in a long while. Stomach ache is a lot better too, though not completely gone yet. Had an early morning walk, hope to take another at lunch or after work.
Scale said 97kg today, another kilo dropped. Not sure if I should break fast saturday noon (as I’d planned) or if it’s better to have an extra day of refeed before the weekend? Fast 3 days, refeed 3 days seems a bit over cautious maybe…
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Always play on the cautious side while you build experience with this stuff. It pays off later.
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Welp!
Broke my fast yesterday. No real reason besides I felt like it. It felt like a good thing to do somehow. Maybe my body is telling me to stick with shorter fasts right now, since there’s been a lot of stress to go around lately.
Scale said 97kg today, and I just feel great to be in the double digits. Right now I feel fine with a slow weight loss honestly, as long as the scale doesn’t go up it’s fine.
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Last fast before work trip
I feel like my last fast went pretty well. I didn’t feel fatigued and I lost 4kg which I kept off until this morning where I’ve gained 1kg back, which is really good results in my opinion, especially since I haven’t followed a strict diet either.
Obviously I want to eat well, but more than that I want to not struggle with food. Eating healthy but constantly thinking about food has been to me almost as unhealthy as eating unhealthy but not worrying about it. I want the balance where I don’t worry so much about it, but I still end up eating mostly healthy anyway. I feel like that has already changed a lot these past couple of weeks. I don’t have such intense cravings anymore, the trip ups I get now are almost always from the social aspect of eating.
I’m going on a work trip this sunday until wednesday next week. I know at least one of those nights I’ll be eating with my colleagues, a sort of early christmas party, so I’m not going to water fast when I’m away, but I’l thinking of doing OMAD at least. The hotel breakfast is hard for me to resist, but I’m afraid that if I go to the buffet thinking I’ll make it keto and only have scrambled eggs and bacon, I might end up adding other delicious things as well and regret it later… Or maybe I should just practice trusting myself more, I dunno…
Anyway, I’m doing a short water fast this week, not sure exactly when I’ll break, but I will have the weekend to refeed at least. The scale says 98kg today and it would be awesome to be back at (or below) 95kg before going. That’s my latest milestone I reached, so it would make me feel like I’m really back on track again.
If I could get to, or below, 95kg by new years I’d still feel very accomplished. Considering I’ve gone from 110kg less than three months ago, that’s a great accomplishment.
I’ve also raised the bar a bit for where I want my goal weight to be, from 72kg to 80kg. When I chose 72kg I went on BMI, and 72kg was the highest weight where I would still have a healthy BMI, but honestly I can’t remember what it even feels like to weigh below 80kg, so I’m setting 80kg as the new goal. Once I reach it I’ll know how I feel and probably be in a position to set a new better goal by then.
So, considering all this, if the fast this week goes the way I hope, I might reach my halfway mark before the new year.
For 2020 I want to start exercising a lot more and perhaps do more ADF or OMAD instead of extended water fasts.
Oh well, back to work now. Felt good to put these thoughts somewhere. ^^
I recognise myself a lot in your posts, it’s mostly a mental struggle and it’s so hard to determine which voice that is destructive and just want some instant dopamine and the one who is the one who made you want to fast in the first place.
I read the book Brain over Binge about a year ago, and that book helped me understand how the brain works in terms of our natural instincts to find dopamine substances, since that means a good chance of survival. The writer has a podcast too if you’re interested. It’s still a struggle for me, but it can help a little bit in my weakest moments!
Wish you all the best!
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Hello Anna, can I get please get the name of the podcast you mention on your previous post?
It’s called “Brain over binge podcast” 
If you google it she has a website where she publish the episodes!
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