So happy for you, a week in!! 
I’m really glad you’re listening to both your body and mind, to take charge of what doesn’t feel right in your life, huge step!
Veronica's Journal
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Thank you so much for the encouragements, I really appreciate it. You have been a great help for me since I’ve started this journey. Your advice regarding my “Why” has been pivotal. I also enjoy reading your blog and checking in with you.
Thank you Anna! It’s a milestone for me and I really appreciate your message! This is really a unique experience and I’m grateful for you, for inspiring me along the way.
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That’s very sweet! I get inspired by everyone in this community too!
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Your welcome. It’s feedback from forum members like you which is giving me guidance on the book I’m writing on the treatment protocol for reversing T2 diabetes and other metabolic diseases in conjunction with a Assistant Clinical Professor at USC’s Medical School so my experience can provide a “roadmap” for others.
That is outstanding!!! What an amazing project!!! Your book will benefit so many people. Bless you!
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Day 11 complete of my 15 days water fast goal
- Weight this morning: 180.8 lbs
- Weight lost: 15.2 lbs
- Goal weight: 176 lbs
I’ve been MIA for a few days. I’ve been very cold and felling closed off. But I remain positive! Yesterday I had brunch with my dad and just as I anticipated, he didn’t even raise an eyebrow when I just ordered a black tea at the restaurant. He still asked me if I was okay and I said ‘‘I’m fine I’m just not hungry and I now follow my appetite’’. It helped that his girfriend wasn’t there, because she’s always making a fuss over food. She’s been a little pain since I’ve started keto. She’s a nurse and she always claims that it’s not healthy if we ‘‘suppress’’ a food group. Could I try to educate her? Yes, I’ve tried a few times. But it’s just not worth the effort at this point. I accept her as she is and I try to tip toe around anything food related.
I’ve been reading a lot about refeeding… and I’m reconsidering my goal. I can’t possibly refeed in a single day and have a Xmas dinner at night. So I’ve decided to give myself 3 days of refeed before the XMas dinner day. I really did my homeworks. I must therefore revise my goal and I will do a 15 days fast instead of 19. I’ve decided to keep my goal weight of 176! It’s ambitous but very motivating!
Today I went shopping at a organic market to buy all the organic broths and dried mushrooms that I will incorporate in my refeed. You really have to be cautious when breaking a prolongued fast. I can’t believe I was headed in such a unhealthy direction! Thank you @Anna and @Compdude for making it click for me. I really hope I’m not going to trigger anybody but I feel like sharing my refeed plan.
Day 1 : Organic vegetable broth in the AM, organic vegetable broth with dried mushroom in the PM
Day 2 : Bone broth, fermented vegetables (olives, pickles, mushrooms), avocado
Day 3 : Bone broth, fermented vegetables, avocado, cheese
Day 4 : 35% cream in my coffee, egg, macadamia nuts… then the Xmas dinner
Does anybody know if I can reintroduce 35% cream in my coffee sooner? I welcome any comments on this plan, since it’s still at the ideation stage.
I started my very first bone broth this evening. It’s in the crockpot for 24 hours. It feels so good to cook with love for my ‘‘future’’ self in a few days. It’s a way for me to take care of myself and pay hommage to this journey I’m on.
On a more personnal note, my friend gave me his therapist contact information and I will contact her. It’s been rocky in my relationship over the weekend and I’ve cried a little bit. On the flip side it’s so powerful to experience troubling emotions like that and not turn to food.
Now I’m off to catch up on all of you marvelous people. Even if I wasn’t writing, I could feel the strenght that this community brings.
All my love to you all! 
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Sounds like you are on top of everything. 
the adjustment you made to your fast to insure sufficient ReFeed time leading up to Xmas dinner. Look forward to 
more!
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I’m glad you’re doing well! And the adjustment sound like a really good plan! 
I know it can be really difficult when others get involved in your own decisions considering food choices, and I’m not very good at dealing with that myself, since I’m very agreeable and don’t want to offend or make someone uncomfortable. And I’m guessing you’re quite similar to me, based on your post. One thing that I’ve done is to just respond with how good I’ve felt since eating the way I do, and that if I ever feel like it’s not working anymore, I’ll adjust it back! I feel like it can bring the other person comfort sometimes. Another thing I’ve done is to have some check ups at the health centre, which shows that I’m healthy, and people can’t really question those results!
Good luck! 
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That is very sound advice, thank you so much! I really like your approach, it’s very respectful. And yes, you’ve guessed it, I’m someone that is, like you said, very agreeable and very peace oriented. I will definately look into having my health checked! Thank you SO MUCH!!!
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Day 12 complete of my 15 days water fast goal
- Weight this morning: 180.7 lbs
- Weight lost: 15.3 lbs
- Goal weight: 176 lbs
Well the scale almost didn’t move since yesterday, it looks a little too ambitious for me to achieve my goal weight at the end of my fast in 3 days. But i’ts okay. I finished preparing my bone broth today and it looks very good. I’m so ever cold, always, all of the time. I got pretty used to it! In two days, I have this big projet lunch meeting that I’m dreading. The project manager ordered all of us some ‘‘lunch boxes’’ and tens of people are going to eat around a huge corporate table. It’s stressing me out but I know I can do it. I was able to attend a supper at my friends’ house, brunch at a restaurant with my dad… of course I can do it. I’m just going to say I’m not hungry at the moment, which will be the absolute truth (it’s so hard for me to lie). I’m not worried about being tempted by the food, I’m worried about people judging me. Yeah we can say ‘‘it’s on them, it tells more about them than you’’ but the truth is, in the corporate environment in which I work, image is e-v-e-r-y-t-h-i-n-g and we have a lot of people back stabbing and commenting on the smallest things like gossiping on pointless stuff. Often they will judge people on the type of food they bring to lunch. Yah. I know. I’m a black sheep in this little flock of probably unfullfilled people. Why do I stay there? Well my dears, I’m thriving, believe it or not, lol. My playground is much more vast than this little flock of sheeps. I have lots to achieve there! So yes, we can say that I’m on a mission.
On another note, I’m till struggling with acid reflux, but it’s not constant and I make peace with it. Oh yes and one funny thing I’ve recently noticed is that I get startled so easily! In the subway, the grocery, at work, well, anywhere quite frankly! I wonder if other people have this happen to them as well!
Now I will go take a warm bath with a bath bomb (perpermint candy) and catch up on all of you sweet people.
All the best in the world! 
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LOL. I completely understand that “type” of corporate environment. I spent 2 years and 2 months working at Paramount Pictures in Hollywood, CA. Luckily I had a mentor in my primary customer, a VP of International Television Sales Syndication. He taught me everything I know about playing power politics. I got so good I got the CEO to get my project manager to stop micro managing me and I left no fingerprints. One day, soon after, I didn’t like who I was turning into and left corporate I.T. Forever. 2 years later I moved to Seattle and got into software engineering.
Oh wow it must’ve been great to have a mentor to teach you the tricks of the trade! Thank you for sharing, I feel understood! It must have been quite an experience at this big corporate business! I work in a financial institution, the biggest in the province of Québec, around 45K employees total. I’m starting to get better at influencing and on the political chess board. I’m an agile expert leader so part of my mission is exactly that, to convince leaders that there are other ways besides micro managing. It’s not easy, it’s like going to the trenches everyday. Sometimes I think about that time when I will lose the sacred fire, and I will definitely leave before that happens. How did you know it was time for you to call it quits?
I’m an introvert by nature. Nothing makes me more happier than when I’m left alone to analyze a problem, design a solution, implement it and then be recognized and rewarded for it.
At my 2nd annual review I was praised and lauded for the work I did that provided critical information to Paramount Pictures in designing their 5-year sales strategy for after the European Union became a reality. It was the starting point for me to eventually realize I needed to quit working for I.T. departments forever. Hang in there as I have to provide the backstory for it to make sense.
At the time the prevalent fear among all the major studios was with the upcoming establishment of the E.U. All the member countries would buy or syndicate more from their own native filmmaking companies. So the rush was on to find every television show, movie and movie-of-the-week in their vast libraries that hadn’t yet been syndicated and sell it. I knew the E.U. Would be an issue a year ahead and started working on it in bits and pieces. When it was time I activated the new add on module which allowed the International Sales VP to tell me which foreign market he needed info on and I could provide a report that listed all products available to be syndicated for that market the next day. Back then all data was on an IBM mainframe computer that took up an entire refrigerated room and all programming was done typing in code as Windows and graphic interfaces were still in their infancy. I had major leverage because I was the only one in the entire IT department that knew all the complicated rules that governed each foreign market. For example, for the German language market you syndicate to only one company that handles the translation and who then distributes the translated version to every German language market worldwide. Very different from U.S. where the syndication rules are the same for every television market.
Anyway for all my efforts I was awarded the same shitty 3% annual raise every employee got that year. I learned a tough lesson about the difference between being regarded as “overhead” and being seen as a direct contributor to the bottom line.
That’s because in my previous 2 jobs, one was an entertainment technology startup I persuaded during the interview to give me a promotion in title and 16% raise to entice me to leave my then current job which was with one of the largest industrial engineering companies in the world (they built oil fields and airports in the Middle East) and where I had just received recognition with a Department Employee of the Year award that came with compensation of a 13.5% raise while everyone else got the standard company wide 4%.
When I broke into the software engineering industry, the 1st software company I worked for in Seattle was in telecommunications (we created voicemail products). I rose from being a simple audio engineer to being the “acting” project manager in 5 months. I was recognized for “saving” a $500k project for Bell Canada. I was rewarded with a $18k raise and a 5k bonus. I turned down a promotion as I was happy going back to development.
So the risk I took in leaving an I.T. Career with 8 years experience for a possible career in Software Engineering paid off.
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Even if you won’t reach your goal weight right away, the journey you’ve done in these last two weeks are worth more than the number on the scale! You proved to yourself that you’re in charge and practiced your discipline! That’s something to be very proud of!
You’ll get to your goal, one day at a time, wether it’s a fasting or an eating day
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Thank you for your encouragements, it gives me strength! Your message is a blessing and I will come back to in times of need. 
You are absolutely right. I will get there and I’m very proud of what I have accomplished.
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I feel enlightened by reading your story, thank you for sharing it with me. Your journey is amazing and impressive!!!
I understand crystal clear and I applaud you for making that jump. It really resonated with me when you talked about seeing you as overhead instead of as someone contributing to the bottom line. This is often the root of so many problems in the corporate world. I sometimes say that my work is about humanizing the workplace.
Reading your story is making ponder on so many aspects. Thank you!
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Thank you. I’m just passing on what I’ve learned. I got to where I am today from mentors and teachers who were kind enough to lend a helping hand when I needed it.
There’s that old Buddhist saying, “When the student is ready, the teacher appears.” I found that so true in my life so far.
How are you doing? Looking forward to reading your latest post.
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This is so sweet to ask about me 
! Today wasn’t that great but I’m staying strong. I will update my journal tomorrow morning.
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