And So It Begins...

And so it begins…

I’ve been on the intermittent fasting bandwagon since before it was cool and typically rotate between the 16/8 and One Meal a Day (OMAD) timing.  I’ve gone 48 hours without food several times…and 72 hours just a couple of times.  

This year, to ring in 2023, I’m going to start with a 5-day fast.  Sounds pretty crazy to some of you, I know.  To others…the ones who know me personally…you’re probably just smiling and shaking your head.

Why?

Well, there are layers to this.  To be very clear: I’m not doing this to lose weight.  I’m at the stage of my fitness journey where weight is probably the metric that I’m least concerned about, but I will be tracking it over the next 120 hours.

So, why?  Well, remember that year when Covid shut down everything and teachers (like me) had to do our jobs virtually…to black screens and muted mics?  Yeah, that was an absolute soul-sucking time for me BUT during that period, I made a couple of changes to my lifestyle that were pretty significant.  The biggest change…I went vegan.  That's right…no meat…no animal products at all.  It was kind of an impulsive decision…about 1:00 pm on a random Tuesday, I decided to give it a shot; but just for one month.

Well, one month went on to about a year and a half.  Since my vegan experience began as an impulsive n=1 experiment, I decided just last month to reintroduce meat, but just for one month.  

I wont say yet what changes I noticed with the dietary changes.  I’ll save that for a later time.


So, Reason #1 on the “Why Bob” list is that I want a complete 5-day reset of my digestive system.

Like I said though, there are layers to this.  I’m taking the whole “new year, new me” quip and going all the way down to the cellular level.  There’s a powerful process that takes place in our bodies when we go deep enough into a fasted state: autophagy.  Look it up on your own.  I want you to do that because I don’t want anyone taking my word for it; I’m not a doctor after all.  Also, by digging into it a little on your own, I’ll be you get more out of it anyway.  The short of it though is that when in a state of autophagy, your body starts to clean itself out, and we’re not talking about extra time in the restroom.  No, autophagy goes deeper…cleaning up the body at the cellular level.

​So, Reason #2 on the “Why Bob” list is that I want to start 2023 with what I predict will be a stronger everything, but I’m specifically looking for improvement in my immune system.

More superficial layers/reasons include:
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Reason #3-  fighting back against the belief that we need to eat 3 meals (or more) every day.
Reason #4- pure curiosity.  I want to see how a prolonged fast impacts my ability to train, and recover from training.
Reason #5- it’s going to be hard!  I haven’t done this before!

So there you go.  The timer officially started 27 minutes ago.  Just 119 hours and 33 minutes left, but who’s counting?

Check back in throughout the week.  I’ll be posting stats daily as I track:

• Resting heart rate
• Bodyweight
• Ketone level
• Blood glucose
• Bodyfat %
• Blood pressure
• Body H2O %
• Muscle %
• Mental clarity
• Mood
• Sleep Quality
• Exercise regimen and notes

I’m excited about this and hope to learn about myself and how my body works best.  I hope that, in some way, this adventure serves someone else in a positive way.

Be blessed!
~Bob B.

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