#Lowcarb | MY PLACE - POETRY , AFFIRMATIONS & MORE

Extended Fasting & Keto Sept – Oct- Updates

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So last time I checked in I had written about my journey from my typical Low Carb Keto lifestyle, which I have been “more or less” practicing for over 3+ years to my recent decision to kick it up a notch and add in a new practice, something known to the fasting community as Extended Fasting.

When I first read about extended fasting what I first thought was this is “a means to an end” and a diet challenge/add on, not necessarily a lifestyle or something to do more than once if you did not need to do it, you know a quit lose 3-4 lbs kinda thing, but I was wrong.

The information and details I have found out since I began my research on fasting has proven to me there is so much more to this fasting thing than just a one off try it challenge. Fasting is not only an age old practice (which of course I knew about the religious practices of fasting) but what I didn’t know much about was how trendy and very scientific the practice had become in the health and fitness community. There is so much information about this “lifestyle” that I am astounded with the information I have learned from a health perspective and how it can help with so many other ways to improve health, not to mention to anti-aging properties!!

I HAVE FINALLY HIT DA JACKPOT! or so I told myself.

It turns out many people use extended fasting in combination with various diets such as keto and low carb to further increase results in their weight loss journey and to break stalls and plateaus, but the practice of fasting goes much deeper than how much fat you may wish to lose, there are so many health benefits I am shocked, who knew!

As someone who loves a challenge I wanted to see if I could in fact go 42 hrs without food, and of course to do it for three cycles in a week, so Fasting essentially from Sunday at 7pm-till Tuesday at 1pm, then Tues at 7pm- till Thurs at 1pm and lastly Thurs from 7pm to Sat at 1pm, whoo….I think I can, I think I can!

Yeh it seemed like a crazy plan and not eating has always been such a taboo even for those like me who are regular dieters, but I wanted to see how I felt and what kind of results would be offered on the almighty scale for my once a month weigh in after a full month of weekly fasts.

SCALE ADDICTION UPDATE: I am still happy to say I am managing not to hop off & on the scale as I have done all my life and have kept with the challenge of a once a month weight in, so far so good).

As posted previously, that first extended fast was at the end of my August keto challenge and for the first time in months I saw the scale drop by 8.4lbs ( WOWZERS).

At that point, more than a month ago, it was hard for me to know if I had just followed my diet in such a way that I was finally seeing a change or if it was because of the fasting, so I decided to FAST ON.

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And to continue on with finding out the true knowing of my weight loss for August I again continued the same 3 x 42hr fast each week for the full month of September.

Hopping on the scales at the beginning of September was exciting as I could tell my clothes were getting looser and yup, more weight lose was definitely in my future. I really didn’t care if it was 1lb or 3lbs, however it turned out to be another

8.7lbs loss and I was astounded!! YAZOOOOOO~~~

So in total over 8 weeks that was

17.1 lbs loss….yeahhhhhhhhh..yahooooooooo...yipppeeeeee.

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So to answer that question does extended fasting work, YES, can you keep doing it and feel good, YES, YES!!

Needless to say I have decided to continue on my fasting journey in October and have also continued to add in other goals as well, such as taking the stairs every Mon Wed & Friday at work in Sept to now increasing the stairs to every day since last week, so thats 3-4 flights of stairs depending on the parking level I get at work, and yeah its hard…ugh..I don like it….but IM doing IT!

Also about a month or so I began to practice yoga on Mondays and also added in 60 squats 3 x a week due to the deflating of my ass which is concerning to my guy..lol.. I lift low weights (5.5lb each) at least 3 times a week to increase muscle mass and to hopefully tone up those bingo wings and also to assist with autophagy (a new special word and process I have also learned about recently) which I intend on accessing more often.

In truth I cant believe how much energy I have while fasting and TRUST ME I FEEL AMAZING, most of the time, although I do get “h-angry“ at least once or twice a week 😦 , but I am trying hard not to focus on that, good luck to my family though…hehe :).

I believe in myself and I will see my goal weight in the next 6months or less…THIS IS A FACT!

Story to be continued;

Written by Corrina Leblond

Images By : https://www.t-nation.com/system/publishing/articles/ &

Keto Challenge- August- Sept

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Through my recent journeys and numerous Keto re-starts of my “lazy keto lifestyle”, it had become insanely obvious that I was stuck and stalled for a ridiculous amount of time. I thought I tried many variations of my fairly new keto lifestyle and I could not figure out why my scale was not staying down. Each week I watched in frustration as the same weekly 3-4 lbs of weight fell off only to find its way back again over and over. It seemed my tried and true method was no longer giving me results and I was about to lose my marbles.

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I knew the many times over the past year since I plateaued I had not been faithful to myself or to my keto or low carb diet & lifestyle. I began to not pay as much attention to what went in my mouth and stopped tracking my macros allowing my new habits to slip to a mere afterthought.

I also began having regular weekly cheat (High Carb) meals which I looked forward too as I knew in my mind that within a couple days of low carb eating I would be back on track. Each week, as I clearly predicted, the scale balanced as long as I followed a couple strict low carb days before my weekend hit; and then I would do the same thing all over again. I lied to myself that I was trying really hard (especially through May-July when I hunkered down with an occasional one meal a day and several 18:6 fasts. Looking back I can now see “the tried really hard part” was not necessarily true. What I could see is that my weight had more or less stabilized and did not want to budge , seemingly comfortable with my lifestyle. My body had adjusted to a new set weight which was in no way ideal for me as I had not reached my goal weight. I knew something had changed from when I started a low carb lifestyle when 3lbs would literally fall off my body every week. I tried so hard to get back on the band wagon of loss however defeat faced me each day when I stepped on the cruel reality of my bathroom scale. The frustration I faced after strictly following three weeks of strict keto and Intermediate fasting (daily 18:6 & the few 24hr fasts) was truly getting me into a rut and the fear that I could not , would not lose anymore weight, which truly haunted me. I really didn’t know what was happening as I staggered around hungry, confused and bewildered!!!

I knew I had to do something different from the Keto & Intermediate fasting diet I had been doing but to me this lifestyle had been the only lifestyle that resulted in weight loss and maintenance, so my bigger fear was that there was NOTHING else! All along I kept telling myself “I got this, it will happen”, yet it didn’t, nothing happened except despair! I watched week after week the scale going up – down, up – down. Was there really anything else I could do, had the keto magic disappeared? How was this possible?

So I thought let me go back to the beginning before I learned the bad habits I developed since I began keto and started back with the basics. I ran over to the local book store Chapters and invested in myself and bought Dr Fung’s initial book “The Obesity Code”. Had it not been for an article promoting Dr. Fungs book more than 2 years ago I may never has heard or known about the low carb lifestyle which eventually led me down the road to my weight loss. for the past 2.5 years I had been following many low carb , keto websites and blogs however never read the book. I’ve sworn myself to at least starting to read the book for if not for Dr. Fung, these amazing, significant changes to my life would never had occurred.

I still remember that first day when I learned that there is another way to eat. The news came in the form of a newspaper article I read stated ” Toronto Doctor finds cure for Obesity”. Being skeptical and having tried “everything else” I though I would read on and learn more. That article led me to many other links about this lifestyle/diet and then to the excitement that I could in fact be referred to the Doctor who wrote the article, Dr. Fung , for weight loss, wow!

I found and began to follow the guidelines of low carb diet and excitedly pursued a referral to Dr. Fung’s clinic in Toronto, eventually meeting Dr. Fungs Dietary Clinician, Megan Ramos. I was so ready to get started yet the to Dr. Fung took approx. 6-8mths or so and I had decided to begin the low carb diet with what information I could find online as I did not want to wait to begin my journey. Eventually I met with Megan at Dr. Fungs clinic and Megan gave me the bones of what the clinic could do for me and an outline of the low carb/keto / Fasting lifestyle which she advised would definitely benefit me. Part of the plan was weekly support group sorta meetings which I opted out of as I wanted to continue trying on my own as my work hours made the clinic group meetings difficult for me to attend. Armed with additional information, support and bounties of enthusiasm I began my journey.

After deciding to buy Dr. Fungs book I had a perfectly timed pop up on Facebook about a Fan Group for Dr. Fung. When I joined this group I then learned the group is actually a group to support those who follow the a fasting lifestyle and that’s when I realized where my path needed to go. Until this point I had practiced extended fasting once for 96hrs which did not end pleasantly, however I was willing to give it a try.

Having practiced lazy keto and intermediate fasting many times I didn’t realize at the start that this group would have such a powerful effect on my journey. One of the first posts I read was about a 42 hour fasting challenge whereas you fasted from 7pm Sunday till – 1pm Tuesday’s. I really wanted to end my August with something special as I knew I had been doing ok however I also felt not much has changed so I decided my last week of August would be 3 x 42 hr fasts. Once again I jumped in with both feet and decided to kick it up a notch and started my first ever 42hr fast which terrified me, the hunger, yikes!!

So feeling scared, excited and hopeful I weighed in on August 31st after my one week of 3 x 42 hr fasts and a fair effort of staying in keto all month and taaa daaaaa…I had drop of 8.4lbs since the beginning of the month, or I should say since the beginning of this year!!!

WOOT WOOT WOW! My first weight loss in 10mths!! I finally broke my plateau, I was so happy!

This month, Sept, I decided I’d do it again, except this time I committed myself to the full month of September, 3 x 42hr fasts week after week, no weigh ins and also to increase my exercise by adding in strength training and 4-5 flights of stairs at work every Mon, Wed & Friday.

With this being my last week of the month I cant wait to see where my scale finds me on Friday this week.

I began taking pictures since week 1 and I can definitely see changes, so I am very excited to see where I am in numbers. Id love to see an 8lbs loss again, but 5lbs will made me very happy! Cross your toes for me!

Written by : Corrina Leblond

Images by : https://www.cartnstock.com; https://www.amazon.ca/Complete-Guide-Fasting-Intermittent-Alternate-Day/dp/1628600012