Day 1 of Alternate Day Fasting

Today I am starting alternate day fasting. I don't know the first thing about blogging, and this is my first blog ever. I'm writing this mostly for myself so that I can have a record of my experience on an "alternate day fasting" diet.

I am trying this for a couple of reasons. The first is because alternate day fasting has been shown to reduce inflammation. I have several conditions that appear to be inflammation based: migraines, allergies, and back/muscle pain. The diet may also help with cardiac arrhythmia, something that I currently take a beta blocker to prevent. Furthermore, I hope to lose some weight. I'm at about 192 pounds today, and my goal is to get down to 170 pounds.

I made the decision to start on the diet yesterday. Interestingly, I got very hungry yesterday afternoon and evening, possibly because I was thinking about not being able to eat today. I had a couple of passing waves of hunger this morning, but they only lasted about 15 minutes each. In fact, I have so far (it is now noon) not felt any hungrier today then in most days over the past couple of weeks. About three weeks ago I decided to try losing weight by eating slightly smaller meals and not snacking between the three meals I eat. That plan produced plenty of hunger, although it has diminished a bit over the weeks.

So far today I have been able to deal with feelings of hunger by drinking several glasses of water and a cup of coffee. I am not going for zero calories today, but just less than 500. I have one banana and some nuts with me at work. If I had the banana and a quarter cup of nuts, that would already be about 300 calories. So, I am trying to hold off eating anything until 6:00 p.m. tonight. It would be nice to eat a bit with the family at meal time.

OK, I made it until evening just fine! For dinner I had an apple, carrots, and a banana. I figure that come in at about 350 calories. And I'm feeling great. I was very energetic tonight, and even did some shoveling in the yard. Psychologically I also did fine--my wife didn't notice any grouchiness. So at the end of fast day one, I am thinking: "So far, so good." The question is whether this can be sustained for months or years.