Day 11 - The Old Switcheroo

The decision was taken last night, that is I took the decision, to break my fast, I stated at the outset I wasn't going to be dogmatic about it or do anything that I felt my jeopardise my long term health and I was starting to feel downright unwell. Certain aspects I was happy to deal with, the dizzy spells for instance a result of lower BP and slower metabolism, simple, you get dizzy you sit down, wait a spell and then get up again but slowly and try not to overdo it.

Things like the muscle cramps and palpitations I was less happy about, they might have been psychosomatic but why take the risk, I can try another long term water fast whenever I like but if I make a complete hash of this one then maybe I can't!

So, yesterday evening some fruit (tangerines and blueberries), some various salad and later some starch in the form of potato and a little white fish was eater, ok I did have a small chunk of dark chocolate too, letting the flavour dissolve in all of it's bitter glory across my tongue!

As I broke the fast I decided that I will see out the remainder of the 40 days using ADF, Alternate Day Fasting, so I will continue to eat through Friday (day 12) and Saturday will be fast and so on which will give me a total fasting day count of 25 or 26 out of 40 days, obviously there won't be any of effects I was hoping to observe from a the prolonged fast and unless I eschew carbs on my eating days I am unlikely to see ketosis again but it will still be interesting to see what the effects are on my blood markers compared to the start.

Being honest I am very disappointed that I "failed" to make 40 days, with all I have read it doesn't seem such an impossible target, but you have to listen to your body and make reasoned and reasonable decisions on the basis of what you hear.

When I undertook the 21 day fast last year I was in the position of never really having fasted before, so maybe my nutrient reserves were higher, coming in to this fast I had been drawing on those reserves every week as part of my 5:2 regime and of course whatever toll the marathon and it's implicit training had taken. Even as I write that it sounds to me that I am finding/making excuses for my failure, but perhaps that is the nature of the beast within!

Weight post feed
186.6lb