Today I started again with my mother. She said, "Have you ever seen anyone sitting around talking to themselves?" OK, maybe. For these people there are blogs.
"What is the most dangerous thing about fasting?" I asked her. Some will say you could faint and knock your head off in a fall. She said, "Starvation!" I said that you probably won't starve but you could die of other problems. What I had in mind was electrolyte imbalance. "Do you know why I have fasted?" I asked her. "Uhhhh." What is the reason? Because it's fun to alarm your mother.
I have fasted because of leg pain. It usually feels better in a day or two, but not all better. Why? I don't know. Autophagy and then new stem cells which fix everything. A doctor actually recommended that I fast for thirty days about ten years ago. I didn't get to thirty days, but I did try. I hadn't realized you could safely stop eating for that long. I was extremely pleased with the improvements.
The problem is that fasting is uncharted territory and you're sailing away alone. How long would it take to fix anything? No one even knows when autophagy in humans starts. The main question is when to stop. I have been startled to read stories about people who have killed themselves accidentally after reading books about how it's entirely possible to live on air alone, not only not eating, but not drinking. It's in the Bible! Moses went to Mt. Sinai and didn't eat or drink for 40 days. I saw on a Youtube channel a video by a man on his intention to stop eating or drinking for 10 days. That was the last post.
So the only indication that the fast should end is when strange things start to happen to your body. And especially when you ignore strange things and the volume ramps up. Mostly the strangeness is feeling horrible. Things like insomnia, feeling weak. That's just for starters. Next your head feels like it's full of ice cubes and you're wobbling when you walk. After that what I could only describe as freefall. I don't think it's a good thing to ignore. But what is going on?
Someone did a Youtube video about "the Carnivore Diet." It was fantastic! I had tried the Carnivore Diet and quit after a while because of ice cubes in my brain and wobbly walking, and I posted a comment to the video about it. I thought there might be a comment about that remark about how crazy that was. I was truly surprised when someone answered me and said, "Helene, your problem is an electrolyte imbalance. You need sodium, potassium, and magnesium. Maybe iron." I decided to try it and took a half a tsp of each, and an iron supplement. I did this twice a day. Wow. Magic.
So the electrolyte imbalance is critical to address on a fast or diet. There is one man that calls himself "The Fasting Fatman," who fasted for 150 recently. He was under medical supervision and told people not to do this without taking electrolytes "or you will die." Well, that was a little strong. But I think that is likely to be what is the most dangerous thing about fasting - electrolyte imbalance.
I suppose the place I arrived at on this fast is past the place I've gone from other fasts. This is Week 13. Forty six days of actual fasting since the end of June. I thought this was going to go on for six months which would be 26 weeks.
Yesterday was a fast day. This morning, after not eating yesterday, my fasting blood glucose was 110. Usually it's about 95. I truly truly believed that my metabolism was going to do better than it's been doing after an aggressive fast. But worse? Still, while my numbers are going the wrong direction, I don't think the doctor would be concerned. Yet.
Is the fast over? A voice whispers in one ear, "You need more stem cells! You were going to go on fasting four days a week until you were healed!" In the other ear a voice tells me, "This is too dicey! You can try again later." This is confusing.
I think I'll probably just do around 700 calories a day instead of fasting. Maybe back to the shiratake noodles. Those are good.
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