Day 5: PM

In an earlier post, I incorrectly implied that that when the body starts to burn fatty acids when stored glycogen is depleted, the brain still needs glucose as 100% of its fuel. The brain is able to adapt to partially fuel itself with ketones which are produced by the liver from the body's fat stores.

Hunger pangs are back again in full force. I'm seriously considering breaking the fast tomorrow. I just don't want to deal with them any more. I'll have to see how I feel about it in the morning.

Breaking a long fast involves eating small quantities of juicy fruit, like watermelon or citrus, every couple of hours during the first day. On the second day, it's more fruit: medium-sized every three hours. On day three, lettuce is added to the mix. On the fourth day, it's back to three meals a day with more vegetables added. Since I'm not doing a long fast (>2 weeks), I will probably be able to introduce various high-water-content foods earlier than were I doing a long fast. To get back to eating a wide variety of foods, my digestive enzymes will need to get back into full production. Since my fast wasn't very long, I'm guessing it shouldn't take more than 4 or 5 days, if that long.

After the fast, my plan is to eat a lot of plant-based, natural foods: vegetables, fruits, whole grains, and seeds/nuts, the latter in small amounts. This shouldn't be too much of a problem because I don't normally eat much meat, poultry, or fish. I was eating skim milk on my cereal in the mornings and an occasional light yogurt, but those are easily expendable. I've not decided if I'm going to add Diet Coke back in or not. Not drinking it means less money spent on it and fewer aluminum cans needing to be recycled. I think the Doritos aren't going anywhere. :-) I'll just need to relegate them to once a week (or less if I can stand it).

The Eat To Live book has some really appetizing, primarily vegetarian recipes in it. It also has example 7-day meal plans that are vegetarian and a 7-day set for non-vegetarian. The plan in the book focuses on eating very nutrient-dense, plant-based, natural foods, e.g. lots of leafy green vegetables, other vegetables, fresh fruits, etc. It definitely doesn't advocate Diet Coke or Doritos, but if I'm going to have a vice or two, they have to be better choices than cheese fries or ice cream.