The FastDay Forum

Lots of people here today, which is good news, especially with the temptations abounding this time of years. But I'm sad to see several of you dealing with stressful life-situations.

I kept busy all day doing end of the month business stuff. That really helps the time pass.

In a few hours I'll be having half a turkey sandwich for dinner and some hot butternut squash soup with greenbeans mixed in. We bought far too many green beans for the Feast that Wasn't Quite. And tomorrow the rest of Mr. Turkey goes into the freezer. Lots more white meat turkey for future fast days.

I over did it a bit and am at 560 even though I was supposed to be aiming for 400 ish. I'll get it right one day!

@Milly107, I'm assuming that 560 calories is still substantially and usefully lower than your usual intake

My day has been fine appetite-wise despite my evil mood I suppose the positive to take away from this is that I know that eating something doesn't improve my mood, so I don't deceive myself that it would and I'm not prompted to eat by my low emotions. It's not that I'm battling an urge to eat something, I'm celebrating that (so far) I don't have the urge to try the emotional eating gambit.

It is @SSure but I'm trying to have a larger gap between the feeding and the fasting to hopefully move the scales. I think my numbers have been too close together and I haven't shifted anything yet. Its a theory anyway. Glad to hear the evils haven't spiked your day!

Thank you all for your lovely, kind messages. This forum is so unique in it's support of one-another, I genuinely feel touched by your sweet words!
Thank you!

I did a low cal day of 700 cals as I am still not fighting fit. But glad I manged that.

My fast went fine until I got home from work. I intended to not eat (do a 36 hr water fast as I was not desperately hungry) but DH had cooked a lovely meal so I did have some food - probably 700 kcals? I could have left the food to eat it cold tomorrow but it seemed such a shame. DH is going away tomorrow for three days so I am planning on fasting again when he is not here - Wednesday would be the best day.

A month ago I had to abandon a fast due to severe hunger but ever since I have not really suffered a great deal from hunger - not like I used to. Is fasting something you can get used to or have I just been lucky in the last couple of weeks? Time will tell.

I fasted yesterday (Monday). I was home most of the day sleeping. I didn't really feel sick, just very very tired. I slept all day and all night, except for the couple of hours I had to run into work in a panic because I was supposed to be teaching a lab! My very capable assistants took over and sent me home. I think I was just overtired from baking all day Saturday and then working at the bake sale/bazaar on Sunday.

@leramul, I'm sure somewhere in the science area of the forum, there are articles about adjusting to fasting.

I have found most of the time now I am able to tell the difference between stomach hunger & head hunger, but it took a long time & I have noticed if I have refined carbs before a fast day, I'm a lot hungrier than usual.

That's another thing I love about this Way of Eating, you make a mistake or try something different, you can learn about yourself & what works for your own body.
Enjoy each day. I would definitely change fast days if my husband cooked dinner

A Jamie Oliver tip from 'save with Jamie' on freezing cooked turkey ( or any cooked leftover meat ) @peebles,
Buy some larger sized plastic zip lock bags. Put cooked chopped turkey into bags, squeeze out air and put on a large flat tray or plastic lid andand flash freeze till hard. Then you can place these frozen skinny bags vertically into the side of your freezer. He also does this with leftover cooked rice,home made Napolitano sauce, cooked leftover roast meat like lamb, chicken beef, he says to squirt a few tablespoons of any sauce you like onto the meat ( like BBQ sauce, sweet chilli sauce, oyster sauce, kekap manis) mix around with your hands, pop into bag and flash freeze. Use these for another meal another day i.e. tortillas, fried rice etc
Xxx julianna

Light day today. Feeling ambivalent; today was my first day "unemployed." Too much to go into, but the short version is in Nov 2012 they closed our Seattle office and expected us to commute to Olympia (would have turned my 9 mile bus ride into 70 miles ONE WAY). I refused to do this, and they decided to "allow" me to work from home...for as long as it benefited them. The first replacement didn't work out and they asked me back after 3 months. Back for 14 months this time... The new person seems competent, so I assume this is it (worked there since May 1997).

Can't decide if I'm upset or happy to be headed down a new path. Plus, I've been having a major eczema outbreak--stress, I suppose--and my skin is really itchy and irritated, and my wrist is red and inflamed (with a few cracks). So, not having a fun time. And even though hunger--the real thing--hasn't been an issue, boy oh boy does that little voice keep trying to get me to eat to "feel better"....Good thing I've been fasting for several months, doubt I could pull this off if I was new.

@ferretgal wishing you all the best with your new direction and future. I hope you find a wonderful job very soon. In the meantime enjoy Christmas as much as you can.

@ferretgal,

When I hear stories like yours it makes me with this wasn' such a virtual way of communicating and that everyone posting here wasn't so far away. Many of us could all do well just getting together, having a cup of coffee together and bouying each other up about now.

I don't know if this will help, but my daughter, who has always had a terrible time with dry itchy skin told me about it, and to my surprise, when I developed an intense itching problem a month ago I tried it and it worked extremely well. She said to rub Head and Shoulders dandruff shampoo on the itchy areas when you shower. I did it twice each time I showered, and rinsed it off, and then in the evening I dabbed a bit on the troubled areas and wiped it off with a wet wash cloth. It worked better than the over the counter cortisone cream I have used in the past and cleared up in about a week. Usually it takes me a month to get this kind of rash to go away.