The FastDay Forum

Bouncy grandkids are good for the soul @Azureblue! xx

Two points are covered in this post:

1. Reasons for the knife, fork and chair in the third hills challenge.
2. Hill by hill explanations.

OK. To explain the setup for the knife, fork and chair...

Looking straight ahead at the knife and fork aligns your head and back. Having your hands and arms outstretched provides a needed counterbalance so you could sit onto, and get off of the chair without bending forward. This keeps your knees behind your toes (when viewed from the side or from above), moving most of the muscle work rearward (glutes) and upward (quads) reducing knee strain.

The chair was a safety precaution - a short distance landing zone well off the floor that also got your knees to approximately 90-degrees and your quads nearly parallel to the floor.

The gap between the knife and fork occupied your hands and arms forcing you to exclusively use your legs. The fact that a butter knife and fork are hard and somewhat pointy (implying a slight level of risk) is why they were pointed outward.

That needless 2cm gap - yes, you read that word correctly, needless - 2cm gap was a sneaky distraction to keep your mind off the increasing tiredness which you might've otherwise used as a reason to stop. Distraction can be as useful as mindfulness*.

So why did we do these three exercises at all?

Remember the first time you tried the 30 counts? Did you manage to do them easily? Did you move to 60 to increase the challenge? At any time did you use the grazing/utility pole principle - doing them in units of 10, and working to do just one more near the end - to gradually increase the total number completed each day?

Incremental choices like these gave you direct control over the intensity of what you were doing. If I had said that we were going to do 50 or 100 non-stop the first time out, most of you would've either not started, quit, or at least rightfully balked at the extreme effort that that would imply.

As a protection mechanism, the brain always forces us to stop long before the body is anywhere near it's actual physical limit. But, by our requesting "just one more" even several times, it allows it to happen. We always have a physical reserve. Adding "just a few more" makes the request seem ~reasonable~ even if you only manage one. Because it allows the attempt and we managed it without hurting ourselves, the brain will relax its limit in the future.

Hill 1 is directly related to our efforts here with IF. The idea behind it was to join the others in a group-shared goal of drastically cutting carbs. While we can get fat overindulging with most any food, carbs are the #1 cause of increased and sustained insulin levels. Insulin is the #1 driver of fat storage, the #1 blocker of fat-burning AND the #1 driver of hunger. Both snacks (which are most always carbs) and splitting a fast day meal's calories across the entire day keep insulin flowing and our fat locked up. This is NOT at all what we want when trying to lose weight. By consistently controlling carbs you effectively keep the hunger dragon on a very short leash that YOU control. Waking him early by eating a carby something, only makes him mad (and you hungrier) which thoroughly frustrates your ability to get to your weight loss goal. (Carb restriction is not permanent. It is biologically necessary during early fasting to ~encourage~ the body to adapt to using fat as its alternative energy source. The sooner this happens the better.

The initial calorie targets of 50g or 100g are primarily of interest to long time experienced fasters who are refining their goals with occasional calorie counting.

If you instead elected to just notice and mentally track carbohydrates during the last week you ALSO made considerable progress. Mindfully noticing - as opposed to reflexively eating (in the case of food) - is the first critical step in breaking any habit. At every point during the last week that you recognized a carb, you introduced the opportunity to do something different.

OK, so what about hills 2 and 3?

These two exercises are a real world application of the other days' post about marking and extending previous progress with "utility poles" (that daily count increasing to 30) following the grazing principle - taking one or two more "easy steps".

For any challenge in the future you might recall these simple examples to gently press on a tiny bit more. Enjoy the success of every increment and, by doing so, the fact that you continue to exceed you own preconceived limits.

You didn't quite make it to 30? Three steps forward and one step back, is still two steps forward. It counts. You've accomplished far more than those that didn't even try.



All three hills should now be nearly automatic - the beginnings of useful new habits. Getting up and down from a seated position should require much less effort than before. Staircases should nearly disappear because you've re-trained the very muscles that do most of that kind of work.

Considering the time it took the first day and how you felt then, with the time and feelings you have now, there should be a noticeable improvement and a happy sense of accomplishment.

BTW, there's a hidden bonus here for those going for walks or working towards a C25K challenge, hills 2 and 3 are nearly perfect as a dynamic warm up before you go out.


Any thoughts? Criticisms? Suggestions? Anyone want extend the three hills with some variations*?

Interesting and useful @ADFnFuel, I shall continue Hills 1,2,3.
#6 Friday weigh in = 77.7kgs.
I was watching the BBC1 programme about aging last night and am now fired up to eat anthocyanin-containing vegetables and berries to keep my brain healthy. Purple sweet potatoes anyone?

[carieoates]

Slightly confused with the titles here..
Anyhoo, not a great fast yesterday, still not eaten and will hold out til lunch so that I can enjoy poached eggs on toast.
1lb off this week that's 2 and a half so far.

Hi all,

Yes, keep up the challenges.

Congratulations all!

I am down 3 lbs from start of this challenge (really about six since restarting).

Slightly confused with the titles here ...

Rather than tag everyone, I've attempted to use the title to show when something has been added. 2 was the second week, 2 1/2 was a minor update yesterday explaining forks and such. Saturday's post will be #3. Final will likely be #4.

Oh dear, put on half a pound this week - BUT my period started last night so maybe that's why - who knows - sigh!
Anyway, it sounds as though the rest of you are doing really well, so we'll done!
Here's to another great week!
Bean

#14 weighing in

CSW: 141 lbs (3-28-16)
Previous CGW: 138 lbs
Revised CGW: 137 lbs
4-1-16: 139.6 lbs
4-8-16: 138.6 lbs
4-15-16: 138 lbs

I had a low of 137.8 on Wednesday, but I've had some sweets this week that I think are doing some damage. Still, I've managed a loss of 3 pounds so far. Delighted about that. Hoping to get another 1-2 off by the end of the month. I've been horrible with my step count. Only made the 10,000 twice this week. But Spring has finally sprung here in Chicago so I should be able to nail my goal from here on out!

Hello, I'm checking in but I'm on sabbatical from the challenge due to being away from home with no bathroom, kitchen or other scales, no Calorie counting book to tot up my carbs/protein, and too tired from doing a long distance path to work out with cutlery. Back on it next week.

#4 checking in. I lost 0.5 kg this week which is great after a couple of weeks with no loss. That gives me -600g so far for the challenge with a little less than 2 weeks to go. 7/7 for my Fitbit step challenge again this week.
Plan for this week is to build on this. OH is away and no social outings planned so should be able to have a really clean eating week with no alcohol and 2 strong fast days. I do find that a couple of glasses of wine leads me into temptation. Making my shopping list now so I can be super organised.
Look forward to hearing how everyone else is doing.

[carieoates]

Slightly confused with the titles here..
Anyhoo, not a great fast yesterday, still not eaten and will hold out til lunch so that I can enjoy poached eggs on toast.
1lb off this week that's 2 and a half so far.

Update for me it's Saturday afternoon and having a very busy day yesterday I didn't eat dinner, or breakfast (as usual). So I'm another pound down.
So three and a half pounds off so far. Let's see if I can maintain this momentum now until the end.

A quiet week with many of the contenders just out of sight now....

#0 - Fearless leader: DEXA scan done; details elsewhere. Hill 1: avg:100g. Hill 2, 3: done and done.

#1 @Cupcake - 14s 10 to 13s 13
???

#2 @barbarita - goal protein limit.
Holding her own on the hills.

#3 @cblasz - currently cheering from the sidelines!

#4 @Pilchards - 13,200 steps for 6 of 7 days, 68.1kg to start (-2.1 kg goal)
Bettering the step count with a 7 of 7 week. Half kg down!

#5 @carieoates - -6 pound target
-1 pound down this week. (2.5 total so far!)

#6 @azureblue - defrosting -4kg (from 78kg)
Doing well with the hills challenge. Currently 77.7.

#7 @Katharina -7 pounds towards 126
Currently 77.7.

#8 @grannieannie - 1 pound a week, walk 5 days longer each time
???

#9 @warriorprincess -1 pound a week for the duration of the challenge
???

#10 @nursebean - also -1 pound a week
Slightly slower pace this week.

#11 @MelbMandy -2kg (aiming for 65kg)
???

#12 @piper -1 pound a week
-3 from the start. Excellent progress for a late start.

#13 @CandiceMarie - honorary attendee
???

#14 @SammyIAm -1 pound each week(141 to start, to 137), 10K steps 4xweek
Another with -3 from the start!

#15 @Marni goal?? (from 76.6kg)
-1 from the start.

#16 @Matillian -1 pound a week (from 136)
.4 kg down!


Please report weekly progress by Friday each week (Saturday for the down unders). finish line April 30th.

#7 reporting in with an overall loss of hard-earned 1 lb since the start of the challenge. 6 lbs to go!
Very pleased to see this trend after obvious plateau-ing at a lower level than in January and I'm comfortably managing on low carbs and 5:2 and moderate exercising.
(Managed most days around 50-100 gm carbs. Didn't have the mental application to adjust for fibre but that would indeed make it look better! Thanks for the tip @ADFnFuel.)

#8 @grannieannie - 1 pound a week, walk 5 days longer each time Nope, not this week.

Weighing in- Easter 222.8 pounds
Fridays: 4/1 222, 4/8 221, 4/15 223!
Hills- 1: 100 carbs 2/7 and 'Mindfully noticing ' for the rest of week. I was surprised.
2: toe raises full 30 3/7
3: 2/7 but still practicing. My 94-yr old aunt laughs as it was her exercise in winter therapy.
Gained weight. Didn't want to admit it. Medical-tent boys haven't called yet, but they want me to "go easy" till they do. I am frustrated. No hiking, slow walk with dog, no sweating and no angina. I waant to know what to do NOW, but I am trying to relax in the good weather and be patient. Did my taxes - that didn't help my mood either, but they are due.

Sorry, just a moment of whining.