Day 3 of Fast

More restless sleep, more muscle cramping.

1. 0600  --  260.4lbs - 120/73 

This was the lightest I have been since November.... 2017...  That was extremely motivating!

With the help of a little more bone broth (90 calories I made it to the 72 hour mark). So all of 170 calories in 3 days. Broke my fast proper with a visit to a Vietnamese Pho place (so more bone broth! But this stuff was so much better).

Overall impressions? I can do this, and I think I can do this for longer (I can't believe I am writing this but I would be interested in doing a 7 day fast sometime in the future). I might even be able to incorporate back in my exercise into this (I think in particular in the beginning, as an effort to burn out the sugar in the bloodstream and speed the transition to ketosis). I really wasn't crazy hungry and things were busy enough.  I think this would be easier without kids (because they need things like food and it is hard to be around food when doing this). I definitely wouldn't do another 3 day where it goes over weekend (though with this being a drill weekend I was away and busy).  I really didn't feel as off as I expected, a pleasant surprise.

After re-feeding and a full cycle of meals, 48 hours after that weight I was 265.8, which was still better than a when I started.

Day 2

Restless sleep (but somehow a Fitbit sleep score of 78 on 7:26 of sleep). Some Crazy more muscle cramping, I was in a meeting and had 3-4 muscles all messing with me at the same time.

1. 0700  --  263.9lbs - 133/87 69bpm
2. 1230 --  Still feeling mostly fine other than the cramping issue. Amazingly my stomach is not crying out right now for food as I expected/feared. Coffee and an electrolyte mix (I really like this one, Ultima Replenisher Electrolyte Hydration Powder, Grape ) have kept me going, will probably switch to macha tea in the afternoon to ease the caffeine load. 40 hours in  
3. 1600  --  265.9lbs
4. 2137  -- 264.8lb

I broke down a touch (though it depends where you read if it was ok) and had a package of bone broth in the evening. So all of 80 calories in more than 2 days.

Day 1

Last food was at roughly 1900 last night.  Slept poorly but there is something about the taco's we had for dinner that doesn't settle well (massive acidity in stomach.. I am trying different variations to find what is causing it, onions just got excluded). Overall this will be the easy day, at least until 1800 or so, because that is normally when I break a 24 (ish) hour fast.  60bpm resting heart rate.

1. 0800  --  268.6lbs - 44 waist
2. 1600  --  267lbs - 44 waist.  129/98 67bpm

Only odd effect so far has been some cramping. That and some grumbling from my stomach.... But I have been prone to cramping for a long time so I cannot blame this (yet).....

I started with this which got me into 24 hour fasts:

Eat Stop Eat: Intermittent Fasting for Health and Weight Loss

Then I moved to my reference for this:
The Complete Guide to Fasting: Heal Your Body Through Intermittent, Alternate-Day, and Extended


Note: Today I had a physical. Then I had to take our sick cat Legend in.Who the vet not so subtly told me needs to be put down, there is no return to normal (pain free) for him. FML, I almost broke this thing before it started since I _really_ wanted a drink after that news...

Not quite dead (but I may feel like it in a few days)

Going to use this to sort of live blog my new experiment, trying a longer fast. I have been doing a number of short 20-24 hour fasts for several months now (minus travel, holidays and extreme stress times). So given the fact that I may have to be taped this weekend (but no PT test) I figured it would be chance to maybe lose an inch or so from the waist and try to extend my to (*gulp*) 72 hours. I already had to fast for both my annual physical as well as my annual Army physical, so why not combine them.
I have been reading so many good things about the benefits of extended fasting that I am kind of interested to see how it goes. Not horribly excited, but interested to see how it goes.  I predict that Thursday night will be the worst because my body is used to eating after a 24 hour fast and isn't going to be happy.

The 24 hour (ish) Fasting Experiment

I like experimenting with various ways to try to lose weight.  I am in the Army National Guard and at this point don't want to get kicked out for my weight, as I will have just completed 14 years of service at the end of this month.

Over the years I have tried Adkin's, Keto, Intermittent Fasting(IF), etc. I like the science behind fasting but honestly, I find IF burdensome as, while it claims to be intermittent in practice most people do it 5-7 days a week. I actually like breakfast (even after my time in AFG where it was my dinner for 6 months) so I was never good at following a consistent IF plan. Then early last month I found some references to a book, "Eat, Stop, Eat," (by Brad Pilon) that intrigued me. Basically the book breaks down to just trying to go for 24 hours 2x a week (for those of us who are overweight... so America as a whole, then if you get really close you can drop to 1x week). I love that the book has something like 20 page of scientific citations at the end. And even besides fat loss there are additional health benefits to a 24 hour fast that made it an easy sell to me.  

So the basic numbers when I started the first fast on 13FEB19:

Weight: 275.1 lbs

RHR: 62 bpm

After 3 full weeks of 2x Fasting for 24hrs (08MAR19):

Weight: 265.2 lbs

RHR: 55 bpm

Interesting note, you can see my RHR spike during drill(1-3MAR)....  I was less than good going to the gym (only 2-3 time a week) during this period, but because I have a record APFT coming up, I need to get moving on that.

I also had a checkup on 28FEB19 and I will need to have some more blood work done in 3 months, so that should have some interesting nuggets. (one desire of this trip is to not need BP meds anymore)

I will check back in next month to see how things are going.  I find that while I am hungry, I don't feel tempted to cheat.  During these fast periods I try to be as strict as I can be, developing a taste for black (but with fake sugar) coffee and lots of water. I generally break the fast with some probiotics (fermented garlic, sauerkraut, plus maybe some kefir) and carrots/hummis.

Family Weight Loss Challenge

So I have joined my brothers and my father in a little Biggest Loser B Family style.
I definitely need to lose some weight, in particular with the races I have coming in October...

263lbs at the weigh in, target is 235. I wish I could have pushed it back to after this weekend (I have a wedding to head to with my ex-roommate). So hopefully next time (in about 2 weeks) I can show at least some forward progress...

Got Gold?

I do!
Today I finished the last event of the German Armed Forces Proficiency Badge. I completed the requirements tonight, the final 100m dash. 13.8 seconds when the requirement was 14. Now I have a very cool achievement that I can proudly wear on my uniform!
The final Tally:

• 25K Ruck March
• 200m swim in 5 minutes
• 3000m Run in 13:28
• Shooting 6/6 with a 9mm handgun
• Passing a medic test
• Jumping 5 feet, 4 inches in the high jump
  
• Throwing a shot put 29 feet
• and of course the 100m dash in 13.8s

I am very proud of this! This is something that I couldn't have done a couple of years ago and now I have some very tangible rewards. I will have to post a picture of it on the uniform, it looks huge.

Off to the field, going dark until Thursday.

Now I really have the Olympic spirit...

Last night was the German Proficiency Badge field day. First up was the high jump. 4ft. 3in. After some horrific runs on it I finally got the hang of it and after some 15-20 times (and a tucking in of my shirt) I finally got it. Though I suspect that is why I had issues with my sprint.

Then it was the 100m sprint. Target time for my age group? 14 second. My time (and subsequent retries)? 14.4 seconds. I think I hyper extended my muscles jumping (my right butt muscles were sorely protesting even then).

And finally shot put (15lb ball, 24.5 ft target distance).. Some people did all these movements.. me, came up to the line, leaned back and hurled it for 27ft.

Here I was thinking that the high jump would get me and now I have to do the sprint again. I am getting another shot at this on Friday. I will retry the 100m and can also try for the 1000m (target time of 4:10).

I am definitely feeling achy this morning from what I did yesterday evening.

Week 7 of SBOLC III

Wow, its been 7 weeks.. now if only I can FFWD this a bit more and its almost time to go home.
This week we wrapped up our time at the School for Information Technology (SIT) here at Gordon. We completed our last test there and have now transitioned back to the building we started in 6 weeks ago.
Still doing PT 5 days a week at the 0530 time (whee....). This week we completed the first 2 German Proficiency Badge events, the 200m Swim (7 minutes for my age group, I did it in 5:15) and the 3000 Meter (1.85 mile) Run (standard was a blazing 14:30 (7:50 mile pace... still better than the under 30 set who have to do it in 13 minutes)) which I completed in 14:24 (yep, by a scant 6 seconds. I felt like I was going to die after I finished). The run really had me concerned and I really considered it the most like to kill my GPB goal, I feel that the rest are attainable and challanging. Next up we will be shooting (yah! I like this one) 9mm handguns at targets later next week. Then sometime soon we have a "field day", with 100M sprints, long/high jump, shotput throw,(the latter 2 actually sound like fun, as far as I can recall I have never done these) then finally a ruckmarch and test of first aid.

A rest weekend

After all the excitement of the past week and in anticipation of our packed week coming up I did nothing this weekend.
Of course some of that was due to Friday night. We decided to have a cook-out to celebrate the birthday of one of Platoon at one of the Infantry guy's places here on base (they had to secure their own housing in anticipation of not having anything available during their OBC (Officer Basic Course) as well as their mandatory Ranger and Airborne schools). Much beer was consumed and we also had plans to make sure that we could safely go downtown (thanks to generous DD's). There was much discussion of the Land Nav test earlier as well as some gossip that I cannot mention out of deference to those involved (there are people reading this who know my last name and that's where discretion and decency comes into play).
All I will say abut the evening is that shots are not my friend.
So after the mandatory rest period I woke up and all of a sudden the power goes off in the barracks. This doesn't bother me too much given how I feel so I go back to sleep. Later, still no power. Even later you can see the workers desperately trying to fix it (basically a wire burned out.... one of the big feeder ones). So I went bowling with a buddy (one lousy game and then a great 160 game... consistency is not my thing in bowling). Then off to the movies.

• What Happens in Vegas - Pretty fun actually. Naturally pretty predictable (its a RomCom after all) but it had its moments. Cameron Diaz still looks good. 3/5
• Vantage Point - I actually liked this movie. It unfolded like an onion, each presentation showing parts of the previous story and incorporating them and also showing hidden meaning to those events that were shown previously. I got the feeling the audience, not so much... they seemed frustrated, since each retelling ended very dramatically. Great cast and over all very entertaining. 4.5/5

After that I puttered around the completely dark barracks, then chatted with my girl for a while late at night. Just as I was getting into so good sleep of course the power returns.... at 043o in the morning.... that would have been fine, except it tripped the fire alarm. Sigh... I can't wait to get out of this hellacious too early in the morning place....

Another late start, a very light lunch then off to the gym. Lifted then did some laps. Its been a long time since I did laps and I was very rusty (and I forgot how good of a workout it is). Obviously I called my Mom (who I also had remembered to send a card too... gotta stay in the good graces). Went out for a fantastic dinner of BBQ at Country's. Then I went for a 4 mile ruck march to break in some new boots (and also learned that a certain pair of socks should not be used for rucking) as well as prep for the 10 mile ruck march on Thursday. Now I am packing and getting ready for a way too exciting day tomorrow.

Weekend of Movies

Ah, a glorious free weekend. Other than getting up early on Saturday for my CQ shift (and having to shave, something that I generally avoid on the weekends (to give the poor face a break)) it was a nice weekend. I hit the gym on Saturday and Sunday (we have a really nice gym, brand new)

Yep, that's a climbing wall in the background. Off to the left there is 2 full sized basketball courts down the hall.

There is also a pool at the gym. Note the hottub. I will so be using that in the coming weeks.

So basically I used this time to recharge (read that as, being away from everyone I had to be with during the week. I like them a lot but I do need my "me" time to recharge.). I did do dinner and a movie with some classmates but mostly it was focused on getting things lined up for next week and getting mentally prepared.

There actually is a movie theater here on post. Carmike Cinema's seems to have this area locked up and while the theaters aren't the biggest (and for the discount one somewhat rundown) they do use some pretty good technology (primarily DTS, allowing them to digitally distribute the film and also makes sure that nothing happens to the quality of the presentation since there is no degradation of the picture due to repeated use).

I saw the following movies (in order of attendance)

• The Ruins - weak movie. Further confirms why I hate plants. definitely was cheering for the people who worked to confine that evil plant.


• The Superhero Movie - moderately amusing. Very juvenile humor but fun overall. About what I was expecting.


• Drillbit Taylor - Saw this with a few other BOLC II Students. eh. Standard teen film schlock. definitely not on par with some of the recent shows like Superbad or whatnot.


• National Treasure: Book of Secrets - This movie was plain old fun. I loved the first one and really enjoyed this sequal.

I figure that I will be seeing a lot of movies over the next 20 weeks. There are a couple that I am really excited about, in particular Iron Man and the new Indiana Jones movie

Overall I am ready to face the coming week. We have a couple of events coming up, primarily Combatives (basically a hybred martial arts class) on Tuesday-Thursday, a 5 mile Ruck March on Friday (that means no PT. I will ruck any day over doing PT (in particular running)), start BRM (Basic Rifle Marksmanship) training this week and also have to attend a mandatory reception on Tuesday evening (could be interesting, probably not.).

Why the makers of the Flu Vaccine are on my list..

4 days. 4 days huddled up at home, alternately hot and cold, running a mid-level fever, coughing...
And that doesn't even take into account the fact the one night with some seriously WIERD dreams..

How wrong is it to be sick on a weekend? I generally don't get sick so I have plenty of sick days and I have a job and boss that understands taking time off for illness. I so wish that it hadn't occurred over the weekend, I have so few free ones left before I head off for Army training.