Fasting Day 160 - 110.6

Some people try alternate day fasting and they quit because they feel like they are over compensating on their eating day or they are gorging themselves. First of all, in at least one study that I read, the participants were instructed to consume double their normal amount of calories on their eating days and yet the participants still lost weight.

Secondly, I've noticed that it depends on what I eat. It's like we have 2 separate mechanisms that entice us to eat. One of these is the normal body cues we associate with hunger (growling stomach, weakness, shakiness, etc...) . The other is in our head. It is the one in our head that causes the problem. The one in our head can easily overpower any bodily cues. Even if we are stuffed Thanksgiving style, if our head tells us we're hungry --- we will continue to eat. I've experienced that myself on a few separate occasions, I had eaten so much that my stomach was full, but I still felt hungry in my head. It's difficult to describe the sensation. For me, it manifested like I was trying to 'wake-up' my brain. It was as if my body was unable to utilize the energy in the food. My brain (for lack of a better description) felt sluggish like it was not receiving the energy from the food. My body was bloated to the point of vomiting, but "I" was still desperately trying to get that energy to wake up my head. ( I know this is a terrible description, but I just can't find the right words.) It's like when you finally get enough sleep, your brain no longer feels 'sleepy'. Until you get the right amount of rest, you will feel tired. You know when you have reached the correct amount of sleep, because you can't sleep any more. You wake up -- you are refreshed. You don't need any more. Well, there is a similar mechanism in our heads for food. When you have eaten enough nutrients, your brain will feel "full" not just your stomach. You will be satisfied. Sometimes, this mechanism just doesn't get triggered. I don't know why, but I have found the solution -- it is organic food.

Eating every other day has made me acutely aware of how foods affect me. It has made patterns in my diet much simpler and clearer to find. Keeping a food log and a food journal to record how you felt and what was going on at the time also helps, as does writing a blog about one's diet. I can't say what is in our food (or environment or whatever) that is causing this 'switch' in our heads to malfunction, but it seems to be becoming a more common occurence in people. Is their a chemical additive(s) causing this? I don't know. However, I have found that eating organic food WILL still switch it off. I've noticed that it works so well, that I ALWAYS eat ONLY organic foods in the morning of my eating day. Organic fruit, organic oatmeal, organic milk or organic rice milk. It makes an incredible difference in how much food that it takes for me to feel full -- not just in my body but also in my head. My boyfriend, who is not on a diet, commented that he noticed he eats less when he eats organic food. He brought it up on his own -- through his own observation -- one day when we were talking about organic foods. I said that I noticed that too about myself.

You don't have to eat 100% organic foods all day. But give it a try for your first meal. I'm curious to see if your experience is the same as mine, that you don't need to eat as much food and you actually reach that point of fullness in your body and your head.

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