14 Months, 3 Days

It's been over a year and 2 months now, I'm still alternate day fasting and loving it. My weight throughout these winter months has fluctuated between 110-115 pounds with a Body Mass Index between 20 & 21. Today my weight is 112 pounds. I still choose the healthier options of food. Just because I fast every other day, doesn't mean I can gorge on unhealthy foods on the regular days.

Alternate day fasting has not made me ultra skinny or anorexic or bulemic. I have not heard any comments like, "oh, you're TOO thin"; however, I have heard things like, "You look so wonderful and vibrant!." That seems to be the case with others who alternate day fast as well -- they lose weight until they reach a certain normal weight and then remain at that weight.

Alternate day fasting has enabled me to maintain a healthy, normal weight without having to count calories or feel hungry all the time. Yes, I do feel hungry on my fasting day, but its not a constant hunger. It comes and goes and it is bearable. My son gave me a teapot for my birthday last year. This little extra step of placing the leaves into a beautiful teapot and allowing it to steep as opposed to tossing a teabag into a mug of water that was heated in the microwave, reminds me to show reverance to what I put into my body. I also find that if I dedicate the fasting day to some cause that I deem worthy, it makes the day easier to get through. When the hunger pains come, I think of World Peace or Enlightenment or anything really that is a greater, worthier cause than just myself and my own health. (There are bigger problems in the world than my fat butt after all.) I've never given in to the temptation to eat on a day that I dedicated to a higher cause -- it would just feel utterly 'wrong'. If our thoughts really due create our reality as the mystics tell us, well then why not use this fasting time to improve one's health along with the world?

Once in a while on a fasting day, I will get uncontrollably hungry. I don't know if it's a hormonal thing or due to something I ate the day before (too much sugar perhaps). On those occasions, when it's just more than I care to endure, I'll mix a tablespoon of cottage cheese with a teaspoon of flax oil and eat that. It tastes terrible, but it makes the hunger go away. (Actually, I started to enjoy the taste of it after a while -- go figure.) Other times, I have mixed a teaspoon or two of protein powder into a glass of water -- equally effective at qwelling hunger. I am only human and there have been days when I was supposed to fast and I just said, "to hell with it -- I'm going to eat something". There's nothing wrong with that, I just fast the next day. I'm not going to beat myself up or fret over it and I'm not going to stop alternate day fasting. It works too well, I feel too good and I do not want to go back to the way I used to feel. Most of the time, alternating between fasting and eating is as natural as breathing. It has become the natural rhythm of my life.