Survival and Emergency Preparedness

I had to do a 12 hour fast for blood work for my knee surgery next tuesday. That means I stopped eating after dinner on Sunday since my blood work was on Monday morning.

I thought it would be a good idea to continue the fast until dinner on Monday. Having a reason to fast helped kick start it. I've been trying to get back on the keto wagon since the new year began. Just couldn't do it. I had gained 25 pounds in the last year what with all the cruises and holidays etc, etc. Kind of fell off the wagon. But getting through this surgery and putting less weight on the new knee is going to help.

So ate dinner on Monday. That went pretty easy so I didn't eat again until dinner on Tuesday. That's called intermittent fasting. My wife made keto friendly food both nights so I decided to do another 24 hr fast until dinner on Wednesday. You typically go into ketosis after 16-18 hours of not eating.

On Thursday I had volunteered to work the booth at Outdoorama, a big outdoor show for our Michigan Gun Owners, non profit gun rights group. That ran from 11 am-8pm. Thought it would be a good opportunity to extend the fast. I got home about 9pm and really wasn't hungry so I skipped dinner on Thursday.

Got up Friday and felt pretty good, at least in terms of hunger. At that point I had gone about 38 hours without food.

One of the things that spurred me back to fasting was reading/listening to the book 'Dies the Fire'. It's kind of a TEOTWAKI book. People are begging/killing for food and turning to cannibalism after a couple days of not eating. Yeah....no. You can go about a month w/o food if you had to. In addition you go on about 800 calories a day for months and months. I know, I did that for 8-9months. You'll lose a lot of weight but most of us are overweight anyway.

Anyway...back to fasting.

Medical studies say....
" intermittent fasting, periodic fasting, or long-term fasting are part of a new lifestyle approach leading to increased life and health span, enhanced intrinsic defenses against oxidative and metabolic stresses, improved cognition, as well as a decrease in cardiovascular risk in both obese and non-obese subjects."

Not to mention it helps reset your digestive system.

And... it's good practice for emergency situations knowing you don't need to eat everyday. Yes you will get hungry but hunger pangs will pass. If you've experienced it before (by fasting) it's pretty easy to get through it when the time comes.

I'm currently at about 65 hours into my fast. Debating how long to go. Might go until Sunday or until after my surgery on Tuesday depending on how I feel by then.

Key things..
-I've not stopped working out. I don't feel more tired afterward than I did when I was eating. You start burning fat for energy when the calories/carbs run out.

-Coffee and water is what you live on. That reminds me to stock up on coffee, lots and lots of coffee. If the apocalypse comes, I'm really going to miss coffee until I get through caffeine withdrawal.

Ended my fast at 97.5 hours today. Didn't need to, I felt fine. Didn't even feel like eating but I wanted to get something in my stomach a couple days before surgery. Sometimes when I fast I get diarrhea when I start eating again. Wanted to put a buffer in between now and Tuesday.

I lost 12 lbs on the fast.

I'll probably start intermittent fasting after the surgery. Not going to be very active for a few weeks so I'll need a strategy to keep the weight off.

Apparently it's that time of year again to try and get back on keto by fasting. I thought this would be a good time to fast. I hadn't even realized I did the same thing at the same time last year.

LIke last year I signed up again as a volunteer to man a booth for the non profit I belong to, Michigan Gun Owners at an outdoor show. I signed up again this year and did set up on Wed. for 4 hours. Then 8 hours on Thursday, 8 hours on Friday and 12 hours on Saturday. Didn't sign up for Sunday since I planned to go see my grandson.

I ate dinner on Wed and haven't eaten since. I'm at approximately 75 hours as I write this. Living on coffee and water. Other than bouts of diarrhea off and on I feel pretty good. No headaches, hunger pains or dizziness. Staying busy and not being around food all the time helps. Living on water and coffee.

I planned to start eating again Sunday dinner which would be 96 hours. Now I'm thinking of going longer. My record is 97.5 hours. That would be about 8:00 Sunday evening. I would like to try another day and go until dinner on Monday which would be 120 hours. Maybe even try until Wed, 7 days/168 hrs. We''ll see how that goes. I probably would have gone longer last year had I not been scheduled for knee surgery.

As I stated in previous threads, long term fasting has been shown to be healthy and offers a number of benefits. It also helps you practice getting by without food if the SHTF and food gets scarce.

Currently at 121.5 hours and feel fine.

Going to shoot for Wednesday and 168 hours.

Tuesday morning...

Now at 133 hours and have no desire to eat

Currently at approx 144 hours/6 days

162 hours and counting

Finished my fast last night at 7 days/168 hours. That's the longest I've ever gone. Lost 14 lbs.

Was feeling pretty good, could have gone longer but just got bored with it. I'll leave that for the next time. Kinda feel I could go 10 days pretty easily now so that will be the goal next time.

Lessons Learned:
-Fasting is easier the more you do it.
-Staying busy is better than sitting around. I found that being out and about and doing stuff (like working the booth at the outdoor show) it was easier to take you mind off not eating. I was also running around Monday and Tuesday. Working around the house yesterday and having direct contact with food all day made things harder.
-I did wake up and felt a little bit hungry on day 7 for the first time. Didn't last with my first cup of coffee.