Women IFers -- lets chat about protocols! page 4

[Leida]

Okay, I had to eat a little bit of cheese before going to bed yesterday, but I was till hungry (finished dinner at ~ 6 pm), then we had to stay up a little later than normal since our kiddo had a movie night so I did not get to bed till 9 pm. Woke up at 3 am hungry, got up about twenty to 4, it is not even 7 am, and I am not sure I am cut out for this. Why is those last 2 hours always the most difficult ones? I shoveled so did not have time to make husband's breakky, but I pulled the meat off the salmon heads, for tonight's soup (oh, lord, that is going be divine) and packed the lunches and drained the quark, so all the wonderful smells and tastes are sticking to my mind like glue.

[gopintos]

I have that same trouble sometimes. I use to IF most daily but now if I want to fast, I try to plan it around having to prepare meals. Some nights more ppl are here that I cook for, and it does make it harder. I don't necessarily want what they are having, but it makes me want something. Having bone broth does help.

[Leida]

I OD'd it on the broth while doing my sustained ketosis experiment. I really want solid foods all the time, and the solid-er the better. I have never drunk so little in my life. For a while I did not even want soups... but tonight I can't wait till I can have my salmon fish head soup. And (hangs head in shame) I gave up about 7:30 am. I just found myself browsing Internet for 'oreshki' recipe (Traditional Russian New Year's cookie I wanted to make for my mom's visit) to see if I can make it with candy molds that turned out to be plastic (no, I will just make primal oreshki candy I suppose), and figured enough is enough.

[gopintos]

I hear ya. I will say, my broth is nice and thick. I grind up everything, bones and all. DH wont touch it, he dislikes the texture. I OTOH love it, I feel like I am eating something. In fact I put it in a bowl and use a soup spoon. I had some the other morning, with some smushed up tator and for some reason it tasted like the best thing ever.

[Leida]

I hope people are nor going to be too too disgusted, but I actually eat most of the poulty bones from the broth with the meat. My broth congeals, but does look liquid when heat up A couple of times I set it with gelatin to make aspic when i couldn't take liquids any more. When mom comes, I would like to set some of the turkey meat from the broth in aspic (normally do it with pork feet, but I don't have enough company to eat it, lol). Again, probably TMI. I will not be IF'ing tomorrow, as we'll probably won't be finished with supper till about 7 pm tonight. But I will try again on Monday and hopefully make full 14 hours.

[Silvergirl]

Okay, I had to eat a little bit of cheese before going to bed yesterday, but I was till hungry (finished dinner at ~ 6 pm), then we had to stay up a little later than normal since our kiddo had a movie night so I did not get to bed till 9 pm. Woke up at 3 am hungry, got up about twenty to 4, it is not even 7 am, and I am not sure I am cut out for this. Why is those last 2 hours always the most difficult ones? I shoveled so did not have time to make husband's breakky, but I pulled the meat off the salmon heads, for tonight's soup (oh, lord, that is going be divine) and packed the lunches and drained the quark, so all the wonderful smells and tastes are sticking to my mind like glue.

This sounds to me like this is not going to be your natural rhythm. It shouldn't be that hard. I finish eating between 6 and 7, don't go to bed until 11 or 12 and don't even think about food in that time and am sometimes only very slightly hungry at bedtime. Get up around 8 and have 2 to 3 coffees, with a little coconut oil and then am not hungry or thinking about it until around 10.30- 11. Maybe you could try to gradually stretch the gaps between. This way you are setting your self up to feel deprived and starved. Not good.

[BestBetter]

When I was intentionally IFing, for a few months, I typically did 6/18 or 4/20 fasts almost every day, with some 24 and 36 hour fasts thrown in every once in a while. I never had any issues with my cycle being affected, though I wasn't doing this long term (for many years), so it's possible that doing short stints of more dramatic IFing won't affect fertility...or maybe it's different for every woman.

When I was experimenting with different ways of doing IF, I discovered that skipping breakfast and/or lunch was ALWAYS easier and better than skipping dinner, because if I don't eat dinner, I have extremely poor quality sleep.

While I was doing those long IFs, I realized that eating really big meals was a trigger for some of my IBS symptoms (which had never been true before, so I think that something about IFing caused this to suddenly be a problem, because I can't figure out why out of the blue eating a large volume of food suddenly became a problem).

So, I had to go back to eating several smaller meals throughout the day. In the beginning, I still was mindful to keep my smaller meals in a 10 hour window, so I was doing the 10/14 that is generally recommended for women. This felt pretty good.

Now, I don't really ever think about IFing and meal windows (mainly because it never helped me to either lose weight or be healthier) but when I think about it, I'm surprised that I often end up doing the 10/14 because I tend to wake up late and not eat breakfast right away.

One thing that I did realize from my experimenting was that after the novelty of it wore off, after a few months, I have to admit that I feel significantly better NOT intentionally fasting or eating fewer, larger meals. I actually feel way better eating smaller amounts of food a little more often. My digestion is better, and I'm less food-centric. I know that's the opposite experience of many posters here, but for me, IFing really does NOT have any observable benefits.

[Leida]

For me not eating breakfast is a bad idea, because the tail end of the fast end sup being what is normally my most productive time at work (6 am to 10 am assuming I ate right before I go to bed at 8 pm) & it totally ruins my performance. So, that's why I am trying to eat supper earlier. I am ravenous by 4-5 pm anyway, so if only I have had food ready to eat at the time, it would be good. So I will be trying to drive more instead of walking to get home from the gym by 5 pm instead of 6 pm, and just have a cup of tea or a small snack while my folks are having dinner (the equivalent of fat in the coffee people do in the morning). It will work on all days but Tuesday, when i have a super-long day in the gym, because I bring my kid for a class from 5 pm to 6 pm. I will just have to pack more food on that day and stick to the snack between 6 pm and going to bed. I do need to break a habit of eating right before bed.

My sleep is strongly bi-phasal, I sleep for 5-6 hours, wake up, and doze off for another 1 or 2 hours till i can't stand it in bed any more and/or have to get up to do chores.

[zoebird]

I would say that skipping dinner is just as appropriate as skipping breakfast. it's all a matter of windows. I just tend to be hungrier between 11 and 7. Others might be the other way around. Why not?

Also, I found that it was a bit tough the first week. It wasn't extremely difficult, but yes, we were hungry several times. I found that having a glass of water or herbal (non-caffinated) tea was a really good way to manage the hunger. We still do this.

Today, because I taught from 11 until 5, I ate at 10:30 and finished eating at 6. I probably won't eat until 11 tomorrow, but who knows. I teach in the Am, and I don't know what schedule DH has figured. But, I normally come home frm teaching around 11:15, and then have breakfas,t adn then whatever-whatever throughout the afternoon. I'm doing NSO for the roller derby this Saturday, so. . . I'll be doing that between 2 and 7 -- not sure what I'm going to eat during that time (if anything).

[Leida]

I don't think I want to do IF every day. I think it was my mistake in the past & lead to intolerance of IF. I will see how I manage tonight/tomorrow morning, but I tentatively plan to IF from Sunday night (early supper ~ 5 pm) to Monday breakfast, aiming for 14 hours. If not 14 hours, I think I will be content with 12 hrs, though it doesn't qualify as a fast. I will just think of it as a rest period for my digestion.

I think my short sleep cycle is what leads to lesser tolerance of a longer fasting period.
Or do you think it is digestive-related and there is something that can slow digestion and help someone to feel fuller longer after a meal? Like the good old fiber? Right now I avoid fiber/carbs in am, saving it for lunch & dinner. Should I add it back to breakfast?