Developing an Attitude of Gratitude – Day 532

True that! Gratitude takes practice. Gratitude needs to be practiced every day.

Today I am grateful for new skills. I’ve been learning about a video editing software. I am getting better and better at it. I enjoyed making a video today for our up coming Virtual Thespian Inductions.

I am grateful for the time I had today to read and study me scriptures. I always learn cool things when I spend time with my scriptures.

I am grateful for a day to just lay low. This evening I completed a 48 hour fast for health. I have seeking answers to gaining better health and losing the weight that threatens my well-being. On our last religious fast day it occurred to me… fasting is nothing new. People have being fasting for religious reasons and for health for centuries. I decided to read up on intermittent fasting. I found some thing by Dr. Jason Fung. From Dr Fung I learned that Fasting is not starvation. I learned that fasting is the voluntary withholding of food for spiritual, health, or other reasons. It isn’t meant to cause suffering. It is meant to uplift and to heal. Fasting is choosing not to eat. In intermittent fasting you choose the time to start and the time to end, then you practice discipline and choose to follow your goals. My reading of Dr. Fung’s books lead me to this thought, body fat is merely stored energy. Duh! I am just super efficient at storing for that futuristic “rainy day.” That lead me to the thought that if a person doesn’t eat, my body would “eat” the food storage. That lead me to remember when I was successful 18 years ago at losing weight enough to have Lilli. I fasted 1 day a week and I ate a low carb diet and did light-to-moderate exercise.

Ha! Life is all about balance! Good vs. bad. Yin vs. yang. Eating vs. fasting. Hello! Break-fast. We “fast” every day… when we are not snacking. Insulin rises when we eat, helping to store excess energy in two ways – carbohydrates that can be stored in the liver and in the muscles and fat – when the liver has an over abundance of glycogen and turns the energy into stored fat. I am living proof that my unlimited supply of energy is hard to tap. Fasting makes insulin levels to fall, signaling to my body that it needs to start burning stored energy in the fat cells.

OMG! This makes so much sense!!! If I eat the minute I get out of bed and eat every few hours until it is time to go back to sleep, as so many of the multiple “diets” doctors and companies have sold me on for years, I spend most of my time in the “fed state” and not enough time in balance with a “fasting state.” Dr. Fung teaches that glycogen is the most easily accessible energy source and can provide energy to the body up to 24-36 hours. After all my reading, it was clear I needed more balance… more fasting time.

I needed to think like a bear. That is when I found a group on Facebook called Eat Like a Bear. I joined them and stocked them for a few weeks, working up the courage to give this lifestyle a try. I was a little worried because for several years now my stomach hurts so bad after eating any kind of meat. The Eat Like a Bear group eats mostly ridiculously big salads and meat.

I finally decided to give it a try. I chose 23:2. Fast for 23 hours eat all my calories in 2 hours. After the second week I know I had lost some weight. I don’t really know what the total is because I just went with the last weight I weighed at the doctor, but I know I was larger than that, dispute my practically vegan diet. I also made a bigger effort to eat low carb foods… next to zero grains, high fiber, dark greens, and low carb fruits. Think BEAR. I even tried a piece of salmon but it caused some terrible stomach pains! I will wait a bit longer before I try more fish. This is the beginning of week 3 and I tried my first 48 hour fast. I found that it wasn’t that bad. In fact, I didn’t even fell hungry once I got past 20 hours. I wasn’t even hungry when I broke the fast. Now I will go back to 23:2 for the rest of the week. I have decided that the only way I will really know if it is helping my weight issues, aching muscles and joint pains, is to give it a reasonable amount of time. Oh … and I added electrolytes.

So far I can say I am grateful for the information I learned from Dr. Fung. I am grateful for the ladies of Eat Like a Bear and their inspiration on an unusual journey. I am grateful for the garden veggies I am enjoying. I am grateful for electrolytes and water… lots of water. I am grateful that I am actually starting to feel a little better (although it has been rough and I am struggling to control my emotions).

I am grateful for the Lord’s inspiration… and I truly believe this is quite possibly the answer I am seeking and I need to exercise faith.