I began my new way of eating on March 5, 2013 and in two months I lost 10 pounds.
My new regime consists of fasting (or semi-fasting by eating 500 calories a day) for two non-consecutive days (24 hours every Sunday and Thursday) every week and eating a normal American diet for the remaining five days every week (this can be a vegan, vegetarian or meat-eating diet).
I read (in late February 2013) about “The Fast Diet” in People magazine’s March 25, 2013 issue. The article was called “The Fast Diet, Inside The New Weight-Loss Craze” written by Suzanne Zuckerman with Catherine Kast.
After searching the Internet for more information I found the PBS TV presentation of Eat, Fast and Live Longer by Michael Mosley on YouTube (see “Eat, Fast and Live Longer – Horizon” below).
When I couldn’t get my Kaiser doctor or order the IGF-1 blood test I went on the Internet and found Walk-In Lab, LLC and paid $68 for an appointment to have the test done by a private lab in Walnut Creek, CA on March 24, 2013. The results were 109 with the normal range being 35-168. I will have another IGF-1 blood test taken after I’ve been on my new regime for six months. The goal is to lower my IGF-1 results (IGF-1 is a marker for biological aging — the higher it is the older your marker is).
I can attest to the truth that this diet regime works to reduce inflammation and promote healing because I had injured the rotator cuff in my left shoulder somehow in September 2012 and it did not begin to get better until I started fasting two days a week in March 2013.
In December I attended a class at Kaiser about healing shoulder pain and learned that I would lose muscle in my left arm if I did not begin to exercise my arm several times a day, which I could not do because of the pain it caused. Not moving my arm worked to prevent the pain, but the doctor explained that the muscles in my arm would atrophy if I didn’t exercise it. So, I did what I could, but I could not grasp my hands behind my back to do the side-to-side exercise or raise my hand above my head to do the stretching exercise.
By the middle of March I was able to raise my hand above my head and by the end of March I was able to grasp my hands behind my back without pain and by the end of April I could reach up my back to the hooks of my bra to unhook them without pain.
This was a welcome achievement as, since September, to unhook my bra (when Dale or Sandy were not available to do it for me) I had to take the shoulder straps down, take my arms out of the straps and turn the bra around so the hooks were in the front so I could reach and unhook them.
I find fasting to be very easy. However, if I eat 500 calories of anything I get hungry so I’ve opted to drink soup and broth instead of eating on my fasting days. I found a very satisfying soup recipe in The Reader’s Digest’s January 2013 issue; “The Soup that Changed My Life — Nourishing greens are surprisingly delicious in a beloved, magical soup” by Anna Thomas (From Eating Well). To read the article go to: //www.eatingwell.com/recipes_menus/easy_recipes/anna_thomas_green_soup_how_green_soup_became_a_way_of_life
Click here for Anna’s Perfect Green Soup Recipe
Click here for Bonnie’s Organic Vegetable Broth Recipe
Click on the picture below to view the PBS TV presentation of Eat, Fast and Live Longer by Michael Mosley.
Eat, Fast and Live Longer – Horizon from Steve Hartman on Vimeo.