I thought it would be fun to start a writing challenge, exercise our creative chops and start getting in the habit of consistently writing. I’d love to write every day but you and I both know, that ain’t happenin’, so, next best thing? A weekly challenge!
You can check out the full deets here, but in essence, the challenge for this month is to write a novelette – which is a 7,500 to 19,000 word count length story. I’m personally going to write one story from four different perspectives just because I have a fascination for those types of stories and want to try one myself.
And these “rules” are just guidelines – if you want to do something different, by all means, go for it. The objective is to just write – however that looks for you.
This week’s writing prompt is:
Pandemic!
I know, not exactly original but our lives have been so out-of-control this past year, let’s take a bit of that control back and write a story about either the pandemic we’re currently experiencing, or make up a pandemic – how are people behaving? What sort of symptoms are your characters experiencing? Whenever I have something on my mind, like this crazy pandemic, I find that it’s helpful to “purge” it from my thoughts by writing about it.
Come back on Friday, 5-7-21, and leave a link to your story. I’m looking forward to reading your work!
Well. It has begun. The threat to fire people if they don’t get the jab. I think this might be the beginning of the end for me.
A hospital in Houston Texas has made a line in the sand – get the jab on or before June 7th or lose your job. The article states that 4 out of 5 employees have gotten the jab and “One hospital administrator said that getting vaccinated is a part of the sacred oath healthcare to do everything possible to keep patients safe and healthy.”
On one hand, I totally get that. You don’t want to inadvertently make someone in the hospital even more sick by introducing a virus to an already compromised immune system. Also:
“As the first rule of the Hippocratic Oath is: do no harm, vaccine safety must be guaranteed. That has not yet happened. More studies of the vaccine’s safety and efficacy should be conducted and published and more transparency about possible risks provided to the public before Americans enter the largest experimental medication program in our history.” Source
But on the other hand, I have a lot of questions. And the fact that we rolled this out, so quickly, with no trials, under Emergency Use for a disease that has a 99.5% recovery rate for a person of my age, seems … excessive.
I’m not willing to be a human Guinea pig. I would prefer to wait and see what the long-term repercussions will be, if any, and would like to see some successful trials first before considering the “vaccine.” In addition, I’m not totally comfortable with the mRNA factor of this “vaccine” and the fact that it contains little to no dead Coronavirus is enough for me to say, “No thanks.”
If you don’t know a lot about the experimental injectable, and why would you? The media continues to do a bang-up job of keeping information from the public, I encourage you to read the white paper on experimental vaccines for COVID-19 published by the American Frontline Doctors. It has a lot of interesting, and informative, information about this injectable that everyone has a right know. It’s not called “informed consent” for nothing, folks.
From the American Frontline Doctors’ website:
“There have been many post-vaccination questions. We will keep adding Q/A to this list. The fundamental problem with releasing medications that have not been fully researched is we don’t know what we don’t know. AFLDS is highly concerned about what we don’t know!” Source
And that’s my biggest hesitation – WE SIMPLY DON’T KNOW ENOUGH ABOUT THIS TO ENCOURAGE MILLIONS OF PEOPLE TO GET IT.
Why are people like me being demonized simply because we have questions??
My being against this experimental injectable does not mean I’m an anti-vaxxer – in fact, I daresay MOST people who are refusing to take the jab are not anti-vaxxers, we, – I – am simply asking for more information and for the vaccine to be run through it’s normal paces and treated as every other vaccine that is out there and approved by the FDA. I am all for vaccines for polio, small pox, measles, etc., overall Those diseases are way more serious than COVID, at least according to research and statistics at the time of this writing, and it makes sense to stop those more serious diseases in their tracks. But this virus, though deadly to some, overall, is not as deadly to all.
And if I’ve learned anything at all in healthcare – there is no one size fits all answer when it comes to people’s health. Healthcare is a pretty shade of grey – it’s not black and white.
I am not criticizing people who have gotten the jab. I am not trying to scare people who have gotten the jab – you have made the decision that you think is right for you and your family. Awesome. That’s how it should be. I respect your decision – please respect mine.
And if this issue stopped there, you wouldn’t be reading this post right now. But, if you’ve been reading my blog for any length of time, I don’t tend to go quietly into the night on stuff that I’m passionate about.
I respect people’s rights to make their own decisions and live their best lives. I may not always agree with people’s decisions but who cares, I’m nobody. Ultimately, it’s none of my business what you do in your life – your decision, your consequence.
However –
Once you take my right to choose away, IT’S ON LIKE DONKEY KONG. And that’s how I feel about this whole vaccine passport and mandatory vaccines at work issue.
When you force people to do what you want and if they don’t you will penalize them in some way, that’s called coercion.
And I don’t respond well to this type of bullying.
Also, what happened to “my body, my choice?” Where are all the pro-lifers out there? Why aren’t they throwing a fit because the government is threatening lifestyle choices, (no cruises, no sporting events, no concerts – no job), unless you take the jab? So, it’s only my body, my choice under certain circumstances? That doesn’t make sense. You can’t pick and choose your definitions.
At least, you shouldn’t be able to – though to be fair, people do it all the time.
At this point in time, the hospital where I work put out a statistic that 56% of employees at my hospital have gotten the jab. I’m not too worried right now, however, if that percentage gets into the 80% range, I will start sweating. Because right now, there are too many employees that haven’t been vaccinated and don’t want to take the chance they could potentially lose them. They can’t afford to lose 40% of their staff, assuming most of the unvaccinated quit. But if that percentage of employees that get vaccinated gets to be 80% or above? Then my employer has more leverage.
Another factor in my favor – there is a pretty severe shortage of medical personnel out there. More and more people are NOT choosing to go into healthcare so the supply is low but the demand continues to go up, so I’m hoping that is another factor that will discourage my employer from issuing a “get the injectable or else” threat.
So what are my plans if/when we reach that point?
*sigh*
Depends. If it gets super nasty and I have very little choices, Kevin and I have talked about consulting a lawyer to find out what my rights are. The American Frontline doctors has a link on their site that will pair me up with a local lawyer for a small fee and we might start there. I can’t really fight this until I find out what my legal rights are.
And maybe I won’t really have any – especially since I work in healthcare and the rules are a bit different given the nature of the “business.” And if that’s the case, then so be it, I guess I won’t be a healthcare worker any longer. For if it comes down to either being coerced into the getting the jab to keep my job or having to quit in order to protect my body from God knows what, then I guess I’ll have to quit.
I don’t want to. I really enjoy my job and I feel I’m quite good at my job, and I wouldn’t draw that line in the sand solely due to principal, though that would be a big part of my decision, but largely because I don’t want to play Russian Roulette with my body. Sure. I could get the jab and it’s highly likely that I will be just fine, but considering all we DON’T know, no one can say that with 100% certainty and the fact that the disease has such a high recovery rate, I would prefer to take my chances on suffering through the disease and taking medications that we KNOW help the symptoms of the disease than stick my arm out for a technology that hasn’t been tested and “experts” really don’t know a lot about.
Not to mention, assuming life will go back to normal. Which I know is a big reason a lot of people are getting the “vaccine.” Not because people believe it in it or are scared of the disease but simply because they want life to get back to normal. And I get that. I want to burn these damn masks and be able to freely go where I want to go without people giving me the evil eye or work on the assumption that if they get too close to me they might die.
But life is NOT getting back to normal. We still have these stupid masks mandates, we still have to social distance, we’re still not allowed to do much outside of our jobs so … even if I was absolutely okay with getting the jab, got it and life remained the same, WHAT’S THE POINT?
Anyway. I’m nervous. I feel like this might be the beginning of the end of my healthcare chapter and I’m mentally preparing myself to make changes – the only question is when? I HOPE it doesn’t happen for quite a few years, I was HOPING we wouldn’t have to address this issue for quite a few years, but when I saw that article about the Houston hospital, I really think my days are numbered. It’s too bad I’m not closer to retirement age, I would just retire early, but I’m not there yet. I still have about ten years left before that makes financial sense.
*sigh*
Who knows what is going to happen. For now, I’m just taking one day at a time because really, what else can we do??
Sorry, I should have warned you to wear sunglasses for May’s bullet journal cover. But it’s bright and cheery and I feel like that’s what we need right now because the world is dreary and crazy and needs to lighten up. Can I get an Amen?
Anyway – HI! I’m back from the dead. Actually, no I’m not. I was sick for about ten-ish days with a wicked sinus … whatever, but it’s gone now and I’m feeling good. I still can’t smell, but I can taste so we’re making progress. I have no idea if I had COVID. If I did, my symptoms were all in my sinuses and not in my lungs, thank God, but who knows. You can’t trust the tests, you can’t trust vaccines, you can’t trust the CDC because the story changes on a daily basis – all I can do is live my best life. And that’s what I’m doing now.
So I apologize for being MIA for nearly the entire month of April. I just couldn’t bring myself to blog after work – my brain was pure mush. Whatever I had sapped the energy right out of me and I was sooooo freaking tired, more so than usual. However, I really want to stay ahead of the blogging game this month because we’re about to be three MA’s short at work and I’m going to be consistently working three clinics per week, then frantically returning phone calls and working messages, preparing for upcoming clinics and making sure patients are scheduled for appointments and testing after clinics, (i.e. cleaning up clinics), and most likely earning overtime so … it’s going to be a rough month. Probably a rough summer, but whatever, one day at a time.
But more on that craziness as it develops.
Back to bullet journaling. Prepare yourselves for PURE AWESOMENESS:
Peek-a-boo, I see you! Here is my cover page and my steps tracker. I’m actually pretty proud of my steps tracker – I got a lot of steps in this month considering I felt like walking excrement. Notice the construction paper strip on the right-hand side that says steps? Well, that wasn’t my attempt at being craft, that was me covering up one of hundreds of mistakes I make when I put these bullet journals together. I put a piece of washi tape down and then tried to write on it. WOW – it really didn’t work and looked like garbage, so I put that paper down to cover it up. I sort of like it, truth be known. And I really want to put some tabs, or some sort of marker in my journals so I can flip through to past months.
I mean, I say that, but it won’t actually happen because let’s be honest, I don’t really have any interest in flipping back, I’m always a thinking-into-the-future-sort-of-gal. I live in the future, I definitely do not have any desire to go backwards in life.
(Hence the reason I have never, and will never, attend any of my high school reunions. I mean – WHY?? That was part of my life that has been firmly lived and I’m not even the same person I was in high school).
Don’t ask me why I put that funky pattern at the bottom – I was feeling CRAFTY, leave me alone.
Weather and sleep tracker – nothing special here. Moving on.
My habit and mood trackers. Gads, it just makes me sad when I see how empty my habit trackers are. Once again, not ONE SQUARE filled in for my fiction. Which means, I SUCKED at the April Camp NaNoWriMo. *sigh* Ah well, there’s always July.
And though I got quite a few steps this month at work, I didn’t fill in one square on my walking tracker because I’m using the walking tracker for when I am putting on my spandex, (now THERE’S a scary image, eh?), plugging in my bluetooth earbuds and walking either on the treadmill or outside. Which, now that the weather is getting nicer, I plan on doing that.
Any my journal tracker? Yep. It’s that bare. I only wrote it in a handful of times. But in my defense, how many times can I write, “I feel like crap and just want to bury my head under the covers and do nothing” before it gets old? Exactly.
(Side note: I’m pretty sure I got that sinus crap from being forced to wear a mask all day every day at work. Think about it – how can there NOT be some sort of repercussion from wearing a face mask and breathing my moist C02 all day? How?!?)
My mood tracker – no, your eyes are not deceiving you – those are indeed bunnies and squirrels. Yes, I’m a grown-ass woman, hush. But it was Easter month and I had bunnies on the brain. (Clearly). My moods were: happy, annoyed, meh, tired, fed up and sick. I don’t know, there is something relaxing about coloring in something after a long day of work. Anyhoo – I had a lot of annoyed days – which about sums up my working life.
My podcast/videos, reading and writing trackers. Again, sad state of affairs. I did read five books this month but I’m not surprised by that – that is the only thing I had energy for this past month. I only recorded two out of the four podcasts I had planned – again, because I was sick and I lost my voice for a bit as well, so …
I want to post short update videos at some point, that’s what I’m thinking with the videos portion – though to be fair, I do film our Right From Us podcast with my husband Kevin and we did just post a cooking with us video trying out Hello Fresh that I’ll post soon, so I guess technically, I should list those under videos. But I downloaded the TikTok app to my phone, and started another Instagram account for just my blog that I would like to try out. I’m still learning the apps though. And can you only post live Instagram stories? I would rather record them and then put them on my blog, I don’t really want to go live, but whatever, I’ll figure it out. So if you see random videos of me popping up on the blog this month, you’ve been warned.
We won’t talk about my writing tracker. *sad face*
And another very sad tracker – I’m trying to go through and list my blog and Patreon posts for the month so that I’m not sitting down after a long day of work and trying to figure out what the heck I’m going to post about. I’m going to continue this idea and it will hopefully look much better at the end of May.
Okay – I need to jump into the shower and get ready for my hair appointment today. I’m getting my grays colored and my hair trimmed and I’m bracing myself for another $100 bill. It makes me physically sick to pay that much for my hair but I’m too lazy to find another stylist and the one I go to is literally less than two miles away from my house so it’s super convenient. I got spoiled with my old stylist – I loved her, she did a great job and only charged me about $50 bucks to do my hair (though I usually gave her a pretty generous tip). Sadly, her salon couldn’t sustain the lockdowns, (thanks government – idiots) and they closed down last December. I’ve only been to this hairstylist once and she did a great job but wow, she’s expensive. Thankfully, I only go to the salon four times a year, yep, you read that correctly, every 12 weeks, so it’s not THAT bad, I know a lot of people go way more often than that.
Goodbye April and hello May. Be nicer to me, will you?
Your turn – have you been bullet journaling? Share links of your pages or tell me how it’s going in the comments!
Literally. I’m literally sick and tired. This is the biggest reason I’ve been quiet this past week – I’ve felt like crap.
It started on Wednesday. I had a little bit of a cough. And my chest felt heavy. I never had difficulty breathing, but I definitely felt chest pressure. And mind-numbing fatigue. By Thursday, my sinuses were completely clogged and I felt like crap. Still went to work, but it was rough.
Friday was a bit better, but not by much.
Do I have COVID? Who knows, maybe? But most likely, it’s a head cold. I know it’s hard for some people to believe, but it IS possible to have something other than COVID.
Today? I feel … ick. Sinuses are still pretty clogged but at the same time, I have a runny nose and though I’m still coughing, it’s only occasionally and my voice sounds really croaky. I doubt I do a podcast tonight because my smoker’s voice is not cute.
I’m rarely sick. Like, EVER sick. So this took me by surprise. I was prone to sinus infections for a number of years but then I discovered nose spray, Zicam and hot liquids. (Tip: Routinely burn the back of your throat. Don’t give yourself third degree burns, but hot enough for it to be uncomfortable. I have found that really helps burn off any bacteria that might be camping out).
Yep. I went to work even though I felt like dog shit. I haven’t called in ONCE in the ten years I’ve been with the clinic. I didn’t call in because I didn’t want to ruin that record, (though to be honest, I did think about that), but rather, I wasn’t sick enough to stay home. I guess I should define my reason for staying home – when I can’t walk upright.
On one hand, I probably should stay home when I feel like this. I don’t want to pass this on to someone else. And I would have, if I thought what I have is contagious, (but what if it was COVID, Karen?? Huh? Huh? Chances are, it isn’t, so calm your self righteous self down), but on the other hand, I’m tough enough to deal with it and in fact, getting up, taking a hot shower, distracting myself at work, does wonders – I usually feel way better by the end of the day whereas staying home I would have been focusing on my poor little self and wallowing in my sickness.
I feel like most people nowadays use any excuse, at all, to stay home. People don’t tough it out anymore, they call in “sick” if they have a headache, or the sniffles, or cramps or … whatever. I don’t know, maybe they’re telling the truth. Maybe their headache is a migraine, or their sniffles is a sinus infection, or their cramps are so severe they CAN’T walk upright, who am I to judge their motives? But judging by the work ethic of most people nowadays, I am suspicious.
And I don’t really care – do what you want. But it DOES put more stress on the poor saps you left to cover for you and do your work for you.
It’s just something to consider the next time you’re tempted to call into work. I’m just saying.
I started my OMAD fast this week. For those that don’t know, OMAD stands for “One meal a day.” I’ve determined that for me, my feeding window (I always feel like a cow whenever I talk about my “feeding” window – moo), is 3:00 – 7:00 PM. That way, I can still eat dinner with Kevin. And it’s every day, not every other day, or three times a week like I’ve been doing for the past 18 months. So, I fast 20 hours a day, every day.
I started it on Monday and it was rough. I was never so glad to see 3:00 PM roll around that I ate about two meals in four hours and felt SO SICK afterward. Lesson learned – I won’t do that again. But since I’ve been sick for the majority of the week and NOT HUNGRY, it hasn’t been that bad. I’m getting used to it now. And for the past two days, it hasn’t been a big deal, at all. I have been drinking water with sea salt though and I think that helps.
But being sick, it got me to thinking – is fasting GOOD for you when you’re sick? Does it help heal you faster?
Good question, if I say so myself. Ha!
I’ve also heard, or read somewhere, that when you fast and start burning fat, that you can release a virus, or some sort of sickness, that was trapped in your fat and get released when you burn that fat so that is why you feel sort of sick when you start a program designed to burn fat.
I have no idea if that is true, but it sort of makes sense to me.
So. I don’t know. I don’t know there is a hard and “fast” rule (see what I did there?) to whether you should Fast or not when you’re sick. You just have to do what feels right for your body, I suppose.
All I know is, fasting feels right for me and if I can improve my heart health and avoid brain disease, like Alzheimer’s, and extend my life expectancy, then I plan on continuing it.
Now. It’s 3:00 o’clock and time to break my fast.
Your turn. What do you think? Do you Fast? Do you Fast when you’re sick? Why, or why not?
ADDED: I just thought of something – what if I’m feeling sick because I wear a mask to work all day every day? I think, eventually, it’s going to come out that wearing masks cause respiratory issues. Mark my words.
Did you hear Jill and Joe address the nation on Easter? You have a “moral obligation” to get the vaccine. They didn’t say anything about Jesus. How disrespectful. BLM coordinator buys a 1.4 million dollar house with the donations made to the organization. Where is the outrage? One in three people are diagnosed with psychiatric issues after COVID – or more likely, from being locked down for over a year. Book review this week is “An Unfinished Story” by Boo Walker and I share a little bit about me, the person behind the microphone.
I know. Life is rough right now. So many “experts” telling you what to do, where to go, who to see. Get the vaccine, (or more accurately, the experimental injectable) or not get the vaccine – that is the question everyone is asking. Follow the crowd or assert your independence and refuse to conform? Who do we listen to? WHY would we listen to someone who doesn’t really care about us? Who is telling the truth and who is lying?
AND WHEN CAN WE GET BACK TO NORMAL LIFE?
Or, is this our new normal?
Who do we trust? Where do we go for some peace? What is real and what is fake?
I can’t answer these questions for you – all I can say is that the majority of the information you’re being exposed to is a lie and to encourage you to seek alternative news sources and get ALL the information before making decisions that will affect you and your family.
However, I can offer a bit of hope. A resource, if you will, that will honestly help calm your fears and smear a soothing salve on your soul.
The Bible.
HEAR ME OUT!
Before you go rolling your eyes or sticking your nose up in the air thinking, “oh great, another religious wacko” consider this – what’s the harm in looking into God and His wonderful book of life?
“There is a plethora of reasons why understanding the Bible is crucial for everyone, from the new believer to the seasoned scholar. There is not a person alive who doesn’t stand to reap some benefit from knowing, understanding, and applying the principles of the Bible. Here are just a few reasons why understanding the Bible is so crucial:
It Empowers Us for Right-Living The Bible offers countless wise missives, instructions, and clear warnings on what to embrace and what to avoid in order to live a blessed, successful life. Understanding these things—why they matter to God, why they should matter to us, and how to structure our lives by them—is absolutely crucial to living both an abundant life and one pleasing to God. Without grasping this, at best we’re subject to the tailwinds of the world’s ever-changing notion of morality, which offers no tangible guarantee of joy, salvation, or righteousness. To live right, and live well, we must derive these things at their very definition from the Bible.
It Gives us a Framework to Understand the World Without a firm grasp of what the Bible says about the age we live in, the spiritual forces at work, and who and what we are up against, we can very easily become despondent, confused, and angry as struggles come our way. Thankfully, the Bible very clearly lays out the truth about the spiritual battle raging around us, the enemy in charge of this fallen world, and the role believers can and should play in the fight. To understand the battle and stand our ground in it, we must fully grasp the nuances of the world’s state both spiritually and physically as explained in the Bible.
It Demystifies Difficult Realities The spiritual battle is not the only aspect of life that’s difficult to understand—nor is it the only one the Bible explains! The problem of evil, sin, and suffering, why bad things happen to good people, why things seem to get worse rather than better around the world, why man is even here, why God’s Son had to die a horrific death, why there were certain cultures God ordered His people to wipe off the map—these are all very deep, very difficult realities to contend with. Even a surface reading of Scripture may not be enough to fully grasp the intricacies and necessities of these subjects. That’s why we can’t just read the Bible—it’s important to understand it. To have a clear, logical outlook on why so many things have come to pass the way they did and continue to, we must dive in deep and do the hard work to grasp the meaning and reasoning laid out in the Bible.
It Elucidates the Past, Present, and Future There are countless details of history, the current atmosphere, and the coming future that can’t be truly explained without a scriptural framework. Some things have happened and are happening that had to fall into place in a certain way due to the Messiah’s coming over 2000 years ago; similarly, some things still must come to pass in order for all of God’s purposes to play out. Understanding these purposes—not to mention what’s happened, why it’s happened, and what still must—helps us to not become embroiled in guesswork and conjecture, but to live our lives with a proper perspective of the days and seasons in God’s hands. To fathom the truth of the past, make the most of our time now, and have hope no matter what comes, we must view all of history through the perspective laid out in the Bible.
When we Misunderstand the Bible, It’s Easier to Misunderstand the One Who Authored It Circling back around to where we started, let’s touch again on the heartache that comes from an author misunderstood. When we stay high-level with Scripture, doing a cursory reading without making the diligent effort to dig in and truly understand it, we are building a house of cards on a sandy shore. Anything could come along and blow our beliefs down or rip the floor out from under it. We also run the risk of constructing an improper view of God when we don’t make it a point to truly understand His Word, which can lead to all sorts of pain—from legalism to loose-living, from hyper-judgementalism to hyper-tolerance, from loving Him without the proper respect to hating Him outright. Countless extremes spring from simply misunderstanding the heart of God as He laid it out for us in the Bible. To fully understand the Author, we must understand the blueprint He laid for us: the Bible, His very Word.”
With all the craziness that is our world right now, we have a God that loves and cares about us – ABOUT YOU. He only wants the best for you and who offers hope and light during these dark times. A lot of people have been deeply affected by this past year – it’s been rough – and it’s nice to know there is a resource out there that can help lighten our personal burden.
Listening to “experts” and the government is not helpful, nor is it encouraging. But God, now He’s someone you can rely on, who will NEVER let you down and promises everlasting life.
Sounds like a pretty good deal to me.
I hope you’ll consider checking Him out. What do you have to lose? (Answer: Nothing).
I started fasting in November 2019. Right before Thanksgiving. Probably the WORST time to fast. But what can I say? I’m an idiot.
It’s been a while since I’ve talked about my fasting journey. But for those of you curious, yes, I’m still doing it and could probably do it better, but my goal was never to lose weight, per se, but to feel comfortable in my skin. To not have to be uncomfortable in my clothes because I’ve made a vow to myself, I will not buy bigger clothes.
PERIOD.
My Fasting schedule is: I Fast for 24-hours on Sunday, Tuesdays and Thursdays. Why those days? No specific reasons, those days just work better for me. So, for example: I eat dinner on Saturday night about 6:00 PM. I will then not eat again until 6:00 PM Sunday night. I’m giving my intestines 24 hours to rest and my glucose to drop to zero. Am I hungry? Yes. But it’s not bad and I’ve gotten used to it, to be honest. I think the biggest reason I feel hungry is because my brain has been programmed to turn on my hunger hormone at the “normal” eating times and I just need to re-program it. Which takes time.
But honestly, I’m not really that hungry anymore. And I try to only eat when I’m hungry on “feeding” days. I don’t know why we have all been brought up to believe that we have to eat three meals a day. No, actually, we don’t. And in fact, it’s better if we DON’T do that.
Have I accomplished Fasting goal? Yes – sort of. But it has been a BUMPY road and I learned A LOT about my body in the process. More on that later.
First and foremost, if you’re thinking of starting a fasting program, talk to your doctor. Especially if you have any underlying health conditions, specifically, diabetes. Fasting messes with your blood sugars, in fact, that’s what fasting is, in a nutshell, it lowers your glucose level to virtually zero so that your body has no choice but to tap into your fat reserves, so if you’re diabetic … well, you can see the problem. So check with your doctor before starting something like this.
First of all, what is fasting? Dr. Jason Fung is a doctor one our neurosurgeons at work refers patients to. Well, he doesn’t refer them to him, he encourages people to look him up and watch his videos. Here’s Dr. Fung talking about what to expect when you start a Fasting regiment.
My comments:
Headaches or Dizziness
Yes. I have experienced, and sometimes still experience dizziness. And I’m pretty sure it’s lack of sodium. I don’t really like salt and prefer my food to be salt free so on Fasting days, I drink a glass of water with sea salt and it not only helps curb my appetite for that day, but I have noticed a decrease in dizziness. And it should be sea salt, not the iodinized table salt.
I have also bought bone broth and warmed it up at work to drink on Fasting days. This helps with hunger and I’m hoping the collagen in bone broth will smooth a few wrinkles in the process. (Hey, let me wallow in my self-delusion, please).
2. Bowel Changes
The change in bowel patterns – erhm – I’m going to keep this brief because NO ONE is interested in how many times I go to the bathroom, but I will say, that yes, that definitely changes when you Fast. However, I take magnesium supplements on Fasting days not only for constipation, but it also helps my stress levels. It helps calm me down and I’ve definitely noticed a difference since taking it.
3. Insomnia
I have experienced a bit of insomnia. But since I’ve cut all caffeine out of my diet, this is not as big of an issue as it used to be. I didn’t cut caffeine out of my diet because of Fasting, but because I was having a lot of heart palpitations. Cutting caffeine really helped with that but what REALLY helped my palpitations was taking potassium supplements. Ever since I’ve done that, my palpitations nearly disappeared. (Some of the palpitations was due to stress/anxiety, which I have from time-to-time when my body can’t take anymore and then it just sort of manifests. Fun stuff).
He mentions Blue-Block for insomnia. I actually bought, and am wearing now, Blue-Block glasses I bought from Zenni.com. Do they help? Meh – jury is still out but I would like to think they are helping my eyes as I stare at either a computer screen, a phone screen or my Kindle screen all day long. I DO think it helps with eye fatigue.
4. Heartburn
OH. MY. GOSH. YESSSSSS. I definitely experience heartburn. Especially when coming off a Fast. I went through a period of time when I drank Apple Cider Vinegar, not so much for the heartburn but because it also helps with hunger pangs. Thankfully, heartburn doesn’t happen very often and when it does, I just chew on the Alka-Seltzer heartburn tablets and that takes care of it.
The beauty of Fasting is that it’s completely customizable. You can follow any schedule you want. For me, Sundays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays just seem to work the best. I knew I didn’t want to skip Friday or Saturday nights because those are our “date nights.” Kevin and I go out to dinner on those nights.
I will say, that starting out is hard. And start small, by the way. Don’t start with OMAD (one meal a day) or alternate day Fasting. Try skipping breakfast and eat lunch and dinner to begin with. Or, eat breakfast and lunch and skip dinner. Whatever fits into your lifestyle. And then gradually, lengthen your Fasting window. Skip breakfast and lunch and only eat dinner, for example.
Another tip – DON’T DRINK SODA OR OTHER SUGARY DRINKS. I can’t even tell you how MUCH this helps. Those drinks are good and addicting because they are liquid sugar. And sugar is addicting. Also, cut down your carbs. I try not to eat much bread. And I LOVE bread. But again, it helps. Bread gives you a lot of belly fat because of the yeast, which is also in beer, hence, a “beer gut.”
As Dr. Fung said, consistency is key when you Fast. But it’s a lifestyle choice and change and it’s not always easy. Let’s break down the reasons people fail when they try Fasting according to Dr. Eric Berg.
Never Start
It seems “unnatural” to not eat. So it’s a mental shift away from what we’ve been taught our whole lives. In order to survive, you must eat. And sure, that’s true, but skipping a meal or two doesn’t equate starvation. “You’re switching food fuel with fat fuel.”
2. Feel Worse
Yes. I won’t lie. When I started my Fasting journey, the third day WAS AWFUL. I was dizzy, a little out-of-my head and I felt like my stomach was going to eat itself. I believe I broke my Fast a bit early that day because I was so miserable. But I didn’t give up. The fourth day wasn’t as bad and after a while, it wasn’t that big of a deal. I still have hunger pangs but I just ignore them most of the time. I found out, the hard way, that most of my struggles were due to vitamin and mineral deficiencies. When I started taking potassium and started drinking water with sea salt, my symptoms went down SIGNIFICANTLY. I also eat a lot of eggs on my feeding days and raising my vitamin B levels also really helped. So, learn from my mistake – keep your electrolytes up, it’s important.
3. Don’t Lose Weight
I dropped about 20 pounds in three months. And then … nothing. Now granted, I haven’t been as active as I need to be. Remember, I’m either sitting on my butt reading or I’m sitting on my butt blogging or checking my Patreon, so I’m quite confident when I start my walking back up, I’ll drop some more pounds. But the fact that I dropped that much weight right off the bat was very encouraging. And people at work noticed and were encouraging, that really helped me to stick to the plan. And remember, my weight loss goal was just to feel comfortable in my skin, not necessarily to get down to a size zero. Not because I didn’t want to be smaller but because I don’t want the stress of staying that size. Staying overly big or overly small takes a lot of work and quite frankly, life is too short to want to deprive myself of the small pleasures all so I can stay overly small. No thanks.
I also Fast to repair my internal organs. And it’s healthier for your brain which studies have shown help prevent Alzheimer’s and other brain diseases. And it also prolongs your life expectancy. There are A LOT of health benefits of Fasting, not just weight loss and to be honest, those benefits are more important to me than being stick thin.
4. People Discourage You
“You’re not starving your body, you’re just shifting what fuel you’re running off of.” Dr. Berg says when you eat is more important than what you eat. I found this interesting and encouraging. Insulin is triggered by carbs and frequent eating. I wish I had known this stuff when I was in my 20’s. I think a lifetime of Fasting would have made my life a little easier now that I’m in the my 50’s. It’s not too late, but if you’re reading this and you’re younger, I encourage you to look more into this alternative. I recommend watching Autumn Bates and Fledge Fitness YouTube channels. They are both GREAT resources on what Fasting is, how to implement in your life and the science behind the lifestyle.
So. I’m sorry if you clicked on this post thinking you were going to get a before and after picture. Honestly, I WISH I had taken a before picture but again, my goal wasn’t merely to lose weight but to feel better on the inside and the outside. I think I’ve accomplished that but I’m ready to amp it up another notch. I’d like to start OMAD (one meal a day). I’m close to doing that now. Even on my feeding days, I have been trying to stick to my fruit smoothie in the morning, skip lunch and then eat dinner. My fruit smoothie is:
Handful of Pineapple One banana Greek yogurt One scoop of protein powder One cup of Almond milk Handful of Strawberries
It tastes like liquid ice cream. I LOVE them. I drink them three times a week right before work and that will, most times, curb my hunger and I don’t eat lunch. I hate to give them up, but I suppose I could drink them as “desert” after dinner.
At any rate – I want to try OMAD and of course, start moving more. I have been walking a few times around the hospital during the weekday and I’ve been averaging about 7000 to 9000 steps per day. It’s better than nothing.
So Fasting is not a fad for me, it’s a lifestyle. One that I really don’t have any intentions of stopping. The trick is finding a schedule that fits in with your life.
It’s a personal journey and one I hope you will look into and try.
Write From Karen 