After a bit of a weight loss hiatus, it is time to start losing the weight again.
In the spirit of full disclosure, I wound up having to go to the hospital at the end of June. I made the mistake of reintroducing food too quickly, and too plentifully after an extended fast. Long story short, I wound up suffering from refeeding syndrome. I felt weird and woozy after my breakfast but it cleared up in about a half hour. I felt fine for the rest of the day. That was until dinner. I ate too much food too quickly. In hindsight I should have left my eating for the day after breakfast. But after not eating for a week I really wanted a good meal. That was a HUGE mistake. I let my irrational stomach take over my rational brain. Within 10-15 minutes of finishing…. Errr, inhaling my meal, I felt very faint and light headed, everything around me became extremely distorted and muffled. I had a hard time focusing. I felt drunk or stoned. My BP crashed to 87/61, my heart rate jumped to 108 BPM. I told my wife I don’t feel well, then I wound up passing out at the dinner table. Twice. She said that I turned grey before my head fell forward and I slumped onto the table. I then started convulsing. To me, I felt like I was in a dream or deep sleep. I guess I was, kind of. After I came too, I was completely alert again and realized that my wife was on the phone with 911. I told her I did not need an ambulance and to just drive me to the hospital that was 10 minutes away. She took me to the emergency promptly.
I had a bunch of blood work done, and an ECG when I got there. It turns out I was very dehydrated, and my electrolytes were out of balance. When I introduced food back into my system, my body now had a choice. Where does the blood go? Stomach or brain? So, because my body needed the nourishment it chose stomach. The doctor in the ER was actually very understanding of fasting. I was expecting the usual line of “That is bad and you shouldn’t do that”, but nothing of the sort. He said that mine was a classic story of Orthostatic Syncope caused by refeeding syndrome. He also said that because I woke up alert, it was a good sign that it was not a stroke or seizure. I guess doing the “funky chicken” as he called it was because of my electrolytes being out of whack. My body was essentially misfiring. So for all the ordeal it was the best of the bad news. An IV drip and I was on my way in about 4 hours. Lesson learned.
After all this, I made the decision of no more long fasts. I also thought that I might have lost too much weight too quickly. My system needed to rebalance, and get use to the new changes. It had been through A LOT in a few months. So, we went on a holding pattern. In the end it was a great learning tool. I was doing 24-36 hour fasts 3 times a week and a 8/16 for the other days. I learned how to maintain my weight. It is the first time in my life I have not put back on all the weight I had lost. After a few bumps and slips, I was able to keep the weight within a 10 lbs range. I consider this an enormous personal success.
I started my next journey mid last week. I was at about 410lbs (stupid me, I forgot to weigh in). I went back on to low carb eating and just completed a 3 day fast to kickstart my system. I am now down to 402lbs and am poised to break out of the 400’s for the first time since January 17, 2017 (Apple Health is a wonderful record keeper). I reintroduced slowly this time. A small salad and some tuna. I will have a SMALL dinner with a bit of roast beef, cauliflower rice, and a roasted onion. That will be it. Then back on a 24hr cycle till I am back at work. From there we will see if it is a 24, 36, 48, or 72hr fast.
You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take. It is time for the next wind up. I am feeling positive. I am feeling healthy. I am feeling strong. The adventure continues…..
The Life of Craig 