Cholesterol scare. 5 day water fast prepare!
32, F, cholesterol of 6.6, height, 166cm SW 104kg, CW, 102.4kg. GW: 60kg (someday maybe lol) stage: Prefast.
I like fasting. I have done 50+ now and it helped me to loose weight. I haven’t fasted in over 2 years realistically and I put on weight in a new relationship (you know).
Things I am doing differently this time:
Preparing for fast - I actually think physically and mentally preparing is so key for a healthy fast from everything I’m reading.
Watching things called “saturated fats”
Planning refeeding - celery juice here I come, the plant based bone broth lol!
Distilled and bottled water only (no coffee, supplements, electrolytes). I actually have been drinking some incredible water. My country has amazing tap water that is super clean. Set up very nicely for some good quality water.
moving my body much much more. I’m a strong lady, good back on me, I don’t and will not let people carry things for me!
making it spiritual. I’m not religious or Christian. But mindfulness, meditation and being grateful for all the privileges that make it possible for me to be able to stop eating and afford the quality food I need to sustain my body going forward.
Notes on prep: Four days ago I stopped all non water herb tea and black coffee from being my drinks. I also switched to whole food plant based with a focus on low saturated fat. I moved from 3 meals to 1 and have been doing OMAD for 3 days with oodles of water.
After a lot of research I’m going to include training 6 out of seven days which will include: 1) spin class 2)short (not max) weights with focus on upper and lower on alternate days. Along with a dog walk every day. My mind, my body and my spirit need the reset.
After the 5 days I will do days reseeding for 3 days (OMAD, wholefood, juices-> soup -> hearty plant based meals) and hop into a 2 day fast and back into a 6 day window of preparation for a 12 day water fast with 6 day carefully planned referring with freshly squeezed green juices, following this protocol for 90 days.
Long term: ideally I would fast 2 days a week, 18:6 til Friday and then forget I fast at all at the weekends. Would ideally like to leave drinking altogether or the majority of time and move to 90% plant based whole foods for substance (no more processed foods and a careful eye on sat fats).
To be honest the cholesterol terrified me. I am really really trying hard to change this stat. It’s like a firm kick up the arse.
At the end of January I’m back to the doctor, blood tests etc. let’s see if I can turn my health around in the next 90 days and build a great foundation for the rest of my life. I am so committed to this and my friends and family are 100% behind me!
Have already started the gym protocol and it is fun. The spin classes are a dream for me. I love how overwhelming the loud music, dark room and instructions are. Not to worried about pushing myself to death, or burning loads of calories, just more getting the blood flowing good and the light and bright weight session is just to maintain some of the muscle that has been lugging me around!
NB - I really like myself and my body, I have nothing but love for it and I even like the way I look, it would feel better to move slimmer and I know it is more healthy so I am moving towards this, but I am looking at this all as the kindest and most effective way to protect my life and body from heart attack, stroke and cancer from Obesity. I have also trained very hard in the past and have lots of experience doing very hard and long training sessions, the spin and weights are light for me, I rowed for a long time and with weightloss would like to get back into a competitive boat
TL;DR: got fat and lazy, ate cheese everyday all day, now doing a 90 day reset with fasting and exercise!
Do you know why your cholesterol increased and have you had full blood work done?As someone whose cholesterol increased 18 months ago, ascertaining the root cause of what caused it to spike was instrumental in me bringing it back down. In my case it was high triglycerides caused by excess alcohol consumption, my food diet was ok. Cutting the drink brought my cholesterol back down. It’s individual but full blood work helped a lot
A tip if I may - there are some conflicting theories out there, regarding how cholesterol levels work. You may want to at least look into what the alternative theories are saying, before deciding to go with the one that says consuming less saturated fat is the way to go.
Good for you!
I don’t personally worry about cholesterol, readings go up and down so much for me. But that’s in the context of an overall healthy lifestyle - mine was also higher when vegetarian, btw.
But wanted to say that once weekly 36 hour fasting with normal eating on the other days dropped my bad cholesterol so much it shocked the doctor, and I’d not lost weight, the result was literally from the fasting, not weight loss. Without the long fasts now, weight stays a little lower and much more comfortable lifestyle but cholesterol back up.
As someone else said- get further testing before freaking out.