Intermittent fasting trial

As I indicated yesterday, I decided to experiment with intermittent fasting after reading some books on the subject. Today was day 1 of my trial week. It's now 7:41pm where I live, and I just sat next to someone through a meal of lasagna and red wine without feeling deprived. It's been pretty painless so far. Here's how the day went...

I got up this morning and had a shake for breakfast, then went to the hospital for a meeting and went grocery shopping afterward. The grocery shopping was a little difficult, and when I got home around 12:30, I was wanting lunch. But I took a short nap, and wasn't hungry after waking. Later in the afternoon, I went to the gym and did a lower body workout without difficulty. My afternoon since has been fairly painless.

I drank water throughout the day, and the only problem I've had is that after showering after the gym, I walked into the kitchen and grabbed a handful of raw almonds without thinking about it.

The morning shake

I'm fairly happy with my morning shake, which I've been having periodically prior to attempting the fast. Here's what I do...

• 3/4 cup Wyman's frozen wild blueberries
• 3/4 cup Plain Silk Soymilk
• 1 scoop Gold Standard Whey French Vanilla
• 1 egg white
• 1 Tbsp canola oil (yeah, that's right... see below)

Simply mix all in blender and add water to decrease thickness as needed. If this isn't sweet enough for you already, I recommend using a stevia sweetener. I've found stevia has less artificial sweetener aftertaste and works particularly well with fruit-flavored things.

You can also try adding other "good-for-you" things like turmeric (not too much and you won't taste it). I've experimented with adding the entire contents from jasmine green tea bags as well. This leaves little green tea particulate matter in your shake, but you can't taste it much. It's an easy way to get a couple extra cups of green tea a day.

Here's how the macro-nutrients break down:
Calories 376
Fat 18g
Saturated 1.9g
Mono 9.75g
Poly 5.9g
Cholesterol 30mg
Potassium 300mg
Sodium 245mg
Carbs 23.5g
Fiber 5.25g
Sugar 13g
Protein 33g

If you're turned off by the total fat content, take a look at the mono- and poly- unsaturated levels. Wow! That from the canola oil. A little canola oil in the shake is flavorless, and according to Dr. Vogel, it's a great way to increase your HDL. I used to use Silk's unsweetened Soymilk, which cut down on the sugar content. But according to the Price Chopper manager, Silk stopped producing the unsweetened variety. If you can find it, use the unsweetened variety and add stevia.

Looking forward to eating tomorrow, yes, but actually not that much...