Fasting and thinking

I've been on a binge with respect to fasting over the past 3 weeks or so. The article  I read last month discussing fasting gave me inspiration to throw some fasting into the mix and I've been doing a mix of alternate day fasting, combined with an attempt to throw in some two day (aka periodic fasts (PE)).  And today, Sunday evening, I'm late into the first day of what I hope will be a two day fast, with no food making its way down my gullet until the morning of Tuesday December 6th.

And while I can pat myself on the back for withstanding the urge to eat, I am finding it hard to concentrate enough to be able to focus on my poker study.  And poker study I must if I am to improve.  Luckily I have found Jonathan Little's podcast series and am finding those podcast episodes to be both educational, and, while I am in this hunger impaired state, at a level that I can listen to and get something out of.

Weight wise I started 2016 at around 95Kg. And heading into December my weight was around 88Kg. Which is good, but not great. Great would be if I'd hit 82Kg. Which was about where I was when I was 22 years old. And was a weight I managed to hover around for most of my twenties.

Though if you look at BMI values, to be what BMI considers to be normal weight, I would have to drop to around 78 Kg. And that is just not going to happen I think.  So a comfortable, maintainable target weight for me would be around 82 Kg.

Diet wise, in between the alternate day fasting and PE fasting, I'm aiming to stay as much as possible on a ketogenic / Modified Atkins Diet. Which means I'm avoiding rice (Carbs), Bread (Carbs), Pasta, and, as much as possible, treats from the supermarket.

Interestingly the patches of psoriasis I've had for quite some time appear to becoming much less angry. With most patches having lost their redness and raised, angry look. Of course I'm wondering whether this could be related to the effects of the fasting. Certainly there are effects on the likes of IGF-1 (Insulin like Growth Factor 1) levels which may lead to a physiological environment which is less suited to the rapid growth and turnover of skin cells. At this stage it is a case of fingers crossed that the effect will be maintained once I end this fasting binge.