My first FMD in almost a year is done! (And a #Project135 weight update)

Dr. Jen Kerns

Dr. Jen Kerns

Today is my only day off this holiday weekend because I’m on the inpatient service at the hospital. And frankly, I barely have a blog post in me today! I spent the vast majority of my day giving the kiddo some love. I slept in (much needed) and then made healthy banana “pancakes” for him for breakfast. Oh, you want the recipe, you say? Combine 2 eggs, 2 overripe bananas, 3/4 C plain rolled oats, a pinch of salt, 1/4 tsp cinnamon, and 1/2 tsp baking powder in a blender and blend until smooth. Pour 4-5 inch pancakes onto a buttered griddle and cook over medium heat. Makes 8 smallish pancakes. (I give him 4 and save the other 4 for another day). I had a grapefruit and a decaf cold brew coffee with my favorite vanilla flavored unsweetened creamer (Nutpods).

Then I did a 45 minute Peloton power zone endurance ride (which kicked my BUTT because apparently all the carbs I ate yesterday after I broke my “fast” — including a pear, a glass of kefir, a small grapefruit, a Sumo mandarin, beans, a few graham crackers, and a whole Cadbury Fruit & Nut chocolate bar) weren’t enough to replenish all of the glycogen in my muscles? I don’t know, it seems weird, but I just had no oomph at all in my ride this morning. Graham sat next to my bike on the floor and talked to me half the ride, telling me about the 20-odd steel balls he was pretending were cars as he mapped out our house, his friend Tate’s house, the arena where we’d be going downtown later, and the map of how we would all get there using the balls in the grout lines between floor tiles. I had to keep one AirPod out of my ear to try to half-listen to him and interject appropriate “uh-huh”s while also keeping tabs on Ben Alldis’s bike instructions.

After my workout and stretch in our sauna, I showered and then drove and grabbed a salmon poke bowl from a local spot in Bethesda to eat for lunch before taking Graham to see Disney on Ice at the Capitol One Arena in DC. We just got home around 5:00 this evening and I’m now in the middle of doing loads of laundry while I quickly post this update.

My FMD went well. I felt worst on day two (Wednesday) and thought about quitting, but luckily the external accountability I created for myself by posting updates each morning on Facebook kept me in the game. Truly, it really was probably the only thing that kept me from quitting!

My blood glucose and blood ketone readings from Friday morning

My blood sugar was down to 60 by Thursday morning (considered hypoglycemic by any standard, but I didn’t feel unwell so I didn’t worry about it) and my ketones were quit high at 3.5, which translated to a GKI (glucose ketone index) of 0.9 — this reflects a very high level of ketones, and was enough to make me feel confident that I had triggered autophagy and allow me to break my fast. (And as you know, if you’ve read my previous blogs, the whole goal with this fasting mimicking diet is to trigger autophagy to help my body clean up the crap and slow down brain changes that may lead to Alzheimer’s.) I ate a full compliment of mostly-healthy foods all day Friday (including all the carbs above, plus a chicken chili on top of spaghetti squash and a chicken/pepper stew), and yet somehow this morning my weight was even lower than yesterday’s fasting weight when I was starving. It makes no sense to me, and I fully expect the scale to jump UP several pounds by tomorrow as I regain all the water weight associated w/ replenishing my glycogen stores and as foodstuffs refill my GI tract. And I won’t even be surprised if it’s higher still next Saturday. But it sure is fun to see that lower number on the scale, fleeting though it may be! 😀

Project 135 (resurrected) stats:

week 0 (Jan 1, 2022): 164.4 lbs
week 1: 162.2
week 2: 160.8
week 3: 159.2
week 4: 159.4
week 5: 156.4
week 6: 157.2
week 7 (after FMD): 153.4

Total weight loss: 11 lbs (6.7%)

Hope you all this holiday weekend, and see you next week!
xo Jen

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