So here we are. It’s Day 3 and I will be attempting my first 24-hour fast of the week. For the last couple days, I’ve been following an intermittent fasting regimen from June’s Diet of the Month, The Complete Guide to Fasting: Heal Your Body Through Intermittent, Alternate-Day, and Extended Fasting by Jason Fung, MD and Jimmy Moore. Though Days 1 and 2 were a 6:18 schedule in which I basically skipped breakfast but had lunch and dinner as usual, today will be my first attempt at an all-day fast, going from dinner on Day 2 to dinner on Day 3 without eating. Let’s see how it went!

Breakfast: Skipped. I’ve now become fairly dependent on those morning cups of coffee to get me through to lunch and today is no different.

Lunch: Skipped. Following Fung’s recommendations, I have made a batch of bone broth to drink whenever hunger strikes and I’ll tell you now, I’m thankful to have it. Even better, I made Vietnamese pho which I absolutely adore. I make a small mountain in my bowl out of freshly chopped herbs (yes, those are allowed on fast days) like Thai basil, mint, and scallions, pour over the aromatic broth, and then pretend I’m not fasting.

Dinner: Time to eat! Appropriately enough, I decided to make breakfast for my first meal of the day–scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage, toast, and fruit. Once again, I ended up feeling full sooner than expected and didn’t clean my plate. Loved every bite, though!

I won’t lie, the 24-hour fast was hard. I was hungry for most of the day and fixing meals for others while abstaining was brutal. I may or may not have been crabby. I’ll plead the 5th on that one. Another unpleasant side effect was this kinda fuzzy feeling I had off and on all day. In The Complete Guide to Fasting, many of the testimonials describe feelings of euphoria that these people felt when fasting. Last I checked, euphoria refers to feeling super good and I can tell you, that is not what I had going on. I felt straight up lousy.

Coffee and bone broth were definitely the heroes of the day. I do not think I could have made it through to dinner without them. Coffee with half and half makes the morning possible and my mugs of pho with fresh herbs seemed a bit more like food than simply another liquid, which was much appreciated.

As for numbers, I managed to get in 884 calories with 52% from fat, 24% from carbohydrate, and 24% from protein. Once again, a very high percentage from fat and very low carbohydrate. This calorie level is much lower than I would typically recommend and would obviously result in weight loss over time. Speaking of weight, mine had not changed this morning, so still down 2# from my starting weight. After a day of fasting, it will be interesting to step on the scale in the morning.

Day 3 is done and so is my first 24-hour fast! Day 4 will be a return to the 6:18 routine. Will it seem easier? What will my appetite be like following a 24-hour fast? Check in tomorrow as we continue our discussion of June’s Diet of the Month here at The Diet Oracle!