I can usually tell when my sugars are WAY low, but not always. Sometimes I'm sure they are crashing and when I check they are either right where I would like them to be or at times they are actually WAY high. Other than that, I have no feel for what they are. I almost always try to guess what they will be when I take a measurement and me best results (and those are still very hit and miss) are when I base the guess on what I've done and what I've taken over the past day or two and not on how I feel at the moment.

Not reliably, but as I wrote once before, it almost seems time dependent for me. Noon will hit my trigger, not often before. Which reminds me of Dr. Fung, saying hunger comes in waves..and you are usually hungry when it was regular time to eat a meal.

I also find that my reading can differ dramatically depending on which finger I use. Pricking my little finger on my left hand just gave me 101. When I pricked my middle finger on my left hand, it was 91.

For those who are continuing on to the next challenge, do you plan to start your baseline again, or simply carry on with where you are now?

It depends...do you want to continue losing weight? Stay with trigger through break and into next challenge. Do you need a break for pricking finger and a mental breather? Take a break and restart trigger. My results over Christmas/NewYears are, as you say, "not a shining example, so let me serve as a horrible warning"

Another low this morning, but I am eating squeaky clean this week, have both annual oncology bloodwork AND end of challenge ahead. Since I know I usually hit my trigger around noon, when I did take a break, I kept to two meals a day in a 6 hour window. (Squeaky clean means no wine with dinner )

Janet, you can quote me anytime!

I definitely want to keep losing weight, and I'm on a roll with this approach so it's not a good idea to take a break. I'll stay the course.

Yesterday I had just one meal, lunch, and had a 7 oz piece of leftover meatloaf with 2 pats of butter. Nothing else. The meatloaf didn't sit well with me for some reason and I didn't feel like eating. Still not hungry. And today I'm finally back down to 192.2, which is my lowest for this round. I had hit that number once about 10 days ago, but immediately bounced back up. Hoping to finally break through this setpoint soon.

I hear you about the wine with dinner. I like a couple glasses of wine or a whiskey, and I'm sure it would make a difference in my losses (though several times I've gone without alcohol for months at a stretch with no weight loss). Starting tonight I'll be abstaining for a while to see if it makes a difference.

I was feeling pretty low about not losing more weight this challenge, but then I was reading some of the posts and some people have lost only 2 or 3 pounds or nothing at all. Note to self: Don't compare yourself to others.

That's a very interesting practical observation. If you were to ask me to guess mine prior to this experiment with DDF I couldn't have. I could only tell you if I was VERY hungry. For me it's turning out subtler than that - more like when i first, out of the blue, think, i'm KINDA hungry - I sit with that feeling for a bit, if I feel like eating, i'll guess then measure. I'm getting better at it and trying to connect the hungry feeling with eating, and then not eating too much if I want to have a chance at a second meal, prioritizing protein and varsity of LC vegetables for first meal in case I don't eat a second.

fun stuff, except all the needle work

baseline for me for sure as you'll use your appetite as guide to eat for 3 days and see where you land. That's the whole point I think, the end game - to find that you eat to appetite (am I hungry?), stop when full (i'm getting better at this as I'm getting a better handle on how much food it takes for me per day roughly - i've put food back into the fridge, never done that before, or rarely) and concentrate on getting the most bang for your buck nutritionally in that food.

Keeping the food non-exciting is working out for me as well. Knowing that that my hunger will be satisfied an hour after I finish those two chicken breasts is a comfort. I have to learn to put down the fork and wait a bit.

I'm ready to start the self-paced program after purchasing the unlimited package with all the information and tools. Didn't know it existed until I inquired, as I presumed it was the challenge requiring a FB presence.

That being said, I did the baseline back in January, so I'll baseline again starting April 1st (yeah, very appropriate . . . ), as I want to capture the data for this go 'round. I think doing the baseline exercise is useful if you're using it periodically like I plan to do. The combination of DDF with a P:E eating strategy gives me a reality check enabling me to stay the course or reduce if I feel the need.

That being said, if I were doing back-to-back or continuous challenges, I likely would continue to manage my numbers without doing the baseline again.

That's an important observation and good piece of advice.

My meals are also very basic, nothing too fancy. I'm finding that food fills me up so much more now that I'm focusing on protein. Lunch is often 6 oz ham sauteed in a little butter and if I'm still hungry, I'll have a cup of 0% Greek yogurt and sometimes a couple berries (like less than 2 oz). That fills me up until dinner at around 6:30, when I have another 6 - 8 oz of protein and maybe something on the side.

I asked this question on the FB page, and Marty said this:


In another place on the page it says that if you switch from Hunger Training to Maintenance in the app, it automatically adjusts your trigger up about 10 points to make it easier to meet for however long you want to stay in maintenance. No, I'd rather continue doing what I'm doing as it's fairly easy to do. I don't always get down under my trigger, but I will eat if I'm within a couple points of it. If I'm still 10 points away from the trigger, I wait at least an hour before eating.

First step for the Facebook adverse crowd.

Alex wrote: Now you can pay for a self paced program which doesn't involve FB. The reason behind using a community around it is to answer questions that people have. The concept is novel and some people have a hard time letting go eating according to traditional methods of fasting.

Then "Gin was generous to us to put DDF as a part of her new community."

So this is Gin Stephens "Delay, Don’t Deny Community " group and she offers some 100! different groups to join.


https://dddsocialnetwork.com/?fbcli...KLamI-j3vhIjnGA

Under "About Us" on this site, it says:

*Knowledge. Ask questions in a safe space with other intermittent fasters who embrace the clean fast.

What is meant by "the clean fast"?

Thanks, Janet. Glad I contacted MartyAlex to do the self-paced, as I'm a radical, possibly serial (not cereal) FB denier . . . .

What was the Groucho Marx line? "I refuse to join any club that would have me as a member . . . ."

Here are more clubs you may not wish to join....

DDF is over. What's Next?

In the usual Marty style...a 14 page document of suggestions!

https://docs.google.com/document/d/...=h.4m8uj4jkcico