While I did lose some weight after fasting yesterday, I was disappointed that it wasn’t more. I’m not sure what accounts for the variability in weight loss during the fasts. It seems that I can lose anywhere from two to four pounds on these days without doing anything differently. I’m probably going to try fasting a total of three days this week to see if I can get down to 250 pounds. Although I’ve been kind of stuck recently, much of the lack of progress has been due to my old nemesis: sugar.

I’ve been good about exercising lately, primarily because my intermittent foot problems seem to have subsided. I still have some pain and stiffness in my ankles, but it’s tolerable, and I could probably reduce some of that if I would just do the exercises prescribed by my foot and ankle doctor. I’m not sure why I haven’t gotten into the habit of doing them (probably because they’re boring), but I’ll have to try at some point to see if I can get some improvement in how my ankles feel on a daily basis. Right now, my right ankle cracks when I walk, and that doesn’t seem normal, so I’ll have to see if that can somehow be remedied.

I tend to have moderate pain and stiffness in a lot of my muscles and joints. This has been the case for years, and I’ve never discovered the cause. One possibility that is diet-related is inflammation. Sugar in particular causes a lot of inflammation, so I’m hoping I can stay away from it long enough to see if there’s a direct connection between my sugar intake and how my musculoskeletal system feels.

Another topic I’m interested in is the mind-gut connection. Our gastrointestinal tract is sometimes described as our “second brain” because many of the same types of neurons and neurotransmitters that are found in the brain are also found in the gut. This is known as the enteric nervous system, and it appears that what goes on here can affect what goes on in the brain. I don’t yet know anything more than the rudimentary details, but a great article on the subject can be found here: https://tinyurl.com/mt2wk4uc (the article is old but still relevant).

Anyway, I’m off to the grocery store. I’ll try to steer clear of the chocolate-covered almonds….