A fast is fast

Entering my third week of Ketogenic meals and time restrictive eating the biggest surprise has to be my enjoyment of consuming all calories within an eight hour period. I begin calorie intake at noon each day, which allows me to enjoy dinner with my clan. The meal selections need work. Right now most pairings consist of lettuce, red meat or dark chicken meat, cheese, eggs, and bacon. Lots and lots of bacon. Oh bacon, how I love thee. Bacon is the carnivore gods’ candy. I need a moment… Ok, I am back.

Going into this dietary challenge, the eight hour window gave me great concern. Four days a week I wake at 4:30 a.m. to put in 90 minutes of swimming, and a fifth day I am up at 5:30. Challenges don’t scare me, but there were serious concerns of failure to launch when The ODJ prescribed this diet. I have been known to gnaw on shoe leather if food ain’t in my belly shortly after climbing out of the pool. To witness me in full panicked desperation for sustenance by 9:00 a.m. is to witness a man on the verge of a lizard brain coup d’état. In the past, I would be stripping off tree bark in my business park well before 12:00 p.m. However, the hunger apocalypse has yet to come. These past few weeks have been mind expanding. Noon comes with the calm passage of time. There have been no guttural cries. No full-body tremors. No wild-eyed predator outburst in breakfast meetings. Just a daily stomach growl that comes a calling mid-morning, but with a shot of cold water the beast returns to sleep.

Time restricted eating is alright by me. I won’t ever guarantee success of the keto part of the challenge. Carbs have a gravitational pull on me greater than seven pissed-off black holes. At least there is the reassurance if (more like, when) I fall off the “no carb” wagon I won’t be sucking down their sweet goodness until after the noon hour.