Diary of a QuasiFast

Anne Ostroff has been doing serious research on nutrition and its relationship to good physical health, maintaining cognitive capabilities and longevity. She identified a recommended ProLon program that looked good. She decided to try a five day fast-mimicking diet that is intended to channel your body into believing that you are fasting while in fact you are getting some nourishment in the form of soups and other food substances that total 600-800 calories per day.

This is not a weight loss diet but, rather, an effort to rejuvenate the trillions of cells in our bodies. She asked if I wanted to participate in this journey. My FOMO (fear of missing out) tendencies kicked in and I agreed.

As I had never indulged in a non-religious fast and certainly not one that would last more than one day, I thought I would write a diary of the five day journey. I also had never written a diary either, so this would be a two dimensional adventure for me.

Here it is.

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MONDAY DECEMBER 23, 2024

Today Anne and I started the ProLon five day program. The first day is entitled “transforming to a fasting state” and involves “fat burning” and “cellular preparation.” ProLon promotes this five day deprivation as a fast-mimicking diet that activates cellular cleanup pathways while allowing you to eat. The body is supposed to enter a rejuvenating state called “autophagy”.

Dictionary.com defines “autophagia” as “controlled digestion of damaged organelles within a cell” and “maintenance of bodily nutrition by the metabolic breakdown of some bodily tissue.” Organelles are “parts of a cell that store food, discharge waste, produce energy or perform other functions analogous to what organs do in large living things.” As our bodies’ cells are constantly being replaced, it makes sense to me that what we eat affects the new cells.

Now I am at the end of the first day. My reactions so far are that this involves more food than I had anticipated (two soups – one fairly good; the other barely ok), a powdered chocolate shake (not very good), seven olives (actually normal olives), dry crackers and two small protein bars. Also some olive oil that can be poured into the soups and some vitamin supplements and two tea bags that I have ignored.

It sure is boring today. So much of our engagement with other people revolves around food or drink. Last week, I enjoyed lunches, dinners with friends and family every day. Today, I just ate my allotted food packets by myself, a very solitary activity.

I did go to my home gym for some stretching and 60 minutes on the elliptical. Now, I have to look forward to four more days with very little outside social engagement. Actually, “look forward” is hardly the right term. From today on, the amount of food diminishes. The main thing that will be missing tomorrow is the shake (no loss) and some crackers. Plus there will be two packets of olives. I almost forgot to mention that there is no alcohol or any other liquid allowed other than tea and water.

Four More Days!!

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TUESDAY DECEMBER 24, 2024

Today I was greeted by this message from Prolon:

“As of today your body has likely used up its glucose stores and is beginning to rely entirely on your internal fat stores to produce ketones, an internal process called ketosis. This internal transition into ketosis might also bring symptoms such as brain fog, fatigue and body aches.”

I anticipated that this would be the worst day because there are three more days after this one. That message gave no comfort. The food box says this day is for “fat burning & ketogenisis”. According to Wikipedia, Ketogenesis is the biochemical process through which organisms produce ketone bodies by breaking down fatty acids and ketogenic amino acids. And this is supposed to be good for you.

Today promises most of what I “enjoyed” yesterday plus an L-drink that must be heavily diluted with water for use throughout the day. Today’s meals were very similar to yesterday’s without the shake. But there were extra olives.

I am looking at these five days as an endurance test that I just have to get through. I am hopeful (but not overly optimistic) that this will be one of those things that I didn’t want to do and didn’t enjoy but was glad I did it.

Today, I “helped” Anne assemble new outdoor ovens, one for wok cooking, the other for pizza. This took up much of the day, a welcome distraction. I found myself craving a large glass of orange juice. But no matter how many times I checked the food box for Day 2, I found no orange juice.

Three More Days!!

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WEDNESDAY DECEMBER 25, 2024

Happy Hannukah!! Merry Christmas!!

I awoke to beautiful presents but I found only a Box labeled Day 3 “Autophagy Cleanup State”. It goes on to say “Benefits that Promote Ketone Production [and] Cellular Cleanup”. I chose the herbal tea for breakfast. Here there were choices – Spearmint Herbal, Spearmint Lemon Herbal and Hibiscus. I chose the Spearmint Lemon because it had more adjectives.

Today’s choices are the same as yesterday’s except that the tiny “L-Bar Choco Crisp” has disappeared and there are crackers instead of olives. My soup choices are Tomato and Chickpea & Leeks. The soups are the most filling items. Together they offer 210 calories. This is not “mimicking” fasting but miserable fasting. And this is only Day 3.

But not to worry. I received an encouraging email from ProLon that read as follows:

“Congratulations on making it to the halfway mark! Today you may feel a little challenging as you achieve a major milestone Autophagy. Autophagy is your body’s natural process of recycling damaged cells. It’s like a deep internal spring cleaning that promotes cellular rejuvenation. This self-cleaning mechanism will continue for the rest of your fast and beyond.”

Wow! How inspiring. But if it is a natural process, why do I need to starve myself? There is something counterintuitive going on.

For the first time, today I was hungry. Apart from the L-drink (its contents are a mystery but it tastes like very watery lemonade) and some herbal tea, I did not eat anything until after a gym session. I devoured the five cardboard crackers and the Chickpea & Leeks soup at around 2pm. It is now almost dinner time. I have less energy than normal. I am looking forward to the tomato soup. And the so-called fasting bar before bedtime.

This is no way to live. Tomorrow is not a holiday so maybe something distracting will occur.

Two more days!!

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THURSDAY DECEMBER 26, 2024

Today, ProLon says, is a day for cellular renewal and fat burning. Its pep talk says “Your cells are in peak clean-up mode and you may notice things have gotten a little easier. Stay centered and focus on your goals over the next two days. The finish line is one day away.”

My only goal is a big steak and a glass of red wine. Or at least some orange juice. But instead I have two lumpy soups, carrot ginger and minestrone from ProLon packages. The thought of them makes every cell in my stomach turn. The olives are back on the menu but the cardboard crackers are gone. On the bright side, the olives are actually real olives. And there are two packs of seven olives, 35 calories each pack. I can eat the packs at separate times or really pig out and inhale both at once. (Oink!!)

I have made it through the day. I had one distraction as I had to take my car in for servicing. The difficult part of the day was that for the first time since Monday, Anne did some baking and resisting was a challenge. For Anne, this exercise has been smooth sailing all along. Most days, she did not eat her full allotment.

I feel ok and was able to do a full workout. One energy bar to go. After the energy bar, I will try to sleep off the rest of Day Four. Actually, this mimicked fast has been good for sleeping.

One More Day!!!

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FRIDAY DECEMBER 27, 2024

This is the last day. Good start. I weighed myself and am four pounds lighter than I was Monday morning. But then I looked at what is in store for me today. The ProLon Box for Day 5 says:

“Renewal and Change – Benefits that promote cellular.”

“The Day of Glory – You are at the finish line. Well done!…Plan something fun to celebrate your accomplishment tomorrow.”

Actually I feel like I have been in a long dark tunnel but am beginning to make out a faint hazy light in the distance. But then I look inside the ProLon “food box” and the faint light dims. The soups of the day are Lentil Curry and Tomato. I can barely stand to look at the packets. I think I will start with Spearmint Lemon Herbal Tea.

After running a bunch of errands, none of which involved food, I was actually hungry at lunch time and had the Lentil Curry soup (I chose the soup with the most calories; the Lentil Curry had 120 calories while the Tomato soup was only 100 calories) AND a packet of five almond and kale crackers. I must have forgotten to tell the ProLon folks that I hate kale.

In mid-afternoon, Anne asked me to go to the market as she has been cooking for the first time in several days and needed celery. In case you were wondering, a market is not a good place to be when you are quasi-fasting. But the fact is that everywhere I go, every sporting event that I watch, I am surrounded by food. All of it looks good. Not much of it is good for you.

I decided that, for me, the five day fast will end after a gym workout at 6:30pm or so. While Anne contends that five days doesn’t end until tomorrow morning, I figure that I get to decide, once I have eaten all of the delicious ProLon food substitute, when my fast ends and how.

For dinner, I had the ProLon Tomato soup. And at about 7:15pm, it was adios ProLon and I had a small bowl of homemade granola and a glass of orange juice mixed with crystal lite, my favorite drink.

I can say that I am pleased that I did it but I am even more pleased that it is over.

Be Well.