Healthy fasting over 50

One of the ways I stayed healthy and buff and strong until my 40s was in order to control my weight and stay strong was to walk during a weekend 10 to 20 miles and to fast or drink orange juice and water.

However, in my 40s I found I couldn't do either of these things anymore usefully which I found extremely frustrating at the time.

The walking so much or running 1 to 5 miles because I found I had hundreds of microfractures in my feet from jumping off of roofs when I was a child which I liked to do with my friends because I could. But, jumping off roofs onto usually grassy yards with friends because we thought it was fun caused microfractures in my feet that showed up on x-rays at my podiatrist by my 40s. So, the pain I was experiencing from jogging or walking long distances I had to somehow correct. So, I stopped jogging as a way to stay fit even though I had been doing this since about age 12.

Then fasting became a problem because of low blood sugar where if I didn't eat for a while I would almost faint even though I was drinking water. So, to avoid low blood sugar cascades during the day after noon I had to always start the day with protein, (usually something like Scrambled eggs and cheese three or four days a week. By starting your day with protein you can avoid the low blood sugar cascades like I was experiencing which make you too spaced out during the day to be very useful, especially in the afternoons. One day I didn't eat anything until about 2:30 and then I had a Vanilla Milkshake on an empty stomach and I started to shake and almost passed out and realized I couldn't do anything like that anymore.

So, as you age your body changes and you must find a way to adapt to all these changes or you are soon gone out of your body permanently.

So, useful adaptation is everything if you want to stay alive for yourself, your family and your friends.

I made a discovery two days ago when I had to fast for my colonoscopy and my endoscopy. I was afraid of the low blood sugar cascades of ONLY eating either beef broth, chicken broth or vegetable broth and maybe some lime jello for 24 to 36 hours before my procedures. However, as long as I was eating some bone broth and a teeny bit of lime jello or vegetable broth my blood sugar seemed to stay okay.

So, I realized I could fast using beef broth or bone broth or vegetable broth without affecting my blood sugar as long as I was careful. I also realized I could do the "Fat, sick and nearly dead diet" which is organic vegetable juice which I could combine with beef or vegetable or chicken broth (without any jello) for 1 or 2 days a week and thereby allow my body to heal itself, (which it does if it doesn't have to digest heavy foods all the time.

So, after I recover more from getting the anesthetics out of my system from the colonoscopy and endoscopy out of my system within a week or so I plan to embark on a new type of fasting program 1 or 2 days a week, to allow my body to eliminate toxins more easily and to lose weight.

When I had my burst appendix just before Easter 2015 I lost 30 or 40 pounds in trying to survive that which I did. I was very lucky only to spend 3 days in the hospital after my laproscopic surgery for a burst appendix because I met many people who got Sepsis and almost died and had to spend 30 to 40 days in the hospital and one even had to have a colonoscopy to survive this ordeal. So, having an incredibly immune system I was very lucky.

Then my wife went on a cruise ship to Antartica with a friend of hers last January 2016. Though she was in heaven doing this because she has a cast iron stomach (which I don't now) sometimes 40% to 60% of the passengers and crew were seasick from the 30 foot plus seas getting to Antarctica after you pass the tip of South America. I wasn't going to do this because I knew how sick I would be and didn't want to feel like I would die for a week going and a week coming back from South America.

Anyway, when she went I was out of contact with her because of her location for about 2 weeks or more and got worried and gained weight back and frustrated by all this.

So now with this new idea that I find will work for me as long as I don't juice fruit (I can only eat fruit but not drink fruit juice anymore because I'm pre-diabetic.

But, by eliminating almost completely sugar and fructose (except for some fruits that I can eat whole like oranges, lemons, apples, blueberries, raspberries etc. I have had to eliminate completely all fruit juices because of the fructose which is a form of sugar. When you turn fruits into juice it is too concentrated for anyone with blood sugar issues to drink.

So, by controlling ones diet this way one can avoid going into a form of diabetes as one ages.

Also, now I see I can fast this way I also realize I can lose weight easily. Because dieting never works for me but fasting always did because of my all or nothing disposition.

I can either eat or not eat but in between doesn't usually work for me which is why giving up fasting was so awful in my life since my 40s and now I'm 68. Also, I have always loved the spiritual states of mind one encounters while fasting in nature or near nature. So, even though I'm not eating solid food I tend to be happy with my intuitive faculties multiplied as long as I feel safe doing this near nature.

However, like I said before unless you learn to adapt to all the physiological changes to your body you are soon dead at a young age.

But, by watching your diet, exercise and consciousness and taking care of yourself and those around you there likely is no real limit to how long you can be alive with present medical and dietary technology if you stay informed and aware and active in your life.