Day 1

So here it is, time to start my fast. Yesterday my DH (dear husband) and I went out for lunch and I had half of a sandwich and a cup of water. I had been up for over 24 hours (I sometimes suffer from insomnia) so by the time I got home I was ready to pass out. However my DD (dear daughter) was going to be getting home from school within the hour so I wanted to atleast stay awake until then. I went down and picked her up from the bus and came upstairs to relax while she worked on her homework. Well the book I was reading lost my interest and I fell asleep on the couch. DH was kind enough to check over DDs homework, make themselves dinner, and put her to bed. When he was ready to go back to bed he woke me up so I wouldn't wake up later and wonder where everyone went.

Well I woke up this morning to the start of my cycle so knew today would be the start of my fast which is great because I hadn't eaten anything since around 1pm yesterday. I went to the kitchen and pulled out a few reusable drink bottles and filled them up with plenty of filtered water to last me most of the day, my plan is to drink atleast a gallon of water daily. I got my DD up and out the door for school and instantly became hungry since usually that is when I sit down for breakfast. I went to the kitchen and got a bottle of water out and slowly sipped it and the hunger went away. I knew I had alot to do today since Wednesdays are usually my cleaning and laundry day. I got right to work on putting dishes away and getting one of the loads of laundry started. I have a few new books I have been waiting to read so during my breaks from cleaning I would sit and read (I made sure I picked a book that wouldn't heavily reference food so it wouldn't make me hungry)

Around lunchtime I once again had the urge to get in the kitchen and cook sometime for myself, especially since it had been over 24 hours since I had something to eat, but instead I distracted myself with some more water and went back to give my DDs room an intense clean. Well I quickly lost interest in cleaning her room since it was already pretty neat and tidy and I didn't want to take away from her daily chore of keep her room clean during the week (on the weekends I go through and make sure it is up to my standard and if it is she earns either allowance, a surprise, or she picks something special she wants to do with us like watch a movie, play a game, or go somewhere) So instead I went and sat down on the couch and played a game on my iPad followed by reading a book. I hate when you finally get to the good part of a book and you don't want to put it down, you just want to keep on reading until you finish it but know you have other things you should be doing. Well the book distracted me until it was time to go down to the bus to get DD. I helped her with her homework and talked to her about her day at school while fixing her some dinner. I had my water bottle by my side to beat the urge of tasting anything I was making for her and DH. I am hoping that this fast will also help me adjust my sleep schedule. I am already feeling tired and it is only 6pm which is extremely rare for me. Most nights I don't go to bed until 3am and am up at 6am getting DD ready for school. I plan on atleast going to lay down right after I get DD to bed and am wishful that I will fall asleep quickly.

So that is it. I have survived 24+ hours without food and am going strong. I have the motivation to keep this up tomorrow. No horrible side effects so far minus the occasional hunger which is completely normal for the first 3 days I have read. Here's to tomorrow :)

Introduction

Hello everyone, I figured an introduction is necessary to let everyone know who I am and why I am doing what I am doing. So here it goes...

Hi, I'm Heather! I'm 28 years old and have the 2 best jobs in the world. I am an Army wife (married for over 5 and a half years now and many more to come!) and the mother to a beautiful daughter who recently turned 9 (she is from a previous relationship).

My husband I have been actively trying conceive a child for over 5 years we absolutely no luck. I couldn't understand why I wasn't able to become pregnant since with my first child it happened so fast (and unexpectedly) after missing only 2 pills of birth control. I figured I hadn't been on any birth control for atleast 2 and a half years so I shouldn't have any issues, boy was I wrong. We have been through many doctors appointments over the last 5 years for them only to tell me everything is fine and to just be patient it will work itself out and to keep tracking my cycles (I charted my temp everyday and also used Ovulation Prediction tests). Our doctors wouldn't refer us to fertility specialist because of my husbands work schedule (the downside to be an Army family is you never know when your service member is going to have to up and go to wherever the Army needs them). Many of the doctors wouldn't consider us actively trying for 12 straight months because he would be away at training for weeks at a time and throw a deployment in the mix too. 

Every month seeing a negative on a pregnancy test when my cycle would be late was absolutely heartbreaking. This would put me in a horribly sad mood and I would turn to comfort food to sulk my sorrows in, not a good choice all these years later. Nobody around me seemed to understand the pain in dealing with infertility every single month. They would all offer their "words of wisdom"... Stop worrying about it and it will just happen. Stressing about it won't work it needs to happen naturally. Just get drunk, that always worked for us. You need to put a pillow under your hips. Try this, this, and this. Read this book. Try this stuff. I read about this on the Internet, you should try it.... I would just smile and listen to their advice because deep down I knew everything they were already telling me because I seemed to take all my free time and devote it into looking up and reading everything on how to fix infertility and have a successful pregnancy. 

We didn't get our referral to a fertility doctor until the spring of 2009. We went for many screenings, ultrasounds, a hysterosalpingogram (HSG), blood tests, and plenty of other appointments in between. Our doctor decided to try a few rounds of the fertility drug Clomid in hopes that it would work within a few cycles like most of his patients, he also had me modify my diet in hopes that maybe losing a few pounds would help everything. After 3 failed rounds of Clomid and many horrible side effects we moved on to Femera (Letrozole) along with going back to the doctor to get shots of Human chorionic gonadotropin (HCG). We were on our second round of this combo when my husband found out he would be leaving in 45 days to live overseas for atleast a year. This news put an immediate stop in our fertility process since we now had this to worry about and prepare him for. 

10 months later after a lot of paperwork, stress, hurdles, weight put on, and some more stress, my daughter and I were able to pack up and move to be with him since he was going to have to be there for another year or so.

So now here I am, been living overseas for 11 months now, only 3 more left in the country. I have been to my doctor and she once again told me there isn't much she can do in giving me a referral since this hospital doesn't have a fertility specialist, I would have to go to one of the doctors off-post and she can not guarantee that they speak good English, plus all costs to see them would be out-of-pocket since our insurance doesn't cover alot of their procedures because of their techniques. We therefore put the process on hold and went back to the old-fashion way of trying every single month but still have no luck. This has made me turn back to the Internet to research more ideas on what to try that I haven't already done at home.

I had read a few months back about fasting, in particularly water fasting. At first I laughed at the idea and thought these people were crazy starving themselves for days, weeks, or months at a time. But then one day I found an article (I wish I would of saved the link) all about the benefits of fasting. From improving your immune system, blood pressure, cholesterol, weight, fertility, and so much more. I looked up more information on the subject and grew more and more interested in the idea. Unfortunately my husband is totally against the idea, he thinks I will just be starving myself and won't get the nutrients I need to survive. This has made me not want to fast because without support I feel like I will fail at the process. However, yesterday morning I woke and decided that no more will I put this aside, it is something I need to do. Yes I love the idea of the amount of weight people have lost when doing fasts and I for one have 80 extra pounds that I have tried to work off but have failed at. But I want to fast for the chance of boosting my fertility, getting my cycles back to normal (my cycles are never consistent so I have no exact way of tracking exactly when I'll get my next period) I told myself that at the start of my next cycle (which should be any day now) I would start a water fast. I hope that I can go a full 30 days but I will be happy if I can make it to 14 days. 

I need somewhere that I can post what is going on everyday, somewhere to track my progress. Like most diets I have done at home I have kept a journal that I would write what I did that day, what I ate, my weight, my thoughts, and anything else. However if I had a bad day I would be the only one who would see it and that would make me shrug my shoulders and tell myself it was ok and then end up doing the same thing over and over which would lead me right back to my unhealthy eating and no exercise lifestyle. I want to put all my daily thoughts and results out there where there is no going back and deleting a bad unsuccessful day in hopes that this will keep me on the right track and maybe gain support and encouragement from others. Maybe find someone who is also going through these processes too. 

So here I am, opening my journey to whole world to read....