The time has come to share my personal experience with the Prolon 5-Day Fasting-Mimicking Diet! This diet was created by one of the most prominent doctors in aging – Dr. Valter Longo! I am thrilled to share my thoughts on the process, as well as share some of the results I saw more immediately. If you missed the post on my reasons for doing this cleanse, check out TAKING CONTROL DURING UNCERTAIN TIMES – RESETTING MY BODY & MIND.
This process was really fun to share on my Instagram page, because so many of you have done fasting variations yourselves with great results and were intrigued by this idea of “fasting but not fasting”. Essentially, the Prolon cleanse, which was created after decades of scientific research, allows your body to think you are fasting, so you are getting that great cellular turnover you get when you are fasting, but you are still providing yourself the essential nutrients to fuel your body! I have seen a lot of talk about ‘intermittent fasting’ which is much different than this program – happy to dive more into the differences another time, but an important note is that it takes time (days) and a carefully curated plan, to allow your body to trigger the activation of ‘regeneration’ and to switch to ‘fat burning mode’.
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Yesterday, I completed my 5-day journey to better health. This is only the start of a much longer road to improved health, but it was a fantastic way to kick start the process! Like many of us (probably even most of us), I spent the first month of quarantine snacking, lounging, and testing out all kinds of new baking skills I never knew I possessed. I worked out, for sure, and I had days at a time where I would eat incredibly clean, but inevitably I would fall back into bad habits. I drank more than I usually do, and something had to change!
I first heard of Prolon’s 5-day fasting-mimicking diet on The Goop Lab on Netflix. I then had a friend do the diet a few weeks back, and she shared her appreciation for the process and had fantastic results. I was sold – and personally felt like this was the most appropriate way for me to reset my body and start fresh! I am a healthy person; I eat an almost entirely plant-based diet, I cook most of my own food, I meal prep on Sundays, I exercise 5-7 days a week, I am a runner and love yoga, but also incorporate weight training regularly. My husband is very healthy, and we usually feed off of one another’s good and bad habits. I knew this process was going to be difficult, but it was one I was very mentally prepared for!
I went all in, and while doing the fast, I also read The Longevity Diet, which talked about this fasting-mimicking diet. Highly recommend, as Dr. Valter Longo and his work at the University of California’s Longevity Institute is quite interesting.
Prolon Benefits
- Cellular Rejuvenation: Enhances your body’s natural processes of cellular clean-up which naturally gets triggered when your body is in a prolonged (3 or more days) fasting state – switches cells to ‘anti-aging mode’ and promotes autophagy
- Nourishment: Essentially with this ‘fasting-mimicking diet’ your body thinks you are fasting, but Prolon provides you with micro and macro-nutrients designed to keep the body nourished while going through the rejuvenating process of the fasting state – it is a safe way to get the benefits of a prolonged fast outside of a clinic setting
- Healthy Ingredients: ProLon is gluten-free and plant-based. Featuring ingredients including olives, vegetables, fruit, nuts, seeds, dark chocolate and herbal teas (so yum!)
- Convenience: The kit includes 5 grab-and-go boxes (one for each day) that include plant-based energy bars, soups, a variety of snacks, drinks, and supplements (multivitamins and omega-3s) – incredibly quick and easy to consume snacks and meals
Extra Information
- I ordered the kit with “soup variety 2”
- It comes with everything you need – including the water bottle
- I spoke with my nutritionist assigned to me the night before starting the cleanse – and during that call they told me they would be sending me a free copy of The Longevity Diet – it came in the mail 2 days later!
- I did it Thurs – Mon, but would have preferred to end on a Sunday
- I recommend starting to wean off sugar / coffee before the cleanse if you are a big coffee drinker or have a sweet tooth
Day 1
Full of internal motivation and ready to get the party started, I ate my first oat bar with a cup of lemon-mint tea! I was lighting up inside with excitement, and determination. Those emotions, coupled with the fact that Day 1 contains the most calories you will consume over the next 5 days (1100ish), made it a fairly easy adjustment day. I felt a dip in energy levels that afternoon, and decided to skip the yoga practice I so adamantly planned to attend. My goal was to do a long walk and 60 minute yoga class each day during the cleanse. I adhered to the fasting rules, except that I did drink 1 extra cup of black coffee mid-day. It was the only day I did that, as I was more careful other days (too much coffee, not enough calories = shaky hands). Overall, great day – not to challenging! Soups were tasty as well (had butternut squash and minestrone on day 1)! I did go for a walk for about 45 minutes, which felt nice and wasn’t too much!
Day 2
This day, and the next, proved to be the most challenging by far. It was a Friday and Saturday (not that it really matters in the middle of a pandemic) but I think it messed with my mental strength a little bit. I found myself very hungry during the afternoon on Day 2, so hungry that I wasn’t sure I could tolerate this for 3.5 more days. A little perseverance, and a 5 mile walk with the dogs helped quite a bit. I kept myself busy the best I could – doing yard work that wasn’t too heavy, watching TV series that would captivate me, etc. Again, no yoga – I wasn’t sure I could handle it, I felt like a nice long rest of the couch was more appropriate this day. I made it through – as we always do, and I was on to day 3!
Day 3
I thought Day 2 was the hardest, and then Saturday happened. I woke up feeling FANTASTIC. No bloat, full night of deep sleep, and was just happy Day 2 was over! I started my morning with a 60 minute yoga class, and proceeded to eat my first ‘meal’ around 11:00am. A tactic I employed the rest of my fast. I am not very hungry in the morning, typically, so I tried to wait each day to save most of my food / calories for the rest of the day. Yoga, a long walk with the dogs (about 4 miles today) and an hour mowing the lawn, and my energy was ZAPPED by 5pm. I felt this overwhelming feeling of hunger and laziness consume me for a few hours. It wasn’t my finest moment, but again, mental strength and perseverance, and what do you know … I made it, and it was then day 4! Unedited photo of my yoga situation that morning – I do most of my workouts on my back deck, but it was raining a lot of the weekend and quite chilly so that wasn’t an option.
Day 4
So THIS is the feeling everyone was talking about, huh? Damn, day 4 felt good. I woke up feeling fantastic. No bloat, another restful nights sleep, yoga at 9:00am, walk mid-day with the dogs, cleaned the whole house, felt productive, felt energized, and felt ‘lighter’. Like a weight had been lifted both physically and emotionally. I could tell I had made it ‘over the hump’ and was no longer just surviving the fast, I was thriving in the experience. It might have taken 3 difficult days to get here, but THIS was why I did it – to feel THIS. I wanted to change my behavior, to stop living in negativity and eating out of boredom. I wanted to control my life and my health – and I felt like I was doing that. I didn’t feel hunger anymore, at all. Even at only about 800 calories a day, I wasn’t feeling low on energy. I exercised, I read a lot, I spent a lot of time in the sunshine, and I even posted a boomerang with my stomach showing (a sign I was ‘feelin’ myself’). I couldn’t believe I was waking up the next morning for my final day of the fast – that meant I had to start preparing my meals for coming out of the diet!
Day 5
Ah, the relief knowing that in 24 short hours, I will be making your usual morning smoothie. I genuinely woke up feeling like I had conquered the world – even though I hadn’t quite finished, I could see the finish line and that was all that mattered. I know this might seem dramatic, but, while I feel like I am a healthy person, I also have very little self-control. Having enough self-control to stick to a 5-day fasting-mimicking diet was a big deal for me, so making it this far and feeling this GOOD was AWESOME. Day 5 was a Monday, and I had a full work day ahead of me – lots of distraction and not a lot of time for exercise, which I was OK with. I had done yoga days 3 & 4, with long walks days 1-4, and I felt like it was OK to just do a walk this afternoon after work. Again, same feelings as Day 4 -no bloating, no hunger, and I took enjoyment in my morning and mid-day tea! I even got kale crackers today (which are delicious, trust me). I know this all might sound a bit redundant, but let me tell you – a lot of self discovery happens when you are fasting. I learned that I can control my nutrition, and that what I put into my body is exactly what I will get out it.
Day 6
I think it’s important to shed light on Day 6 – as this is really the end of the fasting-mimicking diet. It is the last time I did a morning weigh in, the last time I allowed someone else to plan what I was eating, and it was the first time I had to look in my fridge and pantry and decide what I was going to put into my newly reset and cleansed body. I had planned ahead for this, of course – I actually went to the grocery store on Day 5 (at night) to purchase foods to prepare for Day 6. My meal plan today is as follows:
Breakfast – smoothie with oat milk, banana, strawberry, almond butter, kale, peanut butter plant-based protein, and flax seed
Lunch – beet salad from one of my fav local restaurants (spinach, yellow beets, russet potatoes, green beans, kalamata olives, mozzarella)
Dinner – Roasted veggies over a bed of quinoa (small serving, saving rest for lunch tomorrow) – it isn’t recommended to consume too many calories day 6, and it is recommended to try to make as much food as possible liquid (hence the smoothie). Roasted vegetables include asparagus, green beans, kale, chickpeas, butternut squash.
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The End – Well …. Sort Of
The fasting-mimicking diet is over, but my newly improved body isn’t in search of Chick Fila waffle fries and chocolate chip cookies like it was last week. I plan to continue my path to a healthier lifestyle by making the following changes and commitments:
- I am using “Wellthy” supplements to continue to boost my metabolism, and improve my restfulness while sleeping
- Plant-based diet
- Avoidance of processed foods and unhealthy carbs / unnecessary sugars
- No alcohol consumption for at least 8 weeks
- Moderate to heavy exercise 5+ days a week
- Yoga 3+ days a week for a strong body and mind
Time to go to the grocery store………..
A Blonde Escapes 