Let me start off with you have to do what you feel is right for you. "the mind controls the body"; "he/she can who thinks they can" and a thousand other sayings, but most are true. You need confidence in what you are doing! That is why I always try to discourage my athletes from attending these clinics the day before a marathon- all of a sudden they discover "the correct way to train and race a marathon" and it is not what they have been doing. I do not remember him spending too much time talking about diet. Yes he did advocate fasting before a long race (but by training we were prepared for this). We also ate quite a bit during the day- on what was called hell weeks (named by us not him) we would rise at 0600 and run for an hour; come back and lay down for an hour; 0800 run for an hour; lay down for an hour; 1000 run for an hour; lay down for an hour; 1200 run for an hour; lay down for an hour;-- you get my drift. This would continue until the last run at 1800 then we were free until the next day. Now before you think about how "stupid" this may sound remember back when you had a problem getting yourself out the door to run and once out there and into the run you were fine. Well when you are running seven (7) times in a day- your mind is being controlled. During the down time we used to snack- usually something that you enjoyed (and could consume laying down). I think I have only done this three (3) times in my entire life- I did start it a few other times and for other reasons had to abort. So there was little fasting at this point of the training- DO NOT ATTEMPT THIS TO GET READY FOR YOUR APRIL MARATHON. Normally we would eat right after a run (liquids as well as solids-- what you enjoyed). It helps to have your house stocked with healthy food. I would grab anything during the hell weeks and I discovered that if there was not candy I did not consume it, but if there was I would kill for it. In seven (7) weeks you have lost 13 pounds. That is great!!! About two pounds a week is ideal to allow your body to adjust. Keep up the great work and let us know how it is going.