A Failure

 My experiment in fasting was a failure the whole way around.  100% failure!

Ok, maybe not a total failure. But mostly a failure!

I have been doing intermittent fasting for the last few weeks and after reading the book Fast like a Girl, I decided that I wanted to do a longer fast!  I was gung ho and decided to aim for a 36 hour fast.   I gave myself an out if it was just too difficult.  I gave myself permission  to stop at 24 hours and make it an OMAD fast, which is one meal a day if I needed to. Maybe that was my first hint that failure would arrive on my doorstop!  

I made it through the day just fine.  I admit to thinking about food on occasion.  However, for the most part I didn't miss food at all.  After work I headed outside and picked mulberries and then I rushed back into the house so that I could start to process my bounty.  I ended up making 3 batches of jelly and 2 batches of syrup, about 30 jars canned in total.  All was good with my fast as I approached hour 24.

And then the unthinkable happened.   I was starting to clean up the kitchen and I picked up a pan that I had made jelly in.  Without thinking, I swiped my finger through a line of jelly and popped my finger into my mouth.  It tasted so good, but immediately I realized my mistake with my mindless taste.   I had messed up my fast with that simple taste of the sugary jelly goodness.  Furthermore, while I hadn't been really hungry or thinking about food, the taste spurred my tastebuds, body and mind (mostly the mind) to all of a sudden want food.  I NEEDED food, or so I thought.

Sooooo, I made myself a grilled cheese and ate some of the mashed potatoes that I made for Jason's dinner. I failed to reach the magic 36 hours.  Not a total failure though, because I did make it 24 hours.   I was disappointed with myself, but ok with what I did.

I couldn't wait to step on the scales.  It was going to be fabulous for sure!  Yeah.....about that......I gained a pound!    I kid you not!  I gained weight!   Isn't that a hoot!  (Not really, but I have to laugh!)

So I learned a few lessons about my longer attempt.

* Remove myself from food and I really don't miss it.

* A single taste will start the mental game telling me to eat.

* Cooking dinner for Jason and then expecting me to not eat is just not going to happen.

* Surprisingly, that grilled cheese and mashed potatoes filled me up completely and I actually even felt stuffed.

* I CAN make it a OMAD without too much difficulty.

 

Will I try it again?  The 36 hour fast?  That is debatable.  I like the concept of burning the fat.   But while someone else is in the house eating, well I'm just not sure it is for me.   The One Meal A Day?   Yes, I probably will.  I think doing the same 16:8 fast is not a long term plan.  Our bodies get used to the same things and I think that switching it up to have a no fast day and /or an OMAD day is good for the body. So I will probably do it again, even though I gained a pound.  Maybe that one pound gain was an anomaly.

 But hey, I have a medical test coming up in 2 weeks and I can't eat after midnight for the test that is at 12:45.   I'll be in the office until about 3 or so and then I have a 1 hour drive home.  So I won't even get home until 4 ish.   I will most likely just wait until dinner at that point so it will be a forced OMAD.   That will be the perfect chance to see if I end up gaining again!  :-)

 My thoughts came to me while I was fasting and going through this process.  And that is, is it even possible to get enough nutrients to function efficiently if one does an OMAD fast?

 Lots of food for thought there.   

 

Lets Try It

​A few weeks ago I started intermittent fasting. I have been doing the 16:8 method.  And surprisingly, it is working for me!   I have actually lost 7.6 pounds in the last few weeks!  I am tickled!

In the midst of me trying the intermittent fasting thing, I received notice that a book that I had on hold was available!  Hot diggity dog!   I had heard about this book months ago and had been waiting for it.  It was Fast like a Girl by Mindy Pelz.  It was all about fasting for women.  Basically learning to fast so that your fasts are in line with the different hormones that ebb and flow throughout the cycle.  There are a lot of good things in this book.  But the main thing that I am focused on right now is the benefits from a 36 hour fast.  36 hours seems to be the magic for fat burning!   

I have always been resistant to any fast longer than the 16:8.  But ive decided to try a longer fast.   I am not committing to a 36 hour.  I want to see how my body is doing.    This isn’t about torture.   So I am aiming for OMAD, which is one meal a day.   This, at the very minimum, my goal is to not eat today and instead eat at dinner while will be a day since my last meal.   If things are going well, I plan on extending it to an 36 hour fast by simply not eating dinner tonight and then breaking my fast tomorrow.   This is just for today.  I’ll go back to 16:8 after this experiment.   If it works, I will through some OMAD and 36 hours into my routine..once a week…once every two weeks.   Time will tell how often.  Right now I just have to see how I get through today!!!

Wish me luck!!!

So Many Calories Left

​I have been working to try to figure out this weight loss thing.  My weight is not budging.  It’s infuriating.  I’m not eating horrible,not perfectly, but not horrible!  I know I had to do something, make some change.  So I have adjusted once again.

So what is the big adjustment?  I’m going back to intermittent fasting.  I did it years back. It comes naturally to me as I am not a big fan of eating in the morning.  So I decided to do a fasting regime…again.  (You can read more about my prior thoughts here.)

I am once again doing the 16:8 method of fasting.  I will be fasting for 16 hours and eating within an 8 hour window.  In easier terms, I need to be done eating by 8 PM and I don’t start eating again until after 12pm the next day.  So basically dinner to lunch.  Skipping breakfast.  It will actually most likely be a bit longer most days.  For example tonight my dinner is over and done and it’s 7:13 so technically my fast has started.  I know that my lunch is  not scheduled until 12:15 tomorrow.  So if my lunch happens right on time, it will end up being a 27 hour fast.  But let’s be honest.  Some days my lunch gets pushed later.  Today it was at 12:30.  But one day last week it was at 1:45.  No worries though!

Im doing what is called a dirty fast.  My fast is not 100% clean.  I am still making my drink in the morning…which is water with a trace mineral vitamin and mineral pack in it.  The calories are so small it’s negligible but it does ruin my chances of a ‘clean’ fast.   For me it’s a trade off…water is important and I feel as if those vitamin and mineral packs are instrumental to my health also.   So a trade off!

The benefit of intermittent fasting?   I am not eating those calories for breakfast so I have them to eat later in the day!  It makes it so much easier to stay within my set calorie range!   Yay!!!!!

Struggling

 I am totally struggling! I had a fantastic time last week in regards to my weight loss journey and now it seems to have totally slipped away into this big messy pile!

It started on Saturday morning.  I woke up and I just felt the heavy weight on me.  I was going to visit my mom.  I was expecting the visit to be a really rough one based on how she was on Friday night when I had talked to her and when my brother had talked to her.  I was not looking forward to going.  I got myself ready and headed out the door early. Sitting and worrying about what the visit may hold was not going to do me any good.  I didn't eat anything before I left...of course not; I am doing the 16:8 intermittent fasting plan.  So I wouldn't be due to break my fast until lunch time.   I was driving down the road and trying to psych myself up for the visit and all I could think about was food.   Food has always been my comfort and I wanted some that morning.  I got off the interstate halfway there and picked up a fast-food breakfast.  Not Healthy.  Not in keeping with my Intermittent Fasting plan.  NOT something I even needed.  That was purely me giving in to my food addiction.

It didn't end there.  I got home and I ate lunch.  And when Jason mentioned Cheeseburgers I was like "lets go to Five Guys".  I didn't get the mini cheeseburger.  I got the double patty one.  I also didn't forego the french fries.  No siree.  I ate French fries also.  My ww points were like 77 for the day ....calories were about 2200.  CRAZY

Sunday I did a bit better.  I didn't break my fast until the proper time.  I didn't cave and eat fast food.  I did indulge a bit too much.  But in the grand scheme I did better!

Monday I fell apart in other ways.  First of all, my glasses fell apart!  I have NEVER broken a pair of glasses.  I literally picked them up and the arm fell off.  Looking at the, not sure that they can be fixed...although I will try!  I didn't get any reading in...and I didn't get any knitting done.  So I totally messed up my Project 50 for the day.     I will say that reading is difficult with an old pair of glasses that are only for nearsighted and do not have the progressive lenses.  I have had a low grade headache since wearing the old glasses.    BUT, that really is just an excuse.  So I will be reading today no matter wht happens with my old glasses.  THe knitting....I have 40 minutes of kitting completed for the week.  I need 2 hours.  So i have 1 hour and 20 minutes left to finish ....by midnight tonight!   I'm gonna try!

I'm not out for the count.  But I've really struggled these last few days!   

And just because...here is a picture of Zoe!

A Change and a Weigh in

 I was thinking this week about some stuff and decided that I had to change a little bit of my plan to lose weight.  I'm not surprised though.  I mean, I have tweaked and changed my direction more times than I can count!  But change I did!  The question is if the change affected  the numbers on the scales!  

Intermittent Fasting

I have dabbled with intermittent fasting for quite some time.  It was a natural thing that happened for me before  even know what intermittent fasting really was.  I guess you can say that I was cool before the cool kids!   I have never been a big fan of breakfast so it just happened naturally.  I was all happy with my intermittent fasting.  I wrote about it plenty of times too! (as evidenced here)  All was going well!  But I never had the fabulous results that other people talk about when they do intermittent fasting.  

This week I was reading blogs and watching youtube videos and the intermittent. fasting concept came up a few different times.  Each time it was mentioned in conjunction with insulin levels.  A while back I had read a book that really resonated with me.  It was The Obesity Code by Jason Fung.  Everything in his book made so much sense to me!  It wasn't until this week that I realized (yeah, slow learner) or maybe was willing to accept that my intermittent fasting was not true fasting because of one little thing.  Sure, I wasn't eating in my fasting window.  HOWEVER, I had not given up my vitamin drink in the morning.  It is the trace minerals drink pack.  It's next to nothing!  I am a huge fan of these vitamin packs! BUt they are causing me to unwittingly break my fast way too early!

So this week I decided to try another intermittent fast.  This time I would be doing a clean fast!  No vitamin pack to break my fast!   Instead, I have swapped out my morning water with straight water with a fresh lemon squeezed into it!  Refreshing and NOT breaking my fast!    I am still doing the vitamin pack, but it is being drank after my fasting window is closed!

Project 50

On March 1 I started my Project 50 and I am doing great.  I am on track and completing every item!    I feel productive and accomplished!   I love the act of marking my tracker with my successes!!!  I know, I'm only a few days into this challenge.  But right now, I am totally determined to see it through to the end and see where it takes me!  

Weigh In

Today was my official weigh in and I was nervous.  Last weekend I indulged, and my weight actually went up!  SO, I spent my week trying to recoup from that gain!  BUT, when I stepped on the scale it showed me at a 2.6 pound loss!  Hip Hip Hurray!!!!  I am utterly tickled!  

I won't lie.  I do have to wonder what it would have been without my indulgent weekend!  It would have been spectacular I bet!  But I am not going to dwell.  I know that those indulgences are what will make this sustainable for a lifetime.  Utter restriction will NOT work long term for me!  That has already been proven! :-)

Weekend Ready

Jason has survived his first full week back at work (well, he has to make it through today but I'm fairly certain he's got it under control)!     I have survived my first week of taking care of our menagerie of animals which includes a puppy!  I feel as if I am on the go constantly.  I get my break from work and boom, it's time to take the dog out!  I rush in and see I have 2 minutes before having to be back at my desk, so I rush to flip a load of laundry or sweep the floor.  It's all go go go!  But I have also been surviving this first week!    That said....bring on the weekend!!!!

Intermittent fasting begins

I am now officially on day three of my nice and simple plan for weight loss.  This is a reboot, a re-commitment to this journey and I’m excited about what lies ahead.

My plan is simple and easy    I wanted to keep it that way.  Less to worry about in the grand scheme of things.  But the biggest change is that I really am excited about this.  I feel mentally strong and capable of resisting the tempting call of the foods that I need to limit. I feel excited about the change.  I wish I knew what caused the change in my thinking.   Maybe it was the thought that came into my head about what would happen if I got seriously injured while hiking and had to be carried out of the woods.  It would take a fair amount of people to carry me. (If that isn’t mortifying, tell me what is?).  Maybe it’s the constant feeling of being weighted down and always achy and tired.  I KNOW it’s my weight that causes that.   I could keep going on and on, but last weekend something clicked into place.     I know I’m only two days into this plan, but let’s see how it is going!

Intermittent Fasting

I have easily slipped right into the intermittent fasting plan that I have chosen.  I am following the 16:8 plan. This means that I only eat within an eight hour window.   There has been no problem with this one.  On the first day I had a fleeting thought at about 10AM thinking about food.  But like I said, it was a fleeting thought.   I still do drink my 24 ounce glass of water in the morning.   And I do put a flavoring pack into it.  (Affiliate links) and I also add a packet of vitamin and mineral powder (Affiliate link).  But otherwise, I haven’t had a single issue with dropping breakfast!

Tracking my Food

I have tracked my food, each bite!  I have managed to keep my calories down near that 1200-1300 goal that I have set!  I’ve even had the calories in my budget to indulge in a sweet treat of banana ice cream one night and a chopped banana with chocolate the other night.

My eating had been spot on!

Exercise and Movement

I managed to ride the exercise bike both days at lunch. I am pushing it hard on the bike.  I have it set so that I’m riding at a resistance level that even while sitting and pedaling I am getting out of breath.  But that’s not all....I push that resistance higher ever few minutes to push myself further.  The resistance is so high that I have to be out of the saddle to push those pedals.   My rides aren’t long, but I’m doing it...and something is better than nothing!

We have also managed to get in a walk on one of the days.  So I’ve not been a total slug!

Healthy Wage

A few months ago a friend of mine emailed me.  She works for the same  company that I do (although a different division of the company and she lives about 8 hours away).  She asked me to join her healthy wage team.   This healthy wage is being sponsored by our employers so there is no cost to join.  But there is a financial payout if we meet our goals.  Sounds like a winner to me!  I was in!    It started at the beginning of July!   I did my verified weigh in just yesterday!  So now I have a monetary reward to work toward!  Oh yeah, that is a win for me!!!!  It goes from the beginning of July through the end of September.   I am so ready to rock this challenge!!!

I am determined, motivated and utterly focused.   The time is now and I need to get this weight off!  Losing weight is definitely a want but it is also a need!  My life depends on getting this weight off of my body!!!

Intermittent Fasting

This post may contain affiliate links. Please read my disclaimer  for details. 

A few months back I decided to restart the process of  intermittent fasting into my life.   It has now been about two months and I thought it would be a grand time to discuss my methods and what I have discovered.

I actually learned about intermittent fasting quite by accident.  It started simply enough(and I wrote about it here ).   I leave my house super early and I just can’t stomach eating that early.  I was finding that by the time I got to work I just wanted  to get the day started and would forget to eat whatever breakfast item I packed.  It was purely accidental and I knew I would get a lot of slack for ‘skipping breakfast’ so I didn’t mention it much.  But one day, I mentioned it.  I had a few conversations and low and behold, I found that I was  doing something that is actually quite poplular.  Even better, it worked for me!  I followed the intermittent fasting plan for a few months and then somehow got off track.  Recently,  I picked it back up.  

What is intermittent fasting

Intermittent fasting is the method of fasting on a regular basis for a set period of time.  There isn’t a whole lot of testing and results on intermittent fasting. However some people say that it works because your body is burning fat during those regular times of fast. 

There are many variations of intermittent fasting. Some people will fast for 24 hours and then have a 24 hour period where they can eat.  In this way they are alternating days of fasting and eating.  Some people will do a 5:2 fast.   This is where they eat normally for 5 days and fast for two. Some fast all day and only eat once a day.  I could go on and on with the options. There are so many variations.

The method of intermittent fasting that I follow is the 16:8 method.  Simply put, I fast for 16 hours a day.  I allow myself to eat in an 8 hour window.  For me, I break my fast at lunch, which is usually somewhere around 12 or 12:30.  I typically am done with dinner by 8PM.  That works well for my schedule.  

If you read about intermittent fasting and specifically the 16:8 method, many people say that they love it because they can eat anything that they want within that 8 hour window....no tracking involved.   Maybe someday I will get to that point.  However, I have an addiction to food.  I can do quite a bit of damage in an 8 hour window.  Therefore, I track every bite, regardless!   

Why Intermittent fasting works for me

Intermittent fasting works for me for variety of reasons:

**  The first reason is simple. It reduces temptations.   I have an addiction to food.  I can not walk away from my addiction and remove myself from the temptations of my addiction.  No, I have to face my addiction every time my body feels hungry.  And even more realistically, I face my addiction each and every time a meal hour is upon me. Three times a day I have to stare my addiction down.   I can lose control very easily  and let the addiction control my food choices.  But by eliminating one of those meals, I am eliminating 1/3 of the temptation each day.  I really enjoy the reduction of that worry....and my body certainly doesn’t miss the meal.

** The second reason that this works for me is that I do still count my calories.  By eliminating the breakfast I am freeing up those calories that I would have eaten and it allows me a bit more freedom within my caloric budget later in the day.  (For example.  A 1200 calorie budget...if broken evenly between three meals allows for 400 calories each meal.  With no breakfast involved, I can take those 400 unused calories and apply them to the other meals)

** The last reason this works so well for me?  I have never been a big breakfast eater and have only ‘forced’ myself to eat because I was told that I had to eat breakfast to be ‘healthy’.  I always struggled with this concept.  I’m eating breakfast to lose weight...to be healthy.   But that is just adding more food and more times to fail into a food addicts life.  I know the whole concept of ‘starts off your day and all that’ but I have always preferred to NOT eat and I have seen no diffeeence in functioning without breakfast.  So, this plan of intermittent fasting  works well with my natural tendency and schedule!

What happens if I am ravenous?

So what happens if I am just plan hungry and it’s. Or my window to eat?   Well, I am not sadistic!   There have been a few instances where I find myself so utterly hungry by 9AM.  (Real hunger...not just the thought that something would taste good at that moment....real honest hunger!).  I have no problem saying ‘I’m going to be  eating something before the 16 hours is up!” In fact I keep some individually wrapped fig  bars in my desk at work just in case this happens.  (Amazon Affiliate link).  They are delicious and really hit the spot.  But honestly, the kind of hunger that gnaws at your stomach making it truly ache, the hunger that gives me a headache...that happens very rarely during my 16 hour fast.

Furthermore, I also know that heading out for a long bike ride at 10AM on an empty stomach is probably not going to go well.  So by all means, I will break that fast earlier so that I can properly fuel my body, even though it is not yet time to break my fast.  I am aiming for health, not rigidity.  This plan is not set in stone and sometimes it does require a little shift of thinking and adjustment!

I am sure that intermittent fasting is not for everyone.  I am also sure that it hasn’t always been the perfect solution for me nor will it probably always be the perfect plan for me in the future.  But for right now, right here it is working well for me.   I like the freedom from worrying about one less meal! 

Intermittent Fasting: I accidentally fell into this diet method

Who knew that I was actually doing a popular thing???   I have just been trying to set myself up for a healthy sustainable life.   I’ve been just trying to find an eating plan that brings balance to my life and is natural for me.   I was just trying to listen to my body and eat when I want to and not because the clock said it was time to eat.   Who knew that what I was doing was the ‘new diet fad’ called intermittent fasting.

Let me start back at the beginning of my recent turn around.   I’m not talking about my very first post on here.  I’m talking about a few months ago when  I was starting to get serious about losing weight and regaining a healthy life!   I began to reflect upon my journey through weight loss and a subsequent regain.    I decided that in order to succeed for LIFE I had to find a balance.  Not total restriction, but not a free for all.  I decided that I would have to find a plan where I was enjoying what I eat and furthermore when I wanted to eat.  I in essence had to find a plan that worked for me!

A few months ago when I decided to get serious in terms of weight loss and more importantly healthiness, I looked at what I had done before.  I wanted to pattern myself after that model because I had great success!  And I want to repeat that success!   But I also had great failure with the subsequent regain.   And I don’t want to repeat that!  The regain made me decided that I had to do something different.  I had to really work to find a balance between life’s food challenges (normal living) and healthy living.   

I liked some of my beliefs from before.  I would not be starting to eat yogurt just because it was ‘healthy’ for me.  (Yes at one point I was eating yogurt every day for lunch...even though I’m not a fan of yogurt...ok, I kinda hate yogurt!). Food is fuel, but it also needs to be palatable and something I at least like to eat!    The next thing was that I wasn’t going to eat just because the clock said it was time to eat.  When Jason and I first started dating I realized that I was with a man that ate according to when he was hungry.  NOT because it was simply lunchtime.  It started to open my eyes.  And while he has always been more than happy to stop for me to grab a bite even if he isn’t hungry, I started to realize that I was just eating because it was ‘time’ to eat.  That practice was going to end.  First up on the chopping block?  Breakfast!  And I don’t miss it at all!!!  My stomach doesn’t growl and I rarely even feel true hunger pains...even as lunchtime approaches (this past week was a rare exception!)

I have been hesitant to announce my breakfast free lifestyle in a post because it was pounded into my head that ‘we must eat breakfast’.  But other than a rare occasion (usually on a weekend....and in all honesty usually because I’m bored!) I haven’t had breakfast in maybe 4-5 months.   But I’m coming clean today because recently I read about someone else following this model of eating. (Escape from obesity.net).  And I have also heard the buzzwords intermittent fasting a few times.   

I finally found the time to look up intermittent fasting and what do you know?  That’s what I’m doing!   I’m apparently doing the 16:8 method. Fast for 16 hours and eat within an 8 hour window.  They say there is incredible benefits.  Weight loss for one (as long as one doesn’t just shovel food into their mouths during the 8 hours...they say you don’t even track your food during those 8 hours...however I still track).  They say that without a constant food source your body will start burning fat.  Sounds good to me!   There are other benefits.  They said energy, lower insulin levels and all sorts of other things.  So I guess I’m an intermittent faster.

Weekend shenanigans

We of course did our normal weekend errands...groceries (We hot up two stores each week...Aldi’s and then usually giant or Walmart).  I had to pick up cat food from the pet store.  And we hit up a farmers market. 

 Once fully stocked we were ready for the fun!  :-)  We headed out for a bike ride.   We have amazing conversations, deep and intense while we are biking...or hiking!  So it was a good ride.  Well....except that my one gear kept slipping (the one I wanted/needed to be in!)  Furthermore, something is rubbing on my bike.  I thought it was the brakes, so I disengaged the breaks and rode breakless for a while...but that didn't take away the problem.  Ironically enough, bike shopping for  me was a conversation that we had already had during the bike ride, so I wasn't too upset about the bike issues...although I do want them fixed!