Saturday, October 25, 2014

After 4 Months of Intermittent Fasting

Hello out there!  I wanted to give a quick update on my progress with Intermittent Fasting.

I have fallen into a very comfortable routine.  Here's my eating schedule Monday through Friday:
  • I have coffee in the morning with heavy cream and some coconut oil.  The fat in the cream and coconut oil seems to keep me from being hungry all morning. 
  • Sometimes around 11:30, I do get a bit hungry.  At that point, I analyze whether I "need" to eat (do I feel shaky?) or am I just "feeling hungry"?  If I'm shaky, I eat a few nuts, a piece of cheese or an Atkin's bar.
  • If I'm "just" hungry, I ignore it (even if my stomach is growling a bit).  The amazing thing is, if I ignore the feeling of hunger, it usually goes away. I often find it's 2:30 or 3 pm before I realize "hey! it's time to eat something!"
  • So, after 2 pm, I will have some yogurt and a piece of fruit; or cheese and some fruit; something like that.  Something light.
  • Then I eat dinner at around 7 pm.  That's usually a large bowl of soup, or salad with protein, or low-carb pasta with protein.  I don't worry about how much I'm eating, I just eat until I'm full, then I stop. I have found that I get full pretty fast...the amount of food I can comfortably eat is much less now. 
  • Usually I don't eat anything else in the evening after dinner.  But sometimes I am still hungry, so I might even have a small dish of (full fat) ice cream.  In general, however, I do try to not eat anything after 8:30. 
  • On the weekend, I'm a bit more lax about the times, the amounts of food, etc, but in general I still don't eat until after noon. We eat out with friends on Saturday night, and I eat whatever I want.  I also usually have a few cocktails or glasses of wine (Hub drives :-)), and dessert if I want it. 
In addition to the eating schedule, I have been working out a few times a week.  HIIT (20 minutes of cardio); and light weights and some ab exercises.  I shoot for 4 times a week, but I've been averaging 3 times a week.

So, that's about it.  I LOVE LOVE LOVE NOT THINKING ABOUT FOOD for most of the day.  No packing a lunch, or a bunch of "small snacks" as I used to have to do.  (Ugh, I used to hate that, so sometimes I'd skip it and end up eating fast food crap.) Then not worrying about calories, etc, at night is great.  Hub tends to cook low carb so I guess that probably has assisted in the weight loss.  

I still don't weigh myself, but I wanted to keep some kind of record of my progress.  So in June, just as I was starting IF, I took some photos of my midsection; and I just took a few more photos a few days ago.  Here are the results:


I have a (tanning booth) tan in the second photo, but still, I think the results are pretty obvious.  My stomach flab and love handles, which have always what I dislike the most about my body, have gone down significantly.  (And I actually seem to be developing abs!  I haven't had abs since I was in my 20's.)

In the first photo, I was wearing 14's.  Now I'm comfortably wearing a size 10. 

Anyway, I'll just be keeping on.

Hope all is well out there in Blogland!  
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3 comments:

  1. GwenOctober 25, 2014 at 12:43 PM

    Hi Grace,

    I intermittent fast, but I have to admit I'm a little concerned for you. I don't think you are getting adequate veggie nutrition. You food seems predominately fat, followed by some type of protein. Tiny amount of fruit. And I just don't know if you have enough baseline calories to be nutritionally safe/healthy. Have you had any blood work done since you started? I would highly suggest it, and make sure your vitamin levels and general CBC levels are safe. Only because I care. :)

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    Replies
    1. GraceOctober 25, 2014 at 1:32 PM

      Hi Gwen
      Thank you for your concern! Yes, my diet (along with the fasting) is primarily low carb. As I mentioned, I am also eating salads (with "real" leafy vegetables, not iceberg lettuce, and other vegetables) and soup (primarily vegetable based...swiss chard, kale, etc). I also eat eggs, beans, etc. Mostly I try to stay away from anything too processed.

      My calories are running about 1700 a day currently, which is fine because I am in the weight loss mode. When I get down about another 10 lbs, I'll extend the window of eating which will up my caloric intake. The bottom line is I feel great both mentally and physically.

      I went to the doctor about a month ago for my annual check up, and my cholesterol was perfect. Total Chol 161, HDL 67, LDL 85, Ratio 2.4, Triglicerides 50. CBC was normal; red blood 4.2, white 5.2, and hemoglobin 13.2. My doctor was quite pleased with my weight loss (I don't know what the weight was, I don't look and I've asked them not to tell me, but she did say I had lost weight), although I don't think she understood about the fasting. As you know, it's not readily accepted by conventional medicine yet. They still think the 6 small meals a day thing is the way to go.

      Again, thank you for your concern. I will definitely keep your thoughts in mind.

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  2. Launna October 26, 2014 at 4:27 AM

    I am loving the IF program, I eat in the morning and am done by 4 pm, I love not thinking about food in the evening ... I eat mostly fruit and vegetables with eggs, nuts, beans and cheese ... I feel really good, I am trying to get my exercise back... with Winter coming I will have to get creative, maybe dancing :)

    It sounds like you are doing good and being very smart about it, I visit my doctor regularly and I too have my blood work checked :)

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