Week Six: Tweak Til It's Easy

 Sorry, this is a little late- I'm having computer issues.

This week was much easier, though I still had some issues concerning overeating. I decided to try tweaking my starting window (currently 1-7pm) and trying to go at least another half hour before eating during the week. I'd succeeded three days out of five, and managed to go at least fifteen minutes on the other two days. 

However, when the weekend came around, I was a rock star.

Image by ArtTower from Pixabay 

I'd found a project could really delve into and managed to distract myself until 2:30 on Saturday, and then again until 2:00 on Sunday. 

So now I'll be tweaking my weekday times permanently by a half-hour and starting at 1:30 pm this upcoming week.

As for the food, I'm still having two meals and a large snack- and I feel it's time to knock that down a little bit. I'm not nearly as hungry when I get home, and the snack (which is 1/2-3/4 of a meal) makes me still feel a bit full when dinnertime comes around- especially since my window was a little smaller. 

You wouldn't think fifteen to thirty minutes would be a big deal, but it really matters!

The interest in junk food is waning, though I did splurge and get some Halloween candy- not for kids but for us alone- which consisted mostly of tootsie rolls (chocolate and flavored). Chocolate was way too expensive- I'm going to wait until the day after to get some of that. Heh.

The best part is I took one of each of those flavored and chocolate mini taffies and took tiny bites to savor the flavors. I'd taken about five bites of each one, just letting it melt in my mouth and enjoying the heck out of this rare treat. I love those little suckers!

Tweaking here and there is helping a lot; I have less 'skinny feeling' days, so I know I need to cut back- but I really don't want to cut back too much and risk a metabolic crash. Someone in my IF Facebook group helped me out a great deal by suggesting that hunger pangs are good things- it's your body's way of telling you it's eating all that extra fat for energy! So as long as I get a few pangs and don't wait until I'm famished, my metabolism should be good to go!

One thing I need to do is move around more. My job was doing that for me, but work has slowed so I have fewer deliveries and more time on my hands. Most of the projects I have at home are sedentary, and I find it hard to get up and go when involved in a sit-down project. There's always housework, but who wants to do that...right?

I weigh myself in two weeks. If I lose five to ten pounds, I'm in the sweet spot concerning weight loss. I don't feel like I'm dieting or that this is a temporary way of eating. I'm getting used to it- and it feels great!

Week Five: Bad Habit Battle

I once read a book that said it took twenty-one days to break a bad habit.

Nope. It takes a lot longer than that! Especially when you've had certain bad habits for years.

Even the book Fast, Feast, Repeat said that I might struggle after the initial twenty-eight days. But I nailed it! Things should be easy-peasy now...right?

Nope again. The Hungries have lifted their little rebellious heads and have harassed me this entire week. On three occasions I found myself eating until I was overly full, though I admit, only one time did I eat until I was almost too full. Not to the point of a food coma, but enough to know I overdid it. 

So what happened?

I relaxed my mindset. I told myself I could have a little more food because I was losing too fast (oh, the irony!), so when I let myself relax a little, the Hungries tried to take over and make me overeat. They almost won too, on several occasions. Bad habit number one.

I even started eating some snacks simply because they were there. I wasn't even hungry for them. I just had to have a couple, here and there to try, to taste, to finish before anyone else could. Bad habit number two.

But was I going to let the Hungries win? Heck no! I did what it says in chapter eleven- tweak it 'til it's easy. So I shortened my window when I could, had a very light snack instead of a small meal, and found better things to do than eat.

It's working.

Image by Stefan Keller from Pixabay 

I also started paying attention to what I was eating that could cause the Hungries to bother me. One was bread (bakery-style, so less reactive, but still reactive) and I treated myself to a rare thing we seldom have in the house- soda. Each time I had either or both of these, the Hungries were worse the next day. So now I'm limiting those two items concerning my menu. 

Crackers don't bother me much at all (at least not that I'd noticed yet), so instead of a sandwich, I'll have crackers instead of bread. We'll see how that goes this week.

The energy has waned a bit, only because of the different foods I've been trying and now know to keep to a minimum. I'll be introducing the only salad I will ever eat sometime next week- chicken cobb salad- homemade of course!

Keeping myself busy after I get home from work is key to sticking to my new lifestyle of eating. Intermittent Fasting (IF for short) may not work for everyone, but it's working well for me! Prepare to be beaten, bad habits!

Week Four: End of Trial Results

                                                           

                                                              Image by Vidmir Raic from Pixabay 

It's day twenty-nine folks! Time to break out the measuring tape- er, I mean string, the ruler, and the freight scale at hubby's work and see just what's been happening!

But before my report, some details about my week:

My energy is still running high! Maybe a little too high, because I'm starting to have a little trouble staying asleep. Just a little tweak in the food department (adding not taking away) will solve this issue.

I went out for the day for the first time in a long time, and when the appetizers came, I had a taste of everything I wanted, but not one of everything like I used to do! One half of this, a quarter of that was all I needed to make a very small plate of tasty morsels before dinner.

And when dinner came, I ate until I was full, and doggie bagged the rest. No feelings of regret, guilt, or even deprivation- I just didn't want to finish off my plate. The best part was I had the leftovers for two meals, not one!

An hour after dinner, we decided to go get some ice cream. I had a double-dip waffle cone (forgetting to order a smaller one and getting what I normally polish off). I ate it nice and slow- short enough to not be a milky puddle, but long enough that I was the last to finish- and I ate the whole thing and felt just a little extra full, but not uncomfortably so. 

No guilt! No shame! And I totally enjoyed everything I'd put into my mouth!

After a few days, a five-hour window was harder than I thought, but I did it. A six-hour window works best for me, so this week, it's a six-hour window. 

I function best eating high protein with certain veggies. Not all veggies and fruits are good for my body unless I need an intestinal cleanse. Eesh!

I also did a quick re-read of the book and found that when I ended my fasting trial, I had a choice of doing eating windows or doing a 5:2 weekly up and down fast. Since I was losing an average of 4-1/2 pounds a week (which is way faster than I thought I would lose), I opened my eating window a little and will add just a little more food to my menu, simply because I don't want to crash and burn my metabolic rate. Slow and steady wins the race- Isn't that what Aesop said?

Now, to the reason we're all here today. The results of my first 28-day fast!

Here were my measurements:

28 days ago:                       Now:                              Difference:

Weight 363 lbs.                    346                                17 pounds

Biceps- 23"                         same                                 none

Chest- 61-1/2"                    59-1/2"                            2 inches

Waist- 58"                          55-1/2"                            2-1/2"

Hips- 69-1/2"                      64"                                  5-1/2"

Thigh- 32"                          31-1/4"                              3/4"

Neck- 18"                           same                                 none

And now the pictures, before and after:

Well, at least my face looks thinner! 😜

The point is I lost a whopping seventeen pounds and a lot of inches!

But this isn't the finish line. this is only the beginning!

The loss is a lot faster than I thought it would be, so I'll add a little food during my window so the rate isn't as fast. One to two pounds a week is a fair rate for my size, and eventually, I'll be tweaking this again when I hit a plateau.

I can't tell you how easy this was! Yes, sometimes I was hungry, but very few times the entire time I was near the point of bingeing. One hand with fingers left over, in fact. I see now how this can be for life because I still eat what I like- just not what my body likes. I don't even crave chips as much anymore! 

Let me tell you one more thing that even surprised me, the chipoholic. Today I had a sandwich bag of potato chips with me to snack on while at work, took a few before I realized they were stale. Would that have stopped me before? Nope! I would've eaten them anyway! But this time I decided they weren't eating because they just didn't taste good, and I tossed the rest of the bag in the trash.

Who is this person in my mirror, and what did she do with my chips??

Yep. I tossed them. Because I only was delicious things to eat now. I am not a garbage can who will accept anything edible anymore. And that's huge.

From now on I will weigh and measure monthly, giving you updates weekly. I hope you enjoy your trip with me down the scale and measuring tape, and I hope to encourage you that if I can do it, so can you!

Week Three: Starting to Click

                                            

                                                    Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay 

Everything's starting to click!

Adjusting to a six-hour window was actually easier than the seven-hour window. I found that I was stopping before I could finish a meal once or twice, so I started giving myself smaller portions.

Only once when I gave myself a much smaller meal did go for seconds (which was the first time I had seconds since I started this lifestyle); I only got a few bites more, but I could tell I'd had a little more than enough. All I needed was about two more bites to be full, and I took about four or five.

Isn't that incredible? Me, the bottomless pit, could now tell when I needed to stop eating and be satisfied with more than half the amount I used to eat!

I also found out that homemade bread is okay for me in occasional doses, and I'm good with milk, cheeses, meats, and certain veggies and fruits. Homemade bread doesn't affect me at all, while store-bought bread makes me feel bloaty. Cereal, one of my favorite snacks, makes me feel bloaty too, so I know it's the cereal, not the milk. Sigh. I just bought myself a few boxes right after I started this new way of eating too...oh well, someone else can eat it.

I'm finding myself getting pickier about what I'm eating because I'm down to two meals. Do I want this or that? If I have this, will there be any of that left for tomorrow? Can I have a smaller amount of both? Can I just forgo the one and enjoy the other? Some things just aren't worth putting in my mouth anymore when time and tummy space is limited.

I have hoarding tendencies and I see now that kinda slipped into the way I eat too.

My husband used to drive me crazy when he left a bite or two on his plate, claiming he was full. Seriously, I just couldn't fathom how he could just leave food on his plate like that! But today I had my first meal, and a few bites before finishing, I stopped and put the rest away. I can't tell you how hard it was to put that little bit back, because I was always taught to clean your plate and to finish off the last bites so it doesn't get wasted. 

And before starting this plan I was not only finishing my plate but my husband's and kids as well. Really bad habit to break, and I'll be honest- after an hour I finished off that last little bit of my meal- but I waited an hour, which is a start.

The best part?

I have energy when awake, and I'm sleeping so much better than I was. Not only am I more mobile, but I want to get up and do things! Even my friends noticed I'm more animated and happier than I've been in a long while. 

Pain is disappearing, and I feel thinner during the fasting part of my day. Everything is less swollen or not swollen at all, and I can actually look in the mirror and see some slight differences. Even doing simple tasks like bending over to get something or walking up the steps is no longer a pain-filled chore I would avoid like rabid crocodiles. I'm not out of breath anymore either!

Showering is not the trial it used to be. Such a simple thing that's a pleasure to most folks, was an ordeal for me. Not only was it pretty claustrophobic in the shower stall, but I couldn't stand for very long and the pain that would radiate from my calves and back was excruciating! By the time I was out of the shower, I was almost crying it hurt so bad, and it took way too long to hobble over to the bed so I could sit down and make the pain stop. Sometimes I sat there and did cry- not just from the pain but the self-hate I was feeling by not being able to control my eating.

Now? I took a longer shower than usual, even doing a few smaller standing-up chores beforehand. It hurt a little, but I could walk straight from the shower to the bed without the slightest gimpiness- that alone was worth starting this lifestyle way of eating!

Next week is going to be even better when I go down to a five-hour window. I'd never thought I'd say that, but it's true. A smaller eating window is going to be easier than a bigger window. Crazy, right? Next week's window will be from 2:00pm to 7:00 pm.

And after next week, I have to weigh and measure myself all over again. That part is scary and exciting all rolled into one. 

Just a few more clicks in the gears and I'll be running like a well-oiled machine!