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!