Year One, Week Forty: Expect the Unexpected

Oops!

    I made a blunder. We have an event this week, and I was prepping all last week for it. I started volunteering yesterday, and not only did I forget to post this blog, but I also forgot to weigh myself- yesterday and today!

    Sorry to disappoint, but I'll do my weigh-in and measurements next week instead of this week, and I'll be back on track in four weeks.

    So, what is this event, you might ask? It's called Creation. It's a huge Christian music festival that my husband and I volunteer for until Saturday. My husband is camping overnight because his shift is late in the evening, but I've decided to commute instead of camp since my shift is in the afternoon, and we're about a thirty-five-minute drive away. 

    I had an opportunity to sell my handmade denim bags at the festival to help get the funds we needed to start our bakery. So last week was spent sewing my butt off. This week I volunteered for face painting, which is starting tomorrow. I don't have my schedule yet, so who knows what my eating windows will look like.

    They allowed me to set up my selling spot yesterday, so I didn't have time to blog. When I started to write my post this morning, I noticed that this week was also supposed to be a weigh-in week.

    Oh, the irony of this blog post title!

Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay 

    Forgetting my weigh-in wasn't the purpose of this post; what to do when you have no idea how to adjust your eating window was!

    Now that you have the backstory let's get to the original idea for this post.

    Because I've no idea about my volunteer schedule, the two biggest challenges this week are when I'll be eating and what I'll be eating. 

    I'll probably be scheduled right around the time I usually eat. The volunteer time blocks are four hours, and I'll drive to the venue instead of camping. With driving to and from, setup, and actual painting faces, that's almost a six-hour window where I'm not going to be eating. 

    Eat too early, and I'll be tempted to eat the Festival food. Too late, and I'll not only be tempted to eat the Festival food, but after I get home (if I resist), I'll be overly hungry and overeat.

    So there are choices to be made: 

1. Eat early the first day and see what happens. 

2. Take food with me that's okay to at from a cooler (though finger food and painting faces don't mix- and that's if I get a break, which might not happen.)

3. Take a gallon of water with me and drown my hunger until I get home, then cook something. 

4. Prep food before going to grab and eat the second I get home, so I don't waste time cooking, and take a gallon of water to drown my hunger during volunteering.

    The second choice is the worst among the lot. The rest involve me controlling myself around those good smells of the Festival food vendors. Of course, I could just forget eating windows this week, but my weigh-in is already overdue, and overindulgence isn't an option.

    Unfortunately, self-control isn't my strongest virtue. Sigh.

    Hopefully, I'll get my schedule today to plan things out better. Until then, I'll do a little menu planning so there's food in the fridge for my daughter and I when we get home (she is working this week and couldn't volunteer.)

    Fast, Feast, Tweak!

Year One, Week Thirty-Nine: Conquering Mountains

(Yes, this is an actual photo of our backyard mountain!)

I did something last week that wasn't possible before I started IFing. I climbed a mountain.

The best part? I videoed the trek. 

(Sorry, the link opens a new window because the file won't load here.)

I climbed a mountain

It's the mountain behind our house. It's a 400 ft. elevation at a 10% grade and one-and-a-half miles round trip total. The entire journey took about an hour and a half.

At the beginning of my IF journey, I was considering a wheelchair. And now, though I'm not moving mountains, I am climbing them. 

To be completely frank, I thought this impossible. My husband and daughter thought I couldn't and shouldn't try because neither of them thought I was ready. And ever since we moved here, I agreed with them.

But, after reading a ton of business books so we can start our bakery, my mind has begun rewiring itself for success. And every time I sat outside to watch the wildlife, my eyes kept returning to that mountain in my backyard. 

I can do that, I thought to myself. It might take me hours, but I can do that. I needed to stop listening to others telling me what I could and could not accomplish- including myself.

So last week, I told my husband I would make an attempt.

It was initially an attempt. I'd no idea how far it was, but I know my husband went up there regularly and was back in less than an hour, so it was far enough to be a severe challenge for me, but not so far that I couldn't complete it if given enough time. I was hoping there were enough downed trees to sit on so I could rest once in a while.

This wasn't a race. I was going at my own pace and seeing how far I could go. 

My husband decided he was going with me.

At first, I didn't want him along. This was my journey, my accomplishment, and my challenge. I didn't want him to discourage me, encourage me, or see my failure and disappointment if I didn't make it.

But we are here in the boonies, and some critters would see me as a delicious snack. So my husband accompanied me because it was just plain smart.

I'm glad he was with me. We encountered some muddy patches that needed a little helping hand to get over, but I have to give him credit- he let me go at my pace and didn't say anything about the trek unless I asked him. 

We made it up, over, and down to the house in about an hour-and-a-half. 

The time surprised me. I thought it would take hours. I thought I'd be near death when we got to the back door. I thought a lot of things that are no longer true. 

I did what I thought was impossible. Now it's not only possible, but I didn't die, my legs didn't fall off, and we weren't eaten by a bear. Good times, folks, good times. And now I know to challenge anything I think is impossible.

Like starting a bakery. Or losing weight.

Maybe you're starting your IF eating plan and think you'll never get down to one-hour windows or eating One Meal A Day (OMAD.) Perhaps you're somewhere in the middle, wondering if you're ever going to figure this out. Trust me- you'll get it if you stick with it and tweak your IF journey because it's your journey and no one else. 

Stop listening to the diet planners, the hype, and your Auntie Janice, and start listening to your body instead. And then, keep listening and tweaking; your impossible mountain will be a molehill- at your pace!

Year One, Week Thirty-Eight: Summer Surprises!

It's time to break out the summer wardrobe!

Image by Engin Akyurt from Pixabay 

Okay, my wardrobe stays the same throughout the year now that I stopped wearing sweat pants, but I have a shorts drawer in my dresser. Whatever can fit neatly in the drawer, that's what stays. A lot less storage that way.

Before we moved here in October, I knew many of the shorts I had were going to be too big this summer, so I donated most of them, save for a few that were a bit snug. (Positive thinking!) Most of them had ties at the waist that I double-knotted- really convenient for seeing just how far I've come.

But I wasn't expecting this!

These shorts were snug on me last year. Now I have to cinch them tighter because they're baggy.

That's a lot of space betwixt waist and waistband!

The shorts I wear for the weight loss photos are just worn for comparison pictures, so don't think I wear shorts all year long- far from it. 

As for the eating windows, I did well until this weekend, when I helped out at a men's camping conference. My daughter and I were helping get guys registered, freeing up the leaders so they could enjoy and work at the camping area. Unfortunately, since we weren't allowed on the grounds, they brought food out to us, so there wasn't much I could do with what I ate. 

I was back on track yesterday, and I'm planning on a few more salads and veggies this week. I feel a bit bloated and hungry (because I ate throughout the day for three days), but that was expected. A high-protein meal and some hearty greens will do the trick!

Two more weeks until my next weigh-in. I'm looking forward to it!

Year One, Week Thirty-Seven: Figures and Facts

Testing yourself is the best way to figure out what it will take to lose weight during Intermittent Fasting. Yes, you can also take medical tests, but beyond food allergies, the docs really can't tell if your body likes a particular food or fasting window.

So we have to be our own super sleuths.

Image by Markus Winkler from Pixabay 

In my case, bread seems to be my kryptonite. Years ago, I was doing Atkins and found I responded well to a lower-carb diet. I have yet to test pasta, but I should be doing that within the next week. 

I want to test for flour in general, so I'll also be trying out products with corn flour, like tortilla chips, in the next few weeks. It's gotten to the point now that I try one of my possible problem foods after two days of low-carbing. The scale reveals all.

As for rice, potatoes, and other starchy veggies, I don't seem to have an issue. I love potatoes, so I'm glad it's not on my kryptonite list. Believe it or not, potato chips don't affect the scale for me! 

It would if I ate a whole bag, of course, but I've nipped that particular habit in the bud.

After two days of low-carb eating in one-hour windows, I've learned to test one potential problem food at a time on my testing day to prevent confusion. Now that I've narrowed it down, it's easier to judge which foods my body wants and which ones to avoid. This kind of fasting also gives me my 'sometimes' foods, which are okay for me under certain circumstances.

There's a lot of investigation involved. But the effort is worth it.

I know what to order when we go out without asking for substitutions. I can prep for an event and not feel deprived or miserable because of bad choices eaten on a whim. And if something impromptu comes up, I know how to adjust my eating for the next few days if I do slip up.

No guilt. No shame. Total accountability. And the results are almost a seventy-pound weight loss so far.

The road to food freedom is littered with potholes and hazards. You will mess up. You will get discouraged. But if you keep investigating and testing out your food-consuming theories, in time, you'll realize what you need to do to succeed. And readjusting your eating windows and menus will get a lot easier. 

Trust me.

Your facts and figures will probably differ from mine. Everyone is different. Maybe you can eat bread but can't eat sugar. Whatever it is, you'll figure it out and make fantastic breakthroughs!