Week Two: Stead-fast

                                                     

                                                            Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay 

I made it through week two with flying colors!

I won't say it was all easy (especially when you have a chef for a husband), but I learned a lot about myself and I'm already starting to see changes- most of them good.

My feet are normal size most of the time instead of swollen footballs all the time. My shoes fit better, and I walk better too!

I have more energy and am naturally more active. Sitting still for too long is beginning to bother me, and everyone is happy that I'm not asking them to fetch me food anymore- if I want it, I get it. I'm also eating a lot less than I was before this program, and am now down to two meals a day.

Dietary issues have also been revealed. Beets, though I love them, give me issues. Never noticed that before, but after test tasting them out a few times, they will only help me if the plumbing is clogged. Let's just say the colonoscopy people would be able to use beets as a substitute for that jug of juice they want me to drink. On a positive note, I do fine with higher levels of protein, and fats don't seem to bother me either.

My joints, on the whole, have stopped hurting- unless I overdo it. And of course, since I was feeling good, I overdid it a lot! I need a lot less rest to ease joint pain than I used to, and once I get moving, the pain stops. All the more reason to get off my butt and do more...right? I haven't started outright exercising yet, but when I'm ready, I have all the tools I need to get started- without a gym.

Adapting my window to work ratio isn't as easy when the window is getting shorter and shorter each week. The first week was eight hours- easy enough, it was 11:00am to 7:00pm- but last week I missed a few things by the end of my window (like dessert because the family usually eats dinner between six and seven), so by the weekend, I shifted the time from 12:00pm to 7:00pm and 1:00 to 8:00pm respectively. 

On occasion, I did feel hungrier, especially when my window closed and my husband started baking one of his fabulous desserts after dinner. Food smells (when not in my eating window) hit me like a speeding truck and it made my stomach want food- Right Now. 

I knew it was bad one day when I was out driving for work and got a whiff of fast food- then realized it was McDonald's. If you know me (and most of you do) I wouldn't touch McD's food with a ten-foot fork, not even if I was starving. I knew I had to rein in my sniffer, so I closed the window until the feeling passed.

Next week will be different because my husband was switched from night hours to morning hours for three days, so he'll be home for dinner instead of us depending on leftovers on those days. We both cook, so one of us will be making dinner since everyone will be home. My window is now six hours, and my main concern is being too hungry when at work since I usually eat breakfast right before we leave. 

The plan is to make breakfast portable so I can take it with me to work. Breakfast is always eggs, bacon, and sausage, with a little ham and cheese tossed into the eggs. Don't look at me like that! These foods work for me much better than other breakfast foods like oatmeal or fruit. I might make a breakfast sandwich instead, but not every day. I've found that unless I bake it myself (and eventually I hope to grind my own organic flour instead of using store-bought), bread makes me tired. Not good for working!

Now if I can just resist tasting my breakfast as I make it, I'll be okay. I'm planning my window from 1:00pm to 7:00pm this week since the 7:00pm mark is my best choice whether he is doing morning or night shifts, so I'll have to make my breakfast at 11:30am and pack it until I can eat it at 1:00.

I've started reading the second half of the book, and right now it's mostly information about making better choices and tweaking what works and what doesn't- like the beets. I'm still a little unclear as to the seven days of fasting (two days no food or 500 calories worth- which is the only calorie counting she does in the book- and five days of different sized eating windows), but by the time I've finished, I'll be ready for it.

Two more weeks to go!