Right. 'Fast and eat what you like the rest of the time...' I don't think so. Not for this little black duck! Fast and eat what you like the rest of the time for me equals go hungry for two days a week and put on weight the rest of the time! The yo-yoing on the scales is doing my head in!
Maybe it's time to re-evaluate. I've been reading a few IF blogs and one that I really like Mama's Weeds. Her take on IF is to fast every day but only for 16hrs. So finish eating at 7pm and then start eating at 11 the next morning. This is becoming more appealing as I try and go for another fast this week and am having trouble getting motivated. So, it's 8pm and I've just finished dinner, lets see if I can go through to 12 tomorrow. See how I go...
The other option, bright stuff, is to eat properly when not fasting... easier said than done. That's what got me into this situation in the first place!! But one day at a time right? Today was good, no chocolate (there's none left in the cupboard) no Macca's, went out without my purse and didn't eat too much either. So that was one good thing :)
I also need to get into some exercise, but at the moment my options are limited to pool walking as I have a bulging disk, thanks to lugging around a 2yr old and 9mth old, often at the same time! Once I get that sorted I plan to do a couple of classes a week and maybe work up to some running... ooooh scary!
That's it for now...
xo
Wednesday, 30 January 2013
Saturday, 26 January 2013
Hmmmm...
So I find myself wondering, to lose weight, should I just stop eating altogether? Being an obsessive compulsive scale watcher The Scales have been playing games with me since I started fasting! Typically the day after the fast the scales are 2kgs(!!!) lighter! Hardly believable, but apparently this is not only due to some water weightloss but also because you're literally running on empty there's no 'food weight' in your system! So of course being the scale watcher I am this 'massive' loss makes me ecstatically happy. Unfortunately, the next day when there is food back in my system BAMM weight is back on and mood down the toilet...
So I've drummed up enough courage to put up my stats, gulp...
After one week of two fasts and moderate 'normal' eating the stats are as follows:
Start weight: 85.7kgs not great for my height- 166cm, gives me a BMI of 30.1 which is officially and scarily in the obese category! My waist measurement is 88cm which is 8cm above the healthy waist measurement for women... oh dear!
End of week 1: 85.3kg so 400g down
Not bad considering a large part of my diet has included about 600g toblerone chocolate... thanks to my father-in-law who gave us 1.2kgs of said deliciously nutty, nougatty goodness for Chritsmas- what was he thinking! Anyway, chocolate has gone so hopefully next week's results will be a bit more promising.
It drums home to me that I really do need to clean up my eating, as I mentioned in a previous post, fasting has made me very aware of what I am eating and it has become quite apparent how much crap I actually shove in my mouth. Next week's plan is to eat more healthily, after tomorrow's bbq and toblerone cheesecake, of course...
So I've drummed up enough courage to put up my stats, gulp...
After one week of two fasts and moderate 'normal' eating the stats are as follows:
Start weight: 85.7kgs not great for my height- 166cm, gives me a BMI of 30.1 which is officially and scarily in the obese category! My waist measurement is 88cm which is 8cm above the healthy waist measurement for women... oh dear!
End of week 1: 85.3kg so 400g down
Not bad considering a large part of my diet has included about 600g toblerone chocolate... thanks to my father-in-law who gave us 1.2kgs of said deliciously nutty, nougatty goodness for Chritsmas- what was he thinking! Anyway, chocolate has gone so hopefully next week's results will be a bit more promising.
It drums home to me that I really do need to clean up my eating, as I mentioned in a previous post, fasting has made me very aware of what I am eating and it has become quite apparent how much crap I actually shove in my mouth. Next week's plan is to eat more healthily, after tomorrow's bbq and toblerone cheesecake, of course...
Wednesday, 23 January 2013
Tweaking
This might sound crazy, but I'm finding the fasting part of this new plan much easier than the eating part! When I'm fasting I know exactly what my choices are: water, tea, mineral water or diet soft drink. There's no 'Stuff it! A bit more won't hurt'. When I'm eating, it's so much harder... hence the good intentions and not so good reality! I have found that after the fast I am much more aware of what I'm eating. So perhaps that's the secret, mindful eating- making sure that what I eat is the best option as well as chewing slowly and enjoying every mouthful, instead of my usual shove it in as fast as I can! I also discovered during the last fast that I lick food off my fingers a lot! Especially when feeding the kids!
It also doesn't help that Baby M decided last night to have a party at 1am that went for 2 hours! Then he got up for the day at 5am! Everything is harder when you're tired, especially when it comes to food. When I'm tired I crave sweet stuff and no, fruit DOES NOT cut it! Give me chocolate baby and no body gets hurt! As always having the right food in the house helps and if there's no chocolate then there's no temptation.
I've adjusted my fast time today, I started at 12pm and am hoping that will make tomorrow easier, not so long to go hungry! See how we go, I'll keep you posted.
xo
It also doesn't help that Baby M decided last night to have a party at 1am that went for 2 hours! Then he got up for the day at 5am! Everything is harder when you're tired, especially when it comes to food. When I'm tired I crave sweet stuff and no, fruit DOES NOT cut it! Give me chocolate baby and no body gets hurt! As always having the right food in the house helps and if there's no chocolate then there's no temptation.
I've adjusted my fast time today, I started at 12pm and am hoping that will make tomorrow easier, not so long to go hungry! See how we go, I'll keep you posted.
xo
Monday, 21 January 2013
Fast and Furious
First fast finished! And surprisingly, it wasn't that bad... until about 21hrs in, then I got grumpy and took it out on the vacuum cleaner! Vacuuming when angry = broken vacuum! Oh well, hopefully I can stick it back together with duct tape :)
I started the fast at 2pm yesterday and it was easy enough to get through the afternoon and dinner time for kids and Mr Fabulous. Although, it would have been a bit easier if he hadn't kept asking me if I would like to try his dinner as it was so good, apparently. A gentle reminder fixed that issue :) I went to bed fairly early as I was starting to feel a bit shaky and figured bed would be the easy option. A couple of mid-night wake-ups later, thanks kiddies, I felt pretty good when I got up at 7. Not hungry at all through breakfast, I didn't start to really feel hungry until around 11 and I was definitely on a short fuse too- hence the broken vacuum!
I broke my fast at 2pm with a friend, some crackers and hummus and a few pieces of toblerone chocolate. It felt strange to eat after not eating all day, but I got over that pretty quick! I still felt pretty hungry for the rest of the afternoon and had some more crackers and salsa when the kids had dinner and then ate a normal dinner chicken, spuds and salad.
So, what did I learn from my first attempt at fasting?
Well, I think for the next fast I will start earlier in the day, maybe around 10 or 11am. I think it will be easier to miss 2 meals on the first day when you're not yet super hungry, rather than skip 2 meals on the 2nd day when you're starting to get pretty hungry. It might take a bit of experimenting to get the timing right.
I also found that if I added ice cubes to my water and crunched on those, it felt a bit like eating so that helped this morning when I felt like I might be able to chew the leg off a chair! I had something to drink every time I felt hungry and stuck to water, herbal tea and mineral water as suggested by Brad Pilon in Eat Stop Eat.
What to do next?
The big question that the few people I've mentioned my new plan to is 'What will you eat when you're not fasting?' According to Mr Pilon you should eat normally and healthily. Well that's a bit of a problem for me! If I ate 'normally' like I have been for the past year- since my lap band was removed, I really don't think I'd lose much weight. I have fallen into a few nasty habits and have been thinking about cleaning up my act for a while now, really just needing the right motivation to get my shit together.
After my son was born in April, I saw a naturopath for some advice on healthy ways to lose weight. She gave me a diet plan to follow that I found really appealing and not too restrictive or hardcore. It basically involves cutting carbs down to one serve of whole grains a day eg porridge, wholegrain bread, brown rice etc and ensuring you eat a serve of protein for every meal, not necessarily meat protein either but combining plant proteins to ensure you get all the amino acids. Lots of beans and nuts and seeds as well as heaps of vegies to help fill you up and some fruit for a sweet hit. Absolutely no added sugar or processed food, there goes my secret Macca's habit! :)
So, at the moment my plan for the week goes like this:
Sunday- breakfast then fast 10am onwards
Monday 10am - Wednesday 10am- eat healthily, according to naturopath's plan
Wednesday 10am - Thursday 10am- fast
Thursday 10am - Sunday 10am- healthy eating
Well that's the plan, we'll see how it goes!
I'm trying to drum up the courage to put my weights and measures up... maybe next time :)
xo
I started the fast at 2pm yesterday and it was easy enough to get through the afternoon and dinner time for kids and Mr Fabulous. Although, it would have been a bit easier if he hadn't kept asking me if I would like to try his dinner as it was so good, apparently. A gentle reminder fixed that issue :) I went to bed fairly early as I was starting to feel a bit shaky and figured bed would be the easy option. A couple of mid-night wake-ups later, thanks kiddies, I felt pretty good when I got up at 7. Not hungry at all through breakfast, I didn't start to really feel hungry until around 11 and I was definitely on a short fuse too- hence the broken vacuum!
I broke my fast at 2pm with a friend, some crackers and hummus and a few pieces of toblerone chocolate. It felt strange to eat after not eating all day, but I got over that pretty quick! I still felt pretty hungry for the rest of the afternoon and had some more crackers and salsa when the kids had dinner and then ate a normal dinner chicken, spuds and salad.
So, what did I learn from my first attempt at fasting?
Well, I think for the next fast I will start earlier in the day, maybe around 10 or 11am. I think it will be easier to miss 2 meals on the first day when you're not yet super hungry, rather than skip 2 meals on the 2nd day when you're starting to get pretty hungry. It might take a bit of experimenting to get the timing right.
I also found that if I added ice cubes to my water and crunched on those, it felt a bit like eating so that helped this morning when I felt like I might be able to chew the leg off a chair! I had something to drink every time I felt hungry and stuck to water, herbal tea and mineral water as suggested by Brad Pilon in Eat Stop Eat.
What to do next?
The big question that the few people I've mentioned my new plan to is 'What will you eat when you're not fasting?' According to Mr Pilon you should eat normally and healthily. Well that's a bit of a problem for me! If I ate 'normally' like I have been for the past year- since my lap band was removed, I really don't think I'd lose much weight. I have fallen into a few nasty habits and have been thinking about cleaning up my act for a while now, really just needing the right motivation to get my shit together.
After my son was born in April, I saw a naturopath for some advice on healthy ways to lose weight. She gave me a diet plan to follow that I found really appealing and not too restrictive or hardcore. It basically involves cutting carbs down to one serve of whole grains a day eg porridge, wholegrain bread, brown rice etc and ensuring you eat a serve of protein for every meal, not necessarily meat protein either but combining plant proteins to ensure you get all the amino acids. Lots of beans and nuts and seeds as well as heaps of vegies to help fill you up and some fruit for a sweet hit. Absolutely no added sugar or processed food, there goes my secret Macca's habit! :)
So, at the moment my plan for the week goes like this:
Sunday- breakfast then fast 10am onwards
Monday 10am - Wednesday 10am- eat healthily, according to naturopath's plan
Wednesday 10am - Thursday 10am- fast
Thursday 10am - Sunday 10am- healthy eating
Well that's the plan, we'll see how it goes!
I'm trying to drum up the courage to put my weights and measures up... maybe next time :)
xo
Sunday, 20 January 2013
Let's get this party started!
So, I was reading The Weekend Australian Magazine yesterday, and I came across an article that caught my eye, Running on Empty by Mimi Spencer. It was all about Intermittent Fasting, I'd never heard of it, but being the diet junkie I am, I kept reading. The article was very interesting and I decided to trawl the web to see what else I could find out... After all, if I could still eat normally and just skip a few meals and lose weight, well it's worth a try! Especially with 20kgs of baby weight to lose and a tropical holiday coming up in 10wks!
The article mentioned Brad Pilon and his book Eat Stop Eat, so of course I looked him up and yes, bought his book! So now that I've read about it, I think I'm ready to give it a go! To help keep me motivated I'm writing this blog, does it make me a bit more accountable? Perhaps. I figure I'll write about how it's going, any progress, setbacks and maybe I'll throw in some other stuff... recipes, ideas and any other bits and pieces that take my fancy.
A bit about me...
I'm 33, mother of two, wife of one and been overweight for most of my adult life. I've tried just about every diet known to man at some point or other, most with some success for a short time before falling off the wagon and putting the weight back on. In 2008, I decided it was time to get serious, I wanted to have kids and not do it overweight, so I had lap band surgery. This was successful, I lost 32kg in 18 months and then fell pregnant! Yippee! Finally, something that worked! Yes, it was still hard work to lose weight with a lap band, but it took away the hungry feeling and all the associated guilt I had about eating. It was great. And then it went wrong. I had two major issues- the first in 2009, the tubing got tangled around my bowel and had to be surgically untangled and then in 2011 when I was 20 weeks pregnant with my second baby the band slipped and I had emergency surgery to have it removed. Not fun. So after that I decided that although the band worked for me, I didn't want any more complications so I'm back on my own in the weightloss world. I miss the band, it really helped me and it's much harder to keep on track without it.
That's about all I'm willing to give away about myself at the moment!
Find The Weekend Australian Magazine article here: http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/features/running-on-empty/story-e6frg8h6-1226555300289
Find Brad Pilon's Eat Stop Eat website here:
http://www.eatstopeat.com
The article mentioned Brad Pilon and his book Eat Stop Eat, so of course I looked him up and yes, bought his book! So now that I've read about it, I think I'm ready to give it a go! To help keep me motivated I'm writing this blog, does it make me a bit more accountable? Perhaps. I figure I'll write about how it's going, any progress, setbacks and maybe I'll throw in some other stuff... recipes, ideas and any other bits and pieces that take my fancy.
A bit about me...
I'm 33, mother of two, wife of one and been overweight for most of my adult life. I've tried just about every diet known to man at some point or other, most with some success for a short time before falling off the wagon and putting the weight back on. In 2008, I decided it was time to get serious, I wanted to have kids and not do it overweight, so I had lap band surgery. This was successful, I lost 32kg in 18 months and then fell pregnant! Yippee! Finally, something that worked! Yes, it was still hard work to lose weight with a lap band, but it took away the hungry feeling and all the associated guilt I had about eating. It was great. And then it went wrong. I had two major issues- the first in 2009, the tubing got tangled around my bowel and had to be surgically untangled and then in 2011 when I was 20 weeks pregnant with my second baby the band slipped and I had emergency surgery to have it removed. Not fun. So after that I decided that although the band worked for me, I didn't want any more complications so I'm back on my own in the weightloss world. I miss the band, it really helped me and it's much harder to keep on track without it.
That's about all I'm willing to give away about myself at the moment!
Find The Weekend Australian Magazine article here: http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/features/running-on-empty/story-e6frg8h6-1226555300289
Find Brad Pilon's Eat Stop Eat website here:
http://www.eatstopeat.com
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