It has been a long time since I updated my blog! I really fell off the wagon with my fasting. I had a really hard year and as a result, all my old habits came back with a vengeance and here I am again back where I started! I have gained back all the weight I released and kept off for three years!

I went through a divorce last year. I gave up my whole life as I knew it, sold everything I own and moved from a small suburb one hour away from work to the middle of the city in Vancouver! I had to start completely from scratch, everything new. I also had to give up my sweet little dog and go forward on my own. It was devastatingly hard, and I turned to food for comfort.

Now that I live downtown, I have so much more time. This is a good thing and a bad thing. More free time means more hours to eat! I also spend much more money and drink way more wine! All not good for the scale. But, through this life change and time, I have started to heal and move on.

I am finally starting to feel normal again and now it is time for me to get back to my normal routine and back to my fasting pattern. Today is my first all day fast in over a year. Ending 36 hours of fasting with a nice lunch today.

I am hopeful that I can get back to where I was and start this journey again. I feel so good today after finishing my fast. I haven't had that feeling in so long and have been so weighed down by my extra weight and all the food that I have not been used to eating! It is time to get light again : )

Fasting and Exercise

I have still been struggling with keeping food out of my fasting hours. But, I have been adding more exercise into my routine. I added an app to my phone, RunKeeper, to track my exercise and I joined a local gym.

I have been bike riding a lot and on Saturday, my husband and I did a 40K+ bike ride! It was mostly flat, with just a few moderate hills, but man was I beat at the end! Beautiful weather and scenery along the way so totally worth it! Plus, I love bike riding, so it doesn't really feel like exercise at all.

I have been fasting all day today and will break my fast tomorrow at lunch, trying to kick start my fasting schedule again. I have to get back on track with keeping food out of my fasting hours. The weekend is especially hard for me!

Back slide

Well, it has been while...and I must confess that I have back slid...a lot...I got comfortable and slowly allowed food to creep back into my fasting hours, vacations became vacations from fasting and weekends held no fasting at all.

Why is it so hard to lose, yet so easy to regain? In a flash, my weight is back and I am stunned that it happened so fast.

So now, here I am again starting over and turning to fasting to help save me...Oh how could I have been so careless to allow this to happen again? Fasting is my only comfort...I hope it will bring me back to myself.

Fat, Fat, Fat!!

Damn Fat! It goes away so slowly but comes back so quickly. I looked down today and saw that my big belly has slowly reappeared. SIGH...

Still on thyroid medication with no results. Feeling sorry for myself and really pissed off.

But, I know I have to just stay calm and try to keep focused. I am continuing with my gym routine and worked out so hard with my trainer at the gym on Tuesday that I almost started to cry... twice.

I need to get better at staying within my eating window! As it is now, a couple of times a week I let it slip. I need to do better at fasting when I am on vacation! This is especially hard during the summer, when everyday feels like it should be a vacation day. And I need to get better at controlling my portions...but this has always been an issue for me.

I CAN nip this slip in the bud before it gets out of hand...I must get back on the right path!

Thyroid Issue?

So I got the results from my doctor visit and he said that I do have some issues with my thyroid so he put me on some medication. I am hoping that this will help me to start seeing some results but I am not too excited that I am having these issues in the first place.

The good news is he told me that my cholesterol numbers are "like a baby's"which is great news for someone not on cholesterol medication who used to have bad numbers. So that is good.

I have continued to stay gluten free and am sticking with my gym schedule. Still no results on the scale and I do get frustrated considering I lost weight easily before with only the fasting as my tool.

Age, stress, and a thyroid problem? We will see...

Fingers crossed for some results!

Gluten Free & Intermittent Fasting

So it has been quite a while since I went Gluten Free. I haven't really been keeping track, but about a month or more...

I think I am going to keep doing this because I definitely notice a difference. I feel better and have much better digestion, less bloating and I don't crave pastries and cookies as much as before.

I have also been reading Wheat Belly. Which is a great book and I think I will incorporate some of the recommendations in there for diet. I already do most of what he recommends in the book except that I still eat french fries and corn chips once in a while and I have the occasional gluten free dessert or cookie.

I am still going to the gym and working out hard. I still haven't seen any significant weight loss and I am waiting for results from a test on my thyroid to see if that could be why I am not losing.

But, all I can do is keep up my schedule and see if it is just time that I need.

Plateau

So I have been doing Gluten Free for about a month, been working out 3-4 days a week, eating MUCH less sugar, juicing, intermittent fasting and not even indulging in gluten free substitutes and I am UP 3 pounds, and my clothes are still tight so it isn't the whole, "you've gained muscle, muscle weighs more than fat" thing...

Oh brother...

Who knows how all this stuff works...I was losing more weight when I was NOT exercising and enjoying cookies and pastries. I really don't get it.

I am not giving up though...going to stick to my schedule and my plan and schedule an appointment with the doctor to see what the hell is going on! So frustrating!

No Wheat Again

I have been a busy bee lately. Working as usual, going to the gym four days a week, pottery class and still trying to keep a social life. We also just went on a vacation to Texas for a week.

I didn't take very good care of myself in Texas...ate a lot of restaurant food and very little fruit and veggies. I noticed a big difference in how I felt when I came home and went on a veggie binge this week to try to correct the problem. I also decided that I am going to stop eating wheat again.

I tried it once before and found it difficult to do but did notice a difference in how I felt. So I am back to eating no wheat. This week was pretty easy because I really don't eat that much wheat during the week anyway. I just have salad, a couple of hard boiled eggs and some nuts for my one meal usually. But, sometimes I have a pastry or treat when they are available around the office (which is a lot.)

So, I just had to stop eating those treats and stick to my regular meal and I was fine. I made a few other changes to my sugar intake. I switched out my cadbury chocolate that I usually indulge in with 70% Coco chocolate with mint instead, which is more than half of the sugar. I actually really like it.

Last night my treat was corn chips and salsa with an apple and some cheese.

I feel a lot better already. Way less bloated. The challenge for me will be the weekends, especially this weekend since it is a long weekend.

But I do feel that I am starting to look at food differently. I feel more cravings for the healthy real foods and when I see the cookies or pastries I just think of how bloated and uncomfortable I feel when I eat them.

I am committed to be more healthy. Not just lose weight, which is still my goal and intermittent fasting is still my tool, but also change what I eat, when I am eating and try to reduce my sugar and chemical intake.

I will keep you posted on how I do this long weekend.

Train Moving Again

You know when a train is going full force in one direction and then the engineer decides to stop and reverse? It takes a while for the train to slow, then stop, then begin moving in the opposite direction again...

That is what has been happening with my weight since my detour around the holiday season. I gained a bunch of weight after indulging in a week of all inclusive resort fun and Christmas treats...

January 1st I was back on plan and I also added in exercise which I have been regularly doing three days per week (Pilates, TRX and Spinning). I have been really frustrated though because despite exercising really hard, following my eating window to a T and eating really well during my eating window, I saw no results on the scale or in the way my clothes were fitting.

But, I stuck to plan because I am confident in intermittent fasting. It has never let me down before. When followed correctly and consistently, the results are always there.

Finally, this morning when I stepped on the scale, I saw a loss of three pounds. The train is moving in the right direction again...full steam ahead!

Fasting Article

Great new article. The fasting bug is spreading fast!

The Daily Mail.