Versatility & Validation!

This week was a great week because I had a couple of functions to go to that required me to shift around my eating window and full fasting day. On Thursday I am off to Austin Texas to visit my best friend Kathleen! I can't wait! She moved out to Austin a few years ago and I try to get out to see her at least once a year. I can't wait to see her and her beautiful family and enjoy the wonderful city of Austin for a few days.

I know that I can easily keep on track while I am travelling and will definitely enjoy some of that Tex Mex food! MMMMM they have great Mexican out there!

I love how easy it is to fit my eating with intermittent fasting around my lifestyle. I usually fast all day on Sundays but this Sunday I had a baby shower to go to that was potluck...So, I switched my fasting day to Saturday and then enjoyed the treats at the shower on Sunday. It was a hat party that we had to make hats for. I made my hat and my food and my present for the mommy to be on Saturday to keep me busy. I have no problem now moving my window to whenever it suits me on the weekends. I still keep it pretty steady during the week.

Me in my hat at the party.

The scale did not go down this week but it didn't go up either and I lost 4 Lbs last week so I am not worried. Just keep on going!

I had my yearly physical today at the doctor and I haven't seen him since I started practicing intermittent fasting. I was curious to see what he had to say about all of this. I told him how much weight I have lost, and he knows this has been a struggle for me. He was very impressed at how much I had released and asked how I was doing it. I was a bit worried how he would react because I have had a lot of people tell me how unhealthy they think this is.

He said he thought it was great how well I was doing and told me he thought there was no harm in eating only once per day. He said he didn't see any difference between eating small meals all day or eating one big one. He said, as long as I am feeling good and seeing positive changes in how I look and feel then it was a good thing. He also said that my cholesterol numbers were impressively low, the kind of numbers he gives patients pills to try to obtain. He told me to keep up the good work!

So nice to get validation from my doctor that I am on the right track!

My Schedule

I am going to post my schedule, from morning to night in response to a comment on my "Successful Week" post from Dawn (Thanks for all your comments and support!). I have posted what I eat, but now will explain how I go about it. This might be a really long post but I know that reading about what works for others has helped me to shape the system I now have, so maybe the below can help you too...

Weekdays:

Wake up, get ready.

I don't eat breakfast. I bring my lunch to work.

I have a large cup of Earl Grey Vanilla flavoured tea with a heaping teaspoon of Benefiber Shape Management fibre supplement and a small amount of stevia (natural no calorie sweetener). I take the tea with me and drink it on the train (usually a 50 min ride into work). I only ever drink tea or water, no calorie drinks or diet sodas (carbonation gives me stomach pains anyway). Occasionally in my eating window I might have 1/3 cranberry juice and 2/3 water. And very rarely, at a party or function I will have vodka and cranberry/water or mix the vodka with home made ice tea (just tea with lemon and stevia chilled).

When I get to work I get a very large glass of water. I drink that, usually big mouth fulls at a time, in about an hour. Then I get another big glass of water. I try to drink as much water as I can in the morning. It is refreshing and it helps to hold off the hunger. I usually only get down two glasses, but occasionally I am able to fit in three. At about 11 am I get hungry, so I drink more water and tell myself only an hour and a half to go, easy right?



At around 12:30 I have lunch.

I always bring a medium sized salad, usually spinach, lettuce, broccoli cole slaw (which is shredded broccoli and carrots), cucumber, avocado (1/4 of the avocado) and feta cheese (just a sprinkle). I use a mix of two dressings, balsamic vinaigrette and thai sesame so it is kind of like a peanut sauce dressing but not as rich.

I eat the salad first. I am trying to always break my fast with vegetables. I eat all my veggies first and then eat my main lunch. I usually bring some cucumber and carrots to dip in hummus as well, which I also eat first.

Now it is time for my main lunch. It is usually something yummy. Today I had shepherds pie with gravy and cheddar cheese on top. Yesterday I had butter chicken. Tomorrow I am having beef stir fry with teriyaki.


My main meal is usually a large portion, restaurant sized. I find that since I have started eating the salad and veggies first, I sometimes can't eat the rest of my main lunch (which is the plan).

After my main lunch I will usually have a bit of fruit. Some grapes or some mango. After that I have my vitamins (Calcium with Magnesium and Vitamin D, a Multi Vitamin and a Probiotic capsule). Then back to work.

At about 3:30 I have a snack. Usually it is a dessert. Today it was a blueberry muffin and some cadbury chocolate mini eggs. Yesterday it was angel food cake with chocolate pudding and cool whip. Sometimes it is crackers and cream cheese. I just try to have something that is big enough to tide me over and low enough calories that I am not having a meal sized snack. I also try to balance out my snack in relation to what I had for lunch. If my lunch was burger and fries, then I will try to have a lower calorie snack (all just guesses, I don't count calories just use common sense).

Then I am usually done eating for the day. I am pretty full at 4 pm which means I have only used up 3 1/2 hours of my eating window. The window technically closes at 5:30 but I am usually still too full between 4pm and 5:30pm to eat any more. So most days I only use 3 1/2 hours of my eating window time.

When I get home I don't eat anything. I usually get home around 6pm and am not hungry until about 8pm. I try to drink water when I get home and if I feel hungry. I find it helps to have a plan in place for what I am going to do in the evenings to keep me occupied.

Watching TV is sometimes a pain, especially on weekends because I am up later and all they do is show food commercials at night. So I try to do something else. One of the things I do is write on this blog or search the internet for interesting news or studies on intermittent fasting. I also pack my lunch for the next day so it is easy in the morning to grab and go. I have so much more time on my hands now that I don't eat dinner.

Weeknights I am in bed at 9pm so it is rarely an issue to not eat since I am not even hungry til about 8.

Weekends:

Weekends are different. In the morning I do the same as on weekdays. Have my tea with the fibre and the stevia. But then I have time to kill. I make sure to again have a plan in place for what to do until lunch so I don't get tempted. Though I must admit, it is usually easy to resist the temptation because I go out to eat on Saturdays. The thought of the yummy lunch that awaits is more than enough motivation to hold out and resist.

When we go out to lunch I order whatever I feel like having. Chicken wing appy, burger and fries with a side caesar, or bacon and eggs with hash browns and toast with a side pancake.



If I have a function or party to go to any day of the week, I just switch my eating window to be around that function so I can eat with family or friends. If I am having a dinner, for example, I will just wait until dinner to break my fast. We usually know ahead of time when the parties or functions are happening so it is easy to just adjust my eating window to fit my day. I would never go to a party or function where there was going to be food if I was fasting, I prefer to move my window because it would be too tempting.

Sundays:

If I break my fast on Saturday at lunch time, I will have a snack before bed of protein and carbs (egg and toast or cheese and crackers). I do this because Sundays are my full fast days.

For several weeks I have been fasting all day and night on Sundays. I find it helps to even the score for any days during the week that were calorie heavy. I have really begun looking forward to Sundays and really like the feeling of fasting all day. That is why on Saturday, unless I move my window to the evening because of a party or function, I eat a small snack before bed. If I didn't do that the fasting period would be almost 48 hours and I find that a bit too difficult. My full fast Sundays are between 35 and 40 hours of fasting. (from around 10pm on Saturday night until 12:30 pm on Monday afternoon). Fasting on Sundays has helped to keep me plateau free (so far anyway, fingers crossed that it will last).

I always plan Sundays to be my busy day. I will do a home improvement project or craft project. When classes are in I do pottery on Sundays from 10am to 5pm. I drink lots of water and have a couple glasses of tea throughout the day. I find that I have leaps and bounds of energy and feel really clear headed and calm on Sundays.

Then on Monday it is back to breaking the fast at lunch time...and so it begins again...

I hope that you have found this helpful and that you can use it to create a plan that fits your lifestyle and works for you...happy fasting!

Propaganda

I love this post! 

http://bradpilon.com/healthy-ramblings/the-strange-custom-of-fasting/

SO FUNNY!

Successful Week

This week was a wonderful week as far as weight loss! I am down over 4 Lbs in one week! A total of 28.8LBS! I am SO excited and can't wait to hit that 30 Lb mark! I had another successful full fast Sunday and I am starting to really look forward to these day long fasts. I find it really helps to prepare me for the times when I am tempted by food.

Today I had a funny comment from one of my co-workers. I was having my afternoon snack of angel food cake, low fat chocolate pudding and light cool whip. She came over to my desk and said, "Is that ice cream?!" (she is always looking at what I am eating and telling me how jealous she is that I get to eat all this yummy food). I told her that it was cake and pudding and cool whip. She said, "Cake AND pudding!? Man, and all I eat is lettuce! Not fair!" I told her that she should look into fasting, that I had lost 4 Lbs this week, as I took another mouthful of cake... Man I love this!

Clothes

I am having a hard time now with my clothes (yeah). A good problem to have really. Most of my clothes are now too big. Some are worse than others and I do still have some clothes in the back of my closet that I was saving in the hopes of one day being skinny again so that helps.

The other day I put on a pair of pants that I used to wear to work regularly but had stopped wearing because they were a bit too tight. I thought I would try them because the rest of my pants were way too big. I put them on and did them up and they were so big that I could pull them off without undoing them! The same is true for some of my shirts that were too tight, and are now way too big. Such a good feeling!

But now it takes me much longer to get ready, unless I can wear sweat pants. So I went to the second hand store to get a couple of things to tide me over until I have to buy an entirely new wardrobe. I noticed that I am not quite there yet. I am in the middle, between the fat clothes and the skinny clothes. The regular size large doesn't quite fit comfortably and the XL is way too big.

But, this time I did something that I have never done before. I bought something that I really loved that was too small in the anticipation of me fitting into it. I really loved it and since it was from the second hand store, it was only $7 so I thought, go for it! Now I have a clothing goal to aim for! I can't wait to be able to get all those cute things that you can never find in an XL or somehow just don't look nearly as good on you as they do on the display. 

Social Acceptance

I seem to be posting more and more about social acceptance lately. I am more open now about this lifestyle and what I am doing and so people are putting their two cents in. I had another "grilling" at lunch yesterday because one of my co-workers referenced my lifestyle at the lunch table and so everyone started talking and asking me questions.

The frustrating part is they all seem to think this is such a hard thing that I am doing and of course the usual comments of, that's not healthy, why don't you just eat small meals all day and blah blah blah blah...just regurgitating everything we have all been made to believe is the "proper" way to eat.

Well, what is proper? And what is hard? I read a great post on Brad Pilon's blog about what Health Canada recommends eating for a healthy lifestyle (read the post here http://bradpilon.com/healthy-ramblings/2000-calories/). To me that is what would be "hard" and he clearly points out how easy it is to slowly add a bit here and there to end up over the amount of calories they recommend.

I think, if you enjoy eating only rice cakes and salad and going to the gym for hours a day and that works FOR YOU, then go for it. If you enjoy watching ever crumb you put in your mouth and feeling guilty when you stuff a donut in your face when no one is looking, then go for it. If you enjoy packing up 6 small meals every day and eating constantly, then go for it. If you enjoy losing 30 Lbs and gaining back 40 Lbs on the new grapefruit diet, then go for it.

But, I for one, was NOT enjoying it, for me that is what was hard. I, for one, want to just relax and enjoy my food and eat what I feel like eating. The weight is steadily disappearing and I feel great. That is all the proof I need that this is the "proper" way of eating FOR ME.

I find it interesting how people react to this lifestyle when they don't even blink an eye at lifestyles where you completely cut out carbs, or eat only the foods on a list that came in a box of supplements that cost $200, or cut out all foods that are white, or only have almonds, tobassco and maple syrup for a month.

When a person finds what works for them and it fits into THEIR lifestyle, then it isn't hard.

I kind of look at it like making the transition between being single and dating and finding your true love and getting married. Dating is hard, you find people who don't quite fit and it is a struggle. You are not able to completely relax around that person and it seems like it is too hard. Then you finally meet your soul mate and everything just seems to fit. People say it all the time, "I just knew." You completely relax and finally it doesn't feel like it is so hard anymore. The same is true of finding the lifestyle that suits you. You will "just know" when it is right.

Follow up to Exercise won't shed fat

I love this excerpt from the link I put in the other day about how exercise will not help you shed body fat.

You can read the entire article here:
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0826/is_n1_v10/ai_14674492/?tag=content;col1

"Misconception 2: Moderate physical activity raises the resting metabolic rate after exercise, helping you lose weight.


Aerobic exercise does not cause the metabolism to stay elevated for a long time after the bout, thus burning a lot of extra calories.

In general, most researchers have found that the calories expended after aerobic exercise is small and short lived unless you've engaged in a great amount of high-intensity exercise. For example, jogging (12 minutes per mile) or cycling at moderate intensities for about 30 minutes causes the metabolism to stay elevated for 20 to 30 minutes, burning 10 to 12 extra calories. When the intensity is increased (e.g., jogging at 8.5 minutes per mile), the metabolism is increased for about 35 to 45 minutes, with 15 to 30 extra calories expended. Obviously this is too little to have any significant effect on weight loss.

Even in runners and other endurance athletes, the best studies show that their metabolism is no different than in nonathletes, and that after a hard exercise bout (e.g., 80 minutes of running), the metabolism rate may stay up for several hours, burning about 125 extra calories. This is hardly enough to urge that overweight people run long distances every day, a task that few of them could accomplish anyway, especially without injury. The same caloric deficit could be achieved by avoiding one tablespoon of oil."

Would you rather run for 80 MINUTES

or just try to cut a tablespoon of oil out of your diet? 

Great example of how diet wins over exercise for me. BUT, I agree that it is important to exercise for HEALTH and WELLNESS. It is much more difficult to do it at a heavier weight but as I get smaller I will slowly incorporate more into my routine. I will do the things I LIKE to do though rather than go to a crowded gym. I love rollerblading, swimming and yoga. And now that I am not all concerned with trying to do mass amounts of exercise to try to lose the weight, it will be a much more enjoyable experience.

Love this blog...

Check out this blog, so great! He really tells it like it is.

http://bradpilon.com/weight-loss/how-to-lose-weight-eat-less-or-eat-more/

Weird looks and opinions

Since I have been doing really well so far and people are starting to notice that I look different, I have started to be more open with my Fast-5 Lifestyle. It has been met with mixed reviews.

People have said:

"You won't lose weight that way, you will gain it, because your body just goes into starvation mode." 
Really, then where did that 26Lbs go?

"That doesn't sound healthy."
I feel better than I have felt in years.


"Well, as long as when you are fasting you are having lots of snacks." 
HUH?

"Aren't you hungry all the time?"

I am less hungry now than I was when I ate three meals a day plus all those snacks.

"Don't you miss eating?"
I have actually "found" eating again. I used to eat mindlessly, now I enjoy my food.

"Why don't you just try eating 6 small meals a day instead."
Because I have a life.

"Pssst, whisper, whisper, whisper." 
You're just jealous!



Other people have said:

"I've never heard of such a great success story."
I know! I feel like I have found my diet soul mate.

"You look fantastic!"
I feel fantastic.

"You should be really proud of yourself, that is amazing."
Thanks!

"You're looking so skinny!"
Who? Me?

"You look like a model!"
That was my wonderful husband, but he's bias.

What I eat.

I thought I would post a little information on what exactly it is that I eat on this Fast-5 Lifestyle in response to one of my comments.

I eat whatever I feel like...Truthfully.

If I feel like going to A&W for a burger and fries, that is what I do. If I feel like pasta and garlic bread, that is what I eat.

I eat butter chicken, samosas and naan bread.
I eat veggie sandwiches with avocado, spinach, cucumber, pickles, cheese and hummus.
I eat chips.
I eat stir fry with noodles, broccoli, cauliflower, snap peas, carrots, bean sprouts, chicken, beef and teriyaki/soy sauce combo.
I eat chocolate.
I eat rice and chicken.
I eat burritos or enchiladas.
I eat carrots with hummus.
I eat beef stew.
I eat spaghetti with meat sauce.
I eat cake.
I eat almonds.
I eat apple fritters.
I eat berries.
I eat french fries.
I eat caesar salad.
I eat cucumber with hummus.
I eat chicken wings.
I eat salad.
I eat grapes.
I eat chocolate pudding and cool whip.

Every day, I think about what I would like to eat tomorrow. I pack my lunch up (usually leftovers of one of the meals listed above, from the dinner that I don't eat the night before because I only eat lunch). Then I add in fruit and veggies (which, by the way, I never did before, but now that I only eat one meal a day it seems more important to me for some reason).

I always bring a big serving of fruit and veggies with hummus dip to work with me. I break my fast with the veggies and hummus. Then I eat my main meal and finish it off with the fruit as a kind of dessert. (I love sweets).

Then at about 3:30 I have a snack. Sometimes it is an apple fritter, or cadbury chocolate mini eggs, or chips and almonds, or angel food cake with chocolate pudding and cool whip (yum!).

Then my eating for the day is usually done. I am full at this point and don't feel like eating again within the window so I usually stop there. I don't count calories but have once or twice out of curiosity counted the calories of a few of my favourite meals and I think I eat between 1500 and 2000 calories in that one meal with snack.

Then, on Sundays I usually don't eat at all. Just FAST. I have only tea or water and usually do housework or home improvement projects or pottery class. Something that keeps me really busy so I don't think about food. I don't think it matters what day of the week the fast is, any day would do. Then I go back to my regular routine on Monday of breaking my fast between 12 and 1pm. This means that the day before my big fast I will eat something before bed, usually some veggies, fruit, nuts and cheese, maybe a bagel with cream cheese, so that my fast on Sunday until Monday afternoon will be about 36-40 hours.

I think the full day fast helps to off-set some of the calories heavy days I might have had during the week. Like the day I went to A&W and got an Uncle burger, fries and onion rings (I shared the onion rings with co-workers and only had a couple, but still). The full fast day helps me be able to keep eating the foods I love and never worry about how many calories something is. 

Of course it is good to try to balance things out. If I have the butter chicken, samosa and naan bread for lunch one day, I might have the stir fry or veggie sandwich the next instead of having calorie heavy meals every day of the week.

This is why Intermittent Fasting works so well for me. I never feel deprived, I don't have to measure or count calories and I can do all this with my current lifestyle which doesn't have much exercise in it and still drop pounds.

Diet vs. Exercise

I have read that 80% of what actually makes you lose weight is what and how much you eat. And only 20% is exercise. Don't get me wrong, exercise is good, it is great for maintaing weight, building a healthy heart and body, building muscle mass that ultimately helps you to burn fat easier. But it isn't the key for weight LOSS.

If you exercise you will burn the energy you have consumed and that will mean less energy (or fat) that needs to be STORED by your body. This means, all that work doesn't guarantee any fat will actually be taken from your body. Exercise burns CALORIES not necessarily BODY FAT. In order to lose a pound of body fat you would need to burn 3500 calories...It would take a really long time of strenuous exercise to do that.

Your body isn't going to tap into it's stored fat if there is another plentiful, easier source of energy for it to tap into...You need to give your body NO ALTERNATIVE. Fasting gets this done. It is the whole meat and potatoes behind the Fast-5 Lifestyle and other fasting diets. If you are not eating, you body still burns energy and if there is no food for it to use it HAS to tap into the fat your body has stored away for just this occasion.

In my experience, longer fasts (either the 19 hour one we can do every day on the Fast-5 Lifestyle, or fasts like the 24-36 hour fasts that we can do once a week or so) are the key to knocking the body fat out of the ballpark!

Check out this great article, "Exercise won't shed excess fat. Surprised?"

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0826/is_n1_v10/ai_14674492/?tag=content;col1

Check out this post on the subject

http://www.cheeseslave.com/2009/03/31/exercise-is-overrated-to-lose-weight-eat-more-butter-and-less-sugar/

Check out Brad Pilon's post on the subject. Very informative.

http://bradpilon.com/weight-loss/losing-fat-vs-burning-fat/ 

Interview with Brad Pilon

Author of Eat Stop Eat...very interesting.

http://www.ski.inline-skate.com/brad_pilon.m4a

Interview with Dr. Bert Herring

Check out this link where you can download an audio file of an interview with Dr. Bert Herring, author of Fast-5.

http://www.bettersbetter.com/intermittent_fasting/

The worst Diet

I wanted to share a bit with you about what I see as one of the worst diets out there, you know the ones, where they get you to pay for this pre-packaged food that is sent to your door and all you have to do is eat this food and you will miraculously go from fat to supermodel!?

I see these commercials EVERY DAY and it just reminds me of my experience.

I was DESPERATE. Nothing was working, I was heavier than ever and I wanted to believe the people on TV who said it was so easy and they got to eat delicious foods that they loved like ravioli, and brownies. The closeups of the food on the screen made it look like really good, large portions of yummy hot food.

Well, I fell for it. I thought that it would be easier if the food was just there for me and I didn't have to count and measure and read the ingredients. The food arrived. All in one big cardboard box. I opened it up with a "If it seems to good to be true, it probably is." thought in the back of my head.

None of the food needed to be refrigerated. HUH? But isn't there eggs and hamburgers and chicken in there?

Each meal was in the TINIEST of containers. Well, that's weird, the meals looked big on TV...

I decided to try one of the "delicious" chocolate bars. I took a bite. YUCK! This is the worst thing I have ever tasted! It is like eating dust with bad grainy chocolate on top! If this is bad, what is the rest like.

I opened up one of the packages of pizza. The pizza shell was the size of a DVD, and it was in a plastic bag that had something weird in with it. You know when you buy shoes, and it has a pouch inside with little chemical pellets in it and the pouch reads, "Do not eat"? That was what was in with the pizza shell. A little pouch of chemicals for preserving the shell! EWWWW...this food is completely and totally saturated with chemicals!

Even if I could eat this food, there is absolutely NO WAY that it would be enough food to keep me from going insane!

I sent it all back, thankfully I received a full refund.

This is just one of the many diets I tried in the hopes of having a good before and after picture...All they got me was worse after than before picture!

I am so happy that I have finally found my diet soul mate! Something that just feels like living, not dieting! This time my before and after is going to have a happy ending!

First Photo Comparison

Well, this morning I felt brave so I decided to do my first photo comparison. I took a "before" photo of myself the day I started this journey and have been saving it until I felt I had lost enough weight to do a photo comparison. Here it is:

I think I see some noticeable difference there...my stomach still sticks out farther than my chest though... boooooooo! But I am working on that!

Yesterday was a difficult day for some reason. Late last night I had a weak moment and caved in. Maybe it was that I was up later than usual or maybe it was all the food commercials that were on while I watched TV with my husband. Whatever it was, I gave in and had a bagel, grapes, blueberries and some cheese at 10 oclock last night, well after my 5pm cut off time!

I justified it to myself because we are planning to eat a late dinner tonight instead of my usual lunchtime breakfast, and of course I plan to fast all day on Sunday. But that is no excuse. I could have easily stayed strong and just had water, but I didn't.

It is almost like when I do really well, I think, I deserve an award! The award is somehow always food...Maybe that is why I decided to do this photo this morning. Get me focused. Put me right back on track. 

I guess it isn't too bad, I have only cheated like that two or three times since the very beginning and it hasn't destroyed anything...but I won't let this little rainstorm start a landslide! NO WAY! 

I am looking forward to Sunday and already have my little home improvement project options all lined up. I will either paint a wall in the living room that has been bothering me, or replace some of the light fixtures in the kitchen. 

Our kitchen has three different light fixtures, none of them match and it looks really weird to me. So I want to bring them all in line and fix that up. So we will see how it goes on Sunday, maybe I will feel energetic enough to do both!

Jealousy

All of the girls in my office are skinny...ALL OF THEM! I work in an office of 70 people and of all the women there, I am the most overweight, by a country mile. I think for a long time, it was a major factor in why I was having such a hard time finding a way to get rid of the weight. I would get so easily discouraged when I would see my co-workers eating whatever they wanted and still fitting into that size zero...

All of them are skinny and yet, all they talk about is how to lose weight. You would think that skinny people wouldn't need to obsess about their weight, like us fat people, but it is the main topic of conversation. This cleanse and that boot camp and this yoga class and that protein powder. I would constantly hear comments like, "I'm so fat." (coming from a teeny tiny girl). 

Once, there was an article in the paper about a study that concluded that curvy women have smarter children, I pointed it out during lunch to some of the girls. One of the girls said, "I would rather have a stupid child."


Insensitivity. Or was it?


Now that I am finally releasing the weight for good and I am obviously and outwardly confident in my success, people are taking notice. There have been questions on what I am doing and the same girls are listening, but not saying much, at least not to me. I do hear a whisper now and then and I am sure it is not along the lines of "Wow, isn't it great that Jenna is doing so well?" 

The other morning we had a delivery of muffins and donuts to the office. I was in the kitchen with the skinny girls and they were all indulging. I just got my water and passed the treats by. One of them got noticeably anxious and yelled out, "Jenna, EAT THIS!" 


Interesting.


I think it makes them uncomfortable to see me getting smaller. They liked where I was and the target I had become. Even though their comments were never aimed directly at me, they were certainly meant for me. Now that I am moving away from that, they are jealous. They don't like seeing someone so self confident when they are so insecure.

Now I just smile inside when I hear them talking about their struggles with losing that stubborn 2 Lbs they gained on their knees. Because I know that I have what they can never hope to have; the wisdom that comes from real struggles.

Successful week

This week was a successful week for me with intermittent fasting. I had lots of compliments at work, people are finally starting to notice that I have dropped weight. I had three separate people comment that I was looking "skinny"...what? me? wow! It is kind of funny though, how a compliment like that does highlight where you were before, like the below cute cartoon.

I put on a pair of pants that were WAY in the back of my closet at two sizes smaller than usual and they fit perfectly, not tight at all.

I had a successful full fast Sunday that was again very productive and full of energy. And I was down 2.7LBS on the scale in one week!!!

Through all of this, I have enjoyed my favourite foods all week like: Italian sausage ravioli, caesar salad, chicken wings, chocolate cake, blueberry pancakes, stir fry with noodles, Indian food and garlic naan bread, Cadbury Mini Eggs (my favourite and only 200 calories per bag) and of course lots of fruit and veggies, regular vitamins and TONS of water.

Tomorrow I am having a casserole that my husband made with chicken breast, brown rice, a can of cream of mushroom soup, and stove top stuffing all mixed together. It is soooo good!

I am really looking forward to getting smaller and smaller and have never been so confident that I will succeed! Skinny girl here I come (with a bag of mini eggs in my pocket!).

Addiction

Yesterday was a wonderful day of intermittent fasting. I was home because I had to take a drivers test....yes, a drivers test...I know you must be thinking, why does a 34 year old have to take a drivers test?

Well, in BC we have a program called Graduated Licensing Program. When you are 16, you take a test and get your drivers licence but you are categorized as a "New Driver" and have to display a N on your car, well they don't MAKE you take that N off, it is up to you how long you keep it. To remove it you have to take another drivers test, and pay around $100. I have just been lazy...for over 10 years?

Anyway, I FINALLY decided to bite the bullet, take the test and get it over with! I was very nervous. Usually when I am stressed about something, eating is my comfort...But yesterday, it didn't even enter my mind. The test wasn't until 1pm, so I planned my first meal for afterwards.

SIDE STORY: When I got to the place where I had to take my test, I opened my trunk, and when I went to close it again, IT WOULDN"T CLOSE! I couldn't believe it! Here I was in the parking lot, parked in a spot reserved for driving tests banging my trunk over and over trying to get it to close! Not a good sign. Finally I tied it down as best I could because it was getting late...


I went in to the office and when the man who was going to administer my test called me up he said, "is that your car outside with the open trunk?" WHAT? OH NO, NOW WHAT? 

I told him, that he wouldn't believe my luck of it breaking in the parking lot and I didn't know what to do...he was really nice and just went outside with me and helped me tie it down more securely. PHEW! I thought I might have to wait another 10 years!!


Anyhow, I PASSED and now that is over with!

So after the test, I went to our wonderful mechanic who lives down the road and he fixed the trunk for $10! Then it was off to the grocery store to get supplies for my planned breakfast of home made blueberry pancakes with real maple syrup! I went home and after making my food didn't start eating until 4pm.

All this time, even when I was browsing in the grocery store, I never felt that aweful stabbing, aching pain I used to get when I was "STARVING" after not eating for a few hours. I started to realize something I had always suspected. I truly have an ADDICTION to food. Or should I say, HAD?

Fasting has really helped me to tackle this ADDICTION...I would think about food all the time, over eat, and go through PAINFUL "withdrawals" when I wouldn't eat for a few hours. My body was addicted to the constant stream of food, treats, snacks and meals. It was like a drug that my body screamed out for all the time. I don't get the "withdrawals" anymore. I don't think about food all day anymore. I have amazing will power that doesn't even feel like it is hard work. This is all thanks to FASTING. It breaks the habit!

No DIET has ever brought me this far along in curbing that addiction. Today I was down another pound putting me at about 22Lbs gone! Gone Forever!

Another Successful Full Fast Sunday

This Sunday was my third in a row that I fasted the whole day and night. I like this little trick. It always helps push the scale down. It also helps with the overall calories that I consume throughout the week.

So far each Sunday I have felt AMAZING. This Sunday, I had pottery class in the morning which usually lasts until 4 or 5pm. This has been what has made the fasting on Sundays so easy as I am fully occupied and interested in what I am doing. But this time my class was done early because it is the last one in the session and so at around 2pm I found myself contemplating whether I should scrap the whole thing and get a sandwich.

But instead I thought about what home improvement projects I could work on to keep my mind from lingering on the thought of that sandwich. I decided to build some shelves to add to my kitchen cabinets and headed to the hardware store. My husband was busy all day helping his brother move so I thought I would try to get it completed before he got home. (he hates when I do home improvement, he thinks it is so messy and disruptive--I'm the one with all the tools in the relationship).

I bought a nice corner shelf and put it together. I propped it up on some teetering paint cans so I could fasten it to the wall and the cabinets and voila! Perfect... Then I noticed a nice empty space that might benefit from another set of shelves...off to the hardware store again...

After searching the store, all I could find was a shelf that was one inch too wide. I sweet talked one of the workers there to cut it down to size for me. I was all happy and motivated to add this to my creation and so jumped right into putting this one together (without measuring the wall again to be sure).

After it was all put together I once again propped it up on the wobbling paint cans and voila! Not so perfect...It was 3 inches too deep! It stuck out like a sore thumb! Now what?

Fortunately, Peter, my stepdad to the rescue! He used his hand saw to cut down 6 pieces of already cut down shelves! I get it home, I re-drill all the cut off assembly holes, I put it together and prop it up...Perfect! Now how to attach it? The drill won't fit so I have to screw in the screws by hand, what a workout! By this time it is 10:30!!!

I did all of this running around and building things and using the drill and screwdriver and lifting and holding all while FASTING. It felt FANTASTIC. I actually said out loud to myself at one point, "I am so glad I didn't have that sandwich, I feel great!" So full of energy and motivation. Usually with all those obstacles I would have just given up, but I had so much get up and go.

Completed Shelves with some of my pottery on them.

I am really looking forward to next Sunday...what else needs to get fixed around here...?