Why this works for me

Tonight I felt like I got a really understood why this works for me...

We had company over, watching Olympic Hockey (We won by the way! Yeah! Canada to the Gold Metal Game!). Company usually means drinks and food. There were snacks around, and pizza, I really felt like eating. When I started to consider it and thought, "what's one night, no big deal," The thought was automatically dismissed. Why?

Because I had already planned to break my fast tomorrow at 12:30 with brunch at our favourite spot, The Log Cabin. They have amazing breakfast with fresh made hash browns and all the trimmings. As soon as I thought about eating chips, I was reminded that my next meal was going to be so much better than chips and all I had to do is just wait a little while.

With diets, there is no indulgence waiting just around the corner, no break from the deprivation. Unless you "cheat". Then the guilt would set in and you would stress about the weight. Stress causes you to gain weight, and so a vicious circle begins.

The best thought in the world, just wait a little while, then enjoy!

That's why this works for me.

The "IF" Life

I recently found a new free book on the subject of Intermittent Fasting by Mike O'Donnell, link below.

I find it interesting how people react when they hear what I am doing. They all wrinkle their eyebrows and look at me like I must be crazy. They say things like, "Why don't you just try eating 6 small meals a day instead?" and  "You know if you don't eat, your body will just store fat when you do eat."

Well, that's weird because since I have been doing this I have dropped 20LBS!! Strange, since my body is supposed to be storing fat right?

The IF Life book talks a bit about the 6 meals a day myth and Paula posted something about it on her loving life a latte blog earlier as well. It is a MYTH that your metabolism will kick into high gear and burn more fat with 6 small meals a day. There is no difference between 6 small meals a day and one big one. Unless you count the fact that one big one is MUCH more satisfying than eating rice cakes and salad six times a day. Not to mention the fact that food runs your life at 6 small meals a day.

Take a look at Mike O'Donnells book at the link below.

The IF Life

Re-training the body

Today was an interesting day. I think the full fast Sundays have really given me perspective on what excess food (and junk food in particular) does to my energy levels.

I fasted all day Sunday and felt great all day. This morning I woke up feeling very proud of my accomplishment the day before and it also reflected on the scale, back in a downward motion. At work I felt great, and got so much work done before lunch with energy to spare.

I usually break my fast at around 12:30, which I did today. Since it is Olympic fever here in the city our office has added some "perks" in the form of every kind of junk food known to man in MASS quantities placed in every corner of the office.

In the large boardroom they have the Olympic games playing on the big screen all day and the meeting table is COVERED with M&Ms, Cheesies, Popcorn, Chips, Twizzlers, Cookies (several different kinds), Gummy Bears and Pop.

In the kitchen there is free breakfast every day consisting of eggs, bacon, toast, bagels, muffins, donuts, waffles, cereal, english muffins, cream cheese, peanut butter & jam! To top all of that off we were lucky enough today to have a special guest in the office, an Olympic torch bearer with his torch and so they did a little gathering to hear his story and see the torch and they finished this meeting with 4 different kinds of ice cream bars to choose from!!!

   

I think my company is trying to kill me! Through all of this I resisted temptation! Even after fasting all day yesterday, I did not cheat and have a little bite of anything until lunch. At lunch I ate my wonderful enchiladas that my husband made on Sunday night with brown rice. After that I started snacking on all the junk that was under my nose. Chips, cookie (I just had one!), M&Ms, gummy bears and an ice cream bar. About 2pm I felt AWEFUL! I realized that I was so sleepy and bloated and slow...I got no work done in the afternoon and I just wanted to lie down. It has taken until now, about 8PM, to finally start feeling a bit better. I really hope I haven't undone all my good effort and work of Sunday's fast!

I had no idea that this is how I used to feel all the time. I feel like I have started to re-train my body what to eat and how much. I now know that eating so much of the junky foods make me feel sick. Fasting has pointed that out to me (I know you would think it would be obvious, but I just was used to it I guess). I am really going to start limiting the portions of food I eat during my eating window and try to avoid all of those "perks" my company has provided for the rest of the week!

Wish me luck!

Full Fast Sundays Part 2

Extend the fast for a plateau kickstart!

This is my second Sunday now where I have been attempting to fast for the entire day. It is one of the recommendations that Dr. Herring suggests for breaking that plateau and I have noticed that it definitely gives the body that kick start to get back to moving in a downward direction!

Last Sunday was a breeze. No problem at all, no hunger at all. I kept a full stomach of water and tea and occupied myself with creating beautiful pottery!

Today is my second attempt of the full fast Sunday experiment and so far it is also going very well. Pottery class took up most of my day. I feel full of energy, very clear minded and calm and I am looking forward to my reward meal tomorrow when I can eat my husband's famous ENCHILADAS!

The Olympics have brought the world to my city!

The Olympics are in full bloom in the city right now. Every day when I am downtown, I look around and all I see is a sea of red and white with flashes of the word CANADA everywhere. GO CANADA! The support in the city is amazing. There are so many visitors and they are all in awe of our beautiful city!

The weather is not so great on the mountains as far as snow goes, but down here in the city it is beautiful sunshine every day! Such perfect conditions for all the tourists. There are so many people just walking around, soaking up the spirit!

It makes me realize how beautiful this place is and how lucky I am to live here. I pass the views everyday and start to take them for granted until I hear a visitor say, "Wow, look at that!" or see someone taking a photo of our beautiful mountains. It is so nice to have the ocean and the mountains on our door step!

Vancouver is so special, I am glad the rest of the world gets to have a nice close up look! Take a look at what they are seeing below:

View of the "World of Science" (the blue ball in the middle).

View of Downtown Vancouver with the mountains in the distance.

View of Canada Place (the white sails) from the sea wall at Stanley Park.

The skyline from False Creek. You can see The Lions Peeks in the distance. (The two snow covered mountain peeks on the right hand side)

An aerial shot of downtown Vancouver with the mountains in the distance.

An aerial shot of vancouver with Stanley Park 

(the big green island in the water) and North Vancouver in the distance. 

The RED circle is the building I work in!

View of Vancouver with Stanley Park and North Vancouver in the Distance. The big white dome in the middle is BC Place, where they have football, home of the BC Lions.

The amazing mountains that surround our beautiful city! 

Snacks!

Snacks are one of the reasons that I am overweight...

In doctor Herring's book he describes what the body identifies as a snack:

"Do you drink coffee with cream and/or sugar? Sugar-sweetened sodas, lemonade or tea? Alcohol-containing drinks? Count each as a snack. To your body, every packet of fuel that comes into the stomach looks like a snack, whether it's liquid before it enters your mouth or not."

When you add the above snacks to the meal sized snacks I used to eat all day, it is no wonder why I struggled with my weight. Fasting makes it fool proof as far as avoiding snacks. When I was on other diets I would just add that extra spoonful or handful or one or two more pieces, or just another bite. When I add all that up it puts me way over my "points" or "calories" or whatever it is I was measuring or counting.

When what you are supposed to have is ZERO during a certain time, then there is no room for error, there is no way for those "snacks" to get through. During the eating window if you have snacks, they are guilt free and part of the program.

19 hours = Freedom!

Pottery

I love making pottery. I have been doing it for about a year now and I am fully addicted! I wish I could do this all day, everyday!

I have many new projects on the go right now that I am continuing to work on and will soon bring home. Here are a few pictures of the pottery I have already completed.

The largest of three nesting bowls.

The nesting bowls, nesting.

My first large item, a vase.

My adorable dog, Bexley and his food and water dish.

A pot that I carved the outside with a plastic tool I had to create the indents.

An utensil holder with a leaf pattern carved out of the side.

A large bowl.

A set of canisters.

Pottery is a wonderful outlet for me. I love the calming effect it has. 

I always love creating, especially at this organic level. 

Such a wonderful feeling to make something from scratch like this.

Eat less, live longer!

Time magazine did an article on how eating less can make you live longer.

One interesting quote was: 
"Calorie restriction is pretty much the only thing out there that we know will not just prevent disease but also extend maximal life span," says Dr. Marc Hellerstein, a nutritionist at the University of California, Berkeley, who studies the biological effects of fasting.


Check out this article.

http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1963392_1963366_1963381,00.html

The East Coast Hurlburt Siblings (photo by Jason Grow for Time) 

Six of the Eight Hurlburt siblings live in New England. 

Peggy (79), Helen (88), Millie (93), Peter (80), Agnes (96) and Muriel (89) 

are models of long-lived, healthful vigor 

which makes them perfect candidates for the Long Life Family Study. 

As Agnes points out, "none of us have canes."

Read more: 

http://www.time.com/time/photogallery/0,29307,1961975_2053261,00.html#ixzz0ff0OGXGc

Check out this blog

I was inspired to start a blog by Paula at www.lovinglifealatte.com

Her blog is very inspiring, take a look at what she has to say about intermittent fasting and the Fast-5 Lifestyle. Thank you Paula!

A sample of my "Break-Fast"

For me breakfast (break-fast) is at 12:30pm. This is when I break the fast and eat my first meal. I thought it would be a good idea to post some samples of what I eat in a normal day so viewers can see that I truly am eating what I love and not depriving myself at all.

Today at about 1pm I had lasagna and garlic bread...mmmmmm yummy!

Then at about 2:30pm I had some veggies and hummus for dipping and some grapes. Gotta get in those fruits and veggies! I also had some vitamins, Natural Factors pro-biotic, Si Su multi-vitamin, and a Calcium/Magnesium/Vitamin D combo. I try to take these everyday with my "break-fast".

At about 4pm I had dessert. Angel food cake, low fat chocolate pudding, a scoop of vanilla ice cream and light cool whip! One of my favourite desserts that I always used to eat when I was doing my old stand-by diet, Weight Watchers (without the ice cream of course). 

Now I am nice and full and had a great meal of foods that I love!