This is not a weight loss success story…yet.
At the start of the year, I decided something had to give. I’d lost all my baby weight eight months postpartum, but shortly after I threw in the towel on nursing 20 pounds made their way right back into my life. It didn’t help that with the year end holidays I threw calories to the wind and just enjoyed all of the holiday food and cookies I could stomach.
When January hit I was channeling my inner Regina George (sweatpants are all that fit me right now), feeling a bit, meh and overcompensating for my meh-ness with way too much caffeine. I’d heard about intermittent fasting from a few people and done a bit of reading so figured, what the heck?
Four weeks and five pounds lighter I have few truths to share about the experience thus far.
- I’ve never related to this SNL Sketch so much in my life. I was HANGRY for the first two weeks, and I’m sure the people around me did not appreciate my morning complaints of hunger. Bless you people as I rode it out. I keep it to a minimum now. Water has been key in the mornings to staying full. I have one glass of hot lemon water and 20 oz of water with 1 tablespoon of apple cider vinegar to kick off my day. (And yes, the ACV water is pretty gnarly, but I am hopeful I’ll be used to it by week 8).
- My stress eating habits needed to find new outlets. I’ve always been a stress eater and work is the perfect place for it since we have snacks everywhere. It was strange having the urge to eat something and knowing there was nothing I could do about it. Deep breaths, a change of work location or even…more water seemed to get me past the craving.
- I don’t need coffee. At its peak, I was drinking 3-4 cups of coffee every day before 3p. A bedside cup, one for the drive, another when I got in to the office and sometimes one more right before or after lunch. I have always put cream and sugar in my coffee and since I could only drink it black while I was fasting, I opted not to have it. Strangely, no caffeine headache, though I do have one Diet Coke a day.
- Bye bye bubbles. La Croix, Bubbly, Ice Mountain – all of the bubbly water had to go. Most days in addition to all the coffee I was consuming I was also drinking 3-4 carbonated waters a day. It needed to stop, without all the bubbles I have been able to focus on flat water intake and don’t feel bloated by all the carbonation.
- I have more energy. This seems a bit counter intuitive, given my mornings are literally fueled by lemon and vinegar, but I feel good. Not sleeping immediately after eating and making better choices when I can eat (almonds, fruit, hummus, etc) has helped me embrace food as fuel vs. eating to be occupied. I’m snoozing less in the mornings and more alert throughout the day.
- Weekends are the hardest. I miss breakfast. At home on the weekends we typically make ‘real’ breakfast by way of french toast, waffles, etc. and eat together with the kids since we don’t have to run off anywhere. Not being able to eat in the morning has made me even miss basic cereal. It’s also particularly challenging since our three year old is a picky eater and I don’t want him to think not eating is an option for him, too.
- Workouts need to become a thing. While I’m feeling good and the scale is showing progress, I need to invest some additional effort to make faster progress. Even 20 minutes a day would take everything up a notch.
That’s it for now, I’ll keep you updated on progress! If anyone else is giving intermittent fasting it a try I’d love to know what’s working/not for you!
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