Doing IF Again (and can talk about it now)

I didn't want to talk about my current intermittent fasting until I knew I could stick with it. Well, it's been 39 days (or since Sept 14th) and I am down 18.6 pounds. Yes, I am using a weight loss tracking app. 

I started out doing the 16:4 plan and have been altering it to fit my life. The day before yesterday I felt strong enough to switch to the 20:4 plan. I really want to reach my goal weight by the end of the winter season.

What made me try IF again? I don't know. My big ol' bathroom mirror?

LOL. But seriously tho...

I think I was just feeling ready this time. And my appetite has been changing in recent months. And I was feeling unhappy with my weight. Really unhappy. 

After trying every kind of way to lose some extra pounds over the past 3 years, I was ready to give up. I had decided that my age (61), my health issues, and my low willpower had lost the battle for me. I was so upset about it that I had a small breakdown during an appointment with my nephrologist.

Losing weight is beneficial in the fight against CKD and for general wellness. Losing weight is incredibly difficult for some of us. The older you get the more difficult it gets. And, for me, that's been very frustrating.

I was not over-eating. During the past year, my daily calorie intake was around 2200 each day. Yeah - not great but a big cut down from 2300-2400 I'd slid up to in recent years. I was walking or riding an exercise bike a couple of times a week and I had cut back on sodium, potassium, and phosphorus. (My labs have been excellent.) I wasn't eating out, nor was I eating a lot of junk. But I can cook. And I like to cook. I can also bake. And I like that too.

Back to my public emotional breakdown.

Dr. T. let me whine about the yo-yo-ing up and down by 5 or 6 pounds. While he listened, he was scratching down some notes on the back of my lab report. He asked me a couple of questions while I talked. What time do I generally go to bed and and wake up? Why am I not resting well? Am I drinking enough water and cutting back on caffeine? I told him and finished whining. He finished scribbling, then he handed me his notes. 

I have kept that piece of paper because it changed everything for me. Almost immediately. But at first, I scoffed. As I said, I have tried intermittent fasting. I've tried it more than once - and it didn't work. I've tried the Keto diet, and the Mediterranean, and I even dang near went vegetarian for a minute. Why should I bother with IF again?

My doctor told me to trust him. He says that I was probably practicing IF wrong. He says that when we think of making changes in how and what we eat, we have to make it work -  for us.

This is that life-changing (or at least body-changing) piece of paper:

Dr. Fung's videos are useful

I have insomnia so my sleep schedule is insane but I generally get into bed around 10:30-11:00pm. I told the doc that I get up at 6:00-6:30am - sometimes 7. (In actuality, I was getting up between 5:30 and 6 most days and I don't know why I didn't want to tell him that.) The doctor wanted me to think about my personal schedule and lifestyle. He was right. It makes a huge difference.

As you can see, the doctor had me breaking 2100 calories up during the day. I gave his schedule a try for a couple of days, then modified it. Like he said, I had to make this work for me. 

The doctor also recommended getting more rest (maybe he knows I lied?) so I'm getting up now around 7-7:30  but I'm not a breakfast person (I'm a coffee person). Also, I don't like eating meals late at night. This is what I came up with on Day 3:

I'd get up and drink water until I have my first calories (aka my morning coffee with sweet cream!). I never had a full 700 calories because I just cannot usually deal with food before lunchtime. Every blue moon, I might have a muffin or some toast. Once I have my morning shot of java, I'm a happy gal. 

From 2 to 4 is when I would have my main meal. I got into a routine of having a piece of chicken with a piece of buttered bread sprinkled with herbs. I would use my 1200 calories and any leftover from the morning 700 allowance.

From 5 to 6 is when I would fit in any last snack or nibbles.

Garlic knots
from Mama Cozzi's dough

In between my meals, I drank a lot of water, maybe a Fresca or diet tonic water. Those are the only diet drinks I can stand. I hate the taste of fake sugar! I even got into the habit of drinking herbal tea - citrus or anything tangy are my favorites.

I adhered to this routine for almost two weeks. I would look forward mostly to my morning coffee and that lunch meal. I didn't really feel a need to snack. At some point, I realized, I didn't even need a heavy lunch. I switched from chicken to pasta with a little sauce to broccoli and pasta to rice with some butter and seasonings. 

One day, I decided that I didn't even that want much to eat. I got some summer sausage and cheese and Ritz crackers. That's what I would eat during the day. I cut back to one cup of coffee and started drinking more seltzer water and herbal tea. 

Pizza from Mama Cozzi's
dough

Basically, for the last couple of weeks, I have been having what I call "nibble meals".  I think my body has reset itself as far as appetite. I now eat what I crave and if I'm not hungry, I don't eat just because it's mealtime.

When I do want something, I have it. If I'm not hungry, I don't eat.

The other week, I found these packs of take-and-bake pizza dough. I will fix a couple of breadsticks with it or make a small pan pizza. I love making garlic knots with the dough. My whole grocery shopping routine has changed. Some of what I have been keeping & rotating on my grocery list:

• Mama Cozzi's Pizza Kitchen Pizza Dough
• Beef summer sausage (snack)
• Pizza sauce
• Broccoli florets
• Mixed vegetables (to eat with rice)
• White rice
• Alfredo sauce
• Ritz Crackers (snack)
• Tuna (canned in water)
• Mozzarella cheese shredded
• Mild cheddar block
• Chicken thighs (these cook up SO good in the Foodi)
• Gelato bites (dessert)
• Dark chocolate bar
• Cheese dip (to eat with bread stick/pizza)
• Frozen blueberries (for smoothies/ice cream)
• Macadamia milk
• Cashew milk
• Bread (cottage or thick-cut white)
• Spring water
• Diet tonic water (I can stand this but not diet cola)
• Fresca
• Ground coffee
• Instant espresso
• Sweetened condensed milk (for rice pudding)
• Rhodes cinnamon rolls (dessert)

There are days when I am okay with just having some cheese and crackers. And there are days when I try to eat the world in just a few hours.

When I say that my attitude toward food has changed, I'm serious. There was a time when I could not keep a bag of Rhodes cinnamon rolls for more than a week. They come with 12 rolls in a bag, people. There is a bag in my freezer that's been there for at least 13 days now. Same for the gelato bites I found at Aldi's. Folks, there were days when I had to remind myself to eat something. 

That was all before I made another change to the fasting plan.

It had been 32 days since I was in my doc's office, whining. I won't tell you what I clocked in at, weight-wise, but I will say that I had come down 16.3 pounds. 

Then something cool happened while I was looking for an app to help me track my fasting hours. I found one and it listed the various fasting plans. For the amount of weight I want to lose over the winter, the app suggested trying the 20:4 plan.

Uh... I guess my goal is a little bit "aggressive"... I mean, 20:4 is, well eating for 4 hours and fasting for 20. Wow.

I was worried that I wouldn't be able to handle such a short window of being able to eat. It's not that I want a lot to eat but I am used to having a lot more hours in which to eat. But I really want to get to my goal weight as soon (and healthily) as I can.

So far, the only hard thing about the 20:4 plan is that, with my sleep schedule, I don't get my first coffee until around 11 in the morning. Three and a half to four hours is a looong time to wait for my first cup of coffee with cream. And I stop all calories at 2:30 or 3. I tried staging my eating hours from 10 to 2 but that only works if I want more coffee than food. But I have been managing to do the 20:4 plan for a couple of days now. 

As I work on this post, I keep glancing at the tracker which tells me how long I have left to fast. I need to ignore that tracker! Right now there are still 13 hours of fasting time left. That is 13 hours until I can have coffee. Yeah. I do need to stop looking at the tracker until I have just 15 minutes left. By then, I am getting out my cup and the sweet cream and watching for the coffee to start brewing...

But this is working. It's working so well that I'm just mad I didn't start sooner. I'm not saying it's easy. It's not but it is doable. I don't even care when other people are eating and I can't join in. I just drink black coffee and pray.

This made me laugh so hard!

One key thing: I don't check my weight like a fanatic (anymore). I really fought to ignore my bathroom scale for the first 3 weeks. I remember someone once saying that we should judge our weight-loss success by how we feel and not what the scale reads. I highly recommend using that little tactic! Now, I only check every few days so that I can update the tracker app.

When you lose weight, you notice things you weren't paying attention to. For most of my life - up til I was about 30 - I was one of those thin people who never really gained weight and never had to think about what I ate, but I've been fat long enough now that I'd forgotten some good things about being my correct weight. 

These days, I feel more comfortable in every way. When I lost the first 10 or 12 pounds, I could see the change in my face. At 18 pounds down, I can tell how much better my clothes fit and feel. It is almost shocking to see the change in numbers when I look at the loss history on the app. I felt the results before I saw the scale.

When I put on my pants, nothing is tight, puckled up, or rolled. My thighs don't touch when I walk. My breathing is better. I don't cringe when I catch sight of my naked body in the mirror. I'm not exactly prancing around (yet), but I'm not instantly depressed at the sight. 

I have a couple of cute Dollar General dresses that I got when I moved here in 2017. When I first bought them, they made me feel pretty and comfortable. For the past couple of years, I only wore them because they were still kind of loose. That was 35 pounds ago, people. The other day, I put one of the dresses on and realized that I felt pretty in it - not just comfortable. Same with some other pieces of clothing that I tried on for the first time in a while. 

If I really want to see how gaining 35 pounds has changed me, I can just look at the wear and tear on some of my pants. The inseams are worn and the waistbands are stretched out. Just imagine how I will feel when I'm down almost double that 35 pounds!

The biggest sign that I am doing something right came when my brother and sister-in-law commented on the changes. They had taken me to that doctor's appointment. When they saw me a couple of weeks later, my SIL wanted to know what I had been doing to lose weight. My SIL has since signed up with NOOM. I can't afford that. I will stick with what is working. Intermittent fasting (or any eating plan/diet) is all about attitude.

Finally - I do realize that photographs are the best for showing a change. I am putting together a set of pictures. Luckily, I have some full-body shots from reviews I've done for some clothes. I will be doing a photo post when I hit my final goal. My first goal is about 17 pounds away but my final goal is to get back to my 2012 weight. If God is willing to let me see the day, I plan to go into next summer needing a bunch of smaller clothes...

Peace

--Free

Serious IF

NOTE: It dawned on me that some of my vitamins and supplements have calories. If you are doing IF, check that and make sure you know how many sneaky calories you're getting in supplements. Dangit.

A long time back, I played around with an intermittent fasting diet. It was rough and, as with Keto, I couldn't stay on track with it for some reason. At the time, I loved the idea of the IF diet but often felt so deprived and I could not fight off cravings. Recently, I kind of fell back into it unintentionally. I'm serious. I didn't want to blog about it until got into a groove.

Money IS saved!

I was talking with someone who asked about my past experience with IF. They wanted to know why I'd stopped and if I would consider doing it again. I remember telling them that the real deal with IF (or Keto, or anything) is that it really cannot be a "diet" for you. It's such a cliche, but it has to become just the way you now do food.

Not long after that conversation, I had to take a weekly dose of a medicine that makes me feel icky. Every week I take this stuff and for a couple of days, I'm just not into food. All I want is to sip broth and wait for "normal" to return. It's just part of my life. I don't like it but I've gotten used to it and it keeps me alive.

Well now. That sounds familiar, doesn't it? IF is just another life-saving habit to adopt.

When I say that I fell into IF unintentionally, what I mean is that, because of my weekly medicine situation,  I was already sort of doing something like "Modified IF". That is when you do fast, you allow yourself a small number of calories. When you aren't fasting, you can eat what you want - keeping "what you want" within reason if your goal is healthy weight loss.

My problem has not been the fasting itself but the timing of the fasts. So I got myself this free phone app. Actually, I got that app after trying about 5 other apps. iFasting happens to be the best, in my opinion. It's pretty simple and does what I need most: time the fasts and notify me. The only issue I've had is trying to add in the 4 days that I wasn't using the app.

To summarize how I've been doing this time of IF, I will repeat (sort of) the conversation I had when talking with my friend about it. She's thinking of giving it a(nother) try herself. So, in a Q&A format...

Q: How many hours are you fasting?
A: 16 to 18. Usually, 18 because, for some reason, that seems easier than 16. I have just started adding in a 24 hour fast. I'm still on my first one as I type this but hope to do one every week - maybe on a weekend.

If I get to bed around 9, this won't be bad at all!

Q: What times have you chosen to stop and start eating and why?
A: I like to start eating ("feasting") from 8 to 9 in the morning. Here's a screenshot of a  recent fasting day (from the app):

Q: How do you break your fast?
A: With a glass of water while I brew my first cup of coffee. I read that drinking water first thing in the morning (no matter you diet type) is good for you. There are lots of articles about it and this is one I chose at random.  After the water, I start having my coffee that I drink off and on during my feasting hours.

Q: What are some typical foods/meals/beverages?
A: I try to eat a lot of big salads (see below) on most days. When I want, I will "carb-up" with pizza, sweet bread, etc. I try to drink water every day and I am getting better at it. I drink hot tea with heavy cream and sweetened with honey. I mix orange juice (not from concentrate) with black or green tea leftover from the fasting hours. For fun, I sometimes blend heavy cream into orange juice and add a little vanilla extract.

Q: How do you get through the longer fasts? 
A: The first couple of days were the hardest because I had to get back into black coffee. Ugh! I have since learned to use the out-of-sight theory. If I don't pay attention to the food I have around, cravings are not bad. I go into the fridge only to grab water and I stay out of the cupboards where the snacks are.

Q: What do you drink to get through the fasting? 
A: Long or short (remember, I am fasting 16 to 18 hours on a regular basis), I drink a lot of water. I try to get Pellegrino on sale so that I'm getting something sparkling that I like every now and then. I drink black coffee made on the weak side. I think that Luzianne coffee is the best-tasting black coffee I've had because it actually tastes better black that with cream and sweeteners. (It used to be about 4 bucks a 13-oz bag and is no longer available...) Black tea is for later in the day. I am just now starting to drink green tea as well.

Q: Have you ever "cheated" on a fast day?
A: Once. I've been doing this since the 16th (this is the 12th day as I type this). A couple of days ago, after fasting for about 10 hours, I woke up and could get back to sleep. I ended up fixing a slice of pizza and eating a big chunk of vanilla cream brioche. Other than that, I haven't really had a lot of temptations. I decided that as long as I am doing well for long stretches, a temporary setup is not a big deal. That pizza was awesome. See later down in this post for my recipe to jazz up a take-and-bake pizza!

One upside to this is that I find that on the days I eat fewer carbs, I crave fewer carbs. Also, a salad can fill me up to the point where it's all I need to eat for that day.

Q: Are you losing a lot of weight?
A: No. I am losing a little bit every day (according to my scale) and my clothes started feeling and looking better after about (I'm guessing here) 7 or 8 days in. I think I would be losing more weight if I were 'carbing up' every now and then. So far, I've been great about being low-carb but I'm going to play with my menu during the next grocery order.

Q: Do you think that you will be able to stick to it this time?
A: I actually do. Before, I struggled almost immediately. This time, IF feels more natural. Also, I am going to be cutting myself some slack like I did the time I broke fast.

Q: Are you going to make any changes to the way you fast - maybe with modified IF days or adding Keto?
A: No. Other than attempting to do a 24-hour fast on a regular basis - whether once a week or once a month - I am going to keep this simple. I am trying to eat fairly healthily without really depriving myself. I think that the simpler I keep things, the more success I will have in making this a lifestyle habit. So far, the 24-hour thing isn't that much of a struggle. I just looked at the app and realize that I am doing great. I will be up, showered, and dressed by around 8:30 or so and I can drink water until time to have my heavenly coffee at 11:18 when I break the fast. I can keep busy by taking out the trash and unloading the dishwasher until time to break.

Q: Have you noticed any difference, positive or negative up to this point?
A: I wake up with much better morning breath (maybe from not eating so late in the evening?). My urine is clearer due to the increase in the water I'm drinking. My skin seems to feel better (more hydrated, maybe?) and my constant fatigue is a bit less heavy. The one downside is that my nausea from my weekly injection is worse. Maybe I need to carb up before taking my shot? I mentioned that my clothes feel better fitting.

Q: What's the best advice you've heard/read to help with fasting?
A: I figured out for myself the best ways to deal with it. A lot of people find their way to live with IF longterm and we probably share the same pointers:

• To not think about eating. Keep your hands and/or mind busy.
• Put all the "feast" time food away so you aren't seeing it every time you go into the kitchen.
• Drink a glass of water. Drink another glass. Drink some more.
• If you are on IF to lose weight, go look at or try on the clothes you have that you would like to fit better. Do a 10-minute browse through a site or catalog of what you would like to wear in a smaller size.
• Think about the dreaded weigh-in at your next doctor's appointment.
• Take a quick walk to check the mail, empty the garbage, or get some air.
• Realize that it's just food you are abstaining from and that, if you want, you can break the fast. It's a day-to-day situation and every day is going to be different. 

Anyway, this has been my experience. Here is the recipe for 'jazzing up" store-bought pizza and a list of general groceries I keep around lately.

Jazzy Pizza

• Store-bought pizza (I get Adli's Mama Cozzi's or any kind of decent pizza that is NOT Totino-like)
• Mozzarella pearls (this is the cheapest way to get full-fat mozzarella)
• Black olives (I get the canned jumbo size - not sliced) slice them to your liking
• Bacon bit-style crumbles
• Mrs. Dash or Lawry's Seasoning Salt or Garlic Salt, Italian seasoning
• Sweet peppers sliced your liking 
• Onions
• Tomatoes
• Olive oil (I have a sprayer but you can also drizzle) or butter 

Everything is optional. Use what you have and what you like. You could even drain some pineapple chunks if you like a Hawaiian style pizza. 

If you don't have olive oil, you can brush the crust and sides with a little melted butter halfway through baking. I spray the entire pizza slice with the olive oil after I've added all my extras.

 Big Fat Salad

• Bagged or fresh salad greens. I get raw spinach to add to a bag of whatever garden salad is available or just cut up some lettuce and some sweet peppers.
• Tomatoes. Roma and cherry tomatoes have been on sale around here lately.
• Sweet pickles (chopped to your liking)
• Olives (whole or chopped to your liking)
• Bacon bit-style crumbles. I have not yet found bacon on sale to fry up fresh. The crumbles last longer anyway.
• Some kind of protein or combo. I use cheese or eggs and chicken or pork or turkey - whatever I have. I like using those fake crab pieces when I find some on sale. Chop to bite-sized pieces to top your salad.
• You can season with Mrs. Dash-type seasoning or just use salt and pepper if you want.
• Ground flax to sprinkle on top. (I happen to have a huge bag that I bought and keep in the fridge. It's supposed to be good for you.)

Use whatever dressing you like. I love Poppyseed dressing - both creamy or vinaigrette. 

If I eat this salad before I eat anything else, I don't seem to feel as hungry afterward. I can usually eat nothing but a huge salad and I'm done for the day.

I hope this is helpful and/or encouraging for anyone considering IF.

Peace

--Free

**UPDATE** Intermittent Fasting Results

The intermittent fasting is still going well for me. Every time I do one of these updates, I seem to have found more resources that are helpful to me. I will include those links at the bottom of the post. First, though, it's time for the photos showing the most recent results against the March photos. And for today's pics, I will just cover up that hair since I was out of the shower and not groomed!









































(I have to start paying attention to which way I'm standing when I take these pics...)

Maybe for some folks, this doesn't seem like a lot of progress for a 4 month period but keep in mind that, because of my fatigue, I haven't been exercising. I do try to go outside and walk around the apartment building a couple times a day. That's about half a block.

My weight loss has been fluctuating but, taking the advice of some of my nurses, I am looking more at visible and no-scale results. If I go by how my clothing fits, I am on the right track. Also, my feet have not been hurting as badly.

I have switched up on the way I do my fasts. Some of the changes I have incorporated are fluctuating between fasting between 16, 18, and 20 hours each day. I haven't done another 24-hour fast since March but I don't feel the need to do one for a while. Things are, as I said, going well enough. The biggest part of my weight loss is not coming just from fasting but also from what I eat during the feeding hours.

This is what I try to keep on hand in the fridge and pantry:

• Lots of chicken breasts
• A little bit of ground beef
• Bacon
• Fresh spinach, Kale, Collards (used to get frozen until I got the food sealer)
• Sliced olives, chopped green chiles (mild), fresh tomato salsa\
• Onions and garlic (of course!)
• Coconut milk (mostly for Bulletproof coffees)
• Coconut oil (unrefined or soft for medium heat)
• Heavy whipping cream (mostly for Bulletproof - BPC - coffees)
• Full-fat shelf-stable milk (cos I don't use that often)
• Trail mix with nuts, and some dark chocolate (see note in next paragraph)
• MCT oil (after reading tons of reviews, I am using this brand) 
• EVOO
• Apple Cider Vinegar
• Raw or (when I can afford it) Manuka honey
• Melons - honeydew, yellow, water, etc. - (whatever is on sale)
• Lots of unsalted butter, full-fat mayo
• Lots of filtered water
• Pellegrino Sparkling water when I can afford it
• Dark roast coffee - McDonald's brand for drinking it black & Cafe Bustelo for making BPC

As far as the trail mix, it can be expensive even at Walmart so I get one of the big $7 buckets, then buy walnuts and pecans when they are on sale. I will toss the sale nuts into the trail mix bucket to add to the mix. I keep this bucket in the freezer so that the raisins and cranberries don't clump. This is a nice snack along with the dark chocolate. For the dark chocolate, again I get whatever is on the cheap, On my last grocery run, Walmart had the bags of Dove dark chocolate pieces on sale. There are about 30 pieces to a bag so I stuck to just one!

I've been watching the YouTube channel 2 Fit Docs because one of them is a nutritionist and they both practice IF. The husband also practices full Keto and lost 53 pounds in 22 weeks. I also like checking in on the channel Dot2Trot because she has awesome recipes. I like doing a variation of her pizza casserole.

By the way, I am not practicing full Keto; I do keep an eye on my carb intake. Now, as I mentioned, here are some links that might be useful to you all who are trying to do this kind of eating plan.

• I might have posted this before, but it's a beginner's guide intermittent fasting
• If you want a crust with your pizza, a friend recommended this recipe to me
• If you need a Keto-friendly grocery shopping list, this one's a start
• This is a good recipe for quiche (sans crust!) 

By the way, there are some good phone/tablet apps for anyone dieting, fasting, or just trying to be healthier. I personally use Fat Secret, iFast, and Time Until. Those are all in the Play store for Android and I'm sure you can find them on iTunes.

Peace

--Free

**UPDATE** Intermittent Fasting & Some Apps

I've gotten so used to the IF lifestyle that I hardly think of it anymore. I wanted to post a little update and share some of the tools that have been helpful (and free) in the routine.

The day after my June 30th birthday, I went from doing the 16:8 plan (fasting for 16 hours) to the 20:4 plan. Strangely, I find it easy to fast for 20 hours where I struggled a lot with the 16:8 plan. Go figure.

These are 2 of the apps I use (in addition to occasionally using My Fat Secret):

Time Until 

 The Time Until app (above) is my motivator/reminder once I have set the number of hours I plan to fast. So far, I've stuck to the 20-hour fasting but the next app I'm showing you (below) lets me set a schedule of my choosing.

iFasting app

The above app is called iFasting and it is really, really handy for anyone setting a fasting schedule. I've been using it since I went 20:4 and I only have one complaint and that is that it got a couple of my counts wrong:

Or maybe I messed up keying numbers into the app or because fasting times ran into each other... I don't know ~shrug~. I've used the app so much that I considered upgrading to the Pro version. One big problem with that is the price. The Pro version costs $6. That's steep for an app. Since the descriptions in the Play store don't detail the upgraded features, I have contacted the developer to find that out. It's only fair since I am talking about it here on the blog.

I have been considering trying this other app that no one else has downloaded or reviewed. It's called Faster - The Fasting Tracker. I am hesitant because the only thing listed under Permissions is "Other". I really want to know what the heck that means...

Anyway, I have been progressing well with the fasting. My weight is weirdly staying in the same general area (and, no, I'm not telling what area that is), but my clothes are fitting looser and people have been commenting on the "loss". I'll take it. In addition to that, my legs and feet are a lot less sore and tired.

As far as My Fat Secret goes, I haven't been checking in recently. When I check in every day, I'm too focused on minute goals. Thinking too much about what I'm doing to lose weight is self-defeating for me.

When I first started the 20:4 routine, I was trying to schedule my eating hours as late in the day as possible. I think the first few days, I was eating as late as 8:30 and 9:00 at night. That was great because I get most of my cravings at night. Also, I have finally learned to choke down black, unsweetened coffee. (The trick to that for me, by the way, is to make the brew weaker than I do for creamed/sweetened coffee.) Here's the thing, though I only have 4 hours (6 during my 18-hour fasts) to eat and I don't like having that one meal on my gut when I'm about to go to bed.

After a couple of days, my cravings subsided and I found I was eating less. Since that happened, the best schedule I have come up with is to eat during the hours of 1 to 5 or 2 to 4. That leaves a lot of time to be up and avoiding snacking so I make sure to have fresh coffee ready and some water in the fridge. Coffee seems to work as an appetite suppressant, although I messed up one evening and added turmeric to the black coffee. 1 teaspoon Turmeric = 8 calories. Oops. Speaking of sneaky calories, even fresh mint leaves carry a few. Sheesh! I am down to the plain and filtered tap water and weak black java.

My biggest annoyance is my neighbor offering me cookies, cake and margaritas every other day. I've just started giving her this look every time.

I want to point out that one of the reasons I even first attempted the 20:4 schedule is because I read that the body really starts to benefit from fasting at the 16-hour point.  Information at that link shows a chart and includes the following observation:

"But according to the information above, in terms of insulin level, the fast is only really getting going at 16 hours. Extending it further than this ramps the drop in insulin and the increase in lipolysis."

This made sense to me and I realized that my 16-hour fasts were only touching on my goals. Now I'm going for 4 hours into the "sweet spot" the article speaks of. The reduction in cravings is just another benefit.

I cannot wait to post some photos. I feel that, if I keep this up, by the end of this month, I will have some serious visual evidence of IF working. If I were ten years younger, I would have reached my goal weight within a couple of weeks. Alas, this almost 60-year-old body is a little more stubborn!

For those of you also doing IF, I hope you found something useful in this post.

Peace
--Free

Intermittent Fasting Update with Photos

I will keep doing these updates simply because they might encourage someone else who wants to change up their eating habits. After all, I first learned about the Keto diet from seeing videos and blogs from those who had success with it. So... here's the latest:

This intermittent fasting is a life-changer. Here are the latest selfies. The older ones are here and here.

When you are losing weight, you tend to think of the numbers on the bathroom scale while your friends notice you. It was my brother who remarked first on how I was regaining my normal face shape.

This is what my face looked like when I was in Arizona for this past Thanksgiving:

with my 140lb sis-in-law...

Let me tell you, folks, the best motivation is results. I never thought that I would stick so diligently to a healthier way of eating. I mean, I can do alright for days or even weeks at a time, but this IF is the easiest dietary change I've ever attempted.

Because I felt so good after the last one, I plan to do another 24-hour fast. That first one back on the 25th of March... that was a rollercoaster ride of "I can do this, no problem" and "Oh, help me, Lord, I just want a sip of sweet tea". I made it and, in hindsight, it was a breeze. Okay, the caffeine jonesing was a serious test, but...

My next post here will cover the foods, snacks, and recipes that have become staples for me since starting IF. It's working for me and I want to share it with others who might be interested. Trust me, people, when you see what I eat in a day and am still losing weight at a healthy pace, you'll probably be amazed. (Oh, and just for fun, I'm going to share some photos from when I was on the high doses of prednisone and at my absolute heaviest.)

Peace
--Free

My First 24-hour Fast

Today is the beginning of my 4th week of intermittent fasting. I've done really good and am taking off the weight pretty painlessly.

**Before I get to the fast, let's talk about my motivation.**

The IF is wonderful and something I have found that I can live with for life. Although there was recently one HUGE bump in the road. That was when I got rid of my old, cheap analog scale and switched to a more accurate digital one. Before I got the new scale, my readings were way off. I was counting that I was down 11 pounds until I went to the doctor and they weighed me. The nurse told me that was no problem because if my scale was off, it was still reflecting my weight loss - just with a different set of numbers. Wrong. The old scale was not only off but it was giving me different weights every time I stepped on it in a 20-minute time span. Yes, I finally tested it that way.

With this new scale giving me more consistent readings, I realize that I am just now down 7 or 8 pounds. When I thought I was down by 11, I was eating a little more loosely. Now I know that I need to take my daily calories down a bit. Still, I am really pleased with the photographic results:

posted these back here

I dug out the same top and pants to take this photo just now:

3/25

3/25

Day 20 looks and feels great.

Now, the fast...

It is about 2pm here and I have to wait until 6pm to reach my 24-hour fasting goal. Here is how the day has gone so far:

• Woke up at about 7:30 because I had a rough night sleeping. We had a really big surprise snowstorm and the street plows have been busy. I think that the scraping and whirring of motors kept me from sleeping well. 
• 7:30 is not that early, but it's way too early when you remember that you aren't going to be ingesting anything but your meds, water, and plain tea until 6pm. 
• I kept myself busy cleaning and taking out the garbage until about 10am, then I started feeling anxious and a little light-headed. My usual time of breaking the 18-hour fast is about 11am. I think my stomach has a better clock that my brain does.
• To get past the initial cravings for coffee with cream, I drank a big glass of water and made a cup of Raspberry Zinger tea. 
• At 1pm, I started wondering if doing a 24-hour fast was such a good idea. What if it set off some of my medical symptoms? What if I was doing more harm to my body and immune system than good? What it- Never mind, the craving passed. I told myself that I was doing good things for my body and that I might be healing myself by making better food choices and fasting.
• At 1:30, my brain fog seemed worse than usual, but my fatigue was lessened. I still felt a little bit light-headed and my already bad balance seemed more "off" and shaky. I decided to sit down and do this blog post. I don't want to waste this temporary reprieve from fatigue. (If fasting helps the fatigue, I will definitely do it more often!)

And here I am.

The main reason for even starting on IF was to lose weight and see if it helped me feel better than I normally do. So far, I am losing weight. I still have brutal bouts of fatigue and brain fog, but I notice that my mental state is better. Isn't the human body an amazing thing?

I just told my niece that I plan to try doing a fast at least twice a month. Depending on how this all affects my fatigue, I want to talk to my doctors about working my way up to an even longer fast a couple of times a month. Maybe a 30-hour fast? 

Wouldn't it be amazing if in my efforts to lose weight and just generally feel better turn out to eradicate at least some of my sarcoidosis symptoms? That would be like an answer to my prayers! I can't wait to talk to my doctor about my IF results so far.

One tip that I would like to pass along to anyone thinking of doing a 24-hour fast: pick the right time of day to start. I think that I will start any future fasts at 3 or 4 in the afternoon. That way, I can keep busy with appointments or cleaning until bedtime, then I can start eating again the next day at a reasonable time. Because I start back eating tonight at 6 and then start my regular fasting period at 7 or 8pm, I will have to really work at not overdoing the calories. Or maybe I won't be tempted to glut? I will find out.

My niece is a breakfast eater so I was warning her to time her fasts to fit her lifestyle. Breakfast is no problem for me because I can't even stand the smell of food in the morning.

I'd be interested to hear from anyone who has done a 24-hour (or longer) fast. Did it improve your mental state or ability to think more clearly? Did it make you feel better or worse? I want details - the "skinny" if you will. 

I will definitely blog the next fast that I attempt.

Peace

--Free

Intermittent Fasting Day 12 - Progress Report with Photos!

This takes a lot of courage, but I did say that I would update y'all on my Intermittent Fasting progress. Here is the first of the photos.

Day 12 - Down 10 Pounds

I know that 10 pounds is not a LOT when I have another 40 to go, but when I was able to get into one of the pairs of Vanderbilt jeans that I'd had to put in the back of the closet... Boy, did that feel great! And the thing is, I know that I put the last 30 of these pounds on gradually so that's how I will have to get them off. It wasn't long ago when I was wearing the Vanderbilts on the plane ride here to Iowa.


People, I am so happy with this eating lifestyle. Okay. Maybe not so happy at about 10:30 when I'm watching the clock and waiting for the hands to hit eleven so I can have that first cup of sweetened caffeine.


I will do an update again soon. I can't wait until I have reached my goal and can do one big collage.

Peace
Free

P.S.: Thanks, My Fat Secret. You are an awesome app!

**REVIEW** Fat Secret Weight Loss App

Well. For me, MyFitnessPal is over, done, and out. Finito. I deleted it from my phone and if I could block it, I would. I have found a replacement app that I love.

Welcome to my life, Fat Secret!!! ❤❤❤

Let me post some screenshots so you can get an idea of how useful the app is, then I will go into Pros and Cons. Let's start with the phone app, which is how I use Fat Secret the most.

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That up above is what the page looks like when you are inputting your food diary in the phone app. This is the page I use the most.

The photo below is the bottom of the food diary page. This is where you can see a summary so you can check your progress of how many calories you have left before you hit your threshold for the day.

The bottom photo shows a cumulative "report" of how many times you've eaten something. 

The photo below is another view of progress. It breaks down the days by caloric intake. It's a nice glimpse to let you know how your days are breaking down. My daily calorie limit that I set for myself is 150 so I can tell that the closest I came to that was on the 15th.  I wasn't finished logging meals today which is why the 16th looks so low.

I like the idea of having photo and scanner capabilities within the phone app. Users can (and I did) take photos of their meals for the day they were consumed. Also, you can look up nutrition info for foods in your kitchen by barcode. Most of the items I scanned came up as is. In cases where my item wasn't found, I was able to search a list of similar items. Once, I couldn't find my exact brand of chicken breasts. It was store brand. I quickly found a brand that had the same info as that on the label of my chicken. Cool.

By the way, you get the option of sharing or not sharing your stuff with other members. If you want to share your food photos but you don't want to share your weight tracking, fine. If you want to share with the Public community of Fat Secret, you can - or you can choose to only share with your Fat Secret "friends". That brings up another point: you can choose to follow other community members. You can also join groups and give kudos to other people's entries or shared info. I'll get to that in a moment when I move on to the web app/site.

This photo below is a beautiful thing. When I first saw it, I assumed it had something to do with a paid version of the app. No, no. The app is totally (as of this post) free. The My Professionals section is for inviting, say, your doctor to peek in and see how you're doing. I'm not sure how it works, but I will test it when I see my doctor next - if she wants to sign up and do this. Very handy.

The Recipes section is pretty cool. I have submitted 2 of my recipes and am waiting for Admin approval before they are posted. So you see that you can brown recipes and get some ideas for your meals. 

What's especially cool about the recipes is that you get so much information when you look them up. For example:

When I submitted my recipe, I had to input the ingredients, prep & cook times, and list the steps to take to cook the item. The app fills in the nutrition information based on the ingredients listed. I love that.

Let's say, you kind of like that recipe for Chicken Tostadas but you maybe want to keep browsing. Well, look how helpful it is to see even more recipes using chicken breasts.

Remember what I said about sharing or not sharing? In the phone app, you can find the options on the Settings screen - and you can get to the Settings the usual way.

There are also options for setting reminders, allowing comments, etc.

 You can even choose a color scheme for the phone app.

Now, moving on the website app,  you will see why I prefer using the phone app.


This is the page I land on for "Home" and I don't like that. What I want is to get to MY stuff. This page starts you with what seems to be everyone's activities. 

When using the website, I have learned to go straight to the right-hand sidebar with the green highlighted My FatSecret. The sections there will get me to my stuff. Not to be selfish, but I'm happy to see what everyone is doing but this weight loss is my weight loss.

You can see your "calendar" by a list view or month view. This is the "list" view:

And this is the "month" view.

I talked about being able to add recipes. Apparently, it takes a while to get them approved by Admin and, I guess until they are approved, you can't add your submitted recipes to your cookbook.

So, this Fat Secret is kinda nice, yes? Very much so. Now, Pros and Cons.

PROS

• The phone app is wonderful and much easier to use than the web app.
• The site is fun and interactive if you like being in a community for the support.
• The database of ingredients is pretty right on so far
• It's motivating to have a weight tracker within the app
• The scanner for looking up ingredients and nutrition info is very helpful and easy to use
• The phone app info syncs well with the website if you need to switch back and forth
• The support team is very responsive to questions when you contact them

CONS

• The web app (site) is not nearly as good as the phone app
• The phone and web apps both take some getting used to. The features in the web app are not always easy to find.
• It's not easy IMO to copy and paste individual foods from one days meal to another.
• I have yet to figure out how to save my favorite foods that I will be adding on a regular basis

Listen, overall, the phone app is dang near perfect and since it happens to be what I use the most, I'm happy. Some of the issues I have with the website may be due to being a newbie. I'm sure I'll get the hang of it soon.

Every little bit of motivation helps when you are making lifestyle changes. Fat Secret is going in the right direction to being perfect.

By the way, as of today, I am down 10 pounds since March 5th when I started Intermittent Fasting. I'm taking selfies to share in a slideshow or something once I have reached my goal weight.

Peace

--Free