The Extended Fasting Plan

I've lost about 14 pounds in the past 3 months. Six of those pounds came back for a visit recently. I backslid in my gym and eating habits.

So.

I'm getting ready to double down on the 8 pound loss.  And I even have a plan. (Yes, another of my plans!)


(The photos you're seeing will make sense as you read the post...)

First off, I have to get back to the gym. That's going to be much easier now that warmer and sunnier is finally showing up around here. Finally. Second, I am going to have to eat better - and that doesn't mean skipping one of my many cups of daily coffee with extra creamer.

I'm going to be using a modified fasting plan to both lose some weight and up my prayer life. Just as much as I've been ignoring my health, I've been slacking on reading my daily Bible reading and meditations. They might even go hand in hand.

Whatever.

The other week, a friend and I were talking about an article she'd read about losing weight "while you sleep". Yeah. Ri-iiight. Of course, that part was just to get readers to pay attention to the whole eating plan. It's simple (like my friend and I) so it's something I can do with a little bit of discipline. All I have is a little discipline, so it's really perfect.

The basic idea is that we fast while we sleep (which is why the first meal of the day is a breaking of the fast, or breakfast), so we could extend that fasting period. Of course, what we do eat for meals is a big part of the weight loss. That's it. Simple.

My friend (I'll call her "Daisy") has been doing this extended daily fasting for about three weeks. She's lost over 12 pounds. She jokes that she thinks that initial weight loss is just from dumping toxins. Apparently, because of what she is eating during the day, her body is in total cleanse mode. Here's an outline of her plan:

• No food after 6:30pm. She drinks a few 4-ounce glasses of water (some infused with lemon or with honey added). She generally goes to bed by 9:30pm.
• She's generally up at 5:30am. She immediately drinks warm water with lemon first. When she is ready for breakfast, she has her coffee with cream & tries to limit it to an 8ounce coffee with around 2tbl of her Coffeemate plain liquid creamer/no sugar. For food, she eats a piece of toast or a bagel with cream cheese.
• Throughout the day, she avoids any heavy food. She eats several small "snack-sized" meals (she likes a handful of trail mix; a cup of yogurt; etc.). She tries to empty her 16-oz water bottle at least 3 times. This is a struggle for her.
• About an hour before her fasting starts, she has a 'real' meal. She usually does turkey meat or a chicken breast with veggies on the side. 
• Once a week, she allows herself to enjoy a handful of chips or a couple of small cookies. She has a sweet/salty tooth and doesn't want to deny herself.
• She is not a gym-goer, but tags along with friends sometimes. She is walking her neighborhood "a few times a week" in the evenings, parking further away from entrances when she is out, and taking the stairs instead of the elevator.

Daisy is only looking to lose around another 10 pounds or so. Like me, she isn't looking to be her 30-year old self, but she does want to be in better shape and get into the clothes at the back of her closet. She's almost there.

She had me almost laying on the floor in a fit of giggles when she talked about her first couple of days on this fasting thing. She said she was so gung-ho about the idea of something as simple of not eating after a certain point in the day that she got carried away. First day in, she said she went to at least 2 fast food places and oinked out like crazy. And was SO proud when she didn't "cheat" after 6:30. When she got serious about eating better, she overloaded on water (not her favorite thing) and lost at least 1 pound just running to the Ladies'. I'm really proud of her though.

My eating plan is a little different. For one thing, I realize that this is almost more about eating better than it is about eating less. I don't plan to eat much different than I already am, but that daily cut-off point is going to curb my worst habit: late-day/late-night eating. Also, the water thing. Ugh. (I'd gotten better about drinking water, but haven't really lived up to that gallon-a-day thing for a while now...)

Here's my plan:

• Start the fast at 6pm. I'll only drink water - plain, with cucumber slices, or infused with either vanilla extract and honey, lemon and honey, or orange oil and honey*. My sleep time varies from 9:30 to 11:30, depending on how well I am resting. Insomnia.
• I'm generally up by 6 or 9 (again, depending on how well I feel). I plan to not eat before 9am, no matter when I'm up. I'll start with water and, to break my fast, some raw veggies or a 4-ounce cup blackstrap and vanilla soy. I'm not a breakfast eater. Of course, I will have to have my coffee, but I'm going to be better and limit myself to 1 8-ounce morning serving (with 2tbls of my sweetened and flavored creamer). 
• At around 11, I will have veggies with chicken or turkey sauteed with olive oil or palm oil and non-salt seasonings**.
• Around 1pm, I will have soup (which is salted, but I love it and it's only 260 calories for the Teriyaki Chow Mein that I love or 290 calories for the Maruchan Chicken flavored Instant Lunch that okay but cheap.
• At around 3pm, I will have either a spinach/kale salad with some chicken or turkey meat or just skip it. Depends on how hungry I am.
• About an hour before my fast, I will have a serving of sauteed veggies on naan bread.
• I'm going to try really hard to empty at least half a gallon of water during the day, but I'm bad with water. Being hungry after I start the fast might help! 
• I'm going to attempt to make it to the gym at least 3 times a week. At the very least, I am going to copy Daisy and try to walk around the neighborhood. Just walking a couple of times from one end of our street the other is not a bad stretch. I will have to trip it on the pedometer and update this post.

I will try to keep you all in the loop. If I make it at least three weeks like Daisy, I'll be lucky. She claims that it gets much easier after the first week. I'll wait and see...

Peace

Free

P.S. I ** a couple of thing to remind myself to share my delicious and simple recipes.

The water infusions are my favorite. I do them all the time, no matter what the rest of my diet is like! You can use either plain or a seltzer type water. You know, of course, about adding slices of lemon or cucumber to water for flavor. Another think I like is to pick up a little bottle of flavored oil or extract (generally used for baking/cooking) and add just the tiniest drop to waters. You can jazz up lemon and cucumber water by adding a bit of honey. (NOTE: Here in Anchorage, I have to either order my flavored oils or buy them from local health food and specialty stores. New Sagaya and Natural Pantry are stores that carry them in town.)

My veggie dishes are what I came up with a long while ago. I get on these kicks where I just want lots of fresh and colorful food. I love to sautee veggies in olive oil or palm oil (or both) and add as many seasonings as I can without too much sodium. My fave combo includes sweet orange, yellow and red peppers, mushrooms (any kind!), garlic. I'll sometimes leave the spinach and kale uncooked so that I can serve the other veggies and oil over the greens. If I'm feeling really hungry, I'll add a little tomato and avocado to the top.Okay. I usually add tomato and avocado!And maybe some crumbled bits of leftover bacon...  LOL

A variation of this is to sautee all the veggies (greens included) and then serve them over some warmed Naan bread. I love that bread. 

You can freeze the bread and then warm it later. I like to get the small single-serve pieces, but can't always find those. If you get the large pieces, you can slice them up to use small pieces at a time. To warm them, I like to lay them in a pan and use low or medium heat for a few minutes. The bread can also be toasted, but I like to keep the inside really soft.

For seasonings, I like to use tumeric, onion powder, a little cayenne, basil or Italian seasoning. This is one dish that I actually can enjoy Mrs. Dash with.

What I like about this is that, even if I don't use bread, it's filling and so, so flavorful. The best thing about this "eating plan" is that it's fairly cheap. You can use whatever vegetables that you catch on sale. The thing is to vary the seasonings for the food and make sure to flavor up all that water!

Peace

--Free

**REVIEW** Dr Miller Miracle Tea - OR Cleansing Naturally (part 3 of 3)

This is going to be a long post, but I hope it's useful for anyone looking to switch up their eating habits. (By the way, Amazon has already credited my refund. Love those guys!)

Now that I've experienced the Miracle Tea and found that it just doesn't work for me, I figure this is a good time to resort back to a proven method for cleansing my body (colon and all).  The tea might be fine for most people, but I am going to get back to basics with my situation.

I've gone through many changes and challenges with food. I've done well and not so well. And I am going back over and taking a look at some of those situations. To give myself, some credit, I haven't done so badly with my nutrition in the past few years - at least when I'm actually thinking about what I eat.

For me, right now, back to basics means just eating right. If I do that, I shouldn't have to do any kind of cleanse, right? And I know that changing up my diet actually does work. So, I have changed it up. Or, rather, gotten back to some of the basics.

Pretty basic, right?

 When I was getting back into shape post-prednisone, I indulged in lots of fruits and vegetables. I love almost any kind of fruit, but I'm picky about vegetables. I had to learn to get a good intake of all kinds of veggies in a way that I could enjoy them. Also, eating healthy is stressful unless you do enjoy it.

You might remember my trusty blender. You know, from the first time I was on a detox.  Even after I finished losing most of the weight I wanted to, until a few months ago, I still enjoyed doing what I call a veggie binge on a regular basis.

Still trusty, after all these ye- uh, months

A "veggie binge" is what I do for a few weeks when my body is feeling out of sorts. I will do nothing but a massive amount of vegetables (via smoothies and salads) for three or four days of a week and, for the rest of the week, eat just about anything but bread and other starches.

This binge seems to re-regulate my body and boost my energy levels. If I was smart (or disciplined) enough, I would never go off the binge. That's what I'm going to try to work up to this time: adopting the binge as a lifestyle.

The key to this kind of diet is to shop smart. Here in Alaska, fruits and vegetables can be pricey (especially during the winter months) so you have to always stick to a really defined food budget. You have to cut out those "treats" of cafe-bought coffee and any food bought through a drive-through window. Also, you have to spend a little more time planning food prep.

This is not all as tricky as it might sound. At least not for me. I just have to not be lazy about my food needs. And there are so many benefits to eating better - especially for someone with health problems. Me.

First, let's look at some of those benefits:

• You can handle a lot of common physical complaints with changing up your diet: fatigue, constipation, mental sluggishness, skin and hair issues, etc.
• Even with my more serious health issues, I can get some relief from changing my diet. I lost weight which helped SO much as far as my joint pain; eating right cleared out some of the toxic feeling I got from being on different medications; drinking more water and eating certain things certainly helped my kidney function. 
• In my opinion, eating healthier helped my mental state. Instead of taking anti-depressants, I looked to natural sources of vitamins and minerals to help me. Depression is a big problem when you have a chronic illness - just because of the way a disease affects every other aspect of your life. I still have my moments, but those moments are worse when I'm not eating well.
• Controlling your weight is easier when you are satisfying your hunger correctly. If I'm going to overeat, I guess it's better to overindulge with foods that are giving me good nutrients instead of empty calories.

Common sense tells you that things like better nutrition, good rest, and less stress equal better overall health. Before I was diagnosed with my sarcoidosis, I was smoking like a house on fire, rarely eating right, not resting very well and, Lord knows, I had a bunch of stress to deal with. I always wonder if the sarc would have remained dormant if I had treated my body better.

My health is still nowhere near where I'd like it to be but, if I hadn't listened to my doctors and changed up my nutrition for several months, there's no telling how much worse off I'd be now. And, trust me, I don't want to get worse.

Anyway, Amazon has agreed to refund my money for the tea, so I was able to hit the stores and stock up for at least a two weeks of a veggie binge. You saw what I've been eating/blending for the past couple days. Here's what I got from the store:

It's actually dark PURPLE

• Collard greens
• Turnip greens
• Red Cabbage
• Broccoli crowns
• Apples
• Beets
• Raw almonds
• Soy milk (vanilla flavored)
• Vine tomatoes

Luckily, I already had on hand some things that I can use:

• Chaga nectar
• Green tea powder
• Raw spinach
• Raw ginger

By the way, I don't care what anyone says, I don't count tomato as a fruit. I'm going to use the apples and soy as my sweetening agents to mask all those veggies. 

Having just enough fruit to sweeten the blend is my trick for getting all those veggies ingested. Sometimes, I will add a tablespoon of frozen OJ (no water added) into the mix, but I forgot to get some.

I will do a approximately 20-ounce smoothie to get me through the main part of the day. Sometimes, that's enough but, if I'm still hungry for something, I will do salads the rest of the day. By "salad" I mean all veggies, no mixed dressing. My favorite salad is to drizzle extra virgin olive oil over some of the green veggies, add some sliced tomatoes and onion, then hit with a little salt and pepper. The tomatoes and olive oil make a kind of dressing of their own. Since we still have a bunch of eggs around, I might boil one to throw on top.

For the non-binge days, I will eat a really well-seasoned pork chop or piece of chicken that's baked or fried (yes, fried - but in olive oil) or I will snack on summer sausage and cheese. I can do without bread if my meat is good enough. Also, I can be satisfied with a snack of canned smoked clams or fish. By the way, I really have to watch my calcium intake, which is another reason I have to alternate my binge days with non-binge days.

If I do get tempted to snack on something not so nutritious, I just do it and move on. My biggest weakness is if someone comes home with pizza. I love pizza. Luckily, we hardly ever do pizza without a salad, so...

Anyway, I'm attempting to use the app that came with my latest phone. You know - the one I got to replace one went blizto right in the middle of a family crisis. Well, the app is pretty cool and not that hard. Just takes discipline to actually use it and pay attention to it. It's Samsung's S Health. The food tracking part of the app is a little bit annoying. Inputting is tricky and sometimes requires converting things. I hate math.

Looks like a lot of food, doesn't it?

I want to stick with this healthy eating plan - not for months at a time like I've previously done, but for life. For life. Hmmm.

If you are thinking of changing up your nutrition, maybe this will help:

This is what the Mediterranean Diet looks like (according to some sources)

And this is what I imagine most people eat. 

(And for the folks who claim it's how many calories and not where you get those calories, I disagree. That might work for weight loss, but we have to eat healthy food for better health.)

Which one more closely resembles yours?

This is some comparative information -

• Differences between the 2 diets and again
• Modern Mediterraneans might be slipping into unhealthy eating 
• Looking at healthy eating
• And then there's the Okinawa diet

The bottom line is that there are plenty of ways to eat healthy, every individual has to make the choice. Making good choices when there are so many bad alternatives around takes discipline and commitment.

I'm ready.

Peace

--Free

P.S.: I recently heard about and tried the Smoocing (lite) app. It's for people who do juices & smoothies. My review is the only one up on Google Play as of today, if you care what I think about it.

*Sigh* Cravings

Not loving this whole vegetable juice thing, but I know that it's good for me. I know that because like anything "good for you," this diet sucks chunks. And are my sister & niece being any help? I don't know, let's see what they had for lunch today:

Some nicely seasoned wings from a really good Chinese place up the street.

Oh, and this is while I was downstairs fixing my lunch:

Rabbit food. Rabbit food that takes forever to turn into rabbit juice.

I was feeling pretty evil by the time I finished chopping and blending. Those gals must have forgotten I was an armed woman. Armed but still somewhat sane. I kept my violent tendencies in check & drank my damned juice, but...

This is the look I gave those bitches:

Yeah.

Damnit. Can't smoke, don't want to take up drinking & everything else is either illegal or should be...

This weekend, I'm having a Lucky Wishbone hamburger!

Peace

--Free