Call Me "Vegetarius" (for my health)

(My apologies in advance to any militant vegetarians or vegans.)

With all the madness of people randomly changing their pronouns - and, sorry, I think it's silly - I started thinking about my own choices. At first, I was going to ask everyone to refer to me as rich but decided that no one could suspend belief that high. Instead, I have decided to be more realistic and ask to have my eating habits referred to as being "vegetarius".

I wasn't born this way. What happened is that I got old. All the fat that my body used to repel the way oil repels water or citronella is supposed to repel mosquitos, found a workaround. Every croissant and donut and Moose's Tooth pizza I ever let past my lips was just waiting for me to turn 50 to bring their calories out of hiding to rest on my gut, butt, and the places under my arms right above my bra strap. And by the way, I like to blame the sarcoidosis and prednisone for my weight, but it's been over 10 years since I was on a really high dose of the steroid, so...

The fat doesn't bother me like it did at first. The visuals of my fat I can deal with. I'm not ashamed of the way I look. The problem is I hate the way I feel. For almost 50 years, my frame was used to holding together about 100 to 135 pounds. Carrying so much more than since I was diagnosed with sarcoidosis has been taking a toll. 

My weight loss "journey" (there's another of those overworked terms) started with whatever plans were "trending" at the time. I tried the whole Cabbage and Carrots diet. That works until you start eating anything other than cabbage and carrots. I tried Keto; the juice and smoothie cleanse diet; food prep; OMAD, and so on. When I tried ADF (Alternate Day Fasting), I realized it was something I could live with long-term.

The problem with any change in diet for weight loss is that not only do you have to stick with it - pretty much for life - but it's a two-step situation. It's all about both how you eat and what you eat. For instance, I have no problem with how to do ADF. I actually love it. It feels natural to me. On top of that, I save on my groceries. 

All good, right? Just about perfect, but I did realize I needed to work on the what I eat part of the plan. 

Originally, I didn't really change what I was eating on the ADF diet plan. My general meals consisted of a lot of beans and chicken and rice and potatoes and vegetables with the occasional beef binge or pizza party thrown in. I discovered freaking Butter Burgers when I moved here to Iowa - Butter Burgers, people. Then I found those delicious Mama Cozzi's Take 'n Bake pizzas at Aldi's. 

Checking in for my infusion one day, the scale hit a number that made even the nurse do a doubletake. At my last infusion, I had weighed in at about 12 pounds lighter. Folks, I get these infusions every 7 weeks. The nurse didn't comment and neither did I - not out loud. Inside though I was telling myself that Sam Cooke never lied. A change was surely going to come. It had to. 

The next time I bought groceries, I used a list of kidney-friendly foods to guide me. (Because my kidneys are on the hit list with this sarcoidosis.) The first thing on that list was tofu. Other things were chicken,  fatty fish - like salmon and tuna - and lots of leafy greens and vegetables and blueberries. Things to avoid include most of the seasonings I had in my cabinet, nitrates, potassium, and - oh no - smoked fish. 

This is where my learning process started: which types of fish and seafood I can and cannot have; how to make skinless chicken more appetizing; who to season food without a lot of salt; and what the heck to do with tofu.

It's been some time since I started playing with my personal menu. As of today, my meals (for good and for "needs improvement") consist mainly of:

• Cabbage and collard greens (I love collards and can do interesting meals with cabbage)
• Frozen mixed vegetables (because they are super-cheap all year round)
• Whole-grain or seeded bread.
• Frozen blueberries (the only berry I really like that I can easily afford)
• Salmon - not always the cheapest when I need to buy it as fresh as possible. Thankfully Aldi's tends to keep a supply.
• Tuna - hard to find low-sodium kinds except online.
• Shrimp - cheaper if farmed, tastier if wild-caught.
• Tofu - so far only extra firm is my favorite

Olive oil and chia seeds and natural honey are staples now. I'm even trying to learn to drink my coffee black. My other go-to beverages are chocolate tea or sweetened vanilla soy milk blended with unsweetened cacao.

I snack on things like roasted black beans, the occasional tortilla chip, and peanut butter on bread. Every now and then, I will get an angel food cake and dress it up with freshly whipped cream and some berries. I make chia seed pudding in place of ice cream. If I really get a craving for something sweet I will make a 2-ingredients ice cream out of yogurt or cream with condensed milk.

Since I had to cut back on salt but just have to have some kind of seasoning, I have started using shitake mushroom seasoning. I don't look too closely at the label but will bring it up with the nephrologist next visit. And, cut me some slack, tofu needs seasoning!

To be fair, I have come to love tofu. It's fairly cheap and versatile. So far, I've only used the firm or extra-firm type and can do a version of chicken nuggets and chicken sandwich patties. I can't wait to try recipes using the softer or "silkier" tofu.

Anyway, the other day, my neighbor asked me if I was "going vegetarian". My answer is no. I don't want to "go vegetarian" but I have to go away from the way I've been eating for almost 60 years. I decided then to tell her that I am "going vegetarius". 

For me, being "vegetarius" means admitting that vegetarians make some good points about eating right. The rest of us typically do eat too much red meat and we don't eat enough vegetables. However, eating more vegetables and less red meat does not make me anywhere close to being a vegetarian. But I can eat better and healthier without getting any closer than is comfortable for me. 

As a vegetarius, I am going for a better-balanced diet. I can enjoy the once-in-a-blue-moon burger or taco and I don't have to scan the labels of everything I eat to make sure I'm not getting a single grain of meat by-product. I have enough trouble watching out for nitrates, potassium, sodium - or any other thing that adds flavor to food.

As a vegetarius, I am adjusting my eating habits for my own better health and not because I worship at the altar of the animal kingdom. 

You can see from the meals I listed, I have completely revamped my diet. However, quality of life is as important as the number of years lived. There is not a lot of fun in being on medicines and dealing with an illness that cuts back on the days you feel well. If I can get some pleasure from my food without literally killing myself, I'm going for it. So the vegetarius life is for me.

If there are any dieticians, vegetarians, or other folks with food knowledge, I would love to hear about some kidney-friendly recipes.

Peace

--Free

Some of the resources I use when grocery shopping

I'm not a medical professional. Always do your own research. I am just sharing some of the places I check when I am putting together a grocery list. I shop online so it's easy for me to open them in another tab. When I do go to a store, I try to have my whole list ready to take with me.

Be good to your kidneys. Trust me, I know what a toll dialysis can take on a person.

• This is the most comprehensive site I use. I have to pull it up almost every time I shop.
• And this is the "quickie" list when I don't have the brainpower for the first resource!
• This gave me a heads up about dairy alternatives. There is a catch to everything!
• Some "fast foods" that I found
• Seasonings that are "safe" (and not one is a favorite without salt!)
• I like this page for the different lists of "eat this not that" options. Scroll down on the page to find it.
• I hate this page but refer to it often. It depresses me.

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

Some Recipes & Calorie Counts

For the past month, I've been eating quite a bit and losing weight. I tried Keto, I tried OMAD and using the meal shakes, and all that. They all work for certain people and they would work for me if I could keep them up for life. And I can't. I cannot restrict myself to certain foods and trends. Life is varied and my food desires are just as varied. I failed because I had too many "cheat" days. There were days when I didn't want to be low-fat or high-fat or one-meal or fasting for 16 hours. Agh!

First I got frustrated and then I got real. After talking with my doctor, I was reminded that in addition to aging, I am also on certain medicines that inhibit easy weight loss. Okay then. So what I finally accepted is that the trick to staying in a healthy shape as you get older is to find what works for you instead of following every trend that comes along. Listen I even prayed about this situation!

My new reality is that I am over 50 and I am going to have to be diligent to maintain a healthy body. Because I did fail at other plans like Keto, fasting, and OMAD (one meal a day), I decided to hold off sharing what I'm doing until I could keep it up. I finally have this. I am down 10.7 pounds in 5 weeks and so far I'm not regretting anything. I am eating what I like but I do have to at least loosely keep track. This is what a typical day looks like:

Breakfasts

• I try to drink at least 8 ounces of lemon water. This is easier if I have some miracle berries beforehand. It's downright yummy after a miracle berry.
• As much black coffee as I want (I will tell you how I broke my sugary creamer habit) without getting too much sodium.
• Either 2 greek yogurt pancakes or a cup of overnight oatmeal with brown sugar (recipes will be shown later). The oats are a favorite because it's easy and very filling.

Snacks

• Baby carrots with a couple tablespoons of Ranch, or 
• Butter crackers plain or with cheese or with thin-sliced packaged ham, or
• Cheese and grapes/apples, depending on which  fruit I happen to have, or
• Tuna (with mayo and onion) solo or on butter crackers, or
• A single-serve bag of popcorn (my fave is kettle corn)
• If I have miracle berries beforehand - Plain, no-fat Greek yogurt or plain goat cheese on crackers

Dinners

• Cabbage (or a bag of coleslaw greens) steamed with sausages and bacon
• Homemade burger on regular bread with a salad
• Pork chop with salad, spinach/kale/collards on the side
• Ground beef stuffed with spinach or kale, onions and garlic and topped with a couple tablespoons of spaghetti or pizza sauce (see recipes)
• A dinner-breakfast of eggs and bacon and a couple of yogurt pancakes

Desserts

• If I have miracle berries beforehand - Plain, non-fat Greek yogurt/sour cream "cheesefake" (see recipes)
• A pint of Halo icecream
• Cheese-fake

If you notice, I don't use any artificial sweeteners. I don't like them and I'm not sure they are any better for my health than real sugars. 

I have to be really honest and tell you that I think the biggest kick-off to weight loss for me was giving up my heavily sweetened coffees. Here is what I was putting at least 3-5 tablespoons into a 16-oz coffee:

Almost 200 calories per mug

If I do need to "soften" some coffee that might be too strong or "bitter", I will use some of this instead:

100 calories is a lot better than 175

Since I tend to drink at least 2 16-ounce mugs of coffee in a day, I try to stick to this Luzianne brand which is too weak or any sweet creamer but perfect to drink black. I am so glad I found it. I know some people who choose McDonald's coffee as the one the can drink black. In my opinion, this Luzianne is way better and more consistent. Just be aware of the sodium in coffee. It varies, I think, by brand. I'm actually kind of over the whole dessert-coffee thing, tell the truth.

The other thing I had to train myself to was eye-balling calories. I faithfully used the Lose It app at first but now I can gauge how many calories a meal or snack is. I would buy the Premium version if it was a reasonable one-time purchase but... Ugh.

What I've learned about myself is that I am never as hungry as I think. What I am is a person who eats for every emotion: happy, sad, mad - everything but depressed. When I am depressed, I am even worse because I don't want to cook or take my time to find something decent to eat. I once ate nothing but some lemon teacake for about 24 hours. TWO lemon teacakes made with enough sugar to induce diabetes by smell and drizzled with a powdered sugar glaze. I didn't sleep, I just lay around in blue funk eating pieces of cake, sobbing and watching Andy Griffith reruns.

Great app but crazy-priced for the Premium version

So, I am that kind of an eater. And I will probably always struggle with depression. What I am doing now when I don't have the energy to cook or choose healthy meals, is fix the overnight oats and I eat a lot of baby carrots. I love baby carrots. I can eyeball what a tablespoon of ranch dressing looks like so I spend my sad or fatigued moments with a bag of baby carrots and ranch dressing. I think I once peed orange and cried white tears.

My big dessert hack is to eat a miracle berry and then snack on a cup of plain, nonfat Greek yogurt with a squirt of lemon juice mixed in. It's like eating cheesecake. And that brings me to the simple "recipe" for what I call Cheese-fake:

• 1 miracle berry (to eat just beforehand)
• 1 1/2 cup of non-fat Greek Yogurt, strained overnight (use cheesecloth or a substitute)
• 1/2 Tablespoon of lemon juice (fresh or bottled)
• Mix the 2 ingredients together
• Put into a small container (I use a Tupperware sandwich container) and out into the fridge for a couple hours.
• You can add more lemon juice or even top it with fresh, peeled lemon slices. The more lemon, the more cheese-cakey the flavor.
• If you want to splurge a little, you can make a Fiber One crust...

I have ended up with some weak miracle berries and will sometimes have to eat 2 of them to get the same effect so be warned.

Anyway,m here are those recipes. I collected them from various places (online and from memory) and made them my own. You can mix them up by adding different seasonings. By the way, I just used screenshots of my recipes stored in the Lose It! app. It works out all the calories based on the app's listings or what you scan in from your item packaging. Handy.

*** This is for the crust

On one of my OMAD days, I made up my own recipe for stuffed meatloaf using the following ingredients. You basically season the ground beef with seasonings shown (and any others you want) and roll it out on some plastic wrap or parchment paper to get it as flat as possible. Then you layer half of the spaghetti (or pizza sauce) and all of the other ingredients down the middle of the meat. Stay away from the sides. Roll the meat up with the stuff inside and make sure the sides are tucked around so the ingredients don't leak out. Wrap the bacon around it and plop it into a small loaf pan, top it with the rest of the sauce and cover with tin foil and bake at 350 for at least an hour. At the 45-minute mark, I like to uncover the meat and drain all the oil out before I finish baking it uncovered.  I only use the bacon for seasoning and will toss it when the loaf is finished cooking. Although it's a high-calorie meal, it's the only one I eat that day so I can even have a salad with a couple tablespoons of dressing at some point and be done with it. 

So that's it. There are a lot of recipes online for substituting greek yogurt for sour cream or frosting or whatever. Enjoy.

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 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

Intermittent Fasting (and KetoFast)

This is how I started my review of KetoFast:

Some people are having a lot of success with the keto diet. I lost about 10 pounds the first 2 months I was on it. Then I hit a donut and fell off the wagon. I'm kidding. I fell off because I didn't have any support and my cooking space was limited. I have no excuse now because I joined a Facebook group that is super supportive and I have a full kitchen all to myself.

Not long after writing that, I checked my urine with a keto stick and saw that there was a slightly noticeable result. I ran over and updated my Amazon review. The next day I used another keto stick and... nada - as in not a result at all.  I'm going back over to update the Amazon review when I finish this post. ~sigh~

I'm not giving up on the KetoFast though. I haven't used it enough to give it a fair chance. Also, I'm sure that pigging out on pasta didn't help the second results.

Again, as I admitted in that other post, I haven't exactly been back on the keto wagon. To be honest, I don't think I can full-time keto. I think I can do alternate days of keto. And that's where this intermittent fasting comes in. But first, a little history.

Before my sister passed, she was in the hospital for a couple of weeks and, of course, I stayed right there with her. I was about 185 pounds when she was admitted. When we had her funeral, I weighed in at around 145.  I know this because all my pants were hanging off my hips and I had to dig in the closet for a smaller size. Within a month, I had put back on all the lost pounds and they brought friends. I topped at 200 pounds. I know why. I was depressed and eating to fill the emptiness that came with the loss of my sister. And I didn't really even care about how overweight and uncomfortable I was.

I tell you all that to tell you why I am trying Daily Intermittent Fasting - specifically the 16-hour fasting routine. I think I can handle this, guys.

DIM is basically what I was accidentally doing while my sister was in the hospital. I wasn't even exercising. I would have a coffee in the morning with maybe a vending machine pastry. Lunch was one of those plastic-wrapped burgers (also from vending) or a burger and fries or chips from the cafeteria. The rest of the time, I was drinking coffee or nibbling on chips. By 6 or 7 o'clock in the evening, I was so bored that I would just doze off. The cafeteria shut down at a certain time and I'd be sick of the vending machines. Pretty much, after 7 or 8 p.m. I was shut down for the night.

I started the DIM routine last night by not eating anything after 8. It wasn't too bad because I'm not awful about nighttime snacking. If I get hungry at night, I don't exactly snack - I heat up a meal. And because I can't count on when I will have energy enough, I tend to cook something for the whole week. Usually, spaghetti.

Because I want to practice keto at least part of the time, this is the plan I decided to alternate from day to day.

Keto Day - 2 meals; at least 32oz of water; and restrict myself to 2 cups of tea/coffee (instead of my usual 5 to 6 cups). One of the 2 meals will be keto-friendly.

Non-Keto Day - 1 keto-friendly meal and a small keto-friendly snack; 64 oz of water and all the tea/coffee I want during eating hours.

I like this graphic that I snagged from Pinterest.





This is the only the second day for me and I don't plan to start the keto-alternating until next week.  First, I have to get used to the fasting itself.

Yesterday, I did fine waking up not starving but it was really hard not to have my morning tea or coffee. I cannot drink black coffee at all and drinking plain tea was almost as bad. I did get one cup of plain black tea down though because I hear it's great for the metabolism.

I'm not a breakfast eater, which is why I chose the 9-1 fasting period. I read that it's best to pick what works with your routine. For instance, my niece is a breakfast eater because she can't handle her pre-work gym time without it.

On this second day of the IF routine, I did better about getting through the morning without tea or coffee. I did drink a LOT of water though. By one o'clock, I was really ready for some food and the fasting made me appreciate the meaning of breakfast or "breaking fast". All I had was a cup of tea and some toast and, man, wheat toast never tasted so good!

I love this next graphic just for motivation and positive reinforcement:

Yeah, it's too small to read. So go over to the source site to check it out.

Anyway, I will be updating about my progress with the IF routine as I go along. By the way, I got my start by using the calendar and information over at the 3 Day Military Diet Menu site. There is a lot of information there so do check it out.

Peace
--Free