Intermittent Fasting 16:8 - Day 78!!!! I cannot believe I have successfully followed this way of eating for this long!
11 lbs lost in 11 weeks! Now that is awesome…
I have lost 11 lbs slowly, but steadily over a period of 11 weeks without extreme diets or adding copious amounts of exercise. I don’t class IF 16:8 as a diet, I see it as a way of eating and a lifestyle choice.
I will continue this way of eating for the rest of my life if I continue to feel well on it! I have been surprised with the amount of changes it has actually made to my body.
I am no longer experiencing pain upon waking in the morning in my sides and back. I don’t know if the pain was due to the extra weight I was carrying or my kidneys/liver aching, but whatever it was, that has stopped and I am able to sleep more soundly. I am also more flexible, which is an odd benefit, especially as I haven’t really added any stretching to my regime.
I have had issues with constipation, but this last week I have increased my intake of fibre and it seems to be helping.
The jeans I bought a few months ago that were a size bigger than I was used to wearing, are now too big, so I am due a shopping trip. Yey!
The weather has turned and it is starting to feel colder. My bones have started to ache a little from the damp and cold and I can feel myself wanting to eat warm comfort food. I will have to be careful I don’t slip back into my old ways of eating.
A nice warm bowl of Porridge and raisins sweetened with natural honey before 8pm should hopefully do the trick…
So how does Intermittent Fasting work?
I follow the 16:8 Protocol, which simply means I fast for 16 hours a day and I have an eating window of 8 hours a day. There are no specific foods that I have to avoid or consume, I can eat whatever I choose during my eating window.
Fasting allows your body some much needed down-time from processing food and insulin spikes. 6 - 12 hours after eating, our bodies are no longer processing food. When the body is not concentrating on our digestive system, it can turn its attention to the other cells and organs in the body that need replacing or repairing. Fasting can also help with inflammation.
I have observed a few unhealthy habits that I had which have now gone due to IF.
For example, chocolate used to be one of my biggest downfalls. I would go so far as saying I was a choc-o-holic. I couldn’t go a day without it.
Since starting IF 16:8, I haven’t been craving chocolate. I realised that I tend to eat chocolate at night while on the computer or reading a book and it was a bad habit that I had fallen into.
After telling myself I was no longer to eat after 8pm, IF took away my chocolate consumption time slot; before I knew it I hadn’t eaten chocolate in weeks. Boom!
I did have a sneaky chocolate fairy cake the other day at the dog show as a treat, it was yummy! But I really haven’t bothered with it since and certainly haven’t had any chocolate cravings.
My food portion sizes are shrinking as I just don't eat as much. My stomach must have shrunk inside as well as outside. I am happy extremely about that.
I would love to say I have bags of energy, but I am struggling at the minute with my thyroid bloods being off and my energy levels are low. This proves to me just how powerful IF is for weight loss, because I am hardly moving at the minute due to feeling drained; yet I am still burning excess fat from my body.
One of the main things I have noticed when family ask me how I have lost weight is that straight away they tell me ‘you are starving yourself’ or ‘you should eat breakfast, it is the most important meal of the day!’
Yet if I had told them I was calorie counting or I was fasting for religious reasons, nobody would have made any negative comments at all. It is interesting to see how heavily our society has been influenced by the cereal big-wigs who tricked us all into believing that Corn Flakes were the answer to having an amazing day.
Don’t get me wrong, some people need breakfast to get them going in the morning, especially if they have a hectic schedule or a manual job. I however prefer to delay my eating times until lunchtime because that pattern works better for me. Mornings are busy with school runs, dog walking and tidying the house, so my pattern works for me.
If a person needs to eat breakfast, they can still follow the IF protocol, they can just alter their eating times to suit their own schedule.
So that’s me, 11lbs lighter and a whole lot happier!
