Intermittent Fasting Cycle 4 - What Fasting Teaches Me

Today is my Intermittent Fasting day. I am still thinking about the role of meat in fasting - I know this probably sounds weird, and it definitely sounds weird from someone who has spent some years being a pescetarian who could not face meat, but I find it an interesting topic.

Yesterday, for dinner, I ate a fillet of trout along with vegetables and some mashed potato. Last night the hunger during my fast was not overly apparent; however, I did have a bout or two of hunger pangs, which I did not have when I had eaten meat before starting the fast. I lay in bed, trying to ignore the gnawing feeling I get where my insides feel as if they are nibbling at themselves, and thought about what today might bring seeing as I had not eaten meat pre-fast this time around. Well, today it has been worse than last night. I have probably had about 3 major bouts of hunger pangs - or pains would be more accurate. 

At the same time, I am counting my blessings because, despite still getting hunger pangs, they are nowhere near what I experienced in the first week. Even though I don't think the first week was particularly bad, it seems like a horror movie compared to this week. On the first week, 5 p.m. on the IF day could not roll around quickly enough. I was standing at the stove, cooking the dinner at 4.30 p.m. so that it would be ready in time for a 5 p.m. meal. This week I am a bit more relaxed because I know that if the meal happens at 5.10 p.m., I am not going to pass out and die.

Fasting is definitely raising some thoughts and feelings in me that I hadn't really expected:

Food seems delicious and amazing when you are eating the restricted (500) calories on the Intermittent Fast day. I savour my food, take my time and really enjoy it. I am a foodie, and I love food, so it's not as if I don't enjoy my food the rest of the time. Believe me when I say, I do... probably too much! On the restricted calorie day, I guess I just feel more aware of how great it is to be able to actually eat something and I appreciate my food. I feel blessed to have access to food, a luxury which many people in the world do not automatically have.

I feel powerful. As someone who gets frustrated about weight and food intake, I do feel a power from being able to control myself in this way. I have actually started working on long abandoned projects this week, a step I feel has been partly motivated by me realising that: I can do things if I put my mind to them.

It is nice to not have to think about food. When you can't have food, or can have very little, it makes you realise how much of the time you might be spending thinking about food, consuming food, shopping for food, preparing food and so on. It's not unheard of in this country to have 'something' with your cup of tea or coffee, which means that you may have 1, 2 or 3 times in the day when you are eating something that perhaps you don't actually need. I am now more aware of this, which leads me onto...

The fasting and the calorie restriction is paying off on the non-Intermittent Fasting days! Yesterday is a case in point. I was sitting at my computer doing some work, and I noticed that hours had gone by without me even thinking about food or feeling hungry. This probably sounds normal to most people - I don't know, but for me it was a breakthrough. I usually would have thought about food during that time period and probably had an afternoon drink and a snack and then felt guilty for eating something. Instead, I had water. I also have been snacking less in the evening, as once you have 4 evenings a week (due to the IF) where you don't eat anything, it is not that much of a stretch to turn that into 6 or 7, which leads me onto...

You start to evaluate whether you really need to eat something. Now I am more conscious, when I do choose to have a treat or a snack, of whether that snack or treat is something I truly want and/or need. I am not averse to having a treat, but as I have discussed on this blog before, I do have a habit of eating because other people are eating/offer me something. I know that the reason I do this is because I want to make the other person feel comfortable, and to also be sociable. I feel rude if I don't join in or if I turn their offer down. Now, because there are these sections of the week where I cannot have anything at all, or can have very little (the 500 calorie days do not allow for snacks/treats), I am having to actively turn people down when they offer me food. The very act of doing this sends not only a powerful message to myself, but to the other person as well. I think it is almost like training, or retraining, your brain to an alternative setting. In turn, I believe this will make the regular eating days easier for me because I will learn to be able to evaluate whether I want or need the food item and be able to say no if I do not want/need it. In addition, because I am doing Intermittent Fasting, which people around me know to be for health, and weight loss is just a side effect, I am actually able to turn them down easily...

For some reason if you are doing something for health, it's more acceptable to people than if you are doing it to lose weight. Picture this: you are invited to go around your slim friend's house. When you get there, he/she makes you a drink. Then they get out the cake or the cookies or whatever, and offer them to you. In the past I have actually been in the position where I have accepted one of these offerings: a. because I have not wanted to turn the person down and b. because I have not wanted to tell them I am trying to lose weight. When I tell someone I am trying to lose weight, it adds a certain pressure. Suddenly I feel that person is evaluating me and in the future is watching to see if I am losing weight and what I am eating etc. I am not imagining this, as people do comment on my weight. In an Intermittent Fasting situation, I can turn the person down and say I am doing Intermittent Fasting for my health. Somehow that is okay. It would seem really weird if they then turned around and were 'off' to me because I refused their offer of food, when I am trying to improve my health. It's slightly ridiculous, but true in my case.

Lesson Learned & 5 Things

What did having a few days off from calorie counting and logging teach me?

It taught me that my one free day off a week is fine - it's too short to make me fall off the wagon and I slide back into calorie counting quite easily. However, a few days is way too long. I can break a habit (the calorie counting/logging) in a few days, whereas in one day, the habit is still there.

I try to view situations, events and occurences in life as happening for a reason; whether that be to enlighten you or help you move forward etc. In this case, while I struggled with the situation of going back to calorie counting and logging and feeling somewhat out of control, I do see that I have learned a lesson. I have learnt that at this point in time, I cannot take more than one, or at a push two, days off. So until I have reached my goal, I plan on not doing that again - it wasn't really my choice to do it in the first place, but if it happens again, I am going to have to figure out a better way to be accountable.

I have also learnt that I need to constantly think of ways to motivate myself...

So, I did 5 things I have learnt about myself since starting this 'diet and exercise change'. Now I must do the 5 things I have learned about myself and my relationship with food (much harder!!) -

1. TTOTM = crazy cravings for sugar. I give in to PMS cravings. I have mentioned this before, but I really need to figure out a way to address this.
2. I am starting to be really hungry for breakfast. I enjoy breakfast now.
3. I can eat less than I think I need and still feel satisfied. My stomach is shrinking. My eyes are bigger than my stomach!
4. I sometimes eat to make other people happy. E.g. eating a slice of cake or an extra 'thing' because someone else thinks I should, when actually I don't want it and/or am not hungry. Or even eating a course at a restaurant so the person does not feel left out!
5. I can still enjoy eating even when I have to stick to a certain amount of calories. This is something I struggle to realise... even now. I need to remind myself of this. Eating 1,200 or 1,400 calories doesn't mean you can't don't enjoy the food you eat. It just means that you have to make better choices about what you eat so that the food is really satisfying and nutritious.

This week I had the challenges as usual:


1. Only 1 weigh-in - CHECK
2. 90 minutes of cardio or walking - NOPE... managed to do 55 cardio, 40 Yoga
3. 2 sessions of weights or strength training exercises of your choice - NOPE... none!
4. 3 blog entries - CHECK
5. List 5 or 10 things you have learnt about yourself and your relationship with food since you started your recent weight loss journey (this can be 1 blog entry) - CHECK

I am getting tired of challenges. Though, to be honest, they do actually work to some extent. If I hadn't had the challenge at the back of my mind, I wouldn't have done the yoga!