Hi! Let's talk eating - Intermittent Fasting
Hi again - years later!
I've had this blog for so long and have been in and out.
Here I am, just starting again. But that's another story for another time. I promise, I'll revisit!
What I wanted to recap today is: I'mean taking a stab at IF!
No no - not IVF (invitrofertilization), IF (intermittent fasting). I'm DETERMINED to get these same pounds off that I've been trying to lose for about a decade. I love the gym, so that's not the problem. Making excuses maybe? Yes. Plus diet. I go through phases - as we all do right? I know HOW to do this. I just make choices to not stick to a plan- and then wonder why I'm not seeing results.
I've tried a lot of different things, some have worked, some haven't, some worked but were not good for my sanity! ...hello IF. I have always been known to go long periods without eating - and not even being hungry. But then I also LOVE food. So other times, I could probably embarrass dudes with the amount of food I can put away (not something I'm proud of - I just can).
Summarizing some of the research I've done on IF - a lot of people do the 16:8 approach: fasting for 16 hours and then you have an eight hour window to eat. It seemed the majority of people I came across ate between 12pm and 8pm. Some 11am-7pm, some 1pm-9pms, I even sawent 2pm-10pm! For me, I feel like eating between 12pm-8pm is the most feasible. Most of the time I'm done at the gym by 7pm, so I still have an hour to eat a little before my window is up.
With the eating window, my fasting window would be 8:01pm-11:59am. Obviously the best use of your fasting time is to sleep!
The hard part is ANYTHING with caloric value starts the clock on your window. I REALLY love my coffee in the morning as I'm getting my day started - but my coffee normally has creamer in it. You can drink black coffee during the fast period, but I'm not quite there yet.... So today was a little practice to ease into it and gauge my weaknesses.
I prepped my coffee with the intention of drinking it right at noon. I had planned to down a small cup of coffee at work when I got to the office and truck right along until I could have my good coffee. Well... I'm not sure what happened... habit / routine maybe? I was drinking out of my creamer coffee by 8:34am and hadn't even made it to the office pot for my "chug" cup. ...ok well clearly I need to make sure I go to the office pot as soon as I get in.
Mistake #2: Around 10:30, a co-worker handled me a mini Twix to "remain calm" after a situation. Didn't hit me what had happened until I threw away the wrapper.
I did great the rest of the morning! Around 12:10pm, I ate a cracker and officially started my window. I had a sandwich, Kombucha (also for the first time!), and a small plates of spaghetti. I didn't track anything during the window, but I didn't go too crazy either.
Some things I read said eat whatever you want during the 8 hours, some said track your macros still, some said just stick with intuitive eating, and some were doing keto with IF (I'm definitely not ready for all that). I'd like to try all the ways - eventually - to see how it all works with my own body.
Final fail was this evening - I didn't EAT anything after 8pm, but I did have 2 glasses of my favorite pinot noir.
I did turn down bites of a rotisserie chicken and ice cream after 8pm, so I don't feel like it was a *complete* fail - decent practice though! I'm excited to try again and do better!
So for now - the posts will be a little rough and raw. But we'll get there to being more organized and aesthetically pleasing! Maybe someday we can look back and see what this grows into! :)
▪Til another time!
I've had this blog for so long and have been in and out.
Here I am, just starting again. But that's another story for another time. I promise, I'll revisit!
What I wanted to recap today is: I'mean taking a stab at IF!
No no - not IVF (invitrofertilization), IF (intermittent fasting). I'm DETERMINED to get these same pounds off that I've been trying to lose for about a decade. I love the gym, so that's not the problem. Making excuses maybe? Yes. Plus diet. I go through phases - as we all do right? I know HOW to do this. I just make choices to not stick to a plan- and then wonder why I'm not seeing results.
I've tried a lot of different things, some have worked, some haven't, some worked but were not good for my sanity! ...hello IF. I have always been known to go long periods without eating - and not even being hungry. But then I also LOVE food. So other times, I could probably embarrass dudes with the amount of food I can put away (not something I'm proud of - I just can).
Summarizing some of the research I've done on IF - a lot of people do the 16:8 approach: fasting for 16 hours and then you have an eight hour window to eat. It seemed the majority of people I came across ate between 12pm and 8pm. Some 11am-7pm, some 1pm-9pms, I even sawent 2pm-10pm! For me, I feel like eating between 12pm-8pm is the most feasible. Most of the time I'm done at the gym by 7pm, so I still have an hour to eat a little before my window is up.
With the eating window, my fasting window would be 8:01pm-11:59am. Obviously the best use of your fasting time is to sleep!
The hard part is ANYTHING with caloric value starts the clock on your window. I REALLY love my coffee in the morning as I'm getting my day started - but my coffee normally has creamer in it. You can drink black coffee during the fast period, but I'm not quite there yet.... So today was a little practice to ease into it and gauge my weaknesses.
I prepped my coffee with the intention of drinking it right at noon. I had planned to down a small cup of coffee at work when I got to the office and truck right along until I could have my good coffee. Well... I'm not sure what happened... habit / routine maybe? I was drinking out of my creamer coffee by 8:34am and hadn't even made it to the office pot for my "chug" cup. ...ok well clearly I need to make sure I go to the office pot as soon as I get in.
Mistake #2: Around 10:30, a co-worker handled me a mini Twix to "remain calm" after a situation. Didn't hit me what had happened until I threw away the wrapper.
I did great the rest of the morning! Around 12:10pm, I ate a cracker and officially started my window. I had a sandwich, Kombucha (also for the first time!), and a small plates of spaghetti. I didn't track anything during the window, but I didn't go too crazy either.
Some things I read said eat whatever you want during the 8 hours, some said track your macros still, some said just stick with intuitive eating, and some were doing keto with IF (I'm definitely not ready for all that). I'd like to try all the ways - eventually - to see how it all works with my own body.
Final fail was this evening - I didn't EAT anything after 8pm, but I did have 2 glasses of my favorite pinot noir.
I did turn down bites of a rotisserie chicken and ice cream after 8pm, so I don't feel like it was a *complete* fail - decent practice though! I'm excited to try again and do better!
So for now - the posts will be a little rough and raw. But we'll get there to being more organized and aesthetically pleasing! Maybe someday we can look back and see what this grows into! :)
▪Til another time!
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