This is Fasting?!? Yep!

I just had to share what I've been eating on my fasting days because I think it is just amazing.  Although I am eating no more than 600 calories on my fasting days, I have figured out a way to do so with relative ease and comfort.  The question of "what to eat" haunted me before beginning this diet.  If you're a woman, you know what I'm talking about here, especially if you cook for picky children and a husband every day.  Every day the same thing...what to eat.  It can drive you insane.  Add to that the prospect of having to cook yourself something different from what everyone else is eating and it can be downright scary.  I knew in order for this thing to be do-able, it had to fit my lifestyle...a lifestyle of pure chaos.  Hey, it is what it is, right?  The first step to the process is admitting that your life is a 3 ring circus and that programs like Weight Watchers just don't fit into my chaotic lifestyle.  If it does for you, more power to you.  Whatever works. 

So today I took a picture of what I had for lunch and then another picture of what I would be having for dinner at the risk of being "one of those people" that shares every meal with their friends on Facebook.  What did we ever do before we knew what everyone was eating all the time?  I have no idea. 

So here is a picture of what I had for lunch today.  A 230 calorie Healthy Choice meal consisting of chicken, rice and shrimp on top of 3 cups (90 calories) of steamed broccoli (an entire package of Steamfresh broccoli cuts).  Not bad, huh?  That's a massive plate of food, I know.  Now I've already planned out my 7pm dinner so as to stay in my 600 calorie limitation.  Now usually I have the "bigger" meal with all of the broccoli at the 7pm meal. I switched it around today and so far so good.  I cannot really tell all that much difference in how I feel compared to other fasting days so far.    So, for dinner I'm planning on having another Healthy Choice dinner because I am the microwave queen of the world and because they are somewhat decent tasting, easy, and quick.  Now I would imagine that in the future I might invest in a good steamer to steam my own vegetables.  I think they would taste infinitely better than what I've been eating, but for now it will do just fine. 

And here is a picture of the 280 calorie Healthy Choice meal for dinner, Chicken Marinara with Parmesan.    All these meals I have been eating have been inspired by the Top Chef show.  I'm not a fan of the show, but the meals are pretty decent.  So there you have it.  A typical fasting day for me.  Not too shabby huh?

 

Until next time.....

Unrelated to the Fasting: Concerns About My Health

I know that being morbidly obese brings on a number of health problems.  I have slowly accepted some of these problems as my new way of life.  Lately, though, I'm afraid that years of being morbidly obese are beginning to catch up with me.  I've been lucky so far, suffering only with foot problems and joint problems.  Now I'm experiencing pain in the area of my right ovary.  The pain is made worse when walking.  I'm also having severe pain in my right heel.  I have no idea if these two things are related or not.  I do have very high arches which being overweight does not help.  Plus I have had a history of endometriosis and an ovarian cyst.  Back in my 20's, my gynecologist told me that I had a cyst the size of a grapefruit.  I was also told that I had stage IV endometriosis and that I had less than a 10% chance of ever having kids.  Long story short, I have 3 boys.  The oldest was adopted and the other two are my biological children...surprise, surprise as Gomer Pyle would say. 

Anyway, all of this is really unrelated to the fast diet, just something that is bothering me immensely.  I have had this sort of pain in the past but it has gone away in a day or two.  This pain seems to be a little bit more intense and has persisted for around 3 or 4 days now.  I was hoping that I could get some pounds off of me before suffering any major health issues.  I'll continue to keep my fingers crossed and plug on with the fast diet.

Week #2 Weigh In Time

I've completed 2 weeks of the fast diet and this morning it was time to weigh in.  Yesterday I was wanting a "sneak peek" at my progress so I broke my own rule of only weighing once per week...maybe a big mistake.  Yesterday morning I weighed in at 272; down 2 pounds from the previous week.  I was excited.  This morning when I got on the scale I was at 274; down 0 pounds from last week and up 2 pounds from yesterday!  What!?!?  Needless to say I am pretty disappointed right now.  How can I be up 2 pounds from yesterday morning?!?  I really do not feel like I'm eating any more than I did on a normal day before starting the diet.  Of course, I'm not counting calories or portion sizes, but I never did.  To do calorie counting and portion sizes sort of defeats the "hook" of what the diet has promised in the first place.  If I'm having to do all of that, I might as well jump back on the Weight Watchers train and fork over $40 per month.  At least then, I'd see results. 

I tell you, I just don't know what to say.  It's not like I sit around on my butt all the time either.  Yesterday I spent 3 hours outside working in the yard.  Plus I'm constantly cleaning the house, doing laundry, cooking, doing dishes, etc.  The only difference I see between yesterday and any other day is that my stress level was super high.  My 3 boys were acting up all day long, my father-in-law was undergoing an operation to treat a huge blood clot in his leg, and to top it all off, my 3 year old broke out in a mysterious case of hives last night.  My cortisol levels are probably insanely high which MIGHT account for my hanging on to weight from yesterday until today, but I'm not entirely sure that's the case.  That seems insane to me. 

So, I'm discouraged but I'm not giving up.  On the bright side I did not GAIN anything from last
week.  If that had happened I would have been totally hacked off.  So, I will try to remain positive and push on through.  I want to give this 5:2 diet a fair chance, and to do that I have to ride this thing out for a long time to come. 

I do need to share a bit of information I have discovered about the fast days.  I play a lot of mental games with myself on the fasting days.  One of my "tricks" that I have discovered is that instead of eating a 300 calorie Healthy Choice meal, I will instead choose a 240 calorie meal.  I will then throw a bag of frozen broccoli in the microwave to steam.  Once the broccoli is steamed, I  put close to 2 cups of it on a plate.  Then I pour the Health Choice meal over top of the bed of broccoli.  Voila, a HUGE plate of food!  Visually it is very appealing and looks like a lot of food (and it really is).  In addition to that, there's a lot of volume to fill my stomach.  I feel full quickly after the meal is over.  Hey, whatever it takes, right? 

Until next time......

After The 4th Fasting Day: Dragging the Floor

Today is the day following my 4th fasting day.  Yesterday, as I wrote in my previous post, I was

super low energy and grouchy.  I had not had this problem the first 3 fasting days which I'm not sure if I can attribute this to falling out of the "honeymoon period" with the fasting or if something else is going on.  Today I am still very low on energy and this worries me slightly. I have decided to start taking a multi-vitamin in case I am low on iron.  I wish I had a way to verify exactly what is going on.  So, in any case, I will begin taking the vitamin today and keep an eye on how I'm feeling over the next couple of weeks. 

On a positive note, my husband told me this morning that I am losing weight.  I am trying only to way once weekly because I know there must be a good deal of fluctuation with the fasting and non-fasting days.  So, we'll see how it goes.

UPDATE:  8/12/2013  I have fasted 2 or 3 times since this post and I wanted to say that I have not felt as drug down on any of the other fasting days.  I cannot be sure if, perhaps, I was fighting a virus, was low in iron or protein, or just having an off day.  I did take a multivitamin on the next 2 days following the fast where I felt horrible, but I have not been diligent in taking them.  We'll see what happens....

The Fast Diet Day #12: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

It's now day #12 of my fast diet experience.  I'm on my 4th fasting day.  It is still very early in the program but I have learned a few things to this point that I'd like to share.  As I have mentioned before, I will be blogging about my full experience on the fast diet.  That will include weight losses or gains, good things and bad.  Here's what I know so far:

The Good:

• The hunger level on fasting days usually is NOT THAT BAD.  I expected the hunger level to be
  
  brutal.  It simply was not.  My stomach has not even growled until today around 2:30pm, last meal around 10:00 am....but I'll explain that further in a bit.
• I'm losing weight.  I'm weight once per week and the first week I was down 4 pounds. 
• I can REALLY eat what I want on a non-fasting day.  I've occasionally  had waffles, sausage, McDonald's, pizza, ice cream, and even a cupcake.  That's DEFINITELY a GOOD.
• Fasting on Mondays & Thursdays seems to fit well into my hectic stay-at-home mom lifestyle. This diet allows for me to go out to eat on the weekends and I can make sandwiches for the kids during my fasting days to cut down tempting food smells.
•  Eating the Healthy Choice meals or frozen meals on a fasting day is cheap and convenient.
• My husband and I both have noticed that my ankles and calves are smaller.  I know, right?  Isn't that ridiculous.  At first I could not figure that one out.  I mean, that's not how you lose weight.  Usually you can see it first in your face and fingers, neck, etc.  My husband then told me that it was probably swelling from water weight that had disappeared.  Bingo!  I wasn't even aware that I had that kind of swelling in my ankles and calves but apparently I did.  Drinking and peeing on fasting days must have helped get rid of that swelling around my ankles.  Bonus!
• I don't have to count calories or points on a non-fasting day.  This is WELL WORTH the 2 days of fasting. 
• This is so easy that my husband is joining me.
• Less time eating and worrying about what to eat has given me more time for other things.  I find that there's a lot of thinking going on in my head.  As long as those thoughts aren't centered around food, that's a good thing.  
• 2 Fasting days per week are 2 days that I'm not going through a drive-thru.....and that HAS to be a good thing.  
• If I can't have something today, I can sure have it tomorrow.
• This seems like something I can do for years to come without issue.  

The Bad:

• Today I was grouchy, hungry and low-energy.  (This has been the only day I've felt that way though)
  
• I can smell food EVERYWHERE on a fasting day.  Today I went to Wal-Mart and beside the Wal-Mart is a KFC....it about killed me.  Then, I went inside and the deli was frying up some chicken....torture!
• Others don't care that you are fasting.  My mother-in-law decided to bake snickerdoodles today.  SNICKERDOODLES.  That b***h.
• I have to pee ALL THE TIME on a fasting day.  I have become familiar with every public restroom in my town.

The Ugly:

• The smell of baking Snickerdoodles brings on homicidal thoughts.  But then again, we ARE talking
  
  about my mother-in-law.  Hard to decide whether or not the snickerdoodles were the true cause of this.
• I yelled at a lady in WalMart because she was blocking me.  I'm not really sure if this is an "ugly" or a "good".  My "polite filter" was missing today.  Avoid Wal-Mart on a fasting day at all cost.

There you have it, my good, bad, and ugly list.  As you can see, the "goods" far outweigh the bads and the uglies.  :)

The Fast Diet: Week #1 Weigh In Time!

Well I've completed week one of The Fast Diet or the 5:2 Diet as it is sometimes called.  Time to weigh in.  This morning I weighed in at 274, down 4 pounds from the start.  I'm pretty excited although, realistically I'm sure some of this was water weight, not fat.  I think I have realistic expectations, wanting to see a weekly weight loss of around 1-2 pounds per week.  Rome wasn't built in a day and I didn't get this way overnight. 

Today is my 3rd fasting day and I do believe I have this thing under control.  I'm no longer "scared" of the fasting days.  Today has been way busier than the other two fasting days and has gone by much quicker.  I have not been drinking as much, however, which is making me feel a tad bit hungrier than usual.  I guess it's a trade-off. 

I'm still eating the Healthy Choice or Smart Ones frozen meals because I find it much easier to fit into my day.  I have been able to bake cookies and cook waffles for my kids on my fasting days, which feels like quite an accomplishment.  It's maybe not the smartest thing to do on a fast day, but my willpower is intact. 

My husband has now joined me in fasting (after he saw that I didn't croak probably LOL).  He's going to follow the Monday-Thursday program, allowing himself 600 calories on fasting days.  He, however, is much braver than me and is starting with eating at 7am and 7pm.  It is now 4:30pm.  I just spoke with him and he admitted that he is struggling a bit right now and feels a little low in energy but feels like he can make it until 7pm.  I told him to just keep reminding himself that tomorrow he can eat whatever he wants. 

I would like to hear from others what their experiences have been following the Fast Diet or the 5:2 plan.  Let me know what you're doing and how you are liking it, or not liking it.  :)

Note To Self: Read This When You Feel Like Giving Up

So far I'm happy as can be with this plan.  I realize, however, that this is a long journey I have just started and that I am in the "honeymoon period".  There will be days ahead where I may not feel like doing this anymore.  I am writing this as a reminder to myself of what I want and how I've felt. 

1.  You're doing this for your children and for your future grandchildren you have yet to meet. 

2.  You're doing this because you are tired of feeling tired all the time.


3.  You're doing this because no food tastes better
than the way it feels to be of a healthy weight.

4.  You're doing this because you want to be the absolute best nurse that you possibly can be.

5.  You're doing this because you are tired of never wearing shorts or a bathing suit.

6.  You're doing this because you're tired of sitting on the edge of the pool while everyone else swims.

7.  You're doing this because you're tired of dodging mirrors and cameras.

8.  You're doing this because you want to actually like to go clothes shopping.

9.  You're doing this because you are tired of sweating constantly during the summer.

10.  You're doing this because what you see in other's eyes is not nearly as harsh as how you think of yourself. 

11.  You're doing this because you've wasted enough of your life eating yourself into the grave. 

12.  You're doing this because you deserve better.

13.  You're doing this because you need to set an example for your kids.