Here I Go Again On My Own!

Wow - here I am again...trying to lose weight! I feel like blogging about it makes me accountable, so I'm ready to begin! Today is the day!
  
Well, today just happens to be Ash Wednesday, too, and for some reason (read: guilty conscience), Lent makes me "behave." I celebrated Fat Tuesday with WAY too much fanfare yesterday (Subway, Taco Bell and even multiple pieces of cake. I am stressing the MULTIPLE...), so I'm not even going to write out that list. Super ashamed, and my workout this morning was extremely hard because of it.

So, today's plan is this:
FASTING!

Uhhh, that was easy!

I might allow myself a spinach smoothie late this afternoon, but I'm also drinking plenty of water...and my left over vitamin water from Subway yesterday, and I am still full from yesterday's splurge. For each of the forty days following today, I will be giving up cookies, cakes, brownies, donuts, candy or sweets of any kind - except I will allow myself to chew gum - I seem to be able to do this each year during Lent, but why no other time?!

About three weeks ago, I began Intermittent Fasting (IF), which means I only allow myself an 8-hour eating period daily, followed by 16 hours of fasting. I've been eating from 12 - 8 p.m., making sure to consume enough calories to properly function, and working out in the mornings so that I can take advantage of the fat burning period of my fasting. I lost a total of four pounds the first two weeks - not changing my calorie consumption at all, but I didn't behave last weekend, so I didn't weigh to get results. See how that works? I will catch back up on Monday, March 10, so I have a few days to "get back down!"

During this next week, I'm going to change two things: cutting my eating period to about 4-5 hours a day and substituting one meal a day with a green smoothie. I typically eat lunch late in the day anyway (around 2 p.m.) and if I can get home, eat dinner by 6ish, I should be set. I've read a lot about intermittent fasting because it seems to go against everything I've ever been told about "speeding up my metabolism" or the "lifestyle change" of eating 4-6 small meals a day, I want proof that I won't be slowing down my metabolism with this stunt! And a lot of the research I've done says just the opposite of that - IF actually allows your body to go into a fat-burning period at around 14-16 hours of fasting. Eating 4-6 small meals per day doesn't work for me. I don't like to meal plan, and I rarely find time during my 8-hr. workday to even pop away from my desk to use the restroom or for lunch, so how can I break for 4-6 times per day to eat?

Fasting is easy today, because I ate so much yesterday, but I know even just making it to 2 p.m. will be tough tomorrow! BUT, the plan for the next 7 days is green smoothie around 2 p.m. and then dinner with my family - ending before 6 p.m. 

I plan to report back multiple times per week, so stay tuned!