Intermittent Fasting – FAD or Not?

Have you tried it? Have you heard of it even? I have heard of people doing a fasting thing and thought they were a bunch of monkeys. I am not kicking back at folks who do fast, I just can’t believe its a thing.

Anyway I keep hearing it as I am in so many groups on FB that its not funny. I have fitness groups, health groups, teaching groups, parenting groups, learning groups and what not. I have now joined a few more groups to do with healthier lifestyles.

This is because my current focus is on making me feel better about myself. I have been doing quite a bit of fitness and in these groups this fasting thing keeps coming up. Some folks say they are achieving stronger results because they are fasting. Then this other thing pops up – get this – some people are fasting while they are working out. Now that blew me away because when I work out – I can be truly serious and tell you that i am absolutely famished at the end of my work out. I don’t hit the junk side of the pantry but I do make heaps of eggs and stuff so i feel like I am being healthy.

The more I have seen about this fasting lark, the more intrigued I have become. Sooooo, you got it!! I went a searching to see what all the fuss was about. I just googled IF or fasting and a few different things popped up. I had a fair good read and I quite liked some of the ideas probably because I don’t like diets as such but this is slightly different.

What I got out of this was that fasting is an eating cycle that breaks up into periods of eating and periods of fasting. It seems as though its meant to teach your body to use up fat stores rather than create more. Anyways I decided that I would give it a try. Its seems as though I was eating waayyy too much and probably at all the wrong times. There is only so much fitness I could do and I am trying to shed a little weight. I know that I need to retrain my body to consume food when it needs it and not just because I opened the pantry door.

I did a bit more googling and reading. I found a few weblinks that connected to what would work best for me to try as a beginner who loves food. I found a few app’s but This is the one I like. I clicked in there, answered some basic questions about me and voilla!

I downloaded the bodyfast app onto my phone and I read up on a few things that popped up to help me on my journey. When you start, you just answer a few questions and voila!! It gives you different options to choose from and recommends the best fasting options based on the information you provide.

I chose to do the 16/8 fast which is 16 hours of fasting (heaven forbid) and an 8 hour window for eating. I wasn’t really sure how this was going to go and what I could eat or what I couldn’t but soon worked it out because I over think EVERYTHING. It’s not that hard.

Now, I haven’t been doing this long so I am not expert. I can only share my story and honestly, I really did research heaps particularly through FB. I had a look on my FB groups (those fasting comments) and followed a few threads. I found a couple of cool links on IG which have given me clues on eating. I have pics of one below!!

So, I have scheduled my eating to start at midday and end at 8 pm. This would give me good times to eat well and still be able to make meals without fainting (insert eye roll) when cooking for the kids or hubby.

The first day was obviously the hardest because my natural reaction when I get up in the morning, as I have done for the past 40 years is to eat breakfast. But in my wisdom and glory, I have decided not to have breakfast. My reasoning was simple, I could probably make it through the morning without food but would need a good dinner in me so breakie went!!

That first morning, I made myself a black tea – this is something that well let’s be honest- it was horrible. Anyways, I went about my morning. I can tell you that it worked ok because I kept myself busy and I wasn’t checking the clock all the time. When it came to fast ending time – I got the ding on my phone to say “eat like a pig”. 🤣🤣 No seriously, it just tells you that your fast is over and you are in your eating window. It was choosing what to eat at that time which was hard. I started with a cup of tea of course!!

Its actually quite cool this little app. It just sorta makes sense. Now as the first week went on, I actually could feel myself getting hungry at times but I just skulled some water and told myself I really wasn’t hungry. It worked. There have been a couple of days that I actually popped some food in my greedy chops and realised that I was still fasting and quickly spat it out (golly gee). You should have seen the kids faces- I only do that with mushrooms usually 😂😂 And lots of explaining afterwards!!

Anyways its been a couple of weeks now and I can tell you that there is some difference!! Only problem with weight loss is that the area you want to keep goes first!

Happily, I am down 2.5 kg and my waist line is shrinking (along with the boobs). I am actually enjoying this. I feel better about myself now. I know it’s really weird. My clothes are starting to fit better too which is always a bonus!

On the eating side of things, I can tell you that I am not as hungry as I once used to be.

Here’s the thing. When I am on my eating part, I am actually eating really well. I am tracking my food intake through my fitbit and have noticed that I eat a LOT more good foods, drink less tea and consume more water. I don’t feel like I need bread. I do listen to my body and follow my cravings. I feel like my body is neater, if that makes sense. I am choosing to eat better and here is the clincher. I was at MacDonalds the other day and I love a cheeseburger and fries but crikey dick, I couldn’t eat the whole lot. I was actually full.

This plan is helping me to nip my nasty habbits in the bud. I reckon I am now one of those monkeys and I will keep it up for a bit longer and see where I go from there. Perhaps I need to visit the google library for more titbits on when to slow down and give myself a where to next.

I am now on the other end of this fasting thing where people are looking at me thinking I am right twat for fasting when there is perfectly good food around me BIT I think I have found the right program for me. I just need to change it up!!

I wanted to share this with you so you could hear my little take on this!!! Fasting or not, it’s up to you to make that choice.

Here’s to you 🍵 and making the perfect choice for yourself!!

Stay healthy

Rosie 🌹