kingkeld's Journal, 12 April 2013

Goodmorning!

Phew, what a day yesterday! I felt like I did nothing but eat, eat, eat...

You know, 2675 calories is quite a bit to consume if you can't dig into "bad" foods.

I did pretty well. I had an excellent, deluxe version of my rye bread, ham and eggs. I fried the eggs. I had cheese with it. I meade it much more interesting. And I did the same today.

2nd breakfast is just more of the same.

Then, I have some fruits for the late morning and around noon at work today. No real lunch at work - I'm off from work at 1pm and I will meet Wife to go eat at a café or something. We'll see.

Dinner? I don't know yet. But I have PLENTY of calories to spare. LOL. Oh, the rough life of maintaining my weight.

Sounds really easy, doesn't it? Well... it's not. :/

First of all, it's a LOT of food. I am in no way geared to consume all this, and I really have to put some effort into doing this.

Second, it's truly a mental challenge to get over the fact that I do NOT have to cut down. I do NOT have to find the "light" version off foods. I just have to eat, watch my proteins and carbs, and reach that high, high number.

Third, I am terrified of gaining weight, even if I am SUPPOSED TO gain weight right now. I keep telling me that it's all gonna be okay. "Trust Nimm", I say. :) He clearly knows what he's doing, and I truly appreciate him sharing his knowledge. He's an inspiration and such value to many people here - including me.

Now... I did get on the scale, of course. And whaddaya know! I am actually DOWN 300 grams. I did not see that coming.

That being said, eating all this food the last few days really messed up my stomach. I have had aches and felt so stuffed! And yesterday, quite some #2 happened. Maybe that is simply why I am down? Maybe I just don't gain as much as I fear?

Logic tells me that I'm not gaining at all. It's just food processing. Think about it. I'm supposedly burning between 2800 and 3100 calories per day on average. And I'm aiming for reaching 2200 calories per day, and I'm having a hard time getting there!

Those two intermittend fasting days are really changing this game. It's insane! I have so many calories available, it's ridiculous!

...

I'd like to promote Intermittend Fasting once more. It's actually an amazing thing.

First of all, I'd like to promote it for weight loss.

I see three benefits:

1. Get rid of your fear of hunger. Get rid of that feeling of you getting sick, scared, panicky, and everything else you feel when you go past lunch time. Step out of your comfort zone ONE time, and you can have that fixed. At least, that's what happened to me. It's SO worth it.

2. Either super boost your weight loss with a much larger calorie deficit by doing two days (or one) per week, and just follow regular RDI the other days, or...

3. Spread out the calories you did NOT eat on the other days and get a much larger RDI for the week.

If there was ONE bit of info I wish I had from get-go, then it is definitely this.

Sure, the fasting days are a bit of a challenge initially, but it's really not much more than a little effort. It's something everyone can do.

Then, of course there are the health benefits. Studies have shown that doing this will lower your risk of cancer, Alzheimers, diabetes, and many more illnesses. Check out the BBC program "Eat, Fast, Live Longer". It's available online, and REALLY interesting.

Here is what you do:

The very first time you do Intermittend Fasting, you NEED to skip meals. You NEED to get in touch with your hunger, but it's not nearly as scary as it sounds. You will very quickly realize that hunger doesn't accellerate - it comes in small waves. Once you're past that wave (and it really doesn't take that long), it diminishes. Your hunger signal dies out and you are just fine again. How many times haven't we skipped meals? Did we survive? I'd like to think we did. :)

So, pick a day. Any day. Eat as you normally would, until dinner. Have your dinner, and enjoy it. Then stop eating after this meal.

This will be your last meal before your reset. Do not eat ANYTHING - and I mean ANYTHING - for 24 hours. Your next meal will be dinner. Drink TONS of water to keep your stomach full. Drink coffee and tea. No sugar or milk in there. Also, no sodas. No diet sodas either.

When it's time for dinner, eat at the same time or later than you did the day before. Make sure you really get to the 24 hours before eating. Then make sure the meal is ONLY 500 calories or less (men get 600 calories - sorry, I don't make the rules here).

You will be surprised how easy it is. Stay busy as you do it. Try to not focus too much on foods, and make sure to drink a LOT of water.

After this, I promise you that you will have a whole different outlook on hunger. You will much easier be able to push a meal many hours, you will have less trouble recognizing when you are hungry and when you are full. It's nothing but WIN WIN WIN!

...

After this first "hard reset", the other Intermittend Fasting days are different. Of course, you can keep doing what I just described, but the key thing is really to significantly lower your calories a couple of days (or just one, but then you won't reap the health benefits), so anything goes. Good planning, and tons of vegetables will get you there safely. With a little training you can easily make long lasting foods.

I make a tomato/veggie soup. A full pound - which is a very decent portion - of this is 120 calories. I could have 5 lbs of this on an Intermittend Fasting day. Sure, it's maybe not the most interesting food, but there is to much more it does for you.

I could go on and on about this, but I think you get the point. Save the calories, reap health benefits - MASSIVE ones, too! - and make the rest of your weight loss journey easier. What is there to lose, honestly? 600 calories too hard? Meh. It's a matter of habit. Don't put the two days back to back. Just take a day or two break between them. Doing a 600 calorie day just makes you work a little harder on the preplanning. And if you mess it up, just make another day same week your 600 calorie day. Take it easy. You will get there. :)

Anyways, it's almost time for my walk.

Today, I'm thankful for:
- Surviving yesterday.
- Weight drop - very unexpected.
- Morning coffee, though I almost didn't have any.
- Breakfast deluxe!

Happy Friday! Life is good!

188.1 lb Lost so far: 153.7 lb.    Still to go: 0.7 lb.    Diet followed 100%.