IF - Day 1

I have been doing tons of research on Intermittent Fasting since stumbling on Eat Stop Eat. I find the concept very fascinating. Here is a great blog post from Michael Eades with some really interesting comments. One of the comments from mrfreddy mentions how he did this as a child and got in trouble for it.

I totally remember doing this in highschool. Not intensionally, but looking back, it helped me to lose weight which I gained when I was 15. I never did anything special to lose weight, it just happened. I would eat a snack when I got home from school and then dinner (and my mom didn't make anything healthy or low cal!) and then I didn't eat again until after school the next day. Not because I chose to starve myself, but because I have never been a breakfast person and if you saw what they called food at our high school cafeteria you wouldn't eat lunch either! LOL When I was 16 I distinctly remember my mother accusing me of having an eating disorder and grounding me for a month.

Today is my first attempt at IF. We had Buffalo Chicken Pasta for dinner last night around 6pm, which I will post the recipe for soon, BTW. Of course I was hungry at 7:30! LOL I wasn't actually hungry, I couldn't be. I had just had a huge bowl of chicken breast and whole wheat pasta an hour and a half early. I think my brain was screwing with me.

This morning I got up and not eating was no biggie. I usually have to force myself to eat breakfast any ways. I can see this being a challenging spot for someone that thrives on breakfast.

Now it is noon; I have had some pangs of hunger but nothing too bad. I have made myself a cup of tea with some cream in it. I'm not sure cream is "allowed" but I wasn't thinking about that when I brewed up a cup of black chai. I only drink black chai with cream. Next time I will make red or green chai, but since a pay a pretty penny for this chai AND have to drive into Orlando to get I WASN'T wasting it! (Seriously, I go as far as weighing it on the digital scale so I don't use more than is absolutely needed. And before you think that is a bit compulsive, let me assure you it is more cheap and miserly than compulsive!)

I chose Saturday to Sunday for my first fast on purpose.

First of all I am always having to remind myself to eat on Sundays. I don't workout of Sundays and it seems that a workout is a natural reminder for me to eat.

Second, I can try it without anyone else knowing. I really don't want to have to explain the science or try to convince someone I don't have an eating disorder. LOL

Another thing about Sundays that makes it an ideal first attempt is my schedule.

The first part of the fast is done while asleep (Saturday night), then I usually get to sleep a bit later on Sundays (9:30 this morning), then we leave for church at 2:30. There is a snack time after church (4pm) so I don't have to make the boys an afternoon snack. We will get home around 5 and by that time it will be time to start working on dinner. My fast is over at 6pm. So in essence I will only be consciously fasting from 9:30 am to 2:30pm. The rest of the time will be filled with sleep or activities.

At this point I am 3/4 of the way through the fast and I am JUST starting to notice some kind of hunger. Of course I won't know for several weeks if this even does any good but the science definitely supports it.