First steps into intermittent fasting

Tuesday February 28, 2020: my first day of intermittent fasting. Let me say right off that I’m not doing this to lose weight, although I expect to lose weight.

I stand five-feet nine inches and weighed 179 pounds Monday.

I made the decision last week. In preparation, I stopped eating between meals because it makes sense to ease into this. Over the holidays I fell into a lazy hole and was not doing much to get myself out of it. That included not writing. Whereas I had been writing four hours or more five days a week, I think I wrote less than 400 words in two months. while I binge-watched Netflix while eating. And it wasn’t making me feel any better to tell myself that the carton of ice cream I had just devoured was made with Splenda instead of sugar.

Then last week I came upon a Youtube video of some TED talk on intermittent fasting, and for some reason I thought this could be the tool I need to get out of this cycle of self-loathing. So I started looking for more videos to find out just how you go about doing this. I was concerned that maybe I was too old and I hit upon a video by some six-packed abb’d 20-something trainer who said that for those over forty, daily intermittent fasting every-other day was better than every day. After some research,

I decided to start out a 18/6 hour fast TWICE A WEEK on TUESDAYS and FRIDAYS. I have learned the hard way that jumping into an extreme regimen was a sure path to long-term change. I chose Fridays because it’s a traditional day of fasting in the Catholic Church. Wednesdays are the other traditional days but I decided Tuesday would be easier, since I go out evangelizing on campus every Tuesday morning and being away from the refrigerator might help me keep my resolve.

So I’m starting out by skipping breakfast and breaking my fast at noon. I started out good—took a half-hour for morning prayer and grabbed a thermos of water on my may out the door. My stomach was rumbling by nine o’clock. But I drowned it with one thermos of water and refilled it on my way back from the ladies room. The morning went fast with stimulating conversations in the student union, and when I got back to my car I was surprised that I wasn’t feeling hungry at all. There were occasional moments where I felt a bit lightheaded. But not bad.

When I got home I heated up a bowl of creamy potato and broccoli soup and a chicken leg for lunch. I was advised that, when you break your fast, eat your first meal light and avoid carbs. Dinner was a delicious plate of beef stir-fry and rice with and a bowl of cherry yogurt and tea an hour later. Today is a normal day so I ate oatmeal (my own copycat version of McDonald’s). That didn’t hold me till lunch so I snacked on a hard-bowled egg and a banana around 10 am and finished up the rest of the potato-broccoli soup from yesterday and chicken for lunch. It’s 3 pm and I’m getting hungry again, but am trying to drown the hunger with water again. I’ll let you know Saturday how I do on Friday.

But I’m writing again and I feel good so far.

Peace be with you.