My One Year IF (Intermittent Fasting) Anniversary

Happy Intermittent Fasting (IF) Anniversary to me! This week last year was a whirlwind that began a sustainable change for my health and well being just before the pandemic hit. I decided to celebrate my first year I would start a blog to share the continued learning and knowledge I have acquired about IF. For this first post I want to share my why and how I began my journey.

My Why

I had just turned 55 and I was not happy with the belly fat I had accumulated over the past 10 years. Of course like many, I attributed it to menopause and the fact that this is just what happens to women as they age. Unfortunately, my family history of heart disease and diabetes combined with my blood work was causing my doctor to start the discussion of my own high cholesterol and blood sugar. I wanted to be healthy for my family but I also wanted to try and fix these without taking medication. 

A Series of Serendipitous Events

For some reason the word fasting was swimming around in my brain at the beginning of 2020. 

• I had had a colonoscopy in the summer of 2019 and after fasting for over 36 hours, my digestive tract seemed to be functioning SO much better. 
• Then on February 11, 2020 my friend Laurie Jones posted that she was on an IF podcast telling her and her husband's story of fasting. Now my curiosity was kicking into high gear. I listened to the hour long podcast (Click Here) hosted by Gin Stephens who was the author of the book Delay Don't Deny, and a huge advocate of IF. I actually listened to the podcast in two parts because I heard them talk about drinking black coffee and thinking - I'm out! Lucky for me, my curiosity forced me to turn the podcast back on and continue listening. 
• I began tossing around the idea of fasting and purchased Delay Don't Deny (DDD) on Audible so I could listen to the book.
• February 18th I listened to DDD while I cleaned out my home office
• February 19th I decided this would be my final non-fasting day. I took my son and his buddie to the movies and had a chicken sandwich with fries as my last "normal eating day"

Taking the Leap

On February 20th, I poured myself a cup of black coffee, closed my eyes and took a leap of faith and trusted that this would work for me as it had for others.

After listening (and re-listening) to the book these were the things that gave me enough confidence to take the leap:

(I will elaborate on each one later in this post)

CLEAN FAST IS THE KEY 

• I don't have to change my diet, I'm just delaying what I'm eating until later
• I can still drink wine
• I don't have to exercise for it to work (I am a walker but I wanted to test this)

Nitty Gritty Details:

Total weight lost and kept off - 30 pounds

Eight inches off my waist (42 inches to 34 inches)

What exactly did I do? 

• My first goal was to clean fast for a minimum of 16 hours everyday.
• I decided that my eating window would be from about 1:30 - 7:30 (6 hours) to start that meant I was fasting from 7:30pm to 1:30pm (18 hours)
• I also wanted to take note of how I felt during fasting and eating
• If someone brought donuts to school, I would take one and put it in my office and wait until my eating window was open or if I wanted a mocha, I would have one in my eating window
• I also started eating dessert when I wanted to because I had deprived myself of dessert for MANY years
• I walked on the weekends but did not do any other exercise
• I would drink wine when it fit into my eating window (until I quit drinking altogether in April).

I lost 5 lbs/month for the first 5 months and my waist was six inches smaller. I sort of stalled after that and lost the final 5 pounds and two inches very slowly. I became what many IFers fondly call themselves - a turtle (because of the slowed progression).

There are also things called NSVs - Non-Scale Victories because while you lose weight, inflamation and inches, the inside of your body starts re-compositioning itself, the term for this is autophagy. Here are some of my NSVs:

• Blood sugar is normal
• Cholesterol is lower - still not in the healthy range but we are problem solving that one
• Incredible energy - when your body is eating fat it produces great energy (no more head bobbing during afternoon IEPs)
• Incredible awareness of how my body reacts to foods
• Incredible awareness of when my stomach growls, that I'm not hungry (I take the growls as a signal that my body is dipping into my fat stores because there is no glycogen for it to consume)
• Reduced or no joint pain
• My hair is getting thicker
• My skin is softer
• I'm sleeping so much better and no more snoring
• Better memory and brain function
• And many more I have forgotten

So what does it look like a year later? 

• I fast 18 - 20 hours a day (sometimes longer)
• I eat a snack, a smoothie, and dinner each day
• I eat dessert a few times a week
• I have not drastically changed my diet
• I started walking 5 days a week in December so I've added exercise
• I never feel hungry or hangry or shaky or weak
• I've conquered my head - I often ask my self if I'm hungry and most often the answer is NO

So now that I have started this blog, I am going to spend each week sharing information and science that support IF. I'll be using Gin's Books: Delay, Don't Deny and Fast, Feast, Repeat to go beyond the basics.

Let me know if you have any questions or things you are curious about

Next week we'll look at Insulin and Clean Fasting