So love how the Lord leads me and takes care of me. I decided to look for IF groups on FB. I found a group that you had to be approved to join. I was approved this morning but didn't have time to look at it. To night I printed out the mans Basic Intermittent Fasting Guidelines that he had on there. Thank God I joined it. The man evidently is becoming a trainer this summer, but he also does IF.
Guidelines #1 and 9 solves my problems on timing. #1 He says when if starting IF, start with the 10 hrs eating and 14 hrs fast and work toward the 8 hr eating window and 16 hr fasting. #9 says You don't have to do IF everyday. Sometimes he takes a day off, but he says doesn't enjoy eating all the time so he tries to make sure to get right back on IF as soon as possible. He says work with it and try to stay on track as much as you can.
This helps me to see that if I'm doing IF 90 to 95% of the time then the time I do eat off isn't going to hurt me. Besides, I can usually do an 8 to 10 hr eating window even on those days each week when I have to eat earlier in the day. Girls this is doable.
Funny thing is that I read today that we need to eat our carby foods in the morning. He says when you eat your 1st meal of the day to make it a low or no carb meal. He also says to exercise just before your biggest meal of the day.
Although he is giving these guidelines, he also stresses work with this and make it work for you as all of us is different. His main though is to eat healthy. He says "Results will come don't give up. Some people" (This is me) "want instant results." He goes on to say that IF results do come quickly so we don't have to worry. We just have to stick to our diet and our fasting.
I am so glad to have found this because I really needed to hear all this especially from someone who is doing it and is speaking to me from experience. I also found it interesting that your eating window can be anytime. One lady asked him about making her eating window between 5 and 10 pm as she is a night eater. He told her it didn't mater when her eating window was as long as it works for her. There were others who chimed in and told her they made their window in the evening because that was when they were hungry.
I will definitely continue IF and I while I will not be going LCHF, I will start my morning with a low carb breakfast. On days I am home, I will eat my first meal around noon and stop at 8 pm. Then on days that I have to eat earlier, I just might make those either off days or just adjust the hours to fit a 10 hr window. I can do this.
Yes, after reading the IF guidelines on FB, I would say that I ended up with a really good day and tomorrow will be back to IF.
I think we have to learn what doesn't work for us so we can learn what does. Although you might feel like your not doing anything or something isn't working, you can step back and look at it and figure out why it doesn't work for you. It is like I read somewhere in a diet book, maybe you aren't the problem. The diet you are trying to follow is the problem because that particular diet doesn't work for you. At one time my sister lost weight and looked great doing Slimfast. I've tried and tried to do Slimfast and I just can't get past through the 1st week on it. Those shakes just make me hungry.
So I feel like by process of elimination that I have figured out what doesn't work and I know IF will work for me, but I couldn't figure out what to do when I couldn't keep to the same window everyday. Now that I've read the guidelines on FB and found out how to work around that, I know that I can do this.
I say that to say don't give up. You are actually doing good with your FBS just don't get down on yourself when you find out something doesn't fit your lifestyle. Just know that there is a way that is "yours" and you will figure it out if you don't beat yourself up like I have done and still have a tendency to do.
Location: Home of the Pirates, Steelers and Penguins
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Elizabeth, you should be eating foods that you like. I have never liked plans that tell you eat this or that, but not the other. For example, I know I can only eat starchy carbs in very small quantities or not at all. But that's as far as my limitations will go. The first time I lost weight I lived at home and had to eat whatever my mother cooked, so I did portion control. She was an excellent cook, but nothing was low fat, or low calorie or low anything.
Trish, I could never do Slimfast or any other shake diet. I need real food. If I drank a shake, I would just feel as if I had a milkshake and would want a burger with it.
I am glad you found that IF group and now understand that you don't have to be so rigid with it. I know that in the past you have always felt that you had to do things exactly right or you would give up. Give it some time to start working and you will be fine. I do not allow you to try any other plan for at least two weeks!!! So there!!! LOL I am doing a version of IF now without calling it that. I eat breakfast late and no longer eat after dinner. I hope I can continue to skip the night time snacking. I feel as though it's becoming a habit, the same as the late breakfast. I think if I get back to exercising my blood sugar will improve. I am sticking to reduced carb fairly well, but don't want to call it low carb because everyone seems to think that low carb has to be 20 gm or less. I am around 50-60 gms per day, which is much lower than my normal eating used to be, and that is due to vegetables, not starch. I am happy with this WOE, and think I will lose if I also control portions. I'm always learning.
I am excited for you that you girls will all be together.
Last edited by Wannabehealthy; 06-16-2015 at 10:57 AM.
Carol Sue Yes Ma'am!!! LOL!!! I intend to do this for quite a while although I'm not sure if I'm going to do low carb. I didn't do low carb when I was thin. My guide will be the glucose meter and my scales. I really believe if I can stay between a 5 to 8 hr eating window this will work.
I know that I am not going to be able to handle a "diet" plan that says don't eat this or don't eat that. I have to be able to eat what I like. I think the key to success for me is how to do this healthy but to be able to have some leeway.
I had a pretty good day. I ended up eating my first meal at 1 pm and ate my last bit to take Januvia just before 7 pm. So a 6 hr eating window for my 1st official day is good. My FBS just before I ate was 94 and my wneight was back down another lb. I'm almost back down to the 218. Don't know if I'll reach that by the time tomorrow or not. If I get back there tomorrow then I think my WI at the doctor's office will be the same or close to what it was the last time.
I'll check in tomorrow after we get back from the doctor's office. He didn't do any blood work this time so probably won't know anything except A1c.
Location: Home of the Pirates, Steelers and Penguins
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Trish, I can tell you're from the south because you said "Ma'am". LOL
I lost a smidge of weight overnight so now I am back in Onderland, but just barely. I use a balance beam scale like the doctors use and it is just one little mark below 200. I bought another scale at Goodwill. It is a Tanita Fat Scale. I wanted a scale that would show a digital number but didn't want to spend a lot of money on it. I only spent a couple dollars on this and I still have to clean it up and see if it gives me the correct weight.
Spent yesterday hiking Mt. Herman. I was very scared that I would wake up sore this morning, but am glad to say I was wrong. Fitbit tells me we did about 3 miles and the equivalent of 45 flights of stairs. I'll take it!
Wish I could say my diet was as good. Did just fine until I started mindlessly snacking at night. A friend of mine has the same issue and she just plans nightly grazing into her calorie count. I can honestly say it works, bc she's lost well over 75 lbs.
Trish, there is no way I could do IF. Since I am up by 5, waiting until 1:00 to eat would just about kill me, lol. Congrats on a great day!
Carol Sue, I have a very old scale that I absolutely love and it has been perfectly calibrated as long as I have been alive. Well, one of my house guests refused to weigh anything over 185, so he reset my scale to get to that number. It's still not right. Might get the WW scale at Costco, since it's on special for $19.95.
Have a great day! I'll try and check-in again later today.
Location: Home of the Pirates, Steelers and Penguins
Posts: 12,394
S/C/G: 217/179/142
Height: 5'2
Elizabeth, you would not have to wait until 1PM to eat. You set your own eating window. I don't actually do IF but I have not been eating in the evening so that makes a longer fasting window for me until breakfast the next day, which was at 11AM today. I have coffee with sugar-free creamer as soon as I get up, and I have read that your eating window begins as soon as you have that coffee with creamer/sweetener, not when you eat your actual breakfast. I guess I just cheat at everything. As long as I am losing, I don't care if I'm following the program as written.
I bought another digital scale at Goodwill today. LOL I just want to see that number broken down into 10ths of a lb, even though my balance beam scare measures 16th of a lb. I have a tendancy to round down. LOL I don't know if I will ever figure out that fat scale. I found instructions online. I think other people should stay off your scale. I used to hate when my SIL came. She couldn't resist getting on my scale. I told her she was doing herself an injustice because she should always go by her weight at home, first thing in the morning. She would come to my house in the evening with clothes on and then tell me my scale is wrong. I told her "then don't get on it." No wonder she never liked me. LOL To me, a scale doesn't have to give me a perfect reading...it just has to tell me if I went up or down. You could get on 5 different scales and get 5 different results.
I think your friend is really on to something to calculate her nightly grazing into her calorie count. She has created a plan that works for her, and that's what it's all about in the end. For me, it's important to me to stop the night time grazing because I can really get carried away, and it effects my blood sugar.
My scale is a Taylor and it measures by .2ths. I wanted a digital for a long time and would have loved one that weighed with .1th, but I found this one on sale for less than $20 at Costco so I grabbed it. It seems to be only a lb or 2 lighter than the one at the doctor's office.
Doctor's visit turned out better than I thought. I had to ask the doctor because he never worries about a few lbs gain so he wouldn't have said anything. My weight was up 3 lbs from last time which doesn't bother him, but I was shocked to learn after my fbs had been so all over the place to learn that it was down to 6.1 from the 6.7 last time. DH was really good too at 6.3. We didn't ask how much but I think his weight was down about 7 lbs from last time. They did do blood work so I hope that we will be able to get the info we want. I think with the new insurance/Medicare changes that we aren't getting our blood work done a week before the doctor's visits. I waw a lot of notices of changes about prescriptions and they have been dropping some insurance policies and as of September they will not be taking any PPO or HMO Advantage policies any more. Lots of changes.
The doctor has scheduled a MRI for DH next Tuesday morning to be sure there isn't anything going on in the brain concerning his loss of taste. He says there may not be anything but it was decided to check to be safe rather than sorry. As doc said "Just to know".
I read somewhere yesterday that as we get 50 yrs old +, that we need more protein, but that the protein needs it to be from both animal and plant sources as it has to do with muscles etc. So I decided to look up where to get plant protein from. I'm sharing this site with y'all. So my eating plan will include both sources of protein done with Intermittent Fasting. So I will not be doing low or no carb. However, I do plan to have my carbs from some of these plant sources of protein. I'm thrilled to see that they are foods that I really love.
ElizabethCarol Sue is right. You set your own eating hours
to be whatever fits your lifestyle. IF you are on FB, you might want to check out the IF group as the guy... I think his name is Daniel... I can't remember last name. I'll get it for you if you want. However, he gives some basic rules, but then as you read what others are doing you will find that there are many different ways to do it.
I laughed and told my doctor that I was not going to tell him what I was going to do to lose weight because every time I tell him and he agrees that I leave and rebel or something and screw it up. I told him the main thing I'm trying to do is eat only when I'm hungry and don't eat if I'm not. He said "That is really the best way to do it". He said that he has 2 teens age home now a boy and a girl. They eat all the time but his son eats healthy foods like fruits and veggie type, but his daughter would rather have junk. I thought it was interesting when he said "I have to stay on top of her all the time, but she and my wife hide from me and eat it any way". His wife is also a doctor. So we aren't the only ones ladies who have to fight this eating stuff.
I was really hungry today by the time we got home since we had fasted just in case the did the blood work today. My FBS by the time I ate was 86. BTW, doing IF properly is to drink 0 calorie drinks which can be coffee or tea or water. On the IF group, we saw that those doing this successfully for years said not to be afraid of diet drinks. They are 0 calories so enjoy them during your fast. I've switched to tea during my fast because I can drink it without sweetner or creamers. If I ever learn to drink my coffee with only Stevia then I could drink coffee, but my flavored creamers in my coffee is a treat that I allow myself during my eating window.
Oh Carol Sue I've decided to take you up on your 2 week challenge but I'm extending it. Now that I have what I consider a good doctor's visit and things are going so well, I want to do this for the full 3 months until my next doctor's visit to see how things improve.
Next 3 days will have to be adjusted time wise, but will work at keeping the eating window to less than 10 hrs at least on these 3 days.
Great IF day today. Changed my calorie limited to 1800 because of doing VLHF way of eating. I noticed on IF group on FB a some set calories higher. So tonight I changed the calories and percentages of protein/carb/fat on MFP and then I logged my calories on MFP and I ended up with less than 1500 calories. I think it is going to be a psychological thing that I can have more calories. Also I did my 25 minutes on the stationary bike. So I have another successful day.
Location: Home of the Pirates, Steelers and Penguins
Posts: 12,394
S/C/G: 217/179/142
Height: 5'2
Trish, I hope DH finds help for his loss of taste, and I hope he does OK with the MRI. For some reason, I hate the thought of an MRI, but you have to do what you have to do.
There are a lot of foods on that plant protein list that I already eat and some of them are the ones with the highest protein number. I eat most of the beans, pumpkin seeds and sunflower seeds, and a few of the others, too.
You did great on your A1c. I told you I thought you would be pleasantly surprised because your numbers have been coming down so well. Fasting is sometimes higher than it should be, but it's the overall average that drives the A1c, not just fasting. My doctor has been hearing me say I'm on a diet for 25 years. LOL Will you have to find a new doctor now that they are not going to accept your insurance? That would be a shame, since you seem to like him.
I am so happy for you, Trish! Just goes to show you, you have been on the right path this whole time!
I'm going to check out the IF FB page, bc it's something I really don't quite understand at all. Do you eat as much as you want in a window of time? I guess I see it as skipping breakfast and not snacking after dinner. I realize that's a very simplified view, but as I said, I just don't get it, lol.
I have been reading a lot about foods to prevent Alzheimer's and it's really gotten my attention. That disease scares the daylights out of me- more than anything else, I think.
Not having any of my family's medical history has been both a blessing and a curse.
Elizabeth IF eating window is not supposed to be a free for all or binge eating. It is done best by eat healthy.
Carol Sue I like a lot of the foods on the plant protein foods too and I do eat many of them. Easy to include in my plan.
So far our doctor has not dropped our insurance. I think we are safe. I was just sharing how things have changed with the new health care rules. As far as I know, we will be able to keep our doctor, but they seem to be changing how they do some thing with the new health care. As much as I want to move home in TX, I have to say that I hate leaving our doctor who knows us so well and has taken such good care of us.
However, Scott and White in Temple, TX has become the big medical scene for Waco and they are known as excellent. So hopefully we will be able to find a good doctor when we move back. God led us to this doctor and I trust He will lead us to good doctor(s) there.
Location: Home of the Pirates, Steelers and Penguins
Posts: 12,394
S/C/G: 217/179/142
Height: 5'2
I saw a few FB pages about IF but didn't know which one you were talking about, Trish. I rarely go on FB and really don't know what I'm doing. LOL
My blood sugar has come down a bit even though not where it should be. I'll take any improvement I can get. I started taking Probiotics and Vit D recently for the psoriasis, so I don't know if they are also helping blood sugar. It might be because I rarely eat in the evening, now. We have an early dinner and nothing after that.
I had spaghetti for dinner on Thursday so I am afraid to get on the scale and see how much damage I did. That spaghetti sure tasted good! LOL I have to have it once in a while.
Elizabeth, do you have Alzheimer's in your family? I think heredity has a lot to do with it. There is none in my family, but most of my family did not live long enough to get it. At 69, I have lived far past the rest of my family.
Carol Sue, I am adopted and none of my biological familial history is available. I did watch my maternal grandfather suffer with dementia in his later years and it really stuck with me.
Trish, really hope you've just been busy and aren't beating yourself up.
I probably should have told you guys I was taking an internet free weekend. It was very hard, LOL.
I have not been OP at all and I think Bob is getting ready to leave me.
It's still not right. Might get the WW scale at Costco, since it's on special for $19.95.
