Fast no# 1

It went pretty well. The only thing i really noticed was that I was thirsty, but just tried to not think about it, and just studied.
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Just before the fast was going to open, i went for a little walk in the garden (10minutes).

Breaking the fast.
I had 3 dates and a large glass of water. Boy was i thirsty! But I think i ate the dates abit too quickly as my tummy hurt abit, so tommorow, i will just eat 1 date and eat it slowly.
Then... for starters, my mom made fruit chaat, yummy i had 2 small bowls, and ate that slowly , about 20 minutes i think.

i've heard that its good to start the meal with fruit, as your stomach is sensitive, after a fast and fruit is something light and easily digestible.

then took abit of a break, before eating main meal, which was chicken curry, and i didnt want to eat roti, as that would have filled me up too quickly, so i had a nice salad with it and some yoghurt. salad was romaine lettuce, red onions, cucumber, red radish, fresh mint, carrots and tomato. then had a few kettle chips - black pepper flavour hehe.
i took about 15 minutes to eat that. i tried to slow it down. and I was full. I think tommorow i might just have 1 bowl of fruit salad, as i am a teeny tinsy bit over-ful. oopsy.

Then I had 100ml of 7up hehe.

And now for dessert i am going to have 2 kit kat fingers. i've been craving them for weeks, so finally going to treat myself hehe

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Hope you ladies had a good first fast!

ramadan mubarak!! salaam ladies

sorry for not posting in a while. i found the link:
http://islamic-world.net/sister/h22.htm

it has some interesting points. it's TOM so i can't fast yet but I'm really looking forward to it. thanks Echo for starting this thread! =)

I agree that this is an awsome thread. So happy to have found it

I love Ramadan and see it as a good opportunity to lose weight while at the same time never losing sight of its true meaning.

I'm an exercise freak and usually exercise 5-6 times a week for 90 mins a session so am already missing it after one day of fasting. Luckily my gym closes at 11pm so I can go after I break my fast.

I've had trouble losing weight though and have decided to change my aproach. I'm very strong and fit but bulkier than I'd like to be - I do like to eat! So I've decided to cut out all processed foods and the treats I enjoy like cakes, cookies, crisps and chocolate. Also, I've reduced my portion sizes. I'm 3 weeks in and am not missing any of it. I hope it continues.

My problem in Ramadan is eating so early in the morning. Here in Korea it's about 04.30. I find if I eat carbs I feel ill and very uncomfortable all day. Now for example, these past 2 mornings I've eaten half an apple, half an orange and 2 dates and I feel amazing and very energetic. At night I'd have something like chicken or fish with fruit and vegetables. And one carb - maybe a slice of wholegrain bread or a baked potato. Then a workout after.

Would it be ok to continue this way? Any advice would be appreciated.

Once again, I'm ecstatic to have found this thread and eager to read about everyone's weight loss experiences.

I hope we all reach our goals

Salam Caliyah! Thanks for the article, very interesting

and aww you're so welcome, its my pleasure and thank you and for everyone else joining in

mashAllah that is really great!

awww Thank you! so glad you joined us!
I can definately empathesise about eating early in the morning, here in london the fast starts at 4.07am. So what I do is wake up early and do some exercise, even after the exercise i am still not hungry, but i eat something anyways. but i am studying at home for an exam end of september, so i am lucky i can wake up early to exercise. i also go to bed early-ish, after isha around 11pm, so i can get up early - around 2.30am. and then after fajr, i try to stay awake for an hour or so for the food to digest, and study abit... and then go back to sleep again and wake up before midday. so far today i am feeling much better than yesterday, alert, not tired. but abit hungry hehe.

i think your plan sounds very healthy to me! and if its working, than that's great!!
what i find, is that i look at how i feel, and if i feel good than what i am doing is working.
good luck with your plan, sounds really good!! very healthy !

My sehri (fast no#2)

I went to bed at 11pm last night, i was knackered.
I woke up at 2.50am, overslept abit hehe. oopsy.
I did 30 minutes of exercise - I felt very alert, and not tired at all. I drank 600ml of water.

I had 1 french toast.

Then after Fajr, I studied for abit, and went to bed around 5.30am, and woke up at 11.30am.

Today I feel good, not thirsty, abit hungry, but not too bad, it comes and goes. And I dont feel tired, which is good I think my body is slowly getting used to the new routine.

How are you girls doing? what did you have for sehri?

Thanks for the reply Echo

Your day sounds like it's going as well as mine. I was a bit nervous this morning because I'm back at work after vacation. I'm a teacher so that involves a lot of talking! I had my usual fruit (apple), 2 dates and 500ml of water for sehri which doesn't sound much but like I said I don't function very well on more than that.

My classes are done for the day and they went wonderfully. Feeling thirsty which is undestandable but otherwise great. Looking forward to gym tonight!

Hoping everyone else is doing well too.

So happy to know that I am not the only one who sees Ramadan as an opportunity to cleanse oneself and not just losing weight but spritually as well.

As a start, I am determined to be an early riser and I take the Sahur for the next 30 days as my training to wake up early. See I never thought myself as a morning person but I read that there is a lot of benefits to waking up early. You have a lot more time for yourself, exercise and the list just goes on. It has been a challenge these couple of days but I am getting better not hitting the snooze at 4.30am. My next challenge will be to do some mini exercise after morning prayers, since its the Ramadan I am steering away from cardio cos I tend to get thirsty almost immediately so I may start with simple yoga or weights. I am starting really slowly...starting with 5 minutes of exercise and working to 45 minutes to an hour daily. I want the change to be permanent so I dont want to overload with too many changes happening at any one time. My body need to adjust and adapt accordingly.

Besides, long term and permanent results works better than fast result thats temporary.

Wish everyone on this spiritual and physical journey all the best! and wish me luck too!

You're welcome ! mashAllah you're a teacher, that's really great

i'm glad you are feeling great! and wow hitting the gym tonight. that's impressive

Hey JaneLee, Lovely to have you join us!! That sounds like a really good idea to gradually work up on the exercise, great stuff!! I totally agree with you, small adjustments are accumulative and stay with us for longer.

Thanks! and good luck to you too

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Fast no# 2 (yesterday's fast update).

It went well, I tried to be quite active during the day, to increase the number of steps during the day, but i think by night time it really hit me!

For iftari, I opened my fast, with a large glass of water and 1 date.

and then abit later on I had homemade pizza, that my dad made especially - it was delicious, and I overate ooopsy, I should have stopped at 2 slices, but I just couldnt resist eating one more slice. So felt guilty about that. as I did overeat by eating 3 slices. i would have been comfortably full at 2 slices or even 2 and half. hehe
and I had 2 glasses of 7up.

But this morning for sehri, I didn't hear my alarm ! So I wasnt able to drink my water that I had placed next to my bed, by the time I heard my alarm, it was fajr, and I was so tired, i didn't get out of bed. I feel very guilty about that. So tommorow morning, I am going to set more alarms and get up no matter how tired i am. I guess its a learning process, and everyday just need to improve on the past mistakes.

Today exercise wise, is my scheduled day off, so i will just do some light stretches and maybe a light walk in the garden. and today at iftari, I plan to stop eating when i am comfortably full and not over-eat! inshaAllah.

have a good day girls!

This accountability and reflecting upon each fast is really helping me, thanks for joining in, I really appreciate it.

salaam

woww!! i'm inspired with how dedicated everyone is. many people don't do any exercise during ramadan (me included) but this year it will be different. i just didn't figure when to work out! so i'm guessing before sahur will be the time - i have a treadmill at home i plan to run on. = )

Echo

you are doing great. just so long as you count calories you should be fine inshallah

Janelee welcome! those are some good exercise ideas for ramadan. i really feel i get so much clarity during the ramadan fast

Tagan there are some good links to help you with menu/activity planning. Make sure you get enough calories for the day so you can really burn everything off.

helwa how have you been?

chunkeymunkey i just wanted to say wow you are doing really amazing on your weight loss! so great to see so many 3FCers doing ramadan = )

Okay so I wanted to ask everyone..what are their favorite Ramadan recipes? I've been trying my hand at different recipes and it's been fun, especially working on making 'healthy' ramadan recipes. So if you all could post your favorite recipes I'd love to try them out! = )

For anyone doing heavy duty gym training during Ramadan- I am pasting the following article I found while researching:

What Is The Best Diet For Ramadan? - Personal Trainer Explains

As a Singapore Personal Trainer and fitness bootcamp owner, one of the issues we have to help clients with in our multi-racial country of Singapore is the fasting month of ramadan.

There are personal training and fitness bootcamp members at the Genesis Performance Center who are going into the fasting month soon this year. And recently they have been wondering what would be the best way to maintain their fat loss, weight loss and muscle building results that they have gotten. This is often a big concern to them because after some time in our programs they already have very healthy habits and lifestyles.

In fact when I was working at the Singapore Sports School, we did research on how to help Muslim athletes perform well even during fasting month/ramadan. Training and international competitions still go on despite the fasting month.

So here are my recommendations...

Either train early in the morning (immediately after the morning break fast) or at night (after the evening break fast)

If you train in the morning, do it at about 730am or 8am if you do it in the evening, do it at about 8pm. This is so that you don't train on a super full stomach.

Even though we may not get the ideal 6 feeding opportunities per day, we should get at least 3 good ones. Morning break fast, evening break fast, and one more big meal before bed. These meals should be slow digesting ones so that you stay full longer. That means no starchy bad stuff. More protein and healthy fats which digest slowly.

So a sample daily timetable for morning training would be:

* 6am breakfast - eggs, meat, nuts, cheese, a whey protein shake * 730am training * 715pm breakfast (evening) - eggs, meat, nuts, cheese, a caesin protein shake * 10pm supper - eggs, meat, nuts, cheese, casein protein shake

For evening training:

* 6am breakfast - eggs, meat, nuts, cheese, a casein protein shake * 715pm breakfast (evening) - eggs, meat, nuts, cheese, a whey protein shake * 8pm training - another whey protein shake post workout * 10pm supper - eggs, meat, nuts, cheese, casein protein shake

There we go! It's not ideal, but it's good enough that you shouldn't lose too much progress during fasting month.

NOTE: Drink water in large amounts as often as you can during the times when you are allowed to. You should be needing constant toilet breaks and your urine should be colorless - that is the correct amount!

Coach Jonathan Wong, is a sought after Singapore personal trainer and performance expert who has helped hundreds of clients in Singapore achieve their fitness, fat loss and sports performance goals. He Is also a Singapore fitness bootcamp owner, fitness author and a member of Singapore Men's Health Advisory Panel. Visit his website and blog for a free 1500 page e-book and constant updates. http://www.coachjon.com