hello ladies ! ...

this morning i started my fast with 1 and 1/2 cups low sugar raisen bran cereal
1 cup 2% milk and 1 serving almonds

i must say so far so good its 2:41 and im not hungry ( yet lolz ) i really could drink something though .... but i can make it im not desperate yet :P

i was kind of wondering ( my weight loss plan is calorie counting / weight watchers points i kind of wobble back and forth between the two )seeing as how most of us eat only two meals during ramadan instead of the ( 3 usual or 5 mini meals ) should i also be cutting my calories for those missed meals? or is it ok to just put my calories into two larger meals

the calorie count for my breakfast was as follows

milk 1 cup 190 calories ( basically 200 )
Cereal 1+1/2 cup 315 calories ( i count that as 300 )
and the almonds where 180 ( round that up to 200 )
that makes my total calorie count 700 calories in one meal..... is that going to hinder my weight loss?

any and all advice appreciated i <3 u guys

btw evreyone has been doing great !! helwa58 congrats on the effort to excersize thats awesome !!!

caliyah lolz @ not having figured out when to work out .... me neither i know id like to but im thinking about when would be the best time lolz im using the first couple of days to see how things go ....

echo i agree , accounting for what your day went like helps keep on track !

Caliyah - Thank you!

yeh i've never exercised during ramadan before, this is my first time. that's totally awesome you're going to exercise aswell before sahoor! great idea !!

thanks for the article! very useful
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Wow Helwa! you totally rock not overeating at iftari, well done also on the exercise!

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CM - aww i'm happy you agree that accounting helps

sounds like you've been eating very healthily! well done!

sorry i cant advice on calorie counting . as i dont calorie count. I'm doing Paul Mckenna's 4 golden rules (from his 'i can make you thin' book and tv show and CDs), it's working great for me personally
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Fast #3

Exercise - 1 hour of X stretch (p90x)

Iftari -
1 date, large glass of water.
1/4 cup of fruit chaat (fruit salad).

Dinner - 5 onion pakore with some ketchup. (bless my parents they wanted to make something special today aswell and tried this new recipe they saw on telly). 1/4 roti. Salad, one serving spoon of brown daal.

dessert - 1 scoop of gajar ka halwa (sweet carrot pudding) with 1 scoop of cornish vanilla ice cream.

very decadent i know, but it's totally fine, cause I followed the 4 golden rules (eat when you are hungry (lol that's easy), eat consciously - SLOWLY i took 40 minutes to eat the entire meal including dessert)... eat what you want (yep check!) and stop when you think you are full.

I stopped eating when i was comfortably full did not over eat today alhumdullilah.

Fast no#4

I only drank water for sehri and I am so regretting it now hehe. I wasn't hungry, and thought I will just have a large glass of water and be okay. But around 5pm - it really hit me, and I had a slight headache, and was feeling a little bit light headed and really tired, and I realised I really ought to make an effort to eat something in the morning, even if its just like fruit and fibre cereal. I'm feeling okay now alhumdullilah it didnt last long thankfully. So tommorow morning inshaAllah I will definately eat something. I also didn't exercise in the morning, just went back to sleep after Fajr. But tommorow I wanna go back to the morning ritual, of exercising and eating breakfast at sehri, it works for me .

How are you girls getting on with your fasting?


I was reading some of the health benefits of fasting, and found some interesting points:

Salaams! Can I join your thread? I am so happy to see a posting like this out there. I have been looking for support during Ramadan so that I don't go crazy over all the yummy's at ifthar.

I started reading your link and you all sound great.

I live in the Detroit area, and I have to tell you this is going to be a looong Ramadan...I am just so sleepy! After waking up for sahar at 4:45am it is too hard to go back to sleep so I just get ready, get the kids ready and go to work. How are you all managing?

I had a hard time eating this morning though!

I look forward to chatting with all of you.

Sara

Salam Sara! so happy you found us!! jump right in!! and welcome to the group!!

wow i am so impressed that you stay awake after sehri. you are a superwoman!!

this morning, it was soooooooooo hard for me to get up , i was so sleepy. i just drank some water, then went back to sleep and then kept hitting the snooze button for fajr. i was half asleep, but somehow managed to drag myself out of bed, and then went back to bed after fajr. but you're right, its abit difficult to then go back to sleep, does take awhile. theres something about that time before fajr, where its hard to wake up.. , its meant to be when you're at your most deepest sleep thats why its so hard to get up. but its meant to be beneficial, for your body and your soul.

i also did not feel hungry at sehri time, so i just downed a large glass of water.

i look forward to your posts ! and so glad to have you with us

Fast no# 4.

sehri - 600ml of water.

iftar.
1 date. some water. a small bowl of fruit chaat.

exercise: 30 minute walk in the garden around midday. and 40 minute walk just before iftari.

dinner - 1 and half slice of home made pizza. 1 onion pakora. Some salad.

dessert - 2 cups of sabaz chai (kashmiri chai - the tea that is pink !).

altogether drank just under 1.5 litres of water i think.

I made progress today and progress has been slow. Woke up at about 5.45am for Fajr prayers and because I was still full from Sahur, I decided to wait for an hour before I did some mini yoga. Big mistake! End up sleeping and only woke 3 hours later.

Today I shall resolve to do some mini work before I start my day for an hour before my exercise. That way I get to start on work and exercise before I hit the office!

You are right. Forum and thread is the right way to share and solve each other problems. So, really help at any confusion. Thanks for sharing this information. I read your articles, it really very nice.

JaneLee good luck with your exercise plan!

I myself didnt wake up for sehri, i think i must have turned off my alarm in my sleep! cause by the time i heard my second alarm for fajr, i looked at the clock and i missed sehri by 1 minute!! ahh i was gutted, as i had a big glass of water next to my bed ready to drink! That will teach me to set only 1 alarm.

so i've now set several alarms and am determined to wake up for sehri tommorow and have some water and maybe something to eat.
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MiletJohn thanks so much
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Today I am planning on exercising about 2 hours before Iftar, that way I wont be dehydrated for very long and can drink water straight after my workout. well that's the plan! i hope by 6pm, i wont be too tired. right now i have alot of energy, but i cant workout now, cause then will be too thirsty for the rest of the day to make it for 8pm

Ohh you ladies are doing great!!!!!! it inspires me to do better lol.
So far it's been ok. My only real issue is that I am almost incapable of waking up in the morning (4:30am). So I don't eat anything from 10:00pm to 8:00pm next day. That's bad, isn't it? For Iftar, I don't think I have been eating healthy things: I eat lots of rice (which makes my stomach bloated), and some meat. And I crave sugar, the dates do not calm my sugar cravings.
After I eat, I get sooo tired that I cannot even move a leg. I even have a really hard time doing my prayers (but I do force myself :-)
I def need to do better. I'll try to learn from you guys!

Good luck! Keeping you in my prayers :-)

Oh and how do you guys manage to exercise because I feel soo soo tired, it's unbelievable! Any advice you may have will be so welcomed!

Thank you for the advice Caliyah. I realise my calorie intake is not where it should be but I literally have to force myself to eat during Ramadaan. I never seem to be hungry, just endlessly thirsty.

Admittedly I've been struggling the past 2 days. I have a tough timetable at school - teaching's not the easiest job when you're fasting!

Onthe upside night time exercise works well for me - I've done 90 mins for each of the past 2 evenings

Miss Maya, it can be hard during Ramadaan. My advice is to just will yourself to get into it -take it slow at first but you'll be amazed at how much more energetic and awake you feel when you do exercise. Good luck and I hope it works out

Salaams everyone! Well we just finished 5 how about that!

Today I could only eat a banana at sahri. I am just soooo tired. I wake up at 4:45 and then I read quran too so by the time I slept was 6am and I had to get up at 6:30am. At least I was busy all day at work. Then when I picked up the kids I came home, hurried up and made dinner for everyone, cleaned and then finally sat down at 7:45pm. I just couldn't figure out what to eat. I wasn't really in the mood, although I kind of wanted pizza or arabic food...I just had a boiled egg, 2 mini pitas, some daal with yogurt and 2 dates. Then after prayers I had some high fiber crackers and cheese...oh yeah some lemonade. So if any of you follow weight watchers, I have had 14 pts, don't know if I will get the rest.

That article that someone posted, I think it is true, I am not that hungry and not in the mood to have that much.

I so badly want to go to my workout class (I signed up for this bootcamp class...OMG does it kick my you know what) but I am SOOOO tired that I missed it tonight. I have gotten no exercise. How is everyone else doing with that?

Well...I have rambled on. I am watching Top Chef and getting too involved in the food Talk to you all later. Have a great night.

Sara

I will probably try that out for the weekend since I usually sleep in for the weekends. That is a good idea.

For those who had trouble being up early, hang in there! It wasnt easy when I started and it is still not easy cos I love sleeping. What I do is try to shave 5 minutes from my alarm everyday eg 7.30am then the next day 7.25am and then 7.20am and so on until you achieve your desired time. I find this works for me. Sometime I screw up but I just kept going. Now, I can be up early and do my Fajr prayers but the challenge is to stay up cos mostly I want to go back to sleep after prayers. So I gotta work on that.

Today after Fajr prayers, I had so much resistance to do yoga so I end up doing 15 push ups, I was determined to get my exercise checklist done that I dont care how much exercise and how long as long as its exercise! I felt so much better after that and I dont feel guilty to sleep in again before I get off to work.

Start small, so small that it don't hurt, so small that you can't fail.

Oh, where do you get that image with the smiley faces that tracks your weight. That is so cool and so fun, I want one!

Jane