Congrats Melly on the loss!

Welcome Toni!

Glad to see everyone is doing well.

I added a 16 hour fast today and it went well. It's easier by the day. When I first wake up I have that hunger feeling until I drink something and then I'm not hungry until my window opens. I am a daily weigher and my weight is going down. I am still hoping to be out of this decade by Saturday. I have 2 more pounds.

I have also started trying to exercise right before my window closes. It has been working so far. I'm still sore from the Callanetics though.

Welcome Tonimaroni and Pricness Sophia!

Wow, looks like everyone is burnin up the place with IF!!! Mizz, Moozie, Esmi, melly, Rosey, and 35 - You guys Rock!!!!

This group is growing so fast, I feel like I need to start a notebook to keep track of all of your stories.
I love it!

I've had a great week. I feel great. Hoping to see the scale go down - whatever. I'm heading to Florida for 5 days on the Beach next week. Just my hubby and I. It's the first alone vacation we've had in years. Can't wait. I'm planning to spend tons of time walking on the beach, etc. Eating some fresh fruit late in the afternoon and then dinner out. I am going to keep to my eating window, as I think that is soooo important, but I may partake (who am I kidding - I will partake) of some nice treats at dinner.

I don't want to over do it, because now I hate the feeling of being stuffed and heavy, and when you're wearing a bathing suit you don't want to feel bloated. I won't be thin, but I'll feel like I am.

I'm very jealous of all of you getting ready to get into your gardens. I'm in Upstate NY, and even though it's been a very mild winter, it will be several weeks before we can think of stirring up the soil. I LOVE to garden.

Back to IF.....
I'm hearing most of you saying it's getting easier. This is the absolute truth, so you beginners, we promise you will find that IF will become second nature. It is the only eating plan I have been on in my life that got easier as time passed. I'm not saying there aren't days that are a struggle, but all in all, it's a breeze.

At my age, the weight doesn't drop that quickly, so if it takes me a year to lose the weight, I think that's fine. (Will you guys remind me of this when I have those "I hate the scale, poor me" days????) I'm counting on you.

Talk later!

Hey all!

Italiannie -- have fun in FL! We live in FL near the beach and we absolutely love it.

I did awesome with IF this week -- I did Fast-5 all week. After a 20 hour fast today I had 1450 calories in about a 4.5 hour window and I'm nice and satisfied. Remember though, I'm still on the wrong side of 250 so that's quite a low calorie count and I couldn't be more pleased :)

Good luck to you all. Oh and Princess Sophia, don't consider it a "failure" if you slip here and there. We're all human, just get back on the horse tomorrow and try again :)

Weigh in Saturday...c'mon scale, don't fail me now I've been on target all week!

fast five??
 

Hi all...
I've seen alot of posts pertaining to fast five and am curious... For those of you doing it, or who have done it - what is it? does it differ much from ESE?

Please clue me in:?:

Thanks!

Melly, during Fast-5 you get a 5 hour eating window each day. On ESE it's 1-2 24hr fasts as week. Some people do one or the other and some do a combination. You can download the book for free from the Fast-5 website.

I am doing LeanGains as I perfer the 16/8 in addition to my ESE 24 hr.

Italiannie have a great time in FL. My bffs and I decided tonight to go to Miami for our 10 year anniversary. Looking good on the beach is a big motivation for me.

@Italiannie enjoy your holiday! I would kill for a bit of sun right now, stuck in lovely grey drizzly Wales though!

@mellyme I do 2 24hr fasts a week and the rest of the week I do fast5 with an eating window between 3pm-8pm sometimes 9pm.

Well I weighed this morning and have lost 1lb since last week, although the body fat calculator says my body fat is up to 21% from 19% last week?! I am putting this down to a mistake haha! I don't mind if I'm 21% or 19% but did not want to see it going up! My gym trousers were falling down in class this morning for the first time so I am ignoring the body fat calculator this week :D

I have a wedding to go to today so I am gong to do 19hrs then have some fruit before the ceremony and the meal afterwards.

Hi everyone!
Sorry I've been MIA this wek. Its been a hard one. I've had extra rehearsals as well as trying to ward off a stinking cold. Its not hit me so far but its been making me feel tired, lethargic and grumpy which makes fasting so much harder :/
I've been trying to make good choices though so fngers crossed I'll be good for next weeks WI! (I'm sticking to fortnightly WIs)

Well done to everyone on your losses! Too many to name but everyone seems to be doing so well! :D

Hey guys! It's great to see everyone getting good results! I'm so ready for the time to change so we have longer days. I'll be able to get outside and walk more. we have a great walking trail at the park here and I'm itching to get out there and walk!

Hi Everyone!
Melly - I do a combo of Fast-5 and ESE. I eat in a 5 hour window each day and then once a week I do a 24 hour fast. This combo has worked very well for me, and on the day I do the 24 hour fast, I'm really only broadening my window by a couple of hrs each day, so it's a breeze.
Sunday- Thursday I fast until 3-4pm and then eat until 8-9. Then on Friday I eat an early dinner, finish eating at 7pm and then fast until Saturday at 7pm.

This has worked very well for me. I found I had a difficult time going from eating regularly 5 days and then doing the 2 24 hour fasts. I don't know why, but that was my experience. I'm hoping to drop the 24 hour fast when I get to maintenance weight. I also used ESE as bookends to holiday weekends when I knew I would be eating throughout the days.

The Fast - 5 web page has a free downloadable pamphlet. It takes about 20 minutes to read and I haven't received any spam from them.

Katylil - Don't worry about fasting when you're not feeling well. I know that they say fasting can help you get better, but do what your body tells you to do, just keep making good choices and you'll be fine.

Rosey - Congrats on the 1lb loss!

Mizz - I know many really like the lean gains program. You're doing so well!

35x35 - Well done! Keep going.

Princess - There's no failing with IF. It's so flexible and forgiving. Don't get discouraged. You can turn things in a day or so. Don't forget, it's not the falling down that counts, it's the getting back up! You'll be fine.

Gamesmaster - How's it going?

I feel great today. Will start my weekly 24 hour fast this evening until tomorrow.
Hope to hear from all of you soon.

I am enjoying reading about everyones IF journey. Some days are easier than others and for me weekdays are easier. I follow Fast 5 for the most part and my window is from 2-7. That's when I get home from work and husb gets home about 5, so it's usually lunch then dinner and I'm done. Of course if I'm feeling motivated or am busy enough I can do 1 or 2 24 hour fasts along with the fast 5 window on the other days. On Sat and Sun seems like I follow a different schedule depending on what we have going on, plus husb likes to cook big breakfasts most of the time. It all seems to work out and balance out and the weight loss continues.

I've been trying to post my first week's results all day but I haven't been able to log in. :(

So I'm down 3 pounds. Not nearly as hardd as specific food diets... I love it!

:bravo: Way to go tonimaroni and welcome!!! I also had problems logging in earlier today, kept throwing me out..o well.

Toni - Well done!!!!!!

I wrote a massive post yesterday and i went to send it and it didnt work!

Update - things are great! I have changed my eating window to a longer stretch, 8 hours! I am back at the gym in the morning so need to break the fast around 11am cause I am so hungry after the cardio!

My willpower seems to be good of late, I even went to a friends for dinner last night and passed up the opportunity to eat lots of lovely cake and bread! These foods are my worst cravings and eating a small bit would have opened the floodgates!

In saying that, I consumed about a bottle and a half of red wine last night - so not exactly feeling the best this morning when my kids came bouncing on my bed at 7am and I promised my husband I would help him paint the bathroom this morning! (hence why I hide downstairs and write this)!

Anyway, I got alot of comments last night that I was looking great, so I must be doing something right!

I must say I am finding it easier to do the 8 hour feeding window! My concern was that because I am a 'stay at home mum' I am surrounded by food an making lovely treats for my kids all day! When I am hungry I start to eat the lovely food......but when I have had a bowl of porridge at 11am I do not eat the lovely food - ie sweets etc.

Now, if I worked somewhere outside the house I think the 5 hour window would work better for me! That limbic hunger thing is really overwhelming with me and then afterwards I feel so defeated, so I need to make sure I am not feeling this hunger anymore! I did try filling myself up with water but that only lasted a short period of time, b4 I felt the need to binge!

So - where am I at? I will do ESE on Monday (my busiest day when I am out of the house the most) and do the 8 hour window the rest of the week - 11am-7pm window!!!!! :dizzy:

Have a great weeken everyone!!!!! x

hi gang,
lovely to log in and check out all the posts.
welcome tonimaroni2, fantastic first weeks result, way to go.glad its going so well. it def gets easier too as you go along.

have had a lovely weekend in the garden,digging the beds over- sorry Italiannie- but im jealous of your trip to Florida. we were there this time last year, great time to go. hope the weather is good for the beach.

had a good IF week, has worked well combining ESE and Fast 5. I wait for the results on my monday weigh in. fingers crossed.

had an interesting conversation with a colleague this week, about choices and accountability. the upshot was that he believes all overweight people choose to be overweight. at first I was really cross with him, but after simmering down and having a long discussion, I absolutely got what he was saying.

he was not actually saying I chose to be overweight, but that I had chosen- consciously or unconsciously to allow it. I have thought about it a lot and I absolutely get it. I did know I was gaining weight, and I did let it get out of control and I chose not do anything about it. that's quite a bitter pill to swallow. No one else to blame but myself. I'm also the only person who can do anything about it.......so here I am.

I choose to do something now. I choose to control my eating and I choose to lose weight. but I also choose to be kind to myself and not get upset if and when I make mistakes.

So ladies, thank you for all accompanying me on this journey. good luck with yours, have a good weekend and 'see' you all soon :)

Moozie I totally understand your friend. I don't think I particularly chose to be fat as I have been since infancy. However, I did choose to let it continue when I actually had control of my diet. I could have been slim in my teen years and all of those times I have lost I could have kept going instead of letting other things take over. So I did choose to be fat at those times.

Now, I am choosing to finish what I started. Anyway, I finished another 20hr today and it was good until the last hour. I went a little carb heavy yesterday but I stopped myself on a possible binge. I just said no more.