Today I'm physically couch-ridden...bad back and leg. I hate aging, I feel so fragile. I have to remember I can't just go whole hog on my workouts like I did in my 20's...hard lesson to learn.

Today is a fasting day, I have zero appetite which is good for me. I'm sticking to liquids mostly today, some saltines with my soup and maybe an apple later tonight.

Tomorrow is our Canadian Thanksgiving and I'm making a traditional dinner, then weigh-in on Tuesday...oh the horror!

Happy Thanksgiving Chardonnay! I hope you are feeling better today so you can enjoy it.

Weekend was good, and Monday morning weigh-in was also relatively good. Maybe this week will be my week :P Attempting 4:3 this week Mon/Weds/Fri. I need to think up some new meals that my boyfriend and I can enjoy together on fast days. I think it's time to make a big batch of chicken soup!

Never new about the different Canadian date for thanksgiving, learn something new everyday.

Hey hey! So sorry I have not checked in. Chicago was great and I enjoyed it so very much! As far as eating I stuck to 16:8, no 5:2. I came back to TOM so I didn't weigh myself until this morning after my run. I weighed 145.8! Not bad!!! So excited. I fasted today but I know I wrnt over the 500 cals by a bit. I'm hungry right now but going to bed soon so that I don't think about it I ate some yummy food in Chicago that was totally worth it! Hehe but made sure they were worth it like Lightenup had suggested and left the "meh" foods alone. Totally with it!
I will do a more proper check in tomorrow. Have a great night!

Since Thanksgiving was originally a day to be thankful for the harvest, it makes sense they would celebrate a bit earlier than us since their harvest is probably earlier than ours! I had never thought about that until today lol

nayla - well done Hope your weigh-in this morning was rewarding from your fast.

Yesterday's fast was easy and my workout went quick. I finally started watching the last season of How I Met Your Mother, so I pulled up Netflix on my phone while working out. Why have I never done that before? Time went by quickly, that's for sure. If only I could watch TV while doing weights Tonight is out to dinner with a friend and I already pulled up the menu to decide what to eat... Just have to refrain from having too many beers!

Hi ladies - may I join you?

I think that IF is the answer to my dieting dilemma! I prefer eating larger, filling meals, and when counting calories, it's so hard to feel satisfied when you are spreading 1200 calories over the entire day.

My plan is to start with an 8 hour feeding window (11am - 7pm), and then gradually reduce to a 5 hour window (2pm - 7pm). I don't think I'll count calories at first, but just try to stick to a 2 meal and 1 snack format.

A little about me: I was never overweight until after I got married. At 5'5", I weighed 122 when we got married, and gained 20 pounds within 4 months after. My weight steadily increased over the next 10 years - emotional eating due to not getting pregnant. I now have a beautiful 2 year old daughter, and I'm ready to get this weight problem behind me!! I've got about 40-50 pounds to lose to feel comfortable again.

I will start tomorrow. I need to keep posting for accountability, since I have a problem of not sticking with anything for long!

Hey Noname, great reasoning about our Thanksgiving...to be honest, I never even gave it a thought as to why it's earlier than the U.S. one...I just figured we always have to do things differently up here. Btw...yes, I know what you mean about Netflix...I watch Family Guy on Netflix while I'm spinning, two episodes and it's 45 minutes of spinning done and I'm giggling the whole way. It's a wonderful thing to have a smart phone isn't it? It really does pass the time.

Hi Amy Fasting changed me for sure. I started it last winter, stopped for a while due to illness, but started up again this month and I remember why I liked it so much. I FEEL better overall. For me, this is a permanent lifestyle change. Right now I'm doing 4:3 (three days a week of fasting at 600 calories), but that's just going to be during weight loss. When I reach my goal I will continue at 5:2. I need to count calories myself because I tend to underestimate what I eat/drink if I don't.

I didn't weigh today, and I'm moving my last 2 fasting days of the week to Thursday and Friday (or Saturday depending on how I feel Friday). I hope everyone is doing well!

Welcome Amy! That sounds like a very sensible plan, and one that can be easily adjusted if you need to. Let us know how your eating window goes today!

Chardonnay Yes, I think I can get used to watching Netflix while working out. I usually read, but haven't had a very good book in a while.

Fasting today! 2 of 3 for the week.

Thanks for the welcome Noname and Chardonnay!

As I seem to do with all diets, I almost talked myself right out of it this morning. And then I repeated a phrase that I heard a while back and liked, "If you aren't going to change today, when will you ever change?"

I also like to watch shows while I work out. I watched Lost on my treadmill a few years ago. I'm not working out much these days though!

Three hours left until my eating window. I think I will eventually start counting calories too, but for now, I'm just going to work on my eating times.

I'd like to join if you'd have me?

I didn't know anything about fasting until my body started changing and didn't give me the memo. It was beginning of 2013 and I got really sick at night if I ate dinner. I learned that it didn't matter what I ate so I started learning how to deal without dinner. Lost about 20 lbs during the first 6 months of doing this and it was great. I started being more careful of what I ate after that and started counting calories. Lost another 15 lbs in about 6 months. Then for about 6 months nothing changed. I went to my doctor to make sure I'm not messing my body up or anything and discovered that I had a chemical imbalance and we got that corrected and I've lost 18.6 lbs in the last 36 days. Its awesome!!! I'm still on the IF method but everyone I try telling them about it think I'm getting an eating disorder. I DO EAT but I'm just not hungry most of the time. Its getting stressful being the only one in my world doing this.

Noname, how are you feeling on your fasting day today? What are you eating? I saw a Pin the other day, 2 egg whites and a 1/4 cup of low fat cottage cheese omelet = 84 calories, and the pinner said it filled her up for hours. Lots of protein there for energy. I'm going to try it out after my next shopping day.

Hi Amy I'm glad you talked yourself back into it! Our minds are our biggest saboteurs. I think it's good to get used to the eating window, then check how many calories you are eating after to see if you need to tweak things or not.

Hi Alchickypup, honestly...I don't tell anyone about my eating style, nor do I tell people how much I work out because SOMEBODY will always assume the same, eating disorder due to starvation and/or over-exercising. I feel very free here to talk about it, because others actually understand and don't judge out of jealousy or ignorance. That's sounds tough, but that's been my experience. Fasting is a wonderful thing and I love it. I've never found it difficult at all, even though my bf doesn't fast and I make his meals for him. Good for you for keeping it up. When I'm not injured, I've been known to do 2 hours of cardio a day, it just makes me feel so good. I get into the "zone" I guess, like a runner's high type of feeling and I never want to stop! But I did have a friend once who couldn't hide her jealousy of my weight loss, she has a good 200 pounds to lose, well, she always has that much to lose and never sticks with anything. She went on and on about how lucky I am to be disabled, not having to go to work, so that I have time to work out 3 hours a day and keep in shape....really peeved me off and our friendship soured.

Amy - that is a wonderful mantra and I'm glad it worked! How did you fare yesterday?

Alchickypup - Welcome! I know how hard it is, since fasting is so taboo. I kept it to myself (and my boyfriend) for the first year almost. I finally told my parents about it in a casual conversation, and they listened and asked me questions. I suppose at that point since I had been doing it so long, successfully and healthfully, they didn't see reason for alarm. It's been nice having that off the table, but really, it's not necessary for everyone to know.

Chardonnay - I would have never thought to put cottage cheese in an omelet. I'm kinda of burned out on cottage cheese right now! On fast days, I usually have some coffee in the morning (with milk and sugar) and then don't eat again until dinner, so that I can have a sizeable meal. Last night I had buffalo chicken soup and a salad I usually do something with lean meat and a huge pile of veggies. Friday we will be grilling pork chops and I'll make veggie kabobs.

Sounds like that friendship was better off soured

Yesterday wasn't too bad for fast 2 of 3. My weight isn't where I would expect it to be after two fasts, but it is what it is. We'll see what happens come Saturday after the third fasts. I really hope this works, because adding an additional fast without seeing results would be infuriating!

Chardonnay and Noname - Thank you for understanding. I'm making up my "fasting" as I go along. So I do have a few questions. I've read several of the post and I'm confused about what ya'll are talking about when you talk about eating on your fasting days? I know IF doesn't mean you don't eat at all but its like your calling it a special fasting day as if that's different than other days? Could someone explain that part to me?

"Traditional" IF means you have an eating window each day, but Chardonnay and I (and a few other posters) do 5:2 or 4:3 or Alternate Day Fasting, all of which are forms of IF, but what it means is that 2 (or 3) days a week, we eat up to 500 calories, and the other days of the week we eat normally.

I used to also incorporate an eating window, but now I just do 4:3. thefastdiet.co.uk is probably the best resource for it.

So it's a completely different style of fasting, but has similar benefits.

Noname - Thank you so much for explaining that for me. I guess I'm doing "Traditional" fasting