Wildflower! I'm happy to see you but bummed things are rough right now. I definitely feel for you.

krampus and I are trying intermittent fasting and it has been amazing for both of us for the past two days. Basically, fast for 14-16 (or more) hours, then eat your alloted calories. Science behind it is that constant small meals keeps the insulin levels high, which suppresses the burning of "stubborn" fat. For both krampus and I, it helps with the constant nibbling brought on by eating tiny 200-cal meals and never being full. Yesterday I ate a BIG lunch and a BIG dinner and was down the next morning. Today I ate a BIG lunch and had to force myself to eat dinner to get in close to 1200. I forgot how wonderful it feels to be FULL. Plus, no snacking today.

Just a thought. In just 48 hours I'm a convert.

indiblue, with the intermittent fasting, what times are you eating? I've seen others praise this system and I'm curious about it, but the times of day I'm most ravenous are at breakfast and dinnertime, so I don't know if I could do it. :/

kat I always woke up with an acidy stomach (I have a bit of acid reflux), so I would force myself to eat breakfast to calm the stomach, not necessarily because I was hungry. I like you assumed I could never skip breakfast because of this. However, with a LOT of water and tea, it's been fine. I've been most hungry from 8:30 AM- 10 AM and then after that it's been easy.

The first day I tried it I ate lunch at 1:30 and dinner at 7 PM. I stopped eating by 9 PM. This was a bigger "window" than many people who IF have, but I wasn't worried about a strict schedule this early in the game. Yesterday I ate at 4:30 PM and then 7 PM, stopped eating by 8 I think. Still playing around with what window works better, but fasting in the morning was definitely a lot easier than I thought it would be!

This new eating clock, which I have adhered to for a whopping one day, feels like the way of the future. The hunger felt between waking and lunchtime is completely manageable. My weight has dropped further, today I was 59.9 kg which is exactly 132 pounds. Down more than 2 kg in 2 days and I have re-found my ribs. Hoping to continue the trend.

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Wildflower Sorry to hear the going is tough. Thinking about missed goals is always tough - I was "supposed" to be under 125 this week and I am just now hitting 132 on the way down - but it can't be all about numbers, like you said about exercise vs. calorie counting obsession. I hope you find a balance where you can live comfortably soon.

indiblue My window is probably going to be about 8 hours most days. I wasn't aware that it mattered so long as you wait those 14-16 hours. I am averaging 17 hours so far.

kat999 I am eating between about 1-8 pm.

krampus I think the longer the fast the better, because that prolongs the low levels of insulin and other hormones which counter fat-burning. At least that's what I understood? I think that's why some people do daily fasting like we are doing and others do weekly- going 24 hours or so without food, etc. I don't feel the need to take it to that step yet, but if I can keep a fairly small window, I'm going to aim to do so. I think your 17 hour one is ideal.

Thanks for the info, ladies! I may try that but might wait until the weekend. Much easier for me to adjust to something like that when I'm not worried about being too grouchy at work.

wildflower I'm sorry you're having such a rough time of it. I too tend to get very overly obsessed with calorie counting (not saying that's how you are just how I am!) And so I have pretty much given up calorie counting in favor of mindful eating. I know it doesn't work for everyone. And In my case,. I crave protein so try to have something in the way of ground turkey, or chicken breast ready to eat so I don't reach for garbage. (And I still do this on occasion.) There are so many other external voices telling us that we're not good enough, that if we just tried harder....don't defeat yourself. The winning is in the process not the goal...*hug*

Also, running. I Love it. Nothing feels better. Yes, the first few days, I too am ravenous but that dies down.

Krampus and indiblue I have tried intermittent fasting, the only issue I have is that I tend to go way overboard with the caloric intake on the days when I'm not fasting. And I'm not talking bad food, just WAY too much food. But, different folks, different strokes! Glad you've found a system that's doable.

I am doing well, working out, eating right, staying away from the scale but feeling very confident and powerful. I think it's totally the power of exercise. Onward!

HI feathers!!

So I am still trucking along with "maintaining" (secretly hoping a slow loss). Argh but I messed up yesterday on calories - bad. Not that what I ate was bad food or from a binge, it was just a lot of calories. By the end of the day I was at 2000 calories (of good food) and then went out with a friend for drinks. When I got home I ate a lot of the Hoison chicken I made earlier in the day. My calories I would estimate went closer to 3000. So to prevent a gain, I think I will try and intuitively keep them at around 1300 the next 3 days by eating my go to "healthy day meals".
Krampus and Indiblue You both have me curious about this fasting business. It doesnt sound like something for me (I literally eat every 2-3 hours), but it seems to be working for yall. So I was thinking maybe incorporating 2 days a week of it. Can you explain it to me? Do you basically just eat 2 very big meals a day? What times? Can you give me an example of 1 day of what you eat?

indiblue question about weight lifting - Well not lifting but toning. I just cant give up my running and I want to make sure the exercise routines I do are ones that I will do the rest of my life. And I know the gym is not a routine I will stick with. That being said, do you think mixing in lunges, squats and pushups during my 2.5 mile runs will help to tone? What are your thoughts on that?

ju5tdoit yay, glad you've stopped in to say hi too. Glad you're doing well I totally agree, exercise does so much more for me mentally and emotionally than just burning calories. Love it.

Dianne No worries about the higher calorie day, you'll be fine Your plan for lower calorie days sounds great. Just get in your protein, your fruits/veggies and water and I bet you'll be great!

As far as lifting, I am unfortunately not the best person to ask. Strength training is the area of weight loss/health I know least about. I used to know a great deal back in high school when I trained on the soccer team, but my knowledge has definitely eroded over the last few years when I skipped gyms in favor of yoga studios. I totally hear you on not wanting to give up your running- I can't give up cardio either. Now I'm back in gyms more than on the yoga mat and I usually just do 15 minutes of strength/lifting a few times a week after cardio.

I really want to buy "New Rules of Lifting for Women" or a similar book to brush back up on the basics. A trainer gave me some pointers the other day on a tricep move I was doing and I was sore for nearly a week. It's then I realized I really could/should be getting a lot more out of my lifting than I am!

Soooo... this is a weird thing. I don't know why, but I decided to measure my height today. I've always thought I was "essentially" 5'5", because I was above 5'4.5" but not quite at 5'4.75" or so, that I was kind of "cheating up" and rounding to the next full inch. Not really a huge deal, but that is the height on my driver's license, after all. Well, when measuring today, sans shoes and socks of course, I thought I might measure between 5'4" and 5'4.5", since I know that as you age, you do lose a tiny bit of stature.

Except that today I'm 5'3". I've lost over 2 inches in height since high school, which is when I reached my full adult height. I'm 35. I know I'm not a spring chicken, but come ON! I drank my milk and eat broccoli and spinach! I'm not calcium deficient! You guys see me talking about yoga and pilates and running and weight lifting! I've gotten myself fit, if I do say so myself, and any extra pounds I have to lose I've known for months now have been vanity weight. To lose this many inches in HEIGHT is just insane!

I always thought of myself as average height, not super tiny. I guess this isn't really a big deal. If I'd always been 5'3", I would've been fine with that. I'm just kind of freaked out that I'm shrinking vertically instead of just horizontally.

EDITED: Okay, fine. I've adjusted my profile and lowered my goal weight a little. I don't even know what an appropriate goal for this height even is!

I waaay overate yesterday, so I won't today. I went to my friend's restaurant for dinner and had a rather decadent dinner putting me at about 1800 calories, which is fine. Then she asked me to go to a sushi restaurant with her at 10:30 pm and I said yes because I was so happy that we were actually getting to spend girl time together. I let my guard down at that point and pretty much had a second full sized dinner - green tea soba noodles with shiitake, egg, ginger and spring onion, whale tail (this is Japan), and the sushi chef treated us to free toro (fatty tuna) that normally goes for $10 PER INDIVIDUAL PIECE and ice cream. Aaaand then I went home and ate the remaining two tofu puddings from my fridge. All in all a bit of a fail. I also smoked a couple cigarettes and feel a bit sh!t today as a result.

Got up and did Tae Bo and 200 crunches before work even though I was out late, because I'm donating 400 mL of blood today. The sick wacko in me is thinking "oh nice, I was up .4 kg on the scale and I'll be giving .4 kg of blood."

Dianne The fasting doesn't really feel like fasting - just like waiting a while before eating. I break it down where I split my calories about equally between lunch and dinner, and maybe I'll have a snack in there somewhere. An example day would be Tuesday.

1:30 pm, lunch: Pasta stir fry with veggies, grapefruit, a couple little cakes, a dumpling, yogurt

7:30 pm, dinner: Leftover peanut butter curry with 300g chicken breast, tofu pudding, orange

Sounds like a lot of people are having a rough time lately. I can't say I am much better either I haven't been to the gym in over the month because I have been sick. I am hoping to go Friday and at least do some light walking on the treadmill and also some ab work. I am trying to get down to 130 by June but with the set backs I have been having I am not sure if it will be possible. Doubting myself isn't going to help either.

The last week of February and first week of March I was sick and on anti-biotics and just starting to feel better last week when I was hit by the flu on Friday. I am now limping along trying to recover from this as well. I think I really need to start focusing on my health at this point because I don't think being this sick in such quick succession is normal.

Do you think losing 20lbs by June is feasible?

kat it sounds like you measured yourself- are you sure it is accurate? I feel like when I do my own measurements they are a bit off because I can't ensure the measure/tool is straight, etc. I would be really surprised if you actually lost inches!

krampus the food sounds really really delicious. It's hard to turn down a chef's offer for free food. Good for you to for getting a TaeBo workout in the AM.

Veela I'm glad you're starting to feel better. I don't know whether or not 20 lbs is doable since you are already within the healthy range. I suppose it depends heavily on how quickly your body is comfortable with shedding vanity pounds (not that there is anything wrong with shedding vanity pounds- I'm doing it right now- just obviously takes longer for the body to burn off). If you really stick closely with a strict plan you may be able to do it

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Well I just made probably the best meal I ever had and couldn't resist sharing. I had a bunch of fresh vegetables in the fridge so I chopped them up and put a tiny bit of olive oil and salt, mixed. I felt for some reason I wanted to put an egg over them so I made sort of a modified low-fat bibimbap. Cooked about 1/2 c elbow pasta, tossed with soy sauce, squeeze of lime, fish sauce, mirin, and the vegetables. Crumbled a seaweed wrapper over it. Cooked an egg sunny side up and placed it over the whole dish. A few squirts of sriracha.

Tummy and tongue are so happy right now. It's been a terrible last few days for various reasons, so I'm enjoying finding pleasure in the little things right now.

Sadly, I checked it twice and then had my husband measure, too. Either I did indeed lose inches or else I had a skewed idea of my height for 20 years. And both could be true, too.

indiblue That sounds DELICIOUS. Bibimbap is one of the great comfort foods in life and it sounds like your version was extra healthy. Good job!

kat999 If it's any consolation, I thought I was "almost 5'5" for the longest time, but really I'm not quite 5'4 and a half. No matter what, no one will notice except you - try not to stress about it!

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I was pleased with today. I couldn't do IF with the exact times I wanted to because of the blood drive, but my "window" ended up being ~7 hours (between noon and 7 pm) which isn't bad. Tomorrow might be unpredictable because my mom is scheduled to land at 10 pm in Fukuoka, and I might end up maniacally chomping on something while I wait at the airport or getting late-night noodles with her. We'll see...