5/9/17
This was my first day of my intermittent fasting (IF) .
I stopped eating at 9pm on Monday night. I woke up around 6 am for work. I had to remind myself not to eat, since breakfast has always been a habit of mine. Since I was already awake and had an extra half hour of time I did some more reading on IF. Found out that coffee is acceptable to drink without it really ‘counting’ towards consumption (as long as I don’t exceed 50 calories). So I made a coffee, and I admit to cheating a little by adding creamer, but I was still less than 50 calories.
I went to work at 7:30. Around 11am I started feeling a little peckish/hungry, but not nearly as hungry as I thought I would be, but I just drank some water and kept pushing. I was a little more lethargic near 12 but I wasn’t starving like I thought I would be. So I took a walk around my office to get my blood pumping and pushed to the end of my shift at 1pm.
By then I was very hungry but hadn’t experienced hunger pains or anything. I started to get a bit of a headache from not eating so I quickly drank more water as I drove to get a sandwich.
Subway- Foot long Oven Roasted Chicken sandwich: about 650 Calories
(Then, honestly I forgot about trying to eat better and got a cinnamon roll when I went to the mall looking for a Mother’s Day gift.)
Dinner was left over BBQ.
Overall, My goal was to eat about 2000 calories so I was 100% successful on my first day but I’m going to keep going.
5/10/17
6:20am: Today I woke up later to adjust to the fact that I don’t need extra time for breakfast. So I made coffee, got dressed and moseyed around the house a little bit
7:00am: Left for work . Not hungry quite yet.
7:30 am: I got to work and finished up a project and took my break around 11am again. I was hungry at this point, but again, not starving. I wanted food but I just drank water and sipped my coffee.
Finished work and went home.
2:00pm: Finally had the opportunity to ‘break my fast’ and I had a bowl of cereal. I know it isn’t very nutritional but I wanted something quick because I was getting a headache.
4pm: Yogurt
8 pm: Left over Chinese food. Not healthy again, but I wasn’t home when the food was ordered the day before. I did not want the food to go to waste, but I found myself consciously reducing my intake. I usually pile Chinese food on my plate with no regard to the amount of sodium that I’m consuming. Today, I definitely had smaller portions by almost half of what usually I eat. I had more white rice than noodles and made sure that I had the least saturated pieces of chicken and drank two cups of water.
10pm: I got ready for bed and I was so hungry. (Everyone knows that you generally are hungry not long after eating Chinese food.) I laid in bed forcing myself to go to sleep. I was consciously telling myself that I will be ok. I made it through the night but woke up feeling hungrier than I did when I woke up on Tuesday morning.
Overall, I think that today was still not great but it was better than yesterday. I don’t feel more energized but I also don’t feel like I’m starving either. I may add green tea to my mornings as an alternate to drinking coffee every day.
In my initial Lifestyles Changes post I mentioned that I may have to adjust to more fasting hours and I think I may have been correct. But I’ll try the 1pm-9pm eating block for the rest of the week and see how I feel.
5/11/17
Woke up at 6:30, made coffee and went to work. I was actually really hungry today during the morning but I pushed through again and drank water and coffee. I can say that I was a tiny bit more energetic than I had been the last few days but nothing monumental. My focus was off though because I felt like I was starving and a lot of my attention went to watching the clock to count down the hours for when I could eat.
Lunch: PBJ
Dinner: Chick-fila chicken nuggets.
I seriously have to to do better with what I eat but I’ve come to the conclusion that this week was just an adjustment period to seeing if I can go without breakfast. I’m feeling confident so far but I am also concerned that I may have to space my fasting days to two ‘on’ and ‘one’ off.
5/12/17
I wasn’t tired today. I actually felt rather energetic, so I’m excited to share that news 🙂 I wasn’t totally focused on when I was going to eat. Though my stomach rumbled around 12 pm, I was able to pretty much ignore it until 1 pm.
Lunch was a bowl of cereal. (I was in a rush. The rest of my day I was traveling so I didn’t get a chance to eat properly)
Dinner was two peanut butter and jelly sandwiches
So this concludes my first week of intermittent fasting.
Overall, it was something that I think I can do. It wasn’t very difficult, just an adjustment. I was hungriest 2 out of 4 days and the coffee really helped. My plan for next week is to alternate coffee with green tea and a tiny bit of honey. Hopefully that gives me the same satisfaction as coffee.
My sleep was not interrupted by hunger, except on the night that I had Chinese food and had to make myself ignore my stomach and go to sleep.
Energy wise, I felt that it increased as the week went on. Again, nothing monumental but noticeable.
So,
For my followers/readers whom have followed my progress this week, thank you kindly for your support and interest!
Tune in next week !
College and Life After 