The Blessings of Simplicity

Counting carbs/calories is a drag. Obsessive scale stepping is a recipe for despair. If you want to count something, "days on habit" is a much better metric. Checking off days on a calendar would do just fine, but if you do it here you get accountability and support. Here's how. Start a new topic in this forum called (say) "Your Name Daily Check In." Then every N day post a "reply" to that topic as to whether you stayed on habit. A simple "<font color="green">SUCCESS</font>" or "<font color="red">FAILURE</font>" (or your preferred euphemism if that's too harsh) is sufficient, but obviously you're welcome to write more if you want. On S-days just register that you're taking an S-day. You don't have to do this forever, just until you're confident you've built the habit. Feel free to check in weekly or monthly or sporadically instead of daily. Feel free also to track other habits besides No-s (I'm keeping this forum under No-s because that's what the vast majority are using it for). See also my <a href="/habitcal/">HabitCal</a> tool for another more formal (and perhaps complementary) way to track habits.

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Kathleen
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Post by Kathleen » Sun Apr 29, 2018 6:11 pm

I'm not sure what this means.
Kathleen

Soprano
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Post by Soprano » Sun Apr 29, 2018 6:13 pm

Unfortunately the site has been hit by a Spammer. I have sent a message to Reinhard

Jx
Last edited by Soprano on Sun Apr 29, 2018 9:02 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Never give up on a dream just because of the time it will take to accomplish it. The time will pass anyway.

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lpearlmom
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Post by lpearlmom » Sun Apr 29, 2018 8:04 pm

Thanks for doing that Soprano. So annoying !
:twisted: SW: 210 lbs
CW: 172
GW:160

Kathleen
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Post by Kathleen » Mon Apr 30, 2018 10:34 pm

May, 2018: The Blessings of Simplicity starting May 1, 2018

Weight
Day 1 “ Tuesday, May 1, 2018: 219.2
Day 2 “ Wednesday, May 2, 2018: 218.2
Day 3 – Thursday, May 3, 2018: 218.6
Day 4 – Friday, May 4, 2018: 218.6
Day 5 – Saturday, May 5, 2018: 217.8
Day 6 – Sunday, May 6, 2018: 219.6
Day 7 – Monday, May 7, 2018:
Day 8 – Tuesday, May 8, 2018:
Day 9 – Wednesday, May 9, 2018: 216.4
Day 10 – Thursday, May 10, 2018: 214.4
Day 11 – Friday, May 11, 2018: 216.4
Day 12 – Saturday, May 12, 2018: 216.4
Day 13 – Sunday, May 13, 2018:
Day 14 – Monday, May 14, 2018:218.4
Day 15 – Tuesday, May 15, 2018: 218.2
Day 16 – Wednesday, May 16, 2018: 215.6
Day 17 – Thursday, May 17, 2018: 213.6
Day 18 – Friday, May 18, 2018: 215.0
Day 19 – Saturday, May 19, 2018: 215.6
Day 20 – Sunday, May 20, 2018: 217.0
Day 21 – Monday, May 21, 2018: 216.6
Day 22 – Tuesday, May 22, 2018: 217.6
Day 23 – Wednesday, May 23, 2018: 214.2
Day 24 – Thursday, May 24, 2018: 214.8
Day 25 – Friday, May 25, 2018: 213.8
Day 26 – Saturday, May 26, 2018: 215.8
Day 27 – Sunday, May 27, 2018:
Day 28 – Monday, May 28, 2018:
Day 29 – Tuesday, May 29, 2018:
Day 30 – Wednesday, May 30, 2018:
Day 31 – Thursday, May 31, 2018: 215.4


Journal
Day 1 – Tuesday, May 1, 2018: 219.2
It has been easy to adjust to a 1 - 7 PM eating window. I am not losing any weight. Why? Dr. Bert Herring, in his book, said about 90% of people who try a five hour eating window lose weight. He is puzzled why the other 10% don't. I fit in that 10%. Why am I not losing weight? Well, last night, it occurred to me that I already knew and had already written about it. I still am following the rule from my dieting days: "Eat everything you are allowed to eat." The eating window is more or less a free for all. I eat in 6 hours what I used to eat in 24. All those years of eating right to 1,500 calories when I was on a 1,500 calorie diet or right to 1,000 calories when I was on a 1,000 calorie diet are coming back to haunt me. I no longer need to count how many raisins I am eating. All I do is look at the clock. When the clock says I can eat, I eat. No. I need to evaluate if there is any other reason for my eating. There can be lots of reasons. I can like the food. I can be sharing a meal with someone. I can actually be hungry (rare). What I need to do is ask myself if the only reason I am eating is because I can and then maybe not eat because that isn't a very good reason.

Has this all been a waste? No. I have learned to exercise self-control in those 18 hours of fasting, and that self-control will serve me well as I try to avoid eating when the only reason why I am eating is because I can. I am still eating sweets but am preferring healthful food like a chickpea salad. That also is good. There is just one small problem: the habit of eating simply because I can.

Day 2 – Wednesday, May 2, 2018: 218.2
I was going to record when I started eating but decided against it. There are just too many variables that might affect when I eat. Yesterday was a truly bizarre example. I picked up doggie poop bags that turned out to be scented. The scent had such a bad effect on me that I asked Ellie to bring them to the garbage, and I went to bed for two hours. I got up at 7 and ate dinner. You just never know. This approach is adaptable. You aim for an eating window of 1 - 7 PM but it is totally fine if you eat outside of it.

Day 3 – Thursday, May 3, 2018: 218.6
I have become an observer of my own behavior because I am letting my body decide what and how much to eat. I am on my third bag of grapefruit in about a week. I estimate I have had about 14 entire grapefruit in a week. Why? I have no idea. I developed a dislike for grapefruit because it was something recommended for many diets as a high volume relatively low calorie food. I bet I've had as many grapefruit in the last week as in the last two years. Right after Easter, I wanted lots of jelly beans. It makes no sense to me, but it sure is not stressful to just eat what I want. Will I lose weight? I don't know, but I am more likely to lose weight craving grapefruit than craving jelly beans!


Day 4 – Friday, May 4, 2018: 218.6
It is discouraging to have lost so little weight -- about 8 pounds in almost a year -- but I feel as though I have nowhere else to go than to continue fasting. Every other weight loss approach has resulted in binge eating and weight rebound. What I am trying to do is focus on exercise. I am up to 3:45 seconds of fast walking.

Day 9 – Wednesday, May 9, 2018: 216.4
It has been almost a year (May 21) since I really committed to intermittent fasting, and I got tired of being in the 215 - 220 pound range since January. What I have concluded is that a daily eating window of 6 - 8 hours is a fantastic (read: easy) way to maintain weight, not to lose it.

At the end of December, I was sick for three days after walking in below zero weather to see my mother in law buried. My boots turned out not to be waterproof, and we had a four hour drive back home right after the burial. I did not eat for three days, and that is how my weight went below 220.

Yesterday, I decided to take the very conservative approach of a fast which includes one cup of bulletproof coffee (coffee with 1 tablespoon each of butter, coconut oil, and heavy whipping cream) and as much homemade bone broth as I can eat. Today is Day 2. I am going to go through Saturday at the most. My hope is I get below 215 and stay there for the next month.

The Dr. Fung fasting book says you can fast 7 days every month. I don't want to fast 7 days. I'm a little reluctant about driving past a 3 day fast, but I have done water fasting for 3 days and done fine. My biggest concern is driving. Can I fast this long and drive? Katie is in the process of moving home from college, so I probably will have to drive on Friday.

Day 10 – Thursday, May 10, 2018: 214.4
I started to feel cranky last night, so maybe I am going to start eating this afternoon. Maybe I can just do this little an amount of multi day fasting each month to lose weight. I don't know. It's an act of personal discovery -- or, as Dr. Bert Herring puts it, a study of one. I read all these success stories of people who just eat daily within a certain eating window of 4 or 5 or 6 or 8 hours and lose tons of weight. Not me. I have to accept that I need multi-day fasts.

8:15 AM: It is going to be a struggle to make it to 1 PM. I actually spent an entire month doing three 36 hour fasts per week. I did not lose weight. This was a modified fast because I had homemade bone broth and one cup of bulletproof coffee per day. If I make it to 1 PM today, I will have fasted about 60 hours. If I do this two times per month, maybe I can move the needle on the scale. That is what I'm considering doing now. It really wasn't too hard, and I gave myself a break also on fast walking. If I break my fast today, I can actually just have skipped one time of fast walking (since I walk three times per week). If I time it correctly, I can do 60 hour fasts and not skip any times of fast walking. Looking ahead to May 20, I can start a 60 hour fast on Sunday night at 7 PM, do fast walking at 7 AM, break the fast Wednesday at 1, and do fast walking on Thursday and Saturday. That could work!

Day 11 – Friday, May 11, 2018: 216.4
I am determined to be under 215 by the end of the month, so I plan to go on another 2 day fast starting on Sunday evening. I can then do fast walking on Monday, Thursday, and Saturday mornings. My maximum for number of days of fast walking is three times per week. This week, due to the fasting, I only did fast walking twice.

Day 12 – Saturday, May 12, 2018: 216.4
I am making beef broth and plan to start a 60 hour fast tomorrow after dinner until Wednesday morning. My expectation is I will then be in the 210 - 215 weight range which I will maintain through early June. I may then try to get below 210 in conjunction with preparing for my colonoscopy (due before my 60th birthday in October; planned so Tommy can go with me).
I am sick to death of being so fat. I want to be below 200 pounds before I renew my driver's license in October. My weight on my driver's license is currently 220.

Day 14 – Monday, May 14, 2018:218.4
I decided to do three day fasts every other week, which is what co-founder of IDM did:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ex1q5gthksM

I cannot interrupt my life to lose weight. I can keep going with three day fasts.

6:30 PM: I made an abrupt decision an hour ago to eat in a one hour eating window every day and see how that turns out.

Day 15 – Tuesday, May 15, 2018: 218.2
I had personal training with Kayla today. She gave me a new exercise so that I can loosen my shoulders. She is stunned by how tense my shoulder muscles are. She has told me many times she thinks I need to see a therapist in order to lose weight. I don't mind. She is a sounding board for me. Today, I told her once again I think my problem is physical, and we discussed how quite unexpectedly my taste in food has changed. I speculated from what lpearlmom said that the reason is that my body now wants fat because it has gotten used to consuming fat during fasts. I then when and found this blog from Dr. Fung and sent it to her:

https://www.dietdoctor.com/obesity-solv ... nt-problem

This is the summary paragraph: "This explains the time dependence of obesity. That is, those that have been obese for a long time have a much, much harder time losing weight. Because their insulin resistance is high causing elevated insulin levels all the time."

I read that and thought: I have been obese for more than 15 years. It is going to be difficult for me to lose weight. My body has to be absolutely desperate in order to access fat. If I just fast for 16 or even 20 or 22 hours, that is not enough incentive for my body to access fat. Instead, it slows down. It is still using glycogen. My body needs a longer fast in order to have the incentive to access fat. A two day fast is enough time, I believe, for my body to go through the effort of accessing fat. Fasting is not enjoyable on the second day, but that means I have one unpleasant day per week. I can suffer through this. I think I need to suffer through this.

My changing tastes were a clue that my body is being changed by the fasting; however, I'll be dead before I'm thin at this rate. I don't even have a goal of being thin. I just don't want to be so fat I don't want to wear a swimsuit.

Day 16 – Wednesday, May 16, 2018: 215.6
My father, who passed away in January, was larger than life, so much so that it is actually difficult to believe he is gone. He had a parenting philosophy that you can "program" a child with "tapes" of what you want them to do. Looking back now, I see how much those "tapes" affected me. They affected all four of us. We are now collaborating on a document of Grandpop words, and we are up to 8 pages single spaced! An example is this: "Occasionally drunk at 25 is occasionally sober at 50." He grew up near three bachelor uncles who lived together and were alcoholics. He was terrified one of us would become an alcoholic. I heard that saying quite a bit. I did get drunk at college and in my early 20s. I never got drunk after I hit 25.

This morning, I realized there was another saying rattling around in my brain: "Fat makes you fat." From yesterday's conversation with Kayla, I realized that my body is learning, through fasting, to prefer fat over sugar. I realized this morning that the real hard truth is this: "Fat makes you thin." Holy cow. I think I've figured out why I became obese. My well-meaning father got it wrong. A body used to using fat for fuel will be very comfortable accessing fatty stores in the body. A body used to using fat for fuel will not present hunger signals to the brain but instead will access fatty stores in the body.

It is no fun to fast, but at least fasting ends. I remember our pastor giving a sermon on how Christ said, "When you fast", not "If you fast." Maybe fasting is necessary to keep the appetite in check, to make sure the body is accustomed to accessing fat. Dieting never ends. You are miserable right up until you give up and binge. I can hang on until tomorrow morning knowing I won't fast again until next week. Due to my schedule, I won't fast again until next Thursday.

Day 17 – Thursday, May 17, 2018: 213.6
I made it two days having only two cups of bulletproof coffee and homemade bone broth from beef bones. That was enough. It was easier yesterday than I feared. Maybe it was because I was really busy, or maybe it was because this was the second time I did it. At any rate, I'm not real thrilled about this approach to losing weight, but I'm desperate. Daily intermittent fasting did not result in weight loss. It makes sense that I may need to fast longer because of the long time my body has gotten used to sugar intake.

Day 18 – Friday, May 18, 2018: 215.0
My body is telling me I am doing too much. Yesterday, I had some diarrhea. This morning, I woke with a mild leg cramp. It took me a long time to fast walk 4:45 seconds. Yesterday, I broke my fast by having oatmeal at 6 am. I allowed myself to eat from 6 am through 7 pm and was surprised that I really did not want that much. I had the tiniest sliver of a cake Katie made because that is all I wanted. I happily everything I wanted, and that included a ginger ale that I enjoyed without guilt. It is so nice to eat what you want and as much as you want.

Now what? Next week, I think I'm going to try fasting all day Tuesday and Wednesday until Wednesday dinner when I will have oatmeal. I am going to have beef broth on Monday and Tuesday but try to be done with coffee before then. That means no bullet proof coffee during my fast. Coffee is trouble for me. I get dependent on it and have to have the right dose from morning to morning or I get a headache. No thank you. Because I just started drinking coffee again to have that bulletproof coffee, I think it will be easier to give up than when I gave it up two years ago.

Interestingly, my son brought up how he took a course that included nutrition. He was responding to my saying, "Fat makes you thin." He countered, "A calorie is a calorie is a calorie" and "You cannot deny the First Law of Thermodynamics." Cringe. My father used to say that as well.

I followed bad advice right into obesity.

9 PM: Tonight we went to Fogo de Chao as a celebration because Anne was home on her way to an internship in Oregon. I enjoyed having our family all together, of course, but I was totally turned off by the restaurant. This is an all you can eat place, and there were some people there topping 400 pounds. Not just one. Not just two. Several. We had people coming all the time to offer more food. It was too much. It was a lot of show. Ick. I wanted a slower pace and to enjoy the food on our plates. Has my approach to eating changed? Do I eat more slowly? I'm not sure. Maybe.

Day 19 – Saturday, May 19, 2018: 215.6
I cannot do my fast walking on Thursday next week, so I think I will fast walk tomorrow, fast Monday to Tuesday evening, have oatmeal Tuesday evening, and fast walk on Wednesday. I am not sure that fasting only 48 straight hours in a week will result in weight loss. I may need to fast 60 straight hours. This next week will be an experiment.

Day 21 – Monday, May 21, 2018: 216.6
I paid for a dinner tonight that is business-related but may send Tommy instead if he is willing to go. That allows me to fast today and tomorrow.

Yesterday, I bought some Trader Joe's milk chocolate covered pretzels and ate a bunch in the car on the way home. Last night, instead of having dinner, I had two cups of yogurt with strawberries. My body did not want anything else. I think this approach of two solid days of fasting may be a bit tough on my body, but it is resulting in weight loss. I certainly will not do more and may end up breaking my fast tomorrow night by having oatmeal. I have to muddle through and see what works for my body. Dr. Fung recommends against two day fasts because Day 2 tends to be the most difficult. The problem I have is that I can't fit longer fasts into my schedule.

This summer is going to be busy. We have four weekend car camping trips scheduled plus a week on a houseboat plus I am going to NJ (with my sister), CA (to visit my Mom), Oregon (with Ellie to visit Anne where she is interning), and Indiana (with Ellie and Katie to tour a college and visit Anne). I also have two days of dropping off and picking up Katie at camp. Looking at this schedule, I may just go to one full day of fasting and leave in place the daily 12 - 7 eating window. In other words, no eating on one full day and eating 12 - 7 on other days.

It's really clear to me why there is no one-size-fits-all diet. Diet has to fit into your life.

Day 22 – Tuesday, May 22, 2018: 217.6
I went to the dinner last night, so I will fast today and tomorrow. It looks like a two day fast per week results in about a pound a week in weight loss, which would be a great pace. Last night, I shoved on my wedding ring. I could wear it all night without feeling any sort of pain. My fast walking is reducing my ring size, I'm convinced of that, because the few pounds I have lost would not have made a difference. I've been at this weight before and unable to wear my wedding ring. It is tight, however, and may need to come off. I can barely turn it on my finger.

Because my high weight last week (weight as I began my two day fast) was 218.4 and today's weight just as I begin my two day fast is 217.6, I think I'll stick with a full two day fast and break my fast on Thursday morning rather than Wednesday night.

I'm having just about 1/2 cup of coffee today as I wean myself off coffee -- again. It seems to be easier to give up this go-around. I have a lot of driving ahead of me. I bet I put over 100 miles on the van just driving around with Katie to work, Ellie to school, and Katie to horseback riding lessons. Last week, I filled up the gas tank 3 times.

9 AM: My ring finger started to hurt when I was walking, so I came home and used Dawn and warm water to pull it off. I need to wait to wear my ring.

Day 23 – Wednesday, May 23, 2018: 214.2
It was easier yesterday to fast one full day than it was to fast one full day last week. I had bullet proof coffee and bone broth last week; yesterday, I had nothing but 8 ounces of coffee.

Brad Pilon is one of the early adopters of an intermittent fasting lifestyle. He has an email list, and I periodically get emails from him. This email came out this morning:


"Intermittent Fasting has become VERY popular in the main stream media over the last 6 months.

These things happen in cycles, the last time being around 2013.

In 2013, when Intermittent Fasting was a big topic in the news, we had all sorts of crazy stories about the ‘miracles’ of IF.

Then, as a result, we had the backlash, with clickbait articles about the dangers of IF, including IF not being good for women.

So now, Fasting is Big Again, so please be aware, the negative information will be coming again…

As an example, lets talk about the recent reports that fasting now causes Diabetes.

This comes from absolutely reckless and irresponsible reporting, using information gleaned from a poster presentation at a conference, not a published or reviewed study.

The study in question was also performed on Wistar Rats and they didn’t actually measure whether or not the rats had become diabetic. Importantly there as also no mention of a control group.

[[ As a note, please keep in mind my conflicts of interest are obvious, so I’m trying to report the facts as best I can, but keep in mind, I can’t help but have biases in this regard ]]

As we’ve discussed earlier, longer fasts (48 plus hours) can cause temporary and transient insulin resistance in humans, as it takes some time to switch from ‘fat burning’ to ‘glucose burning’ when your blood is high in free fatty acids.

The important point from these findings is that the insulin resistance induced by 48 hours of fasting is not associated with changes in three diabetes linked genes - Calpain 3, calpaan 10 and DARP, suggesting that it is mediated by increased blood FFA and NOT a change in insulin signalling / handling.

Finally, please do not let a single presentation on rats alter your reality. We should always be diligent, questioning what we think we know, but we should be just as cautious with bad news as we are with overly good news.

But at the same time, it is our duty to point out fake truths, otherwise they become reality .

Stay even keel on this - Fasting is a tool we use. It’s not magic, you don’t get to gorge on pizza and burgers just because you fast. However, from the human research, at this time it seems very unlikely that fasting will cause diabetes.

Your friend,

Brad"

10 AM: My breath really stinks which is a sign of ketosis. I decided to eat within the noon ot 7 PM window today.

1 PM: I'm full now, but in 1/2 hour, I had cottage cheese, 1/2 peanut butter sandwich, a bowl of mueslix, a bowl of Cheerios, and some Haagen Dazs coffee ice cream. Maybe I do need a 60 hour fast. This is a test. If I don't lose weight this week, I'll go back to a fast lasting all day Monday and Tuesday.

1:10 PM: And a chocolate cupcake with chocolate icing which Ellie made. Wow. I did not eat like this after a 60 hour fast.

10 PM: I picked up Ellie from her daycare job at 6 PM, took her to Panera Bread for dinner, and then took her to a college night beginning at 7. I had zero interest in eating.

Perhaps I will lose weight just eating within a 12 - 7 PM window 6 days per week plus one day per week of not eating at all.

Day 24 – Thursday, May 24, 2018: 214.8
It is hard to tell at this point if just not eating one day is good enough. Today I ate early. I even had a vanilla latte. I felt like it, and that's OK.

Day 25 – Friday, May 25, 2018: 213.8
Maybe I just needed a longer fast to get me on track.

Day 27 – Sunday, May 27, 2018:
I ate breakfast yesterday morning, and I had snacks last night, and I had breakfast this morning. Now I appreciate that fasting does the opposite of what most people do: fasting actually decreases appetite. I'm back on track now but doubt I'll weight myself for a few days, out of concern that I would become discouraged.

Day 28 – Monday, May 28, 2018: 215.8
I decided to look at my weight and was pleasantly surprised that it was only 215.8 after two days of no fasting whatsoever. I learned something from the experience. I no longer like eating in the morning. This morning, I did have coffee with cream as a way to ease back into having no calories in the morning. It's Memorial Day morning, and I am procrastinating on doing fast walking. I need to get going. I really dislike the fast walking, but it is only 30 - 35 minutes of walking to get in 5 minutes of fast walking. Multiply that by 3 each week, and I am only looking at 90 minutes of disliking exercise. I can manage. HIIT seems key to good health. I sweat. I come home and bathe because I do not like AT ALL the feeling of sweat.

Day 29 – Tuesday, May 29, 2018:
I did not weigh myself this morning. I was mostly awake since about 2 am because my tinnitus was so loud and I experienced a noticeable decrease in hearing over the weekend. It was scary. Using an online hearing test, I get to see the deterioration of my hearing and not just suspect it or have my exasperated family tell me my hearing is getting worse. What to do? I went back to the months where my hearing seemed to have improved, between December 2015 and February 2016. I thought that it was my commitment to HIIT at that time that resulted in hearing improvement, but it cannot be because my hearing is deteriorating and I am doing HIIT three times per week. What else was I trying? I was trying a combination of honey and cinnamon which I had read might work from someone on Facebook who is the mother of one of Katie's friends. I did not like the idea of taking this stuff and quit at some point but I am not sure when. Luckily, I see from my nosdiet posting that I saw the Facebook post around December 3, 2015 and thought I could see improvement in hearing by December 15. It is unclear when I stopped taking cinnamon but it must have been fairly quickly because I did not even finish one container of cinnamon. I also was taking magnesium glycinate but I started taking that again about two weeks ago.

I'll try taking cinnamon and honey at least through when Ellie and I leave for Oregon on June 24.

Hearing loss was not even on my radar four years ago, and now it is so debilitating I could not go back to work. Tom tells me to get hearing aids. Wonderful. At the rate I am losing hearing, I could be completely deaf in a couple of years. That is why I am trying anything and everything.

Day 30 – Wednesday, May 30, 2018:
It's amazing how quickly I lost acclimation to skipping breakfast. I ate in the morning on Saturday and Sunday, and I am still dealing with the aftereffects. Yesterday, I had cream in my coffee and ate starting at 11:30. It is now 9:30 and so far today I've had one cup of black coffee.

Day 31 – Thursday, May 31, 2018: 215.4
I have not fasted until noon since last Friday, so I'm happy with my weight today. I have learned a lesson -- that consistency is important. We eat out breakfast once a month with other people, and I don't have problem returning to a morning fast after one breakfast. After two breakfasts in a row, I have had a lot of trouble. Yesterday I decided to have my honey and cinnamon at 10 and then fast until noon, but I became hungry and started eating at about 10:30. Today I am going to wait until at least 11 before having the honey and cinnamon.
Last edited by Kathleen on Wed May 08, 2019 4:46 pm, edited 60 times in total.

Soprano
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Post by Soprano » Tue May 01, 2018 6:23 am

I'm not sure I understand the post above Kathleen?

Jx
Never give up on a dream just because of the time it will take to accomplish it. The time will pass anyway.

Kathleen
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Post by Kathleen » Tue May 01, 2018 9:40 pm

Hi Soprano,
I decided to set up the journal through the summer since it will be a busy summer -- trips to Oregon, California, and New Jersey; a week on a houseboat; four camping trips; taking Katie to and from camp five hours away... That is all. I will write something today.
Kathleen

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Post by Soprano » Wed May 02, 2018 5:10 am

Kathleen I really feel that until you get to the point where you are only eating in response to hunger you are going to struggle to lose and more importantly maintain any weight loss.

I'm not sure this fasting will work for you as if you only eat enough to satisfy your hunger during your fasting period it may not sustain you at other times.

Jx
Never give up on a dream just because of the time it will take to accomplish it. The time will pass anyway.

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lpearlmom
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Post by lpearlmom » Wed May 02, 2018 5:17 am

Soprano: once you become fat adapted, you are not hungry when you are fasting. It takes about 2-3 weeks to use up your glycogen stores and then your body starts to use fat for energy. When your body is using fat for energy it sends satiety singals to your brain because it can sense it has plenty of energy.

I can easily go 40 hrs without food and only start to feel just a bit hungry towards the last couple of hours.
:twisted: SW: 210 lbs
CW: 172
GW:160

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Post by Soprano » Wed May 02, 2018 6:50 am

lpearlmom wrote:Soprano: once you become fat adapted, you are not hungry when you are fasting. It takes about 2-3 weeks to use up your glycogen stores and then your body starts to use fat for energy. When your body is using fat for energy it sends satiety singals to your brain because it can sense it has plenty of energy.

I can easily go 40 hrs without food and only start to feel just a bit hungry towards the last couple of hours.
I'd like to explore this further with you. I'll start a new thread though rather than take over Kathleen's :)

Jx
Never give up on a dream just because of the time it will take to accomplish it. The time will pass anyway.

Kathleen
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Post by Kathleen » Wed May 02, 2018 1:20 pm

Soprano,
I will agree with lpearlmom on this one. I've gone multiple days of not eating and not feeling hunger. There is a French saying that roughly translates: "Eating creates hunger." I think it may be eating carbohydrates that leads to hunger but am not sure. You do have to get used to fating, but I find fasting way easier than calorie counting. It is also calming. I'm not sure how to describe this, but when I tried eating only when hungry, I was in a panic if I was not able to get to food right away. I would carry food in my purse, as a matter of fact. With fasting, you come to realize that you are not in immediate need of eating. If a meal time slips by an hour, so what? That is even true if the meal is at the end of a fast. Yesterday, for example, I met a friend for a late lunch. I'm not even sure when we started eating. It was not important. What was important was catching up with a friend. Now that is the way to live!

NoS is a form of fasting by the way because you fast between dinner and breakfast. It just isn't enough of a restriction for some like me who have been obese many years.

Kathleen

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Joined: Tue Sep 16, 2008 12:46 pm
Location: Minnesota

Post by Kathleen » Thu May 31, 2018 11:38 am

June, 2018: The Blessings of Simplicity starting May 1, 2018

Weight
Day 32 – Friday, June 1, 2018:
Day 33 – Saturday, June 2, 2018: 215.8
Day 34 – Sunday, June 3, 2018: 215.4
47 - 44 - 47.25
Day 35 – Monday, June 4, 2018: 214.4
Day 36 – Tuesday, June 5, 2018:
Day 37 – Wednesday, June 6, 2018: ALL DAY FAST
Day 38 – Thursday, June 7, 2018: 212.4 ALL DAY FAST
Day 39 – Friday, June 8, 2018:210.2
Day 40 – Saturday, June 9, 2018: 211.6
Day 41 – Sunday, June 10, 2018:
Day 42 – Monday, June 11, 2018: 214.4
Day 43 – Tuesday, June 12, 2018: 214.2
Day 44 – Wednesday, June 13, 2018: 216.4
Day 45 – Thursday, June 14, 2018: 213.8
Day 46 – Friday, June 15, 2018: 213.4
Day 47 – Saturday, June 16, 2018:
Day 48 – Sunday, June 17, 2018:
Day 49 – Monday, June 18, 2018: 214.6
Day 50 – Tuesday, June 19, 2018: 214.8
Day 51 – Wednesday, June 20, 2018:
Day 52 – Thursday, June 21, 2018:
Day 53 – Friday, June 22, 2018: 215.6
Day 54 – Saturday, June 23, 2018: 215.2
Day 55 – Sunday, June 24, 2018: 213.6
Day 56 – Monday, June 25, 2018:
Day 57 – Tuesday, June 26, 2018:
Day 58 – Wednesday, June 27, 2018:
Day 59 – Thursday, June 28, 2018:
Day 60 – Friday, June 29, 2018:
Day 61 – Saturday, June 30, 2018:

Journal
Day 32 – Friday, June 1, 2018:
Yesterday, I got tired of my jeans being so loose. Since my jeans cost $15/pair at Costco, I donated them all and went and bought size 16 jeans to replace the donated size 18 jeans. I told Tom, and he said he was surprised. He's heard about dieting from time to time throughout our marriage with nothing to show for it. Could it be I have actually figured out how to lose weight?

9 AM: I am having a colonoscopy next week because I turn 60 in the fall and Tommy is home to take care of me so Tom doesn't have to miss a day of work. The timing is great. I cleared with Mayo that I can fast for three days instead of restricting my choice of foods. We will see if weight loss is sustained after the three day fast. After months of having a 12 - 7 eating window and losing no weight, I have concluded that I need periodic multi day fasts in order to lose weight but can maintain weight loss with daily eating window. We shall see.

Day 34 – Sunday, June 3, 2018: 215.4
I still have a tendency to eat just before my eating window closes. One thing I realized from my interchange with Soprano is I am not just showing German stubbornness by refusing to consider portion control or restriction on choice of foods. Instead, I have come to believe that the only way to sustain weight loss is to follow a practice that allows me to eat as much as I want of whatever I want. I tried intuitive eating for many years (bought the book at last 15 times and threw it out 15 times) and that is how I ended up with fasting. I still can eat as much as I want of whatever I want but not all the time.

Day 35 – Monday, June 4, 2018: 214.4
Yesterday, I ended up not eating until 2:30 pm and maybe that is why I went down a pound. I don't know. I had to haul Katie to a lake 45 miles away for scuba certification on both Saturday and Sunday. On Sunday, I decided to stay in the area, attend church, walk at the Y, and eat lunch. The certification ended earlier than scheduled, which is why I did not have lunch. The nice thing about this way of eating is it is no big deal. I am now accustomed to having to wait to eat. I no longer get grumpy if my scheduled meal is delayed.

Day 36 – Tuesday, June 5, 2018:
I don't think I am going to weigh myself until after my colonoscopy on Friday. I will be down quite a bit of weight by then, and my hope is that I can maintain a weight under 210 until the beginning of July. I am starting to target a five pound weight loss per month, using a multi day fast to move the scale and the rest of the month to maintain that weight on the scale. The real time of actually losing the weight will occur when the scale is already showing a weight loss. This is hard to explain, but years ago I followed a Novena Diet approach to losing weight: I ate no more than 1,000 calories per day for nine days and then maintained the weight loss of five pounds for a month. Over time, I came to realize that that month of maintenance was when my body really lost the weight. What I am looking at now is a three day total fast as a substitute for the Novena Diet. With a three day fast, the first day is really easy. That means two days per month are difficult at all. For my Novena Diet, all nine days were torture. I got to the point where I just could not stand doing this. While I did lose almost all my pregnancy weight in 2002 (down to 150), it came back with a vengeance. I kept trying to follow the Novena Diet and kept failing and the weight just went up and up and up.

Day 37 – Wednesday, June 6, 2018:
I ate a ton yesterday in anticipating of not eating again until after my colonoscopy on Friday afternoon. This week is a perfect time for me to do little, as I am just making sure Katie is set for fall term in Spain and Ellie is enrolled for summer classes. I did fast walking yesterday and won't go again until Sunday at the earliest.

8:30 PM: Today was miserable. I realized that there is a big difference between fasting, knowing you can quit at any time, and fasting, knowing you have to continue as preparation for a colonoscopy. I am rethinking having three day fasts. They take away from life. I may try just doing a one day fast once a month or every other week. You only live about 30,000 days, and I just wasted one. It was a beautiful summer day, too. The dog got one walk.

Day 38 – Thursday, June 7, 2018: 212.4
It is only 8 AM, and I am tired. This will be a long day. Luckily, I can do little to nothing. The kids are having leftovers for dinner. I'm just making a salad and doing a little housework.

10:26 AM: Just now, for the first time since I was a teen, I feel confident I will have a healthy weight at some point in the future. Why? I wanted to make sure I had good food when I can eat on Saturday. What I picked out was white bean and avocado salad. As I was chopping the garlic, I suddenly realized I didn't even know what a chef knife was three years ago! Here I am, preparing a salad and looking forward to having it. Yes, I still like milk chocolate covered pretzels and coffee ice cream from Trader Joe's, but what I really wanted on Saturday was a salad!

I am reading a book called Blue Zone Solutions about how the obesity epidemic can be fixed in America so people can live longer, healthier lives. The solution, perhaps, is very simple: teach people to fast, and the rest follows. People also need to learn to cook. I missed out.

Now my youngest is taking culinary classes to learn how to cook. She likes them so much that she is taking classes over the summer so she has room in her schedule this fall to take culinary classes.

Day 39 – Friday, June 8, 2018: 210.2
Yesterday went fairly well, but I feel weak this morning. Tommy is taking me to Mayo so I am not driving, and I cannot drive home. Last night was instructive as to why multi day fasts don't work very well in a family. I had three meals for them, and a salad. Katie had the salad. Tommy and Ellie stopped at McDonalds. If there is not a family meal, our kids just graze. I goofed in forgetting Ellie had to play at the high school graduation or she could have had sloppy joes. At any rate, Dr. Fung himself fasts until dinner when he can Monday through Friday. I may try that rather than a longer fast. I think I am going to aim to get to 205 and stay between 205 and 210. Having experienced the feeling of weighing just a little bit less, I want to weigh even less!

Day 40 – Saturday, June 9, 2018: 211.6
It turns out I could I could eat after my colonoscopy, so I did! This morning, I continue eating. I think I am solidly in the 210 - 215 weight range, and I'm not sure what I am going to do next.

Day 42 – Monday, June 11, 2018: 214.4
That fast was brutal. I think I'm going to accept being in the 210 - 215 range for awhile and maybe try to increase physical activity. The next two days need to be dedicated to getting Katie ready for camp and Spain. I just calculated she will be home five days after coming home from camp before going to Spain.

2 PM: I ate a lot in the last two hours in part in anticipation of possibly fasting all day Wednesday when taking Katie to camp. How ridiculous. My problem still is preventative eating. I think maybe I should settle into the 12 - 7 eating window and maybe focus more on physical activity.

8:30 PM: I weighed exactly the same last Monday as I did today. What does that tell me? "Diet backlash" occurs after significant fasting. I think, once again, that maybe it would be better for me not to vary the fasting but just settle into a 12 - 7 pm fasting window. I end up fasting about 18 hours because usually I don't start eating right at 12 or finish eating right at 7. Tonight, for example, we finished eating at around 6.

The book Intuitive Eating had a specific term for the type of eating I do, and it is eating to prevent hunger. When I vary my fasting schedule, I tend to eat more. I am high strung, there is no doubt about it. Maybe for someone like me, a predictable fasting schedule is best.

My next month is going to be very hectic. I bring Katie to camp on Wednesday, a 5 hour drive each way made more complicated by the fact that she had convinced the camp director that the Scouts would enjoy having chickens so we will be picking up 3 chickens on our way out of town. Tomorrow we buy a coop and feed, etc.

Next week, I go to New Jersey for my father's interment. The following week, I take Ellie to Oregon to visit Anne and my brother. The following week is the Fourth of July, and Tom is off all the week so we can go camping. The following week, I go to California to visit my mother.

Really, do I need to complicate my life with tweaking and tweaking my approach to weight loss? I have tried all sorts of fasting schedules, and 12 - 7 seems to work best for me. Maybe I can at least put off until September trying to do any other tweaking and just go with the 12 - 7 schedule I have.

Fasting is by its very nature calming because you learn you do not need food the instant you feel any hunger. I think I have defeated the purpose of calm by this constant going back and forth on what I am doing. Time to just do.

Day 43 – Tuesday, June 12, 2018: 216.4
I am a very tense person. My personal trainer, Kayla, told me it is hard for her to distinguish between muscle and bone in my back because my muscles are so tight. I have ground down my teeth so much that I need to wear a retainer every night. The retainer does not keep me from grinding down my back teeth, so I am getting a new retainer this Thursday so that I can keep some of my back teeth. Where did all this tension come from? I believe, in part, that my dieting has contributed to it. That is why I think the best path forward for me may be to just live and let go. I need to accept the weight I get from having the habit of eating between 12 and 7 PM.

10 PM: I am really upset with Katie right now. She came up with the idea of having chickens at camp, convinced the camp director to have them, is borrowing three or four of the chickens she hatched in the spring, and got us to agree to donate feed, bedding, and a chicken coop. We went to buy a chicken coop today, and it turns out chicken coops are seasonal items. The people at the store wanted to sell her a rabbit hutch, and I said no. I know nothing about raising chickens or rabbits, but there has to be a difference between a rabbit hutch and a chicken coop. She was furious at me for refusing. We managed to locate one which requires an additional 90 minutes of driving. She did look at the coop online and admit that the chickens weren't going to do well in a rabbit hutch. We will pick up chickens tomorrow at 7 AM, drive three hours to get the chicken coop, and then drive another 90 minutes to camp. With stops, we will probably get to camp around 1 or 2 PM. Then I have to turn around and drive back.

Why are we buying a coop on the way to camp? She delayed and delayed on deciding what to do about chickens. I let her drop the ball but then picked it up at the last minute. I should have told her "no coop, no chickens." Instead, I called until finding a coop all the while she was furious I wouldn't buy the rabbit hutch. This afternoon, I wolfed down a lot of sweets.

Hmmmm.. I do think overeating especially of sweets is a stress reaction. Katie will be gone tomorrow and she has to run her own life at camp. I told her that, tonight when Dad and I talked on the phone, Dad told me he did not want me buying anything she forgot on the way up, so I then asked if she remembered laundry soap. Nope.

"Some lessons are best learned the hard way." That is my mantra for parenting. She has to suffer the consequences of her actions.

Why am I rambling on about this? Well, dealing with her last minute way of approaching life is stressful, and so is dieting and so is fasting when the rules are constantly changing.

I'm convinced I need to stick with the 12 - 7 PM eating window and just ride down the weight. The weight will come off. I just have to let it come off.

And I have to let Katie grow up.


Day 45 – Thursday, June 14, 2018: 213.8
Yesterday, I got up at 3 AM to look at reviews of chicken coops. I never got back to sleep. I concluded we may want a bigger coop. Katie was picking up chickens that she had incubated this spring in her dorm room. The eggs came from a local Cub Scout camp, the chicks were returned there after they hatched, the chicks (now adolescents) will be borrowed this summer, and the chickens (as adults) will be returned to the Cub Scout camp when Katie gets picked up from Boy Scout camp on August 20. We got to the Cub Scout camp to pick up chickens at about 7:30 and then drove 3 hours to the store to get a chicken coop. We did lift our hold on the smaller coop to get a larger coop. I must say the people in the chicken area were very helpful to me as I tried to educate myself on coops. I must have called them five times last night. Katie was surprised we were willing to donate $400 worth of chicken coop, feed, and bedding, but we got a lot out of that camp and this is likely her last year as a camp counselor.

By noon, I was really tired. I had a large Mountain Dew. Then we drove straight west through small towns that had bars and gas stations that did not have national brands like Holiday. There was no drive-through place to buy lunch, and Katie needed to be at camp by 3. We ended up dropping off the chickens and unloading her gear, and I was off. It was 4:30 before I could get anything to eat. I had a vegetarian Subway because I could not take another McDonalds.

Then I got gas and got a large Hershey's bar and a water. If it had been earlier in the day, I would have gotten another Mountain Dew, but I wanted to sleep last night.

As I was driving and it was getting closer to 7 PM, I was on a major highway and was passing drive-through McDonalds and Burger Kings, etc. Did I want to stop and get something? Did I want to stop at a gas station convenience store and get more candy or peanuts? No. At that moment, no. I still was fairly full from the Subway and just did not want more junk food or, as my road warrior husband would say, "It's all dogfood."

Then I told myself I can eat anything I want and as much as I want tomorrow at noon. Why would I want to eat now when I don't really want anything?

I continued on. By the time, I got home, it was about 8:30. I stayed up until 10 so I could see how the other two kids had done and report in to the people whose dog we have. The kids had Chipotle for dinner. It couldn't be helped. Getting Katie to camp was a big time investment.

Tom got home last night, and I did not even hear him. He told me he let our dog out of the kennel, she hopped on the bed and licked my face, and I did not remember at all.

This morning, I weighed myself at 213.8. I am not surprised my weight was down because all I ate yesterday was a Mountain Dew, a Subway sandwich, and a candy bar. I told Tom, "Some parents have problems with kids getting into car accidents, committing suicide, getting pregnant, deciding they are transgender... We had a problem with a kid not figuring out how to buy a chicken coop."

The reason why I went into a long story about what happened is this is the first time I can recall that I did not eat at night because I knew I could eat at noon the next day.

This may be the secret to success with fasting. If you eat what you want when you do allow yourself to eat, then that driving fear of starvation eventually dissipates. Dieting creates a fear of starvation because you use portion control to limit what you eat. You never are really satisfied and eventually binge eat. With fasting, you know you only have to wait a few hours to eat what you want to eat.

I feel fine this morning despite having not eaten much yesterday. I need to get the gym to do fast walking. When Ellie was in school, I had a deadline to drop her off to school and go to the gym. Now, with her in bed and not going to work until 10 AM, I can dawdle all I want.

4 PM: I managed to do fast walking and had a day with some errands but not much. Tom is home early today because he is going on a weekend retreat, and he and Tommy just took the dogs for a walk. I have lots of food available to me now, including fresh organic strawberries. I just had some cashews. Do I want anything more, especially now with no one in the house because Ellie is also gone (at work)? No. No need to sneak food.

Maybe, just maybe, getting over food obsession is like a fever breaking. If so, I could start to lose weight rather quickly.

Wouldn't that be fantastic after these years of stall? We shall see. All I know is, right now, I have access to lots of food and no one to chide me not to eat it and I am totally not interested, even though next on my plate is categorizing expenditures from credit card purchases to put into our expense tracking worksheet. Nope. I'm not going to the kitchen to eat as a way to avoid doing it. I may find some other way to avoid doing it, but it won't be eating. I don't want to eat.

Yeah!

Day 46 – Friday, June 15, 2018: 213.4
I am convinced by my experience last week with the colonoscopy that it is useless to try multi day fasts. I weighed 214.4 on June 4, fasted from Tuesday night (June 5) to Friday afternoon (June 8 ), and weighed 214.4 on June 11. My body will lose weight in its own time. My effort needs be to be patient and calm. The weight will come off.

7:30 PM: My body wanted a lot of food today, and that's OK. It wasn't an out of control binge. It was more my body seeking to get back to a more normal weight for it. Or at least that is what I speculate.

I think that fasting has a gentle way of changing the body's set point weight, but it takes time.

What is nice is I do not have time to deal with food for the next several weeks. Let's see -- it is Friday night. I am in New Jersey next Tuesday to Thursday, in Oregon the following Sunday to Saturday, visiting in-laws in northern Minnesota the following Wednesday to Sunday, visiting my mother in California the following Tuesday to Saturday, and then home for two weeks because Tommy is in Europe. I've planned my summer to take full advantage of Tommy being home to take care of his sister and the dog!

Eating needs to go with the flow, so to speak. I can't prioritize what I eat. That is the beauty of fasting. I eat what my body most desires of what is available, and that's it.

I have had faith through all of this that the Good Lord did not want us to suffer the way dieting makes a person suffer -- always hungry, never satisfied, always in need of self-discipline, always on edge. There had to be a better way. Fasting is the Lord's way. It's in the Bible. "When you fast...."

The Lord says that the sabbath was made for man, not man for the sabbath. The same applies to fasting. Fasting was made for man, not man for fasting. Fasting is for our good.

Those scientific experts promoting dieting had it all wrong, and the evidence is clear whenever you walk into a store and see not just obese people but super-obese people, people weighing 300 or 400 pounds. That is common. Science missed what all religions knew: man needs to fast.

I may not write or weigh myself so much in the next month. There is just too much to do. All I need to do now is try to limit my eating to 12 - 7 PM, and that is easy to do.

Day 47 – Saturday, June 16, 2018:
Tommy is at work, Tom is at a retreat, Katie is at camp, and Ellie is at a band function (although likely to come home because it is thundering out). I am home with two dogs, savoring the last quiet moment for probably a month. I am setting the table for the next month.

Fasting succeeds where dieting does not because it reduces your appetite. There is a French saying, "L'appétit vient en mangeant, la soif s'en va en buvant." It translates to: "Appetite comes with eating, but the thirst goes away with drinking."

I need to trust the process of my appetite being reduced by fasting. This will not happen quickly nor will it happen steadily, but it will happen if I just let it happen. At this point, it may be counter productive to pay much attention to the process because I will want to speed things up and instead need to honor my body's desires. Yesterday, I ate a whole lot of junk, including lots of Dove mini chocolates and Trader Joe's coffee ice cream. Instead of being upset, I was curious. I think this type of appetite tends to come after food restriction. I did not restrict food intentionally but instead restricted it because we were in a hurry on Wednesday going along a state highway with no drive-through restaurants.

I may weigh myself; I may not. It may help; it may not. The key is to allow myself to eat as much as I want of anything I want but only between 12 and 7 PM. If for some reason I eat outside those hours, it is not a catastrophe. It's just a missed opportunity.

Today there is no reason not to wait until noon. Hunger is not a good enough reason. Socializing is a good enough reason. Having lack of access to food during my eating window is a good enough reason.

I shoved on my wedding ring the other day and found it did not hurt to wear it. Great! That is a very visible sign of progress since I have worn my wedding ring only a few months out of the past five years. I'm on the right track.

Yesterday, on an intermittent fasting Facebook group, one member was in a panic because she had not lost any weight in 3 months of fasting 16 hours a day. It is premature for me to say anything, but I think it really took an entire year for me to get to this point where I am not just eating for the sake of eating -- because I can, because my eating window is open. Going forward, I am hopeful that I will lose weight more quickly but maybe not. Time will tell. It is encouraging that I can wear my wedding ring.

11:30 AM: "Watch what you eat." Ick. I don't want to watch what I eat. I want to live! In 30 minutes, I can eat as much as I want of whatever I want. I am hungry now, and that is OK because I will be completely satisfied very soon. There are days when I watch the clock and start eating as soon as the clock hits 12 noon. Today is one of those days.

This morning, while cleaning, I listened to this movie on obesity that was on youtube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SMS3EtZMp9E

At about minute 47, the narrator said, "The price of staying thin is constant vigilance." That sounds like a sentence of lifelong torture. I cannot believe that the Lord wanted this for us. I just can't.

Fasting is so easy.

12:21 PM: I am satisfied now, although I am going to have some Dove minis. I had two bowls of a bulgar salad, a cup of coffee ice cream, and two bowls of Cheerios. I eat what I want. It's great!

12:30 PM: Now I am completely satisfied. I forgot I also had two slices of peanut butter pie. We normally do not have pie, but there was a half off sale at the grocery store and Tommy wanted one. I also had a package of Costco seaweed and about 3 Dove minis.

That was a lot. I normally am not this hungry when I break my fast, but I was today. It is nice that I still can eat whatever I want even if I want a lot. No voice in my head is telling me I musn't eat so much. The only way I will fast is if I am able to eat what I want when I break my fast.

6 PM: Normally, I do fast walking in the morning but I went this afternoon because two days ago the 120 pound dog we are dogsitting slammed into me and hurt my knee. I wanted to give my knee a little bit more time to heal. As I was driving to the gym, it occurred to me that I am now in maintenance. My approach to eating is set at a 12 - 7 PM window. Also, I got on my wedding ring so my fast walking is set at 6 minutes three times per week. It took me 46 minutes today to get to 6 minutes of fast walking. That amount of time will go down as I get better at the fast walking.

Phew... It's done. Now all I need do is allow my body to adjust to the best weight for itself. That will take time, and that is OK. Patience is a virtue. I am so glad I am off the path of "constant vigilance".

7:20 PM: I also want to add that I am following an idea from the Blue Zone Solution book to have tea. I am having green tea in the morning and herbal tea (a teaspoon of herb in an infuser) with a spoonful of special Trader Joe 10+ honey in the evening. I have tried mint, oregano, and rosemary tea. It may be that this is an appetite suppressant. I don't know. I do think it is somewhat calming.

Day 48 – Sunday, June 17, 2018:
I got up late and stepped on the scale while wearing a nightgown. The weight was 215.2 or 215.4. I am not surprised after eating so much yesterday. Because I got up at about 7:40 instead of 5:30, my weight would have been up to 1/2 pound higher at 5:30. I didn't record my weight at any rate.

I am not sure how to handle maintenance. I keep on being reminded of the stock market. After 9/11, when the stock market crashed, I pulled my money in retirement out. That cost us dearly. I eventually put it all back in. When the stock market crashed in 2008, I did not even bother to look. Now all that was lost has been recovered. I did look a little this spring, but mostly I just ignore it.

That may be the best approach with weight as well. It will take a long time for my body to find its correct weight. Do I want to fuss over slight changes? Not really. I think that, like investing in the stock market, the best approach may be "benign neglect". Really... what changes in behavior might I make based on weight? Nothing. Absolutely nothing. A 12 - 7 PM window seems to work, and I've tried so many others that have not worked as well. Would I try to restrict choice of food or quantity eaten? Nope. That just leads to "constant vigilance". I don't want that. The only thing I can do is continue cooking and educate myself on the best choices of ingredients in foods. For example, I am drinking green tea in the morning and herbal tea in the evening. Black beans are a health powerhouse. I have never cooked with black beans but can look around for recipes and try them out. That seems like a better use of my time than constant monitoring of my weight.

Day 49 – Monday, June 18, 2018: 214.6
While my mind wandered at church yesterday, it occurred to me that I knew why, in older English literature, the laity held in contempt those in the clergy who were fat: they did not keep the fasts! The exception was St. Thomas Aquinas who must have had some sort of metabolic disease. When I got up this morning, I weighed myself because I felt as though I was through what I might have called in my dieting days a binge. My desire for food is like a roller coaster. With fasting, you end up lower than when you started which is why, over time, you lose weight and why, in the short term, it may look as though you are not losing weight. It's like the stock market with its ups and downs.

The weight on my driver's license from August, 2014 is 220. It's a joke that a woman always puts down a weight lower than actual. What I told my mother is I weigh five pounds less than what is on my driver's license. Yes, weight loss is slow, but it IS!!!

How many years have I been stuck at 220 - 225? Now I am below 215. That is something to celebrate!

Day 53 – Friday, June 22, 2018: 215.6
I do eat for emotional comfort, and on Wednesday my sister and I traveled to New Jersey to witness my father's interment. My father was fond of quoting from The Lion King: "It's the circle of life." I wore the necklace that Ellie wore as a bridesmaid to Anne's wedding last year.

Today I get to start preparing for my trip to Oregon which starts on Sunday.

Day 54 – Saturday, June 23, 2018: 215.2
I requested that the local monastery have a Mass for my father, and this was the Gospel reading:
"Jesus said to his disciples:
"No one can serve two masters.
He will either hate one and love the other,
or be devoted to one and despise the other.
You cannot serve God and mammon.

"Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life,
what you will eat or drink,
or about your body, what you will wear.
Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing?
Look at the birds in the sky;
they do not sow or reap, they gather nothing into barns,
yet your heavenly Father feeds them.
Are not you more important than they?
Can any of you by worrying add a single moment to your life-span?
Why are you anxious about clothes?
Learn from the way the wild flowers grow.
They do not work or spin.
But I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor
was clothed like one of them.
If God so clothes the grass of the field,
which grows today and is thrown into the oven tomorrow,
will he not much more provide for you, O you of little faith?
So do not worry and say, 'What are we to eat?'
or 'What are we to drink?' or 'What are we to wear?'
All these things the pagans seek.
Your heavenly Father knows that you need them all.
But seek first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness,
and all these things will be given you besides.
Do not worry about tomorrow; tomorrow will take care of itself.
Sufficient for a day is its own evil."


Day 58 – Wednesday, June 27, 2018:
Dieting seems so virtuous because it requires self-discipline and the intent is good: to take care of the one body you have. The effects, however, are disastrous. I regret not seeing reality earlier, but at least I have taught our children to think for themselves and not just look at good intent.


https://www.wsj.com/articles/immigratio ... mail_share

Day 61 – Saturday, June 30, 2018:
Yesterday, Ellie and I hiked up Misery Ridge at Smith Rock State Park. At almost to the top, I sat down to rest and fainted. How embarrassing. I came to with people stretching me out to lay flat and Ellie on the phone to the rescue team. I had to get on the phone and say not to come. Ellie was really scared, but I assured her I could complete the hike if we went slowly especially until we reached the summit. I have now fainted four times in my life. This is the first time since we got married. We started hiking at about noon, and I had not had anything it eat. It was hot. It was humid. It was higher elevation than I am accustomed to. I am not 25. The trail was steep. I never felt in any physical danger. What is amazing is it did not occur to me to eat before the climb. I am really used to not eating in the morning. 18,335 steps yesterday!
Last edited by Kathleen on Sun Jul 01, 2018 4:26 am, edited 74 times in total.

Soprano
Posts: 1184
Joined: Thu Mar 08, 2018 8:56 pm
Location: UK

Post by Soprano » Thu May 31, 2018 7:29 pm

Kathleen I feel your trainer may be right you could well need some help with your eating. It seems a little obsessive.

I know IF works for some people but as you say in your signature "I was determined to find a way to lose weight without restricting what I eat or how much I eat. I only restrict when I eat." You simply can't continue to eat as much as you used to and achieve a sustainable weight loss.

I agree you need to eat what you want without any restrictions or judgement of good v bad food but I do worry this isn't going to work for you.

I wish you luck and hope you can find peace with food but do consider getting some help.

Jx
Never give up on a dream just because of the time it will take to accomplish it. The time will pass anyway.

Kathleen
Posts: 1685
Joined: Tue Sep 16, 2008 12:46 pm
Location: Minnesota

Post by Kathleen » Thu May 31, 2018 9:24 pm

Hi Soprano,

I think this may be the only way I can lose weight. Today I brought my size 18 jeans to donate to the thrift store. They were too big. Yesterday I put on my wedding ring which was too tight to wear.

I have had a weight problem since I was a teen and managed to keep at decent weight for 10 years and lose my pregnancy weight until 2002. It was difficult back then. Now that baby born in 2001 is in 11th grade. My life has changed much over the years but my weight has been steady for about 10 years.

Why? I think it may be that my body craved fat and I was so gullible I followed a low fat approach which starved my body into binge eating.

The future will tell. I have had the same personal trainer for just over four years. She has never seen my weight this low.

Kathleen
Last edited by Kathleen on Fri Jun 01, 2018 1:44 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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lpearlmom
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Post by lpearlmom » Fri Jun 01, 2018 5:49 am

You are doing fantastic! IF makes me less obsessive about food if anything. I know it looks strange to people on the outside but it’s really an amazing lifestyle. Most people don’t end up overeating in their window because fasting actually gets your hunger and satiety hormones in balance. This is called Appetite Correction.

Soprano, I’ve bedn doing Intermittent Fasting for seven months now with great success physically and mentally. Please msg me if you’re curious to learn about how it works. Would love to discuss it further.
:twisted: SW: 210 lbs
CW: 172
GW:160

Kathleen
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Post by Kathleen » Fri Jun 01, 2018 10:21 am

lpearlmom,
I agree that fasting makes you less obsessive about food. Who cares if you miss a meal by an hour or so? Who cares if you don't have a specific type of food at home? Really, who cares about what you put into your mouth? You eat what most appeals to you of what is readily available when you are able to eat (during your eating window). I'm not even upset if I end up eating past my eating window due to circumstances. Yesterday, for example, I was at Costco using my prescription card to buy what you use before a colonoscopy, which I am having next week since I turn 60 in the fall. The insurance card would not work. It ended up taking an hour for Costco to figure out Anne was listed as the primary. By the time I got home, it was almost 7. Fine. I ended up finishing eating at 7:15. Fine.

The effect of fasting seems to be cumulative. I don't anticipate gaining back weight because every single day I eat as much as I want of whatever I want.

Kathleen

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lpearlmom
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Post by lpearlmom » Sun Jun 03, 2018 3:28 pm

Exactly, it’s a totally flexible & freeing way of eating, IMO. 💜
:twisted: SW: 210 lbs
CW: 172
GW:160

simmstone
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Post by simmstone » Tue Jun 05, 2018 5:23 pm

Good for you for continuing to try find a way that works for you, Kathleen!

Personally, I love IF - though I don't really call it that for myself... I just happen to fall into the group that does really well using a 'black coffee for breakfast, one big plate at lunch and dinner' approach :)

I've used eating windows in the past, but I now enjoy setting aside distinct time for 2 slightly bigger meals each day, as I find it helps me make better choices with the food I eat and gives me more pleasure. This preference evolved over time for me, and I'm sure your tastes will evolve, as well, the longer you stick with this way of eating. My craving for sweet foods has dramatically decreased while following this pattern of eating, and my binge episodes have practically disappeared.

Just to give you some food for thought - once it feels virtually effortless to eat this way every day (it's ingrained as a habit) AND you reach a point where your weight stabilizes on this 'eat whatever you want during your eating window' plan (note that there is no need to 'prematurely optimize' your current plan or do anything different while you continue to trend downward - you should only adjust if/when the downward trend stops), THEN there are some additional techniques (i.e. sub-habits) you can use to try to optimize your way of eating for weight loss that aren't as radical as a multi-day fast each month.

When the 'eating window every day' habit is solid and appetite has decreased to the point that you are maintaining your weight, then, while keeping your eating window each day, you could also choose 2 or 3 days per week to set some kind of additional rule(s) around types of food eaten during your window. For example, you could use the 'eating window' PLUS the No S 'no sweets' rule on Mondays/Wednesdays/Fridays and then use only the 'eat whatever you want during your eating window' rule on Tues/Thurs/Sat/Sun. You could try that for a month and evaluate if it has any impact on weight loss. If it doesn't, you could then try adding an additional rule, like 'eating window' plus 'no sweets' PLUS 'no snacks' on Mondays/Wednesdays/Fridays, so that 3 days a week you just have 2 large meals during your eating window, and then you eat whatever you want during your window on other days. You could then try that for a month and evaluate impact on weight loss. Since you would keep your valuable habit (eating window) every day AND you'd never be more than a day away from having snacks/sweets, this might prove to be a more gentle intervention to induce weight reduction than, say, multi-day fasts which could (a) disrupt your habit and (b) produce some undesirable 'rebound eating', given your history with binge eating. This is just a little food for thought.

Best of luck to you as you continue on your journey!
"No S is such a good way to combat the randomness, which is often the slide into more and more." - oolala53

Kathleen
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Post by Kathleen » Wed Jun 06, 2018 2:10 pm

simmstone,

Oh, am I ever adjusted to the eating window! Mine is from 12 - 7 PM. I am having a colonoscopy on Friday and specifically asked if I could just fast from Wednesday to Friday instead of having to restrict what I eat. Last night, it occurred to me that I might as well eat past 7 PM since I won't be having anything until Friday night. Nope. I did not want to eat past 7 PM.

I did have a very stable weight from January to May and ended up deciding to have a multi-day fast as a way to end the plateau. It worked!

This week, I am taking advantage of the requirement to fast and hoping to get below 210.

I like the simplicity of eat whatever I want of anything I want. It would not be likely to work except for one thing: my taste in food is changing. Yesterday, I opened the freezer and took out frozen strawberries instead of vanilla ice cream because that is what I wanted. Admittedly, I also ate quite a few of the milk chocolate covered pretzels I bought from Trader Joe's.

My hope is multi day fasts will be how I break plateaus so I don't need to introduce other rules around eating -- but I will keep in mind that there are other options if multi day fasts do not do the trick. Thanks for the suggestion!

Kathleen

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lpearlmom
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Post by lpearlmom » Wed Jun 06, 2018 4:20 pm

Awesome! I notice a lot of ppls taste changing with IF. Yesterday I ordered a smoothie that I used to love but it now it seems way too sweet. I drank 1/2 and gave the rest to my daughter.

Smart idea doing extended fasts to. Read plateaus. The longest I’ve gone is 44 hrs. I really dislike missing out on family dinners. How long do you usually go?

Linda
:twisted: SW: 210 lbs
CW: 172
GW:160

Kathleen
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Post by Kathleen » Thu Jun 07, 2018 1:22 am

lpearlmom,

I tried extended fasting after four months of being at the same weight, and my weight only went down in December because I got sick and didn't eat much for three days. Today I did not eat at all. I did not like it. At all. Because I have a colonoscopy on Friday, I cannot just stop the fast. I can follow the eating rules for a colonoscopy but decided instead to experiment with a three day fast. This may be my last three day fast.

I may try just fasting one full day and picking up my next day's eating window of 12 - 7. Who knows? I am taking one step at a time, but today was fairly useless. I did very little.

My timing was well planned. Katie worked 7 - 3:30, Tommy worked 7 - 2, Ellie was in school 7:30 - 2, and Tom is in Hartford. I could get by with doing little.

Kathleen

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Post by Kathleen » Sun Jul 01, 2018 4:24 am

July, 2018: The Blessings of Simplicity starting May 1, 2018

Weight
Day 62 – Sunday, July 1, 2018: 215.0
47.25 - 41.25 - 48
Day 63 – Monday, July 2, 2018:
Day 64 – Tuesday, July 3, 2018: 214.2
Day 65 – Wednesday, July 4, 2018: 214.4
Day 66 – Thursday, July 5, 2018: 214.4
Day 67 – Friday, July 6, 2018: 214.6
Day 68 – Saturday, July 7, 2018: 214.8
Day 69 – Sunday, July 8, 2018: 214.8
Day 70 – Monday, July 9, 2018: 215.0
Day 71 – Tuesday, July 10, 2018:
Day 72 – Wednesday, July 11, 2018:
Day 73 – Thursday, July 12, 2018:
Day 74 – Friday, July 13, 2018:
Day 75 – Saturday, July 14, 2018:
Day 76 – Sunday, July 15, 2018: 212.4
Day 77 – Monday, July 16, 2018:
Day 78– Tuesday, July 17, 2018:
Day 79 – Wednesday, July 18, 2018:
Day 80 – Thursday, July 19, 2018:
Day 81 – Friday, July 20, 2018: 213.6
Day 82 – Saturday, July 21, 2018: 215.4
Day 83 – Sunday, July 22, 2018:
Day 84 – Monday, July 23, 2018:
Day 85 – Tuesday, July 24, 2018: 214.6
Day 86 – Wednesday, July 25, 2018:
Day 87 – Thursday, July 26, 2018: 214.8
Day 88 – Friday, July 27, 2018: 214.0
Day 89 – Saturday, July 28, 2018:
Day 90 – Sunday, July 29, 2018:212.4
Day 91 – Monday, July 30, 2018: 214.4
Day 92 – Tuesday, July 31, 2018: 214.8

Journal
Day 62 – Sunday, July 1, 2018: 215.0
The last few days were not in compliance with eating only between 12 and 7 PM, and that is OK. My weight went up to 215, and that is OK. When else was I going to have marionberry pie at the Dayville Cafe in Dayville, OR or fresh eggs from chickens that my brother has in Hood River, OR? There is a time and a place for fasting, and it is not when out enjoying your family. I did decide I am going to track the number of days per month that I only eat between 12 and 7 PM as a way to motivate myself to eat within that eating window. The only thing I would have changed on our vacation was to not go up Misery Ridge, but I certainly should have had something to eat before I did.

I am going to take my measurements monthly, but it is hard to do so especially at my waist where fat just flops around in rolls. Reality. That is reality.

Day 64 – Tuesday, July 3, 2018: 214.2
Ellie got sick, so we are staying home from visiting my in-laws and being bystanders in arguments about selling my mother in law's house and land. Good timing. I need the days to catch up, anyway. There are loose ends with getting a bathroom remodel done and making sure Katie has luggage for Spain and preparing for a houseboat trip. I've just been racing all summer.

Last week, I ate outside my eating window for three or four days in a row. It was very appropriate because that was when Ellie and I could visit with Anne and then my brother, BUT it definitely set me back. I have more of a desire for sweets which I am indulging. Do I want to restrict eating of sweets? No. I want to work on staying within my eating window. I succeeded on Sunday and yesterday and am on track to succeed today. Eventually, I think, I'll be back on track to lose weight. No one seems to be able to tell that I have lost weight, but I sure can tell -- and I can wear my wedding ring.

Day 65 – Wednesday, July 4, 2018: 214.4
I believe I am through eating lots of sweets, but we shall see. Instead of resisting these urges to overeat, I simply accept them and let go. My only focus is on eating within my 12 - 7 PM window. Weight loss is so slow that I wonder if it would not be best for me to just not pay attention to the process, but I do enjoy tracking. For example, I weight 214.4 today. Prior to this year, the only time in at least 8 years that I weighed this little was when I got really sick about 4 years ago and did not eat. Now I am up to 214.4 pounds. I just have to accept that this approach to weight loss, while it does result in permanent weight loss, is very slow.

11:52 AM: I've been tempted to have a couple of days per week with a longer fast, perhaps to 3 PM. Sitting at the computer with 8 minutes to go before I eat, I realize this is a very dumb idea. It unnecessarily complicates an eating method that is producing weight loss, and it tempts me to break a fast before noon. If I had resolved to wait until 3 PM today before eating, I bet I would be eating right now instead of waiting until noon. Meanwhile, I am recognizing the importance of learning to cook. Today, I'm making lentil soup for me. Yesterday, I made chicken noodle soup for Ellie who, it turns out, may have mono. That effectively ends her summer working at a daycare. We will know later this week, but she has been in bed since she came home from Oregon on Saturday night.

Day 66 – Thursday, July 5, 2018: 214.4
Yesterday, while standing in the kitchen, I was eating crackers with peanut butter on them, and it occurred to me to ask, "Why?" "Why am I eating?" I was not hungry. It seemed to be just a habit to grab whatever I can eat.

I then thought that, if I keep this up, "Why?" will become "Why bother?" Seriously, why bother? If I can eat as much as I want of anything I want for seven straight hours every single day, why bother to eat right now when I'm not even hungry?

I'm not yet to that stage of "Why bother?", but I think I am close.

6:42 PM: Maybe I have reached the "Why bother?" stage. I made a spinach salad which I was going to have for dinner, after admittedly munching much of the day, but then I decided I did not want it. Instead, I wanted my herbal tea with honey, which I have come to consider as an ending point for eating for the day. It is too early to tell, but maybe I am not longer going to waste time and money eating when I don't enjoy it and am not hungry.

Day 67 – Friday, July 6, 2018: 214.6
I think something happened yesterday, but time will tell. My driving need to eat was due to a fear of starvation from all the years I dieted, and finally I think that driving need is dissipating. I am doing the exact opposite of what the medical experts say to do: eat moderately. Portion control. Wise choice of foods. Instead, I am eating what I want during a limited period of time. The wise choice of foods is resulting from limiting what I eat. That was my big surprise. I do still have sweets, but the desire for what to eat is moving from sweets to vegetables -- vegetables! I wanted a spinach salad yesterday. Totally bizarre.

11 PM: I have lost the taste for sugar but continue eating out of habit, so now I think I need to proactively choose better foods and not just eat the same old stuff out of habit. I am desiring vegetables and eat things like spinach salads but am also eating my old standbys. The one sweet I think I will continue eating is one I have not eaten much prior to starting fasting, and that is honey. I have honey with tea at night and also honey as part of homemade salad dressings. Indulging in a lot of pie two days in a row last week set me back. There seems to be some maximum amount of sweets I eat before I end up back eating a lot of sweets. Now I think I need to limit sweets in order to be successful at weight loss. It should not be that hard. It is almost as if tastes shift if you have too many sweets. I'm so far down the path of wanting good food that I now realize going over having a certain amount of sweets results in a detour.


Day 68 – Saturday, July 7, 2018: 214.8
I have zero tolerance for coffee. If I have some, I want more. That is not the case with tea, for some reason. I must have limited tolerance for sweets, and I exceeded that limit with those two slices of pie that I had last week. Very interesting. This is why Dr. Bert Herring calls weight management a "study of one": you have to figure out what works for you.

It is not that I am going to limit my sweet intake. It's that I'm going to be careful, recognizing that I can end up tipping into sweet craving if I have too much. It is very odd that I want to have sweets but don't really enjoy them. This involves some awareness but not self-discipline. It's like having a food that causes an allergic reaction. The pain of the allergic reaction exceeds the pleasure of having the food, so you don't have the food.

Also, I am well aware that I've been spending a ton of money because I am buying organic fruit like strawberries, expensive honey like the Maluka 10+ honey from Trader Joe's, and then junk: crackers, cheese, ice cream, chocolate-covered pretzels... It is no wonder my weight went up slightly.

One more strange thing: Honey is a sweet but is not something I need to limit. I have it in tea, but it does not trigger a reaction.

5 PM: Restriction is a bad idea. All I did was eat today.

Day 69 – Sunday, July 8, 2018: 214.8
Today is much better. I need to accept the weight that results from only restricting when I eat.

Day 70 – Monday, July 9, 2018: 215.0
I sincerely hope I have learned my lesson this time. The more I focus on creating rules for eating, the less I pay attention to what my body actually wants. The more I focus on rules for eating, the more I take advantage of eating everything that I am allowed under my self-created rules. If a candy bar is allowed, then I'll eat a candy bar! If a candy bar is not allowed, then I'll eat one when it is allowed!

Totally frustrating. I need to accept the weight that results from eating within my eating window.

Tomorrow, I leave for California to spend time with my mother. Weight management will not be on my to-do list.

12 PM: I ate a lot this morning because I was planning to eat in the morning anyway when getting together with a friend. As I was driving back, I thought this is ridiculous. I just need to decide to be healthy.

Day 71 – Tuesday, July 10, 2018:
I did not weigh myself today and will not be able to weigh myself again until Sunday. The Happy Scale app which I am using shows three periods of weight increase over the last year. I think I am in another one. I think that has to be OK. The slow weight loss also has to be OK. I need to "get a life" and focus on something else.

The nice thing about fasting is you can self-correct by simply going back to eating within your eating window if you veer outside of it as I did yesterday -- both before noon and after 7. Sure, there were reasons, especially when visiting with a friend. There were also excuses. I could have eaten relatively quickly last night but continued eating to 8:30. Really, does it matter? Any increase in weight from yesterday's food fest will be gone by the time I weigh myself on Sunday.

I need to not be so harsh on myself and just move on. The weight will come off in its own time if I just stick with the program. One thing I am realizing is that I am losing the fear of hunger and the fear of missing out in eating. I noticed that last night when I picked up Ellie from work, took her to a trombone lesson, and then stopped at McDonald's on the way home. She was starving. Not me. I was fine with not having had dinner before 7. That comes from eating so much yesterday but it also comes from what is built into fasting: you learn to manage to not eating the second you become hungry. What a terrible way to live: to feel as though you must eat now!

Day 76 – Sunday, July 15, 2018: 212.4
My Mom wanted me to have breakfast before I left for the airport yesterday, so I agreed. Her retirement community has a breakfast where you can order as many dishes as you want. Anticipating that I would not have lunch, I had Greek yogurt with blueberries, a pancake with syrup and butter, a two-egg omlette with mushrooms and Swiss cheese with a couple of slices of avocado on the side, and several cups of coffee with cream. It was quite an indulgence. When I got to the airport, my body revolted: it was too much of a change from my norm of eating nothing until noon. I went to the restroom twice in the airport and twice while on the plane. I had sparkling water on the plane and nothing for dinner. It is 10 AM, almost 24 hours later, and I have not yet eaten since that breakfast. I'm still not hungry.

Why? I speculated on why this morning while at church. Based on what I have read and been told by lpearlmom, I believe the mystery to why everyone suddenly got fat is our bodies stopped viewing fat as fuel because we limited how much fat we ate. Low fat diets led to a craving for sugar. Fat got stored. Further evidence of this theory is a cookbook, circa 1980, that I picked up from the library book sale for $1. Ingredients from the recipes include heavy cream, butter, and bacon. There is no reference to low fat anything.

Now my body is used to eating fat because of fasting, and it wants to get rid of the fat still in my body. I did discuss my diet with my mother, who told me I had no common sense and fasting was hurting my body. I told her I had concluded a long time a go that the defining characteristic of fat people is gullibility, and she said, "You are gullible." Yes, I am. I bought into the line: "Breakfast is the most important meal of the day." I also bought into calorie restriction. My mother pushed and pushed on switching back to skim milk because it has fewer calories. That advice sounds sensible. It's just plain wrong.

She thought I was losing weight way too slowly. I told her I feel like I am on the edge of a cliff, about to go over into becoming thin. I still feel that way. In fact, I wonder if I just went over the edge yesterday. This is very hard to explain, but it is almost as if my body has discovered a ready supply of fuel is right here in my body already. Why eat when fuel is readily available already?

Day 78– Tuesday, July 17, 2018:
The other night, I finished my tea with honey and then realized it was after 7 PM. Did I want to mark down that I had not stayed within my eating window? No. In fact, I think this approach to weight management benefits from benign neglect. The weight loss is so slow that it is better to focus on other things and just wait for my body to give up extra weight. It is hard to describe, but this is definitely a passive approach to weight management. I don't have to do anything. I just have to avoid eating except between 12 and 7 PM daily. What could be easier? No calorie counting. No measuring out food. No deciding a food is good or bad. I eat what appeals to me in the quantity that satisfies me. I do try to learn about what foods are good for you, and I do try to make meals that have these foods. For example, yesterday, I made a slow cooker coconut curry from allrecipes.com. It was well-received, surprisingly, even from my meat-eating husband.

Last week, I visited my mother who is very lonely since the death of my father. In addition to losing her life-long companion, she lost her job: her life was consumed with making sure my Dad had the best possible care.

We got into a discussion about finances. My brother is encouraging her to invest with a certain company who does ETFs. ETFs are a growth industry because they are similar to indexed funds but have enough complexity that the management company gets a much bigger cut of the action. Last year, I met with management companies about our own retirement and was shocked to learn that the industry standard is 2% of assets per year just to manage your money. On a million dollars in retirement money, that is about $20,000 or almost one full year's tuition for Katie at U of M. $20,000 per year for each million dollars of investment income. Whose retirement are they funding? Theirs or ours? What a scammy business.

My brother is trying to talk my mother into investing where the percentage is under 1%. I told her that is very competitive, but what I have done is put all my money into the Vanguard S&P 500 traditional index mutual fund. The cost is way under 1% -- about 1/8th of a percent. Yes, the stock market goes up and down, but over time, the Vanguard S&P 500 has delivered an average of 11% even including the stock market crash of 2008. Ellie is taking an online course in personal finance (required for high school), and she asked me what the impact on us was of the 2008 stock market crash. Nothing. I did not even look at our stock portfolio because we were not planning to touch it. At this point, even if there is a crash right when we retire, so what? We are way ahead having stuck with the Vanguard S&P 500.

Why am I going into great detail about this? Well, I have long thought that weight management, like savings, has to be really simple or you don't stick with it.

Management companies want to make investing look complicated because they benefit. Who benefits from making weight management look complicated? Look around. Nutritionists. Companies like Weight Watchers and Jenny Craig. Food companies that produce products like Lean Cuisine.

Who benefits from a simple approach like fasting? A few people who write books.

The bottom line is that a simple approach to saving money has paid off well with minimal effort. Even when I was working, it seemed like little effort because money went towards retirement through automatic withdrawal. I didn't see it because it did not end up in my checking account.

Fasting requires a similar level of effort. You get used to not having breakfast and not eating after dinner, just like I got used to money going towards retirement. I have experimented with different eating windows on different days but found it too complicated, just like trying to balance a portfolio makes things way complicated.

I'm settled now into fasting like I settled long ago into investing in the S&P 500. I did do a lot of research when I was trying to figure out how to invest. My philosophy is best described in this book: "Winning With The Market: Beat the Traders and Brokers in Good Times and Bad" by Douglas R. Sease, published in 2001.

With regard to weight management, I think the best description is in "AC: The Power of Appetite Correction" by Dr. Bert Herring, published in 2015. His biggest argument is "Fat is fuel." The fat in my body is fuel. My body, by eating all the time, had gotten out of the practice of accessing the fat in my body because of constant eating. There is a lot of information in the book on breaking plateaus and types of hunger, but the main takeaway from that book for me was that you can eat within a set window and eventually your appetite will be corrected because your body will learn to access fat. It's a simple concept with a simple plan of execution: just eat within a limited number of hours daily, if possible. I shake my head in disgust thinking of all the things I have tried, but I had two very counter-productive beliefs: "Breakfast is the most important meal of the day" and "Fat makes you fat."

No, fat does not make you fat. What makes you fat is your body learns to store fat instead of use it when you eat too much. If you fast, your body gets into the practice of accessing the fat in your body instead of craving sugar for immediate fuel. The most important line in Dr. Herring's book, at least to me, is this: "FAT IS FUEL."

I do need to put effort into being healthy, but the effort is for exercise. With exercise, I have to do something. I have not done fast walking since last Tuesday and need to go today.

Day 81 – Friday, July 20, 2018: 213.6
I had personal training with Kayla yesterday and told her I was just going to stick with this passive approach of fasting for weight management and then we discussed building on my baseline exercise program of 10,000 steps per day/ 3 days per week of fast walking a total of 6 minutes/ morning exercise routine to strengthen core. I also told her that I have gone down a cup size for my bras. This is working. It is easy.

I still am debating about weighing myself daily and decided to go ahead today.

Day 84 – Monday, July 23, 2018:
Well, weighing myself can result in a change in plans. The problem with this diet approach is that there are constant social reasons to eat outside the eating window, and the social situations that are particularly problematic are those that involve having breakfast. I had breakfast on both Saturday and Sunday.

Also, in the back of my mind, I was hoping I could put a weight under 200 on my driver's license when I renew in October. I am not on track to get there!

What to do? Well, I remember reading somewhere that a person used a restrictive eating window as a way to maintain weight but went to one meal a day to reduce weight. I think I'm going to try that except just have a window of 5 - 7 PM for days when I restrict. I can mark that down on my tracking sheet for exercise.

The downside of that approach is that I will be more likely to eat just before 7 on the day before the fast day. That happened yesterday on my way home from camp. I stopped at a McDonald's just before 7 to have a happy meal even though I was not hungry. That is in contrast to the last time I was driving home from camp on June 13.

That is OK. I am going to try this. My weight is way up after two days of eating from breakfast on, and I really feel it. That is also OK.

I did not weigh myself today and am not sure the next time I will weigh myself.

Day 85 – Tuesday, July 24, 2018: 214.6
I decided to weigh myself the morning after a fast day, which I now define as eating only between 5 PM and 7 PM. It was actually easy to fast yesterday. Maybe I was stuffed from how much I ate on Sunday.

I told Tom I am trying something really out there as a last attempt at improving my hearing. What I am doing is having a drink made of Ceylon cinnamon and Maruka honey once a day right at 5 if I am fasting. My years of following the bad medical advice of "low fat" is making me susceptible to trying unfounded theories from the Internet, since I am skeptical of medical certainties. I've tried a bunch of theories for hearing loss, and this is my last one. Cassia cinnamon can cause liver damage, so I placed an order of cinnamon sticks directly from Ceylon. Cassia cinnamon sticks and Ceylon cinnamon sticks look very different, so that is how I can be positive I have the right type. I will grind down the cinnamon sticks. The cinnamon sticks arrive tomorrow.

It is really scary to have such significant hearing loss because my father had significant dementia before he died, and hearing loss is strongly correlated to dementia. My mother attributes my father's dementia to his two strokes, but I am not so sure. His hearing loss started when he was about 60.

This is a much more significant issue to me than weight loss, which is why I just want a weight loss program I can follow and not have it occupy too much of my thoughts.

Day 87 – Thursday, July 26, 2018: 214.8
I ate a ton of food when we went out for dinner Tuesday night, and then I sailed through Wednesday not eating until 5 PM. Yesterday I debated about having fast days with a 5 - 7 PM eating window and decided that I could handle it but would only do it on days when other people don't notice. Yesterday was one such day, but I am up .2 pounds from two days ago because of how much I ate on Tuesday night. Am I upset with myself for how much I ate on Tuesday night? Nope. I wanted to make sure I could last to 5 PM not eating yesterday. Last night, I ate but not a ton and today I will fast until 5 PM. I think I will record fast days and try to stay within the 12 - 7 PM eating window on other days if socially possible. This weekend, we head back to camp to pick up Ellie on Saturday morning. It has been a super busy summer so far, and we will be gone every single weekend in August. Family first. I should not work until Ellie goes to college and Tom gets another job.

Day 88 – Friday, July 27, 2018: 214.0
I have now lost 12 pounds in about 14 months. The Happy Scale app tells me my overall rate of loss is .19 pounds per week. Not exciting.... I don't think I'm going to complicate my life by trying to have days when I start eating at 5 PM. Yesterday I tried it and didn't feel too great in the afternoon and then wolfed down a lot of food right at 5.

Day 91 – Monday, July 30, 2018: 214.4
I would not recommend the pizza at Itasca State Park, the park for the headwaters of the Mississippi River. Tom and I picked up Ellie from camp and took Katie and Ellie there. The pizza tasted good, but both of us felt sick afterwards.

We also got fudge. I remember the fudge from two years ago, when I ate an entire square. This time, I took a bite and did not like it. Then I took a bite of a different flavor and did not like it. I then turned to Tom and said, "This is why I think I will be successful losing weight. I did not enjoy the fudge."

Yesterday, I did enjoy the fudge and had a lot of sweets. Was I just sick on Saturday? No. I think it is more complicated than that. I think my taste in food is changing in waves just like my weight is changing in waves. I have to be patient. If I push myself to eat less than I want, this all will collapse. So far this month, I have been above 215 only once. I got below 215 about two years ago when I was sick for two days but that is the only time since before 2010 than I have been below 215. Soldier on... I need to be patient.

Day 92 – Tuesday, July 31, 2018: 214.8
Yesterday, I had my annual mammogram, and I also had my blood pressure tested with the average of six readings coming out as 151/97. What? I have consistently had 120/80 as my blood pressure readings, including most recently in May. Two possibilities come to mind: drinking coffee and having a mixture of Ceylon cinnamon and Maruka honey. I got the Ceylon cinnamon direct from Ceylon. When I was admitting this to Tom and Tommy, Tommy was very concerned I was going off the deep end with kooky ideas. Me too. I think the honey is OK but that cinnamon concerns me. So much for that.

Cringe. I have an idea of what I could do to improve my hearing. It's an exercise I hate even more than the fast walking. Fast walking is a part of my life because I have tested over and over again that I can wear my wedding ring if I do it and cannot wear my wedding ring if I don't do it. Now I get to test if this detestable exercise that I dropped years ago may help my hearing. It's stretches with bands. It takes two minutes.

Meanwhile, with regard to weight management, I just need to let my weight float down over time as I realize that I am not going to starve myself. I have better things to do than worry about weight.

Kathleen
Posts: 1685
Joined: Tue Sep 16, 2008 12:46 pm
Location: Minnesota

Post by Kathleen » Wed Aug 01, 2018 2:59 pm

August, 2018: The Blessings of Simplicity starting May 1, 2018

Weight
Day 93 – Wednesday, August 1, 2018: 214.6
47.25 - 44 - 47
Day 94 – Thursday, August 2, 2018:
Day 95 – Friday, August 3, 2018: 213.8
Day 96 – Saturday, August 4, 2018: 212.8
Day 97 – Sunday, August 5, 2018:
Day 98 – Monday, August 6, 2018:
Day 99 – Tuesday, August 7, 2018:
Day 100 – Wednesday, August 8, 2018:
Day 101 – Thursday, August 9, 2018:
Day 102 – Friday, August 10, 2018:
Day 103 – Saturday, August 11, 2018:
Day 104 – Sunday, August 12, 2018:
Day 105– Monday, August 13, 2018: 215.8
Day 106 – Tuesday, August 14, 2018: 214.8
Day 107 – Wednesday, August 15, 2018: 212.8
Day 108 – Thursday, August 16, 2018: 215.2
Day 109 – Friday, August 17, 2018: 215.0
Day 110 – Saturday, August 18, 2018: 215.2
Day 111 – Sunday, August 19, 2018: 212.6
Day 112 – Monday, August 20, 2018:
Day 113 – Tuesday, August 21, 2018: 213.6
Day 114 – Wednesday, August 22, 2018: 211.8
Day 115 – Thursday, August 23, 2018: 212.6
Day 116 – Friday, August 24, 2018:
Day 117 – Saturday, August 25, 2018:
Day 118 – Sunday, August 26, 2018:
Day 119 – Monday, August 27, 2018: 212.6
Day 120 – Tuesday, August 28, 2018: 212.8
Day 121 – Wednesday, August 29, 2018: 212.6
Day 1 – Thursday, August 30, 2018: 213.6
Day 2 – Friday, August 31, 2018: 211.0



Journal
Day 93 – Wednesday, August 1, 2018: 214.6
It is so frustrating to lose weight so slowly but I am locking in maximums. By that I mean my walking goal is 10,000 steps per day, my fast walking goal is 6 minutes three times per week, and my eating window is 12 - 7 PM. I've tested higher goals, and they don't work. For weight management, I am holding on to my cardinal rules of no restrictions except for time (I can eat anything I want and as much as I want). I may want to add writing down what I eat. If there are no restrictions, maybe that will work for me. I do track all our expenditures which keeps our expenses in line. This is similar.

Day 95 – Friday, August 3, 2018: 213.8
Writing down what I eat was a failure. I just don't want to do it. I do think I need to do something in addition to eating within an eating window, so I am going to try changing how I eat. For the next week, starting on Sunday, we will be on a houseboat in Northern Minnesota. It will be very relaxing. I think I may just try adding trying to sit down when eating, if possible. It will still be OK to try Costco taste tests when standing, but when I am home and eating, I need to put forth the effort to sit down. No more eating while standing in front of an open refrigerator.

Day 96 – Saturday, August 4, 2018: 212.8
Having to sit down to eat may be an effective strategy for my eating less willingly.

Day 107 – Wednesday, August 15, 2018: 215.8
OMG. I took a vacation! It's OK, though. I am reminded of what Frederick Douglass wrote about the break from Christmas to New Year's that slaves had every year. No work. Lots of food and alcohol. By the end of the time, some of the more self-indulgent slaves wanted to go back to the fields. This was written by a former slave! While I had only about a drink a day, I tend to go weeks without drinking. There were several days when I ate outside my eating window. We were on a boat and landed on areas with few to no hiking trails. It was hot. It was buggy. We mostly stayed in the houseboat and read or played games. I bet I walked less than 1,000 steps on some days, especially on that last day when the island was really small. We could swim, but I found the water too cold.

Was it fun? You betcha. It is somewhat disorienting returning to civilization. It was beautiful up there. The night sky was my favorite. We saw light from Mars reflected in the lake. My father, who died at age 92, saw light from Venus reflected in water twice in his life. I told the kids they saw something few have ever seen. Mars is closer to earth now than it has since 2003, and we were in a dark sky for sure.

Now what? Back to earth. I don't regret letting go one bit. I needed it. Medieval history was full of feasts and fasts, and I am thinking that is how man was meant to live. Constant, dull moderation leads to binges. A cycle of fast and feast regulates appetite. I suspect my weight will drop rather quickly, but we shall see. I don't think I'm going to add on more rules like sitting down to eat when possible.

Fasting depresses appetite. I need to stay with the plan.

Day 106 – Tuesday, August 14, 2018: 214.8
I did not fast walk yesterday but will try to do so today. Yesterday, I was about 11,000 steps and told Tom that I may have walked a total of 11,000 steps all last week when we were on the houseboat! My body desires to return to being more active, which is good! Acorns need to be shoveled off the driveway today.

Day 107 – Wednesday, August 15, 2018: 212.8
I have my monthly half hour of personal training with Kayla today, and I think I'm going to focus on posture. It is frustrating that I am losing weight so slowly, but I am losing weight. My BMI just went below 35 which is the line between obese and super obese. I also have no concerns about regaining the weight because every day for seven hours I have unrestricted access to food -- anything I want and as much of it as I want. It's time to focus on something else and let my weight drift down. This approach of fast 17 hours and eat 7 hours is the exact opposite of the idea of portion control and moderate eating.

I have a book called Misguided Medicine which is a chapter by chapter list of some of the major medical mistakes of the past decade or two. It is mostly focused on nutrition. Examples: Margarine was worse than butter. Canola oil has a low smoke point and so is a poor choice for cooking oil. At the end of the book, the author brings up Laocoon, who warned his city that that Trojan horse might not be such a good thing to bring into the city by saying, "I fear Greeks, even those bearing gifts." The gods punished Laocoon by sending sea serpents to drown him and his two sons, and so he did not live to see Greek soldiers exit the hollow Trojan horse to take the city. There is a famous statue of the Laocoon and his two sons being drowned, and I inherited a replica of it from my father, who was like "a bull in a china shop" and got fired a few times in his life.

All those well meaning diets to restrict eating work for a time. Like Laocoon, some of the authors of the fasting approach to weight management are not well respected, but respect will come with results.

The height of foolishness is to do the same thing over and over and expect different results. I finally have found a different approach which works and just need time to see the end result.

My focus will now be on hearing loss. I tried a combination of cinnamon and honey which did not improve hearing but seems to have shot my normally low blood pressure (121/80 in May) into dangerous territory (151/97 in July), but I stopped with that experiment and now am back to fairly good blood pressure of 113/85. I hope it returns to normal in a couple of weeks.

No, now my goal is good posture with the hope that it improves my hearing. My father had both poor posture and hearing loss. That is a correlation. It does not prove that poor posture causes hearing loss, and it certainly does not indicate that an improvement in posture will result in better hearing, but that is the experiment I am going to do. If my hearing does not improve, at least I will have better posture.

My theory is that poor posture reduces blood circulation into the head which results in poor hearing. I have the advantage of no biology since high school which means I can come up with theories that may be way off track but may be ones that trained scientists may not have.

Going forward, however, I won't try experiments unless they are proven to provide benefits even if they do not improve hearing.

2 PM: My conversation with Kayla this morning gave me this insight: for most people, you cannot be fat if you fast. I have thought about this possibility before because I remember how much disdain folks had towards clergy who were fat. If they were fat, they were not keeping the religious fasts. Why do I think this? I hit a limit in eating if I fast. It's not that I choose not to eat. It's that I cannot eat. If I go past that limit, I end up feeling sick. When in the past have I felt sick from overeating? Hmmm.. I cannot recall.

Day 108 – Thursday, August 16, 2018: 215.2
I decided to just have soup for dinner and that backfired with a lot of eating at about 9. Dumb. I have to commit to letting my weight drift down. This is a passive activity. My sole responsibility is to try to eat only between noon and 7 PM each day. The results will come. They already have come. I just have to be patient.

I entertained Kayla yesterday by telling her that Tom was smirking about my very slow weight loss. I told him that I put my high school weight of 132 in my weight loss app and got the calculation that I would get there in 2028.

She laughed. She said 132 might be a little low. I told her that it doesn't matter what weight I put in my app because I don't have a weight goal. My goal is a process goal, a behavior goal: eating between noon and 7 PM daily. I have to let go.

It wasn't lack of control that made me obese. It was too much control. My body rebelled.

Day 110 – Saturday, August 18, 2018: 215.2
Reality. I am not losing weight fast enough. Period. I guess it took time for me to face reality. What can I do differently? What can I do in addition to fasting? I am going to add in my SET habits:
Sit down to eat.
Eat without distraction.
Take a sip between bites.

I did try to follow these habits at the same time that I started fasting, and that was unworkable: it was too much. Now that I am set in fasting, I'll add the SET habits.

I detest them. I have had to face they are necessary. For some reason, taking a sip between bites, in particular, affects how much I can eat.

Can I manage even if I detest following them? Yes. I have told Kayla many times how much I hate to sweat, hate to do that fast walking. What I have done is commit to fast walking 3 times per week in the morning so I can go home and bathe right away. It works. Part of the reason why it works is I also am committed to never doing more than six minutes or more than three times per week.

Kayla told me it is surprising I have a personal trainer given how much I hate to exercise. Sure. I hate to exercise, but I hate more not being able to wear my wedding ring. It's all a matter of choices. A little pain is worth the gain.

This little pain of following the SET habits is also doable. Calorie counting is not a long term strategy because almost no one can override the body's natural desire to survive. No, this is what I need to do. I can do it now that I realize it is my path out of obesity.

Day 111 – Sunday, August 19, 2018: 212.6
Taking a sip between bites really works. I actually started eating yesterday at 9 AM as a way to ease myself into adding these three habits, but I must say that taking a sip between bites is the most important of the three habits.
Today will be an easy day for me. I'm driving about four hours to pick up Katie. Later this week, we drive down to Indiana for a college visit and to see Anne and Tony. Katie is home just two weeks before she goes to Spain. We then flip into fall where I will be bored out of my mind, but I'm making a conscious decision to stick with this approach of an eating window 12 - 7 PM daily and the SET habits. I can evaluate in January.

The idea of taking a sip between bites, by the way, came from a book called The Weigh Down Diet which mostly was about going to God to help you with your food addiction and waiting for a stomach growl before you eat. I remember trying it the summer before I started on No S, which was 2008. It was the worst diet ever. I actually gained weight. My stomach would growl at odd times and then I would feel a compulsion to eat as much as I could because I would have to wait for another stomach growl before I could eat again. I called it "The Hunger Satisfaction Diet" and it was anything but. It led to binge eating that was unusually intense even by my standards. What I did later was consider the possibility that there was something in that book that did help people lose weight. I went back and read through it and found two habits that the author wanted the dieter to form: one was to take a sip between bites and the other was to cut your food in half, eat half, and then evaluate if you are still hungry. I have previously tried taking a sip between bites, but it was a pain especially for eating ice cream. Now I think that I'll just follow this habit when appropriate. It would destroy the experience of eating popsicles or ice cream if I tried to take a sip of a liquid between bites, but I can take a sip between bites for most foods. My tendency to absolutes defeated me. "Good enough" will work for me in following these habits.

9 PM: I started eating at 9:30 AM. It's hard enough for me to add these SET habits without also sticking to a noon to 7 PM eating window. I'll gradually return my eating window to noon to 7 PM.

Day 113 – Tuesday, August 21, 2018: 213.6
I managed to follow the SET habits yesterday but started eating at 9. It's time to return to my noon to 7 PM eating window.

Day 114 – Wednesday, August 22, 2018: 211.8
Yesterday, I had to get Katie to the dentist at 1 so I ate just before noon, and I had to be present with Ellie at an hour-long chemical awareness presentation at the high school from 6 - 7 PM, so we did not eat until 7:30 - 8. I am adjusting back fairly quickly to my eating window now that I am getting used to my SET habits, and those habits do seem to be having an impact on my appetite. It is very odd. I have no idea why taking a sip between bites would have any effect except to slow down eating, but it seems to have even more of an impact than that. Because I was rushing around with Katie on errands she needs to do before she goes to Spain, I did have limited time to eat and maybe that is part of the reason why I did not eat as much. This morning, however, I am not hungry like I can be sometimes when a schedule problem resulted in my eating too little on the previous day.

Our trip to Indiana tomorrow through Sunday night is our last scheduled trip. This has been a hectic summer, and then suddenly in two weeks it will just be Tom, Ellie and me. Ellie is a senior applying to colleges, but she is only applying to two. One is in Indiana, and we are visiting on Friday before we go see Tony and Anne in Bloomington. The rest of the semester should be quiet and uneventful for me.

Of course, Tom is on the way out on his job and has surgery next week. You never know what is around the corner. I am happy he is saying he needs to leave the job because of his health. I have long advocated for a job at Home Depot than one that requires weekly travel and long hours. Poverty is to be preferred to death, and the economy is doing well.

You have to choose. Those were the most memorable words from a professor during my college years.

With dieting, I have chosen intermittent fasting and now am supplementing it with the SET habits. Intermittent fasting, like fast walking, is set. The SET habits are still an experiment.

Day 119 – Monday, August 27, 2018: 212.6
This diet is as difficult as watching paint dry. I do think that taking a sip between bites of food is key, and I have had to remind myself to do just that. Results will be slow but permanent. I am going to do my best to not pay much attending to my weight and just record it.

8 PM: Ugh. I started eating at 11:30 AM out of convenience because I had to drive Tom to the shuttle, and I decided not to take sips between bites. I felt really lousy later in the day. In fact, I'm about to go to bed.

It's amazing how quickly my body got used to taking a sip between bites. Why in the world would this make such a big difference? I have no idea.

Day 120 – Tuesday, August 28, 2018: 212.8
I do not understand why it is so effective to take a sip between bites, but I do not think the effectiveness is due to slowing down eating. Somehow, the digestion process is different. It's not for me to figure out why this works. I just need to follow this habit. I do also try to sit down when eating and eat without distraction, but it is the habit of taking a sip between bites that seems to be so effective.

What I have learned with eating in the morning is I can eat breakfast once and there is no negative impact, but when I eat twice it is hard to return to skipping breakfast. What I have learned with fast walking is I can skip fast walking once but not twice. Because of our trip last week, I returned to fast walking by walking only 2 minutes yesterday. Tomorrow I will fast walk 4 minutes. Then by Friday I will be able to return to my standard of 6 minutes.

What I learned yesterday is there are immediate negative effects of not sipping between bites once your body has become accustomed to it.

Live and learn. Maybe I should say that this is what I have learned about my body. This may not be true for everyone.

Day 121 – Wednesday, August 29, 2018: 212.6
I took a pause yesterday to consider whether I really wanted to build a habit of taking a sip between bites or if I just wanted to stick with intermittent fasting. Yesterday, I did not take sips between bites. Why? Like with intermittent fasting, building a strong habit means becoming uncomfortable not following it. With intermittent fasting, I now don't like to eat in the morning: it feels weird. With taking a sip between bites, the experience of eating is different. I'm still not clear on why that is. What I do know is my body reacted negatively to not taking a sip between bites after I had just done it consistently for a few days. Do I really want to go down that path of building this habit that is difficult to break once it has been formed?

Well, here I am, sitting at the computer in my nightgown preparing to dress and go to the gym to do four minutes of fast walking. Do I like it? No. I detest it. However, I see clear indications that I can wear my wedding ring only if I do it. A few days ago, I had to take off my wedding ring because my finger hurt, and that was only after a week-long break from fast walking due to travel last week. This may sound absurd, but our pediatrician said that it may be that my ring finger is smaller because exercise improves circulation. That sounds plausible and is a compelling reason to have (3 X up to 40 minutes per week of misery) per week. I probably could wear the ring if I just lost enough weight, but the exercise must be improving my overall health to enough of an extent that I'm willing to do it. Wearing the wedding ring is a symptom of better health -- plus then Tom doesn't get to tease me about having it off like he did two days ago.

Why is sipping so effective? No idea. It is. I'm going to commit to sipping between bites for the next month. Maybe what I can do is sip between bites until October 1 and continue if I am below 205 by then. Or maybe I can sip between bites when I want to lose weight and not do that when I just want to maintain. For now, I'll stick with sipping between bites until October 1.

I just found my compelling reason. My birthday is October 23. I need to renew my driver's license by then. I wanted my weight to be below 200 by then but that isn't going to happen. Now I'll just aim for getting it as low as possible. I will sip away! And now to the gym...

10 PM: I considered just sipping between bites and not worrying about sitting down to eat or eating without distraction. It totally fell apart. I needed to be mindful in order to take sips between bites.

I need to get back on track.

Day 122 – Thursday, August 30, 2018: 213.6
The real difficulty here is in making a decision. I have agonized over every health decision and found implementation easier once the decision has been made. It's easy to wear a pedometer and aim for 10,000 steps per day. It's easy to skip breakfast. It's a pain but at least a limited pain to do fast walking 3 times per week. Now I am stepping up to the plate to commit to the SET habits which seem to be all of a set. I cannot do one without the others. Taking a sip between bites requires a certain amount of mindfulness.

I'm sick of being fat, but my real objective is to come up with an approach that my kids can follow -- to save them the frustration and time I have endured with my own weight problem. Calorie counting is not a recommended approach given that criteria!

Day 2 – Friday, August 31, 2018: 211.0
Yesterday was a Day 1, and I didn't even realize it. I got a memento, however: the store where we got our wedding rings is closing its doors, and yesterday I got an 18" 14K white gold chain for $330. That was quite a splurge because I had already gotten a 20" 14K white gold chain and a 24" gold chain in the last two weeks! The chains were so heavily discounted that it was worth it. In 25 years of marriage, I probably had spent less than $2,000 on jewelry. I love wearing pendants, so having really good chains is great. I already had a 18" gold chain from when I was single.

What does this have to do with my diet? Well, I think I'm going to start dressing better. I almost have a uniform of Costco jeans and Lands End polo shirts and, for the summer, Chacos. I'm not yet ready to upgrade my clothing, but I'm happy to have invested in jewelry.

This despite Tom knowing he cannot stay at his job. We have a lot of money in savings, I am cheap, and Tom had no problem with my asking about buying expensive jewelry.

This, by the way, is an example of my self-discipline. I do not have a problem with self-discipline. That is not why I am fat. I am fat because I followed advice that triggered my body's survival mechanism.
Last edited by Kathleen on Fri Aug 31, 2018 12:22 pm, edited 35 times in total.

automatedeating
Posts: 5305
Joined: Sat Aug 31, 2013 2:16 pm

Post by automatedeating » Thu Aug 02, 2018 2:05 am

Hi Kathleen --
I wonder if you could ask your doctor to test your fasting insulin levels? That might help determine if your body is just extremely insulin resistant.
If that is the case, perhaps your doctor would discuss a medication such as metformin to help aid your weight loss. It might be worth a try.
Hang in there.
Month/Year-BMI
8/13-26.3
8/14-24.5
5/15-26.2
1/16-26.9; 9/16-25.6
8/17-25.8; 11/17-26.9
3/18-25.6; 8/18-24.5; 10/18-23.8;
3/19-22.1; 10/19-21.8
6/20-22.5; 7/20-23.0; 9/20-23.6
4/21 - 25.2

Kathleen
Posts: 1685
Joined: Tue Sep 16, 2008 12:46 pm
Location: Minnesota

Post by Kathleen » Thu Aug 02, 2018 7:05 pm

Hi automated eating,

I have a theory that it is better to die naturally. Did you know that the average number of prescription medications is supposed to be one per decade? I am approaching 60 which means I should be up to 6 prescription medications. My number: zero.

It seems to me that medical care has been corrupted by the fact that labor costs are so high and the cost to make one additional pill (marginal cost) is so low. Dr. Jason Fung, who has written books on diabetes and obesity, argues that metformin masks and exacerbates the problem of high blood glucose.

I do have blood work done every year and am not even pre-diabetic. I'm not sure what my problem is but doubt medication can solve it.

It's always helpful to get ideas from others because I do seem somewhat stuck, but I'll pass on metformin as an idea. Thanks,

Kathleen

Strawberry Roan
Posts: 1208
Joined: Tue Jul 06, 2010 10:51 pm

Post by Strawberry Roan » Mon Aug 27, 2018 1:53 pm

Hi Kathleen, just wanted to stop by and wish you well. It looks to me like you might be resetting your set point toward the lower 200 end. Yay you! :D
Berry

automatedeating
Posts: 5305
Joined: Sat Aug 31, 2013 2:16 pm

Post by automatedeating » Mon Aug 27, 2018 2:10 pm

My understanding of Jason Fung's books is that he doesn't think metformin is either bad or good (as opposed to taking insulin for type II diabetes, which yes, he and I both agree it exacerbates the problem). He just thinks there's no need for it with low carb and intermittent fasting.

Many people can be insulin resistant and have normal fasting blood sugars. That resistance makes it difficult for them to lose weight. Fasting insulin is not a normal test - you have to ask for it.

I had it done and I learned that I am mildly insulin resistant. I certainly have no intention of taking meds either, lol, so you and I are on the same page. I was just trying to brainstorm what I might consider if I were in your shoes. What the results have done is help me come to terms with the need to moderate my carbs. I am not able to eat a high carb diet like many of my healthy friends. Now I understand a little more why, and it helps strengthen my resolve to make healthy food choices for myself.
Month/Year-BMI
8/13-26.3
8/14-24.5
5/15-26.2
1/16-26.9; 9/16-25.6
8/17-25.8; 11/17-26.9
3/18-25.6; 8/18-24.5; 10/18-23.8;
3/19-22.1; 10/19-21.8
6/20-22.5; 7/20-23.0; 9/20-23.6
4/21 - 25.2

Kathleen
Posts: 1685
Joined: Tue Sep 16, 2008 12:46 pm
Location: Minnesota

Post by Kathleen » Mon Aug 27, 2018 10:39 pm

Hi automatedeating,
I had thought insulin resistance is the same as fasting glucose. As I told my personal trainer, my ideas are unencumbered by a knowledge of biology!
Kathleen

Kathleen
Posts: 1685
Joined: Tue Sep 16, 2008 12:46 pm
Location: Minnesota

Post by Kathleen » Fri Aug 31, 2018 12:15 pm

September 1, 2018: The Blessings of Simplicity starting September 9, 2018 at 215.0 pounds

Weight
Day 3 – Saturday, September 1, 2018: 212.2
47-43.5-47
Day 4 – Sunday, September 2, 2018: 212.6
Day 5 – Monday, September 3, 2018: 213.4
Day 1 – Tuesday, September 4, 2018: 214.6
Day 2 – Wednesday, September 5, 2018: 214.6
Day 3 – Thursday, September 6, 2018: 213.8
Day 4 – Friday, September 7, 2018: 213.0
Day 5 – Saturday, September 8, 2018: 212.8

Day 1 – Sunday, September 9, 2018: 215.0
Day 2 – Monday, September 10, 2018:
Day 3 – Tuesday, September 11, 2018: 214.6
Day 4 – Wednesday, September 12, 2018:
Day 5 – Thursday, September 13, 2018: 214.8
Day 6 – Friday, September 14, 2018: 211.0
Day 7 – Saturday, September 15, 2018: 212.8
Day 8 – Sunday, September 16, 2018: 212.4
Day 9 – Monday, September 17, 2018: 214.2
Day 10 – Tuesday, September 18, 2018: 213.4
Day 11 – Wednesday, September 19, 2018: 214.6
Day 12 – Thursday, September 20, 2018: 210.0
Day 13 – Friday, September 21, 2018: 207.8
Day 14 – Saturday, September 22, 2018:
Day 15 – Sunday, September 23, 2018:
Day 16 – Monday, September 24, 2018: 213.2
Day 17 – Tuesday, September 25, 2018: 213.4
Day 18 – Wednesday, September 26, 2018: 211.8
Day 19 – Thursday, September 27, 2018: 212.0
Day 20 – Friday, September 28, 2018: 212.8
Day 21 – Saturday, September 29, 2018:
Day 22 – Sunday, September 30, 2018:

Journal
Day 3 – Saturday, September 1, 2018: 212.2
An hourglass figure! I laugh because I had a perfect 36-24-36 figure. Those days are gone. My little weight tracking app gives you information on how long it will take you to get to a certain weight based on your expected weight loss per week. I told Tom I will be back to my high school weight in 8 years. He snickered!

It still is not evident to anyone but me that I have lost weight, but I am definitely beginning to feel it. It feels good.

Now that I have decided to take a sip between bites, it seems silly that I debated about doing it. It's easy to do. It will help me to lose weight. I think I am just going to set this course until January and see where I am then before making any other decisions about weight loss habits.

Day 4 – Sunday, September 2, 2018: 212.6
I think my best plan now is just to follow through on my commitments and not pay too much attention to my weight. It is not all that difficult to follow the SET habits. No one has noticed that I am eating any differently.

Day 5 – Monday, September 3, 2018: 213.4
The SET habits were a detour. I suddenly found myself wanting to eat more, perhaps because I was overcoming an obstacle to eating which is taking sips between bites. I do not understand. I just recognize this is not the way to go.

Day 1 – Tuesday, September 4, 2018: 214.6
What did I learn? It's all diet backlash. Any effort to control my eating is a problem.

I have wondered if my weight problem is wholly spiritual, and now I realize it is. It has to do with my being too much on edge about everything, not trusting.

Things can go wrong in life. Things can go terribly wrong in life. Preparing too much can be as bad as preparing too little.

I think that may be the case with my eating. I so avoid starvation that I am obese.

Should I stop fasting? No. I have come to appreciate that fasting is good for me independent of weight loss. How about fast walking? No. I detest it, but it is also good for me. It's good to sweat. What else? 10,000 steps per day? Also good for me. Also enjoyable. Daily strengthening exercises?
Good for me. Learning to cook? Good for our family.

I have built, habit by habit, a lifestyle that is good for my health. Now I realize that my tendency to worry, my tendency to over-prepare, is the root cause of my obesity.

Well, at least I learned. It took a long time to learn, and the funny thing is it was right in the Bible, right in the reading at my father's Mass back on June 23.

"Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life,
what you will eat or drink,
or about your body, what you will wear.
Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing?
Look at the birds in the sky;
they do not sow or reap, they gather nothing into barns,
yet your heavenly Father feeds them.
Are not you more important than they?
Can any of you by worrying add a single moment to your life-span?
Why are you anxious about clothes?
Learn from the way the wild flowers grow.
They do not work or spin.
But I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor
was clothed like one of them.
If God so clothes the grass of the field,
which grows today and is thrown into the oven tomorrow,
will he not much more provide for you, O you of little faith?
So do not worry and say, 'What are we to eat?'
or 'What are we to drink?' or 'What are we to wear?'
All these things the pagans seek.
Your heavenly Father knows that you need them all.
But seek first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness,
and all these things will be given you besides.
Do not worry about tomorrow; tomorrow will take care of itself.
Sufficient for a day is its own evil."

Day 1 – Friday, September 14, 2018: 211.0
It was heartbreaking to see 215.0 again on September 9, one day and ten years after I started tracking my weight here. My weight on September 8, 2008? 215.0.

I have noticed, over the years, that I sometimes make a commitment to follow a plan permanently because I have had some success and then plateaued. That commitment often is followed quickly by a change in plan.

This happened here. My driver's license has to be renewed next month, and I expected to be below 200 by then. On Sunday, I was at 215. Unacceptable. What to do? I looked back and saw that, really, my long term weight loss was due to a sickness in December and fasting before a colonoscopy in June. I decided to add three day water fasts as a way to lose weight and then just eat within a 12 - 7 PM window daily for maintenance.

To be honest, I often do not eat within that window because there are just too many social exceptions. A complete fast for three straight days is easier to manage socially than is a consistent 12 - 7 PM window.

I started my first three day fast yesterday. I have a memento from that day. The jewelry store where we bought our wedding rings is closing on Saturday, and I've been in there buying close out jewelry. Last week I spotted a pearl necklace. I told Tom that it would be ridiculous to buy the pearl necklace. Apparently, I told him many times how ridiculous it would be because he told me to go buy it. $817. And totally ridiculous.

Am I glad I bought it? Ellie asked me that question. Yes. It's beautiful. I just never imagined we could afford for me to have a real pearl necklace.

I think we are partially suffering from paid off the mortgage syndrome. Suddenly, we have a lot more money. That pearl necklace was less than our mortgage would have been.

In a way, weight set point is like a financial set point. When you lose weight, you need to psychologically adjust to a lower weight, just like we need to psychologically adjust to more disposable income. It was a ridiculous purchase, but I am really happy to have made it!

Day 7 – Saturday, September 15, 2018: 212.8
I had personal training on Thursday. Our focus has become posture, since I am hoping that correcting forward head posture will help with hearing loss. Anyway, I told Kayla of my plan to fast for three straight days, and she brought up that people with intermittent fasting often fast once a week for 24 hours. I thought about that and decided maybe I could just fast for one full day and then return to the 12 - 7 PM eating window the following day. That's what I ended up doing. I did not eat on Thursday and then ate within the 12 - 7 PM window yesterday.

Day 8 – Sunday, September 16, 2018: 212.4
There was an unfortunate cascade effect with fasting on Thursday to Friday noon. I did not do fast walking on Friday and had plans on Saturday morning so I ended up having to fast walk this morning. Tom and Ellie went to church. I'll need to go tonight.

Again last night, I suddenly felt as though I had no appetite. I keep on thinking that the long-term result of allowing myself to eat as much as I want of anything I want is my appetite will decrease because my body is no longer insisting on being overstuffed against the imminent move to starvation (dieting). What I had expected was a gradual shift. Instead, what I am seeing is sudden shifts in and out of the desire to eat.

I still feel no hunger whatsoever even though I did fast walking this morning (up to 6 minutes 15 seconds in 35 minutes) and have not eaten since last night.

If this lack of appetite continues, maybe I can just have the 12 - 7 PM eating window and skip the all day Thursday fast. If history is an indication, I'll revert back to my normal appetite which keeps me above 200 pounds. My appetite is like the stock market with big swings. Maybe that is reality.

Day 9 – Monday, September 17, 2018: 214.2
Not happy. I think I need multi-day fasts. They are not difficult. I just did not want to do them. They do mess up fast walking because I don't want to do fast walking when doing multi-day fasts. For many years, I kept my weight under control by going on what I called my Novena Dieting, eating no more than 1,000 calories per day for nine straight days. I absolutely detested doing it and was grumpy the whole time. Fasting is easier.

Day 10 – Tuesday, September 18, 2018: 213.4
A friend saved me from my foolishness by suggesting we have lunch today. The problem with multi-day fasts is you cannot do them every day; you have to plan for them, and social occasions can disrupt them. With a daily fast, it is just fine if you break it because you can do it the next day. I have to remind myself that diets caused my obesity, so they are not going to cure my obesity. Daily fasting is easy and simple. There is also no fear of diet backlash because I can eat anything I want as as much as I want every single day.

Day 12 – Thursday, September 20, 2018: 210.0
Last night, Tom and I watched "The Way", a movie about the Camino de Santiago, which is an old pilgrimage route in Spain that became popular in the last twenty years and was made even more popular by this movie. We watched it because Katie decided to take ten days to walk about 110 km. The end point is a cathedral which tradition says is the burial place of St. James, one of the twelve apostles.

One idea conveyed by the movie is that everyone may walk the same path but the journey is very different. That is so true of losing weight as well. We each have our own path.

I subscribe to a Facebook group on intermittent fasting (Delay, Don't Deny) and see all these before and after pictures of people who do daily fasting and lose tons of weight. Not me. I have concluded that I am only going to lose weight with multi-day fasts.

What I worked out yesterday is that I can avoid the unpleasant pitfall of always feeling like I should be scheduling my next multi-day fast. With daily fasting, I learned the hard way that it does not work for me to count the number of hours of a fast or adjust the eating window based on social or other constraints. Instead, I try to eat within a set 12 - 7 PM eating window and, if I don't make it that day, oh well.. no big deal. I'm taking a similar approach with multi-day fasting: two multi-day fasts per month and, if I don't make it that fast period, oh well...no big deal.

How can this same approach help with multi-day fasts? I ended up deciding, after I started this particular fast, that I can keep to a schedule of fasting three days (Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday) twice per month in the months in which the Saturday after the Friday fast is the first or third Saturday of the month. That approach has the advantage of avoiding our standard second Saturday of the month breakfast with other couples, avoids Saturday night fasting altogether, and avoids Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays.

What if there is something important going on with a Wednesday night? Fine. That ends the long fast for that particular time. I don't try to restart the following Wednesday. I just wait for the next scheduled time. These are very clear boundaries and provide at least 10 days between fasts. I may well end up just deciding on a monthly three day fast but will start out with this. It may turn out there are lots of times when I have to end my multi-day fasts, so having two scheduled per month is a key to success. My three day fast this week is not going to be interrupted because only Tom is home tonight and tomorrow we leave to visit his home town. We'll see his relatives on Saturday, and I can start eating at noon. The only problem is my willingness to persist.

Yesterday was easy. I sailed through the day with no problem. I have found that Day 1 is a cinch. Maybe the reason why it is so easy is that I am accustomed to waiting until noon to eat anyway. Day 2, I have found, is not so easy, so I need to arrange my schedule to take it easy. Today I let Ellie take the car. I am housebound and it is raining outside. All I can do is housework and cooking, and I made sure I had the ingredients for tonight's dinner.

I got up late today because Ellie took the car -- got up at 8 AM instead of 6 AM -- which is at least part of the reason why my weight is the lowest in many years at 210.0. Part of the ridiculous reason why I want to lose weight now and not allow a gradual weight loss is my driver's license renews in late October. My weight on my current driver's license is 220, and I am determined that my weight on my new driver's license will be below 200. It is going to be 198. Period. Did I fudge the truth on the last license? Yes, by perhaps 5 pounds. I'm willing to fudge the truth again but not by 12 pounds. My weight is going to go down in this next month. Period.

Day 13 – Friday, September 21, 2018: 207.8
Last night was a little uncomfortable because our niece showed up at dinnertime. She could not get home due to flooding, so we had her for dinner -- only I did not eat!

Last night, I had some difficulty sleeping and this morning, after I took a bath, I felt lightheaded. That was it. End of fast. Since then, I have eaten a ton. I now do feel satisfied, but it took a lot of food to satisfy me. I even went out and got a doughnut!

What next? I think it may be more realistic for me to have two rather than three day fasts every other week. Wednesday and Thursday are probably the best days for fasting.

Live and learn. Experiment. Persist.

Day 16 – Monday, September 24, 2018: 213.2
What a flame out. I remember reading somewhere that people successful at losing weight usually focused on improving health rather than losing weight. Why would that be? Well, if you restrict too much, you can end up with a case of diet backlash. I am sick to death of this and willing to stick with my 12 - 7 PM eating window.

The two day fast really messed up my eating. I ate a ton over the weekend and did not exercise much. I skipped fast walking on Friday. This morning, I could only muster 2 minutes of fast walking. Pathetic.

Maybe lesson learned. I'm tired of learning the same lesson over and over again that I need to let go of my weight as an issue.

Day 17 – Tuesday, September 25, 2018: 213.4
I woke up in the night and felt surprisingly calm about all of this. Maybe I have finally decided to let go of my weight. My body will find its own set point if I just stick with a 7 hour eating window when convenient. I have to trust this is the case even if it takes years and years and I die still overweight. I need to calm down about my weight. That is the bottom line.

Day 19 – Thursday, September 27, 2018: 212.0
I hope that I have finally learned the tough lesson that I cannot rush this process and need to accept the results that follow from following the process. I suffer from diet backlash if I try to control what I eat or how much I eat. I even suffer from diet backlash if I extend my fast. I am so sick of this that I am done done done. Whatever weight results from what I am doing is what I will accept. That means, for the moment, that I have to accept a weight above 200 on my driver's license for the next four years.

Day 20 – Friday, September 28, 2018: 212.8
My weight fluctuates within a tight range of just a few pounds, but the fasting is reducing the weight slowly over time. I have to be patient. Fasting for longer periods of time just rings alarm bells in my body and/or my mind, and now I am having to wait out the alarm bells so that my weight can again gradually go lower. This is a long process. It's frustrating. The good news is I do not have to worry about diet backlash. It is 11:26 am right now, and I can eat anything I want for 7 hours starting in 30 minutes. Why would there be diet backlash? There is unrestricted eating every single day.

Day 22 – Sunday, September 30, 2018:
Last night, we went to a bar for dinner before the Twins game, and I had chicken pot pie with Irish coffee. I finished most of the coffee but only got halfway through the chicken pot pie. I was full. When did I ever get full when I was dieting?

I realized since then that I need to give up the idea of losing weight and just allow my body to eat whatever it wants within my eating window until it adjusts to the weight it wants, the weight that is best for it. It's hard to explain this mind-body dichotomy, but in essence it means that I eat what I want and as much as I want until my body has optimized its pleasure.

Looking back to when I started the No S Diet, which my kids promptly called The Peanut Cluster Diet, I immediately emptied the local grocery store of chocolate covered peanut clusters, a food I had denied myself for years.

My body is desiring excess food less and less as it trusts that I will eat what I want.
Last edited by Kathleen on Mon Oct 01, 2018 6:34 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Kathleen
Posts: 1685
Joined: Tue Sep 16, 2008 12:46 pm
Location: Minnesota

Post by Kathleen » Mon Oct 01, 2018 6:33 pm

October 1, 2018: The Blessings of Simplicity starting October 17, 2018 at 215.8 pounds

Weight
Day 23 – Monday, October 1, 2018: 213.2
48-43-47
Day 24 – Tuesday, October 2, 2018:

Day 1 – Wednesday, October 3, 2081: 215.0
Day 2 – Thursday, October 4, 2018: 213.4
Day 3 – Friday, October 5, 2018: 214.8
Day 4 – Saturday, October 6, 2018:
Day 5 – Sunday, October 7, 2018:

Day 1 – Monday, October 8, 2018: 215.0
Day 2 – Tuesday, October 9, 2018: 214.6
Day 3 – Wednesday, October 10, 2018:
Day 4 – Thursday, October 11, 2018: 216.0
Day 5 – Friday, October 12, 2018: 215.2
Day 6 – Saturday, October 13, 2018: 214.6
Day 7 – Sunday, October 14, 2018: 215.4
Day 8 – Monday, October 15, 2018: 213.4
Day 9 – Tuesday, October 16, 2018: 214.4

Day 1 – Wednesday, October 17, 2018: 215.8
Day 2 – Thursday, October 18, 2018:
Day 3 – Friday, October 19, 2018: 213.4
Day 4 – Saturday, October 20, 2018: 212.6
Day 5 – Sunday, October 21, 2018:
Day 6 – Monday, October 22, 2018: 214.4
Day 7 – Tuesday, October 23, 2018: 215.2
Day 8 – Wednesday, October 24, 2018:
Day 9 – Thursday, October 25, 2018:
Day 10 – Friday, October 26, 2018: 215.2
Day 11 – Saturday, October 27, 2018:
Day 12 – Sunday, October 28, 2018: 215.4
Day 13 – Monday, October 29, 2018: 214.4
Day 14 – Tuesday, October 30, 2018:
Day 15 – Wednesday, October 31, 2018: 217.6

Journal
Day 23 – Monday, October 1, 2018: 213.2
I decided to fast until 1 on weekdays. Jason Fung and Mark Mattson both fast until dinner on weekdays. Bert Herring fasts except for four hours daily. I did not want to fast past lunch for social reasons, but I guess I need to do exactly that.


Day 1 – Wednesday, October 3, 2081: 215.0
This is a note to my future self.

What happened?

1. I decided I should be below 200 pounds or at least close to that weight so I could put 198 on my driver's license when I renew it later this month.

2. I fiddled with shortening my eating window.

3. I decided to go back to counting calories, resorting to my old favorite of counting 1000 calories/day for nine days.

4. Yesterday, I went to Target and purchased some food that gave exact calories, including soft pretzels and Progresso soup. I made hard boiled eggs.

5. At noon, I started eating, starting with the soft pretzel, then the soup, then a hard-boiled egg. At that point, I took the dogs for a walk (we are taking care of my brother in law's dog). I lasted until 3 when the predictable happened: I ate and ate and ate. I started with popcorn but moved to Toll House cookies.

5. Last night, I could not even eat dinner I was so stuffed.

6. This morning, I got up and felt terrible. It was quite fitting that I had 215.0 on the scale. It was a day for fast walking, and I went. At 3:15 of fast walking, I felt like I could throw up. I slowed down and eventually made it to 5 minutes of fast walking.

7. Now I sit, typing and thinking.

What was the start? The start was having a weight goal.

I need to give up any expectation of a weight and just try to eat within an eating window of 12 - 7 PM. Period. Fiddling with the length of the eating window is just a precursor to trying calorie counting.

There is a reason for the 12 - 7 PM eating window. Usually, lunch is at around noon. Dinner is often as late as 6:30 PM. This approach is easy peasy.

My focus should be on increasing exercising, if anything, but fiddling with eating is just a dead end.

"Some things are best learned the hard way." That is my favorite saying for parenting. Katie asked us to pay for water she buys in Spain because drinking water is not potable. We paid for everything except spending money. We told her that the cost of her study abroad amounts to $200/day, but she needs to make the choice of whether she will pay for water. We told her she had to have earned at least $5,000 for spending money before going to Spain. It would be a foolish choice if she risked drinking water that is not considered to be potable, but we won't pay for her to avoid making that mistake.

When I decide to try dieting again, I need to remind myself that some choices look more obviously foolish to others than to self. My sister used to call Katie "Aunt Patti's revenge" because Katie is so much like me. Well, I hope Katie takes our advice to not drink tap water in Spain. I hope my future self takes my advice to not diet again -- ever, to not fiddle with the eating window -- ever.

Fiddle with the exercise routine.

Above all, accept the weight that results from eating whatever I want and as much of it as I want between 12 and 7 PM.

7:30 PM: I ate a lot today again and had a small dinner because I was full. This stupid move to diet set me back. Dieting is the problem, not the solution. I've known that for years. I have returned to fasting. I will be back in a month. There is no need for me to record day to day activities because I am so done with making changes to my eating. So done.

Day 1 – Monday, October 8, 2018: 215.0
Katie is taking a week off school to walk part of the Camino, and she wants me to go with her next May to walk it with her. It would be a blast: part of the old pilgrimage route, beautiful country, walking, history... Problem: I'm not in shape. Tom thought it was a great idea. He wants me to get in shape.

I thought I was in shape. I average probably 9,000 steps per day, which includes some steps of fast walking. Yesterday, I learned differently. I went on a 2.5 mile walk with him and came back exhausted. My total number of steps yesterday was 10,496. Last Wednesday, I walked 13, 435 steps. Why? This totally shocked me.

Well, I have a couple of things going for me:
1. Time. Ellie is home. Tom wants a new job. He does not want me to go out and get a job which would interfere with his getting and keeping a job. He wants me to wait until Ellie is in college next year. Makes sense. I am definitely not able to make what he wants. Ellie is easy, but Ellie does take some time. We are done with the college search, but she needs rides and things come up like she got her wisdom teeth out on Friday. Katie is in Spain. My mother is now set in her apartment in a Continuing Care Retirement Community. I am bored stiff. I am at loose ends, not knowing what to do beyond cooking, cleaning, and taking care of Ellie. We are dogsitting this week. Not a big deal. I am still bored beyond belief. Volunteering seems like filler, and my hearing loss is keeping me from doing that. How much can I watch of the political dysfunction?

2. Value. There is no doubt it would be valuable for me to get into shape. I made some progress with losing weight by fasting, but I don't think I can consistently do any more than I am already doing. How do I improve my health? Maybe a focus on exercise is better. After all, it may be a pain to walk 2.5 miles today but it is achievable. I don't see dieting as achievable.

3. Pleasure. What can outweigh the pain of walking in the rain or the snow and pushing myself? The Camino would be a goal so pleasurable it might actually be worth the effort.

We are blessed beyond measure. Tom has two solid options for work in the works, and he has a job now. We have no debt, including no mortgage or car payments. We do have two somewhat immature kids but none with big problems.

Maybe this period of time is the period of time I have been granted to get myself on a path to great health. Tom and I were talking yesterday and agreed that our greatest failing as parents has been to not get our kids active. They are too old for us to lead them, but we can model a change in behavior to inspire them.

Tommy has a friend who is training to be a physical therapist, and it is obvious that he has been working out since he got back to school. He was home last weekend to attend the last Twins games of the season.

Maybe the best thing I can do as a parent right now is to model good health habits. I sure have gone a long way towards being a better cook, but now is a good time to work on a more vigorous workout routine, and having the goal of the Camino is a good carrot for me. I would love it. I remember studying about it back when I took a medieval history course in college.

Maybe today is a Day 1. Katie's school year ends in mid-May, and Ellie's graduation is June 6. Tommy will no doubt be living at home then, so my time to go on the Camino would be in that window of time. Tommy can hold down the fort if Tom is traveling for work.

Day 2 – Tuesday, October 9, 2018: 214.6
I remember reading that the most frequent change in habit made by those who lost a lot of weight and kept it off was walking. What sticks in my mind was people walked an average of 27 miles per week. Back in 2014 when I started wearing a pedometer, I averaged about 3,000 steps per day. My daily average has increased. Last month, I counted 239,861 steps or about 7,995 steps. My battery died so I did not record September 4 and 5. The average without those two days was 8,566.

I just took the dogs for a 2 1/2 mile walk, and the steps from start to finish were about 6,800 steps. Maybe all I need to do is walk more, a lot more.

I will hold constant my 12 - 7 PM eating window. The only other change I am making for health is to try different strengthening exercises to improve hearing, but I am certainly not settled on what I am doing and have not seen any improvement.

Katie made it to St. James Compestello. It is inspiring. She carried her smartphone with the pedometer app open, and her longest day was 42,000 steps. I got at high as 16,000 steps one day last week. I have a long way to go in preparing for that trip if it comes to be.

Day 5 – Friday, October 12, 2018: 215.2
Two days ago, I had a large Dove milk chocolate bar. It tasted off. I thought it might be stale. Yesterday, I had a large Godiva chocolate bar. It tasted almost like plastic. Could it be I no longer like the taste of milk chocolate? I used to love Dove chocolates. The chocolates are now being sold in packages only at a much higher price, and I bought some and thought they were not worth it.

It seems odd, but I think lpearlmom gave me a clue as to why tastes change. Your body learns to prefer fat as a source of fuel. This also is why fasting ends up not being at all difficult since there is plenty of fat to access!

Katie made it to St. James Compestello yesterday and is buying me a sterling silver pendant today. I think it would be good if I could take her on the Sarria to Compestello leg of the trip, which is about 70 miles walking. It would be good for us to be together, and it would motivate me to walk a lot in preparation for the trip. I am going to walk 5 miles tomorrow and see how I do. Today is just 2.5 miles.

Day 6 – Saturday, October 13, 2018: 214.6
How embarrassing. I picked up Ellie from the bus stop at 3 and promptly went to bed, sleeping until almost 7. Today I walked 2.5 miles. Tom suggested I not walk at all, but I told him my pride is hurt. I cannot believe how difficult it was for me to walk just 2.5 miles. We went for a walk together. He does not seem to have difficulty.

Day 7 – Sunday, October 14, 2018: 215.4
I am in shock. I walked 2 1/2 miles yesterday and was exhausted. Tom is amused. He said that people are good at deceiving themselves. I thought I was in decent shape despite my weight. Wrong. I'm in terrible shape. How could it be so hard to walk 2 1/2 miles? I walked 7 times in the last 8 days. Going forward, I am going to walk 2 1/2 miles 5 times a week until I get used to it. Tom suggested yesterday I give it a rest and not walk, but I had planned to walk on Saturday and it hurt my pride that I would not.

Another medical myth exposed: it matters if you walk all at once or over the course of a day. I have walked throughout the day, but that is not the same as walking all at once.

Day 8 – Monday, October 15, 2018: 213.4
Yesterday I just lounged around. Tom went to the Vikings game with his brothers, and Ellie worked on her college application, and I did nothing but rest. I did not even take the dog for a walk around the block.

Today I feel better. I did fast walking 3 minutes and will do the 2 1/2 mile walk.

I also am encouraged by my efforts to improve my hearing. Last week, I could barely hear a sound that I have not heard since May. This morning, I could clearly hear it. While I did scout and find a hearing aid provider, I am going to give three months to this Josh-created program. Kayla, my personal trainer, is great, but it was Tommy's friend Josh, who is interning in physical therapy, who gave me a real boost with some new exercises and the feedback that my idea of posture affecting hearing as not being totally crazy.

I believe my appetite is being affected by the walking. Today I am going to make split pea soup because the thought of a pasta meal (Ellie's request) is totally unappealing. Tom and Ellie get the pasta; I get the split pea soup. It occurred to me last night during church that all my body wants is to be satisfied. Not stuffed. Satisfied. My body needs the confidence that it will be fed in order to want only to be satisfied.

Day 12 – Friday, October 19, 2018: 213.4
I had a very sudden change in plans. My height has gone from Anne's height (5'6 1/4") to Ellie's height (5'4 3/4") in just a few years. I knew it was coming. There has been significant height loss in female relatives on both my father and my mother's side of the family. Of course, I am blessed to have a mother still above ground at 92 and an aunt still above ground at 95. Fasting is supposed to make height loss worse.

I still think simplicity is the key and decided to record what I eat but not in a way that is so intrusive as to be impractical. Tom and I went to Chick Fil A two nights ago, and I ordered a Cobb salad. Instead of listing every ingredient, I simply wrote "Chick Fil A Cobb salad."

I decided to categorize what I eat by B (breakfast), L (lunch), D (dinner), and S(snack). What did I find in less than 48 hours? I snack constantly.

This brings me back, awkwardly, to the concept of NoS which is to avoid snacking.

A very good thing to come of fasting was the change in my taste. I really don't like sweets much anymore.

Day 13 – Saturday, October 20, 2018: 212.6
Maybe there's a reason I stayed on the No S website all these years. Having to write down what I eat is a pain, so I am less inclined to snack.

I started writing down what I eat at 3 PM on October 17th, so that should be my Day 1. The first food I ate was a banana which I ate almost without thought until I realized that I needed to write down that I ate it.

Day 15 – Wednesday, October 31, 2018:
It was warm right into October so not many leaves fell and it may snow next week, so I am raking. I'm also trying to walk to prepare for the Camino in May. I'll be back by the end of November.
Last edited by Kathleen on Sun Nov 04, 2018 8:07 pm, edited 2 times in total.

Kathleen
Posts: 1685
Joined: Tue Sep 16, 2008 12:46 pm
Location: Minnesota

Post by Kathleen » Sun Nov 04, 2018 5:58 pm

November 1, 2018: The Blessings of Simplicity starting November 10, 2018 at 215.0 pounds

Weight
Day 27 – Thursday, November 1, 2018: 215.8
Day 28– Friday, November 2, 2018: 215.4
Day 29– Saturday, November 3, 2018: 215.4; 3 mile walk
Day 30 – Sunday, November 4, 2018: 214.8; 3 mile walk
Day 31– Monday, November 5, 2018: 214.2
Day 32 – Tuesday, November 6, 2018: 211.2; 1 mile walk
Day 33 – Wednesday, November 7, 2018: 213.2; 1.3 mile walk
Day 34 – Thursday, November 8, 2018: 214.2
Day 35 – Friday, November 9, 2018: 214.2; 1.3 mile walk

Day 1 – Saturday, November 10, 2018: 215.0; 3 mile walk
Day 2 – Sunday, November 11, 2018: 1.2 mile walk
Day 3 – Monday, November 12, 2018:
Day 4 – Tuesday, November 13, 2018: 2 mile walk
Day 5 – Wednesday, November 14, 2018: 1.3 mile walk
Day 6 – Thursday, November 15, 2018:
Day 7 – Friday, November 16, 2018: 1.3 mile walk
Day 8 – Saturday, November 17, 2018: 3 mile walk
Day 9 – Sunday, November 18, 2018: 1.2 mile walk
Day 10 – Monday, November 19, 2018:
Day 11 – Tuesday, November 20, 2018: 1.2 mile walk
Day 12 – Wednesday, November 21, 2018: 2+ mile walk
Day 13 – Thursday, November 22, 2018: 2.1 mile walk
Day 14 – Friday, November 23, 2018:
Day 15 – Saturday, November 24, 2018: 2.1 mile walk
Day 16 – Sunday, November 25, 2018: 4 mile walk
Day 17 – Monday, November 26, 2018: 2.1 mile walk
Day 18 – Tuesday, November 27, 2018:
Day 19 – Wednesday, November 28, 2018: 3 mile walk
Day 20 – Thursday, November 29, 2018:
Day 21 – Friday, November 30, 2018:


Journal
Day 30 – Sunday, November 4, 2018:
On October 6th, I started preparing for a Camino walk by walking one mile twice. I've walked that same walk to a local park and back many times but mostly not twice in one day.

On October 7th, I walked two miles all at once and was exhausted.

A New York Times article publicized in today's Minneapolis Star Tribune states the obvious (any exercise is good) while not revealing what I have learned the hard way, which is that 10,000 steps throughout the day is not the same as 10,000 steps in one long walk. Here is the article:

http://www.startribune.com/even-easy-br ... 499337371/

Day 32 – Tuesday, November 6, 2018: 211.2
It isn't necessarily easy to get good coffee on the Camino, so I gave it up yesterday and got sick. I'm recovered today, and my weight will be up tomorrow.

When I realized that was Ellie's height, I decided to give up fasting since I had read it can have a negative impact on bone strength. I then had the shock of really struggling to even walk 2 1/2 miles which is what I tried to do on October 7. I have walked 3 miles and literally been horizontal for the rest of the day. I gave up fast walking but that, in part, was due to having to rake.

Now what? This morning, I met with Kayla, my personal trainer, for an entire hour to plan training for this Camino trip. She has laid out a detailed training program for me, starting with 1 3- mile walk, 1 2-mile walk, 3 1.5 mile walks, and 2 rest days this week.

What about food? I've totally given it up. Just before Halloween, I came up with the idea of restricting both sugar and flour, and I ate a lot of Halloween candy. Now coffee ice cream from Trader Joe's sits in the freezer. If I don't restrict at all, it is better.

This is Intuitive Eating, only I am adding in walking. I am counting on walking to get me in shape. My son once said I was looking for a magic bullet, and I think it may be walking.


Day 1 – Saturday, November 10, 2018: 215.0
Am I going to try, or am I just going to do it? The strongest memory I have from a class in college is one professor raising his eyes toward the ceiling and saying, "You have to decide."

Success does not come from the dramatic decision to start yet another Day 1. It comes from the day in and day out decisions to live a healthy lifestyle. This morning, I did my strengthening exercises and made meatballs for tonight's dinner. I did not taste test the meatballs or various foods in the refrigerator when I put the meatballs away. Despite the cold, I'll go on a 3 mile walk.

Tom has preached lifestyle to me. He's right.

Day 11 – Tuesday, November 20, 2018:
I found a summary of a study that I read long ago:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4578963/

"Overall, NWCR participants are an extremely physically active group. However, the amount of activity reported is highly variable, making it difficult to develop a single recommendation for the optimum amount of physical activity for weight loss maintenance. A better understanding of individual-specific determinants of how much activity is required for weight loss maintenance ought to be a high research priority."

Later in the abstract:
"On average, subjects reported expending ~2,827 kilocalories/week (kcal/week) in physical activity—roughly the equivalent of walking 28 miles/week."

I have set weight aside and am just working on exercise. The study reports that those who lose weight successful use both exercise and diet. I gave up my pedometer and am just focusing on walking. I am at 8 miles this week and have a long way to go to build to 28 miles in a week. I literally was horizontal for two days after walking my first 3 mile walk.

Tom is encouraging me. He's usually somewhat disparaging about my weight loss efforts but approves of this one!

He told me he can tell that my body is changing. The other day, I was wearing a long-sleeved UND shirt, and he asked where I had gotten it. Well, it had been in my closet for years, but I hadn't been able to wear it.

If I am to go on the Camino in May, I need to ramp up to walking 15 miles in one day. Tom said I am building a foundation right now, and that is correct. 10,000 steps per day spread throughout the day does not prepare you for even one 3 mile walk. I thought I was doing well with physical activity because the recommended number of steps is 10,000 per day. Was I ever wrong!

I'm also going through a yoga class through the Great Courses Plus. It's a class of perhaps 24 1/2 hour lessons, and I am going at a speed of one class per week. Each day, I am doing the workouts from that week's video. I am on video #2.

I'm also doing my simple 5 minute Pilates routine which Kayla gave me. It's a lot.

Looking forward, I should return to work next fall after Ellie goes to college. I need to develop a routine and get in shape before then.

One very good thing I have done the last few years is learn how to cook. That is critical.

Day 14 – Friday, November 23, 2018:
I came across the term "thin obese" which means thin on the outside but obese on the inside because you are constantly hungry. I think that term is a clue to what you need to do for long term weight loss success. You need to decrease appetite rather than control it.

Fasting did not decrease appetite enough for me to lose a lot of weight. What I am now trying is walking. It will take time for me to be able to walk enough to see if my appetite decreases.

Day 17 – Monday, November 26, 2018:
I walked four miles yesterday in an hour and 38 minutes. That is the farthest I have walked at one time probably since I backpacked when I was single. I also measured my waist at 41". That is progress!

I have completely let go of eating. Because I have already lost about 1 1/2" in height, I looked online about what I could do to keep bone density and concluded having Vitamin D with almonds could help, so I am having some almonds with Vitamin D in the morning and at lunch.

Preparing for the Camino is my health focus. This week my plan is to walk four miles once (did that yesterday), three miles once, and two miles three times. Two days are off. That is 10 miles in one week.

The miles walked builds over time with the same structure of one long walk, one medium length walk, and three short walks every week. The last week of preparation starts on April 27, 2019 with one 15-mile walk, one 7-mile walk, and three 3-mile walks. That is 31 miles in one week.

After the Camino, if I even go, I hope to keep up a walking schedule that is one 10-mile walk, one 5-mile walk, and three 3-mile walks every week.

Day 19 – Wednesday, November 28, 2018:
You can only focus on a few things at a time. You really have little control over your weight today. It may go up even if you ate very little yesterday. That fact is both frustrating and demoralizing. I have decided to track walking rather than weight.

Tom is taking a new job with a 25% pay cut so he does not have to travel. I may not go on that Camino after all, since it would cost perhaps $4,000 to spend a week walking with our daughter in Spain. And that's OK.

Today, with the temperature at 23 degrees, I walked 3 miles outside with no problem. (The dog came along for the first mile but would have been too cold for all 3 miles.) Earlier this month, I walked 3 miles and was horizontal for two days. This will become a way of life for me. I am starting to feel more energetic.
Last edited by Kathleen on Thu Dec 13, 2018 2:20 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Kathleen
Posts: 1685
Joined: Tue Sep 16, 2008 12:46 pm
Location: Minnesota

Post by Kathleen » Thu Nov 29, 2018 5:09 pm

December 1, 2018: The Blessings of Simplicity

Weight
Day 1 – Saturday, November 10, 2018: 215.0
Day 22 – Saturday, December 1, 2018: 216.0; 47.5 - 43 - 47.5

Miles Walked
Day 22 – Saturday, December 1, 2018: 2.1
Day 23 – Sunday, December 2, 2018: 4
Day 24 – Monday, December 3, 2018: 2.1
Day 25 – Tuesday, December 4, 2018: 0
Day 26 – Wednesday, December 5, 2018: 3
Day 27 – Thursday, December 6, 2018: 2.1
Day 28 – Friday, December 7, 2018: 0
Day 29 – Saturday, December 8, 2018: 5
Day 30 – Sunday, December 9, 2018: 0
Day 31 – Monday, December 10, 2018: 4
Day 32 – Tuesday, December 11, 2018: 2
Day 33 – Wednesday, December 12, 2018: 2
Day 34 – Thursday, December 13, 2018: 2
Day 35 – Friday, December 14, 2018: 0
Day 36 – Saturday, December 15, 2018: 5
Day 37 – Sunday, December 16, 2018: 0
Day 38 – Monday, December 17, 2018: 4
Day 39 – Tuesday, December 18, 2018: 0
Day 40 – Wednesday, December 19, 2018: 3
Day 41 – Thursday, December 20, 2018: 2.1
Day 42 – Friday, December 21, 2018:
Day 43 – Saturday, December 22, 2018: 6

Day 1 – Sunday, December 23, 2018: 219.6
Day 2 – Monday, December 24, 2018:
Day 3 – Tuesday, December 25, 2018: 219.6
Day 4 – Wednesday, December 26, 2018: 220.2
Day 5 – Thursday, December 27, 2018:
Day 6 – Friday, December 28, 2018:
Saturday, December 29, 2018: 220.2
Sunday, December 30, 2018:
Monday, December 31, 2018:

Journal
Day 23 – Sunday, December 2, 2018:
I ended up taking my wedding ring off last week, so I suspected my weight would be up. That's OK. Walking is good. I think I am going to add one habit which is to take a sip between bites. It seems like a nuisance and unlikely to be effective, but like fasting it creates a deterrent to eating right now. Tom tells me that I am trimmer, which is good He is very encouraging of my walking. Yesterday, I was going to walk 4 miles, but it snowed just after I started walking and was very slippery. I was not concerned about my slipping but about some car slipping into me. Today, I am going to the Y to walk 4 miles. I bought a pitch counter so that it will be easy for me to count the laps. 18 laps per mile. The only problem is I will wear sneakers instead of hiking boots but I think that will be OK on occasion.

Day 32 – Tuesday, December 11, 2018:
It is way more rewarding to focus on what to do (exercise) than on eating habits. I know my weight is up because my pants are tight, but I am hoping that this is transitory as I adjust to being able to eat at any time. Yesterday, I walked outside in 20 degree weather for 4 miles, and I could tell that eating made it even more unpleasant. When I got home, I was chilled. Today, I walked 2 miles at this gym. Having two days off from walking every week is also helpful. Tommy graduates from college on Friday. I won't be walking on Friday and possibly also on Saturday when Katie returns from her semester abroad in Spain.

What I liked about fasting was I only had to worry about not eating for a set period per day and then I did not have to concern myself with it anymore. What I like about walking is I only have to worry about doing it 5 times per week. That's it. Yes, it takes time, but it is not all-consuming.

Dieting is all-consuming. Actually, that is somewhat the beauty of NoS: you worry about food at mealtime and that's it. It did not really decrease my appetite, however; fasting did. I may return to fasting but for now I'm concentrating on walking.

Day 34 – Thursday, December 13, 2018:
I had a really rough day yesterday. It was cold so I went to the gym to walk my 2 miles. A little old lady who walks the track passed me three times!

It occurred to me last night that digestion takes work and my body needs to eat less to have more energy for walking. I feel better today and am not at all interested in eating much.

12 PM: It was so easy to walk today. Temperature was up to 30 degrees. I walked 2 miles outside without a problem. I don't know why it was so hard yesterday and why I spent the rest of the day feeling sore and exhausted, but today I feel fine. I still ate a lot because I am letting myself eat as much as I want, but I think things are going to come to a pass: either I continue walking, or I continue overeating. My body won't allow both. Tomorrow is a day off walking (2 days off per week) timed for Tommy's college graduation! Saturday Katie returns from Spain. I may not walk then, either! It is so nice to have a schedule of walking only five times per week because I can easily fit that in.

Day 40 – Wednesday, December 19, 2018:
I am staying off the scales, but my jeans are getting tight. I can wear my wedding ring. Those are my two indicators, and they do not agree with each other. Tom is very supportive of my walking program but does not like the complaining. When I went on the 4 mile walk, towards the end I had to stop and rest for a minute. I keep wondering if I am pushing myself too much.

I did decide to go on a modified intermittent fast with having an eating window of 12 - 7 pm except having almonds and a vitamin D pill in the morning to help with height shrinkage. I had read that fasting can hurt with bone strength. Today I will fast until 9 am. Next week, until 10 am. I will gradually build up to 12 - 7 window. What convinced me to return to fasting is that my taste in food is shifting back to sugar without fasting.

Day 42 – Friday, December 21, 2018:
My jeans are telling me I am gaining weight. I noticed yesterday that my desire for sugar is increasing. I had a lot of chocolate and caramels that were in the house for Christmas. Seeing lpearmom's blog and how she looked in 2008 vs. today was really inspirational. I think I need something more than what I am doing because I am essentially the same weight as I was in 2008.

I'm ready to return to intermittent fasting with the exception of having a handful of almonds in the morning. I got a small ceramic dish specifically for the almonds so I can measure out the quantity, but I'm not sure how much I would measure out.

Also, I'm looking at NoS and thinking it has some good ideas. Maybe instead of one plate at mealtime, I can just have an hour of mealtime. I can look at my watch and say I will be done eating within one hour of starting to eat lunch. This may seem like a not so helpful approach except it is a definite improvement over start eating at noon and eat intermittently right up through dinner. I can have the dinner hour as well.

I also think I'll look at having one sweet on Sundays.

What about Christmas? Yep. Especially this time of year, there will be lots of exceptions. What I want to establish is not a bright line of no exceptions but exactly the opposite: a bright line of when eating is welcome, even encouraged. I want to feel like I don't have to justify eating within those boundaries but do have to justify eating outside those boundaries.

For example, Katie made homemade gingerbread cookies yesterday and offered me one. Did I have one? Yes. In fact, I had two along with a lot of caramels and chocolates and candy canes. With the guidelines of one sweet on Sundays and eating only almonds in the morning and then within one hour timeframes at lunch and dinner, I would decide to have a taste test of the gingerbread cookie (not an entire cookie) and no caramels and no chocolates.

There's a reason why I'm obese and am gaining weight even with all this walking. I need freedom to choose within guidelines.

Day 43 – Saturday, December 22, 2018:
I learned two things very quickly. One: You have to define "sweets" in order to not have them. That is too much of a hassle. Two: It is easier just to stick with having a lunch hour and a dinner hour rather than setting a time to eat. Yesterday, I started eating lunch at 11:45 AM because I was going to take Katie shopping and she wanted to leave quickly. That is OK.

Last night, I bought a nice new watch. Ellie had called me other watch "an old lady watch" and Tom agreed. I'd had it for 20 years and just started wearing a watch again recently after wearing a pedometer instead for many years. Maybe it was time for a new watch! This diet is about timing for eating. The new watch will remind me.

Day 1 – Sunday, December 23, 2018: 219.6
I learned the hard way the benefits of intermittent fasting. My weight naturally drifted down to 211 over a long period of time. I did lose weight. Even more remarkable was the fact that my taste in food gradually shifted away from sweets. My weight is up, and my desire to eat sweets has certainly also returned.

I am returning to intermittent fasting but this time with a more restrictive approach. Instead of having an eating window of 12 - 7 PM, I am going to have almonds in the morning with a vitamin D pill as a way to minimize bone loss and then I am going to have two one hour periods per day when I eat. It will be a lunch hour and a dinner hour.

Can I always stay within those limits? No. Today is a perfect example. We are visiting my brother in law's family for several hours, and we'll start off with wine but I will eat over more than the course of an hour.

This is what will be different from an approach without intermittent fasting. I will eat within a one hour time period for lunch. I will not eat again until we get to my brother in law's house. Until dinner starts, I will only have what is socially awkward not to have -- wine. I'll pass on the food that will be out because that is optional.

I walked six miles yesterday. Since I plan to return to work next fall, I cannot rely on walking and other exercise as a way to reduce my weight. I must change my eating habits but they must be sustainable.

Am I going to restrict sweets or other foods? No. I already know that sufficient adherence to intermittent fasting will change my taste in food.

I decided this morning to try this approach which is why I weighed myself. I knew my weight was up and am somewhat relieved I am still below 220.

I like my new watch. It will be a good reminder to me of my commitment to eat only almonds in the morning and within two one hour periods for lunch and dinner. There will be lots and lots of exceptions, and that is OK. What this approach does is allow me to eat without any justification whatsoever within those two hours but then have to justify or feel guilty about eating outside those two hours. If I desire right now, for example, to have some of those Christmas caramels, I can eat them now (at 9 am) and feel guilty or wait until my lunch hour and not feel guilty. Eating without a feeling of guilt is much more pleasurable. When you are fat and on a calorie restricted diet, literally nothing feels like guilt free eating. At least that was the case with me. I always was wondering if I should wait a little longer to get a bit hungrier or eat healthier so that I wouldn't be so hungry in the future. I used to count raisins before I ate them. It's been a long time since I ate raisins. They are too closely associated with calorie counting.

Now, with this approach, I can have as many caramels as I want but just within the two golden hours for lunch and dinner. I will count on my taste in food once again changing away from sweets if I just give intermittent fasting time to work. I have to remind myself I did not even want fudge back in the summer. Trader Joe's coffee ice cream didn't appeal to me. Now, having given up intermittent fasting for a period of time, that coffee ice cream sure does appeal to me.

I am hoping this is the absolute last Day 1.

1 PM: I started eating one hour ago and am done now. I had a frittata, caramles, coffee ice cream, crackers, a banana, and tea with honey. I am completely satisfied. It was easier to stop knowing that I can start eating again later today. With my 12 - 7 PM eating window, I stopped at 7 and waited 17 hours before I ate next. The problem with that approach was I whatever I wanted for 7 hours per day.

It is easy for me to stop. I think it will quickly become easy for me to eat less because I know I can eat whatever I want in just a few hours. I actually right now am uncomfortably stuffed and not just satisfied. I could have eaten less and still be completely satisfied.

3 PM: Even though I was stuffed two hours ago, I now feel slightly hungry. If it were not for the decision to wait for a dinner hour, I would be eating now. I am not feeling ravenous or panicked over not being able to eat right this minute because I know that I can eat as much as I want of anything I want as soon as it is the dinner hour. This approach may work very well.

Day 2 – Monday, December 24, 2018:
Yesterday, I managed to eat in the evening within one hour. Now it is 9:30 and I feel hungry. I only have to wait a few hours until I can start eating again. Having unrestricted eating within limited periods of time may work because I tolerate hunger well. I'm not sure if what I am experiencing is even hunger. It's probably just a feeling of not being stuffed, but I am not accustomed to the feeling I am having right now even though I was stuffed by the time I finished eating dinner last night at about 6 and have had a handful of almonds and black coffee this morning.

Day 3 – Tuesday, December 25, 2018: 219.6
Weird analogy with long story, but here goes.... Tom was told he probably has sleep apnea and was asked to have a sleep study. He decided he didn't want to sleep with a CBAP machine and so he did not pursue it. I got on Amazon.com and got a book on a way to cure sleep apnea using a change in breathing. I got it, and he laughed and sent out a picture of the book to our kids saying it was an early Christmas gift from me. I started to read it and found a lot of useful information in it for me. The premise of the book is that you can consciously change your breathing habits during the day and this change will impact how you breathe at night. People who snore tend to breathe through their mouth during the day. They get used to "over breathing" -- too much air going in with each breathe, usually through the mouth. The baseline recommendation is for you to breathe through your nose at all times -- breathe in and out even with exercise. I thought I already did that but quickly found that I breathe through my mouth a lot -- all the time when speaking and eating. I have been working on always breathing through my nose. What the author points out is that, when you try to breathe through your nose but are accustomed to breathing through your mouth, you will find that you cannot get enough breathe through your nose and so you yawn a lot and sigh a lot and cough a lot.

Sure enough, that is what I am doing. Tommy told me that "mouth breather" is a pejorative term for a stupid person. I find that interesting. You are inefficient in breathing and are "over breathing" so you don't get enough oxygen into you. It seems counterintuitive.

At any rate, the analogy to my dieting is this. I am now transitioning back to intermittent fasting. What I am finding is I am eating more during my one hour meals than I normally would if I was not doing intermittent fasting. I believe that is temporary as my body adjusts to having periods of time when I am not eating, just like my body is getting accustomed to nose breathing by sighing a lot. In the time that I have written this, I have sighed three times. It's OK. It will take time.

I now recognize the benefit of intermittent fasting and plan to stick with it.

Day 4 – Wednesday, December 26, 2018: 220.2
It is disappointing that my weight is now above 220, but I know what is going on. I am eating more during my one hour of eating at lunch and dinner, and gradually I will adapt to eating less. It is very similar to lots of sighing as I adjust to nose breathing which will eventually lead to breathing less with each breath. I don't know how many times a day I now sigh, but it is a lot. The book I am reading on sleep apnea is called: "Relief from snoring and sleep apnea" by Tess Graham. I did not even buy the book because of me. I bought it because of Tom and yet am getting a ton out of it.

I am walking 5 miles this morning at the gym. Tom tells me I am looking better. He thought I had lost weight but I have told him I have actually gained weight.

Day 6 – Friday, December 28, 2018:
I do not remember what I weighed yesterday but it was between 221 and 222. I ended up deciding that what works for me in life in general is to write things down. I am going to record what I eat. This feels like defeat. Maybe what it is is facing reality. I don't have to restrict what I eat. I can just record what I eat.

This may sound really silly, but it does motivate me. I have an app for cleaning. I have a spreadsheet for my walks. I don't know, however. It did feel like writing down what I ate took the fun to of eating. Maybe I need to look at it differently, that writing down what I eat can be a deterrent to eating because it is a bit of a paint to write down what I eat. I don't have to be exact and record every spice in a recipe. I can try to estimate calories. How long is this going to last? I don't know.

Saturday, December 29, 2018: 220.2
No more Day 1s. I am returning to my 12 - 7 PM eating window and leaving it at that. I may not have lost much weight but my taste in food was changing so significantly that I bet I would have lost weight at an accelerated rate.

It does not matter, however. I am just going to return to the 12 - 7 PM eating window and let my weight go.
Last edited by Kathleen on Thu Jan 03, 2019 5:43 pm, edited 27 times in total.

User avatar
lpearlmom
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Location: Arizona

Post by lpearlmom » Fri Nov 30, 2018 5:39 am

Great job with the walking! I have actually heard the opposite about fasting and bone density but who knows!

Keep up the good work!
:twisted: SW: 210 lbs
CW: 172
GW:160

oolala53
Posts: 10059
Joined: Mon Oct 06, 2008 1:46 am
Location: San Diego, CA USA

Post by oolala53 » Fri Nov 30, 2018 6:30 am

It's astounding that it might cost $4,000 for a week's walk. That's almost $600 a day. What would the money go for? I know it would not be a comparable spiritual journey, but there must be other interesting routes in Europe or even here in the States that might be worthy of making a goal and keeping you on your fitness plan. (Maybe a stretch of the Appalachian way?) I agree that 10,000 steps is a distance I've been able to do it for a long time, but it doesn't change that it takes a fair amount of time.

Keep it up!
Count plates, not calories. 11 years "during"
Age 69
BMI Jan/10-30.8
1/12-26.8 3/13-24.9 +/- 8-lb. 3 yrs
9/17 22.8 (flux) 3/18 22.2
2 yrs flux 6/20 22
1/21-23

There is no S better than Vanilla No S (mods now as a senior citizen)

Kathleen
Posts: 1685
Joined: Tue Sep 16, 2008 12:46 pm
Location: Minnesota

Post by Kathleen » Sat Dec 01, 2018 2:35 am

True, oolala53. It is a lot of money. That includes airfare, hotels, and food. It is a ridiculous amount to spend. I think I am on my Camino already and don't have to actually go there.
Kathleen

Kathleen
Posts: 1685
Joined: Tue Sep 16, 2008 12:46 pm
Location: Minnesota

Post by Kathleen » Thu Jan 03, 2019 5:42 pm

January, 2019: The Blessings of Simplicity

Weight
Tuesday, January 1, 2019:
Wednesday, January 2, 2019: 219.6
Thursday, January 3, 2019: 218.0
Friday, January 4, 2019: 217.8
Saturday, January 5, 2019:
Sunday, January 6, 2019:
Monday, January 7, 2019:
Tuesday, January 8, 2019:
Wednesday, January 9, 2019:
Thursday, January 10, 2019:
Friday, January 11, 2019: 2
Saturday, January 12, 2019: 2
Sunday, January 13, 2019:
Monday, January 14, 2019: 2
Tuesday, January 15, 2019: 2
Wednesday, January 16, 2019: 2
Thursday, January 17, 2019: 2
Friday, January 18, 2019: 0
Saturday, January 19, 2019: 3
Sunday, January 20, 2019: 3
Monday, January 21, 2019: 3
Tuesday, January 22, 2019:
Wednesday, January 23, 2019: 1
Thursday, January 24, 2019: 1
Friday, January 25, 2019: 3.5
Saturday, January 26, 2019:
Sunday, January 27, 2019: 3
Monday, January 28, 2019: 3
Tuesday, January 29, 2019: 3
Wednesday, January 30, 2019:
Thursday, January 31, 2019:


Journal
Thursday, January 3, 2019: 218.0
I faced the harsh reality that I am going to hurt my knees if I walk as much as I had planned. I walked six miles and five miles last week. This week, we were out of town, and I just did not walk at all. No access to a gym. Temperature below 0. Good excuses. Tom said to take a few days off. No, I'm reevaluating.

Today I walked 1 mile. I talked with Katie about changing our trip. We can look at a maximum of a 7 mile walk by splitting the two long days into 2 days of walking. We will need to stay at albergues which are a few steps below hostels but that is OK. Besides, this trip is a pipedream anyway.

Next week, I have personal training and will talk about it.

As for weight, I decided to write down what I eat. It isn't so hard to do if you don't eat a lot and try to confine your eating to mealtime. I am also fasting until noon except for a vitamin D pill and almonds which help the body to take in the vitamin D. Almonds and vitamin D pill at 7 AM. In Minnesota in winter, you don't get a lot of sun. I have read that taking vitamin D can be as effective as getting the flu shot in preventing the flu.

Friday, January 4, 2019: 217.8
It was downright embarrassing to record everything I ate yesterday. I have resisted writing down what I eat because it seems to be such a pain to do, but I think that it is a good idea given my commitment to eat whatever I want and as much as I want. It makes me think "Why am I eating this?" when I am eating. I become more conscious of what I am doing because I need to remember what I ate long enough to write down what I ate.

This process reminds me of our many discussions about budgeting. I just don't get budgeting. There are too many variables. How do you budget an exact amount for something like gas? Anyway, I have worked on a simple process for documenting what we spend. We have separate credit cards, so I can download transactions and categorize spending. I put the transactions into a spreadsheet. If I purchase both toilet paper and groceries at Costco, I can easily make two rows, one with the description of toilet paper and the category of "HHS" for household supplies and the estimated dollar amount for the toilet paper. The other row is for groceries and the estimated dollar amount. The total of the two rows adds up to the exact amount of the Costco transaction.

Katie complains I don't spend enough on clothing for her, and I can pull up all the transactions labeled "Katie clothing" and show her just what we have spent. She is our big money pit.

With regard to food, I bet I am going to find some big calorie pits, times of day or types of food that I am so in the habit of eating that I didn't realize what I was doing. I have already found one example. I eat packages of Costco seaweed sometimes for snack. I didn't realize one package was 1,000 calories! While I am not recording calories, it was my original thought to estimate and add up calories just like I estimate and add up categories of spending. On second thought, tracking calories is too much work. It's easier just to record what I eat as a way to keep myself aware of what I am eating.

Saturday, January 5, 2019:
Weight management is a miserable hobby. I decided this morning I am going to stay the course with writing down what I eat, eating some number of almonds (currently 15) with a vitamin D pill in the morning, and having a 12 - 7 PM eating window for all other food, when possible, and that is it. I don't want to weigh myself every day and see minor fluctuations or long plateaus. Maybe once a month I'll weigh myself. What I need is a way of life that results in a healthy weight. If I have found it in following these habits, great. If not, I will live with obesity. Obesity with the miserable hobby of weight management is worse than obesity without the miserable hobby of weight management. I'm done. I can report back monthly.

Sunday, January 6, 2019:
Wow. I just do not stop eating. It is clear to me that my eating is physical rather than emotional. I eat until I feel satisfied. The problem is that what my body currently defines as "satisfied" is eating to a degree that is unhealthy and results in my being obese. I think the morning fast will help. Looking back in my writing here, I see that I just did not believe in fasting. I kept on trying different things. That all was a waste of time. Fasting is a way to nudge my body into redefining what it means to be "satisfied". I do think writing down what I eat is helpful and may speed along the process because I might stop some mindless eating, but the success mainly will come from the morning fast -- even though I have almonds in the morning.

Monday, January 7, 2019:
Food is a big money pit because I eat so much! Writing down what I eat is very embarrassing. I am going to try to estimate calories but will not put myself on a budget of a certain number of calories per day. That approach has worked well with money management. Tom has harped on our having a budget, but I just don't get it. How can you budget exactly for something like gas or car repairs? Anyway, last night he wanted to see how much we have in savings to see if we can afford a trip to the Grand Canyon over spring break. He was shocked. Well, if you track expenses, suddenly you stop doing certain things. He now makes coffee at home instead of stopping at Starbucks every morning.

My weight is up because my jeans are tight but I have confidence this approach is an easy, long term approach just like our expense tracking system is. Oh, there might be tweaks here and there but the basic approach is set. For example, on budgeting, we have been having our monthly automatic expenses go to one credit card, and instead I'm having them moved to an authorized user on a different credit card. They still roll up separately, but I then only have one bill instead of two. It's another simplification. I think the same thing may happen with tracking. I may make minor changes to the tracking sheet.

Saturday, January 12, 2019:
I have only told Kayla, my personal trainer, that I am writing down what I eat, a suggestion she gave me when I first started working with her six years ago. She is understandably shocked. I told her I am embarrassed to see how much I eat. Now that emotion has become disgust. Writing down what I eat forces me to see what I am doing. There is no more unconscious eating. My jeans are still tight. I suspect my weight is up, but there is an unpleasant emotion now associated with random grabbing at food.

I do see a similarity to how writing down what I buy makes me more willing to pass on purchases. I'm still only too happy to buy things but really consider ahead of time whether or not I will like it and appreciate it given the cost. One thing I bought myself just recently was a digital food scale. I have not yet used it for estimating calories, but I will at some point.

Sunday, January 13, 2019:
Yesterday, I ate way too much and then had a stomach ache. I remember going through this when I fasted previously. Good. I'm returning to what I had and lost. My taste in sweets has definitely returned. I'm hoping that it recedes as the fasting continues. I do think having almonds in the morning won't change the effect of fasting: a change in taste and weight loss.

Yesterday, we booked a spring break trip to the Grand Canyon. I'm thinking more and more that the Camino is beyond me at least for this year. I should not go unless I have lost some weight. Kayla has me walking two miles five times this week. That is a good restart, especially since I seemed to have knee pain from trying to do a sitting yoga pose that stretched my muscles more than they have been stretched in a while. Slowly but surely, the race is won. I need to be patient.

Monday, January 14, 2019:
Whenever I try to cut back, even a little, the result is binge eating. Yo yo dieting. It has a name. The problem is I am not even dieting when I try this. Eating within a window is the best I can do. I have to be patient and let my body let go of the weight.

Thursday, January 17, 2019:
Last night, I decided that writing down what I eat is something of a distraction. I need to let the fasting change my taste in food and lead, eventually, to eating fewer calories. Patience...

Friday, January 18, 2019:
For the Camino, I told Katie I don't think it would be wise for me to walk 15 miles in one day, so now we are aiming for me to get up to a maximum of 8 miles in one day. I also restarted walking after taking a break, in part because I tried a yoga move that was beyond me and ended up with a very sore knee.

Sunday, January 20, 2019:
Tom wants me to go on the Camino. It would be good for Katie. It would be incentive for me to get in shape. The symbol of the Camino is a shell. Katie was trying to convince me to go on the Camino and went out in the family room to tell Tom that she needs some sort of sign from God that I should go on the Camino. Then she saw a postcard from the dentist reminding me to sign up for a dental cleaning. The stamp was a shell. I looked online and there are four types of shell stamps. I got the one that is like the symbol of the Camino. Katie returned, triumphant, with the postcard. This seems so absurd. I told Tom tonight that it's time to decide whether we actually go. We need to plan flights and alburgue stays.

Today I walked 3 miles. On the Camino, I would walk up to 9 miles in a day. That's not terrible. It's doable. Still, should we really spend all this money for Katie and me to walk the Camino? Next week, I am visiting my mother in her retirement community, and one night we are having dinner with another mother -- also a widow -- who walked the Camino with her daughter.

I have felt for years like my working on losing weight was like a hamster on a hamster wheel. Maybe this is my way to get off that wheel.

Sunday, January 27, 2019:
I spent the last week in California staying with my mother to celebrate her 93rd birthday and visiting with my sister who lives nearby. It was wonderful -- very relaxing. They both were enthusiastic about my going on the Camino since it motivates me to walk. Today, I just was looking through the obituaries and one obituary was of a 99 year old woman who walked a lot. I do think it is a key to health. It is easy but time-consuming. Maybe tomorrow I can walk as well, although there is a blizzard tonight and up to a foot of snow is expected.

Tuesday, January 29, 2019:
I walked today but am not going outside tomorrow at all. It is -18 degrees outside! We got out old puppy pads for our dog. She never used them when we were training her, but it would not be fair to put her outside. COLD!

Wednesday, January 30, 2019:
-29 degrees this morning. It has not been this cold since 1996. Our poor dog. She is only 10 pounds.

I know I have not lost any weight, but I can feel my appetite changing. Food seems too much. I have not eaten less but am thinking about eating less because food is losing its appeal. Tom bought me some Godiva chocolate last night on the way home from work, and it just did not appeal to me much. I still had some but did not eat all of it. I don't buy the idea that you need willpower to not eat food in order to lose weight. It just takes too much willpower to not eat 24 X 7. That was the appeal of intermittent fasting. You just did not think about food for a period during the day. I am still just having 15 almonds and a vitamin D pill at around 7 am and then nothing until noon, and that seems to be working. I have not lost any more height since the summer.

The problem is that I am eating a lot as soon as I can after noon, but I am thinking about eating less. Yesterday, for example, I did not get back home until about 2 and ate just a ton. I started to think about not eating so much because I was enjoying it less, but I still ate to my normal level of fullness.
This reminds me of a conversation I had with my mother and sister last week. They asked if Tom is walking with me. I said he was not but was thinking about exercising. That is a start. It is a genuine start. Yesterday, as I was walking, I concluded that what I should be doing is figuring out a long term walking program, and I think I'm going to make it a weekly goal of miles walked. My current thinking is I should try for 30 miles per week. That seems like a lot, but is it really? It is perhaps 10 hours per week. My thinking comes from the fact that a study of people who have succeeded with long term weight loss tend to walk a lot -- an average of 27 miles per week, as I recall. When I first read that, I thought it was unrealistic. Now I think I have spent a ton of time trying to figure out how to lose weight and maybe I can just shift that time to simple walking. Most people on the walking path at the Y use headsets. I just walk and think. It's "me" time. I cannot have a daily goal for walking because there will be days when I do not walk at all. It is highly unlikely I will go to the gym today. I don't want to risk being out at all, and Tom would have worked from home had he not had a meeting with the consultants who are giving their final presentation. If you are out in weather like this and your car breaks down, you don't have long before you have serious problems. I remember well that winter of 1996. I was pregnant with Tommy and my car wouldn't start after I got off the bus. I called AAA and they asked if I had a place to go, and I did not and was pregnant with a coat that did not fit. They were out in 15 minutes. It was -5 that day.

My appetite seems to be changing. That is the benefit of walking. I can feel it. It isn't calories burned during walking. It's something else.

8 PM: Today I observed how I eat. I eat to a certain level of fullness. What has happened is, for some reason, my desire to eat has diminished even as I have set out to eat to that same level of fullness. I am going to try to eat only if it provides pleasure.
Last edited by Kathleen on Thu Jan 31, 2019 9:32 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Kathleen
Posts: 1685
Joined: Tue Sep 16, 2008 12:46 pm
Location: Minnesota

Post by Kathleen » Thu Jan 31, 2019 9:30 pm

February, 2019: The Blessings of Simplicity

Weight
Friday, February 1, 2019: 219.0; 4 miles
Saturday, February 2, 2019: 4 miles
Sunday, February 3, 2019:
Monday, February 4, 2019: 5 miles
Tuesday, February 5, 2019: 220.0; 5 miles
Wednesday, February 6, 2019: 218.6
Thursday, February 7, 2019: 218.6: 5 miles
Friday, February 8, 2019: 217.6
Saturday, February 9, 2019: 5 miles
Sunday, February 10, 2019: 219.8
Monday, February 11, 2019: 219.2;4 miles
Tuesday, February 12, 2019:
Wednesday, February 13, 2019:
Thursday, February 14, 2019:
Friday, February 15, 2019: 220.0
Saturday, February 16, 2019: 219.2
Sunday, February 17, 2019:
Monday, February 18, 2019:
Tuesday, February 19, 2019:
Wednesday, February 20, 2019: 220.2
Thursday, February 21, 2019:219.4
Friday, February 22, 2019: 219.2
Saturday, February 23, 2019: 219.2
Sunday, February 24, 2019:
Monday, February 25, 2019: 219.2
Tuesday, February 26, 2019: 218.0
Wednesday, February 27, 2019: 218.4
Thursday, February 28, 2019:

Journal
Friday, February 1, 2019: 219.0
I give up on trying to control my weight because it requires 24 X 7 effort. Instead, I am going to focus on walking. 4 miles yesterday. 4 miles this morning. Goal of 20 miles this week.

8 PM: Katie was home tonight, and we booked the last of the hotels for our Camino trip. I also bought online a pair of socks recommended by my brother for hiking and two sleeping bag liners, since the hostels sometimes have bed bugs and you can save a lot of grief by sleeping in your own sheets.

I came to realize today that preparing for the Camino is not like preparing for a marathon; instead, it is preparing for a change in how I live. I think I am just going to go up to 30 miles per week of walking (5 times per week of walking 6 miles). Then I am going to continue this amount of walking even after the Camino.

As for eating, I think it is just going to collapse. The feeling I have somewhat reminds me of what it is like to have a tree that dies by becoming hollowed out. It looks the same on the outside but is changed on the inside. That is what is happening to my body. I can feel it.

Saturday, February 2, 2019:
Tom came to the gym today, the first time in years. I think my motivation to go on that Camino is primarily to motivate Tom to take care of himself and secondarily to spend time with Katie. In light of that, I think it would be wise to walk in a week only what I know I can sustain. Today, when walking four miles, I thought a lot about what is sustainable. I came up with five miles five times per week.

4 PM: I did little today after walking four miles. Tom suggested I vary the number of miles per day to 5, 5, 5, 7, and 10 per week or 32 miles per week. That is a stretch.

Tuesday, February 5, 2019: 220.0
Sigh... Literally I sighed as I started to type. I figured I was going to go on the Camino so I needed to lose weight and came up with the idea of only eating oatmeal and the result was to overeat. I am stuffed into my jeans. I think I need to not weigh myself except perhaps once per month.

I think Katie and I are going to go on the Camino. We have the hotels/albergues reserved for the entire trip May 17 - June 3. We set it up so we would walk no more than 10 miles in a day. It seems totally hare brained to spend this much money on a walking trip, but some of the hare brained things we have done in the past turned out the be wonderful memories. We were stockpiling money against a possible period of unemployment for Tom, so we have the money to go. I figured out my main motivation is to get Tom to exercise which doesn't make much sense because he isn't going, but it is working. He went to the gym with me on Saturday for perhaps the first time in three years, and he returned on Sunday and plans to exercise after work today.

Just sitting here typing, I thought that trying to lose weight is often a selfish endeavor. It's all about me looking good. I have thought my main motivation is to have the rest of my family observe and imitate, but somehow being focused on exercise is bringing out the imitators. Tom is exercising. Tommy is going to the gym. Ellie is planning to run this summer.

It took me almost 2 hours to walk 5 miles today. I am not exactly speedy. I am going to start doing fast walking as part of this as well -- 3 times per week. Yesterday was my first time doing fast walking. I did fast walking for 1 minute.

Wednesday, February 6, 2019: 218.6
Last night I went to bed before dinner because I was so exhausted from 10 miles of walking in two days. How the heck am I going to be able to walk 10 miles in a day? Tom assures me that I can do it. I am going to just focus on this and give up fasting altogether. We have an out of town trip next weekend, a trip for a week in March to the Grand Canyon, and a trip in May to see Anne get her master's degree. These will be my rest periods for walking! I thought this trip would cost about $4,000 and now think it will cost about $6,000. I cringe just looking at that figure. I read somewhere: "You don't choose the Camino. The Camino chooses you." That about sums it up for me.

Friday, February 8, 2019: 217.6
Schools are running two hours late today due to the weather which is now -11, so I got up late which partially explains the lower weight. Still, I think this walking is zapping my appetite. I realized that there is NO WAY I am going on that Camino unless I can ramp up my walking considerably. I am trying to build to 42 miles in a week since I will be walking a little over 49 miles in one week. I jumped up from 13 miles of walking to 23 miles of walking in one week which must be why I have not done much other than walk this week. From now on, I can try to build just 2 more miles per week. Yesterday I took a break of about 10 minutes while walking which really helped. Maybe I will track my weight. It could be fun!

Monday, February 11, 2019: 219.8
Today I planned to walk five miles but only walked four. I decided to work my way towards 30 miles a week of walking before I go on the Camino so I can take care of things at home and not just collapse every day. I also realized why you lose weight when you exercise. It's not that you lose your appetite. It's that your body doesn't want to do the work of digesting food that isn't needed.

Monday, February 25, 2019: 219.2
Tom's boss was fired, there is a reorganization, and he isn't sure what is going to happen. The Camino trip is on hold. My walking is significantly decreased. I'll walk perhaps 10 miles this week. Meanwhile, I'm looking back at my intermittent fasting approach and wondering why it worked and have thought that the main reason is my desire for sweets decreased. I toyed with the idea of eliminating meat and sweets. This morning, I decided to eliminate flour and sugar until Easter. What inspired me? I went through my mother in law's recipes this morning, and recipe after recipe was full of sugar and flour. Reflecting on these choices, I remember the first time I met Tom's sisters. They were HUGE!!! Now, guess what, I fit right in. Why? Why? Is it because I gradually shifted to those types of foods?

I have found some recipes that the family likes that do not include sugar or flour, and I can find more.

Tuesday, February 26, 2019: 218.0
My body reacted negatively to no flour or sugar, and I was tempted to have some ginger ale because my stomach was so upset. I wonder why. Was this a fluke? I think I'll continue down this path and see what happens. I did have carbs yesterday: oatmeal and rice.

Wednesday, February 27, 2019: 218.4
Yesterday, I made a meal which had honey as one of its ingredients, without my really thinking about avoiding sugar. I just did not equate honey with sugar. I also had a taste test at Costo that included noodles. It may be challenging to avoid flour and sugar!
Last edited by Kathleen on Fri Mar 01, 2019 6:50 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Kathleen
Posts: 1685
Joined: Tue Sep 16, 2008 12:46 pm
Location: Minnesota

Re: The Blessings of Simplicity

Post by Kathleen » Fri Mar 01, 2019 6:49 pm

March, 2019: The Blessings of Simplicity

Weight
Friday, March 1, 2019: 221.0
Saturday, March 2, 2019: 219.2
Sunday, March 3, 2019:
Monday, March 4, 2019:
Tuesday, March 5, 2019:
Wednesday, March 6, 2019: 220.0
Thursday, March 7, 2019:
Friday, March 8, 2019:
Saturday, March 9, 2019:
Day 1 - Sunday, March 10, 2019: 218.0
Day 2 - Monday, March 11, 2019:
Day 3 - Tuesday, March 12, 2019:
Day 4 - Wednesday, March 13, 2019:
Day 5 - Thursday, March 14, 2019:
Day 6 - Friday, March 15, 2019: 218.0
Day 7 - Saturday, March 16, 2019:
Day 8 - Sunday, March 17, 2019:
Day 9 - Monday, March 18, 2019:
Day 10 - Tuesday, March 19, 2019:
Day 11 - Wednesday, March 20, 2019:
Day 12 - Thursday, March 21, 2019:
Day 13 - Friday, March 22, 2019:
Day 14 - Saturday, March 23, 2019:
Day 15 - Sunday, March 24, 2019:
Day 16 - Monday, March 25, 2019:
Day 17 - Tuesday, March 26, 2019: 216.0
Day 18 - Wednesday, March 27, 2019:
Day 19 - Thursday, March 28, 2019: 218.0
Day 20 - Friday, March 29, 2019:
Day 21 - Saturday, March 30, 2019:
Day 22 - Sunday, March 31, 2019:

Journal
Friday, March 1, 2019: 221.0
I tend to overeat when I am trying to figure out what path to take. Now I'm set:
- no coffee
- avoid sugar except for Sundays
- work on one day per month of no flour

Tuesday, March 5, 2019:
For Lent, I decided to give up sugar and flour except on social occasions like the Boy Scout pancake breakfast this Saturday. Sundays are also exempt. I tried it yesterday and it was difficult. I will have to come up with lots of new recipes because almost everything I make is pasta-based. My sister in law years ago told me about a book called Wheat Belly which describes how wheat has been genetically modified to grow faster and is almost completely devoid of nutrients. I never finished the book, but now -- having given up on intermittent fasting -- I am going to give this a try. I do still try to fast 12 hours -- from 7 pm to 7 am -- but that is all.

My knee still hurts from trying a yoga move that was beyond my capability so now I am walking only 2 miles a day, very slowly. The Camino is history. Still, in a way, the plan to go on the Camino made me realize that walking 10,000 steps a day did not mean I was in good shape. We go to the Grand Canyon over Katie's spring break, and I hope I can walk at a decent pace when we are there.

Wednesday, March 6, 2019:
I took Katie to the dentist this morning and. on my way, told her the Camino changed me because I realized that 10,000 steps per day is insufficient. Walking 10 miles per day is beyond my current capability so we need to cancel the trip. This was not a surprise to her.

With that behind me. I do think my focus needs to be on my weight. I have been searching for a proxy for overeating and have tried many things including NoS. Last night. for Lent, I decided maybe I should just give up overeating. Then I considered the big issue which is how to determine if I am overeating or not. Maybe. just maybe. I can start with eating if I arguably am not overeating. In other words. I will eat unless I am know I am overeating.

6 pm: A stupendous failure. I am returning to intermittent fasting with a fasting window between 12 - 7 pm with the exception of 15 almonds and a vitamin D pill in the morning.

Thursday, March 7, 2019:
I am returning to my 12 - 7 pm fast. It is very strange but somehow it does not work if I have any food in the morning, even if it is only 15 almonds. What I am missing is a change in taste to food that is good for me. That's why I lost weight. I simply do not have the willpower 24 X 7 to resist food that I really want. Trader Joe's coffee ice cream is back to being my favorite food. I stopped intermittent fasting because there is some indication that it can impact bone loss and I've already lost about 2 inches of height. When next I have personal training, I'm going to ask for a focus on exercises to help with bone health. Live and learn. It was so easy to fast. I'm almost relieved making the decision to return to fasting.

Saturday, March 9, 2019:
This morning was the annual Scout pancake breakfast. We always go to support the troop. We talked with the new Scoutmaster who is perhaps 400 pounds. One thing I have noticed is that a lot of Scoutmasters are really big -- bigger even than the general population. That is intuitively surprising since Scouting is a lot about activity -- hiking and camping and sailing, etc. Why are they so big? Well, I have often wondered if obese people tend to be gullible though I never knew why. Now I think I know why. Scoutmasters generally are very generous people. They want to help raise boys, which is perhaps the most difficult task on earth. They almost always have boys of their own but are willing to take on the difficult task of helping to raise other people's boys. They want to "do the right thing." I think that attitude is what can help them become obese because they were gullible and decided to follow medical advice on how to lose weight: eat 6 small meals per day, eat low fat, have whole grains, etc., etc., etc.

I cannot say I am as generous as the Scoutmasters but I do share the trait of gullibility and wanting to do the right thing. Looking back, now, at this record of what I have tried, I see that intermittent fasting is the one approach that had positive results. I am moving to doing it. Coffee does not go along with intermittent fasting. I think it upsets my stomach to drink coffee on an empty stomach. Today I managed to delay having coffee until 9:45 am. It is daylight savings time tonight so I can delay tomorrow's cup of coffee until perhaps 11:30. After tomorrow, I plan to settle into that 12 - 7 eating window. It is possible that fasting has some negative effect on bone density, but I really see a return to eating sweets which is not good. When I have my next personal training session, I am going to focus on strength training.

Day 1 - Sunday, March 10, 2019: 218.0
Today was the first day I did not eat until noon. It was easy in part because I have been working my way towards today by having coffee later and later and because it was daylight savings time. I feel good. It is just plain bizarre to me that having 15 almonds in the morning totally disrupted the fasting cycle.

Day 2 - Monday, March 11, 2019:
I was not going to start counting days until I looked through my journal for the last six months and saw what a downward spiral I was in after trying to change intermittent fasting guidelines (previously 12 - 7 pm daily, if possible) or add other habits to intermittent fasting. I did lose some weight with my daily 7 hour eating window. Not much. The change that was most impressive was the change in my taste in food. Can I constantly avoid sweets when I want them? No. Ellie wanted caramels for a cooking experiment, and most of them were gone by the time she got to cooking. It was as if I was addicted. Thank God I never tried drugs because I had tried coffee first! What happened with intermittent fasting was not that my willpower increased so I could avoid sweets. Instead, what happened was I lost the taste for them. I literally found sweets -- like my favorite Trader Joe's Coffee Ice Cream -- unpleasant to eat. I started to crave vegetables! How unexpected!

Coffee ice cream is in the freezer, and I will eat some right after noon because my taste in sweets returned -- that's for sure! I now want to see how long it will take before I no longer want it.

I'm 60 years old. I'm done dieting. The reason why I started this journal was to try out experiments and see what works. The purpose now is to see what happens over the long haul with intermittent fasting. Life is short. I never really got into watching TV. Where I have wasted my time in life is with dieting. Enough!

Day 3 - Tuesday, March 12, 2019:
No coffee today, but I feel wiped out. Yesterday, I had a small whole milk latte at Starbucks in the afternoon and then did not sleep well last night. Happily, I do not have a headache.

Day 7 - Saturday, March 16, 2019: 218.0
Yesterday, I was with Ellie and Katie at a college reception. Cookies were served. I wanted water. Afterwards, I realized that I did not use willpower to not have cookies. I just did not want any. Maybe my taste in food is already changing.

We had breakfast out, and so I ate all day. Next week, we head to the Grand Canyon for a week. I will avoid breakfast but not be upset if I eat before noon. My hope is that I get back on track with losing weight fairly quickly, but I have learned my lesson that I need to be patient.

Day 15 - Sunday, March 24, 2019:
A few days ago, Katie offered me part of a brownie she got, I looked at it, and I said, “That looks kind of disgusting.” It did not appeal to me at all.

Yesterday the kids went skiing while we waited for them at the lodge. I had a 7 hour eating window between 10 and 5 and ended up having 2 Snickers bars and a hot dog
at the ski lodge and then water that night while everyone else at a nice dinner at a brewery. If it were not for the face that I just restarted, Iwould not have been that strict.

Today I had a gyro and root bear float at spring training for baseball and then an In and Out burger with fries and a Dr. Pepper for dinner. We are at the airport waiting for our 12:30 am flight and my stomach is not happy with me. Fasting seems to impact my ability to eat junk as well as my desire to eat it.

I think fasting may work for people who don’t stop eating once they start.

Day 17 - Tuesday, March 26, 2019: 216.0
We have an expression in our family: "This is Omaha." It is used by the kids when they want something, and it comes from a story I read about a super obese man (over 350 pounds) who was from Omaha but who lived in New York City. When he was in New York City, he was very careful with what he ate. When he visited Omaha, he ate whatever he wanted. I basically am in Omaha every day between noon and 7 PM, eating whatever I want. The kids say "This is Omaha" when they want to get something or spend money on something. For example, at spring training, root beer floats were $8. The girls got one each (Tommy and Tom went for the beer), and I tried a sip and got one too! The willingness to let go while on vacation allows us to tolerate being somewhat frugal while at home. Had I been home, I would not have spent $8 on a root beer float!

Despite having whatever I wanted and going for those extra treats while on vacation, my weight is now down to 216 pounds. How did that happen? It wasn't the activity level because we really didn't do much, especially the last two days when Tom and I sat around at a lodge waiting while the kids skied and then spent Sunday going to church and a ballgame. No, I think I am still benefit from those previous months of fasting. My set point was lowered with the prior fasting, and now my body is catching up to the lower weight. I don't know how to explain it, but I feel fat. My body doesn't want to weigh this much.

Day 19 - Thursday, March 28, 2019: 218.0
I am not sure I should even bother with weighing myself because it can be so discouraging with a two pound weight swing up and overly encouraging with a two pound weight swing down. One thing is certain with this approach: it is going to take a long time. It is nice that I have settled on a weight loss program, and it is nice that I have now included walking into my lifestyle, thanks to the Camino idea. I will walk 11 miles per week in April and then add one mile per week until I get to a point that is satisfying but not overwhelming.

2 PM: I waited until noon before eating but then went ahead and indiscriminately ate just a ton. Why? I think it was due to disappointment over my weight on the scale. It's time to set the scale aside except perhaps for one monthly weigh-in.
Last edited by Kathleen on Thu Mar 28, 2019 6:49 pm, edited 10 times in total.

Kathleen
Posts: 1685
Joined: Tue Sep 16, 2008 12:46 pm
Location: Minnesota

Re: The Blessings of Simplicity

Post by Kathleen » Fri Mar 22, 2019 2:47 am

duplicate post
Last edited by Kathleen on Mon Mar 25, 2019 3:45 am, edited 1 time in total.

User avatar
lpearlmom
Posts: 4812
Joined: Fri Aug 02, 2013 4:59 am
Location: Arizona

Re: The Blessings of Simplicity

Post by lpearlmom » Fri Mar 22, 2019 5:45 am

Happy to see you’re giving fasting another go. The reason it’s hard to fast when you eat a few almonds is because it spikes your insulin which makes one hungry. A clean fast is very important. It makes fssting so much essier and youll get better results. But yes IF takes a lot of patience. Depending upon the person it can take a long time to heal insulin resistance & start seeing results.

So great your tastes are changing. I see that happening a lot in the fb groups.

Best of luck!
:twisted: SW: 210 lbs
CW: 172
GW:160

Kathleen
Posts: 1685
Joined: Tue Sep 16, 2008 12:46 pm
Location: Minnesota

Re: The Blessings of Simplicity

Post by Kathleen » Sat Mar 23, 2019 1:48 pm

Hi Linda,
Thanks for the encouragement. To be honest, I feel a lot of disgust realizing all I had to do to lose weight was skip breakfast. Now, to your point, I need to be patient and let my body release the excess weight in its own time.
Kathleen

margot17
Posts: 207
Joined: Wed Jan 30, 2019 8:14 pm
Location: France

Re: The Blessings of Simplicity

Post by margot17 » Sat Mar 23, 2019 2:44 pm

Why disgust?
lpearlmom wrote:
Fri Mar 22, 2019 5:45 am
But yes IF takes a lot of patience. Depending upon the person it can take a long time to heal insulin resistance & start seeing results.
Linda did you do any test to verify if and how much your insulin resistance has changed with IF?
Last edited by margot17 on Sat Mar 23, 2019 8:34 pm, edited 3 times in total.

Kathleen
Posts: 1685
Joined: Tue Sep 16, 2008 12:46 pm
Location: Minnesota

Re: The Blessings of Simplicity

Post by Kathleen » Sat Mar 23, 2019 3:01 pm

Margot17,
I am disgusted because I never questioned the need to have breakfast. I started every day eating because I should.
Kathleen

User avatar
lpearlmom
Posts: 4812
Joined: Fri Aug 02, 2013 4:59 am
Location: Arizona

Re: The Blessings of Simplicity

Post by lpearlmom » Sun Mar 24, 2019 6:32 am

Kathleen: It’s okay. I think we all bought into the “breakfast is the most important meal of the day “ thing.

Margot: I know when I was very overweight, my blood sugar was higher than it should be but not diabetic yet. My most recent bloodwork showed my ac1 at 5.1 which is considered normal but i still feel like it should be lower. Hopefully I can getva little more weight off.
:twisted: SW: 210 lbs
CW: 172
GW:160

Kathleen
Posts: 1685
Joined: Tue Sep 16, 2008 12:46 pm
Location: Minnesota

Re: The Blessings of Simplicity

Post by Kathleen » Thu Mar 28, 2019 6:49 pm

April, 2019: The Blessings of Simplicity

Weight
Day 23 – Monday, April 1, 2019: 217.6
Day 24 – Tuesday, April 2, 2019: 217.4
Day 25 – Wednesday, April 3, 2019: 219.2
Day 26 – Thursday, April 4, 2019:
Day 27 – Friday, April 5, 2019: 218.8
Day 28 – Saturday, April 6, 2019: 217.6
Day 29 – Sunday, April 7, 2019: 217.2
Day 30 – Monday, April 8, 2019: 217.6
Day 31 – Tuesday, April 9, 2019: 217.6
Day 32 – Wednesday, April 10, 2019:

Day 1 – Thursday, April 11, 2019: 218.2
Day 2 – Friday, April 12, 2019: 217.8
Day 3 – Saturday, April 13, 2019: 217.2
Day 4 – Sunday, April 14, 2019: 216.8
Day 5 – Monday, April 15, 2019: 216.2
Day 6 – Tuesday, April 16, 2019: 217.0
Day 7 – Wednesday, April 17, 2019: 216.6
Day 8 – Thursday, April 18, 2019:
Day 9 – Friday, April 19, 2019:
Day 10 – Saturday, April 20, 2019: 217.8
Day 11 – Sunday, April 21, 2019: 219.2

Day 1 – Monday, April 22, 2019: 218.8
Day 2 – Tuesday, April 23, 2019: 218.6
Day 3 – Wednesday, April 24, 2019: 218.2

Day 1 – Thursday, April 25, 2019: 219.0
Day 2 – Friday, April 26, 2019: 217.2
Day 3 – Saturday, April 27, 2019: 218.8
Day 4 – Sunday, April 28, 2019: 220.0
Day 5 – Monday, April 29, 2019: 218.8
Day 6 – Tuesday, April 30, 2019:

Journal
Day 23 – Monday, April 1, 2019: 217.6
I may routinely weigh myself after all. I don't think it really matters. What matters is that I accept this will be a long process. Last year, I lost the first 12 pounds in 14 months, BUT binge eating disappeared entirely or almost entirely and my taste in food changed from sweets to food that is actually good for me.

I am continuing to do about 5 minutes of Pilates in the morning. This month, I am planning to walk 11 miles per week plus return to doing fast walking three times per week. My personal training session with Kayla is tomorrow, and I am going to ask about strength training as well. Last year, I got away from the 7 hour per day eating window because I had lost height. Doing some research, I find strength exercise may help it.

My 93 year old mother, who was 5' 6 1/2" like me, is now under 5'. My 95 year old aunt who was 5'10" is now under 5'. I have to accept the genetic component of this but will work on strength training as a way to preserve height longer -- maybe. What I won't do is give up the 7 hour eating window.

Anne ended up 5' 6 1/4", and I thought she had continued to grow when she was 18. No I was beginning to shrink. Now I am not as tall as the daughter I called "my pint" who ended up 5' 4 3/4".

Day 24 – Tuesday, April 2, 2019: 217.4
I saw my sister in law last night. She is 7 years older than I am and she used to be about 2" taller. I need to accept the reality that women shrink with age. That makes it even more important that I lose weight. I regret having given up the 7 hour eating window, but I cannot go back in time. Maybe I needed to be reinforced in my views that I should keep this as a habit for life before I settled down and made a commitment to it. For all my waffling around on dieting, I wonder how I ever committed to one man!

1 PM: Kayla and I talked through my walking plan and the need for strengthening exercises which I dropped a long time ago. She recommended I work towards 3 days per week of walking 2 miles and 2 days per week of walking 5 miles for a total of 16 miles. She recommended that I do fast walking on those days when I walk 2 miles. That sounds like a really good plan -- not too tough and manageable long term.

Day 30 – Monday, April 8, 2019: 217.6
For about two hours last week, I briefly panicked and decided to add "take a sip of water between bites" to my weight loss plan. Then I realized that it is the constant changing of my approach that gets me into trouble. Enough! I can focus on exercise now that Kayla and I have worked out a walking plan that seems solid and doable long-term. This morning, I went to the gym and walked 2 miles. Woo Hoo. It's not a lot but it is something. Same as with my diet. It's not a lot but will move the needle over time. I ALREADY KNOW THAT! I have already been down this path, getting down to 211 easily. I need to be patient.

Day 31 – Tuesday, April 9, 2019: 217.6
How exciting. I am down .4 pounds in 31 days. It is discouraging. I have to remind myself that I am out of the endless diet/binge cycle, and I have to remind myself that I previously lost 12 pounds in 14 months. This does work -- slowly. I am getting back into the routine of fast walking and walking in general -- again, slowly. Currently, I am doing fast walking a total of 1 minute 15 seconds during my 2 mile walks 3 times per week at the gym. In addition, I am walking 3 miles on another day and 2 miles on another day. The total is 11 miles per week.

Today should be the last major snow storm, with an expected 4" of snow. Once summer is here, it is easier to be more active. I am very concerned about my lack of stamina as in -- what could be wrong with me? I need to set up an appointment for a physical but am holding off at least a month to see if I recover from my overdoing it in walking a couple of months ago. It has been a couple of months. I am surprised. My body is old and I need to accept that. From doing a yoga move I should not have done back in January, I am still recovering. The pain is gone, but there is still some stiffness. My "gut feeling" is that the lack of stamina, like the stiffness in one knee, stems from overdoing it. It's just a shock that overdoing it with walking was 25 miles per week of walking for 2 weeks. That wasn't that much.

Day 33 – Thursday, April 11, 2019: 218.2
Why do I feel so hungry? At noon exactly, I popped a hard boiled egg in my mouth. It is now 12:37 PM, and I have had 1/2 peanut butter sandwich, 2 bowls of homemade chicken noodle soup, 2 mandarins, 2 handfuls of trail mix, one handful of pumpkin seeds, 1 slice of chocolate cake made by Ellie, and 2 cups of coffee ice cream. I think I need to revisit the idea of taking a sip of water between bites. Oh yeah, a hunk of cheese as well. What is really bad is I still feel like eating. Why? This makes no sense.

Day 34 – Friday, April 12, 2019: 217.8
Maybe Linda is right that fasting eventually leads to binge behavior. I'm going to try taking a sip between bites and not fasting. This morning, before going to the gym, I had some walnuts and a mandarin along with coffee. I read many years ago that the best way to overcome a bad habit is to create a habit that is incompatible with the bad habit. Maybe I do still binge but don't realize it. Looking at the list of what I ate yesterday in 37 minutes just appalled me. Eating doesn't feel out of control because I give myself permission to eat whatever I want, but I'm still binge eating! This idea of taking a sip between bites came from Gwen Shamblin's book which I read maybe 20 years ago. She was highly successful at getting very obese people to lose a lot of weight, and her focus was on eating only when hungry. When I tried eating only when hungry, I ended up feeling hungry all the time. I ended up reading her book looking for habits that might have caused the weight loss, and she had recommended only two: taking a sip between bites and cutting your portion size on your plate in half, eating only the half, and then deciding if you are hungry enough to eat more.

Day 3 – Saturday, April 13, 2019: 217.2
I was tempted tonight to eat without taking a sip between bites but then reminded myself this was the only thing I am doing to try to lose weight.

Day 4 – Sunday, April 14, 2019: 216.8
We stopped at Starbucks after Mass, and I brought home a whole milk latte. Then I had some pistachio nuts, two helpings of Ellie’s baked mac and cheese, some cheese, and 1/2 peanut butter sandwich. Then I had a hard boiled egg and was done. That is way less than I had a few days ago before I started taking a sip between bites. Is it possible that taking a sip between bites slows down my eating and that is all I need to do?

I ordered Gwen Shamblin’s book from the library. It was published in the late 1990s. She gained quite a following through churches until it became known that she did not believe in the Trinity. She had small group meetings in which people watched videos produced by her. I attended one of those meetings years ago. I also got the videos from Amazon years ago. Her work inspired me to try what I called The Hunger Satisfaction Diet back in summer 2008, and that was the most miserable dieting experience I ever had because I was constantly belly gazing to try to figure out if I was hungry. I also would skip meals with my family. After a summer of that, I tried No S.

Now I am thinking No S has some merit in making it clear when food is allowed vs not whereas you could never quite know if you were hungry even with stomach noise due to the human capacity for self deception. The difficulty with No S was I would eat whatever was allowed. Fasting helped limit that but still left me eating too much. Taking a sip between bites seems ludicrously silly but maybe it will be a way for me to eat less even as I allow myself to eat as much as I want whoever I want. My weight is down a little today but that may be meaningless because I get up a little later on Sundays.

Day 5 – Monday, April 15, 2019: 216.2
I was up at 6:15 this morning, so the lower weight is not due to getting up late. Wow. I had not expected my weight to be this low. Is it a fluke? Time will tell. One reason why I have been hesitant to try this approach is it seems so silly. It reminds me of an approach to weight loss that comes up in literature from the 20th century. The reason why it came up in literature is because people were annoyed by the practice, which was called Fletcherism. Here is a dictionary term for that practice:
"the practice of chewing food until it is reduced to a finely divided, liquefied mass: advocated by Horace Fletcher, 1849–1919, U.S. nutritionist."
Doesn't that seem silly?

Why would taking a sip between bites seem any less silly? Well, one good thing is no one has yet noticed that I am doing it. I also am speculating that taking a sip between bites may change the digestive process and make you less hungry. I don't know. I did notice yesterday that food seemed to go through me more quickly.

1 PM: I thought that people tended to be less hungry if food stayed in their belly longer, which is why it is not a good idea to have a lot of liquids. Have I stumbled across another assumption that was inaccurate?

Day 6 – Tuesday, April 16, 2019: 217.0
No surprise: weight is up after yesterday's dip. I did learn something as of today: I need to eat less at night so I'm not up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom. Taking a sip means taking in liquid. Ha. Ha. That is not something that would have occurred to me before I started following this habit.

Day 7 – Wednesday, April 17, 2019: 216.6
The changes in weight are so miniscule as to be meaningless, but that doesn't prevent me from ascribing meaning to them. Yesterday, as I was loading jelly beans into Easter eggs for the kids' Easter egg hunt (they never outgrow that!), I ended up not following the habit of taking a sip between meals. I argued to myself it didn't matter, and during the next hour or so, I also ate without taking a sip between bites. By dinner, I was back to doing the ONE thing I have decided to do.

I have totally given up morning fasting and enjoy coming back from my walk at the gym (2 miles this morning) to have whatever I feel like having. This morning, I had toast with jam and butter, coffee with cream, a mandarin. I opened the freezer to get out coffee ice cream -- because I could! -- and decided the raw almonds were more appealing. I am finding a reluctance to eat after dinner but no reluctance whatsoever to eat before noon.

Day 8 – Thursday, April 18, 2019:
Taking a sip of liquid between bites is far more challenging than I anticipated. Yesterday, I succeeded except for about an hour before dinner. I decided that I would only weigh myself if I succeeded for the entire day. Today I did even worse. I just felt hungry without the ability to satisfy that hunger. It's as if the only way I can feel satisfied is if I eat quickly. I finally resorted to having an entire bucket of popcorn -- without liquid. Very odd. Very odd. Here I am, having wolfed down popcorn after dinner after ice cream after all sorts of food, and I still feel hungry! I'm beginning to think I have a problem like a smoker who isn't just addicted to nicotine but who also is addicted to the act of smoking. It seems to me that this approach is going to work, and I'm struggling to understand why. Maybe I am giving up not just food but a way of acting.

Day 9 – Friday, April 19, 2019:
It was wonderful to wake up at 6 am having slept through the night! I believe that one aspect of taking a sip between bites -- maybe the most important -- is that it forces you to eat less at night so that you don't have to wake up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom. How ridiculous. It is Good Friday, but I am exempt from fasting rules as of my 59th birthday, so I'm going to try to eat more in the morning so as to eat less at night.

Day 10 – Saturday, April 20, 2019: 217.8
I am committed enough to this diet that I ate a lot yesterday on Good Friday, including having coffee ice cream in the morning. Even so, I ate -- and drank -- enough last night to have to get up twice to use the bathroom. Either I will stop eating so much or I will stop sipping between bites because losing sleep is not tolerable.

Day 1 – Monday, April 22, 2019: 218.8
The Gwen Shamlin book woke me up to what I DO NOT WANT TO BE DOING: belly gazing. It occurred to me that prayers before and after meals used to mark a bright line between when to eat and when to not eat. I'm thinking about returning to some sort of No S approach, with modifications.

1 PM: I think I am going to try having breakfast and then having lunch between 12 and 1 and dinner between 6 and 7. This means that there will be blocks of hours during the day when I am not eating. It was easy to wait until noon to eat. I've done that a lot when doing intermittent fasting. It will be easy to stop at 7. My guess is that the hard part will be waiting until 6 to eat again.

Day 2 – Tuesday, April 23, 2019: 218.6
I changed again. I realized that I needed a bright line after eating meals and came up with the idea of recording what I eat with a start and end time. I just had a big breakfast, it is now 9:30, and I am done until lunch. If I eat again, I need to start a new line in my food journal.


Day 3 – Wednesday, April 24, 2019: 218.2
I just had coffee with cream and yogurt with blueberries and wrote that down with an end time of 9:30 am. It is a deterrent for me not to snack if I have an end time. This is so ridiculous I cannot believe it might work, but it might. I have tried writing down what I eat only to stop because I am so disgusted by how much I eat. There was no change in eating behavior. I do believe that writing down an end time for eating will result in a change in eating behavior -- less snacking.

Tom and I have gone around and around and around about budgeting, and I just never could get into doing it. It seemed like so much work to plan how much you are going to spend and then stay under that amount. How are you supposed to budget to the dollar how much gas you spend in a month? It also seems like such a lot of work because you are tracking three things: the amount you spend, the amount you budget to spend, and the difference between budget and actual. I have a much simpler system. We track expenditures in a spreadsheet. We have a gas card and groceries card so we don't need to record every gas and groceries expenditure. We summarize expenditures into categories. It is so easy, for example, to see that we spent $619.69 on the dog in the first three months of the year.

For weight management, I don't need to count every calorie. I can look at what I ate. I can see the effect in the long-term impact on the number on the scale. My tendency has been to make things to complicated, and I have done just that. Calories do count, but you can see those calories in choice of food and quantity of food.

My biggest weight loss challenge is that I tend not to stop eating once I have started. That's why fasting was attractive to me. Now I will try recording what I eat and having an end time and seeing the impact.

1:30 PM: I dropped off dry cleaning and did not take a candy as is my habit for the simple reason that I did not want to start a new line in my food journal to record it.

Day 2 – Friday, April 26, 2019: 217.2
I return to my Novena Diet. For more than 10 years, I maintained a weight of around 140 by counting 1,000 calories per day when my weight crept up. I hated, absolutely hated, those days of counting calories and eventually just could not bring myself to do it. I would delay going on the diet and then, when I did, I would binge eat.

Why return? Well, I am fixing the mistakes I made in how I set up the diet. First: I am going to make the Novena Diet be a set period of time per month: from the 2nd to the 10th of every month. During those days, I am going to err on the side of eating less and I am going to write down what I eat. I am not going to count calories. The reason why I did not make the Novena Diet during a set period of time is that sometimes it is awkward at best to count calories. For example, Tom and I are making a quick try to Indiana next week to see Anne get her master's degree. I long ago had figured the 2nd to the 10th of the month would be the best time overall for a monthly novena (novena means nine days) because that time of month avoids all birthdays in our family, our wedding anniversary, and all major holidays except the 4th of July and Easter when it is as the beginning of April.

Second: I am not going to be strict about what I do. The reason why my exercise program with Kayla has been sustainable is it has been so simple. I do exercises for about five minutes every morning. Now, she has me in a walking program that is very easy and also very flexible. I try to walk 5 times per week. I try to walk all days but Tuesday and Thursday. Next Thursday afternoon through Saturday night, we will be driving a total of 21 hours. I won't be able to go on a long walk on Saturday, and that's OK. Simple. Flexible. With regard to what I want to accomplish during my nine days of dieting, it is to get to the next 5 pound level of weight. The rest of the month will be for keeping that weight off. Easy.

Day 5 – Monday, April 29, 2019: 218.8
I think I am going to start my nine days of Novena Diet today because my body is so stiff from trying a Daily Yoga app. It's wonderful, but everything in it is a challenge, even the easy yoga for beginners. I need a break and will take an exercise break while I focus on eating less for the next nine days. I'm also not going to weigh myself for the next nine days. My goal is to get below 215 and stay there.

Kathleen
Posts: 1685
Joined: Tue Sep 16, 2008 12:46 pm
Location: Minnesota

Re: The Blessings of Simplicity

Post by Kathleen » Wed May 01, 2019 1:13 pm

May, 2019: The Blessings of Simplicity
Goal weight for June, 2019 is 219.0 pounds, down 1 pound from Friday, May 10, 2019 weight of 220.0 pounds.

Weight
Day 1 – Tuesday, May 7, 2019: 219.0
Day 2 – Wednesday, May 8, 2019: 217.6
Day 3 – Thursday, May 9, 2019:

Day 1 – Friday, May 10, 2019: 220.0
Day 2 – Saturday, May 11, 2019:
Day 3 – Sunday, May 12, 2019: 219.2
Day 4 – Monday, May 13, 2019: 219.0
Day 5 – Tuesday, May 14, 2019: 218.6
Day 6 – Wednesday, May 15, 2019:
Day 7 – Thursday, May 16, 2019: 218.4
Day 8 – Friday, May 17, 2019: 218.8
Day 9 – Saturday, May 18, 2019: 218.4
Day 10 – Sunday, May 19, 2019: 217.6
Day 11 – Monday, May 20, 2019:
Day 12 – Tuesday, May 21, 2019:
Day 13 – Wednesday, May 22, 2019:
Day 14 – Thursday, May 23, 2019: 220.4
Day 15 – Friday, May 24, 2019:
Day 16 – Saturday, May 25, 2019:
Day 17 – Sunday, May 26, 2019:
Day 18 – Monday, May 27, 2019:
Day 19 – Tuesday, May 28, 2019: 218.6
Day 20 – Wednesday, May 29, 2019: 218.8
Day 21 – Thursday, May 30, 2019: 217.6
Day 22 – Friday, May 31, 2019: 219.6

Journal
Day 2 – Wednesday, May 8, 2019:
Yesterday, I returned to my 12 - 7 pm eating window with no restrictions on what I eat or how much I eat or why I eat or how I eat. What a relief. I am so done with paying attention to my eating and my weight. I do think I have figured out why fasting works. For several hours in the morning, my stomach is emptier than at other times when I am awake and -- guess what -- it doesn't feel bad. In fact, it can feel better than when I am eating. Fasting is training for my body to eat an appropriate amount.

Day 4 – Monday, May 13, 2019: 219.0
I had to go on yet another detour before I committed once again to fasting in a 12 - 7 pm eating window only. Yesterday being Mother's Day and Tommy's birthday, we went out and ended up having beer and popcorn at a brewery and then pizza. I could not finish my slice of pizza. I looked at it and Katie asked if I didn't like it and I said it would be painful for me to eat more. Fasting does work. It curbs appetite. I just have to trust that my body will heal in its own time from the restrictions I have placed on it or the threats of restrictions I have placed on it.

Day 7 – Thursday, May 16, 2019: 218.4
Yesterday, Katie (home from college) and I picked up Ellie at noon from the high school so we could go to the matinee of a play at 1. Katie and Ellie ate high school cafeteria food in the car. I ate before we left to pick up Ellie at school. It made the most sense for me to eat early rather than to eat in the car while driving or try to find someplace to eat just before the play. Did I count my eating before noon as a failure? Not at all. I had decided to track when I stay within the 12 - 7 pm eating window and when I do not, but yesterday I decided that I would just have a habit of eating in that window unless there is some situation in which it makes more sense for me to eat outside that window. That is how I handled this fasting window last year. It is a much more relaxed approach.

Day 9 – Saturday, May 18, 2019: 218.8
Welcome back to slow. I had to give up the hope of quick weight loss to accept slow and not so steady progress but progress nevertheless. Last year on May 18, I weighed 215. I lost a full year when I gave up my eating window of 12 - 7 pm. It is water under the bridge. I cannot go back in time.

Day 10 – Sunday, May 19, 2019: 217.6
My taste in food is definitely changing! Today I am salivating over homemade vegetable soup!

7 PM: Today's Minneapolis Star Tribune has a New York Times article by Nicholas Bakalar with the title: "Eating breakfast may protect your heart". Here were some findings: "People who never ate breakfast were more likely to be obese and have high cholesterol." Later in the article: "Compared with those who have breakfast every day, those who skipped the meal had an 87% increased risk for death from any cardiovascular disease and a 19% increased first for all-cause death. Breakfast skippers had a 59% increased risk of developing heart disease, and more than triple the risk of stroke."

Do I feel fear? No. What I feel is disgust. Who came up with this study? General Mills? I read a book several years ago called "Overdosed America" which convinced me that it is important to look at these studies with a skeptical eye unless you can delve into the data. Guess what? You can't with the data in this study. You need a login. Back in 2009, it was recommended I take a drug to reduce my risk of breast cancer by 85%. I delved into the data and found that the drug increased the risk of death, including the risk of death by breast cancer since people taking it tended to get the bad type of breast cancer. I also found the 85% figure was based on a study of a total of 22 women from the 1990s. Garbage science. Maybe we as a society became fat because of breakfast!

Day 11 – Monday, May 20, 2019:
I am on the fence about weighing myself, so we shall see how it goes. When I followed the 12 - 7 pm eating window previously, my weight loss was about 1 pound per month with a variance of 3 pounds. If my actual starting weight for this month is 220, then the weight loss would be down to 219 and the range of weight would be 217 to 223. I haven't been as high as 223 in a long time, and I got to 220 as a high end weight this month. It may be helpful for me to have a weight loss goal that is very modest as a way to encourage me to be patient. For example, my goal weight for June 1 could be 219, down just one pound, and my goals for July, August, and September could be 218, 217, and 216 respectively. What I could do then is just weigh myself once per month to see that I am on track. I like this idea because the variance for me right now is more likely to be 217 to 219 rather than 221 to 223. I am putting under my title the goal of 219 for June 1.

Day 12 – Tuesday, May 21, 2019:
I am going to try just weighing myself once per month.

Day 19 – Tuesday, May 28, 2019: 218.6
I think I can weigh myself so long as I have a realistic expectation that I will only lose about 1 pound a month. On Sunday, we walked to a mountain lake with almost 1/2 of the 1.2 mile walk being over snow that had not yet melted. We started the hike before noon, and I was careful to eat before the hike. Misery Ridge last year taught me a lesson! I need to be flexible which is why I am not going to track how many days I eat within the 12 - 7 PM window.

I can't be freaking out if my weight goes up like it did last week. One thing about dieting that is little appreciated is how much stress it causes. That's one nice thing about having an eating window and no other parameters for eating. I just don't worry about it. I have too much else in my life to be focused on weight.

Day 20 – Wednesday, May 29, 2019: 218.8
Looking back in this journal, I see that I was very frustrated by the slow progress with weight loss, including months when I lost nothing, and also the progress made when I took a sip of water between bites. I gave up that habit of taking a sip of water between bites but now think I can take it on because I have been able to adjust to no breakfast. This is not a new Day 1. This is a Step 2. I don't want to be belly gazing. I don't want to be trying to define what is a sweet, counting calories, trying to decide what is an S Day, trying to figure out when exceptions apply. A sip is a sip. The hours of 12 to 7 are clear. This is no ambiguity in what I am trying to do. The only time judgment calls need to be made are when to eat outside the hours of 12 to 7 and when not to take a sip. With regard to the sip, it's easy: is liquid available? I can have a taste test at Costco because liquid is not available. At home, I can sit down with water. As for eating outside my eating window, it's a judgment call but I do my best. On Sunday, it was prudent to eat before going on a hike.

Day 21 – Thursday, May 30, 2019: 217.6
Yesterday I forgot to take a sip between bites, but I did read through my writing here for the last year and was convinced that just having a 12 - 7 eating window is insufficient to lose a lot of weight. I'll try the eating window plus sipping, maybe for the next year. Sipping sounds like a way to slow down eating, but I think there is more to the effectiveness than that. I think sipping changes digestion.

4 PM: It is too hard to acclimate all at once to sipping between bites so I will adjust over time. Maybe I'll start with just sipping between bites between 6 and 7 PM to start.

Day 22 – Friday, May 31, 2019: 219.6
Because my weight went down to 217.6 yesterday, I hesitated on building the habit of taking a sip between bites. Now my weight is up, and I am committed to sticking with that sip between bites. I should have been convinced about the need to sip by reading what I wrote on this forum last year, but I was not. We have a really busy time right now, with Katie moving home from college today, Ellie having her last day of high school today, our volunteering this weekend -- all weekend, and our having an electrician out to replace many lights in the house. The oven went out. I don't have time to deal with it. The stove still works and we have a pressure cooker and a crock pot. Life happens. That's why diets don't work. Diets are rigid. In life, you need to go with the flow. You need to develop habits that are flexible and yet effective. The eating window 12 - 7 was flexible but not very effective. Reading through what I wrote last year, I realized that a lot of my weight loss was from multi day fasts which I could not always follow for social reasons and which sometimes precipitated binge eating. Not good. Taking a sip between bites was a pain, a real pain. I did not give the practice enough time to see how effective it could be because I got the book from which I got that idea and rejected the idea of sipping because of the other, belly-gazing ideas in the book. Even today, more than 10 years after I tried what I called The Hunger Satisfaction Diet, I am repulsed by what happened: I always felt hungry. Asking myself if I was hungry, I always said yes. My stomach growled at the thought of food. Separating the wheat from the chaff in that book, I can take the idea of sipping between bites and reject the idea of belly-gazing to determine if I am hungry.
Last edited by Kathleen on Fri May 31, 2019 1:33 pm, edited 3 times in total.

Kathleen
Posts: 1685
Joined: Tue Sep 16, 2008 12:46 pm
Location: Minnesota

Re: The Blessings of Simplicity

Post by Kathleen » Thu May 30, 2019 8:54 pm

June, 2019: The Blessings of Simplicity
Goal weight for June, 2019 is 219.0 pounds, down 1 pound from May, 2019 weight of 220.0 pounds. Expected weight range is 216.0 - 222.0.

Weight
Day 23 - Saturday, June 1, 2019:
Day 24 – Sunday, June 2, 2019:
Day 25 – Monday, June 3, 2019: 217.8
Day 26 – Tuesday, June 4, 2019: 218.2
Day 27 – Wednesday, June 5, 2019:
Day 28 – Thursday, June 6, 2019: 217.4
Day 29 – Friday, June 7, 2019:
Day 30 – Saturday, June 8, 2019: 218.8
Day 31 – Sunday, June 9, 2019: 220.0
Day 32 – Monday, June 10, 2019:
Day 33 – Tuesday, June 11, 2019: 218.0
Day 34 – Wednesday, June 12, 2019: 218.4
Day 35 – Thursday, June 13, 2019:
Day 36 – Friday, June 14, 2019: 218.2
Day 37 – Saturday, June 15, 2019: 218.6
Day 38 – Sunday, June 16, 2019: 217.8
Day 39 – Monday, June 17, 2019: 217.8
Day 40 – Tuesday, June 18, 2019: 217.4
Day 41 – Wednesday, June 19, 2019: 218.2
Day 42 – Thursday, June 20, 2019: 218.2
Day 43 – Friday, June 21, 2019:
Day 44 – Saturday, June 22, 2019: 219.2
Day 45 – Sunday, June 23, 2019: 218.2
Day 46 – Monday, June 24, 2019: 219.0
Day 47 – Tuesday, June 25, 2019: 217.8
Day 48 – Wednesday, June 26, 2019: 217.6
Day 49 – Thursday, June 27, 2019:
Day 50 – Friday, June 28, 2019: 218.4
Day 51 – Saturday, June 29, 2019:
Day 52 – Sunday, June 30, 2019:


Journal
Day 24 – Sunday, June 2, 2019:
I give up on taking a sip between bites. I think it is best for me just to be patient, relax and let my body seek its own equilibrium with regard to weight. The fasting in the morning gives my body a nice and gentle reminder that not being stuffed feels good.

Day 25 – Monday, June 3, 2019: 217.8
Over the weekend, I was debating about going to One Meal A Day, but then I thought about lpearlmom's experience and thought that is not a great long-term strategy. Maybe I should just stick with my 12 - 7 pm window and strive to be down one pound per month. I made the one pound loss this month. Next month's goal is 218.

Day 26 – Tuesday, June 4, 2019: 218.2
Why intermittent fasting (an eating window of 12 - 7 pm) works for me:
1. I relax. I don't eat now to prevent feeling hunger later. Because I can eat as much as I want of whatever I want in seven hours every day, I don't think that any hunger I experience now is going to last forever, which is how I felt on diets. Also, having a very modest weight loss goal of 1 pound per month also helps me to relax. When my weight fluctuates up and down, it doesn't matter since the trend is down.

2. I find eating less to be more pleasant. My body wants less food; it's my brain that says eat as much as you are allowed. That is the legacy of dieting when I always ate right up to my calorie limit. There is a term I've heard called "contrast effect" which means that you appreciate a contrast. For example, you enjoy the weekends as a relaxing contrast to weekdays. With this approach, I contrast the morning feeling of lightness with the afternoon feeling of being stuffed and just naturally start to eat less because lightness feels better!

3. My taste in food changes away from sugar. I don't understand the science of this, but when you eat constantly your body is digesting sugar. When you fast, your body changes your food into fat. Your body learns to digest fat and then wants it and not sugar. What I have found personally is that I don't want food like fudge.

Day 27 – Wednesday, June 5, 2019:
I can only relax and not eat to stuffed if I commit to this eating window and nothing else. Life is short even for my 97 year old aunt who is being buried today. The Good Lord said “When you fast”, not “If you fast”. Fasting is essential for human beings, and it is in the Bible. I thought fasting was a medieval notion not supported by science.

Day 28 – Thursday, June 6, 2019: 217.4
I finally am confident that all I have to do is fast and be patient so my body has time to reach the weight which is optimal for it. What a relief.

9:30 PM: I had personal training at 12:30 with Kayla today and told her of my decision to stick with an eating window of 12 - 7 PM. She has been my personal trainer for six years and is happy I am sticking with something! I also told her I was going to have a banana before I came but forgot so here it is 1:30 PM and I am not at all affected by having had nothing since the prior evening. This is good.

Today I saw a Youtube video on intermittent fasting:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A6Dkt7zyImk&t=171s

There was some explanation of why intermittent fasting, but the speaker also talked about how important it is to focus on quality and quantity of what you eat. I don't do that at all! Last night, I was driving back from my aunt's funeral and stopped with the choice of McDonald's or HyVee. I chose the vegetarian sushi which is what I wanted. This afternoon, I had two Haagen Dazs bars which is what I wanted. Gradually, my taste changed so I didn't want ice cream all the time. Now I am repeating what happened last year, with a gradual change from junk food to healthy food. I didn't decide I had to have healthy food. I ate what I wanted! I am doing the same thing now. It is way easier to just eat what you want within a certain window of time than it is to fuss with what to eat and how much to eat.

Day 31 – Sunday, June 9, 2019: 220.0
It is really hard to continue when I am right back to my starting weight, but I have to remind myself that the weight loss is permanent because I go through ups and down. Yesterday we had breakfast out and celebrated Ellie's high school graduation. Today I take Katie to camp and feel just plain gross. I feel stuffed and it feels awful. Before fasting, feeling stuffed was a comfortable relief. Now it is just plain gross. That is why this approach works in the long run. I end up not liking the feeling of overeating.

Day 32 – Monday, June 10, 2019:
I considered going to One Meal a Day for a period of time but changed my mind at 1:30 pm and promptly bought 12 ice cream sandwiches and had three. When am I going to learn?

Day 33 – Tuesday, June 11, 2019: 218.0
Last night, I was considering trying a three day fast at the end of this week. This morning, with a weight of 218.0, I saw the foolishness of this. I went through this last year! This very same thing! I need to be patient and my hope is that by giving myself a goal weight plus a weight range, I will be able to appreciate that I am in fact losing weight even when my weight temporarily spikes.

Day 34 – Wednesday, June 12, 2019: 218.4
Tom is gone for the next three days so it would be very easy for me to fast for three days. I am tempted. The problem is that what I need is consistency, and you can't be consistent in multi-day fasts. You have to plan ahead. With daily fasting, you know what you are getting into every single day. My taste in food has not yet returned to healthy eating. I had two large cookies yesterday.

The way I keep myself on course is to look at my weight range, which is 216.0 to 222.0 this month. I am within that range.

Day 37 – Saturday, June 15, 2019: 218.6
I am painting Katie's room and listened to a Jason Fung interview yesterday and decided that maybe I should alter my fasting so that my standard eating window is 12 - 7 PM but I try to have a more restricted window on three days per week. Yesterday I ate a lot and knew my weight would go up but that is OK. Appetite does decrease with fasting; it just takes a long time. I'm not going to plunge into having a more restricted eating window. I am going to try to restrict it in 15 minute increments per week, which means I am going to try to having my eating window start at 12:15 on M, W, F next week.

Day 38 – Sunday, June 16, 2019: 217.8
I think I'm only going to try a longer fast on Fridays, if at all. It is better that I stick with the 12 - 7 PM eating window.

Day 39 – Monday, June 17, 2019: 217.8
I already tried longer fasts last year and they were disruptive. I am back to a daily 12-7 eating window.

Day 40 – Tuesday, June 18, 2019: 217.4
I have my annual physical today. It will be interesting to see the results of the blood test. Yesterday, I had two Haagen Dazs bars. Clearly, my tastes have not yet returned to food that is good for me.

Day 42 – Thursday, June 20, 2019: 218.2
Yesterday, I just plain ate a lot and felt like a rebellious teenager. I ate a lot because I could -- because I can eat anything I want within that 7 hour window. I had three Haagen Dazs bars and coffee ice cream. That is totally OK, I told myself. In the night, I woke up feeling just plain gross. There is something about fasting that makes overeating unpleasant -- eventually. I am just going through what I went through last year, so I know that the result is slow weight loss. Yesterday, I picked up a book from the library called The Circadian Code by Satchin Panda. It looks very interesting. The author recommends a daily 8 hour window for fasting. What is interesting about that is I did have an 8 hour window of 11 am - 7 pm but it didn't seem to do much for me. The 6 hour window was too short. The 7 hour window seems just right.

Day 45 – Sunday, June 23, 2019: 218.2
I went into a Land's End store looking for a polo shirt and was led to the plus size section. I have not bought plus size clothing because I have managed to find XL clothing that fits. It was disappointing to be identified as a plus size customer because I don't think of myself as plus sized. I have debated about having longer fasts a few days a week, but happily I went through this thought process last year and realized it was too complicated and reduced the likelihood of compliance. Instead, I decided to track a 7 hour eating window and be flexible about when it starts. There may be times when it will start earlier such as when I ate early before picking up Tom to go have his routine colonoscopy. It would have been inconsiderate to eat in front of him given he could only have liquids on that day. I also decided to track how many days per month I eat within a 7 hour eating window.

Day 47 – Tuesday, June 25, 2019: 217.8
I ordered some Land's End polo shirts online. XL. Not plus size. I decided to start acting as if I am slim. This way of eating -- essentially skipping breakfast -- is great in that it is easy, but it comes at a cost: you have to face reality that you are not going to lose weight very fast. Also, it is very discouraging to see sudden spikes in weight. I am looking my Happy Scale weight chart right now and see five weight spikes, including my 219 weight just yesterday and 219.2 weight on Saturday. The overall trend is flat to down with lots of bumps up and down. It honestly looks a lot like a rural road, up and down, up and down. Am I going to fret over this? No. I have experience with this way of life and saw it last year. What I need to do is pay less attention to my weight so as to give me patience. I may end up just posting once per month,timing my posts with other first of the month tasks like giving our dog a worm pill. I can still weigh myself every day, but it will only be once per month that I will sit down and take a look at how I am doing. My weight range for this month is 216 to 222 with a target weight of 219. There we go. My most recent spike was 219 just yesterday, and yet that was exactly this month's goal weight. That should be encouraging to me. If I ever exceed my weight range (222 this month; down 1 pound per month), then I will reconsider another weight management program. Permanent weight loss is the goal. I should be happy if, in 12 months, I am at 207. It's hard to swallow. Only 207 in a year, but that is the lowest weight I have had in more than a decade. The longer you have the weight, the harder it is to lose. That is just a fact.
Last edited by Kathleen on Mon Jul 01, 2019 6:16 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: The Blessings of Simplicity

Post by Kathleen » Mon Jul 01, 2019 12:33 pm

The Blessings of Simplicity
Last edited by Kathleen on Thu Jul 25, 2019 12:46 pm, edited 25 times in total.

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lpearlmom
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Re: The Blessings of Simplicity

Post by lpearlmom » Sat Jul 06, 2019 4:26 pm

Hi Kathleen,

It looks like you may be experiencing some appetite Correction. Bert Herring wrote a book about it and he even gave a Ted Talk about it. Also, yeah maybe your doing a bit of intuitive eating in your window by giving yourself full permission to eat thereby making it less appealing to eat when you're not really hungry.

I did try a little IF yesterday (just till 230 pm) and forgot what a relief it is to just not think about food for a good part of the day. When it is time to eat I just eat because im hungry it’s just easier to eat intuitively and without guilt at that point. I may continue with a 5ish hr window just because it’s an easier way to eat. I figure even if i dont lose, at least Itll probably keep me from gaining anymore.

Here’s an interesting podcast on appetite Correction if you’re interested:
https://www.chalenejohnson.com/podcasts ... t-herring/

Anyway, thanks for all the support on my thread and you’re doing great!
:twisted: SW: 210 lbs
CW: 172
GW:160

Kathleen
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Location: Minnesota

Re: The Blessings of Simplicity

Post by Kathleen » Mon Jul 08, 2019 12:23 am

Hi Linda,

That podcast was fantastic! In fact, I would say it is the single best podcast I have heard on weight management/appetite correction. I am familiar with Dr. Bert Herring and have both his books. In fact, I found him after I saw a youtube video about restricting eating to 4 hours because that is what started me on looking into fasting. Dr. Herring is modest in his approach, saying you need to have a Study of 1, study of what works for you.

Well, I have tried:
36 hour fasts
42 hour fasts
3 day fasts
alternate day fasting
5:2 diet (that one didn't last a week)

before I realized that you can only have consistency if you limit your fast to less than 24 hours.

So --
I have tried:
1 hour eating window
2 hour eating window
4 hour eating window
5 hour eating window
6 hour eating window
7 hour eating window
8 hour eating window
7 hour eating window with exception for eating a handful of almonds
7 hour eating window with exception for bullet proof coffee

The 7 hour eating windows with exceptions didn't work at all. The clock just started on eating. The 8 hour eating window didn't result in any weight loss. The eating windows less than 7 hours resulted in binge eating. I settled on an eating window of 12 - 7 because you can have both lunch and dinner in those 7 hours. Sure, I eat outside those hours for social reason, but often I can avoid eating outside those times. People don't really care what you eat or drink unless it is a meal.

It's nice to look at this synopsis and tell myself I am staying with this eating window. In this podcast, Dr. Herring said most of the benefit of fasting comes within 18 hours. While my fasting tends to be 17 hours, I have found that I often don't start eating at noon or stop eating at 7 so my fasting is often longer than 17 hours. In fact, one thing I also have learned is to focus on the eating window and not on the length of the fast.

Thanks for giving me the chance to look back at all the experiments I have done to find what works for me! Good luck with your experiments, and let us know how it goes! And thanks for the link!

Kathleen

automatedeating
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Re: The Blessings of Simplicity

Post by automatedeating » Mon Jul 08, 2019 2:46 pm

I appreciated getting to read through your experiments!

I love experiments!
saying you need to have a Study of 1, study of what works for you.
This is great. :-)
Month/Year-BMI
8/13-26.3
8/14-24.5
5/15-26.2
1/16-26.9; 9/16-25.6
8/17-25.8; 11/17-26.9
3/18-25.6; 8/18-24.5; 10/18-23.8;
3/19-22.1; 10/19-21.8
6/20-22.5; 7/20-23.0; 9/20-23.6
4/21 - 25.2

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lpearlmom
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Re: The Blessings of Simplicity

Post by lpearlmom » Mon Jul 08, 2019 5:27 pm

Oh I’m glad that you enjoyed the podcast. I love how just simple he keeps everything. I feel like so many ppl over complicate the benefits of fasting. It’s great you’re figuring out what works for you. I know i can never do an all day fast again. It’s miserable but yes 5-8 hr windows are pretty doable. Being flexible is key. I tend i get a little obsessive and it can backfire on me.

Anyway gl !
Last edited by lpearlmom on Tue Jul 09, 2019 5:18 am, edited 1 time in total.
:twisted: SW: 210 lbs
CW: 172
GW:160

Kathleen
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Re: The Blessings of Simplicity

Post by Kathleen » Mon Jul 08, 2019 8:34 pm

automatedeating,

Those were my fasting experiments which followed my experiments with low fat, low carb, the cabbage soup diet, the Novena Diet, the SET diet,.... I could go on and on but won't.

NoS was actually my first fasting diet. It was a 12 hour fast 5 days a week and an introduction to sanity.

Kathleen

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lpearlmom
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Location: Arizona

Re: The Blessings of Simplicity

Post by lpearlmom » Mon Jul 22, 2019 12:50 am

Kathleen: hope you’re well! Do you remember a book about paying for college that you recommended once to me? I can’t seem to find it on my thread and I’m having near panic attacks thinking about sweetpea going off to college in two years. 🤦🏼‍♀️

Thx!!
:twisted: SW: 210 lbs
CW: 172
GW:160

Kathleen
Posts: 1685
Joined: Tue Sep 16, 2008 12:46 pm
Location: Minnesota

Re: The Blessings of Simplicity

Post by Kathleen » Mon Jul 22, 2019 1:44 am

Hi Linda,
I don't, but I can tell you that I think the single most important part of paying for college is sending your child to a college you can afford. My one daughter (Katie) was very unhappy with me when I said you can go to any public college with reciprocity. We filled out the FASFA once. When we found out how much the government said we could afford, I turned to our oldest and said, "We're rich! Anne, you're going to the U."

FYI. We now have two college grads. One is pursuing a PhD, which is easier to do when you have no college debt. One is in an entry-level professional position at the most well respected company in the Twin Cities. You don't need to go to a prestige college in order to be able to stand on your own two feet.

Kathleen

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Re: The Blessings of Simplicity

Post by Kathleen » Wed Jul 24, 2019 5:34 pm

July 1 - 12, 2019: The Blessings of Simplicity


Weight
Day 53 – Monday, July 1, 2019: 219.6
Day 54 – Tuesday, July 2, 2019: 218.4
Day 55 – Wednesday, July 3, 2019:
Day 56 – Thursday, July 4, 2019:
Day 57 – Friday, July 5, 2019:
Day 58 – Saturday, July 6, 2019:
Day 59 – Sunday, July 7, 2019:
Day 60 – Monday, July 8, 2019: 218.0
Day 61 – Tuesday, July 9, 2019:
Day 62 – Wednesday, July 10, 2019:
Day 63 – Thursday, July 11, 2019:
Day 64 – Friday, July 12, 2019:

Journal
Day 53 – Monday, July 1, 2019: 219.6
Fasting does not work well with drinking coffee, at least for me. My stomach gets upset. I ended up mostly sticking with the 7 hour eating window but moving coffee consumption back to noon and then switching to tea. It was a royal pain. I slept a lot, or rather spent a lot of time in bed. It's done. It set me back in weight loss.

7 PM: I suddenly feel energized and did not want to eat dinner. Tom thinks I am finally over my caffeine coma. I am wondering if my body finally figured out how to access the fat in my body for food.

Day 54 – Tuesday, July 2, 2019: 218.4
Something happened last night, and I'm not sure what. In fact, I was thinking to myself this morning, "What just happened?" Last night at dinner, Tom told me no wonder I'm not hungry -- I finished off the chicken pot pie from two nights ago and the steak from last night. True. I did. I said that I wasn't hungry and I'm always hungry. Thinking about what I said, I realized it isn't true. I am often not hungry. I'm almost always not hungry. Food still appeals to me. It's a pleasant to neutral experience to eat. Last night, had I eaten, it would have been an unpleasant experience even though Ellie made what looks like a terrific meal. Why? I' don't know. What I do know is I have trained my body to eat what it wants and last night I did not want to eat.

3:30 PM: Whatever happened was not permanent. I went back to eating a ton at lunch. I do eat until I am satisfied which currently means stuffed. That is OK. Give it time. I need to give it time. That never ending desire to eat more and more and more is now gone because I always eat as much as I want of whatever I want during my eating window. My body just needs time to figure out how to access the fat in my body. It figured it out last night Someday the norm will be to access the fat in my body.

Day 60 – Monday, July 8, 2019: 218.0
I am at my goal weight for July despite the fact that our Fourth of July celebration is with Tom's relatives who literally just sit around and eat and occasionally go for a boat ride. In years past, I would gain up to 3 pounds (at least on the scale) from trips like the one I was just on. Fasting works because it becomes downright unpleasant to eat any more than I eat. Not even the most tempting foods are pleasant to eat once I've eaten a certain amount. I don't know why that is, but I know that -- at least for me -- that is what happens when I fast.

Day 61 – Tuesday, July 9, 2019:
Does weighing myself daily really add value to my life? I already figured out from last year that a 7 hour daily eating window (with numerous social exceptions) results in an average weight loss of about 1 pound per month with a variance of 3 pounds on either side of that weight. I think what I might do is weigh myself every day starting at the beginning of each month until I reach my goal weight for that month and then stop until the next month. My goal weight for this month is 218. I reached it yesterday. That's all I need to know.

Day 63 – Thursday, July 11, 2019:
Tommy said something to me last night that was too accurate of an observation for comfort. He is working an 11 am to 7 pm shift. He told me I am on a 7 hour eating shift. True. Today I downloaded a fasting app and will see what I can do to reduce eating between lunch and dinner.
Last edited by Kathleen on Wed Jul 24, 2019 5:37 pm, edited 2 times in total.

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Re: The Blessings of Simplicity

Post by Kathleen » Wed Jul 24, 2019 5:35 pm

July 13 - 20, 2019: The Blessings of Simplicity


Weight
Day 1 – Saturday, July 13, 2019: 220.6
Day 2 – Sunday, July 14, 2019: 219.0
Day 3 – Monday, July 15, 2019: 218.6
Day 4 – Tuesday, July 16, 2019: 217.6
Day 5 – Wednesday, July 17, 2019: 217.6
Day 1 – Thursday, July 18, 2019: 218.2
Day 2 – Friday, July 19, 2019:

Day 1 – Saturday, July 20, 2019: 219.4

Journal
Day 3 – Monday, July 15, 2019: 218.6
Defeat. I realized I was in trouble last week when I ate an entire 8 ounce bar of cheddar cheese. That is what got me to weigh myself. Without weighing myself, I was eating, as our son put it, a 7 hour shift. Then I also looked at the notes from my annual physical. To keep bones strong, I need to have calcium and vitamin D twice a day. Vitamin D should be avoided at night. That leaves me with vitamin D and calcium, taken with food, at breakfast and lunch.

I return to the SET diet. I don't have the energy to describe it now, but that is where I am going. Three ideas, one of which came from a source that was buried with many other ideas that I found way off the mark.

Day 4 – Tuesday, July 16, 2019: 217.6
I did not restrict at all. In fact, I had two cups of Trader Joe's coffee ice cream yesterday. I just cannot eat as much following these rules and it is largely because I don't want to ea as much. Hmmm...which do I prefer right now? Reading the Wall Street Journal or eating? At least some of the time, the Wall Street Journal wins out.

Day 5 – Wednesday, July 17, 2019: 217.6
I learned yesterday not to eat before exercising. It was uncomfortable. Last night, I ordered one out of print book from which I got two of my three habits for weight management, and I ordered the other one from the library. It also is out of print.

Day 1 – Thursday, July 18, 2019: 218.2
Today is Day 1. I had a whole milk latte at Caribous Coffee while driving to spend a couple of days at the camp where Katie is a counselor. A cabin was available for tonight and tomorrow night, so I grabbed it.

I came to think, to try to sort out what to do with weight management. Katie was busy. I had time to myself.

In this beautiful place, my favorite on earth, I had the courage to go back through my posts to look up The SET Diet. I went back to 2013, and here are posts I found particularly relevant:

December 8, 2015:
The SET guidelines came from the book "The 7 Secrets of Slim People" by Vikki Hansen and Shawn Goodman, copyright 1997.

SET Guidelines:
1. Sit down:
from page 84: To become more conscious of your eating: Sit down -- even if it is one bite of ice cream -- take the spoon and sit down. If you taste while you are cooking, go to a chair and sit down to taste.

2. Eat without distractions:
from page 84: Do not eat and read, eat and watch TV, eat and drive, or eat and do anything else at the same time. You cannot become conscious while distracted.

3. Take hand or utensil away from mouth while chewing and swallowing:
from page 96: You may tend to eat automatically. Once you get your hands on a fork, the hand-to-mouth action doesn't end until the food is all gone. In order to be aware and take more pleasure in your food (not to slow you down so you eat less), put your fork down after each bite and do not pick it up again until after your mouth is empty.

September 9, 2016:
Fasting -- I ate only in a five hour window yesterday and still gained weight. Why? I binge eat when I am allowed to eat. Fasting exacerbates the problem. Now what? I think I need a direct hit on binge behavior, and that is the SET habits:
S: Sit down to eat, when possible.
E: Eat without distraction, if possible.
T: Take hand or utensils away from food while chewing and swallowing.
These habits make binge behavior impossible since binge eating by definition is fast eating.

November 27, 2016: (from oolala53):
How will you deal with the holidays without having established yourself with IE? Are you really willing to forgo eating at events just because you are not hungry? Are you going to be willing to stop eating at what will probably be a rather small amount of food, if you are even hungry enough to start? If you start making exceptions for this and that, you aren't really doing IE.

December 30, 2016 (oolala53):
The world abounds with people who in the beginning stages of this or that program lost and say they will never go back to their old habits who eventually did go back and gain all their weight back.

January 8, 2017:
Just dandy. I can eat in a couple of hours enough to more than make up for not eating for 36 hours. This runs counter to the fasting idea. However, I can try to go back to the Every Other Day Diet where I ate very little every other day so that I don't pig out, or I can try those SET guidelines to reduce the likelihood of so much overeating. I'm going to try the SET guidelines first.
S: Sit down to eat, when possible.
E: Eat without distraction, if possible.
T: Take hand or utensils away from food when chewing and swallowing.

April 8, 2017:

"The best way to overcome a bad habit is to create and follow a good habit which is incompatible with the bad habit."
The SET guidelines make binge eating literally impossible. This may seem silly, but I cannot eat a lot in a short amount of time if I am taking a sip of water between bites.

From "The Weigh Down Diet," I got the idea of taking sips between bites. It would be hard to identify a more unlikely source for a diet idea, since this was a Christian based diet idea that was popular back in 2000 until the author cast doubt on the idea of the trinity. Buried in the book with all its theological undertones was the idea of taking a sip of water between bites.

April 11, 2017:
No one has noticed that I am taking a sip between bites. No one. I'm even getting used to it. Could this possibly be an effective way to gently reduce food intake? Yes, I believe it is, when I also add in sitting down tot eat and eating without distraction. In a choice between a magazine and food, I may choose the magazine. Eating is a way to take a break, just like reading is. My preferred way to take a break has been eating paired with another activity. Why? Why can't I just take a break? I think that comes down to the culture of always having to be busy.

May 29, 2017:
I realized that No S didn't work for me because it wasn't specific enough. I could argue that a plateful was actually a serving bowlful. I could put one plate on top of another. I could argue that fruit shouldn't be next to meat. I could argue that one tic tac should not be an Exception Day.

August 23, 2017:
The habit of not eating until 11 and then not eating after 7 helps me to realize that hunger, indeed, is not a crises. I can last just fine 16 hours at a time without food.

What else can be a good habit? I think back to my SET guidelines which seem like a form of appetite control. They are:
S: Sit down to eat.
E: Eat without distraction.
T: Take hands or utensils away from food while eating.

Can I tack these habits on to the fasting habit? Yes, I think I can easily, especially since I can eat within an 8 hour window every day.

August 30, 2017:
Yesterday, I neither followed the SET guidelines nor stayed within my eating window.

September 1, 2017:
I am giving up following the SET guidelines as I recognize that they take the focus off fasting.

Day 2 – Friday, July 19, 2019:

September 24, 2017:
I need habits that are easy to follow. I have developed a habit of fasting but think it is healthy but not sufficient for me to lose weight so I'm going to add SET guidelines.

September 28, 2017:
I think I'm going to lose weight now that I have given up on doing anything to control my weight except by eating only within the 11 AM - 7 PM window when socially feasible.

October 14, 2017:
oolala53 asked: "What do you think will help you choose not to stuffy yourself?" Good question. The answer may be those SET guidelines: sitting down to eat, eating without distraction, and taking hand or utensil away from food while eating. If I had to choose between eating and reading the Wall Street Journal, I may choose the WSJ. No, and guess why? I don't last very long following them because they are a pain to follow. Maybe that's a clue that they could be effective in having me eat less without actually restricting quantities. I still have a choice, but the choice to overeat comes with a cost of being bored because I am eating less quickly than normal.

October 22, 2017
I am finding that following the SET guidelines is somewhat difficult because binge eating satisfied a need. What it is I do not know, but I am going to stick with these SET guidelines and see what comes of it.

October 27, 2017
I was discouraged yesterday because my weight has gone up to 222.4, over the 222.0 benchmark that I have set for a normal weight range of 222.0 - 224.0. I gave up on following the SET guidelines.

November 27, 2017
The behavior is the goal.

December 14, 2017

I am determined to lose weight without resorting to limiting what I eat or how much I eat. Determined. It may be when I eat may be a good start, but I think it may be inadequate. On Sunday, I consider the SET guidelines but instead added taking a sip between bites.

This idea comes from The Weigh Down Diet, a Christian-based diet that flopped after the author revealed that she did not believe in the Trinity. Most of the program has to do with begging God to keep you from eating when you are not hungry, but there are two behaviors she encourages: one is to cut your food in half and ask yourself after eating the first half if you are still hungry; the other is to take a sip between bites. I reject out of hand asking about hunger level. I went down that path just before I started the No S Diet in 2008, and it was miserable. It turns out hunger is psychological. You can feel hunger the instant you smell something delicious. I should have known that before, but the diet was miserable because I was always looking at my stomach. The idea of taking a sip between bites, however, could have merit. I started trying it and found yesterday that eating wasn't worth the effort. That is OK. To have a hurdle that is easy to get over in order to eat is OK for me for dieting.

August 19, 2018
Taking a sip between bites really works. I actually started eating yesterday at 9 AM as a way to ease myself into adding these three habits, but I must say that taking a sip between bites is the most important of the three habits. The idea of taking a sip between bites, by the way, came from a book called The Weigh Down Diet which is mostly about going to God to help you with your food addiction and waiting for a stomach growl before you eat. I remember trying it the summer before I started on No S which was 2008. It was the worst diet ever. I actually gained weight. My stomach would growl at odd times and the I would feel a compulsion to eat as much as I could because I would have to wait for another stomach growl before I could eat again. I called it "The Hunger Satisfaction Diet" and it was anything but. It led to binge eating that was unusually intense even by my standards. What I did later was consider the possibility that there was something in that book that did help people lose weight. I went back and read through it and found two habits that the author wanted the dieter to form: one was to take a sip between bites and the other was to cut your food in half, eat half, and then evaluate if you are still hungry. I had previously tried to take a sip between bites, but it was a pain especially for eating ice cream. Now I think that I'll just follow this habit when appropriate. It would destroy the experience of eating popsicles or ice cream if I tried to take a sip of a liquid between bites, but I can take a sip between bites for most foods. My tendency to absolutes defeated me. "Good enough" will work for me following these habits.

August 21, 2018
I managed to follow the SET habits yesterday but started eating at 9. It's time to return to my noon to 7 PM eating window.

August 22, 2108
You have to choose. Those were the most memorable words from a professor during my college years. With dieting, I have chosen intermittent fasting and now am supplementing it with the SET habits. Intermittent fasting, like fast walking,is set. The SET habits are still an experiment.

September 3, 2018
The SET habits were a detour. I suddenly found myself wanting to eat more, perhaps because I was overcoming an obstacle to eating which is taking sips between bits. I do not understand. I just recognize this is not the way to go.

November 28, 2018
You can only focus on a few things at a time. You really have very little control over your weight today. It may go up even if you ate very little yesterday. That fact is both frustrating and demoralizing. I have decided to track walking rather than weight.

April 8, 2019
For about two hours last week, I briefly panicked and decided to add "take a sip of water between bites" to my weight loss plan. Then I realized that it is the constant changing of my approach that gets me in trouble. Enough!

April 14, 2019
I ordered Gwen Shamblin's book from the library. It was published in the late 1990s. She gained quite a following through churches until it became known that she did not believe in the Trinity. She had small group meetings in which people watched videos produced by her. I attended one of those meetings years ago. I also got the videos from Amazon years ago. Her work inspired me to try what I called The Hunger Satisfaction Diet back in summer 2008, and that was the most miserable dieting experience I ever had because I was constantly belly gazing to try to figure out if I was hungry. I also would skip meals with my family. After a summer of that, I tried No S.

Now I am thinking No S has some merit in making it clear when food is allowed vs. not whereas you could never quite tell if you were hungry even with stomach noise due to the human capacity for self deception. The difficulty with No S was I would eat whatever was allowed. Fasting helped limit that but still left me eating too much. Taking a sip between bites seems ludicrously silly but maybe it will e a way for me to eat less even as I allow myself to eat as much as I want whenever I want.

April 22, 2019
The Gwen Shamblin book woke me up to what I DO NOT WANT TO BE DOING: belly gazing.

May 30, 2019
Yesterday I forgot to take a sip between bites, but I did read through my writing here and was convinced that just having a 12 - 7 eating window is insufficient to lose a lot of weight. I'll try the eating window plus sipping, maybe for the next year. Sipping sounds like a way to slow down eating but I think there is more to the effectiveness than that. I think sipping changes digestion.

4 PM: It is too hard to acclimate all at once to sipping between bites so I will adjust over time. Maybe I'll start with just sipping between 6 and 7 pm to start.

May 31, 2019
Taking a sip between bites was a pain, a real pain. I did not give the practice enough time to see how effective it could be because I got the book from which I got the idea and rejected the idea of sipping because of the other, belly-gazing ideas in the book. Even today, more than 10 years after I tried what I called The Hunger Satisfaction Diet, I am repulsed by what happened: I always felt hungry. Asking myself if I was hungry, I always said yes. My stomach growled at the thought of food. Separating the wheat form the chaff in that book, I can take the idea of sipping between bites and reject the idea of belly-gazing to determine if I am hungry

END OF PRIOR JOURNAL ENTRIES

What have I learned? What is my plan? I have learned "You have to choose". Simplicity is key. Consistency is key. Another key is focus. For health, I need to focus on behaviors rather than outcomes and let the positive outcomes result from the behaviors.

Here are my SET guidelines:
Sit down to eat.
Eat without distraction
Take a sip of a liquid between bites. When eating, start with a sip and end with a sip.

They are guidelines, not rules. I follow them if I can but never restrict my eating if it is impossible or even just awkward to follow them.

I am not going to track my success with these guidelines but will focus on making them a natural part of my life.

From my 11/20/17 post quoting The Economist: "The starting point is unconscious incompetence... Next comes conscious incompetence, when you see what is wrong and try to stop doing it. Then comes conscious competence, when you do the right thing but only with effort, and finally unconscious competence: the mental equivalent of automatic pilot. An added benefit of this stage is that the brain switches from the energy-thirsty cerebral cortex to the much thriftier cerebellum."

9:40 PM: Returning from camp, I had my first exception to eating without distraction. I was so tired that I decided to stop at McDonald's. While there, I looked at the weather and saw there was a tornado warning for that town and the bad weather was headed my way. I had been ahead of it for the entire afternoon. At one point, I could look west and see quite a storm headed to the town within just a few minutes of my going through. I decided to take the McDonald's and eat in the van.
Last edited by Kathleen on Wed Jul 24, 2019 10:48 pm, edited 9 times in total.

Kathleen
Posts: 1685
Joined: Tue Sep 16, 2008 12:46 pm
Location: Minnesota

Re: The Blessings of Simplicity

Post by Kathleen » Wed Jul 24, 2019 5:40 pm

July 23 - August 31, 2019: The Blessings of Simplicity


Weight
Day 1 – Sunday, July 21, 2019:
Day 2 – Monday, July 22, 2019: 219.4
Day 3 – Tuesday, July 23, 2019: 219.4
Day 4 – Wednesday, July 24, 2019: 218.0
Day 5 – Thursday, July 25, 2019: 219.6
Day 6 – Friday, July 26, 2019:
Day 7 – Saturday, July 27, 2019: 220.6

Day 1 – Sunday, July 28, 2019: 220.8
Day 2 – Monday, July 29, 2019:
Day 3 – Tuesday, July 30, 2019:
Day 4 – Wednesday, July 31, 2019:
Day 5 – Thursday, August 1, 2019:
Day 6 – Friday, August 2, 2019:
Day 7 – Saturday, August 3, 2019: 217.2
Day 8 – Sunday, August 4, 2019: 217.6
Day 9 – Monday, August 5, 2019: 216.4
Day 10 – Tuesday, August 6, 2019: 217.0
Day 11 – Wednesday, August 7, 2019: 217.2
Day 12 – Thursday, August 8, 2019: 216.4
Day 13 – Friday, August 9, 2019:
Day 14 – Saturday, August 10, 2019:
Day 15 – Sunday, August 11, 2019:
Day 16 – Monday, August 12, 2019: 216.6
Day 17 – Tuesday, August 13, 2019:
Day 18 – Wednesday, August 14, 2019:
Day 19 – Thursday, August 15, 2019:
Day 20 – Friday, August 16, 2019:
Day 21 – Saturday, August 17, 2019:
Day 22 – Sunday, August 18, 2019:
Day 23 – Monday, August 19, 2019:
Day 24 – Tuesday, August 20, 2019:
Day 25 – Wednesday, August 21, 2019:
Day 26 – Thursday, August 22, 2019:
Day 27 – Friday, August 23, 2019:
Day 28 – Saturday, August 24, 2019:
Day 29 – Saturday, August 25, 2019:
Day 30 – Monday, August 26, 2019:
Day 31 – Tuesday, August 27, 2019:
Day 32 – Wednesday, August 28, 2019:
Day 33 – Thursday, August 29, 2019:
Day 34 – Friday, August 30, 2019:
Day 35 – Saturday, August 31, 2019:

Journal
Day 2 – Monday, July 22, 2019: 219.4
I returned from camp on Friday because I was done with evaluating my eating and wanted to make Ellie's band concert on Saturday which ended up cancelled due to weather. That's OK. Ellie and I will be back to camp for a quick visit this weekend before we head to Indiana to help Anne change apartments as she starts her PhD program.

It was a good trip. I'm really glad I went and focused on what I learned from all my writing on this site. The answer was there all along. I just had paired the SET Guidelines with other things like fasting. My problem is binge eating and the SET Guidelines prevent binge eating.

They are also extremely difficult. I tried following them all day Saturday and lasted until mid-afternoon. It was then that I decided that Sundays would be a day off from following them.

I then restarted yesterday and ate a lot. I needed the break. Now I have six days of following those habits and only those habits before I can let go again next Sunday.
I returned from camp on Friday because I was done with evaluating my eating and wanted to make Ellie's band concert on Saturday which ended up cancelled due to weather. That's OK. Ellie and I will be back to camp for a quick visit this weekend before we head to Indiana to help Anne change apartments as she starts her PhD program.

Day 5 – Thursday, July 25, 2019: 219.6
I really did not follow the SET guidelines yesterday, and it shows. It will take time to adjust.

Day 7 – Saturday, August 3, 2019: 217.2
I just could not follow those habits, so I ended up resolving to follow them when we were on the road. I just got back last night and my weight is down from Sunday -- that's for sure! Now for the hard part -- following the SET habits at home!

Day 9 – Monday, August 5, 2019: 216.4
I have managed to follow the SET guidelines for the entire weekend. It was easier to follow them having established them somewhat during my trip last week. On Saturday, I made bone broth. It has collagen in it which can help with bone strength. Yesterday, I had two cups. I am going to have one cup per day going forward and will track that.

I am not going to try anything else for weight loss. That's it. The SET guidelines.

I weighed 216.0 on March 26, 2019. That is the last time I was as low as today's weight. It is very encouraging that I have only been following these guidelines for 8 days.

Day 11 – Wednesday, August 7, 2019: 217.2
I ate a ton yesterday and was happy my weight was up only .2 pounds. Today, I'm in Rochester for my annual screening mammogram, and I went to the cafeteria while waiting for results. I looked at the food and thought -- nope; I am bored, not hungry. I had a fairly large breakfast but still -- not hungry enough to eat anything. Good. I am letting my body be in charge so long as I follow those SET guidelines.

Day 12 – Thursday, August 8, 2019: 216.4
It was glorious to have Trader Joe’s coffee ice cream last night at 8:30 PM!

Day 15 – Sunday, August 11, 2019:
I had debated about giving myself Sundays off for following the SET guidelines and ultimately decided it would be a stronger habit if I always followed them. I followed them perfectly until Friday night. Yesterday was bad. Tom even made a comment. He could see how much I was eating because we were together all day with out last campout before Ellie goes to college. I decided to have Sundays off. This gives me six days to look forward to a break. That is also what I decided with coffee. I have coffee on Sundays only.
Last edited by Kathleen on Tue Sep 03, 2019 2:15 pm, edited 2 times in total.

Kathleen
Posts: 1685
Joined: Tue Sep 16, 2008 12:46 pm
Location: Minnesota

Re: The Blessings of Simplicity

Post by Kathleen » Tue Sep 03, 2019 2:06 pm

September, 2019: The Blessings of Simplicity

Weight
Day 1 – Sunday, September 1, 2019: 217.0
Day 2 – Monday, September 2, 2019:
Day 3 – Tuesday, September 3, 2019: 216.8
Day 4 – Wednesday, September 4, 2019: 217.4
Day 5 – Thursday, September 5, 2019:
Day 6 – Friday, September 6, 2019: 216.4
Day 7 – Saturday, September 7, 2019: 217.2
Day 8 – Sunday, September 8, 2019:
Day 9 – Monday, September 9, 2019: 216.6
Day 10 – Tuesday, September 10, 2019: 217.2
Day 11 – Wednesday, September 11, 2019:
Day 12 – Thursday, September 12, 2019: 215.8
Day 13 – Friday, September 13, 2019: 216.0
Day 14 – Saturday, September 14, 2019:
Day 15 – Sunday, September 15, 2019:
Day 16 – Monday, September 16, 2019:
Day 17 – Tuesday, September 17, 2019:
Day 18 – Wednesday, September 18, 2019:
Day 19 – Thursday, September 19, 2019:
Day 20 – Friday, September 20, 2019:
Day 21 – Saturday, September 21, 2019:
Day 22 – Sunday, September 22, 2019:
Day 23 – Monday, September 23, 2019:
Day 24 – Tuesday, September 24, 2019:
Day 25 – Wednesday, September 25, 2019:
Day 26 – Thursday, September 26, 2019:
Day 27 – Friday, September 27, 2019:
Day 28 – Saturday, September 28, 2019:
Day 29 – Sunday, September 29, 2019:
Day 30 – Monday, September 30, 2019:

Journal
Day 3 – Tuesday, September 3, 2019: 216.8
Last month, I bought a honing rod that was recommended by Cook's Illustrated. It was $64. We have two kids in college. Why did I buy it? I wanted it. I looked at that honing rod and thought -- huh. We track all our expenditures except cash out which is not much. We know how much we spend on everything. I never could stomach a budget, but tracking expenditures allows me to appreciate the trade offs of different choices. I never feel as though I have to forgo a purchase, but I do ask myself if it is worth the cost.

The "huh" came from appreciating that maybe this approach to money management could be applied to weight management. Maybe I can just write down what I eat and that would give me the wherewithall to judge if eating something is worth it. I made this decision last week and set a start date of September 1. That was also the day we went to the state fair. I had three Sweet Martha's cookies and fresh milk and all sorts of other food I would only get at the state fair. Then I wrote it all down.

It is somewhat embarrassing to do all this changing of approaches only to come to the conclusion that I should just write down what I eat and changes will come naturally as they have with tracking expenditures. I have read that the single most effective way to lose weight is by writing down what you eat, and I have tried that approach, but I didn't like it so I gave it up.

Well, it is also a pain to track all your expenditures, but I have created a process to make it as easy as possible. We put all gas purchases on one card. I put groceries on one card. All bills auto pay at the same time -- today, as a matter of fact.

What I did last week was create a simple process for writing down what I eat. I don't really need to be 100% accurate. What I need is to be aware of what I am eating so trying to be accurate is good enough.

Day 12 – Thursday, September 12, 2019: 215.8
Yesterday, I decided to stop writing down what I eat because I realized that what I need with eating is the same attitude that I have towards buying. Do I feel deprived with regard to spending money? No. Not really. The reason why is that I will buy exactly what I want. The jewelry I have is sterling silver, 14K gold, or pearls. How much do I own? Not much. What I have, however, is great quality. The same goes for what is in the kitchen. I have almost all All Clad and Lodge cast iron pots and skillets. The only remaining pot that is not All Clad is the stock pot. I buy them at Marshalls when I see them. Two skillets - 8 and 12". Three pots: 1.5, 3, and 3.5 quart. That is it. I have knives, some of which are good quality and some of which are not, but I am buying good quality over time. I have four Cutco knives and several knives from either garage sales or the thrift store.

What does this have to do with dieting? Well, I have had the attitude from my dieting days that I need to eat now because a restrictive diet is just around the corner. That attitude became ingrained even after years of not restricting eating. What I think I need to do now is to adapt the attitude of frugality and quality that I have for spending and apply it to eating.

This morning, when I got up, I started to reach for an apple and decided against it. After all, was I hungry? Did the apple appeal to me? Nope. This was just habit to eat what was in front of me. I can eat as much as I want of whatever I want whenever I want. I just choose to be choosy.

What is ironic about all of this is that I have realized in the two weeks since the girls have gone to college that I am spending a lot on food that I eat. Honestly, I had no idea how much bread I eat. Eating less, even if it is of better quality, will cost less.

Habit. I am fat because I eat too much out of habit. That is all. Simple explanation.

Day 13 – Friday, September 13, 2019: 216.0
When I look at an item to buy, what do I say to myself? I am not sure. I think I say, "Is it worth it?" Is it worth the money? I just booked a trip to Banff and then talked with Tom and said that the room is $500/night. Nope. We aren't going. Too expensive. We are going to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan instead. There are tradeoffs with money. That is why I told Katie she can go to any public college with reciprocity. It is just plain too expensive to go to a private college. Sure, they rope you in with freshman year scholarships or scholarships that are dependent on your GPA. Nope. We need a sure thing. We aren't going into debt or letting our kids go into debt. We filled out the FASFA once and decided that the Free Application for Student Financial Aid is like cheese in a mousetrap. Our kids attend the colleges we can afford.

How can I translate this attitude to eating? I just don't know. We are flexible with spending but rigid about debt. I have an account I call the slush fund to cover extraordinary expenses like taking down a tree. We have separate accounts for college.

I think I used the same approach of different accounts to manage eating with eating during different hours except that fasting turned into what Tommy called a seven hour eating shift. I had no discipline during the hours I ate.

There is something to our money management that can be applied to dieting. I will start with the motto "I choose to be choosy". I don't think writing down what I eat adds value like it does to track expenditures. Tracking weight helps. Something is missing. At the point of purchase, I do evaluate value. I think that is what I need to do with eating. I need some measure of appropriateness for eating. I think it may come down to evaluating level of hunger. Maybe it is level of enjoyment. Wouldn't that be ironic? All I need to do is evaluate pleasure? It might be that. Sometimes you eat for the pleasure of company and not just the pleasure of the food. Maybe I can try rating an eating experience on a scale of 0 to 10 with 0 being not at all pleasurable and 10 being memorably pleasurable.

A couple of weeks ago, Katie and I ate lunch out when she was moving into her apartment. The dessert was memorably enjoyable. I would give it a 10. I told Tom it was in the top 10 of foods I have eaten in my life. The food at the state fair I would rate a 2 or below. This morning's breakfast of an apple and pistachio nuts was a 3. Maybe I can shoot for eating at a pleasure level of 5 or above.

It is painful to do, but sometimes I throw out what I have just purchased. About two months ago, I bought some Neutrogina products at Walgreens. It turns out they smelled and I had not noticed but they were not labeled as either lotion or cream. I don't know what they heck they were but they went in the trash. In a similar way, sometimes you order something that is not enjoyable and I need to let myself throw it away. It is not of value to eat what is not enjoyable.

1:24 PM: First success! Katie and Ellie came home to get things they forgot for college, and I gave them leftovers from last night's dinner. After I ate as well, there was about 1/2 cup of food left, including three big pieces of chicken. I was no longer hungry. We are gone this weekend so that food would not have kept. I had planned to bring it with us but not just 1/2 cup worth. Into the garbage it went. I did not eat it. I remember I used to tell the kids, "Your mouth is not a garbage can." Maybe I have treated my mouth like a garbage can!
Last edited by Kathleen on Sun Oct 13, 2019 8:23 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Kathleen
Posts: 1685
Joined: Tue Sep 16, 2008 12:46 pm
Location: Minnesota

Re: The Blessings of Simplicity

Post by Kathleen » Sun Oct 13, 2019 8:23 pm

October, 2019: The Blessings of Simplicity

Weight
Day 1 – Thursday, October 3, 2019: 218.0
Day 2 – Friday, October 4, 2019: 217.0
Day 3 – Saturday, October 5, 2019: 216.6
Day 4 – Sunday, October 6, 2019:
Day 5 – Monday, October 7, 2019:
Day 6 – Tuesday, October 8, 2019:
Day 7 – Wednesday, October 9, 2019:
Day 8 – Thursday, October 10, 2019: 217.6
Day 9 – Friday, October 11, 2019:
Day 10 – Saturday, October 12, 2019: 216.8
Day 11 – Sunday, October 13, 2019: 216.8
Day 12 – Monday, October 14, 2019:
Day 13 – Tuesday, October 15, 2019: 216.6
Day 14 – Wednesday, October 16, 2019: 215.8
Day 15 – Thursday, October 17, 2019: 217.0
Day 16 – Friday, October 18, 2019: 215.2
Day 17 – Saturday, October 19, 2019: 214.8
Day 18 – Sunday, October 20, 2019:
Day 19 – Monday, October 21, 2019:
Day 20 – Tuesday, October 22, 2019:
Day 21 – Wednesday, October 23, 2019:
Day 22 – Thursday, October 24, 2019:
Day 23 – Friday, October 25, 2019:
Day 24 – Saturday, October 26, 2019:

Journal
Day 11 – Sunday, October 13, 2019: 216.8
A better diet has always been around the corner for me, and that has been part of my problem: I have not been able to stick with anything. Now I am returning to the SET Habits and only the SET Habits, with Sundays off. It is easy. It is sustainable. We shall see if it results in weight loss.
Day 12 – Monday, October 14, 2019:

Day 13 – Tuesday, October 15, 2019:
Day 14 – Wednesday, October 16, 2019:
Day 15 – Thursday, October 17, 2019:
Day 16 – Friday, October 18, 2019:
Day 17 – Saturday, October 19, 2019:
Day 18 – Sunday, October 20, 2019:
Day 19 – Monday, October 21, 2019:
Day 20 – Tuesday, October 22, 2019:
Day 21 – Wednesday, October 23, 2019:
Day 22 – Thursday, October 24, 2019:
Day 23 – Friday, October 25, 2019:
Day 24 – Saturday, October 26, 2019:
Day 25 – Friday, November 1, 2019:
Day 26 – Saturday, November 2, 2019:
Day 27 – Sunday, November 3, 2019:
Day 28 – Monday, November 4, 2019:
Day 29 – Tuesday, November 5, 2019:
Day 30 – Wednesday, November 6, 2019:
Day 31 – Thursday, November 7, 2019:
Day 32 – Friday, November 8, 2019:
Day 33 – Saturday, November 9, 2019:
Day 34 – Sunday, November 10, 2019:
Day 35 – Monday, November 11, 2019:
Day 36 – Tuesday, November 12, 2019:
Day 37 – Wednesday, November 13, 2019:
Day 38 – Thursday, November 14, 2019:
Day 39 – Friday, November 15, 2019:
Day 40 – Saturday, November 16, 2019:
Day 41 – Sunday, November 17, 2019:
Day 42 – Monday, November 18, 2019:
Day 43 – Tuesday, November 19, 2019:
Day 44 – Wednesday, November 20, 2019:
Day 45 – Thursday, November 21, 2019:
Day 46 – Friday, November 22, 2019:
Day 47 – Saturday, November 23, 2019:
Day 48 – Sunday, November 24, 2019:
Day 49 – Monday, November 25, 2019:
Day 50 – Tuesday, November 26, 2019:
Day 51 – Wednesday, November 27, 2019:
Day 52 – Thursday, November 28, 2019:
Day 53 – Friday, November 29, 2019:
Day 54 – Saturday, November 30, 2019:
Last edited by Kathleen on Mon Oct 21, 2019 7:46 pm, edited 5 times in total.

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lpearlmom
Posts: 4812
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Location: Arizona

Re: The Blessings of Simplicity

Post by lpearlmom » Sun Oct 13, 2019 9:32 pm

Good luck! What is your current plan?
:twisted: SW: 210 lbs
CW: 172
GW:160

Kathleen
Posts: 1685
Joined: Tue Sep 16, 2008 12:46 pm
Location: Minnesota

Re: The Blessings of Simplicity

Post by Kathleen » Sun Oct 13, 2019 11:01 pm

SET Habits:
S: Sit down to eat.
E: Eat without distraction.
T: Take a sip between bites, starting and ending any eating with a sip of any sort of liquid.

It is simple. Two of the habits come from one book, and one comes from another book. I have been toying with these ideas for years but as an addition to other ideas. Instead, now, I am just going to follow these three habits.

Thanks for asking!

Kathleen

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lpearlmom
Posts: 4812
Joined: Fri Aug 02, 2013 4:59 am
Location: Arizona

Re: The Blessings of Simplicity

Post by lpearlmom » Wed Oct 16, 2019 5:59 am

Oh gotcha! Sounds like mindful eating? I could use some work in that area. GL!
:twisted: SW: 210 lbs
CW: 172
GW:160

Kathleen
Posts: 1685
Joined: Tue Sep 16, 2008 12:46 pm
Location: Minnesota

Re: The Blessings of Simplicity

Post by Kathleen » Wed Oct 16, 2019 12:19 pm

Hi Linda,

It is more than mindful eating, but I have no idea why. It somehow changes appetite. I continue to adhere to the principle that I should put no restrictions on what I eat or how much I eat. The woman who came up with the idea of taking a sip between bites was successful in having people who had been obese for a long time lose weight. I read her book, which was lots of "worship God, not the refrigerator" type talk to find what habits she had as part of her program, and one was taking a sip between bites.

I have tried adding these SET Guidelines to other ideas for weight loss and it was too much so I gave up the SET Guidelines. Now I am just following the SET Guidelines and nothing else. I give up on trying anything else. Trying to lose weight has taking too much of my life away from me.

Interestingly enough, Reinhard's list of principles for systematic moderation is mostly in keeping with these SET Guidelines. I would say that the guidelines create systematic moderation because the desire to eat can be surpassed by the desire to read the paper, go for a walk, etc. In other words, if I want to read and eat, I now have to choose between reading and eating.

The principles Reinhard lays out for systematic moderation are:

Think in terms of habit. I don't quite like the use of the word habit. To me, habit is more like brushing your teeth every morning and evening, something done so consistently you can be asked, "Did you brush your teeth on July 2?" and be able to answer "Yes". I want more flexibility, such as if you have very limited time to eat. That is why I am calling them guidelines rather than habits.

Sustainable minimum of compliance. This fits for SET Guidelines. It's not that hard to do so I won't burn out.

Habit branding. I branded it SET Guidelines because each letter in SET is associated with one habit.

No keeping track of things. Just as NoS only requires tracking of whether it is a Saturday or Sunday, so I just track if it is a Sunday because I don't have to follow the guidelines on Sunday. I realized it was important to take a break even from these guidelines.

Small temporal footprint. It does take longer to follow the SET Guidelines than to not follow them, but it's not as if I am having to weigh food or count calories. It doesn't take that much extra time.

Socially unobtrusive. No one, not even my husband, has noticed that I am taking a sip between bites. I told him I was trying something other than fasting, and he was not interested. He understandably is tired of hearing about my trying to lose weight.

Free or cheap. The SET Guidelines are cheap unless you have to pay for a water cup (which you do if you are eating at the university).

Simple but specific. Yep. SET Guidelines are both simple and specific.

Comic pragmatism. I'm not sure about this one. It does sound silly that you can lose weight taking a sip between bites.

Enjoyable. I do not find following the SET Guidelines to be enjoyable. I find it a pain. One great pleasure for me is to read the Wall Street Journal and eat. Maybe that is part of the reason why I am so fat. This is part of the reason why I am taking Sundays off. I can read and eat every week.


Here are Reinhard's principles for the NoS Diet:

Systematic Moderation. Everybody from Aristotle to your Grandma agrees that moderation is a good idea. It's the wisdom of the philosophers and the virtue of the common folk. At least, it used to be. These days it's no longer held in such high esteem -- and even more rarely practiced. Instead, people look for ways to get around having to moderate their desires and inclinations: with pills, miracle products, even surgery. Or they simply ignore their desires altogether and embark on impossibly ambitious and restrictive programs of self-discipline. But if there's a way around moderation, we clearly haven't found it yet; as the relentless rise in obesity rates and other depressing metrics make plain, our modern workarounds simply don't work.

In fairness to ourselves, it's not as easy as it was for our ancestors. They had little choice but to be moderate. Sheer scarcity kept them in line. If they didn't behave moderately they would die. Powerful traditions formed an additional line of defense. We, on the other hand, live in an age of material superabundance and declining traditions. We are the first generation that can afford to be immoderate (at least, in the short term).

So how, in the absence of the external pressures of scarcity and tradition, can we give moderation the teeth it needs to be effective? With systematic, "extremist" techniques.

Thinking in terms of Habit. Like moderation, the concept of habit isn't as popular as it used to be. For Aristotle, virtue itself was a habit. We moderns tend to prefer to think in black and white terms of irresistible addiction on the one had, and total freedom on the other. But that's neither accurate as a description nor useful as a prescription. Habit, with its varying directions and degrees is a far truer and more powerful concept.

Compliance with rules requires willpower, and willpower is a very limited commodity. A good system of moderation will utilize this resource efficiently by focusing on building habits: semi-automatic behaviors that require little willpower to maintain once they've been established.

Sustainable Minimum of Compliance. Habit isn't about one-off acts of heroism. It's about establishing a consistent, almost automatic pattern of behavior over time. Much of the challenge of successful self-discipline is throttling your enthusiasm so you don't burn out. Keep the focus on meeting some clearly-defined, rigorously un-ambitious daily "good enough."

"Sustainability" is the buzzword of the moment when applied to macro issues of agriculture or energy. But it's just as important with respect to your purely personal habits of eating, moving, spending, and getting things done. Overdoing it is a far bigger danger than under-doing it -- because it inevitably results in your not doing anything at all. Sustainability has to be the first thing you consider when evaluating a habit you want to acquire - not the afterthought it usually is.

Maintenance is more important than progress. Progress is intrinsically temporary; maintenance is what you'll be doing for the rest of your life.

Habit Branding. A good system should be "branded" with a striking image, pun, or metaphor. That way you'll be much less likely to forget or ignore it, even when things get stressful. A brand gets you irrationally fired up about what you're doing. Some Everyday Systems are little more than a striking brand. Others have significantly more rules or back-story, but even these systems are well served by a brand: the brand gives you a handle, all you have to do is have the brand flash into your mind and you can easily retrieve all the rest. If your system were just a bunch of prosaic rules, however sensible, you'd have to continuously keep the whole thing in conscious "RAM."

No keeping track of things. The system shouldn't require you to keep track of anything beyond the day of the week, what planet you are on, etc. You have too many things to keep track of already. Sometimes it's interesting to keep track of things for a week or two. But it gets unbearably boring and onerous fast. If you feel you must keep track of something, use my free online Habit Calendar to keep track of your daily compliance with the system's rules.

Small temporal footprint. Ideally, the system should free up time, not take more of it. If your exercise routine, for example, competes in any significant way with your social life or even with your favorite television show, sooner or later your exercise routine is going to lose.

Socially Unobtrusive. Unless you're planning to become a hermit in the desert, you need to consider whether your habits are going to be unbearably irritating to the people around you. It's not simply a matter of common courtesy: the consciousness of others' disapproval will quickly wear you down.

Free or cheap. If you need anything at all, it should be nothing you can't pick up at your local hardware store. Wasting money on some infomercial clutter is bad, but the worst part is that inevitable feeling of being a sucker. Make "free or cheap" a point of pride, and you'll never feel this way again.

Simple but specific. Common sense is great, but too vague to be a practical guide. Behaviors that involve complex decision making, on the other hand, might be precise, but can never be automated into unconscious habit. A good system finds the happy medium: unforgettably simple but unambiguously precise.

Comic pragmatism. Self-help tends to take itself dreadfully seriously, I guess in the hope that other people will. But crazy is a great mnemonic device. If something is a little nuts, you'll remember it. I call this the principle of comic pragmatism. It's a joke, but it's also serious. It's effective because it's a joke.

Enjoyable. Successful self-discipline requires plenty of carrot as well as stick. Too many systems of self-improvement programs treat pleasure as a necessary evil, to be reluctantly doled out in pitiful little doses. Everyday systems make pleasure integral.

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Re: The Blessings of Simplicity

Post by lpearlmom » Sun Oct 20, 2019 1:48 pm

I love all the thought you’ve put into this and enjoyed reading your ideas.

Thanks for sharing and please ket us know how it goes!
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Re: The Blessings of Simplicity

Post by oolala53 » Sat Nov 30, 2019 11:41 pm

Just wanted to point out that Reinhard does advocate "keeping track" of success or failure, which is a tenet of habit change, but to do it as undramatically, un-guilt-provokingly as possible. Thus the green/yellow/red system.

Brain researcher Stephen Gueyenet, who has studied hunter gatherers quite a lot, says they would be all over modern foods like pizza. And eventually, they would pay the price. He starts his book with an example of a man who left his (not hunter-gatherer) traditional subsistence-culture and became the fattest man on the island by the time he returned for a visit years later. Guyenet is convinced that avoiding modern overeating-inducing foods is key, but that's another story. He would also likely not maintain that a person has to become thin, and likely won't be able to to much lower than a genetic setpoint, but it's unlikely a person will get there eating a lot of modern processed foods. The number of overweight/obese people in our country now would certainly seem to support that. It would be hard to find many people who don't eat a fair proportion of modern processed foods.

Have a great December.
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Re: The Blessings of Simplicity

Post by Kathleen » Fri Feb 28, 2020 3:18 pm

Update: I am back to trying intermittent fasting. Not sure yet of the protocol I will follow, but I am at 205.6 as of this morning. My kids are hassling me about drinking Evian water. My son, who lives at home, told me to look at what Evian spells backwards. It has electrolytes in it. Is there a placebo effect going on, or does it really curb appetite to drink that stuff when fasting?

Next week, I will be in CA visiting my 94 year old mother so no fasting then. She lives in a retirement community which serves meals, and I gained 3 pounds the last time I visited! The food is five star restaurant quality! I will try not to indulge quite so much this time.

Once I figure out what I am doing, I will let people know. I can tell you how I got back to intermittent fasting. I started listening to a podcast by someone called Cooke Rosenstein and even got her book. She is an advocate of learning how to tell if you are hungry -- basically, intuitive eating. While listening to her, I realized that I have comfortably been at many different weights throughout my life. What occurred to me is that my body has changed its definition of what full means. How do I change that? I realized that fasting depresses appetite. For a long time, I only ate between 12 and 7 pm and made no progress. It occurred to me that I need to make my fasting length longer. That is where I am.

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Re: The Blessings of Simplicity

Post by Kathleen » Fri Feb 28, 2020 3:18 pm

Rather than post so much, I have been reading what I wrote previously. At one point but I can't find it, I fasted three times per week for one full day to the following noon (41 hours total each time). I lost no weight. What I am considering is fasting three times per week for one full day to the following 3 pm (44 hours total each time). I tried it this week once and am doing it today as well. My fast ends at 3 pm today, so I did not eat yesterday at all and feel just fine.

3 PM: I tried eating starting after noon today and ate a lot. Now I realize that fasting until 3 PM works and fasting until noon does not. If you eat at noon, you have time enough to digest food before dinner. If you start eating at 3, your ability to eat a large dinner is much diminished. There is a huge difference in impact between fasting 41 and fasting 44 hours. It is easy to fast either 41 or 44 hours. Easy for me. I can't speak for other.

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Re: The Blessings of Simplicity

Post by lpearlmom » Mon Mar 02, 2020 5:54 am

I did the same thing today. I went back and read my fasting journey. Boy was I impatient and not grateful enough for the progress that I had made. I think it does work for me but its just incredibly slow and inches fall off before pounds. Im trying to get back into the fasting groove too. I definitely agree a shorter window is better but i cannot bring myself to do the plus 40 he fasts again. Maybe some day ill be ready to try those again. For now I'm going to try to fast for 19-24 hrs/day and try to be patient, patient, patient this time.

GL with your fasting journey!
Last edited by lpearlmom on Fri Mar 06, 2020 3:14 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: The Blessings of Simplicity

Post by oolala53 » Thu Mar 05, 2020 4:41 pm

I'm sure a lot of good stuff is going on during 41-hour fasts, too, but if you can do three more hours without much suffering, mazel tov. Three days a week is stellar. May I ask what your appetite seems like on the other days?
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Re: The Blessings of Simplicity

Post by Kathleen » Sun Mar 08, 2020 10:55 am

oolala53,
I will let you know! I start tomorrow. Last week, I spent the week with my 94 year old mother at her retirement community. It was incredibly relaxing. We exercised our jaws! Sometimes it is nice just to sit back and gain perspective on your life. What I decided was to make this fasting the number one priority in my life -- within reason. Katie and Ellie are home this week on spring break. I already know I can function just fine with fasting longer than 24 hours but I have to skip family dinners on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. That should be acceptable.
Kathleen

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Re: The Blessings of Simplicity

Post by lpearlmom » Mon Mar 09, 2020 5:12 am

So i think im going to try adf too. Also. M, w, f. I just need something different. Just make sure you eat enough on the other days. I hear that’s really important.
Last edited by lpearlmom on Tue Mar 10, 2020 11:29 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: The Blessings of Simplicity

Post by Sammybunny711 » Mon Mar 09, 2020 8:54 pm

Hoo boy, adf sounds really hard. I'm not sure I could ever do it. I would be afraid of bingeing on the alternate days. :S But if you guys choose to do it, I hope it is helpful for you!
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Re: The Blessings of Simplicity

Post by Kathleen » Tue Mar 10, 2020 1:05 pm

March, 2020: The Blessings of Simplicity

Weight
Day 1 – Monday, March 9, 2020: 209.6
Day 2 – Tuesday, March 10, 2020: 206.0
Day 3 – Wednesday, March 11, 2020: 206.8
Day 4 – Thursday, March 12, 2020: 204.4
Day 5 – Friday, March 13, 2020: 205.4
Day 6 – Saturday, March 14, 2020: 203.4
Day 7 – Sunday, March 15, 2020: 206.4
Day 8 – Monday, March 16, 2020: 207.2
Day 9 – Tuesday, March 17, 2020: 203.6
Day 10 – Wednesday, March 18, 2020: 205.2
Day 11 – Thursday, March 19, 2020: 201.8
Day 12 – Friday, March 20, 2020: 203.6
Day 13 – Saturday, March 21, 2020: 201.4
Day 14 – Sunday, March 22, 2020:
Day 15 – Monday, March 23, 2020: 205.8
Day 16 – Tuesday, March 24, 2020: 203.0
Day 17 – Wednesday, March 25, 2020: 204.4
Day 18 – Thursday, March 26, 2020: 200.8
Day 19 – Friday, March 27, 2020: 203.0
Day 20 – Saturday, March 28, 2020: 200.0
Day 21 – Sunday, March 29, 2020: 198.2
Day 22 – Monday, March 30, 2020: 200.8
Day 23 – Tuesday, March 31, 2020: 198.0


Journal
Day 2 – Tuesday, March 10, 2020: 206.0
So far, so good. I stopped eating at about 4:40 PM on Sunday, and it is now 8:11 AM on Tuesday. The big problem for me with fasting is coffee, and I gradually decreased the amount I drank while I was spending the week with my mother, so I have not had any coffee since Saturday or Sunday and even then I had about 1/2 cup.

I tried fasting 41 hours 3 times per week and did not lose weight, so now I am trying 44 hours. My plan is to try to do this for 8 weeks -- until May 1 -- and then evaluate. Katie and Ellie are home this week. I have little planned and little to do until May when they come home. I'm working on retirement planning and may see if I can find a part time retail job but my days of working at a professional job are over. I even donated my work clothes! I never did like those jackets.

10 PM: I made it to 3 PM without eating which means I fasted more than 46 hours. The last three were really tough. Katie had a dentist appointment and then I dropped her off at her apartment (she is getting her hair dyed purple tomorrow), and I came home and went to lie down. Katie was all upset with me because I dropped her at the gym this morning at 9:21, she wanted me to return in an hour, I got back to the parking lot at 10:07, and she was mad because I did not pick up her call. Well, I was driving. Normally, this sort of teen/young adult tantrum just flows over me because I remember too well how I behaved at that age. Instead, it really hurt. At 3:30, after I lay down for 1/2 hour, I got up and ate -- yogurt with raspberries, cheese, Raisin Bran, celery, and homemade chicken noodle soup. Then I wanted to lie down again. I chopped the vegetables for dinner and started the potatoes but Ellie finished making the meal, and I lay down again. I felt better by about 7 which means I neither made dinner, ate dinner, nor cleaned up. I really have to plan for Thursday afternoon if this is going to be my reaction to a longer fast. When I fasted from dinner to lunchtime 41 hours later, I did not have this reaction. In fact, I felt fine all day yesterday until this morning when Katie got upset with me. I am torn. Tonight, Tom got upset with me and said I had not done anything since I got home from California. Well, I've been cleaning out the storage closet and the stopper got in the laundry room sink so the room flooded down into the furnace room, making it so that both rooms had to be cleaned, and it was just a mess. Again, things happen. Mistakes happen. Tommy was doing the laundry when this happened, so I don't know what he did. I didn't blame him, but it was again so demoralizing for Tom to be lecturing at me. And it's snowing out. I am so over winter. I drive to Mayo 2 hours away tomorrow for a check up so I have time to think. I have spent so much time trying to lose weight and failing that maybe I just need to tough it out and do this. I know it will result in weight loss but it will have a cost. My life essentially will be on hold if I do this. I have to skinny down anything else I do other than normal household chores.

Day 3 – Wednesday, March 11, 2020: 206.8
I feel so much better today but am going to take a proactive approach and anticipate that I won't be feeling well tomorrow afternoon as I get to 40 - 44 hours of fasting. Katie and Ellie wanted to go to the Science Museum so I am proposing tomorrow afternoon, and I'll prepare a slow cooker meal ahead of time. It is not sustainable to take 4 hours out of my life three times per week, but maybe I just have an adjustment period.

Day 4 – Thursday, March 12, 2020: 204.4
Usually I have a Mountain Dew when I drive to Mayo because that drive is so boring, but I didn't this time and it was hard to take that drive without caffeine. I got back home at 5 PM and went to bed. My sinuses actually throbbed. The dinner was hamburgers with a salad I had prepared yesterday morning, so Ellie took care of dinner. I slept for 2 hours, got up, did little but talk, and went back to bed at 8:30. I woke up at 6:30.

I donated the Jason Fung books I had, but my recollection is he started obese people off with a very long fast up to 14 days and then had them on 42 hour fasts three times per week until they lost the weight they needed. I now get it. This isn't a lifestyle change what I am doing. This is a lifestyle transition. It is disruptive.

Spring break for the girls has now been extended to next Wednesday, and classes are online until April 1. We have workmen coming next week. I have to be home then anyway. I will see how long I can take this. I think what Fung does with his program is have people actually live on site rather than at their homes.

Is there danger to my doing this? Yes, but I think the danger of continuing to be this obese is greater, and I have tried so many different thing over the years. Ellie told me the other day that none of the kids remember me thin. She said this because I was pulling out old clothing from the storage closet that no way I could wear today. Sad. I've spent almost 20 years over 200 pounds.

That Jason Fung program is designed for those who are long-term obese. I think what it does is change the set point. Dieting doesn't. If you succeed, you feel like you are starving all the time. With fasting, the amount you comfortably eat changes. You still eat to fullness but what you consider to be full has changed.

That's my theory, and I'm testing it now.

2:40 PM: I went to Costco, two different local grocery stores, and Trader Joe's this morning. What a zoo. I bought expensive rice because my normal stock of rice was running low and there was no rice at Trader Joe's. I am by nature something of a hoarder. We have plenty of a lot of things, but I'm going to make hamburger soup because it freezes well and keeps lots of vegetables. I think we have enough for everyone to eat for two weeks. The stock market really crashed. Am I in a panic? No. I was in a panic after 9/11 and learned to just go steady through ups and downs. I think the US is doing well. There are 5 infected people per million compared with Italy at 250 per million. We just don't want to be in Italy's position in a few weeks, so these preventative measures are warranted. I still think this is going to go away with summer weather. My sister and her husband are on a cruise in South America and just left Argentina where they are quarantining people from the US! I do think this is a wake up call that we don't want to be too dependent on essentials from other countries, especially authoritarian countries like China.

If I can be thinking this way coming up on 46 hours of fasting, that isn't too bad. Maybe the key for me is lots and lots of sleep. I'm sick of being fat and am willing to focus on weight loss.

Day 5 – Friday, March 13, 2020: 205.4
I did not sleep well last night so I am going to bed early tonight. Katie and I managed to reach agreement on her staying home due to the coronavirus.

Day 6 – Saturday, March 14, 2020: 203.4
Sleep and crankiness are my two big problems. Katie got her stuff from the U this morning and cleaned up her room today. Ellie is already home and is working on the puzzle she got for Christmas. Tommy has been living at home but only for sleep so now he has to hang around. Tom goes to work on Monday to get his things and then is home for two weeks to work from home. At least here in MN, the message of social distancing is clear. I made a hamburger soup today that is a great way to freeze meat with vegetables. I did well until 3 and ate too much to have dinner and then went to bed at about 6. Now I am awake at 11 and everyone else is in bed. Tomorrow there are no restrictions on eating except to stop by 7 PM. Then I will repeat what I did this week: 3 44-hour fasts.

When was the last time I was below 200 pounds? I dipped below 200 on August 17, 2011. Honestly, I think what I need is a sustained period of time when I focus on fasting as my priority. Since going to the gym is out due to social distancing, I might as well focus on fasting.

Day 7 – Sunday, March 15, 2020: 206.4
Schools are closing in MN. Two of my kids are out with friends. I can't restrict them. One is picking up medication in case someone needs to get a temperature down. I do think this is a good time for me to try fasting because I sure am not going to the gym.

9 PM: My 94 year old mother says this situation reminds her of when kids were getting polio and everything was closed when she was a kid. I certainly have not seen anything like this. Just a few days ago, I had Katie and Ellie go to the Science Museum for a school assignment of Ellie's and now the Science Museum is closed. Schools are closed. Mass attendance is not obligatory. I was home all day today. Tommy and Katie were out with friends and I asked them to stay out of restaurants and bars.

As for me, I did not sleep well again last night but a lot of that had to do with my sister being scheduled to get off a cruise ship in Chile and they were denied. It will be 15 days before the cruise ship arrives in San Diego and I hope everyone on board is healthy.

I stopped eating at about 6:30 PM and won't eat again until 3 PM on Tuesday. It actually is rather easy to fast when you know you can eat as much as you want when you do eat. You can eat to satisfaction. I actually had some coffee ice cream tonight.

Day 8 – Monday, March 16, 2020: 207.2
I am going to track weight loss as being from Monday to Monday, so I have lost 2.6 pounds in the last week.

Day 9 – Tuesday, March 17, 2020: 203.6
Last night, I told Tom I was going to focus on losing weight since we are stuck home, and he said, "How? By sleeping?" I told him I had not eaten all day. It is now 3 PM, and I am able to break my 44 hour fast. It was not very difficult. Maybe my body just needed to get used to it. It is great to be able to eat as much as I want of whatever I want once I break my fast. Coffee ice cream, here we come!

7:30 PM: Stuffed. Had an entire bowl of popcorn as well as coffee ice cream and a peanut butter sandwich and dinner. Ready for another 44 hour fast.

Day 10 – Wednesday, March 18, 2020: 205.2
I did not sleep well last night. It could be due to the fasting or it could be due to my sister being stuck on a cruise ship off Chile with the ship waiting now three days for provisions to feed people on the 10 day trip back to San Diego.

Day 11 – Thursday, March 19, 2020: 201.8
I still am not sleeping well. I woke up at 3:38 this morning. Maybe it is the fasting. Maybe it is my sister still stuck in the port in Chile. I went out to grocery shop and buy coffee this morning, thinking that a person in a fasted state may not be a good host for a virus. Maybe a virus can tell. IDK. I heard some scientist say that, if we anthropomorphize a virus, it is not wise for the virus to kill off a host. Maybe it also is not wise for a virus to live in a fasted host.

Tom complimented me this morning by saying he can tell I am losing weight because he can see it in my face. I am more or less following the onsite program offered by Jason Fung. He starts with a long fast -- like 6 to 14 days -- which I didn't do but then has people fast three times per week but the fast is 40 or 41 hours rather than my 44. I don't exactly remember it and gave my book to my personal trainer. At any rate, the big problem with this fast is social. I don't have to worry about social at the moment.

Here is the real reason I am fasting: I am losing my hearing FAST. I have tried all sorts of things, including six months of thinking maybe something was wrong with my ear canal. About four year ago, for some explicable reason, my hearing improved slightly. At the time, I was trying several different things: having magnesium, eating honey with cinnamon, fasting, and doing fast walking. I decided to focus on having cinnamon with honey until my blood pressure skyrocketed in a measurement when I had my annual mammogram. That was the end of that. My blood pressure has always been low. Now my systolic blood pressure has returned to 110-120, but my diastolic is still high at 85-95. End of that. I tried fast walking. There is no doubt fast walking is good for you, but my hearing continued to deteriorate. I tried having magnesium. No doubt good for you. Didn't work to improve hearing. That left me with fasting. I went maybe a year fasting every day and eating only 12 - 7. Weight didn't go down, and hearing didn't improve. I stopped that when Tommy quipped that I was on a seven hour eating shift.

Last summer, I tried hearing aids, and they literally stopped me in my tracks. I could not function. I felt disoriented. The other issue with me personally is I saw my father first lose his hearing and then suffer with dementia. I think the hearing aid companies are promoting that you need hearing aids to prevent dementia, but in actual fact both hearing loss and dementia may have the same source. You need to cure natural hearing loss and not just mask it with hearing aids.

Now over the last few months I have taken another look at fasting. I had decided against fasting longer than 24 hours. Was that the problem? I also had gone back to drinking coffee. I found an article online about "The Antioxidative Role of Autophagy in Hearing Loss" that said autophagy can actually improve hearing. That led me back to Brad Pilon who started the intermittent fasting movement. I bought an updated version of his book and read until I read the chapter on why you should not fast longer than 24 hours. He gave the explanation for what happens in a fast that is longer than 24 hours. Bingo. I think I found why my hearing improved several years ago. I had decided to eat every day. I didn't want to skip dinner with my family. I stopped reading that book and prepared for fasts longer than 24 hours. I needed to give up coffee which I succeeded in doing the week I was with my mother when all we did was talk, sleep and eat. I decided on a 44 hour fast because I did not lose any weight when I was fasting 40 hours 3 times per week. That is where I am now.

I am going to start recording my hearing. I use an online hearing test. It's accurate enough. My hearing today after almost 40 hours of fasting is 20-30-40-50-60-80+ (measured in dBHL) for frequencies of 250Hz, 500 Hz, 1KHz, 2KHz, 4KHz, and 8KHz, respectively. The test only measures up to 80. Since I cannot hear 80dBHL at 8KHz, I have it listed as 80+. That is where I am, and it is very scary.

Since there is nothing I can do about coronavirus, it might be a good time to try this fasting. If fasting does not work, I need to prepare for dementia. One thing I have found is increased tinnitus at times plus sometimes my nose or sinus hurts. What I have read is that tinnitus is actually the body's way of repairing damage to the ear. Autophagy is the body's way of repairing itself by using damaged cells for fuel in a fasting body. We shall see...

3:50 PM: Two bowls of homemade chicken noodle soup with saltines. Two bowls of coffee ice cream. Two bowls of Fage yogurt. 1/2 peanut butter sandwich. I'm completely satisfied. I think the reason why a fast ending at 3 pm works is that I can't digest enough before the fasting begins again at 7 to eat a lot tonight.

Day 12 – Friday, March 20, 2020: 203.6
The fasting schedule is starting to seem routine but maybe that is because so much else is going on. I spent 1 1/2 hours at Costco this morning to get a 30 day supply of Tom's prescriptions. I told him I risked my life for him! My sister's cruise ship left for San Diego this morning.

Day 16 – Tuesday, March 24, 2020: 203.0
I am sticking to this and in fact may decide not to eat at all on Saturday, but I just don't have a focus right now on eating. My friend, whom we chose as godmother to our oldest child, is in quarantine and her husband is in the hospital with a confirmed case of Covid19.

7:16 PM: Lots of stress eating today. At least the workmen are done on the house, so we have gutters in time for tomorrow's expected rain.

Day 20 – Saturday, March 28, 2020: 200.0
It is somewhat embarrassing that I have now fasted from 7 PM on Thursday to now, 3 PM on Saturday, and my stomach isn't even growling. I wonder if my body needs the assurance of unconditional permission to eat in order to comfortably fast.

Day 22 – Monday, March 30, 2020: 200.8
I was on track to lose only about a pound a week until I added in a Saturday fast, and now I am down 5 pounds in a week. IDK. It doesn't make sense to me that there would be that dramatic of a difference. Anyway, fasting for two straight days turned out not to be hard because I knew I could eat as much as I want of whatever I want on Sunday.

Day 23 – Tuesday, March 31, 2020: 198.0
It is keeping me sane to focus on weight loss. Tommy and Tom work, and Katie and Ellie are in school. I can focus on home care and take it easy because of the fasting. It does disrupt my sleep. Sometimes my nose hurts which is really odd.

7 PM: I ate so much I feel sick and had to lie down. It doesn't help that the prediction is 100,000 deaths from coronavirus. I am reminded of what Frederick Douglass said about how slaves had off between Christmas and New Year's Day and had all the food and alcohol they wanted. Some got so drunk and ate so much that they were happy to return to the fields. I am happy to return to fasting tomorrow.

Hearing
Explanation given in 3/19/20 post
Day 11 – Thursday, March 19, 2020: 20-30-40-50-60-80+after 39 hours of fasting
Last edited by Kathleen on Wed Apr 01, 2020 12:00 am, edited 45 times in total.

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Re: The Blessings of Simplicity

Post by lpearlmom » Tue Mar 10, 2020 11:30 pm

GL! How long did you do the 41 hr fasting? I can’t believe you didn’t lose any weight. Id have been very discouraged.
:twisted: SW: 210 lbs
CW: 172
GW:160

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Re: The Blessings of Simplicity

Post by Kathleen » Wed Mar 11, 2020 3:02 am

A month. It was discouraging to end up the same weight.

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Re: The Blessings of Simplicity

Post by lpearlmom » Wed Mar 11, 2020 3:45 pm

Sorry 😐 I’m rooting for you!
:twisted: SW: 210 lbs
CW: 172
GW:160

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lpearlmom
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Joined: Fri Aug 02, 2013 4:59 am
Location: Arizona

Re: The Blessings of Simplicity

Post by lpearlmom » Sat Mar 21, 2020 1:37 pm

Hang in there with the fasting. It can take awhile to lose weight & for appetite correction to kick in but sounds like you’re doing great. I gave up on adf as well. I really like eating with my family e wry night.

I hope your sister is okay. Such a scary time. :/
:twisted: SW: 210 lbs
CW: 172
GW:160

Kathleen
Posts: 1685
Joined: Tue Sep 16, 2008 12:46 pm
Location: Minnesota

Re: The Blessings of Simplicity

Post by Kathleen » Tue Mar 31, 2020 12:42 pm

April, 2020: The Blessings of Simplicity

Note: Monday weights are the highest because I can eat from 7 AM to 7 PM on Sundays, so I track my weight Monday to Monday by having Monday weights in red and all other weights in blue.


Weight
Day 24 – Wednesday, April 1, 2020: 201.2
Day 25 – Thursday, April 2, 2020: 198.2
Day 26 – Friday, April 3, 2020: 200.6
Day 27 – Saturday, April 4, 2020: 198.2
Day 28 – Sunday, April 5, 2020: 199.2
Day 29 – Monday, April 6, 2020: 199.8
Day 30 – Tuesday, April 7, 2020: 197.8
Day 31 – Wednesday, April 8, 2020: 200.6
Day 32 – Thursday, April 9, 2020: 198.0
Day 33 – Friday, April 10, 2020: 200.4
Day 34 – Saturday, April 11, 2020: 200.4
Day 35 – Sunday, April 12, 2020: 201.4
Day 36 – Monday, April 13, 2020: 201.0
Day 37 – Tuesday, April 14, 2020:
Day 38 – Wednesday, April 15, 2020:
Day 39 – Thursday, April 16, 2020: 204.4
Day 40 – Friday, April 17, 2020:
Day 41 – Saturday, April 18, 2020:
Day 42 – Sunday, April 19, 2020:
Day 43 – Monday, April 20, 2020: 202.0
Day 44 – Tuesday, April 21, 2020: 203.2
Day 45 – Wednesday, April 22, 2020:
Day 46 – Thursday, April 23, 2020: 204.0
Day 47 – Friday, April 24, 2020:
Day 48 – Saturday, April 25, 2020:
Day 49 – Sunday, April 26, 2020: 206.0
Day 50 – Monday, April 27, 2020:
Day 51 – Tuesday, April 28, 2020: 202.6
Day 52 – Wednesday, April 29, 2020: 200.4
Day 53 – Thursday, April 30, 2020: 201.6

Journal
Day 24 – Wednesday, April 1, 2020: 201.2
I ate so much yesterday that I was miserable. Tom asked me about going for a walk, and I said no. I just lay on the couch and then took a bath and went to bed. I think that may have been a rachet down. My guess is that today is that last day that I will be above 200. Today I fast, so tomorrow will be a lower weight, and tomorrow afternoon will not be the binge that yesterday was because the misery of overeating is too fresh in my mind.

Day 25 – Thursday, April 2, 2020: 198.2
Tired. Took a nap in the afternoon. My ears are ringing. I hold onto the hope that the tinnitus is my body's way of repairing damage to my ears -- that fasting is helping my hearing. There is no way I would be doing this except that I have so little to do except stay at home. Tomorrow, Katie and I are going shopping, and then we are going to bring food to Katie's boyfriend who is living off food bought at a CVS. He is living on campus. I don't get why he isn't home with his family right here in the suburbs. There is no way I would be comfortable with Katie on campus. He got a face mask and Clorox wipes and now we are going to feed him.

Day 26 – Friday, April 3, 2020: 200.6
This is my last day above 200 pounds. I am fasting today and tomorrow. I need to focus on health and not get all wrapped up in the Covid19 pandemic. I was awake at 3 watching an interview of a South Korean who managed the pandemic there with spectacular results.

Day 27 – Saturday, April 4, 2020: 198.2
I did fine with my second full day of fasting until I was serving homemade chicken noodle soup at 6 and decided to eat, which I did: two bowls of soup, coffee ice cream, red wine, and Cheerios. That may not be all bad. Maybe I should have only one hour per day of eating when I eat and allow myself to eat on Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday with all day eating allowed on Sunday.

Day 28 – Sunday, April 5, 2020: 199.2
I am up a pound from last Sunday, but I think it was good I ate last night. I looked at my paper tracking of weight and added a weekly goal weight with a goal to lose 2 pounds per week. I started on 3/9 at 209.6 and made the goal weight for that Monday to be 210. Goal weight for 3/16 would be 208 and actual was 207.2. Goal weight for 3/23 was 206 and actual was 205.8. Goal weight for 3/30 was 204 and actual was 200.8. That makes goal weight for 4/6 to be 202, and I should make that. I am much less inclined right now to overeat like I did yesterday. I thought of having coffee ice cream right away and decided it would taste better later on. I did decide to allow myself one cup of coffee on Sundays as a treat.

It may be that I will have to fast every other Saturday to maintain a two pound weight loss. We shall see. I need to focus on making that goal every week. The whole stay at home situation could go on quite awhile. I don't have much to do except cook and clean and do laundry. It is boring. Everyone else in the household has either a full time job or full time study, so this is an ideal time to lose weight because there is so little pressure on me. I'm certainly not going to try to work.

Day 29 – Monday, April 6, 2020: 199.8
Today is the first day I actually feel thinner. It feels good. Maybe it wasn’t such a bad idea to eat dinner in Saturday because I pigged our less yesterday than I did last Sunday after a two day fast. I am muddling through this with a 2 pound per week weight loss goal.

Day 30 – Tuesday, April 7, 2020: 197.8
The hinge came off the laptop I was using for monitoring my hearing. That laptop already has duct tape all the way around the monitor. I decided to switch to the new laptop, use a headset, and record at 90 on sound. I don't like giving up the continuity of history that I can only have by using that old laptop, but it is going to do sometime soon anyway. I need to make the switch now.

8 PM: This was my roughest day by far. I hung on until 3 and then ate until I felt nauseous and lay down after dinner. Katie decided to sleep outside in a tent which means I will be up all night to make sure she is ok.

Day 31 – Wednesday, April 8, 2020: 200.6
Yesterday was brutal, and I'm not sure why. If every day was like yesterday, I would quit. I hope that this only happens once a month or so. Anyway, I went to bed late -- after Katie agreed to come in from sleeping outside in the tent. I got up at close to 9 am but weighed myself earlier. I think I am going to fast on both Friday and Saturday since my weight is now just .6 pound below where I was last Wednesday.

It looks like the estimates for deaths was much higher than the current reality. Tom told me his work is distributing masks to everyone at work which he thinks is an indicator to go back to work. Maybe there will be summer camp this year.

Day 32 – Thursday, April 9, 2020: 198.0
The key to my doing well during this intermittent fasting may be a lot of sleep. I slept about 10 hours last night. I am tracking my weight on a graph so I can see changes from a weekday to a weekday. This Thursday, I weigh 198.0. Last Thursday, I weighed 198.2. What that indicates to me is that I need to fast on both Friday and Saturday to be able to achieve a two pound per week weight loss. I think the reason why I need to be fasting so much is that I am a long term obese person. I have weighed over 200 pounds for almost all of the last 15 years. My body wants to hang on to this weight. If I fast, my appetite will ratchet down. Once I am down a significant amount, I can start to cut back on fasting. What I am not going to do is follow the conventional wisdom of portion control. When I eat, I allow myself to eat as much as I want.

8:30 PM: I plan to fast until Easter morning. Just before 7 PM, I had yet another cup of coffee ice cream. I did not enjoy it. I ate it because I could and because I wasn't going to eat for the next two days. It occurred to me this was some sort of leftover habit from all those years of dieting: I eat because I can and not because I want to eat it or enjoy eating it. How sick is that? I am going to have to keep fasting until I get over that. It may well be that I will be above 200 tomorrow, but I bet that tomorrow is my very last day above 200. We shall see, but a fast from 7 PM on Thursday to 7 AM on Sunday means 60 straight hours of fasting. That is a lot!

Day 33 – Friday, April 10, 2020: 200.4
I was up for two hours last night and then slept until 8:30 so my weight at 8:30 (200.4) is lower than it would have been at 6. I really ate last night and wonder if I just have to go through the process of figuring out that eating a lot when I am not hungry does not help me with fasting. Fasting helps me to realize that hunger is not a crises. The stay at home orders are wearing on all of us. We are so lucky to be in a single family home in an area with lots of places to walk. And it's spring. It did snow yesterday and we may have more snow in the future but the weather is getting warmer so it is nice outside for walking. I need to keep with the process of fasting alternating with being able to eat what I want until my body adjusts to a lower weight -- until my appetite is such that I can comfortably eat to satiety and not be obese.

9 PM: I started eating at 6 PM. I am not sure where to go from here.

Day 35 – Sunday, April 12, 2020: 201.4
We had a wonderful Easter except for having to break the tradition of getting together with my brother in law and his family. There is a lot of snow out today. I ended up deciding that I should move to longer and less frequent fasts because I was binge eating when I could eat.





Hearing (using laptop with headset at 90 for hearing level)
Explanation given in 3/19/20 and 4/7/20 posts
Day 26 – Friday, April 3, 2020: 30-30-30-40-50-40
Last edited by Kathleen on Fri May 08, 2020 2:20 pm, edited 21 times in total.

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lpearlmom
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Location: Arizona

Re: The Blessings of Simplicity

Post by lpearlmom » Tue Mar 31, 2020 2:13 pm

198 lbs yay! You are doing great!

So sorry about your friend though. 🙏
:twisted: SW: 210 lbs
CW: 172
GW:160

Kathleen
Posts: 1685
Joined: Tue Sep 16, 2008 12:46 pm
Location: Minnesota

Re: The Blessings of Simplicity

Post by Kathleen » Tue Mar 31, 2020 8:13 pm

Thanks, Linda. My friend and her husband are on the road to recovery. My friend's husband is now off the venilator. My sister and her husband got off the cruise ship yesterday. A cruise ship following their itinerary but a week later had four deaths and many people sick and is hoping to be allowed to dock in Miami. My sister and her husband were very lucky. I hope Doc also can have some luck. I see that Arizona now has stay at home orders. It isn't all bad, as you have said, to have stay at home orders. You do realize that your most important relationships are in your own home.
Kathleen

Kathleen
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Re: The Blessings of Simplicity

Post by Kathleen » Fri May 08, 2020 1:57 pm

May, 2020: The Blessings of Simplicity

Goal is to fast from 6 PM on Sunday to 6 PM on Wednesday and to fast after 7 PM on Wednesday - Sunday nights.



Weight
Day 54 – Friday, May 1, 2020:
Day 55 – Saturday, May 2, 2020:203.8
Day 56 – Sunday, May 3, 2020: 204.2
Day 57 – Monday, May 4, 2020:
Day 58 – Tuesday, May 5, 2020: 202.0
Day 59 – Wednesday, May 6, 2020: 199.4
Day 60 – Thursday, May 7, 2020:201.0
Day 61 – Friday, May 8, 2020:199.8
Day 62 – Saturday, May 9, 2020:202.2
Day 63 – Sunday, May 10, 2020: 204.4
Day 64 – Monday, May 11, 2020:
Day 65 – Tuesday, May 12, 2020: 202.2
Day 66 – Wednesday, May 13, 2020: 199.6
Day 67 – Thursday, May 14, 2020: 202.6
Day 68 – Friday, May 15, 2020: 202.8
Day 69 – Saturday, May 16, 2020:

Day 1 – Sunday, May 17, 2020: 205.0
Day 2 – Monday, May 18, 2020:
Day 3 – Tuesday, May 19, 2020:
Day 1
Day 1 – Wednesday, May 20, 2020: 206.0
Day 2 – Thursday, May 21, 2020: 204.8
Day 3 – Friday, May 22, 2020: 205.2
Day 4 – Saturday, May 23, 2020: 205.2
Day 5 – Sunday, May 24, 2020: 205.4
Day 6 – Monday, May 25, 2020: 206.2
Day 7 – Tuesday, May 26, 2020:
Day 8 – Wednesday, May 27, 2020:
Day 9 – Thursday, May 28, 2020:
Day 10 – Friday, May 29, 2020:
Day 11 – Saturday, May 30, 2020:
Day 12 – Sunday, May 31, 2020:


Journal
Day 61 – Friday, May 8, 2020:199.8
My motivation for the diet I am pursuing is to improve hearing and losing weight is a side benefit. I looked back and found that in December, 2015 I had fasted three times per week for 42 hours each time and then in January, 2016 found that my hearing had improved. I had not lost weight and looked at what I was doing that might have resulted in improved hearing: fasting, HIIT (high intensity interval training), taking magnesium, and taking a combination of cinnamon and honey. I have independently tried the three activities other than fasting only to find no impact on hearing. I have tried fasting but stayed away from fasting longer than 24 hours. Now I am trying fasting longer than 24 hours.
On April 26, I decided to try one 72 hour fast per week so that my body has time to recover from fasting and also so that I have as long as possible in a state of fasting longer than 24 hours. It turns out fasting longer than 24 hours has special properties. My hearing has improved based on my rough assessment, but there is variability in how I measure this and also in what affects the test (environmental noise). If my hearing improves more than 20 decibels, that is significant.

Yesterday I ate just a ton but my body couldn't take it. I ended up with a stomach ache and had wine and bread for dinner.

Day 62 – Saturday, May 9, 2020:202.2
I am something of a hoarder, it turns out. When the pandemic blew up, I had probably 100 rolls of toilet paper ALREADY in our house. I just got some more because we were below maybe 75. That hoarding tendency may be part of the reason why I am obese: I want to eat before I am hungry. Now I am just going to fast 72 hours once per week and allow myself to eat anything I want anytime I want, although I do think it is best to avoid eating after 7 PM.

Day 64 – Monday, May 11, 2020:
I woke up at about 3:30 this morning just feeling awful from all the chocolate I had yesterday and this morning I had a caffeine withdrawal headache even though I had only a cup of coffee. It must have been all that caffeine in the chocolate. Now I face three days of not eating. I am going to have about half of the bone broth I made over the weekend during the fast and am gradually going to move to a complete water fast. Because I actually gained weight last week, I am going to make my Wednesday dinner just bone broth. This seems like a miserable way to rachet down set point, but I don't care because I have tried so many other ways that have failed. If this works, I am all for it.

Day 65 – Tuesday, May 12, 2020: 202.2
Despite a 72 hour fast last week, I am tracking .2 pounds above my weight from last Tuesday as well as from last Sunday. What am I going to do differently? I decided that tomorrow night's meal will not be a free for all but instead will be black bean soup and maybe a banana. Then I will eat 12 - 7 on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday and only allow anytime eating on Sunday. I am on the right track.

Day 66 – Wednesday, May 13, 2020: 199.6
I am still tracking .2 pounds above last week's weight. This morning, Tom brought up my pigging out when I did eat. I told him I realize that but it won't be so bad this week because I felt awful last week. He is skeptical. I told him that, today, I am 27 pounds below my all time high weight from a few years ago. He is actually trying fasting, too, but only one day at a time. Work from home can mean increased snacking, and he has gained weight.

Tom also brought up he doesn't think college will be in person this fall. Both girls have already signed leases for room next year. I keep on thinking this will end quickly, but in the meantime our governor is setting up alternate care sites and even a warehouse for a morgue. I think sunshine and humidity may be the answer and we finally are getting warmer weather this week. Snow was a possibility on Mother's Day and even today it is cool enough to wear a spring jacket. I am pushing vitamin D on everyone, including my mother, because there is a strong correlation between coronavirus death and low vitamin D levels. While I feel fine fasting 72 hours, I am not taking vitamins during that time. As soon as I break my fast, I have having vitamin D. With this schedule, I don't have vitamin D on Mondays and Tuesdays but now I am increasing the dosage to 2000 IU on other days.

I also have been establishing an exercise from home routine which is a good thing because the girls finished their college classes yesterday and now we need to figure out what to do with the summer.

3:30 PM: I am doing better today than I did last Wednesday because I am moving and getting things done. Last Wednesday I just lay around doing nothing. It is still a few hours until I reach 72 hours of fasting and then I will have northern beans soup which I made. I won't give myself permission to eat everything I want until tomorrow noon and then I will allow myself to eat 12 - 7 PM Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Sunday is still a day to eat whatever I want.

7 PM: I started with black bean soup -- about 4 cups worth. Then two bowls of Cheerios, several chocolate covered caramels, 1/2 peanut butter and cheese sandwich, an egg... I'm not sure what else. I ate it all in 50 minutes.

Day 67 – Thursday, May 14, 2020: 202.6
It is now 7:17, and I have eaten non stop except for sleeping since 6 PM last night. I'm not weighing myself tomorrow. Instead, I am pulling back to something that is sustainable over the long term. I think I'm going to try fasting 6 PM Sunday to Tuesday morning and then I will try 23 hour fasts ending Wednesday dinner and Friday dinner (2 days).

Day 1 – Sunday, May 17, 2020: 205.0
Fasting triggered incredible binge behavior. I decided to reset. I am going to try recording what I eat and fasting only from Sunday 7 PM to Tuesday 7 AM. The pandemic proved to me that I have extreme hoarding tendencies, and I believe that my overeating may be mostly preventative eating. I honestly just thought I was being practical in having small buckets for everything: calculators, tape, pencils, markers, etc. It was downright shocking to me that people needed to buy toilet paper when the pandemic hit. Part of this comes from buying in quantity at Costco, and part of this comes from having an awful lot of storage space in our house. Still, maybe it isn't normal to have a bucket for duct tape, a bucket for Solarcaine, a bucket for old watches, a bucket for post it notes, etc. Having one 36 hour fast per week may be a constant reminder that I won't starve if for some reason I skip a meal.

Day 1 – Wednesday, May 20, 2020: 206.0
Katie and Ellie are done with school. I just cannot focus on mysellf with two college-aged kids home with nothing to do. I think I am going to follow Brad Pilon's Eat Stop Eat program and fast until 5 pm on Wednesdays and Fridays. I also think I am going to look into a breathing program called the Buteyko Method which may or may not help with the Wuhan virus and may or may not help with hearing loss.

8 PM: That lasted until 12:30 or so. I am returning to my SET Diet with S standing for take a sip between bites and allowing myself to eat whatever I want whenever I want and just change the how. Katie and Ellie need my attention.

Day 2 – Thursday, May 21, 2020: 204.8
Now that I know that fasting creates such incredible binge eating, I am going to return to the SET diet. I reread my notes from last summer and think I should just settle on taking a sip between bites as my standard and also doing this as a habit, including on Sundays. Enough time wasted on losing weight. Enough damage to my health from being obese all these years.

Day 3 – Friday, May 22, 2020: 205.2
I am resolved to continue this until Katie and Ellie are back on campus which probably will be in September. That is a relief. It may or may not be effective, but it is easy. This morning, I learned that alternating bites of strawberry with coffee doesn't taste very good. Cold with cold. Hot with hot. Yesterday was my first full day of only following the SET guidelines because on Monday I fasted until the afternoon, then ate a lot, and then decided to switch to the SET guidelines.

Day 7 – Saturday, May 23, 2020: 205.2
There is a depressive effect on desire to eat when I follow these rules. I looked back at last fall at what tripped me up and it was getting the Gwen Shamblin book from which I got the idea to take a sip between bites. I rarely think of something as evil, but that book repulsed me. It was all about focusing on your body. It had an intuitive eating base with God thrown in. That does not work in the real world because people eat together. I tried the Gwen Shamblin approach for an entire summer and it was the most miserable diet experience I have ever had. It was not eat, not eat, binge eat. I don't have to go back and look at that book and can just take the one idea from it that I think has merit.

Day 9 – Monday, May 25, 2020: 205.4
I am going to gradually increase time of a daily fast. Today I first ate at 10.

Day 10 – Tuesday, May 26, 2020:
Day 11 – Wednesday, May 27, 2020:
Day 12 – Thursday, May 28, 2020:
Day 13 – Friday, May 29, 2020:
Day 14 – Saturday, May 30, 2020:
Day 15 – Sunday, May 31, 2020:

Hearing (using laptop with headset at 90 for hearing level)
Explanation given in 3/19/20 and 4/7/20 posts
Day 26 – Friday, April 3, 2020: 30-30-30-40-50-40
Day 61 – Friday, May 8, 2020: 20-30-30-40-40-40
Last edited by Kathleen on Mon May 25, 2020 7:27 pm, edited 21 times in total.

Strawberry Roan
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Re: The Blessings of Simplicity

Post by Strawberry Roan » Fri May 08, 2020 9:10 pm

You are doing great, Kathleen. You have maintained the ten pound weight loss.... Congrats, now your body can perhaps reset a set point at this weight and you can work on the next ten. :wink: Stay the course....
Berry

Kathleen
Posts: 1685
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Location: Minnesota

Re: The Blessings of Simplicity

Post by Kathleen » Sat May 09, 2020 1:04 am

Hi Strawberry Roan,
Thanks! I actually am more excited about the possibility of improving my hearing. I have gotten into alternate medicine from trying to cure my hearing and lose weight. I do think that fasting resets the setpoint. For most habits, you do best by building habits slowly over time. That doesn't seem to work with dieting, at least for me. It's almost as if you have to ratchet down weight rather than slowing let it glide down.

Anyway, my family is teasing me tonight about that Scott Adams (cartoonist) tweeted some evidence that Vitamin D is key in fighting the coronavirus. I was able to find this article:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32252338

That isn't from a cartoonist. It's from the National Institute of Health.

In my opinion, too much of healthcare is driven by a profit motive. Pills. Pill. Pills. A nurse once told me that the average number of medications an American has is one per decade, so if you are 60 you should be taking 6 pills. I've avoided that and looked into alternative medicine and there is a lot of consistency in thinking vitamin D is a good idea, especially if you live north like we do in Minnesota.

Kathleen
Posts: 1685
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Location: Minnesota

Re: The Blessings of Simplicity

Post by Kathleen » Sat May 09, 2020 11:59 am

June, 2020: The Blessings of Simplicity


Weight
Day 1 – Sunday, June 21, 2020: 209.0
Day 2 – Monday, June 22, 2020: 208.8
Day 3 – Tuesday, June 23, 2020: 208.8
Day 4 – Wednesday, June 24, 2020: 208.8
Day 5 – Thursday, June 25, 2020: 208.8
Day 6 – Friday, June 26, 2020: 209.6

Day 1 – Saturday, June 27, 2020: 210.0
Day 2 – Sunday, June 28, 2020:
Day 3 – Monday, June 29, 2020:
Day 4 – Tuesday, June 30, 2020:


Journal
Day 1 – Sunday, June 21, 2020: 209.0
Fasting produced short-term results. I already know that NoS is not enough. I am going to follow my version of NoS (instead of one plate, everything must be in front of you before you take one bite), and I am going to work on a walking goal. The National Weight Loss Registry says that those who lose weight and keep it off tend to walk a lot, with the number of miles walked being 27 - 30. I am going to try NoS plus walking an average of 30 mile per week.

9 PM: Tom suggested I ramp up, so I am going to start with 18 miles per week.

Day 2 – Monday, June 22, 2020: 208.8
And so it begins. I am used to constant snacking. I have toyed with the idea of writing down what I eat but that would not last so now I am going to follow the NoS Diet. I had a cup of Greek yogurt with coffee and cream, and I looked at the empty cup and thought that I could not eat again until noon. That idea is so foreign to me at this point. It is so easy to revert to constant snacking especially when you are at home all day. Soon, I will go out for a 3 mile walk and then will focus on cleaning.

Day 3 – Tuesday, June 23, 2020: 208.8
The first NoS day was not so great. I started snacking at 10:30 am. I also walked 4.4 miles. I am going to focus on the NoS part of this approach and aim for just 10 miles of walking per week. I can add in the miles later.

Day 4 – Wednesday, June 24, 2020: 208.8
Transition. I avoided snacks until 3 pm and only walked .9 mile.

Day 5 – Thursday, June 25, 2020: 208.8
I made it to 5:30 today without snacking, and I walked .9 miles. Tomorrow I will aim to do NoS at least until 7.

Day 6 – Friday, June 26, 2020: 209.6
I looked at the laptop calendar and see that it is June 25 today and not June 26. That is pandemic for you. I have no real schedule. It's embarrassing. I'm just keeping what I wrote because I don't know how I got my days mixed up.

We leave on Sunday to camp so I will have the correct schedule after that. I admitted to Tom that I had gained back the weight from fasting. He recommended I build a habit of 10 miles per week for 8 weeks to have a foundation and said I should look at 3 years to lose weight. Maybe he is right. We are walking together at lunchtime which is good for him as well.

I am also going to follow NoS and have set up to start tracking that. Maybe I can even have my first success day today since I probably will walk less than a mile. I am sick of changing things. Maybe I just need more modest goals.

Day 1 – Saturday, June 27, 2020: 210.0
Oh my. I feel sore from just walking 10 miles this week. How ridiculous! Tom suggested that I stick with 10 miles per week for 2 months to build a foundation, and today I told him I would follow his advice to build a foundation. I think that, each month, I may just add one mile per week. That means that, in August, I will try to walk 11 mile per week.

There are two old ladies who walk by my house faithfully almost every day. I told Tom that I used to think they look old and now I think they look pretty good! I asked each of them how much they walked. One said 3 - 4 miles per day, and one said 40 miles per week. They both are older than 70 and one may be older than 80. I decided that I am going to build that habit.

I'm also giving up on controlling my eating. Period. Enough is enough.

Day 2 – Sunday, June 28, 2020:
Day 3 – Monday, June 29, 2020:
Day 4 – Tuesday, June 30, 2020:
Last edited by Kathleen on Sat Jun 27, 2020 9:37 pm, edited 9 times in total.

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lpearlmom
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Re: The Blessings of Simplicity

Post by lpearlmom » Fri May 22, 2020 6:12 pm

I always forget that you don’t start a new post but often just edit one big post so am just catching up with everything now. It’s extremely stressful being home with teens or young adults all day along with the stress of the pandemic. I think just maintaining right now is a huge feat. Losing any weight for me right now has been a real struggle though. You sound too organized to be a hoarder but decluttering might feel good. Hang in there!
:twisted: SW: 210 lbs
CW: 172
GW:160

Kathleen
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Re: The Blessings of Simplicity

Post by Kathleen » Fri May 22, 2020 11:02 pm

You know what, Linda? I knew things would change once college finals ended. Now what are they going to do all summer? There is a lot of lounging around. This weekend we hope to lay out a plan.

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lpearlmom
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Re: The Blessings of Simplicity

Post by lpearlmom » Tue May 26, 2020 1:18 am

Yeah it is worse now that school has ended. I hope they can see friends soon. Did you come up with a plan??
:twisted: SW: 210 lbs
CW: 172
GW:160

Kathleen
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Re: The Blessings of Simplicity

Post by Kathleen » Fri Jun 05, 2020 2:00 am

Linda,
I told them they are adults and need to figure out what they can do and then do it. I told both of the girls that this is an opportunity they probably won't have again. They have all expenses paid for, all the time in the world, and no pressure to do anything.

It is not easy. There is no place to swim in the land of 10,000 lakes!

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lpearlmom
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Re: The Blessings of Simplicity

Post by lpearlmom » Sat Jun 13, 2020 6:07 am

That makes sense. My kids are really struggling. Hope you’re doing okay!
:twisted: SW: 210 lbs
CW: 172
GW:160

Kathleen
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Re: The Blessings of Simplicity

Post by Kathleen » Sat Jun 20, 2020 10:26 pm

Life is on hold. We go camping next week which should be good. It does not look like a return to normal for the university, however. It looks like they want kids on campus but many courses will be online. Is your oldest headed to university this fall?
Kathleen

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lpearlmom
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Re: The Blessings of Simplicity

Post by lpearlmom » Sun Jun 21, 2020 2:20 pm

Camping is a great idea. No, my oldest will be a senior and my youngest will be a sophomore. How did that happen?? ☺️
:twisted: SW: 210 lbs
CW: 172
GW:160

Kathleen
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Re: The Blessings of Simplicity

Post by Kathleen » Mon Jun 22, 2020 2:04 am

It happens fast, doesn't it! What are you doing with them this summer? It seems like everything is on hold. Katie has an interview tomorrow to be a server at a country club, but Ellie is doing nothing. She is spending hours on her phone and laptop. Tom and I are in agreement not to force her to do anything but rather to let her grow out of it. It was YEARS before Tommy grew out of video gaming. At one point, he was #3 in Smash Brothers video game in the entire state of ND.

It is so hard to let them find their own path. You can only do so much. Yesterday I bought a book called "The Advice Trap" because I need to stop giving my kids advice. It just cuts off communication. The best I can do is ask questions so they make decisions.

Kathleen

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lpearlmom
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Re: The Blessings of Simplicity

Post by lpearlmom » Sun Jun 28, 2020 3:25 pm

Don’t be embarrassed, i never know what day it is! I gained back all the weight i lost fasting too yet I keep going back to it. I think it’s because i start to resent the 1 plate rule after awhile and i refuse to count calories or carbs so im left with fasting which eventually gets tiresome too. If only there was the perfect solution.

I think building your walking habit is a great idea. Do you follow six miles to supper? I cant remember. Anyway her walking habit is impressive!

I like the idea of asking questions instead of giving advice. It seems they just resent the advice anyway.

Gl with everything!

Oh and we have zero plans this summer. :(
:twisted: SW: 210 lbs
CW: 172
GW:160

Kathleen
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Re: The Blessings of Simplicity

Post by Kathleen » Sat Jul 04, 2020 11:21 am

Hi Linda,
We just got back from camping at a state park. It was fun but not so exciting. The kids went on a whitewater rafting trip that was mild but fun. It was also nice just to talk. Now Katie and I are back for a quiet Fourth, and the others went to Tom's hometown.

Kathleen
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Location: Minnesota

Re: The Blessings of Simplicity

Post by Kathleen » Sat Jul 04, 2020 11:22 am

July, 2020: The Blessings of Simplicity


Weight
Day 1 – Sunday, June 21, 2020: 209.0
Day 2 – Monday, June 22, 2020: 208.8
Day 3 – Tuesday, June 23, 2020: 208.8
Day 4 – Wednesday, June 24, 2020: 208.8
Day 5 – Thursday, June 25, 2020: 208.8
Day 6 – Friday, June 26, 2020: 209.6
Day 7 – Saturday, June 27, 2020: 210.0
Day 8 – Sunday, June 28, 2020:
Day 9 – Monday, June 29, 2020:
Day 10 – Tuesday, June 30, 2020:
Day 11 – Wednesday, July 1, 2020:
Day 12 – Thursday, July 2, 2020:
Day 13 – Friday, July 3, 2020:
Day 14 – Saturday, July 4, 2020:
Day 15 – Sunday, July 5, 2020:
Day 16 – Monday, July 6, 2020:212.0
Day 17 – Tuesday, July 7, 2020:
Day 18 – Wednesday, July 8, 2020:
Day 19 – Thursday, July 9, 2020:
Day 20 – Friday, July 10, 2020:
Day 21 – Saturday, July 11, 2020:211.0
Day 22 – Sunday, July 12, 2020:
Day 23 – Monday, July 13, 2020:
Day 24 – Tuesday, July 14, 2020:
Day 25 – Wednesday, July 15, 2020:
Day 26 – Thursday, July 16, 2020:
Day 27 – Friday, July 17, 2020:
Day 28 – Saturday, July 18, 2020:213.0
Day 29 – Sunday, July 19, 2020:
Day 30 – Monday, July 20, 2020:
Day 31 – Tuesday, July 21, 2020:
Day 32 – Wednesday, July 22, 2020:
Day 33 – Thursday, July 23, 2020:
Day 34 – Friday, July 24, 2020:
Day 35 – Saturday, July 25, 2020:
Day 36 – Sunday, July 26, 2020: 213.2
Day 37 – Monday, July 27, 2020:213.4
Day 38 – Tuesday, July 28, 2020:212.6
Day 39 – Wednesday, July 29, 2020:
Day 40 – Thursday, July 30, 2020:
Day 41 – Friday, July 31, 2020:


Journal
Day 14 – Saturday, July 4, 2020:
A quiet Fourth of July. Only Katie and I are home. I decided in the last week to give up on tracking or trying to manage my weight. Years ago, I read that the National Weight Control Registry tracked people who lost more than 30 pounds and kept it off at least a year and found that a lot of them walked a lot of miles per week (27 - 30 miles per week is what I recall).


I decided to focus on walking. Initially, I was going to walk 30 miles per week right off the bat. Tom talked me out of it and instead we discussed my walking 10 miles per week. I ended up deciding to walk 10 miles per week in July and then adding one mile per week each month until I get to 30 miles per week.

I am going to track a rolling number of miles. So far, in two weeks, I have walked 22.1 miles. The 2.1 miles plus anything I walk today will be carried over into next week. I plan to build up a buffer of about 80 miles (over a lot of time) so that, if I ever get sick, I can go more than 2 weeks without walking. Tom recommends a program of three medium walking days (2 miles to start; planned for Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday), one long walking day (3 miles to start; planned for Friday), one short day (1 mile to start, planned for Saturday), and two rest days (planned for Sunday and Thursday). It is fine to be so specific, but I think I feel more comfortable with an overall mile goal and then I try to fit in the ideal of short, medium and long walking days. I set up a planning sheet to go in my planner.

I give up on losing weight. I have come to think that it is only indirectly influenced by exercise and choice of foods. Over the past five years, I have put a lot of effort into learning to cook foods that are good for you and also eating better myself. I have gotten into many exercise routines but have avoided ones that are really time consuming. Walking is time consuming. Now that I realize I am not going to work a full time job again, why not become one of those walking ladies? Our neighborhood is just fantastic for walking. I have time to think. I am away from technology. This could be a good plan for me.

Day 19 – Thursday, July 9, 2020: I am at camp for a few days and brought along Kiplinger’s Retirement Report because it had an article on changing habits. The article turned out to be based on a book I bought called Tiny Habits. but I did not get out is the book what was in this article because the nuggets of wisdom from the article were buried in lots of text in the book. Here are key tips I underlined:

1. Later in life, we benefit from self-knowledge, which helps stack the deck in our favor, producing better outcomes.
2. Choose a process goal rather than an outcome goal. That shifts the emphasis to the things you can better control, like your own actions. instead of obsessing over what you can’t control, like the actual outcome.
3. Research has found that when we suppress a desire or thought, it emerges later with more power. That’s one reason successful dieters find that, a year or two later, they’ve regained the weight they lost and then some. If we constantly try not to do something. It gains More accessibility in our mind, and seems like we can’t stop thinking about it.
4. A better tactic is to try rebuilding replacement habits that will leave you little room for the ones you’re trying to jettison.
5. Look for ways to reward yourself, but don’t be in a hurry to do so.

From this article, I appreciate that I most like precision so tracking miles is great. Having a weekly goal means I don’t have to feel like a failure if I cannot walk on one particular day. Having a rolling goal where excess miles from the prior week avenue to the current week makes me even more co disentangle of keeping to my goal.

It also occurred to me that a replacement habit for mindless eating is to take a sip of water between bites. so I started doing that as well.

Day 21 – Saturday, July 11, 2020:211.0
I had read that Kiplinger Tax Report earlier in the week and immediately thought of taking a sip between bites. It is encouraging to me that my weight went down from 212 to 211 in just a few days, even though my weight is up two pounds from Day 1 a few weeks ago when I started tracking my walking. I think this may be a good plan. It is flexible but also very specific. I am not going to track successes with taking a sip between bites and this is why; Katie and I took a walk at camp and saw some raspberry bushes so we ate several raspberries. There were several bites but no water available. So what... It won't always be possible to take a sip between bites and that is just fine. I just want to ceate a habit of doing so if possible. With walking, I can be track and stay with my goal of a certain number of miles per week with a rolling total because I can make up for days when I cannot walk. On Tuesday through Thursday of next week, I may be driving a total of about 3,000 miles. It is unlikely I will have much time for walking.

Day 28 – Saturday, July 18, 2020:213.0
I am committed to not dieting ever again. Dieting has taken years from my life -- years of worry and buying Lean Cuisine and reading diet books. The heck with it. I am walking and also am working on recipes with ingredients that are considered good for you. Yesterday, as I was having some ice cream, it occurred to me that I was only eating it in preparation for my next diet. That is SO stupid. I AM DONE.

With all this controversy swirling about COVID19, I have come to the conclusion that we need to go back to life. I signed up to be an election judge for the August primary, figuring that there wouldn't be many people doing it. If I get COVID and die, so be it. Our country is on the brink of losing its form of self-government, and I am willing to take one small step to keep things running.

Day 38 – Tuesday, July 28, 2020:212.6
I was tempted to follow rules for how I eat (taking a sip between bites, for example) and to write down what I eat, but now once again I think my best approach is to just walk. I have been walking a rolling average of 10 miles per week since June 21 and will incresae the number of miles by 1 mile per week per month. It is not much. I have actually gained weight, but I feel helpful.

Reaching back to high school math, I think about dependent and independent variables. Independent variables are what you enter, and dependent variables are what results. For example, c = a + b. C results from the combination of a and b. You can enter a and b. For most people, the way weight loss works is a is how many calories you eat and b is how much you exercise. C is your weight. The saying, eat less, exercise more perfectly describes this. I have concluded that you cannot control how many calories you eat. What can I control? I think I can exercise and also focus on tryng to eat better foods for me. In the last week, I went and got $8 glass canning jars from Target which I filled with sunflower seeds, almonds, pine nuts, walnuts, etc. Those will be my snacks. I also am working on having more of the meals that are good for you. Last night, I made flank steak with broccoli and rice. Both Tom and Tommy were home and enjoyed it. I am slowly switching my family away from pasta-based meals.

Day 39 – Wednesday, July 29, 2020:
Day 40 – Thursday, July 30, 2020:
Day 41 – Friday, July 31, 2020:
Last edited by Kathleen on Wed Jul 29, 2020 2:49 am, edited 20 times in total.

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lpearlmom
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Re: The Blessings of Simplicity

Post by lpearlmom » Sat Jul 04, 2020 10:45 pm

I think focusing on walking is a great idea. It’s less frustrating focusing on something we can do (exercise) instead of something we’re not supposed to do (eating). Also, sometimes we need a break from trying. Maybe you’ll find you want it to be a permanent break & the walking is enough.

Either gl & happy 4th! 🎉
:twisted: SW: 210 lbs
CW: 172
GW:160

Kathleen
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Joined: Tue Sep 16, 2008 12:46 pm
Location: Minnesota

Re: The Blessings of Simplicity

Post by Kathleen » Mon Jul 06, 2020 12:41 pm

I sure hope so, Linda. There is enough stress with the pandemic without trying to control eating. Our kids are locked into leases for this fall, but the University is making almost all classes online. They each have one class that isn't online. Can you imagine? Our total cost for the two of them for one term, including costs for them living on campus, is $25,000, and they will be sitting in their rooms looking at online lectures, many of them pre-recorded. Be glad your kids are not yet in college.
Kathleen

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Re: The Blessings of Simplicity

Post by oolala53 » Tue Jul 07, 2020 5:55 am

I find controlling my eating helps me cope, though it doesn't feel like I'm controlling it as much as it is just how I usually eat now. If I don't eat that way, I feel worse physically and I notice now when disturbing, fearful thoughts are arising and I have a heavy feeling that I used to think of as mild sorrow, it almost always happens after eating a lot of dense foods, especially refined ones. I eat a lot of veggies so I do get very full from my meals, but that fullness doesn't have the same effect.I really never put it together before, or didn't believe it, or I don't know. I knew that eating sweets could stimulate some very dark thoughts. I can get them without that, too, so maybe it's a red herring.

But I would sure have to cope with some annoyed thoughts spending that money for living expenses for mostly online classes! My hat is off to you and your husband. I hate to admit that I probably wouldn't have pushed for my degree if I hadn't had help from my parents, even though I loved school. I went away for only my last two years, but they stand out as two fantastic years of my life. But I do wish now that I had gotten some kind of on-campus job when I was doing it. I think I would have learned to organize my time better.

Kudos on the walking! Have a great July.
Count plates, not calories. 11 years "during"
Age 69
BMI Jan/10-30.8
1/12-26.8 3/13-24.9 +/- 8-lb. 3 yrs
9/17 22.8 (flux) 3/18 22.2
2 yrs flux 6/20 22
1/21-23

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Larkspur
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Re: The Blessings of Simplicity

Post by Larkspur » Tue Jul 07, 2020 6:01 pm

Hey Kathleen-- I thought of you as I took my walk this morning! I decided it's ok to drive somewhere new as I have lived in my neighborhood for 14 years and it is just not that exciting to me anymore. I put on a podcast and the time went very pleasantly. I hear you on deciding what you can control and going with that. As someone said, "weight loss is an ugly science," because it doesn't always yield the results it should.

Kathleen
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Location: Minnesota

Re: The Blessings of Simplicity

Post by Kathleen » Thu Jul 09, 2020 6:23 pm

Hi Larkspur.
I am enjoying the walking. We live in a great area with little traffic and two parks each 1/2 mile from our house. Tom is working from home and had blocked his calendar for lunch so we take Pumpkin with us. Since I started on June 21, I have logged just over 40 miles. I am trying to build up a buffer for days when it doesn’t work our for me to walk. It is a feeling of accomplishment especially since I plan to increase weekly mileage over time. Trying to lose weight is just so depressing.
Kathleen

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