It’s a new year, and there are many “New Year/New Me” resolutions flying around. I haven’t had a resolution in a while (see my quitting smoking post) due to the fact that they usually fail when you do not know the real reason your doing it and forced a timeline in to fit it into the New Year week. If it’s something you really want to do, you would do it anyway, not because of a new year rolling in.

Seriously, has anyone ever succeeded in keeping a New Years resolution?

Anyway, my reasoning for starting the intermittent fasting (IF), 16/8 specifically, is that my bootcamp I have been a part of for over a year now has a new challenge going on. A team challenge where a bunch of people join a team (side note; go team ThinItIoWinit!) and try to reach a common goal. They will be tracking the teams by average weight loss for 12 weeks. I do not need to lose weight, nor does the rest of my team; hence the name, but I do want to tone and be healthier.

My uncle is a trainer for a big gym in NYC, and has mentioned the 16/8 to me many times in the past. It basically re-balances your metabolism. Somewhere along the line I got into a habit of eating much more during the day than I need to. I replaced the cigarette addiction with a food addiction. I never used to be a breakfast person, but then I heard that breakfast is important for fuel source, etc… For some it may be, but for me it added to my caloric intake, and really made me feel more sluggish during the morning. I am not good at following a diet, or special meal prep plans as others are, and I actually gained weight when adding protein shakes and bars to my daily meals (the every 3 hour plan).

So this is an attempt for me to find a way to stay fit, be active, and still enjoy the foods I like while toning. My weigh in on last Friday 1/4 was 126.6. Next weigh in is Monday 1/14 and I am going to guess I will have lost 1 lb so far. I will update as the weigh in’s come.

Week 1 Intermittent fasting;

Monday 1/7 Went to the morning bootcamp class – I made a conscious decision to understand only I can control my actions and excuses were just that, excuses. I went to Dunkin’ Donuts as usual in my morning routine, but I replaced my hot coffee with extra cream and sugar drastically with green harmony leaf tea with extra lemon. I felt a little shaky without the sugar or fats, but I made it through. 7pm-11am no food- only water and green tea.

Tuesday 1/8 – Today was worse. I was fine during the first hour or so, but I started to feel very hungry and my stomach was burning. I assume it was shrinking, possibly “eating itself” I say. We had sandwiches for lunch from work, turkey cheese on a roll for lunch.

I had eaten a little later because my dinner wasn’t done by 6pm (my eating end time goal) so I ate until 7pm instead.

Wednesday 1/9 Went to the morning bootcamp class – This was probably the hardest day yet for fasting. I woke up hungry, and was even telling myself “get a coffee light and sweet, you’ll be fine it’s only a coffee” but I faught it and got a green tea with ZERO sugar and only a fresh lemon. As the morning progressed, the hunger was worse, I felt nauseas but after the first few hours it got a little better. I was in a rush to eat my cheddar bagel twist right at 10am, I ate a sandwich witht turkey and cheese for lunch and leftover corned beef and cabbage for dinner. It was a really hectic evening after work and I was running around until 9pm at night so I am sure I burned my dinner off quickly.

Thurday 1/10 – I am much more lenient on the food addiction today, I can tell already. I feel much better in general, my stomach isn’t burning as much although growling a bit. I think it shrunk already actually in just 4 short fasting days. I haven’t ate since 630pm last night and I am still going strong at 11am. It actually reminds me just of quitting smoking cold turkey. Day 1, 2, and 3 were the hardest and then it got easier as the days went on and the habit changed. We will see.

Friday 1/11 – This day went by so fast in the morning before I knew it, it was lunch time! I did not eat too healthy today. I got a sandwich with breaded chicken and peppers. Stopping eating at 7pm on a weekend was really hard, but I did it!

The weekend was the hardest. Saturday I had to work 6am-8pm away from home, so it wasn’t too bad, but I did sneak in my light and sweet coffee a half hour early during my drive to Philly. Sunday… well it was hard but I stuck to my guns and did it.

I am not going to update daily for 12 weeks, but I’ll update as I get my weigh ins and provide some details on what happened.

Monday 1/14/19 first weigh in 6am – I am down 1.8lbs (2 probably really but I had my heart monitoring belt on). The week prior was really tough, but I did not eat super healthy which is key. I was able to eat WHAT I want, just not WHEN I wanted. The number one thing I cut out as my morning coffee with milk and sugar. I replaced it with green tea with lemon instead.