G'day Folks

[Cookie101]

Sooo, I heard about IF a while ago , just in passing but I've become properly aware of it this week. This time, two things occurred to me. I'm never hungry when I eat, and there is absolutely no way that our ancestors before 'civilisation' we're eating three meals everyday so IF is probably the more natural state of being. I had hoped to get the chance to make a plan before I start but ended up being busy and unable to do any research. I was still determined to start this morning as I have two days before being back at work to see how it goes and make a plan but I really need help! All I know is I should drink loads of water, when I choose to break the fast, I should eat slowly and avoid rubbish. I should stick to my calories which I still need to work out. I have plenty of jobs to do today so I can easily distract myself. I'm vegan and also have a gluten allergy so I tend to prepare food from scratch. Stirfry's, bean chilli, tofu, etc. I can easily pack away a lot of food when I eat which is probably why I'm so overweight. I wonder whether my body has been trying to tell me to try this for a while?

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Hi Cookie101 good luck with your fasting, you're so right that we develop bad eating habits and tend to eat habitually hence the weight gain spiral.

Fasting can help change our relationship with food so we eat when we are really hungry and don't want to over eat.

So good luck with your fast we'll be cheering you on just take it steady. 😊

[S11m Volunteer 70lb IF20]

Hi, Cookie101 , welcome.

If you "slim smart" weight loss is not so hard! It is not all about motivation and masochism.

I can take time to transition into (Intermittent) Fasting.

Avoiding "junk food" helps.

Some do count calories - but many of us find that it is not necessary.

Keeping busy helps prevent boredom - which can result in eating.

I hope you will find most of the answers in the FAQ:

healthunlocked.com/fasting-...

[Subtle_badger 16Kg IF 72hrs]

There are levels to intermittent fasting. The easiest is 12:12. That's not eating for 12 hours after you finish your dinner. It's likely you are doing something close to that already. If not, start with that. Don't have breakfast for a week until at least 12 hours have pssed.

If you are already close or at 12:12, then the next level is 16:8, aka skipping breakfast (or dinner, but breakfast is much easier for me). Get up, have a cup of coffee or tea with a little milk or cream if you must, but no food until 16 hours since you last ate, eg if you finished dinner at 8pm (and stopped snacking!) then you can break your fast at midday.

That's a pretty good one to do for a week, to let your body and mind adjust to fasting. Note, your body may rebel - I got so hangry when I started I cried - so I started taking high fat snacks (eggs or cheese - ugh, you're vegan....olives, nuts, avocado) in case I needed to eat something. Fat technically breaks your fast, but doesn't start your insulin response, so is better. I have already stopped needing to do this after a few weeks.

Once you have played with 16:8 for a while, then you can try other things. 18:6, 20:4, OMAD (one meal a day), 24 hour fasting (one meal a day, but you finish that meal at 6pm one day, and don't have the next until after 6pm the next), 36 hours (fasting from dinner on day 1 until breakfast on day 3), alternate days, 5:2 (fasting or IF 2 days a week), or longer fasts. There are lots of options.

Fasting is easier on low carb (says everyone) so that's more of a challenge if you are vegan. However, you may not find it so difficult. I am able to pick up fasting the day after a high carb meal without it feeling any harder.

I've only been IF since December, so I have a lot to learn.

[Cookie101]

Thank you all for the tips and support. I had intended to reply to each of you, unfortunately there has been a bit of a disaster today and I've only now had the chance to get back to you. In terms of fasting, I drank water and black tea and I had only a few minor hunger pants and a bit of an empty feeling so I decided to do the 16:8. About the time I was thinking about preparing my first meal, my kitchen got severely flooded. My Dad replaced some of the plumbing, however when it flooded a second time, we realised that it was going to take far more work and a professional plumber. At the moment, I have no shower, no flushing toilets and no way to wash my vegetables. I was going to have a vegetable stir fry with rice noodles, I had a bowl of cereal and a banana instead. Dinner was some frozen wedges and a vegan, patti type thing which I was able to throw in the oven. Definitely not the way I usually eat and I'm not feeling great now.

I'll probably still fast again tomorrow, purely to save on plate washing but I won't be forcing it. I should have a chance to go to the shops tomorrow and get some healthier and premade fruit and veg which will help till I have water again. Not quite how I expected to start but at least I know, that when I'm eating healthy, the fasting side of it is not terrible or difficult.

[Subtle_badger 16Kg IF 72hrs in reply to Cookie101]

Kudos for not stress eating.

I do think fat helps. Maybe buy some avocados, nuts, olives, olive oil, coconut, coconut milk etc while you are out.

[Cookie101 in reply to Subtle_badger]

Actually if I think about it, I kind of did stress eat. I did have a number of the things you suggested but I have an anxiety disorder and while I didn't just gorge on everything in sight, I did reach for the habitual foods instead of things that probably would have at least partially substituted for healthier options, For example toast and benefits with cheese instead of cereal which would have lowered my sugar intake. As a result, I had a rotten night sleep with only a few hours. As I said, I'll still try and wait for my window but I think I'll make an exception this morning and add some juice to my remaining bit of water to make it go further. At least that will help me keep my fluids up for this morning. My Dad is going to try one more thing this morning to fix the water situation and if that doesn't happen, it will be a shower at the gym and a trip to the shops.

[Subtle_badger 16Kg IF 72hrs in reply to Cookie101]

Try to avoid juice, it's pure sugar and will kick off insulin production. Lots of people put cream in a coffee. You could try coconut oil in coffee, but that sounds terrible to me.

[Cookie101 in reply to Subtle_badger]

Normally I wouldn't be reaching for the juice. I was happy with just my water and tea yesterday but with no water until it gets fixed, I need to work with what I have. I'm working towards this being a long term goal. At the moment, I probably have few changes to my internal chemistry but I don't do well without water. At least if I mix the juice with my water it will help me keep up that intake of liquid until either I can head out to the shops, or have running water again. Once it's all back to normal, I can then get back into a proper routine. If I feel like crap now, I'll find it harder to continue in the future.

[Subtle_badger 16Kg IF 72hrs in reply to Cookie101]

Yes, juice is better than dehydration.

I think.

[Cookie101 in reply to Subtle_badger]

And I don't see the attraction to adding any kind of fat/cream to my tea. No Thank you indeed!

[Subtle_badger 16Kg IF 72hrs in reply to Cookie101]

God yes, I don't get it either, but others swear by it.

[Subtle_badger 16Kg IF 72hrs]

How is it going? Both plumbing and fasting?

[Cookie101 in reply to Subtle_badger]

G'day Subtle Badger, plumbing appears to be all fixed so just slowly putting the kitchen back together. Fasting is also going well. Back at work yesterday and didn't have any problems. Tell you what, not drinking enough on the weekend because of the plumbing issues, made a huge difference! Yesterday I managed to drink so much more and felt so much better!

Also managed to eat better, made some bean chilli on a jacket potato with lettuce, avocado, vegan butter and cheese. First time since I started that I felt really comfortably full and satiated. This coming weekend, provided my home doesn't decide give us some other surprise, I'll work at planning some meals based around what I'm learning this week. For example, I think I need to make a larger lunch as I don't have any snacking time when I'm at work so I should make sure I'm satiated before I get back to my desk.