If you know me, you know I am not skinny. I am not even overweight. At this point I am classified in the obese. I have known for a while that I needed to do something to get healthier. The question was what?
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I know lots of people who had great success with Keto, but…I really like my carbs. Short term, I would do ok on Keto, but from previous experience, I knew that it was not a plan I would want to stay on for months. Besides, once the weight was off, then what? Continue eating somewhat low carb forever? Nope.
Calories in, calories out? Nope. Again. Good for a little bit but I hate having to count everything I eat. Same for Weight Watchers. I don’t want to count points all day.
Then, there is exercising.
I have tried so hard to get into exercising, but inconsistent is pretty much the best description of my exercise habits. Maybe someday this will improve.
Since my brain tumor diagnosis, I have read a lot of studies and blogs and watched lots of videos about being healthy as well as how important good gut health is to your overall well-being. So, whatever I did, it had to factor all of that in as well. In addition, something anti-inflammatory would be best. Not to mention, my blood pressure was only under control due to medication. I really want to be off my blood pressure meds.
Since about April, my ankle has been flared up near my Achilles’s tendon making it had to walk, especially first thing in the morning or after I had been off my feet for a while. In addition to stretching and massaging my ankle, I knew that getting the extra weight off of it could do nothing but help.
One day in early July, I came across a Facebook Group called Delay, Don’t Deny: Intermittent Fasting Support. I joined the group and started browsing. All the stories (and there are a LOT of them), were fascinating. The general way that it works is that you do a clean fast for a significant portion of your day, and the remainder of the day, you can eat want you would like. You don’t have to deny yourself anything. You just have to delay eating until your fast is finished.
Now, I am a researcher by nature; I don’t go into anything blind. I started to read up on intermittent fasting and found out some very interesting information.
Intermittent fasting has quite a few valuable health benefits. To name a few:
- You eat for fewer hours out of the day, so you generally consume fewer calories. In addition, short term fasting has been shown to actually improve your metabolism.
- Intermittent fasting changes the function of cells, genes and hormones, Insulin levels drop which facilitates fat burning. Human growth hormone increases which also facilitates fat burning as well as muscle gain. Cellular changes happen which results in cellular repair and removal of waste from cells. Also, autophagy occurs which helps with anti-aging and protection against disease.
- By reducing insulin resistance, intermittent fasting can reduce lower your risk of becoming a type 2 diabetic.
- Intermittent fasting can reduce inflammation in the body. This one is huge for me. After the whole brain tumor crisis I am way more aware of this issue than I ever was before.
- Intermittent fasting may be beneficial to heart health. (Hello, lower blood pressure!!)
- Intermittent fasting is good for your brain. Seriously. I had brain surgery in 2017. I need all the help I can get in this area. Kidding, but not kidding!
All in all, the good things I was reading about intermittent fasting addressed pretty much every concern that I had. I read the book Delay, Don’t Deny by Gin Stephens and it laid out exactly what you needed to do as well as what to expect. I highly recommend reading it if you’d like to learn more!
Click here for more information.
Now. The hard part.
How in the wholly heck did they think I was going to be able to not eat or drink anything except black coffee, water and unsweet, unflavored tea!!!???
I tossed this around for a bit as I contemplated the pros and cons. Basically everything was good, except this one issue. I read some advice from people in the Delay, Don’t Deny Facebook group about how to get started. They recommended starting with a manageable time frame like a 12 hour fast to begin and then slowly work your way up.
From everything I read, the real benefits seem to start with 16 hour fasts. That is the goal.
I decided to just try it. What did I have to lose? Well, weight obviously, but literally not anything bad! July 15th, I began my first fast. Twelve hours was my goal.
Imagine how surprised I was when 12 hours rolled around and I was not starving to death! I extended my fast to 16 hours and I made it with very little trouble.
That was almost a month ago. I will report back on my first months results once I actually complete that month in just a few days. I can give you a quick summary of how that first month has gone.
Have I lost weight? Yep. I have. Have I felt like I was starving? Lol…a few times. But, the majority of the time, I have felt great! Lots of energy. I’m sleeping better. I am less achy and lethargic feeling. The brain fog has lifted.
And added bonus, our grocery bill has gone down too!
