I am still amazed!

The first photo (yes, that's ME!) was taken Thanksgiving Day 2019. On the following Monday, December 2, 2019, I jumped right in with both feet and did my first 24-hour fast. 

Exactly 6 months later, on June 2, 2020 (second photo) I reached my goal weight!

70 lbs. released...and I plan to never rediscover them!

But getting rid of the weight is not the only victory in this battle for health. There are many other non-scale victories:

    * MANY inches gone...9" off my bust, 12" from my waist, 8" off my hips!

    * Much more energy, don't long for a mid-day nap

    * Mental clarity...God and everyone knows I need more of that!

    * Much fewer aches and pains, which I attribute to reducing inflammation

    * My skin is clearer and softer 

    * Generally just FEELING GREAT!

At 63 years old, I feel healthier than I did 20 years ago. Or maybe even 30!

So...I've been maintaining my weight loss for 6 months now, and find maintenance is harder for me than actually losing the weight. I'm still trying to find the balance, but I do know that I've finally found a way of eating that I can live with for the rest of my life.

In case you're interested in the nitty-gritty, here is my "schedule":

On Mondays and Fridays (generally...I change up the days if my schedule dictates...one of the great things about this way of life is the flexibility to make it fit into MY life!) I eat an early breakfast and then fast 24 hours and eat a later breakfast the following day.

On the other 5 days of the week, I eat all 3 meals with absolutely NO SNACKING in between. Snacking is my downfall as I've been a huge snacker for 60 years...old habits are hard to break! Low carb, medium protein, high fat foods...aiming for ketogenic diet but not quite that strict. Eating clean, natural, unprocessed foods...no potatoes, no pasta, no bread, no sugar. I've done really well on the first two...haven't eaten potato or pasta for the entire year, but I can't say the same for bread and sugar. They are definitely my weaknesses! But I'm doing a lot better controlling those items now than a year ago. Making progress!

No additional exercise...I play tennis once a week and take occasional walks, that's it. I am trying to incorporate more exercise in my routine for my heart health, muscle toning, and general fitness, but exercise does very little in terms of helping you lose weight.

Last thing...I do a longer fast (usually 72 hours) the first week of every month. Sometimes it gets shortened to 48 hours, and once I did 90.5 hours (yes, I'm counting that .5 hour...30 extra minutes of not eating counts after fasting for 3 1/2 days!). But I shoot for 72 hours each month. In fact, just this morning I finished up my 72-hour fast for this month.

So there you have it. Really simple and flexible. It's intimidating at first and yes, when I first began regular fasting I did feel hungry, but I pushed through that and once my body got used to not having food 24/7/365, the brief-but-powerful waves of hunger pangs passed. My body isn't really hungry...it has PLENTY of fuel packed on in the form of fat...but it's lazy and craves the easy fuel of sugar/carbs instead of accessing the fat stores. When God created our bodies, He made them amazingly efficient with the ability to store energy for times when food was not available to our ancestors. Now, at least in our culture, food is readily available all the time and we've gotten in the unhealthy habit of grazing the days away without forcing our body to use any of that stored energy. I've read that every pound of stored fat on our bodies is enough to fuel our bodies for two days. So no, I've never truly been hungry and needing food, at least not physically. Even now that I've gotten thinner, I still have at least enough stored energy on my body to keep me alive for a couple of months.

Feeling proud and happy with what I've learned the past 12 months.

Celebrating my one year fasting-versary.