No hunger?

Okay, even though I've been relatively skinny my whole life, I've always had a problem with hunger. At 5'10", I can gain a lot more weight than many of my female friends without really showing it (except maybe a little bit in my face, breasts, and of course tummy), but I've never topped 150 lbs*. However, I've always been the sort of person who's hungry, who can squeeze a little bite of something in at nearly any given time, regardless of whether or not I SHOULD eat then. In a weird way, I've conditioned myself to be proud of my appetite, as in, "Oh, I'm not like those self-hating girls who never eat - I'll eat [almost**] anything anytime, 'cause I'm HUNGRY!" And I'm definitely not self-hating - I know I'm smart and good looking, and furthermore I can easily see the intelligence and beauty in my fellow human beings (self-hatred breeds hatred of others, in my opinion). But since forcing myself to do IF, and gradually reducing my eating window, I've noticed that my hunger has almost gone. Like, that hunger for breakfast in the morning? GONE. The itch to bite a little healthy snack before lunch? GONE. I just make myself another cup of coffee or tea (herbal or white - I can't do green or black on an empty stomach), and wait until the designated time, when my tummy's ACTUALLY grumbling and ready to go (3 PM this week). It's really freeing, because that little mental hunger would usually make me whiny or grumpy until it was satiated - and I usually still "needed" another snack an hour later anyway. Also, after I do eat a meal now, I really don't get hungry an hour or so after I've eaten (though some meals I might want a little bite of fair-trade dark chocolate to tide me off as "dessert" - but I no longer need it at 11:30 right as I'm about to go to bed). It's very nice that something so frustrating is gone while I'm doing IF!


*I'm pretty sure of this, though I haven't ever owned a scale in my life. The last time I weighed myself was when I was rowing 6 hours a week last year and biking 2-3 hours (I looked more lean & muscular then than I did in college, when I was probably 150 or so) and I weighed 133 on the rowing club scale. I was as low as 125 in high school, but back then I had a tummy and no butt from not working out, so I definitely look a lot better now (flat butts need just need a little toning!).

**I suppose I need to talk further about my personal food restrictions, because there are certain foods I do say "never" to, and other foods that truly fit the "almost never" mold. There are also things that I try to limit, but usually end up consuming in something or other at least once a week. The "nevers" are trans fats and artificial sweeteners (for obvious health reasons on the first, donuts and McDonald's fries are out, and as far as the second is concerned, I get headaches often and there's no place for aspartame in my life). The "almost nevers" are cookies, cakes, and baked goods with lots of refined sugar and white flour - while I have a taste for sweets, I really don't ever eat these more than twice a month and instead concentrate on snacks with natural sweeteners (fruit, raw honey & stevia are my favorites, as well as dark chocolate made with unrefined cane sugar in small amounts). Limits include alcohol - I really don't drink more than once a week, and only drink a glass of wine or unpasteurized beer (we have a bar that features homemade brews in town). I also try to limit white bread products like pizza and bagels, and have been much better at this since starting Fast 5. I never really buy bread for myself anyway, and while I'm not gluten-free, I have noticed some improvement in my health since concentrating more on eating gluten-free grains, legumes and nuts when I need whatever protein and carbs bread products provide (quinoa porridge with cinnamon & raw honey is a real favorite!). I do eat lots of veggies, meats (though I try to buy grassfed, organic and local, I definitely need my beef!), seafood (especially salmon & oysters), fats (butter, coconut oil, olive, flax and CLO (cod liver oil)), hella organic eggs and some dairy, though I try to limit the dairy to butter and kefir only, with a little raw goat's milk and raw cheese on occasion.

An IF-free weekend, and ideas for IF scheduling

Well, having had a non-IF weekend, I can come back and report on Friday being IF at least. The good news is that I didn't have the "low blood sugar" headaches at all Friday AM and was able to make it without eating to 1:30 PM, when I grabbed lunch with a friend. I ate dinner that night and didn't stop eating until 11 PM. Then I decided to let things go lax and have a weekend off, enjoying gelato at midnight Saturday on the dock with my boyfriend (as a bonus, it was quite romantic!) and a barbecue party Sunday night. I meant to cut myself off at 10 PM Sunday in order to get used to that as my cutoff time, but I ended up still taking little bites at 11:50 Pm while we were cleaning up from the party! Oh well. Truthfully, if I can train my body to respond to fasting (which so far it's done very well with learning to skip my first meal), since I'm practicing IF for life-extension benefits and not as a means of losing weight, there's no need to practice it on the weekends. Looking at different versions of IF, I think I've figured out a schedule of mostly 19-hr fasting days, with then Saturday's on or off as desired. Then as a rule I'll do Saturday night-Sunday morning-Sunday afternoon having all three meals in that order dinner-breakfast-lunch, cut my eating window short at 5 (maybe with a small supplement snack at 4 PM) and then going 24 hours before starting to eat again at 5 on Monday. I gotta say, having a big fancy breakfast once a week sounds really nice. I love lots of classic breakfast foods: homemade porridge, lox and bagels, crepes with Nutella and bananas, omelets and sausages and scrambled eggs, oh my! Going all out on breakfast can be really fun, whether it's done at home or a fancy brunch place, but there's no reason to do it more than once a week. Plus this way, if my body adapts, I'll enjoy the benefits of an extra long 24 hr fast, which in all the documentation of IF in rodents is demonstrated to be the most beneficial - one day of eating, with at least one day's rest in between.

The nicest thing about deciding to try IF is that since I'm doing this to maintain health, I can ease in as slowly as I like - if it takes me more than a week to move to the 5-10 window, that's really no big deal. I'm not in any rush to lose weight or unhappy with the way I look, so there's nothing really to get me down about taking my time and having my body adjust to new eating patterns. I'm also really excited by all the extra time I'll be having. Already I've taken advantage of it by upping my morning yoga workout from 15 minutes to 30. If I can skip lunch too then I'll take that time to go for a jog, too - or maybe just respond to personal emails and update this blog with more food-info. At home I can get more cleaning and errands done (dry cleaning and shoe repair, oy!), work on art and craft projects I've been dreaming about, and organize my digital photos and my Flickr account. Or just take a deep breath and meditate.... COOL BEANS.

First attempts at the Fast-5

Well, I decided to start the Fast-5 program today. Not for weight-loss reasons (I've just reached my mid-twenties and even though I haven't been working out this year as I was last year, I'm still very much in my "lean" region weight-wise), but because of the reputed health benefits and extended longevity long-term. Yeah, that's right, I want to try and compete with the calorie-restriction people! I briefly flirted with calorie restriction this spring, but really wasn't able to pull through - life just seems to throw too many food options at me, and ever since giving up vegetarianism my motto when it comes to food has been "never say never"! It seems a lot easier to restrict diet to a time-window than to restrict to ONLY very nutritious, low-calorie foods - and since I don't really agree with the USDA Recommended Daily Allowance rules and their ideas of "healthy" foods, which is what most CRONies seem to go by, I've decided it's better to forge my own path than trying to count (and cut) calories through the day. Methinks it will be much easier to say to myself "there's a time for everything" than to just cut every food out, ever. And that totally doesn't contradict "never say never," right? It's not as if I don't already consume a healthy diet, albeit with many fermented/raw foods and a Weston A. Price Recommended Daily Allowance of Cod Liver Oil. Furthermore, if intermittent fasting ends up working for me, I figure it will be easier to ignore an unhealthy freebie if it's not present in my "time zone" - if there's still anything left when that time presents itself, I'll help myself then.

On to the Fast-5! So far today I've noticed a surprising amount of spaciness from myself pre-"break-fast", and have had a very mild "low-blood sugar" headache which, alas, hasn't gone away with my consumption of food at noon (I'm easing in, as per the plan's guidelines, by working towards feeling comfortable with eating at noon before gradually moving my eating window to the narrower 4-9 or 5-10 range). Other than that, maybe a little grumbling in the tummy after 11 AM, but nothing serious. The spaciness is really bizzare, though. I actually left my wallet on top of my car this morning right after filling up for gas! Luckily the stranger who picked it up found my phone number inside and called me to come retrieve it, instead of maxing out my credit cards and stealing my identity. Odd, because I never really eat that much breakfast, just a soft-boiled egg every morning and then maybe a tiny snack of dark chocolate, a sip of kefir, or a bite of raw cheese before noon. Maybe a little coffee with Stevia in it if I'm really sleepy, but nothing above 150 calories. But that does seem to make the difference for me, I guess...we'll see soon enough if this Fast-5 has a chance to really work!