Food and mood

Well I have to report that my IF experiment didn't go too well. If anything, it has fuelled my food anxieties and started pushing me backwards into the realm of ana. So here I am, over 30 days later struggling to regain sanity. It didn't help me reach my goals and improve my health, it made me obsess all over again.

The whole point of this blog was to prove that I'm bigger than this, I can let go of all my food fears and reach a place where I'm happy with who I am and well enough to deal with life's hurdles, not go diving for cover in the safety of an eating disorder!

So I've taken positive steps towards a complete about-face. I've been seeing my naturopath and she's got me on B12, 5-HTP, cod liver oil, chromium, glutamine, zinc and magnesium to help with my anxiety, insomnia and depression which seem to be working... thank goodness. I feel like I'm constantly popping pills! But I'll do anything to feel better. She's also got me on a muscle building diet (so I can lose fat and tone up easier) eating 3 meals a day plus snacks to help me regulate my hormones, which will help my anxieties and moods. NO SUGAR (arrrgh it's killing me), no grains or alcohol for the time being... at least until I start sleeping and feeling better. Here's a sample of my daily diet mostly protein and veggies:

Brekky: 2 whole eggs (scrambled) and tomato or eggplant
Snack: Handful of nuts
Lunch: Fish and big salad
Snack: Handful of nuts
Dinner: A Protein and steamed or stir-fried veggies
Dessert: Baked apple with natural yogurt or cream

I was VERY SURPRISED I haven't gained eating this way and it's triple the calories I was eating! At first it felt like a lot of food but I'm getting used to eating more, I'm trying so hard not to be negative about food and weight. I've stopped weighing myself because my naturopath does body fat analysis with a special machine, so as long as I see muscle mass go up and fat mass go down, I'll be happy. At the moment I'm 22% fat which is under optimal by 2kgs, but the worst part is I'm under on muscle mass by 4kgs!!! Gotta fix that or I'll end up weak, sick and with osteoporosis!

My next visit is in a couple of weeks so I'll fill you in on how things go, I'm really trying hard not to stress out about this, treating myself gently. I'm barely able to just get through each day right now! I still want to lose weight but I can't risk my health anymore. I'm hoping I can reach my goals in a wholesome way. As long as I get somewhere close to my weight when I was 20 (around 56kg), even if I never reach my goal weight, I want to be able to accept myself the way I am.

That's only about 7kg total, quite doable. If things don't change soon though, I'll go crazy! It's a fat loss diet I'm on, that has worked for hundreds of people of all ages, so I'm confident if I keep with it SOMETHING will change. I hate being ruled by food and obsessing about every single thing that goes in my mouth. I hate having a one track mind, like there's nothing else in the world to think about! I'm not creative, I'm bitchy, I'm anxious, depressed, an emotional wreck that can't cope with life... that is NOT ME!

So, fingers crossed... hope everyone out there is doing better than me and achieving their health and fitness goals. If you have any advice or encouragement it would be much appreciated.

IF Challenge Day 2

Oh yeah! How great do I feel today?

I decided to do 15 hour daily fasts during the week with the weekends off. So that means daily dinner Mon - Fri, with 'up' or high calorie days on the weekend. Got and hour walk in today and yesterday.

Dinner is Swordfish, salad, avocado, raspberries and yoghurt. Mmmm.

Starting to think this is a very achievable goal.

Intermittent Fasting

There's been a lot of talk about Intermittent Fasting.

In a nutshell you just alternate eating days. The plan combines the benefits of fasting (better insulin response, detoxifying waste tissues and metabolising fat) with a Paleo-style eating plan. Check here for IF and here for the Paleo low down.

I'll be doing a 30 day challenge over at The IF Life, and posting my progress here. I've let my nutrition go of late and am going to snap back into my old healthy habits. I could also use a kick in the pants to get my exercise happening more regularly. I'm using this month to refresh and refocus.

Here are my goals for the 30 days.
1. Lose a few kilograms and gain some muscle tone back
2. Walk an hour each day and do a weights session twice a week
3. Treat my body with respect and give it HQ nutrition
4. Increase my cardio fitness to the point where I can easily run 2kms at full speed (not a big deal I know, but huge for me! I'm strong, but unfit.)
5. Feel more energised!

There seems to be a number of different intermittent fasting regimens that work well. I'll be setting up my cutoff time at 7pm. On the day I start, I'll eat until 7pm, then fast until 7pm the next day. On the next day I'll eat supper right after 7pm and breakfast and lunch (and a few snacks) the next day, until 7pm when I start fasting again.

The advantage of this regimen is that I'll be able to eat every day. One day I'll eat supper–the next day breakfast and lunch. On no days will I abstain entirely from food. This plan looks like it will work the best for me.

The method may seem a bit confusing at first. To summarize:

Day 1: eat bf & lunch (eat before 7pm)
Day 2: eat dinner (start eating after 7pm)
Day 3: eat bf & lunch (eat before 7pm)
Day 4: just like day 2... & repeat....

So basically it goes like this - / dinner-lunch-breakfast / fast / dinner-lunch-breakfast / fast /
Simple.

I've taken some before snaps to help keep me motivated and I will post them here when I complete the challenge.If anyone wants to join me, feel free to comment and I'll buddy up with you!