Tag: intermittent fasting

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16 Pounds Lighter

Posted on by NormaWalton
Paddleboarding on the Vermilion River

Menopause hit in May along with six pounds of fat landing on my belly just in time for a big keynote presentation I was giving in Prince Edward Island. The video record of that presentation jumpstarted my commitment to figuring things out. Weight loss, here we come.

Intermittent Fasting Schedule

In March, I wrote a blog about intermittent fasting. I fast for 15 hours per day, typically from about 7 pm until about 10 am the next morning. Critically important, I also started Hormone Replacement Therapy in June, which has been a game changer.

Hormone Replacement Therapy

Finally, I walk between 30 and 120 minutes a day. Oftentimes I bring the dogs. When I am fortunate, I bring a friend or one of my children. About once a week, my eldest daugher and I walk a couple of horses and a donkey. Sudbury has numerous hiking areas, so there are lots of spots to get lost in the woods. There is something good for the soul when you lose yourself in nature while exercising. I love to sweat and push myself, so when I have the luxury of time, I try to walk for at least 90 minutes at a brisk pace. This typically happens on the weekends. I like the quote that sweat is just fat crying. That feeling of sweaty exertion after a work out is a great feeling.

KIVI Park

I am down the six pounds of belly fat along with another 10 pounds that had been hanging around for the past five years. Successful weight loss. It is invigorating to feel slimmer and for my clothes to hang nicer. For the first time, I bought three two-piece bathing suits this summer, and actually wore them. Just to be clear, they are not bikinis. My youngest daughter was kind enough to explain the innovation that is two-piece bathing suits with high bottoms that cover your belly. Before buying them, I broached the topic of how uncomfortable I was with the concept of wearing a two-piece, and one of my friends told me “Seriously. Get over it. At our age, who cares?” She was absolutely right.

Little River Corridor

Intermittent fasting, daily walking and HRT are now ingrained daily habits. Let’s see where these habits take me over the next few years. Hopefully each step will take me into the wilderness, lost in nature, and ultimately finding myself…with 16 less pounds to carry around.

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Intermittent Fasting…Ugh!

Posted on by NormaWalton

My love of food is obvious to anyone who knows me. I always thoroughly enjoy eating out with family and friends. And a meal without dessert is nowhere near as much fun. Unfortunately as I age I cannot eat as much without seeing it land on my middle. I have resumed jogging after decades of avoiding it, upped my walking minutes per day, pushed myself to hike more frequently, incorporated push ups, sit ups, plank and wall sits into my weekly routine, yet still it creeps. So my best friend in Germany suggested intermittent fasting. Ugh!

https://www.atkins.com/how-it-works/blog/the-facts-behind-intermittent-fasting

The theory is that you want your body to utilize fat for fuel rather than the food you have just eaten, and that in doing so, it somehow cleanses your cells and permits you to live longer with less diseases. There have been studies in mice that show less food intake per day lengthens your life span. That reminds me of the fellow who goes to his doctor and asks him how to live a long life. The doctor says to quit smoking, drinking and eating fried food. The man asks if that will prolong his life. The doctor says “it will definitely feel longer.” I was at the optometrist the other day, who is incredibly healthy. He told me that we should stop eating when we feel 80% full because that is the trigger for enough food. Again, ugh!

So I am trying intermittent fasting to determine if it stops the weight creep. There are many ways to go about intermittent fasting. The easiest is 12 hours of fasting and 12 hours of eating. I could do that. The problem is that method apparently doesn’t have the same benefits as a longer fast. So you move to 14 hours of fasting and 10 hours of eating. Again, I could do that. Again, the problem is that method apparently doesn’t have the same benefits as a longer fast. Remember how much I love to eat and you start to see the problem. My girlfriend fasts for 16 hours and eats for 8 hours. I find that very difficult. By the time 16 hours is up, I am starving and focusing almost exclusively on food. The next school of thought is to fast for 24 hours at a time once or twice a week. Now we are just getting crazy!

So I have implemented the Simplify 15/9 plan. 15 hours of fasting and 9 hours of eating. We will see how it goes and whether the fasting plus all the increased physical activity can make the newly arrived belly fat disappear. Studies show that between 45 and 55 years of age, women gain an average of 11 pounds. Once more, ugh!