“The habits you repeat every day largely determine your health, wealth, and happiness.”
James Clear
Quotes To Live By: James Clear
Tag: lifestyle
Intermittent fasting – 12 weeks in
Four days into lockdown in South Africa but as importantly… 12 weeks of Intermittent Fasting done and dusted! I am so excited to have made it this far and even more excited at the results that I am now seeing. Guys, this lifestyle change is worth considering! Don’t believe me? Read on…
The Benefits
Where shall I start…ok, lets start with the one benefit that everyone wants to know about…the weight loss. Yes it is happening and not very fast at all but the I have lost approximately 6kg’s thus far. I seem to have stagnated at this point on the scale or I just need a new scale. (It’s been very inconsistent lately.) I doesn’t really phase me though. What does excite me is that I have lost the weight and I have dropped 2 dress sizes! Yes you read that right! ok, lets call it a dress size and a half because I would hover between and 18 and a 20 and now I fit back into a 16!!! How times change…the first time I ever bought a size 16, I was mortified at how fat I had gotten and now I am thrilled to be wearing that size.
My energy levels are definitely up. I have started running up my stairs now that we are in lockdown and it feels good. I definitely need to exercise more to get my fitness levels going . I have been working from home for 2 weeks now and I suspect that the lack of movement around the office, which is where I would normally get 5000+ steps in, is also slowing down my weight loss. My head is still clear as well which is brilliant. I never want to go back to that foggy head feeling again.
Lastly, and most importantly, I have seen a reduction in my blood glucose levels. I was so excited by today’s reading in particular. I had my lowest reading this morning since 2016 and I was shocked to have my lowest readings after 2 helpings of dessert this evening. I know I shouldn’t have but I couldn’t help myself, my son had made the must delicious apple cake which we had with cream. Besides I had my morning reading to celebrate. 😉 The reading was almost normal. My doctor is going to be pleasantly surprised when I tell him.
The secret?
I am religious about fasting for a minimum of 16 hours every day. I usually start eating at around 11:30 am or 12 am and have my last meal by 7 pm at the latest. I am not as good about watching what I eat but I try not to snack during my eating period and I stick to black coffee these days. I do need to increase my water intake again as well. i have slackened off on that. I don’t really miss eating during that fasting period and, even when I feel hungry, I don’t stress about it because I know that those pangs will subside as quickly as they rose up whether I drink something or not. The real secret is to commit to making the change and to always remember why you made that commitment in the first place. What is that benefit, that life changing benefit, that you are committed to achieving? That is what will make you keep your commitment to yourself. As Simon Sinek says; “Start with Why”. Here’s the other thing to remember, you will only be committed to the change when you are ready to make it. You will know when is that time for you. For me, I have a sense of “it’s now or never” and then I know that it’s time to make the change, I commit to it, the universe sends me who and what I need and then it is a done deal and there is no turning back. I do my part and God does the rest. I don’t believe He is done with me yet! What’s your “commitment” moment?
I hope you are all staying at home and keeping yourselves and your families safe. Let’s do our part to #flattenthecurve
Until next time…#staysafe
Intermittent fasting: 3 weeks in
It’s almost 3 weeks since I started Intermittent Fasting. It’s been an interesting ride this far and I am still going strong. A change in routine last week and a change in weather this week appear to have brought their challenges though.
Last Thursday marked the end of my leave and the beginning of yet another year. Let me just say, it might as well have been a year ago because that’s the way it feels after one week! Mentally I was ready for this or so I thought. I had my 3 words that are to help me shape this year and, well, I walked in the door and immediately got sucked into the usual daily dramas. I was so exhausted at the end of the day but I was thrilled that I stuck to my fasting times and managed to resist the desire to snack as I normally would in the afternoons. My focus now is to ensure that any carbs I consume are low GI and I am quickly learning that some of the foods that I consumed daily do not have the desired effect on my blood sugar especially the “low gi” bread at the sandwich bar at work. So today I took my own lunch. I was so proud of myself but then I snacked on a packet of Lays. 😔 Let me say though that I absolutely enjoyed those chips and somehow my blood sugar was normal afterwards so I refuse to feel guilty about it.
This week has also been cooler. Usually I will eat more on cooler days because I do feel hungry more often so this week has been a challenge on that front. I find that I am hungry by 10am and 12pm just cannot come fast enough. I don’t want to drink too much coffee and have reduced my water consumption a bit because I hate running up and down to the toilet. Today I felt like I was absolutely starving! The plus side was that those first few mouthfuls of lunch were absolutely divine. It was a reminder of how mindlessly I eat all the time. I am really hoping that my body settles into this routine by next week. The hunger pangs can be quite distracting. Today I even heard my tummy growling 🤣. I have lost 1.5kg in total so the going is slow but it’s definitely going in the right direction so I have no regrets. The inflammation comes and goes depending on the types of carbs I eat.
This week also saw me join a new team part time for a few months. I get to spend more time on the things I am really passionate about and it has been so energising in the moment. Of course, being the introvert that I am, I am completely drained when I get home but it I feel good anyway and that’s all I can ask for.
I also received all my study material for this semester on Monday. Oh My Hat! These are the last four subjects that I need to complete to earn my BA degree in psychology and anthropology but boy oh boy, what a combination of subjects that I left for last🤦🏽♀️. So…on top of juggling single motherhood, womanhood, my day job and making an impact in this new team, focusing on my health (and I have a career goal as well), I know also have to add these 4 interesting but time consuming subjects to the mix. I am usually a very lazy student and only do the assignments on the day they are due and “study” for exams the night before. There is no way I will get away with that this semester. My assignments are due on the same day for at least 2 subjects and all my exams are set in the same week. 😭 I will fly through it all I’m sure though. It’s the only way I roll.
Well that’s it from me for now. Hope you have a great start to the year thus far! It’s Chinese New Year on the 25th in case you feel need to start over. To my fellow Rats, this is our destiny year on the Chinese calendar! My Chinese colleague tells me that we should wear red underwear this year to enhance our luck! I don’t know about you but I will be taking advantage of any the Valentine’s sales to boost my red underwear collection for the coming year.😜😁 To my Chinese readers…Happy New Year!
Enjoy the rest of your week! Please like and/or share if you enjoyed my post.
Grounded African 