Me And Alternate-Day Fasting ... Three Weeks On

Well, we've finally arrived home and naturally one of the first things I did was stand on the bathroom scales. There is an art to doing this correctly that every overweight person knows ... You have to lean to the left and as back as far as possible without actually falling off the scales. This will reduce your weight by at least 3 ounces.

My ancient bathroom scales decided not to play along, first they needed adjusting up by 4lb to reach 0. I was disgusted with the result until I stepped off them and saw that they were still stuck on 7lb. They were definitely going through the window (well they're in the bin). I went over to Asda to stock up on tins of chopped tomatoes - a lifesaver on the down days - plus other essentials and some really cheap scales.

They were much better! Whether or not they're telling the actual truth, they'll do for me. Result ... a total of 14lb loss over four weeks (this includes the time spent on the two cereals a day diet which did nothing but give me stomach cramps).

I had guessed roughly how much weight I'd lost, and I know that naturally as with every diet you come across, some of it was bound to be muscle. I tried my very best to make sure the fat/muscle ratio was as good as could be, by frequently exercising using a Reebok side stepper with resistance bands.

Only three weeks in and I've lost 2" from my waist and hips, and 1" from my boobs - I say boobs but we all know I mean my back because they haven't budged by so much as a millimetre (as per usual). Before we came home ALL our tin hut neighbours were saying they could tell I was losing weight. In fact as I write this, one of my neighbours will be starting the same diet as she feels over-chunky around her midriff. She was impressed with my obvious weight loss and the ease with which I achieved it.

I fully expect over the next and subsequent months to lose less and less weight. This is normal and I've been on enough diets to know this, also as my basal metabolic rate reduces, so will the calories needed to actually keep losing weight on the down days. I'm at 500 calories now but can foresee that I will most likely need to drop to 400 in the near future. The up days will also need a reduction but this will be easy as I'm soon full.

So far the diet has been sheer pleasure, obviously I'm getting a buzz out of losing weight - who wouldn't - but my energy levels have shot through the roof ... I feel like swinging from chandeliers, bouncing off the walls and jumping off of things.

The only down side so far, is that I'm even clumsier than I was before. I've always walked into things, but being marginally lighter means that when I launch myself in any direction, I get there sooner than expected. There are at least five conversations a day with grumpy about door-frames, tables and cupboards, along the lines of 'who put that there?' And twice I've walked into my stepper ... I'm on a very risky route to another broken toe.

I've invested in The Alternate-Day Diet book by Doctor Johnson, it is very interesting albeit far too scientific to hold my attention for any great length of time, so I only read it in short bursts. I told my friend yesterday that I felt WIRED and now I've just read the bit where he used the exact same word to describe how people on the diet feel, hmmm, just like when Asda have kept me awake for two or three consecutive nights.

I did NOT follow the rules about using diet shakes in the first two weeks on down days, why should I? I'm grown up enough to know what I'm eating and well able to count the calories without cheating. Also as I mentioned in my last dieting post, I'm not actually doing this on alternate days but only Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, with other weekdays and whole weekends totally free to eat what I like.

Now here's the weird thing, by the third weekend, all I could think about was wanting Monday to come so I could be in proper control of my eating, which was daft because even on the up days (Tuesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays and Sunday) I am still basically eating healthy food, just with a few added extras.

I actually find the down days easier than the up days, mainly because contrary to popular belief that ALL fat people stuff themselves silly, I don't have a big appetite, nor fortunately do I have a sweet tooth. But I love nuts and cheese - which I've now virtually given up, sigh - and Hovis Seed Sensation under my Lurpak ... and jacket potatoes under my cheese and Lurpak. Then there's the weekly pizza and the fortnightly Indian etc. And we're not even going to mention the Whisky. So with me I'm afraid it was WHAT I ate, rather than how much.

Of course the Doughnut competition didn't help either ... Us and the tin hut neighbours seeing who could buy each other the most jammy doughnuts from Morrisons = one a day each! And not at all bad for someone who doesn't even particularly like them. Now we've all given them up (or so they say).

Last Saturday I had a little apple pie with a minuscule amount of ice-cream on it, and all I could think about was getting on my stepper to negate those specific calories. This is BAD, I'm allowed to eat what I want on up days without the guilt trip, but it's a hard dieting habit to break.

On Sunday I had my usual Jordans Muesli breakfast and because my dinner stretched to two meals (fairly normal), I had approximately 1000 calories all day and didn't want anything more. So now my Sundays will be neither up nor down days, more of an in-between. And since I finished reading the book the same night, I see that I'm perfectly normal in doing exactly this ...

.....

1. Me and Alternate Day Fasting
2. Me and Alternate Day Fasting ... Three Weeks On
3. Five Weeks of Alternate Day Fasting
4. Eight Weeks of Alternate Day Fasting
5. Ten Weeks of Alternate Day Fasting
6. Alternate Day Fasting Three Months On
7. Alternate Day Fasting in Winter
8. Alternate Day Fasting Over Christmas
9. Me and Zumba
10. Saying Goodbye To My Curves 
11. Eight Months Of Alternate Day Fasting And Me
12. Growing Up 
13. A Year Of Alternate Day Fasting 
14. 60 Pounds Of Blubber - Vanished
15. The Perils of Alternate Day Fasting 
16. Mr Grumpy Is Losing It
17. Mr Grumpy Has Lost It
18. Fasting For Maintenance
19. Tweaking Maintenance
20. Weight Gain 
21. Still Maintaining
22. Four Years Of Intermittent Fasting

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