Selfish Mom

FastDiet Update: A More Reasonable Loss

Mar 18, 2013 Weight Loss

I discovered this morning that I’d lost a pound after my second week on the FastDiet. And while that isn’t as exciting as seeing five pounds come off fast, it’s encouraging in a different way, because it’s a more sustainable loss. I mean, at a pound a week, I’d be at my goal weight this time next year.

I’ve discovered a few things during these two weeks. One, keeping busy on fasting days is key. If I have nothing to do, I fill that time dreaming about food. I guess that’s true whether I’m fasting or not, but it matters even more now.

Two, proximity to food is also important. I work upstairs until I’m able to have my first meal. Being out of the house also works. You’d think that running errands – passing by restaurant after restaurant – would make it tough, but for me it doesn’t. It’s the fresh bread on my counter that tempts me, not the pizza on the corner. I don’t really know why.

Three, the longer I wait to eat on a fasting day, the happier I am. Before I’ve had anything to eat, hunger is just a dull thing in the back of my mind. But once I start eating, it moves right to the front – I start planning my snack and dinner, thinking about how long until I get to eat next. It’s almost 2pm right now and I haven’t eaten yet – it gets easier the later it gets. Once I have “breakfast” – probably right after I post this – I won’t have to wait long for a snack, and then I’ll probably have dinner early, around 6pm. In fact, I’m not quite there yet, but I can totally see why a lot of people on this plan just fast all day and then use all of their calories for a big dinner.

The best part is, I’m now closer to only thinking about this two days a week. For the first week, whenever I was eating, my brain was saying things like “Enjoy this, your next fast day is in two days!” “Enjoy this, your next fast day is tomorrow!” I was obsessing over the fast days even on the other days. I’m pretty much over that now, which makes all of this so much easier. And not having to measure or weigh anything the other five days – after years and years of counting calories – is complete bliss.

Now, to add exercise back. After the Princess Half was over I was eager to get into some non-running exercise, but once I started this fasting thing I decided to wait. I tend to dive into things and overdo them, so I gave myself a couple weeks off from exercise so that I wouldn’t overwhelm myself. But now that I seem to be into this fasting groove, I’m ready to get moving again.

And while I said I was going to leave jogging for a while until I lost a little weight, I just might go for a jog today while my daughter is at dance class. That would be better than sitting in a waiting room full of screaming toddlers, each one eating something. Although, this being Brooklyn, a lot of them have kale chips or Veggie Booty, which does not tempt me in the least. :-)

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Written by Amy Oztan.

Tags: exercise, FastDiet, fasting, Weight Loss