Tuesday 22 October 2013

Sixty Pounds Of Blubber ... Vanished With ADF

Where has it gone? It's most peculiar losing a lot of weight, I've mentioned before about feeling like I'm suspended on wires while I'm walking and that feeling is even stronger now. I walk effortlessly everywhere I go ... and I thought the tremendous effort I used to put into heaving myself from a-b was middle age catching up with me - I was wrong.

Righto ... the last time I updated my ADF bloggy bits, I'd lost 56lbs (I think) and I was fasting for longer - missing breakfast - I gave that daft idea up shortly after that post (back to bikkies in bed with my coffee on an up day, yum), because I knew I wasn't eating enough. And if lunch was particularly late on my 'eating' days for any reason - Tuesday's in particular (clothes shopping in Newark) - then I was as high as a kite and talking ten to the dozen ... and them that know best tell us that we'll be weak from hunger! Yeah, right.

A few weeks back I'd let my hair down a little when my friend came to stay. I took the whole week off. I prepared in advance for my likely indiscretions by having two sets of double down days the week before she came (naughty but heroic) and then I gained 3lbs while she was here. So I did the same the week after - with two sets of double down days - and lost 4lbs ... happy, happy.

A week later my sister - the bossy one - said she thought I'd done really well, they were proud of me, but I'd lost enough weight now. I didn't need telling twice, I decided to try maintenance with 700-800 calories on my down days. If I gained then I could soon drop back to 400-500 and if I lost - yippee!

Then last week my other sister came to stay - ooer missus - I did NOT prepare the week before having started maintenance and feeling pretty smug with myself after losing 60lbs - wadda-mistaka-to-maka - I had a whole week of eating and drinking exactly what I liked ... and this involved some heavy duty home baked stuff (mince pies, apple cake, sweet potato and butternut squash pie) that I'd done in my attempts to fatten my baby sister up so I'd be the slim one for the first time ever ... I failed by a stone (14lbs), skinny moo!

I'd gained 7lbs by the fourth morning! I almost hid the scales. It didn't go any higher - thankfully - and I'd lost a pound before the end of the week after waddling around the market a couple of times. Obviously the majority of the weight was water and food - she says hopefully - and not fat. This week I'm currently getting rid of it ... only 4lbs left to go. It should be but a bad dream by Saturday ... and a huge blip on my weight loss chart ;)

I just thought I'd mention again - on the off-chance that you'd missed it previously; having just skimmed over my blog ... trust me I know how most people read it, my statcounter tells me how briefly anyone is on a single post - my hero is Dr Michael Mosley, I saw him on the Horizon program 'Eat, Fast and Live Longer' in August last year, and without him I'd still be that tubby blob hiding away from the world in case anyone should point at me and say 'I see fat people' ... I really must stop doing that when I'm out, it's unforgivable, I'm worse than any ex-smoker with smokers.

Anyhooo, he got the idea after a few days with Doctor Krista Varady of the University of Illinois at Chicago (and other scientists in different universities). He couldn't manage a true alternate day fasting regime but liked the idea of just fasting two days a week and it worked amazingly for him and so co-wrote a book - The Fast Diet (bought it, read it).

Krista Varady on the other hand has undertaken several human trials on intermittent fasting BEFORE publishing her own book - 'The Every Other Day Diet' (this is a link to her Facebook page) - due to come out January next year.

So Krista - thanks. You are my heroine - even though you have cost me a small fortune in new clothes :D 

And we're not just talking weight loss here, but a whole host of health benefits - from reduced risk of diabetes, heart disease, strokes, some cancers, a later onset of Alzheimers disease, to mention but a few. 

And after me being awake - on a very empty stomach - all last night arguing with my cat over whether or not she was going out, my brain must have grown enormously ... no? I wouldn't be too sure, apparently being hungry has an amazing affect on the brain ... and because I was so bright and alert with oodles of new braincells, this morning after approximately 100 minutes sleep, I searched the t'Interweb (OK, Facebook mostly) for any news that could annoy me - just so I could have a good old moan - it was sooooooo satisfying ...