Fasting may be the least appropriately named thing in existence. There is nothing, I say nothing, fast ... about fasting. To awaken at 5 AM and know that your first meal will be around 3 PM ... if you're looking for a way to slow down time ... that's it.
My best solution is to stay busy, stay focused on something other than food, and drink some unsweetened Earl Grey tea in the interim.
A couple of weeks ago, I wrote a blog post ranting about my issues with food and how I was practicing intermittent fasting, unfortunately augmented by too much fast food. I got some interesting comments on gab.com about that issue.
The rant continues.
As kids, we are reminded to clean our plates, and that there are starving children in China, or Africa, or somewhere. We are reminded how terrible it is to be hungry. We tend to begin to believe everything we’ve been told since childhood about hunger.
We learn that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. That may be true, but, for adults, breakfast can happen in the morning, or much later; it can be your first meal of three, with lots of snacks in between to keep your energy up; or it can be your first meal of two; or it can be your only meal.
Too many of us harbor this false subconscious impression that hunger is dangerous, that if we miss a meal we might get sick, or pass out, or even die. But for most of us, if we are healthy, that’s not true. We can go without food for a long time, even days. Occasional fasting is a healthy practice. If we are patient, our bodies will adjust. And eventually, eating three meals a day with snacks in between will seem foolish, and unhealthy.
Does knowing all that make it easier on me? Not really. But it ain't over. It ain't ever over. I am still too heavy by around 16 pounds, and I'm still trying to lose that weight. I am still practicing intermittent fasting. I am still practicing gorging myself with fast food from time to time.
Do I have to take all the blame for my lack of willpower? No, I don’t. In fact, I blame it on the Covid shutdowns and all the scare tactics that were forced upon us, some that are still forced upon us. Turning to comfort foods, in my case mostly fast foods, is my weakness. And I’ve let that weakness rule over me ever since Covid-19 became a part of everyday life. But I must accept the fact that being able to blame my weight problems on a particular thing does not help me lose weight, nor make me healthy. No matter the reason it happened, it’s my body, my health, and my responsibility to do something about it.
I hope you’ll forgive my occasional sarcasm or attempts at humor as I deal with this issue. Right now, it’s around 1:30 PM, with another hour or so before I begin preparing my first meal of the day, my breakfast. I’m just trying to keep my mind busy while that time elapses.
On a serious note, I have come to believe, in fact I feel certain, that my difficulty with comfort foods, especially fast food, is not about hunger. It's about habit. It's about urges. Similar to the alcoholic desperate for the next drink, there is something inside me that desperately wants to be served, wants to be relieved. It's easier to succumb to when I'm hungry, or when I'm angry, or when I'm anxious. But it's always there, and will be until I break the habit, waiting for an excuse, any excuse.
By the way, I just noticed that I feel quite good right this minute. Perhaps my hunger is causing me to hallucinate. (Is that a pink elephant outside my window?)
To make this weight-loss process a little easier, I have established something to look forward to, beyond being healthier, looking better, feeling better. Eventually, I would like to have a new experience and buy some made-to-measure clothes; a nice pair of pants, a nice dress shirt, a nice sports coat, all clothing that would fit a body weighing 185 pounds, a body which I don't currently have. When I have it (the 185-pound body), I will buy it (the pants, the shirt, the sports coat).
During the week of posting my earlier blog article, I did quite well. I faithfully used intermittent fasting all week long, along with the minor reduction in calories. On three or four days I tried to shrink my eight hour two-meal food window down to OMAD, One Meal a Day. I did not make it quite that far, but I did manage to shrink my food window down to between two and three hours a few times that week.
I weigh myself every Monday morning, except when things are bad and I'm unfocused about health or my weight. On the Monday following that first full week of intermittent fasting and no fast food, I lost 3 1/2 pounds. Pretty good for me. And it wasn't all that difficult; it wasn't exactly easy, but I managed it.
On the following week, in other words … last week, I had a medical appointment. As a matter of course, I always allow a cheat day for medical appointments. I still practiced intermittent fasting, but my breakfast on that day was fast food, and enough for two people.
After a cheat day I am always tempted to cheat again. I have to remind myself a few times that today is not a cheat day. I did okay until Saturday. Saturday was not a good day for me. I will spare you the details. Nothing serious, just very annoying. In fact, I don't remember the details now; I just remember being very annoyed.
And so I declared Saturday to be a cheat day also, not officially, just in my mind, not in my conscious mind, but in my subconscious mind where I don't have to justify anything. One minute I am being true to my diet, the next minute I'm feasting on a very large order from Panera Bread; some sort of sorcery must have been involved.
I weighed myself Monday morning. I had gained half a pound. That's half a pound I'll have to lose again, a process I have repeated countless times.
At this point, I can project that I will have lost all the weight I want to lose sometime within the next three or four months, or never, whichever comes first.
(The logic of that last sentence suggests it’s time to stop for breakfast.)