Update after my fasting

I'd like to keep making note of things I notice as I've been paying attention to how certain foods make me feel. Last Friday night I got Domino's pizza and knew it would make me bloated the next day. It was the first I've had pizza in over a month when I normally eat it once a week. Over the weekend I had different foods, but didn't overeat and stuck to only eating in an 8-10 hour window. I picked up about 3 lbs which I believe isn't bad. The only other negative reaction I noticed was yesterday there were cupcakes in the lounge for all of the employees. I took a bite of one and then just ate the top of it with the icing. Not long after, it made my stomach hurt some. Note to self, stay away from cupcakes.

Last thing after all of my experimenting so far that has given me a negative effect, I got chic-fil-a today (not my first time, but my least healthiest choice). I had a coupon for a free original chicken sandwich, so I got it with cheese on a multi-grain roll and I got fries. I noticed not long after that I was extremely tired and had a slight headache. Could've been from the grease or too much to eat or the little bit of mayo I put on it that has been in my drawer. Not sure exactly, but knowing it all made me so tired even not having a soda or sweet tea shows me that that many carbs at once is needing to be on rare occasions.

My weight is back down to what I lost after my fasting and fat burning.
I start my next phase of this experimenting on June 12th and I'm looking forward to learning more about making these changes for life and keeping my sanity while doing it! :)

I will share my measurements in a later post. Sorry you can't see my legs as well in the "after" photos. I took them in a hurry and then never got to re-do them.

Day 17 & 18 & 19

Day 17 (Wednesday)
Day 3 of my 4 hour window eating.
I woke up fine and made it to noon fine. I had a piece of cheese and two hard boiled eggs and I could hardly finish my second egg because I was full! This blew my mind because my last meal, or basically snack, was the day before at 4 pm and only consisted of a couple pieces of cheese! I was feeling good, had great energy and was beyond belief at what was going on.

Afternoon: I took my lunch at close to 3 and didn't eat my salad because I wasn't hungry for it, but my chicken sounded appetizing so I ate only that and again, was fine after. Was that my body telling me I needed protein or am I just not ready for my salad? My stomach started to hurt after I ate and I knew I had to go to the bathroom. Without TMI, it was a good needed bowel gone bad. I think I need to add my greens. I wasn't very hungry to eat at 4, so my last meal then was at 3 pm.

Something that really surprised me.... I didn't even think about the candy dish that day or the piece I put in my desk the day before. Wednesday was definitely my best day in how I felt.

Evening went well and I didn't go to bed exhausted.

Day 18 (Thursday)

I woke up and I decided I was gonna do my workout this morning. I started late, but I only ended up doing about 4 strength workouts. I felt tired, but I love that I can feel my waist now when I do ab moves. I am feeling so good about all of this and I even had to take a photo to show my challengers my progress. I know ketosis and intermittent fasting are playing a part in this, but I think the bigger deal is dropping the soda and the majority of processed foods and fast foods. I guess I really was eating more than I thought which has slowed my progress in the past.

Afternoon: I made it to noon fine and only brought one hard boiled egg after yesterday. I also had cheese and my old bay sunflower seeds.

Day 19 (Friday--Last Day 4 hour window)
I woke up okay. My ketones are high and have been at this level since Wednesday morning. I think I was at moderate level on Tuesday. My belly grumbled a little bit this morning a few times. I did feel hungry. I think I know the difference now of being hungry and thinking I'm hungry. I'm hungry when my body feels it. I wanted to eat earlier today and move on with easing back into it today and talked myself out of it. This is my last day. Why stop now? I decided to make my high fat Shakeology with strawberries, and yogurt, and organic whole milk to have as my first meal today. I was craving it last night. I haven't had it for two weeks because I had chosen other foods for my protein intake. I was getting too much protein with all of them together.

Afternoon: I made it to noon for my first meal (my shake, yum!) just fine. I'm not sure why I wanted to quit this morning, I think because it's so close to the end, but I made it all right. There's so much mental behind all of this. What we've been told is good or bad. What's right and what's wrong. It depends on the person.

Final Results:

Day 16

This morning I decided again to not do a workout. (I have forgotten to set my alarm back to 4:30. It's still at 5:30 from the weekend.... I'll take care of that right now. Good to go.) I didn't stress about not having time to do things and enjoyed the morning again. I still need to work on not rushing out the door though. I had my water for my drive to work which replaced my normal habit of drinking my Shakeology and that worked out well. I don't remember having urges to eat anything before noon, but I was ready to have my eggs and sunflower seeds snack. I find that if I think I'm hungry, or I feel tired, if I drink some water, it makes me feel better.

Afternoon: I took my lunch at 2 and enjoyed some more rotisserie chicken, broccoli salad and sharp cheese. Tomorrow I'm going to have a salad with cheese and ranch. I use Artisan lettuce. I needed a break from it which was why I had the broccoli salad a couple days and that didn't take me out of ketosis, but I should get some more greens going in me again. I felt very full after my lunch today. For my snack around 4:00 (last meal of the day), I had two pieces of sharp cheese, water and felt kinda full. I pulled a Dove dark chocolate from my co-workers basket and it laid on my desk. I went to grab for it and just didn't feel I needed it. I was full. So interesting to me. I had the urge to grab it to bring to my desk. I decided I would eat it if I wanted it after I had my cheese. I just didn't. I didn't even want sunflower seeds a little after. I was good to go.

In the evening I was much better than last night and was not irritable. I feel like I could move my workouts to nights if I needed to. Usually I am so tired by the evening I don't want to. My husband made some popcorn chicken around 8:00 for his dinner that he added cheese and ate in flour wraps and it looked really good, but I didn't feel the need to have to eat it (usually I take a bite or two). I had energy and didn't feel overly tired like I needed to just go to bed. I explained a little to him about how I was eating and I think he went through sad mode like I have recently, but what I've been eating though has been so satisfying. I won't say I'd live without EVERYTHING I ate before, but I'm definitely willing to continue to live without less.

Day 15

I didn't want to get out of bed this morning. It's Monday. I sleep so well except the dreams are just too vivid right before I wake up. Yesterday morning I dreamed that I was in a car accident. My car flipped a few times when I drove over a board that was propped off of a tailgate in the middle of a wet road. I prayed through the flipping asking Jesus to be with me or take me with him. My car ended up landing right side up and I went on my way and didn't want to tell anyone what had happened. My car was messed up, but I was able to drive it. Then I had trouble seeing out the right side and I thought it was crushed, but it turned out my vision to the right just wasn't good. Anyway, those are the kinds of dreams I'm having and all I've done is change what I'm eating and when I eat.

I opted out of a workout today and decided to just enjoy the morning before I got ready for work. I had short-term fatigue on the way to work and almost grabbed my water to help, but I didn't because it wasn't as bad as recently.

Afternoon: I made it til almost 12:30 p.m. to start my 4 hour eating window. The plan is to not eat anymore after 4 p.m. I had my snack at that time of two hard boiled eggs, sharp cheddar cheese, and my sunflower seeds. Kept watching the clock for 2 o'clock to take my lunch break, but I've enjoyed having it that late. I noticed I got bored between that time and wanted to eat.

I had my lunch break and it filled me up. Leftover rotisserie chicken from yesterday and broccoli salad. I had my snack at 4 to hold me over til tomorrow, sharp cheese and sunflower seeds. I'm not sure if I was hungry or not, but I wanted it because I'm not eating anymore today and I had it with me to eat.

Evening: I was irritable with the kids and felt a little bloated, but I think that may also have to do with that time of the month starting up. It's very common for me to be irritable. The bloating I never really paid attention to if it happened normally or not. I felt a little tired, but I didn't feel the need to eat. It's difficult to determine the difference between when I'm hungry and when I just think I'm hungry. I can definitely tell when I'm thirsty!

Day 14

I'm down 9 pounds since my weigh in on Monday morning 5/1/17. Usually I weigh myself on Fridays and I gained 5 lbs over the weekend cuz we had lots of carbs like Pizza and soda. I normally lose whatever weekend weight I gained, but then maintain my weight from the previous Friday. I'm not sure if I should include those temporary 5 lbs, so if you don't think they count, then I've lost 4 lbs in the 2 weeks. Very healthy weight loss.

I've lost 2.5" in my waist at my belly button. 1/2" in my hips (but photos seem to show more). 2.5" in my chest. 3/4" in left bicep. No change in right bicep. 1/2" in right thigh. 3/4" in left thigh.
That's 7.5" total. And only technically 4 lbs? Maybe I should count the extra 5 because I probably had major inflammation from that weekend also!
I'll put my measurements below.

Friday night I started logging my ketones. I had a trace. Saturday morning a trace. I don't think I tested later in the day, but if I did, it was at a trace. This morning I was up to small amount. This afternoon for lunch I had rotisserie chicken (even snuck a few bites of skin), broccoli salad and a piece of sharp cheese. I later had a snack of my sunflower seeds and two pieces of cheese. My ketones are up to large. I thought maybe it was at moderate because of the lightness of the color, but it's definitely more of a plum tint than skin tone. This is pretty cool. Looking forward to dinner tonight for Mother's day! My husband is making steak and I'm gonna cook cauliflower mash with butter and whole milk and cheese to flavor it up to replace mashed potatoes. If my ketones go down, at least I'm still in ketosis. This will work great if I keep it up for my 4 hour window week.

My energy level has been fine today, but I definitely can tell when I need water. Going for a walk today with the kids and my husband. That was my mother's day request, so I'm looking forward to that after our early dinner so we don't have to rush home to eat!

               5/1/17                          5/14/17
Weight:  161.5 (or 158)           152lbs
Bloating: 10.                             1
Waist:      37"                            34.5"
Hips:        36"                            35.5"
Chest:      36.5"                         34"
Bicep:       R: 13, L: 13.25.       13, 12.5"
Thigh:       R: 23.25, L: 23.25.  22.75, 22.5"