What I Eat on my Down Days

ADF calls for 500 calories on down days, preferably one meal.

I find that the earlier in the day I eat, the more I want to eat that day. That said, pickles seem to help me stave off hunger.  (Though I'm pretty sure it's 90% mental anyway)  I also drink water all day with lemon wedges, lemon or lime essential oils, and pink himalayan salt. This makes me want to drink more, and the salt helps me from getting a headache.

So my go to plan on DD's is fast during the day and drink SHAKEOLOGY for dinner. I add a cup of milk or almond milk and ice and sometimes add some additional greens and probiotics.  (approx 300 calories with the added stuff) This way I know I got everything my body needs, and it feels like I'm having a milkshake treat.  If I'm still hungry I will have some carrots to crunch on or a small handful of nuts.

Exercise and ADF

I started an exercise program this week. I figured it will help with results but also I like the way I feel after and it has other benefits such as toning, better moods, stress relief and more.

I'm doing a combination of Les Mills Body Pump 3 x a week and cardio 3x a week.

Hubby isn't doing any workouts currently. I think once he starts to feel lighter that he will be ready to workout again or maybe do some short runs on the treadmill.

The one downside is that exercise makes me HUNGRY! I'm doing shorter workouts (30 minutes except hiking days are about an hour) so right now I am doing cardio on DDs and weights on UDs.  I may end up switching that but it's a place to start. So my week looks like this:

MWF - DD's of 500 calories, cardio workouts

TThSa - UD's with 30 minute strength/barbell workouts

Sun - UD with no exercise

Do you workout and do alternate fasting? I'd love to hear your experience!

New Weigh in Day

OK so now that our new weigh in day is Saturday, this was a short week (since we just weighed in Tuesday)

Nelson - lost another pound so is down 8 lbs in 2 1/2 weeks.

Heather - up one lb so 4 lbs total - pretty positive this is because I had a lot of salt yesterday. It was a DD and I had pickles and a small turkey sandwich but I love salt so it's probably water retention. I was super hungry for the first time since week 1 on a DD.  I think it may also be because I did a challenging workout today too.

Week 2 Results

Hubby and I are both down 1 lb each this week. Hoped for more but historically week 2 is a bit of a downer. We've also decided to switch weigh in days to Saturday after our third DD of the week as weekends are both UDs.

Stay tuned!

Week 1 Results

Results are in for Week 1.

Nelson lost 6 lbs
Heather lost 4 lbs

This was with only 2 DDs (of approx 500 calories) and a couple of days that were more like 16:8 days.

I've decided that weighing daily is too much on my psyche.  I was down 4 lbs before the weekend but the fact that I ate basically what I wanted for lunch and dinner on the weekends and was back to 4 lbs down after one DD, I will take that. Hubby was actually down 8 before the weekend but basically ate what he wanted Fri-Sun.  That can be expected on this type of plan but I personally don't like knowing that I was lower and then feeling like I gained or "screwed up".  This plan is about ups and downs. So I'd rather see the average.

Tuesdays are going to be weigh-in days going forward.  Also going forward we have M/W/F as DDs and T/Th and weekends as UDs.

The experiment continue! I'm happy so far! As long as we continue to lose steadily, we are not going to limit what we eat on UDs. If we start to see a decline we will look at macros.

Week 1 Review - Alternate Day Fasting

Here's a run down of how week 1 went.

Monday - Day 1: UP DAY as this was our daughter's birthday. We had a huge dinner at the teppan place plus ice cream so feeling quite stuffed.

Tuesday - Day 2: DOWN DAY I did a hike with the girls in the morning. We burned over 900 calories.  But by lunch I was getting really hungry.  I had a Shakeology and held out until dinner time for my salad with chicken.  By around that time, I had a pretty bad headache.  I was drinking a bunch of water but asking around in an IF Facebook group, they mentioned I may want to add pink Himalayan salt to my water to help with headaches.  Hubby worked had a 350 calorie lunch (Salad with chicken) and Shakeology for dinner (approx 150 calories)

Wednesday - Day 3: UP DAY It was nice to eat what we wanted but I could already tell my appetite had decreased.  At dinner I ate half of what I normally do and felt full.

Thursday - Day 4: DOWN DAY This day was much easier for me.  Hubby followed the same basic plan as Tuesday, but I didn't even feel hungry until around 8pm and had a Shakeology with power greens and extra fiber. No headaches but some bloating due to that time of the month (which oddly came 1 week early when it's normally like clockwork). I should mention that we were not active on this day (raining outside) so that could be a factor. According to my Fitbit I burned about 500 less than my normal day.

Friday - Day 5: UP DAY Similar to Wednesday I enjoyed whatever I wanted but wasn't as hungry overall.
**hubby weighed in and was down 8 lbs, I was down 4 lbs. We've decided not to weight in again until Tuesday after our next DOWN DAY.

Saturday/Sunday - since we only got two Down Days this week, we decided to do modified days over the weekend. We skipped breakfast, had a light lunch and a "free" dinner.

Starting this week we will be trying a more stable schedule of M/W/F as our DD's and Tues, Thurs and the weekends as UDs.

So far I'm impressed that it wasn't as hard as I thought it would be.

Things to improve this week -
More low to moderate activity daily (LISS cardio at least 3 times a week)
Be more mindful of my carb/sugar intake on UDs as I feel like this could hinder my progress

What is Intermittent Fasting?

I've been hearing a lot about "Intermittent Fasting" lately from various sources. Since I work in the fitness/health industry, I'd caught wind of it on some podcasts and had a few people in my specific company promoting it so I thought I would learn more.

I ended up stumbling across the BBC documentary East, Fast & Live. (Watch it here)
What attracted me to it was that I had been growing more and more frustrated with my own inability to give up certain foods or calorie count for long. Restricting these things only lasted a short while, then I would give up and overindulge. If you have had a lifelong addiction to food or have an emotional tie to eating, it can be hard to break.

What is it? Basically it's a period of fasting alternated with a period of eating. There are several different kinds but the main 3 are:

1. 5/2 or the Fast Diet - fast two non-consecutive days and eat 5 days normally each week
2. Fasting for most of the day then eating all of your calories in a set period of time ie 16/8 (fast for 16 hours, eat within 8 hours; some do 20/4 or even 22/2)
3. Alternate day fasting - alternate "down days" of 500 calories with days where you can eat what you want 

My husband and I are going to start with #3 because it will allow us freedom half of the days of the week. I think it will be easier to commit to the lower calorie days knowing that "tomorrow" we can have what we want.

So you may be wondering what's the point of practically starving every other day and going crazy the next, surely it will net out to be the same? Research has shown that on the Up Days of alternate day fasting, you only consume about 110% of your calories so over the week you can significantly decrease your total calorie consumption.  Plus during periods of fast, your body has used up the energy stores (glycogen) in your muscles so it has to tap into fat burning for energy.

Exercise isn't required but once we get the hang of it, we will incorporate.

And this isn't just about weight loss.  The research has shown great effect on disease and longevity with fasting.  If you think about it, our ancestors hunted and gathered and ate exactly this way. They only ate when they killed something and then would go long periods without food.  And if it weren't for animals who hunted them and lack of shelter, they would have lived much longer lives than we do today.

Stay tuned for updates on our adventure! We are going to try the various kinds of fasting to see what works for us. But long term, some form of this seems to make the most sense for us.