It’s been about 50 days since my last post on Life: from A to Z and I’m happy to be back and coming at you with some of my latest news…

“I” is for Intermittent Fasting

I’m happy, and almost reluctant, to report that I’ve been experimenting with Intermittent Fasting for just over a month and my weight is back down to what is was at the pre-COVID mark. While that number is still too large (see my old progress report here), it is TWELVE pounds lighter than I was when I started the 16 hour fasts in early March.

Bottom line: My weight is where it was on March 9th, 2020, right before the pandemic shut me down and binge eating and television watching became my new go-to sport.

That being said, I am SUPER jazzed about bringing back my New Lifestyle, New Me series because I’ve been making some life changing discoveries. First and foremost, when I spent my time and energy focusing on food—as in what I should eat, when I should eat, and how much I should eat (not to mention macronutrients and all of that other stuff!!)—then “food” became my primary focus, which made it almost impossible to NOT eat. Food, food, FOOD… THAT is what was ruling my mind this time last year.

I don’t want to get into any particulars on intermittent fasting because it’s so popular these days and all one has to do is Google search it or look for smart phone apps and all of the details and info are right there at your fingertips. What I WILL say is that fasting, unlike dieting, has allowed my brain to NOT think about food. With that little reprieve, I’ve been able to put my mind to better use by learning about cravings, habit loops and reward-based learning (Dr. Judson Brewer has some great stuff).

It’s amazing what we can accomplish when we DON’T put our minds to it. Ha!

Anyway, that’s about all for now. I’ll be back soon enough. I have 3 weeks left of classes and then I’ll be graduating with my Bachelor’s degree!! Yipeee!! Summer will be a time for fun, laughter and celebration and—God willing—a time to throw off the old masks and live life to the fullest.

About the Image

Speaking of masks, I created the featured image for this post because the mask is supposed to represent “fasting,” not COVID. That’s why my nose is exposed. To add to that, the image of me was taken quite a while ago, maybe 10 years or so, and when I found it I was thrilled at how thin and healthy I looked. I added the mask (obviously) with Photoshop, and then did a little manipulating with some of my cool iPhone apps to make it look like a sketch. I’m sure that at the time the photo was taken I probably hated the image. That’s just the way it always is (and I’m sure I speak for many women on that).

And I think I learned something when I found that old thing hiding in a soon to be deleted digital folder—I learned that we’re not always as “bad” as we believe we are. We think that we are too fat, too old, too skinny, too wrinkled, too young, too short, too tall… and the list goes on and on… but when we look back with fresh eyes we realize that all we’ve really been is WAY TOO hard on ourselves. So just stop.

Have a beautiful evening and I’ll see you all soon!

—Janet