I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: when it comes to your health, you just have to figure out what plan works for you. There are several different food and fitness trends out there and most of them are great, but not all of them will be right for you. I’ve been working on my health slowly but surely for a while now, but now I’m on a deadline for my sister’s wedding, so I’ve been seriously trying to lose weight since August. I’ve tried a few different things, some that worked and some that didn’t, so now I’m going to share them with you, in case any of them might interest you.
In August I started intermittent fasting, and let me tell you, I love it. I am still doing it to this day and I don’t feel deprived at all. I had heard a lot about it and I decided to do some research and it seemed easy enough. For someone my age and health level, I started following a 6:18 plan, where I eat all my meals within a 6-hour period and fast for the other 18 hours of the day. This means I eat lunch around noon and dinner around 6 and nothing outside of those hours.
This particular plan works great for me because I’m not really a breakfast person. When I first wake up, my stomach is not in the mood for food and yet I was forcing myself to eat because “breakfast is the most important meal of the day.” But then I’m wasting calories on a meal I’m not even enjoying, so what’s the point? I used to eat a snack after dinner almost every night, but that wasn’t good for me because it was often an unhealthy snack and it was often right before bed so there was no way for me to work those calories off. But now, I quit eating after dinner, so there’s no temptation for snacking. And since I’m only eating between noon and six, I am allowed a snack between lunch and dinner, but I’m often not hungry for it. That’s just it: I’m not hungry anymore. Not after dinner, not when I wake up. Just right before lunch and dinner, like my body got used to it and it’s been awesome. Luckily, you can drink at any time of the day, so I’ll have a coffee on some mornings and a decaf tea if I happen to get a little hungry after dinner, but for the most part, I’m downing water and I’m good all day long.
During October, we attempted the Whole 30, but it did not work for us. We didn’t even commit to every single rule and we didn’t last the whole month. It felt like too much depravity all at once, and we felt like failures when we couldn’t complete it. Even still, I lost the most amount of weight during the month of October, just doing 75% of the Whole 30 rules.
So for November, we decided to make our own rules. Whole 30 taught us some good habits that we decided to keep, like no coffee creamer, sugary snacks, or carbs in the house. That’s where a lot of our calories were going, so we just eliminated those temptations. I am still mostly eating salads for lunch, but I’m allowing myself the ranch dressing to keep me sane. And we are trying not to do “cheat meals” so often, and when we do, we make sure we are still under our calories for the day. Yes, during all of these different things, we count calories.
Also during October we attempted a 40 minute home workout plan, but it only lasted 2 weeks. We just are not very motivated to exercise, so any advice you have on that front would be great. We still haven’t found a workout routine that works for us.
My friend asked if we wanted to do the 75 Hard Challenge with him, which requires you to workout for 90 minutes a day, follow some sort of diet, and partake in absolutely 0 alcohol or cheat meals for 75 days straight. It sounded intriguing but I had to be honest with myself. There is no way that I’m ready to go 75 days without a cheat meal, especially when those days included Thanksgiving, Christmas, and my birthday. If you don’t allow yourself a few of those luxuries like pizza or ice cream, you will fail, go crazy, binge eat, and feel horrible. When I was doing Crossfit, my coach said you need to eat good 75% of the time, but eat the cake at the birthday party and eat the mashed potatoes at Thanksgiving. Don’t deprive yourself or you’re setting yourself up to fail.
So those are some of the health ventures I’ve been on over the last few months. I’m still figuring out what works best for me and my routine, but as long as I’m trying, that’s something positive. I am happy to say that I’ve lost 16 pounds since August and I hope to keep that up to hit my goal weight by April or May! Yes, it’s hard, but you just can’t give up. Health is a constant journey, not a destination.
So, in conclusion, I’ve been intermittent fasting for 4 months and I’ve lost ___ pounds. I had a brief time with Whole 30 and working out, but those plans weren’t right for me so they didn’t stick. I confidently said no to a health challenge that would be dooming me to failure. I’m figuring out what works best for me and I hope you do as well. I can highly recommend the intermittent fasting thing, and I’m all ears to any workout routine recommendations you might have!
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Keela Dee Subcreations 
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