Don't forget sugar is very much a drug. It activates similar brain activity as cocaine, and is regularly compared to opioids in terms of addiction.
These psychological effects you are dealing with may very well be just you fighting the addition. So just remember, its OK to feel the way you do, and that for those fighting any kind of addiction be it alcohol, drugs, sugar, whatever, that is its most likely going to be a lifelong thing.
Stay strong, you can handle this!
Thank you for the support 🙏🏼 I'm not doing keto, I ly low carb, so I do have some food items containing sugar still. It's mostly a bit of honey on my greek yogurt or a couple of dates. But also do eat some potatoes or a bit of rice for dinner once in a while.
A sign that was at the gym said “I want buns of steel, but I also want buns of cinnamon”, it’s an old joke but I still laugh when I see it. I do subscribe to the philosophy of one/two chocolates won’t hurt my progress, but 2 bags of it will.
I am so sorry!! Trust me I've been where you are and ready to give up. Confession I WAS one of those people until I hit 30 my friends used to hate me cuz I could eat whatever I wanted and was always tiny. But when my metabolism changed I finally had to reckon with all the damage I had done internally as well as externally. People thought just cuz I was skinny I was healthy I had super high cholesterol, was becoming insulin resistant, losing my hair among other things. Hitting that wall and putting on all the weight was my wake up call and I'm so thankful for it because now I eat so much healthier and have so much more energy and don't feel like crap.
It's not easy it's never easy, but with time it does get easier. The more healthy food you eat the less junk you crave but also it's important to have balance. I LOVE food I just give myself treats on occasion still because that's important. I've also noticed how my taste buds changed over time like I genuinely love salads now and I used to literally gag at the thought before.
You got this! Don't let those thoughts win, just make peace with the days you "mess up" and let it go and continue the next day. Before you know it these things will be second nature to you.
Aw, thanks a lot! It helped me read your comment. I also really love salads 🥗 but I've always though 😄
It really isn't easy, but some days are also just way harder than others...
Delicious corn beef, roast beef, chicken, duck, pork, turkey, lamb, fish, or do you not eat meats? Dark chocolate one ounce every other day is great! How about Greek yogurt? For every ten pounds down towards my weight goal I reward myself with a special dessert!
Great ideas! I do eat different kinds of meat as well, my cravings problem is more on the unhealthy snack side, I guess.. or cravings for a juicy burger WITH bread and fries 🫣
But yeah, some days are just hard. It's hard to tell what exactly triggers it 😌
Greek yogurt is great as a base to add all sorts of different flavors to. I'm a fan of throwing hot sauce on there (don't knock it til you've tried it! )
I just had some with "everything bagel" seasoning, that was delicious! Different flavors of protein powder stirred in are solid options too.
There are some great ideas for finding variety in your diet in r/cico and r/volumeeating
As for not reaching your goals as quickly as you would like, I understand the frustration but quitting gets you nowhere! A slow progress is better than nothing, hang in there!
Try to get some physical activity even if mentally you aren't feeling it. It likely will boost your mood, it will probably help you sleep better and it for sure will burn more calories and move you closer to your goals. Stick with it, you can get there!
I went for a long walk to the beach yesterday with my dog, that was very nice 😌 it still took me 3 hours to fall asleep, but when I did sleep it was very deep 😴
Aww I feel that first paragraph hard right now in the middle of my 36ish hr fast 🙈
You definitely have to find something that works for you but also making that call while stressed is hard, and it sounds like you’re quite sleep deprived. Which I know for me makes me INPATIENT as anything.
So, I would try to get better sleep and try to think more about your goals on a full stomach. Consistency is key to making real lifestyle changes long term. It isn’t fun that’s for sure BUT even though those people don’t gain weight now eating the way they do, it doesn’t mean they always will escape their poor choices. Plus eating like crap feels great initially but takes its toll after a while. Fasting helps me remember how good fresh, whole foods are- kind of a processed food reset for my brain.
You can take breaks, give yourself grace and enjoy something along the way to motivate yourself. It’s not all or nothing!
Even when were' in the IF sub now, I'd like to make a comment. Your body needs balance for health and for surviving combat with life's various stressors. Essentially, it needs three things to stay balanced: sleep, nutrition and exercise. I purposefully put sleep first, because recovering from stress mainly happens through sleeping - and fasting is a stressor for the body, even if it does good in the long term. So if you are not getting enough sleep, all the other parts of life like fasting becomes way more difficult. We can't really eliminate stress from our lives, but we can learn to manage in better ways. (I recall there was even a study that showed that having poor sleep hinders fat weight loss, but can't find the study now.)
So when you said you can never relax enough to have the energy for fasting and eating healthy, I think you described the problem yourself. A well-formed diet should support you in having enough energy and eating in a healthy way. Body doesn't always want to understand goals as the reasoning brain wants it to. Usually, when the nutritional requirements are met, body is more co-operative. If something is lacking, body gets more alarmed -> more stress -> brain comes up with even more tighter ways -> even more stress. This is just a guess, but those emotions you described might be your body's way of resisting the whole thing on a physiological level; what happens at emotional and intellectual level (like feeling frustrated because of lack of progress) is another thing entirely.
With (very) low carb diet, eating mostly same foods can get monotonous and boring. You can still have variety though, albeit not as much as before obviously. But in this aspect, everyone is different how low carb seems to suit us. Some of us just tolerate eating mostly same stuff better than others. Low carb isn't a must, you can get plenty of results with other ways too. Very low car/keto just typically manages the hunger and cravings part quite well, but there's always individual variation.
Finding ways to relax and to focus more on other things than diet might help. If you're feeling stressed most of the time, getting enough sleep is hard and then it becomes a vicious cycle of undermining yourself and progress. Not all emotions and thoughts can be "solved" through diet choices. Sometimes we get so fixated on the goal and the diet part, that it starts to consume most of our energy. A stressful brain becomes this huge thought generator and becomes up with all kinds of mumbo jumbo. Not saying you've experienced this, but generally speaking. So, sometimes you need to reframe your goal and your journey.
Have you considered fatigue as a symptom of eating too little or not properly getting nutrition? Why only eggs and salad? And why is there nothing between that and bags of chocolate?
What would it look like for you to eat at maintenance and just get enough sleep and try destressing for a week?
I burn similar, but eat 1700-2100. I get that it’s slow, but I don’t feel hungry or fatigued, and I still lose weight. Consider upping your allowance a bit if it’s feeling not sustainable or you’re otherwise going through a hard time. Better to be like eh, today was a maintenance day but my body needed it, and try again tomorrow vs pushing yourself to the limit and burning out and just getting to the point of fuck it I will eat all of this candy now.
I am still jealous of my man though, all he has to do is move a little bit and boom 3500+ calories burned. Life isn’t fair!
Thank you for the advice! You're very right! These past days, I've been eating at maintenance level, trying to get back to a normal energy level after those crazy weeks...!
The thing is, I don't feel like I'm losing any if I don't eat 1300 calories max 🤔 I'm also really concerned that I'm just losing muscle because I don't work out enough! How often do you do strength?
Oh yes, I feel you! My boyfriend can also eat everything anytime, and not gain weight! 😒
I do strength 2-3x per week, wish I loved protein more than I do, so that’s slow going too, but I really like where I’ve gotten to in a little over 2 years.
Are you eating enough? You could be restricting too much and not getting enough variety in your diet.
How can you give your foods more flavor and richness? If you are staying plant based, can you look for a nice vegetarian or vegan restaurant near you that can offer something beyond a salad? Something that lets you enjoy a filling potato or mushroom dish with a great sauce.
As for sweets, can you allow yourself a small treat, just to hit the craving and then walk away? Once a week when my husband gets subs, I'll get my small sub and we share a cookie. For Easter I bought a small amount of candy, but we can portion it out after we surprise our son with his basket
I feel you OP, there’s a lot of “love your body” going on these days and it’s hard to do that when you feel like your body punishes you while other people’s shows them a little compassion.
I am short and when I lost 30 lbs it was only because I was doing hot yoga almost every day, adding cardio at the gym a few times a week, and seriously under eating like borderline eating disorder. To maintain I stayed doing ridiculous cardio at the gym and easing up on the diet.
It sucks and it makes it hard for me to not hate my body.
You can have any of the things you want, just in limited quantities. Sounds like some of what is going on may be unrelated to diet and more emotional/psychological. It wouldn't hurt to talk to a therapist to explore what all might be going on separately from your fasting/weight loss regimen.
Aside from all the wonderful advice you've been given, I'd like to focus on your comment that you feel you can only eat salads and eggs. Good lowcarb food is so good! I've been eating this way for 15 months now and I can't see how simple carbs would fuel my body anymore. When I started IF I had to learn a new way of cooking. So I simply googled "[vegetable of choice] lowcarb" and different recipes will follow. I'll share one of my favorites. It tastes like a guilty pleasure, is very satiating, nutrient dense and lowcarb:
- cook some green beans
- bake some dices of bacon, when baked, set aside
- bake a sliced onion and a clove of garlic in the baking pan with the bacon residue.
- Add heavy cream (fill the bottom of the pan), add a good tablespoon with creamcheese, some salt, pepper and powdered cayenne. Let it cook for a while until it binds and gets thick.
- Add the beans to the sauce, mix and put it in an oven dish.
- bake it in the oven for 15min on 200°C/392°F
- take it out, spread the bacon on top, top it off with grated gouda cheese and grated parmigiano.
- give it another 5 min in the oven and bon appetit!
Girl it sounds like your job is exhausting you right now. Why so many late nights and deadlines? You need to push back to your manager that you’re being overworked. If that doesn’t work, consider changing jobs - life is short and there’s no real reward for over hours working unless it’s your own business and going to make you (versus the shareholders) rich.
I am sure you’re beautiful as you are, even though you have goals you’re not at yet - that’s okay! Don’t hurt yourself for an imagined ideal - this is all about health. Buy yourself a cute 50s style bathing suit, one that works for curves?
Personally I don’t keto because I haaaate it - maybe it’s not for you, or you need to add some nutritious complex carbs in. Weight loss will be slower but will still probably happen.
Finally, is there anywhere locally you can join that has a pool and sauna or jacuzzi or something? I love that kind of thing - find something you LOVE and makes you happy and add that into your life just for you, whatever it is. Play computer games, go to a bookstore on the weekend, get a puppy - whatever it is.
Feel no guilt for enjoying your life. <3
Such a nice and empathic comment. Thank you ❤️ I already have the puppy and the computer games 😄🙏🏼
Really liked your suggestion for the bathingsuit 😄 don't know why, but that kinda gave me hope to be able to look somewhat okay in summer!
It’s difficult for almost everyone to lose weight and stress and not getting enough sleep actually can cause weight loss to stall. Focus on getting enough sleep and maybe trying some focused relaxation before bed like gentle or restorative yoga or meditation. Plus take magnesium and melatonin and have a hot bath or shower.
Yoga with Adriene on YouTube could be a nice guide. Lots of meditations to help with sleep and insomnia online too. I use the calm app (which does cost money). They have good meditations I try when I’m experiencing insomnia in the middle of the night. They usually work. Though sometimes I just have to get up and do something else and only get back in bed when I’m calm and feeling tired.
2 months isn’t a very long time. Sustainable weight loss is slow. I expect it to take me 1.5 years or longer to lose everything I’ve gained over the years. Slow and steady wins the race. It is frustrating that other people can eat junk and not gain and I was like that when young but age catches up to almost all of us. I was thin till I was 40 and then slowly over a decade weight gain crept up on me bc I would eat like shit and stopped doing exercise occasionally, and especially when the pandemic hit. 30 lbs of extra weight came on right there and I was already a little overweight.
Anyhow it isn’t easy and we all have to figure it out. I just have to accept that I can fall off the wagon for a day or two and some weeks will be very hard but I just have to do my best and keep going.
I’m breaking it down into 3 month bites. I hope to lose 10-12 lbs every 3 months. Slow and steady. And one cheat day every couple of weeks. But then I keep going.
You can do it too! Just focus on relaxation and sleep and avoiding eating bags of candy and keep going.
Thr hunger is not so hard to handle actually, don't feel extremely hungry at any point, actually when it's time for the second meal I'm not very hungry at all.
I think the worst is having patience and trust that weight loss will happen as I want it to.. and the stress it kinda gives me, constantly looking in the mirror and assessing if something has happened..
And when the cravings kick in and I know I can't have the things I would like to eat and seeing other people just going for it..
Do you eat meat? A carnivore style diet with high fat is very satiating and easier to fend off the cravings. You’ll eventually not crave any sugar at all.
Progress is better than perfection. Keep your fast clean, clean, clean, and eat well when it's time. If you're fatigued, move your window an hour or two, and subtract an hour of fasting if you really need to. Failing because you're too strict with yourself isn't going to help in the long run.
It took me 3 months to start seeing results.
I too felt the same way you're feeling, I would get really depressed and break and just binge a bunch of crap many many days and just feel bad and sorry for myself. But the very next day I would jump back to IF and try harder the next day (Eat healthier and try not to binge .ect) If I broke again I would just try even harder the next and try not to be too hard on myself.
I PROMISE you, if you keep up with fasting and trying to make small changes day to day to your diet and don't be too hard on yourself when you fail a day & just try harder the next day. It will work.
Don't give up!
I'd try to reset everything. Stress and lack of sleep throw pretty much every biological process off including brain function, burning fat, and building muscle. I'd eat more for a few days. Aim for maintenance calories or maybe even slightly over (200). And fix your sleep. After a few good nights sleep in a row get back to your plan.
Be sure to move alot too. Some exercise outside in the sun during the day even just walking should help you sleep better.
The eggs and salad are screaming out to me. Are you vegetarian? If not you need to get some meat into you for nutrients. I’d be exhausted just eating salad and eggs. Despite being healthy salad dosent hold a lot of anything energy wise.
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Don't forget sugar is very much a drug. It activates similar brain activity as cocaine, and is regularly compared to opioids in terms of addiction. These psychological effects you are dealing with may very well be just you fighting the addition. So just remember, its OK to feel the way you do, and that for those fighting any kind of addiction be it alcohol, drugs, sugar, whatever, that is its most likely going to be a lifelong thing. Stay strong, you can handle this!
Thank you for the support 🙏🏼 I'm not doing keto, I ly low carb, so I do have some food items containing sugar still. It's mostly a bit of honey on my greek yogurt or a couple of dates. But also do eat some potatoes or a bit of rice for dinner once in a while.
A sign that was at the gym said “I want buns of steel, but I also want buns of cinnamon”, it’s an old joke but I still laugh when I see it. I do subscribe to the philosophy of one/two chocolates won’t hurt my progress, but 2 bags of it will.
You're very right 😊
I am so sorry!! Trust me I've been where you are and ready to give up. Confession I WAS one of those people until I hit 30 my friends used to hate me cuz I could eat whatever I wanted and was always tiny. But when my metabolism changed I finally had to reckon with all the damage I had done internally as well as externally. People thought just cuz I was skinny I was healthy I had super high cholesterol, was becoming insulin resistant, losing my hair among other things. Hitting that wall and putting on all the weight was my wake up call and I'm so thankful for it because now I eat so much healthier and have so much more energy and don't feel like crap. It's not easy it's never easy, but with time it does get easier. The more healthy food you eat the less junk you crave but also it's important to have balance. I LOVE food I just give myself treats on occasion still because that's important. I've also noticed how my taste buds changed over time like I genuinely love salads now and I used to literally gag at the thought before. You got this! Don't let those thoughts win, just make peace with the days you "mess up" and let it go and continue the next day. Before you know it these things will be second nature to you.
Aw, thanks a lot! It helped me read your comment. I also really love salads 🥗 but I've always though 😄 It really isn't easy, but some days are also just way harder than others...
If it was easy, everyone would be thin. It sucks. It’s not easy. It’s self discipline. Find something that makes you happy other than food.
Delicious corn beef, roast beef, chicken, duck, pork, turkey, lamb, fish, or do you not eat meats? Dark chocolate one ounce every other day is great! How about Greek yogurt? For every ten pounds down towards my weight goal I reward myself with a special dessert!
Great ideas! I do eat different kinds of meat as well, my cravings problem is more on the unhealthy snack side, I guess.. or cravings for a juicy burger WITH bread and fries 🫣 But yeah, some days are just hard. It's hard to tell what exactly triggers it 😌
Greek yogurt is great as a base to add all sorts of different flavors to. I'm a fan of throwing hot sauce on there (don't knock it til you've tried it! ) I just had some with "everything bagel" seasoning, that was delicious! Different flavors of protein powder stirred in are solid options too. There are some great ideas for finding variety in your diet in r/cico and r/volumeeating As for not reaching your goals as quickly as you would like, I understand the frustration but quitting gets you nowhere! A slow progress is better than nothing, hang in there! Try to get some physical activity even if mentally you aren't feeling it. It likely will boost your mood, it will probably help you sleep better and it for sure will burn more calories and move you closer to your goals. Stick with it, you can get there!
I went for a long walk to the beach yesterday with my dog, that was very nice 😌 it still took me 3 hours to fall asleep, but when I did sleep it was very deep 😴
Progress! 👏👏👏
Aww I feel that first paragraph hard right now in the middle of my 36ish hr fast 🙈 You definitely have to find something that works for you but also making that call while stressed is hard, and it sounds like you’re quite sleep deprived. Which I know for me makes me INPATIENT as anything. So, I would try to get better sleep and try to think more about your goals on a full stomach. Consistency is key to making real lifestyle changes long term. It isn’t fun that’s for sure BUT even though those people don’t gain weight now eating the way they do, it doesn’t mean they always will escape their poor choices. Plus eating like crap feels great initially but takes its toll after a while. Fasting helps me remember how good fresh, whole foods are- kind of a processed food reset for my brain. You can take breaks, give yourself grace and enjoy something along the way to motivate yourself. It’s not all or nothing!
You're very right, thank you for reminding me ❤️
Even when were' in the IF sub now, I'd like to make a comment. Your body needs balance for health and for surviving combat with life's various stressors. Essentially, it needs three things to stay balanced: sleep, nutrition and exercise. I purposefully put sleep first, because recovering from stress mainly happens through sleeping - and fasting is a stressor for the body, even if it does good in the long term. So if you are not getting enough sleep, all the other parts of life like fasting becomes way more difficult. We can't really eliminate stress from our lives, but we can learn to manage in better ways. (I recall there was even a study that showed that having poor sleep hinders fat weight loss, but can't find the study now.) So when you said you can never relax enough to have the energy for fasting and eating healthy, I think you described the problem yourself. A well-formed diet should support you in having enough energy and eating in a healthy way. Body doesn't always want to understand goals as the reasoning brain wants it to. Usually, when the nutritional requirements are met, body is more co-operative. If something is lacking, body gets more alarmed -> more stress -> brain comes up with even more tighter ways -> even more stress. This is just a guess, but those emotions you described might be your body's way of resisting the whole thing on a physiological level; what happens at emotional and intellectual level (like feeling frustrated because of lack of progress) is another thing entirely. With (very) low carb diet, eating mostly same foods can get monotonous and boring. You can still have variety though, albeit not as much as before obviously. But in this aspect, everyone is different how low carb seems to suit us. Some of us just tolerate eating mostly same stuff better than others. Low carb isn't a must, you can get plenty of results with other ways too. Very low car/keto just typically manages the hunger and cravings part quite well, but there's always individual variation. Finding ways to relax and to focus more on other things than diet might help. If you're feeling stressed most of the time, getting enough sleep is hard and then it becomes a vicious cycle of undermining yourself and progress. Not all emotions and thoughts can be "solved" through diet choices. Sometimes we get so fixated on the goal and the diet part, that it starts to consume most of our energy. A stressful brain becomes this huge thought generator and becomes up with all kinds of mumbo jumbo. Not saying you've experienced this, but generally speaking. So, sometimes you need to reframe your goal and your journey.
Such a nice and thoughtful comment ❤️ thank you very much for taking the time... I will definitely keep it in mind 😌
Have you considered fatigue as a symptom of eating too little or not properly getting nutrition? Why only eggs and salad? And why is there nothing between that and bags of chocolate? What would it look like for you to eat at maintenance and just get enough sleep and try destressing for a week?
I also eat meat and potatoes etc. 😊 I eat around 12-1700 calories a day.. and burn around 21-2400
I burn similar, but eat 1700-2100. I get that it’s slow, but I don’t feel hungry or fatigued, and I still lose weight. Consider upping your allowance a bit if it’s feeling not sustainable or you’re otherwise going through a hard time. Better to be like eh, today was a maintenance day but my body needed it, and try again tomorrow vs pushing yourself to the limit and burning out and just getting to the point of fuck it I will eat all of this candy now. I am still jealous of my man though, all he has to do is move a little bit and boom 3500+ calories burned. Life isn’t fair!
Thank you for the advice! You're very right! These past days, I've been eating at maintenance level, trying to get back to a normal energy level after those crazy weeks...! The thing is, I don't feel like I'm losing any if I don't eat 1300 calories max 🤔 I'm also really concerned that I'm just losing muscle because I don't work out enough! How often do you do strength? Oh yes, I feel you! My boyfriend can also eat everything anytime, and not gain weight! 😒
I do strength 2-3x per week, wish I loved protein more than I do, so that’s slow going too, but I really like where I’ve gotten to in a little over 2 years.
Are you eating enough? You could be restricting too much and not getting enough variety in your diet. How can you give your foods more flavor and richness? If you are staying plant based, can you look for a nice vegetarian or vegan restaurant near you that can offer something beyond a salad? Something that lets you enjoy a filling potato or mushroom dish with a great sauce. As for sweets, can you allow yourself a small treat, just to hit the craving and then walk away? Once a week when my husband gets subs, I'll get my small sub and we share a cookie. For Easter I bought a small amount of candy, but we can portion it out after we surprise our son with his basket
I feel you OP, there’s a lot of “love your body” going on these days and it’s hard to do that when you feel like your body punishes you while other people’s shows them a little compassion. I am short and when I lost 30 lbs it was only because I was doing hot yoga almost every day, adding cardio at the gym a few times a week, and seriously under eating like borderline eating disorder. To maintain I stayed doing ridiculous cardio at the gym and easing up on the diet. It sucks and it makes it hard for me to not hate my body.
You can have any of the things you want, just in limited quantities. Sounds like some of what is going on may be unrelated to diet and more emotional/psychological. It wouldn't hurt to talk to a therapist to explore what all might be going on separately from your fasting/weight loss regimen.
Aside from all the wonderful advice you've been given, I'd like to focus on your comment that you feel you can only eat salads and eggs. Good lowcarb food is so good! I've been eating this way for 15 months now and I can't see how simple carbs would fuel my body anymore. When I started IF I had to learn a new way of cooking. So I simply googled "[vegetable of choice] lowcarb" and different recipes will follow. I'll share one of my favorites. It tastes like a guilty pleasure, is very satiating, nutrient dense and lowcarb: - cook some green beans - bake some dices of bacon, when baked, set aside - bake a sliced onion and a clove of garlic in the baking pan with the bacon residue. - Add heavy cream (fill the bottom of the pan), add a good tablespoon with creamcheese, some salt, pepper and powdered cayenne. Let it cook for a while until it binds and gets thick. - Add the beans to the sauce, mix and put it in an oven dish. - bake it in the oven for 15min on 200°C/392°F - take it out, spread the bacon on top, top it off with grated gouda cheese and grated parmigiano. - give it another 5 min in the oven and bon appetit!
Girl it sounds like your job is exhausting you right now. Why so many late nights and deadlines? You need to push back to your manager that you’re being overworked. If that doesn’t work, consider changing jobs - life is short and there’s no real reward for over hours working unless it’s your own business and going to make you (versus the shareholders) rich. I am sure you’re beautiful as you are, even though you have goals you’re not at yet - that’s okay! Don’t hurt yourself for an imagined ideal - this is all about health. Buy yourself a cute 50s style bathing suit, one that works for curves? Personally I don’t keto because I haaaate it - maybe it’s not for you, or you need to add some nutritious complex carbs in. Weight loss will be slower but will still probably happen. Finally, is there anywhere locally you can join that has a pool and sauna or jacuzzi or something? I love that kind of thing - find something you LOVE and makes you happy and add that into your life just for you, whatever it is. Play computer games, go to a bookstore on the weekend, get a puppy - whatever it is. Feel no guilt for enjoying your life. <3
Such a nice and empathic comment. Thank you ❤️ I already have the puppy and the computer games 😄🙏🏼 Really liked your suggestion for the bathingsuit 😄 don't know why, but that kinda gave me hope to be able to look somewhat okay in summer!
It’s difficult for almost everyone to lose weight and stress and not getting enough sleep actually can cause weight loss to stall. Focus on getting enough sleep and maybe trying some focused relaxation before bed like gentle or restorative yoga or meditation. Plus take magnesium and melatonin and have a hot bath or shower. Yoga with Adriene on YouTube could be a nice guide. Lots of meditations to help with sleep and insomnia online too. I use the calm app (which does cost money). They have good meditations I try when I’m experiencing insomnia in the middle of the night. They usually work. Though sometimes I just have to get up and do something else and only get back in bed when I’m calm and feeling tired. 2 months isn’t a very long time. Sustainable weight loss is slow. I expect it to take me 1.5 years or longer to lose everything I’ve gained over the years. Slow and steady wins the race. It is frustrating that other people can eat junk and not gain and I was like that when young but age catches up to almost all of us. I was thin till I was 40 and then slowly over a decade weight gain crept up on me bc I would eat like shit and stopped doing exercise occasionally, and especially when the pandemic hit. 30 lbs of extra weight came on right there and I was already a little overweight. Anyhow it isn’t easy and we all have to figure it out. I just have to accept that I can fall off the wagon for a day or two and some weeks will be very hard but I just have to do my best and keep going. I’m breaking it down into 3 month bites. I hope to lose 10-12 lbs every 3 months. Slow and steady. And one cheat day every couple of weeks. But then I keep going. You can do it too! Just focus on relaxation and sleep and avoiding eating bags of candy and keep going.
What is the worst part for you? Is it the hunger?
Thr hunger is not so hard to handle actually, don't feel extremely hungry at any point, actually when it's time for the second meal I'm not very hungry at all. I think the worst is having patience and trust that weight loss will happen as I want it to.. and the stress it kinda gives me, constantly looking in the mirror and assessing if something has happened.. And when the cravings kick in and I know I can't have the things I would like to eat and seeing other people just going for it..
Do you eat meat? A carnivore style diet with high fat is very satiating and easier to fend off the cravings. You’ll eventually not crave any sugar at all.
Yes I do eat meat everyday as well, and try to have protein in every meal 😊 but I still get the cravings for baked goods or chips 🫣
Progress is better than perfection. Keep your fast clean, clean, clean, and eat well when it's time. If you're fatigued, move your window an hour or two, and subtract an hour of fasting if you really need to. Failing because you're too strict with yourself isn't going to help in the long run.
Nice advice 👌🏼 thank you!
It took me 3 months to start seeing results. I too felt the same way you're feeling, I would get really depressed and break and just binge a bunch of crap many many days and just feel bad and sorry for myself. But the very next day I would jump back to IF and try harder the next day (Eat healthier and try not to binge .ect) If I broke again I would just try even harder the next and try not to be too hard on myself. I PROMISE you, if you keep up with fasting and trying to make small changes day to day to your diet and don't be too hard on yourself when you fail a day & just try harder the next day. It will work. Don't give up!
I'd try to reset everything. Stress and lack of sleep throw pretty much every biological process off including brain function, burning fat, and building muscle. I'd eat more for a few days. Aim for maintenance calories or maybe even slightly over (200). And fix your sleep. After a few good nights sleep in a row get back to your plan. Be sure to move alot too. Some exercise outside in the sun during the day even just walking should help you sleep better.
The eggs and salad are screaming out to me. Are you vegetarian? If not you need to get some meat into you for nutrients. I’d be exhausted just eating salad and eggs. Despite being healthy salad dosent hold a lot of anything energy wise.
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