#intermittentfasting

Maintenance of good things

Kurian, 9 Comments

I have been feeling good, looking better and have better energy, ever since I started on the intermittent fasting and allied program.

Today I am completing two months into the program and incidentally I am on my first travel outside the state involving some hotel stay. And it brings up some challenges.

The reason I bring up this subject again is on the firm belief that one needs peer support in maintaining good things such as this.

The assistance and feedback can be in both ways. For example, I have a feedback that all good things happened will get reversed once the program is stopped or relaxed.

This is a very valuable feedback. And it helps in making some resolutions. For example, I am going to skip breakfast, even though the hotel room comes with free breakfast. I could skip lunch or dinner, but then most of them are with friends and it doesn’t work well that way.

Again the point, why go back on the program! When it does good for your mind and body, continue. Don’t discount the fact that skipping meals saves money also.

So the maintenance need not be a concern. And it’s possible to improve on the program.

Perhaps that’s what I should do. Improve on the program, taking all the tips and share such positive experiences with friends.

Let maintenance be progressive.

Maintenance of good things

A New Companion

Kurian, , 3 Comments

It’s my weighing scale and I climb on it at least twice a day.

The scale has two readings, the outer one in pounds and the inner one in kilograms.

I used to read the inner kilograms earlier, but the measurements now are in pounds. The calculation is the current reading which is less from the base as on January 19, 2019. The reduction in pounds then is a bigger number than in kilograms.

Jan 19 is the day I started my Intermittent fasting routine. And today’s reading shows a reduction of eleven pounds.

The readings are accurate without the possible variation of weights of dress, footwear etc. No chance as none of such external materials are worn while taking the weight.

A reading is taken in the morning after the morning chores and then again closer to the end of the 16 hour fasting. I am now trained at noticing fractional differences.

And I see a difference, a reduction and it’s quite satisfying.

The scale is a happy companion.

A New Companion

Some Learning Experiences: Intermittent Fasting

Kurian, , , , , 4 Comments

Intermittent fasting works. I lost 10 pounds in about 50 days on it. More significantly, there’s change to the waist area and signs of a V shape forming.

I follow the 16.8 format with fasting starting with dinner and ending with lunch next day.

What I do is to have a good lunch after 16 hours of clean fasting of just water and not even black coffee.

If I have to control something, it’s the binging on my favourite sweet items after lunch. But then, one needs to have good things in life.

The tip I want to give here is the suggestion to have fruits and vegetables as dinner. These get digested faster and go out of the system in about 6 hours.

That leaves the balance 10 hours without calories from food for the body need of fuel. Then the reserve fat may get accessed for energy. That’s one sure way of getting rid of the visceral fat.

Light dinner of vegetables and fruits gives opportunity to innovate. The picture has my dinner last night.

Green mangoes, carrots, cucumber, apple, peanuts, raisins, kiwi, green chillies, virgin coconut oil, lemon juice, pepper powder, rock salt and a sprinkle of jaggery.

Add ready to eat, spicy and dried shrimp🦐 to this and it becomes a lovely meal. But it takes longer to digest.

Some Learning Experiences: Intermittent Fasting

NutriBullet, Friend of Nature

Kurian, , , , 15 Comments

It was a gift from my daughter in London, that I am now a proud owner of a NutriBullet, my favourite appliance to fulfil my desire of avoiding processed food.

A fitness enthusiast must be aware of the benefits of clean nature, which our ‘Hunter-Gatherer’ background, demands and the modern day systematic poisoning, forces us.

Along came the success of the all natural wellness resort in Kerala by the best resort people in the country CGHEARTH.

‘Prakriti Shakti’ (nature’s power) even boasts of having no cooking range, stove or fire for cooking food for the inmates. Instead guests are served all natural food.

And the healing resort is full, even at daily rates of nearly $ 400.

Apparently, fresh fruits take about three hours to get out of the system, fresh vegetables six and solid food 18 hours.

That means, if your last meal for the 16.8 Intermittent fasting is solids, you don’t have any food free curing period in the system.

So I took my bullet out and made a smoothie of lettuce, cucumber, apple and kiwi fruit. This dinner is taking me well into the 16 hours before my lunch of solids. That’s 10 hours of healing time.

Of course, I FaceTimed my daughter and showed the NutriBullet in action.

NutriBullet, Friend of Nature

On Intermittent Fasting Again

Kurian, , , , 6 Comments

I am still on it, religiously on the 16.8 schedule seven days a week.

Not very easy, to go starving from dinner to next day lunch, but discipline is something I am accused of!

The good thing about this dinner to lunch is that you don’t make other people inconvenienced. That’s, people don’t generally join or call you for breakfast; but they do for lunch and dinner.

And as part of discipline, I do 12 Surya Namaskars with 45 minuets of Yoga in the morning and alternate on half hour swimming and strength training in the evening, six days of the week.

But the weight stays constant after an initial 5 pounds loss. Of course, I started to look at the mirror again as it has started looking better.

Then the idea of sharing experiences and learning from there and a friend suggested Facebook group.

Went there to join. The best and most popular one has Just one restriction ‘women only’.

Instead of crying discrimination, let me bask in the knowledge that I am in good company.

On Intermittent Fasting Again