What I’ve Realized over 12 Months of IF

I like chewing and swallowing. I always have, and I don’t see that changing. Making the transition from chewing and swallowing all day long to making that happen within a few-hours-window every day — otherwise known as time-restricted eating, or intermittent fasting — has been a positive experience for me in the following ways:

I feel good — mentally, physically, and emotionally. I don’t feel quite as groggy as I used to when I wake up in the morning, and I don’t feel stiff and achy when I get out of bed. Not that I had much of a problem with joint pain or inflammation, but I notice I move more freely / with more ease than in the past. Going downstairs first thing in the morning is no longer such an adventure. And the Achilles Tendonitis I have dealt with off and on for a few years is G.O.N.E. Gone. I no longer have the tender, inflamed bump I could feel on my ankles at all times. I enjoy a new sense of calm and clarity that gives me a welcome sense of peace and order about my life. While that is difficult to quantify, I don’t discount or overlook it in the least because it has improved the experience of my life on a daily basis.

I have more energy (and believe me, I have NEVER understood before how GOOD that can feel) Not being one who enjoys Exercise with a capital “E,” I have discovered I like to get myself moving, and I have launched two job changes while doing IF / with an IF brain (which feels different than my eating-all-day-long brain) that have made that happen. My daughters have noticed it and consider me the Energizer Bunny (I don’t resonate with that imagery. The bunny’s energy seems to lack purpose. But I get their meaning.)

I. Just. Feel. Good.

Freedom. Having never enjoyed feeding people — including myself — I feel freedom from food — from thinking about it all day, from planning / purchasing / preparing it three times a day. I’m liberated from having to make decisions about food for most of the day, freeing up time, mental space, and energy for other things. I feel as though I’ve discovered a new, available room in the house of my mind.

Positive body image. Now that I have lost weight, I am comfortable with the size of my body and no longer focus on what I want to hide or disguise when I get dressed for the day. It’s just a nonissue, which, likewise, frees up mental real estate. To get clinical about it, I have lost 35-ish pounds (it fluctuates) since August of 2022.

Sustainable Weight Management. Originally thinking I would try IF for one year to just “see what happens,” I soon realized this is a sustainable lifestyle for me — one that I enjoy for various reasons, and I can let go of the restrictive / diet model of eating I have followed off and on throughout my adult life. This. Is. Huge. I’m certainly aware that some choices are better for me than others, but no food is off the table.

Simplicity. While there is obviously a decision to be made every day to follow IF or not, I’ve found it isn’t really about willpower or discipline. It’s more elementary — basic — than that: the eating window is either open or it is closed. If it’s closed, there’s no decision to be made. If it’s open, I can eat what I’d like to eat. While on some days it may not be easy, IF is simple.

The combination of all of the above has made me more interested in learning how to feed myself well. If I’m only eating once / for a few hours per day, I’d like to get the biggest nutritional bang for my buck, and don’t want to waste my chewing and swallowing on junk that I know isn’t good for me. I’m still figuring out what that looks like, but the desire to eat well-sourced, whole, nutritionally-dense food is genuine, and while good-quality food — organic and local, if possible — is pricier in the store… I’m not eating as much of it as I used to, so I think it balances out.

Like most women my age, I have struggled to maintain my “ideal” body weight / size / shape in my adulthood. While I never followed a particularly wacky diet in my quest for the ideal body, I did careen from one program to another whenever I yo-yoed back up after successfully losing weight, including:

• Herbalife — I couldn’t see myself drinking meal-replacement shakes and swallowing all the supplement capsules every day. Forever.
• Weight Watchers — Lifetime Member Status! “Nothing tastes as good as being thin feels!”
• Slimfast — I didn’t really mind this, but see above.
• Stop the Insanity! with Susan Powter — the low-fat decade.
• Prism – a faith-based program that focused on helping group members find the “true you” with a heaping helping of scripture. And zero refined white sugar or white flour.
• 14-day elimination “cleanse” – eliminated sugar, grains and dairy. I extended this for awhile, and then re-introduced and limited that in my diet.

Occasionally, I teamed up my efforts with working out, including:

• A NordicTrack weight training machine in the laundry room
• Sheena Easton’s 7-Minute Stomach VHS tape
• Running — Never more than 3 miles or so. I enjoyed it for the first time in my life, and continued for a few years until my ankles / shins / knees / hips hurt — they took turns.
• Personal trainer & working out at a nearby community center
• New and improved weight machine plus treadmill in unfinished basement
• Anytime Fitness

While I was able to sustain each of the above methods for awhile by keeping the guardrails up as I went through my daily life, my “want to” always petered out. I don’t necessarily regret any part of that journey. I discovered new information over the years — about food, exercise and myself — that I’ve found useful.

But while I succeeded in losing weight with all of these programs, ultimately — with every single one — I failed to sustain the weight loss. Each time, I was certain I had finally found THE solution to my struggle, and became smug and cocky, which usually launched the next upward cycle (“I’ve lost 30 pounds. I can eat the sleeve of Thin Mints”). I have gained and lost the same 30-ish pounds over the past 40 years. I have tired of tracking what I eat, and am weary of holding certain foods at bay. A confirmed bookworm / couch potato, I’m not likely to Jazzercise myself out of poor food choices.

My first experience with Intermittent Fasting was when the world shut down due to the Pandemic. Figuring it was a good time to give it a try (who would know if I was hangry, alone in my house? I didn’t even have a dog then), I started with a 20-hour fast followed by a four-hour eating window. I could have waded in more gradually, but I was fortunate in not having too much trouble with the plan I chose. Some people struggle to adapt to fasting and experience a variety of unpleasant physical responses ranging from headaches to digestive issues.

Thanks to my sister telling me about Gin Stephens and her book, Delay, Don’t Deny, I was following Gin’s recommendations, which I’ve found to be good, solid information. She’s all about fasting “clean,”* so I was limited to black coffee, unflavored brewed tea, or unflavored sparkling or still water during the fast. Never being a coffee drinker, I was addicted at the time to Coke Zero (starting first thing in the morning). I knew I needed a new form of caffeine, so I began drinking cold brew coffee every morning, 4 ounces, before switching to water for the duration of the fast each day. I have now weaned myself off the morning caffeine routine.

I don’t recall feeling any ill effects of fasting, other than the admittedly sad lack of mouth entertainment until my eating window opened every day. Not having to think about food three times a day felt like freedom. Once I got past the first week or so of adjustment, I realized I wasn’t hungry all day long. I felt good and had noticeable energy. I launched this blog during that time, and began contemplating a job change that I brought about a few months later. At the time I thought both were just the result of having the time alone at home to reflect, but I now wonder if they were also outgrowths of the clear-headed thinking and settled resolve of my brain in a fasted state.

Once we returned to work, I just gradually stopped fasting. I hadn’t expected to lose weight quickly, and I didn’t; I believe I maybe lost 10-ish pounds in three months, and went down one size in jeans. Remember, I was sitting on my couch almost all day / every day.

By September of 2021 Pandemic Fatigue set in and I kind of “let go.” I gained that 10 pounds back and then some. It didn’t feel good, and once I entered a new decade (I turned 60 in May of 2022), I began that familiar process of casting about for my next weight-management strategy.

I had liked IF for various reasons, so why not give it another go? Around that time, I heard of MCT oil (highly concentrated coconut oil that is consumed for energy and improved metabolism). I decided to give IF another try and team it up with MCT oil during my eating window.** I began on August 8. Between that date and the end of the year, my mother-in-law and mom passed away, I traveled to Vermont with my sisters to celebrate our BIG birthdays, and to Mexico with my daughter and ex-husband to celebrate our other daughter’s birthday with her, in addition to sandwiching in The Holidays. At points throughout those months I relaxed my fasting routine as needed, and resumed it when I could do so comfortably… giving myself grace according to what I was experiencing. All of this gave me confidence that I can make IF a sustainable practice, and set it aside as needed when the occasion calls for it.

By the end of 2022 — in about four months — I had lost 35 pounds, and that’s what I’ve maintained since then. I’m at the weight I was when I became pregnant with my first child, and which I haven’t seen on the scale since. Until now.

I have never experienced such rapid weight loss in such a short amount of time. I know it wasn’t 35 pounds of fat. But I don’t care. Body re-composition, reduced inflammation, and pounds lost have all combined to make me feel good and wear smaller jeans. And I have found it incredibly simple. What appeals to me most about using IF as my customary method of eating is that I’m not consciously restricting myself from eating anything. I can choose anything I’d like within my daily window, and can lengthen or shorten the window as needed.

Regarding activity level, I try to walk the dog one hour daily, and am now working a different fulltime job — standing and moving for eight hours a day rather than sitting at a computer, so that obviously accounts for the results I experienced, as well. Is it the activity level? Or the MCT oil? Or intermittent fasting? All I can say is YES. It may be the combination of all three.

More significantly, I’ve liked IF for all of the reasons I’ve already mentioned. I’ve come to agree with what I’ve heard Gin Stephens and her guests say numerous times on her Intermittent Fasting Stories podcast: “We come for the weight loss and stick around for the health benefits.”

Over the past year, I have lost 16 inches, total, from my bust / waist / hips. According to my Shapa scale, I have achieved a 5% decrease in body fat (I got it in March, so that’s when it started tracking). My waist-to-height ratio (which I’ve come to understand is a good marker of health, and should be between .40 and .49) started at .61. It is now .51. So while that seems GREAT to me, there is still room for improvement, and I believe I have the tools I need to make it happen. I haven’t lost any more weight in 2023, and that’s OK. I am comfortable with my size, so weight loss is not a primary focus. Body re-composition may continue to occur, and I can certainly tweak things at any time.

What I’m focusing on at this point with IF is determining how best to nourish myself in the eating window I have every day, and I slide that time frame around as needed if I go out for lunch with a friend or spend a weekend away. I find IF to be flexible and forgiving (Thank heavens. The Great Minnesota Get-Together is just around the corner. Tom Thumb donuts… Yum!), and know that after a day or more of looser boundaries around my eating window — Which. Is. Going. To. Happen — I can return to my usual fasting routine the next day with no sense of guilt or anxiety.

Regarding fitness, I genuinely appreciate physical activity as I never have before, and I now think about it less as “exercise,” and more as “functional movement” — exerting energy that achieves improved mobility, balance and coordination, whether I’m hiking with the dog or cleaning out my garage. I believe the increased energy level and clear mind have combined to bring my new attitude about.

When I decided to try intermittent fasting, I opened more than a daily eating window. I opened a window on other health / wellness / nutrition practices that will be of benefit to me in years to come. I feel like I’ve given myself a valuable gift as I venture — with trepidation — closer to Senior… sigh, Aging… gulp, Elderly territory.

I’ve found all of that with IF. But it could be that the most important thing I’ve realized over 12 months of intermittent fasting is a body size and shape that makes sense for the 5’2″ frame that God gave me, and a plan I can live with to keep it that way. Now, if I can just keep from becoming smug and cocky…

A girl can dream…

_{*The term “Clean Fasting” was coined by Gin Stephens and others in a support group setting after Delay, Don’t Deny was released. It refers to the idea that it is the best method for achieving three main goals while fasting: keeping insulin levels as low as possible during the fast; tapping into our own fat stores for fuel; experiencing increased autophagy and all the upcyling in the body that comes with it (paraphrased from Gin’s book Fast, Feast, Repeat, p. 53) Consuming anything more during the fast (such as cream in the coffee) keeps it from being a “clean” fast.}

_{**Gin Stephens is NOT a fan of MCT oil, in case anyone wonders. I believe her position is not necessarily that it doesn’t have an efficacious result (although I may be mistaken and she thinks it’s hooey), but that one’s energy- and fat-burning should come from or be spent on one’s own FAT stores, rather than on a product that is swallowed. Having consumed MCT oil during my eating window, not while fasting, I just finished the last tablespoon of the bottle I had, and don’t expect to buy more.}