Lori
We don’t have a weekly weigh-in from Lori this week as she continues her travels.
Krista
I’m down 2.6 pounds this week, from 183 last week to 180.4 this week. That’s perfect because I aim for an average loss of 2.5 pounds a week. And my goal for this week was 179, so I got close to that.
Four weeks ago I weighed 185 though, which means I’m down just 4.6 pounds in that time. That’s an average of 1.1 pounds a week.
Three weeks ago I weighed 184.8, so for next week’s weigh-in I would like to be at 174.8. That would be a loss of 5.6 pounds this week. That sounds like a lot in a week, but I’ve really been battling getting out of the 180s for a few weeks now, so I definitely think it’s doable. I’ve been a little stuck for a few weeks, which probably means I’m on the verge of a major loss. For me that usually means drinking lots of water and not necessarily breaking my fasts on a schedule but instead eating only when I’m hungry. So that will be my plan this week.
Lori
We don’t have a food diary for Lori this week as she continues traveling.
Krista
Friday, October 1
I had planned to fast from lunch today until Sunday morning, but I broke early for a reason I don’t regret at all. I got to spend a Friday night with my 21-year-old son who cooked dinner! I forgot to take a picture of what he made, but there’s a photo below as an example of what Chicken Tikka Masala looks like. It was delicious! He made it with rice, so there were lots of carbs, but I didn’t gain any weight! He’s going to tweak the recipe a little next time, and I’ll make cauliflower rice for mine to go over when he does. While we ate dinner, we watched the first two episodes of a show he discovered on Netflix that he thought I’d like – and I did! If you’re looking for a good suspenseful, slow burn, creepy show to watch in October, I recommend Midnight Mass.
Saturday, October 2
I fasted.
Sunday, October 3
I broke my fast about 9:00 AM with:
- 2 scrambled eggs with cheddar cheese
- 2 Trader Joe’s chicken breakfast sausage links
- 1 serving Trader Joe’s frozen spiralized zucchini with about a tablespoon of Trader Joe’s Organic Marinara sauce and a pinch of shredded parmesan cheese
- a very small slice of a raspberry vanilla Bundt cake
Here are pics of everything. A little tip too for cooking frozen spiralized zucchini: The instructions said to put the frozen zucchini in a skillet, cover it, and simmer for 7 to 9 minutes. Since it’s frozen, this released lots of water, and I didn’t want soggy zucchini. So I drained the water from the pan then pressed paper towels down on top of the zucchini. I did this 3 times, then I cooked it a little longer to get the remaining water out of it. It came out really good this way.
Monday, October 4
I broke my fast about 10:00 this morning with:
- 1 cup Trader Joe’s Kettle Cooked Chicken Soup
- 1/4 cup TJ’s egg salad
- 4 parmesan crisps
- 3 slices turkey bacon – I didn’t mean to pick up turkey bacon and didn’t realize I had until I started making my meal. It’s also Trader Joe’s (nitrate and nitrite free). It was good but not nearly as good as good old pork bacon in my opinion. 🙂
My meal plan included a cup of the TJ’s egg salad, but I was full after eating everything else and about 1/4 of the egg salad so I stopped. I just have the rest for another meal sometime this week. Here are pictures of my meal. I included the supplements I took with my meal and I try to take every time I break my fast – B Complex drops, Vitamin D drops, and fish oil. The drops are in my water, which is why the water is orange.
Tuesday, October 5
I fasted.
Wednesday, October 6
I had the exact same thing that I had Monday. I finished the egg salad this time.
Thursday, October 7
I fasted.
Other Updates for the Week
Krista
At Old, Fat, & Fasting, we’re about both health and weight loss, and certain health issues are common as we get older. One reason I fast is the abundance of evidence that losing weight reduces your risk for so many conditions. Among those is chronic back and joint pain. The extra weight puts added stress on all parts of your body, causes inflammation, and contributes to pain. The pain I used to have from just simple things like standing from a sitting position are gone thanks to fasting, but I still experience pain in my back, neck, and shoulders and have pain in my hips at night.
This week I started doing yoga daily again like I used to. It does wonders for my pain. In fact, I missed one day this week and really paid for it the next day. I know two things that also contribute to some of my pain. Spending too much time on my phone is a major contributor to my neck pain, so I’m going to work on reducing that. And sitting too much is a major contributor to my hip pain. I really try to get up frequently during the day but do better about this on some days than on others. Fixing my neck pain has been fairly easy in the past if I just stick with doing what I know I need to do. Fixing the hip pain is a longer road, however because it has been building up for years.
Below you’ll find the yoga videos I’ve been using this week. I’ve used them in the past and they always help me. I try to do at least the first one (Morning Yoga for Stiff Bodies) every morning. Some mornings, that’s all I get in. Some mornings I get the first three in, that’s the goal. Then the sciatica and upper back videos I try to work in later in the day – ideally during my lunch break, sometimes at bed time. I just do as many of them as I can each day. Once in a while I manage to fit in only the first one. Others, I get them all in.
I want to live a long life, and I want it to be a healthy and enjoyable one. I don’t want to be in pain or unable to get around if at all possible. Yoga will help with flexibility, pain, and mobility, but I also need to increase my strength and improve my cardio health as well. To address those concerns, I signed up with an app called Mighty Health this week. Yes, I’ve tried other fitness apps before, many of them. This one is different though because it targets people over 50. I started a strength-building class this week that is done completely while sitting in a chair. No equipment needed. And every exercise is easily modified by just reducing the range of motion. The classes acknowledge that the people taking them may not have a full range of motion and simply encourage you to do the best you can. And it addresses aging issues like decreased hand strength. I love that. I also think this class will help my back issues because strong abdominal muscles support your back better and can ease back pain. Tomorrow I start a beginner cardio class. I’m hoping I’ll be as happy with that one as I am with the strength class. I’ll let you know how my experience with Mighty Health is as I continue.
Balance also becomes an issue for many people as they age. I don’t struggle with it too much right now, except sometimes when I go down stairs. I feel a little unsteady with that first step or two. Also below is one video I found that shows 10 exercises for improving balance. The title says “for seniors” but they can be done by anyone. Bob and Brad are physical therapists and their channel is full of exercises for all kinds of challenges that people come into their office for. They’re very informal and I have found their videos helpful in the past.
Quick Final Word
Fasting, like any lifestyle change, can seem overwhelming in the beginning. At the heart of it, though, it’s very simple. Check out this video Lori and I did about the very basics of fasting. Start there and build. For me, adding yoga, strength training, and cardio classes is a lifestyle change and it could seem overwhelming if I let it. I’m doing it with the mindset that I try to have about everything – progress, not perfection. If I can lay my head on my pillow at night knowing that I did the very best I could do that day, I’m good. Some days that means I broke my fast early and didn’t get any of my yoga or exercises done. If that happened because other things were a higher priority that day, that’s fine. Or maybe I don’t get all these things done because my body is telling me it’s tired and I just need a day or rest. That’s fine too. Progress not perfection.
And one last thing. I saw this on social media this week and it really struck a chord with me.
“Discipline is the strongest form of self-love.
It is ignoring current pleasures for bigger rewards to come.”
This is what fasting is about. It’s what exercise is about. It’s what hard work is about. It’s what anything that you do on a regular basis, whether you feel like it or not, is about. You do it on the days it’s hard because you know that the future payoff will be well worth it.
It made me think of two things from many years ago. One was when we were kids and we’d wake up on a school morning and tell Dad that we didn’t feel good and wanted to stay home from school. His advice would invariably be to take a shower, get dressed, and see how we felt then. Nine times out of ten we felt better and went about our day.
The other thing is something a youth pastor in our church said to me one time. I was telling him one Sunday morning how much I had not wanted to come to church that day. His response was that sometimes the days we most don’t want to go to church are the days we most need to go to church. That’s advice that I think applies to many things in life, just like my dad’s advice on mornings I didn’t feel good when I woke up.
Sometimes the days we just really aren’t motivated to do much of anything in the morning are the days we especially need to make ourselves do it anyway. It really is amazing for me what a difference it can make to just force myself to put on makeup or do the yoga anyway. I never regret it. It never negatively impacts me.
So next time you’re thinking it would just be easier to eat whatever you want or not take that walk or not do anything else you do for your health, do it anyway. Or if you decide not to do it, if you really are too tired and you really do think you need to rest for a day or two, that’s perfectly fine. We all need rest now and then. But limit it to a day or two, then get back at it, because there is a bigger reward to come.