Intermittent Fasting Trial, Days 3-4: Lots of projects to keep busy

The first two days of my intermittent fasting trial were super smooth. I found it easy!

Yesterday was a different story.

I wasn't exactly hungry, but I wanted to eat--all.day.long. Jerry said watching me was like that Siri commercial with Cookie Monster. I would describe it, but it's something you just have to watch. I LOVE this commercial!!



I was looking at the clock way too frequently to see if my fasting time was up yet.
I didn't have as much to work on yesterday, because I am literally waiting for paint to dry. Painting the cupboard doors has been quite the process. I have 23 doors, and can only fit half of them on the tables. I put on two coats of primer and two coats of paint. The primer and paint are oil-based, which take a good 24 hours to dry between each and every coat. 
When I paint one side of all of the doors, I have to wait 24 hours before turning them over to apply the first coat to the back! Some of them, I turned too early and you can see smudge marks. Once they are all on the cupboards in the kitchen, I'll go through and touch up where needed. For the most part, though, I am loving how they are turning out! I finished the first half and attached them.
I attached cup handles to the drawers using this AMAZING jig by Kreg that allowed me to do all seven drawers in less than 20 minutes. (I'll eventually write a post showing all the tools and paint and stuff like that we used). I promise you, if you have to put knobs or pulls on cabinets, you NEED THIS JIG. Jerry thinks it's hilarious that I am super into tools and woodwork now. I bought a couple other nifty gadgets to use on some more kitchen stuff. 

Anyway, I was dying to eat all day long, but I did manage to wait until the Chicken Taco Soup was done in the crock pot. I'd forgotten about this soup and hadn't made it in years, but the family raved about how good it was. It's super filling, because there are lots of different beans in it (including a can of refried beans, which makes it very thick and hearty. 

I ended up eating later into the evening than I would have liked as well. I still managed an 18-hour fast window, though. 
Today, I woke up feeling like I wanted to eat again. So, I tried to keep myself as busy as I could, even with insignificant things. I've been really into contact paper lately (I've been lining the kitchen drawers) and I decided to line a box that I've had since 2004(!). 
It's just a cardboard box (very heavy and good quality) that someone gave me a baby shower gift in (when I was pregnant with Noah). I liked the box and I've never been able to bring myself to get rid of it. So, I put contact paper on it, and then used it to store extra plastic wrap, aluminum foil, etc., underneath my sink.

I really wish I'd thought to do that years ago! 
I've been trying to think of a solution for storing dog/cat treats, and I'm having a hard time with it. We used to keep them in the cupboard attached to the wall we took down, and that's obviously no longer there. I searched Pinterest for some ideas, and I thought it would be really cool to make a "pet feeding station"--where we keep the cat food, dog food, water, treats, etc. 
I thought about building one, or going to Salvation Army to buy a piece of furniture that I could turn into one, but then I remembered a shelf in the garage that I bought a long time ago at Salvation Army. I planned to paint it, but I still hadn't gotten to it. 
Anyways, this is what it looked like before:

I'm still not done with it, but I removed the middle shelf and cut out two holes with a jigsaw. Joey's dog dishes will fit in the holes...

Then, I attached the shelf down near the bottom. On the very top, I cut out two more holes. One is for the cat food (on the top shelf, it's out of Joey's reach!) and the other is a hole for the cats to climb through to the top (they could jump to the top, but Estelle loves to climb through things). 

After that, I primed the whole thing, and I'm going to paint it tomorrow. I can put the pets' treats on that middle shelf. The shelf fits perfectly next to the refrigerator, and it's not bulky, which is great. I'll post a photo when it's totally done.
Today, I put the Moroccan Meatballs in the crock pot, and they were SO good. I've always cooked them on the stove, but they definitely taste better in the crock pot. 

So, I'm hoping tomorrow feels easier! I'm sure that since the kids have school, I'll stay super busy between driving and working on the stuff at home. 

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Intermittent Fasting Trial, Day 2 -- Being Photographed While Overweight

Day 2 was another success! I stopped eating last night at 9:30 pm. I hadn't planned on eating more after I wrote my blog post, but Noah's girlfriend brought me a piece of her birthday cake... the most amazing carrot cake! (And you know what a sucker I am for carrot cake.) Her grandmother made it, and every single bite was heavenly.

I'd like to aim for an 18 hours fasting to 6 hours eating window, so that would mean eating at 3:30 today. I like to eat dinner at 4:00, so the timing was great. This morning, I put one of my prepped meals from the freezer into the slow cooker. I chose to make chili. I have been craving Wendy's chili for weeks now, and I looked up some copycat recipes. I'd made a couple before, but something about them was a little off from Wendy's.

The one I made in the slow cooker today was almost spot-on, and it definitely hit the spot! It's been cold and rainy here in Michigan, and nothing sounded better than a hot bowl of chili (with saltine crackers). I read through a ton of different copycat recipes before coming up with my own interpretation. I posted the recipe today, which you can find here: Slow Cooker Wendy's Chili.

This morning, I read a blog post by Andie Mitchell about her postpartum body. Andie lost 135 pounds several years ago, and has had the same ups and downs with her weight as I have. She recently had a baby boy, and in her post, she shared a self-proclaimed unflattering photo--in it, she was holding her baby, wearing her underwear and a robe, while eating a burger and french fries.

She wrote a lovely post about capturing these moments to look back on years from now. She admits that this is where she is right now--50+ pounds overweight and eating comfort food while sleep deprived and getting used to motherhood.

I think most of us moms can relate to those moments when our babies were new and we felt overwhelmed and definitely not camera-worthy. Her husband insisted on taking the photo to laugh about in 20 years, and after thinking about it for a moment, she agreed that capturing the moment was more important than feeling insecure about her postpartum body.

Interestingly, I had a similar experience on Halloween.

As you all know, I'm at my heaviest weight in over eight years. Admitting it and writing about it on my blog helped a lot, but I still feel very insecure and embarrassed of my current body. I haven't been posting pictures of myself for a while--not only because I don't want to share them, but also because I've been avoiding being in front of the camera.

In the few pictures I've seen of myself, I've hardly recognized the girl in the photo. Granted, I'm nowhere near 253 pounds again; but I'd gotten used to my body being 130-145 pounds for most of the last eight years. I know that beating myself up over it won't help a damn thing; but, it's hard to ignore it, too.

On Halloween, I was at Brian and Becky's house for dinner and to chill in front of a fire in the driveway while passing out candy. Luke (my nephew) was absolutely adorable in his lederhosen, and he loved passing out candy. I stood up to take pictures as he dropped candy in a little bucket Brian was holding and pretending to trick-or-treat.

I said, "Trick-or-treat!" to Luke while holding out my hands for candy. Becky said she wanted to take a video of us, and I immediately said no way. Becky, who knows that I haven't been feeling great about my weight lately, insisted that I would want these memories with Luke one day.

I told myself that taking the video doesn't mean I have to share it; I can just have it for myself, to capture fun moments with my adorable nephew who is growing up way too fast. So, Becky took a video of my trick-or-treating with Luke, and sure enough, I looked at it critically when I got home. Instead of viewing it as a moment with Luke, I started picking apart my body.

Reading Andie's post this morning, I realized how shallow and ridiculous it is to focus on my body instead of the moment. Criticizing my looks now isn't going to change anything--it only succeeds in making me feel bad about myself. Looking at Andie's photo, I wasn't repulsed, critical, or judgmental at all. So why do I assume everyone will be if I post photos of myself after having gained a noticeable amount of weight?

I had no intention of sharing these, but Andie's post inspired me. Whether I look good or bad doesn't matter. The point is that I had fun with my nephew and my sister-in-law captured the moment.

I actually wrote a whole post about all of this before, and I do try to keep it in mind. Capturing memories are so important! Not just for ourselves, but for other people in the photo. I don't have many pictures of myself with my kids when they were little, because I was ashamed of my weight. And now my kids won't have many photos of us together, which is sad. My insecurity shouldn't keep them from preserving those memories.

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One last thing...

I actually went for a run today! For no reason other than the fact that I wanted to. Contrary to popular belief, I did not feel weak or a lack of energy from fasting during the day. I felt so good that I was in the mood to go for a run!

I even ran four miles, which is the farthest I've run in a very long time. I felt great for about half a mile, and then my left knee started bothering me. I have NO idea why. The only thing I could possibly think of was that I banged it pretty hard on the corner of the coffee table a few days ago (it left a nasty bruise).

I kept hoping that my knee would feel better if I just "ran through it", but that never happened. And it's been pretty sore the rest of the day. I'm super bummed! I felt so good about being out on a run today--the weather was perfect and I was feeling good about myself from doing the intermittent fasting. I'm hoping the knee issue was just a random occurrence. I'd like to go out again soon :)

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RECIPE: Slow Cooker Wendy's Chili (A Copycat Recipe)

I've had a non-stop craving for Wendy's chili ever since Michigan made a turn from miserably hot summer to a very cold and rainy fall. It's rained more this past week than it had all spring long! The weather makes me excited to cook soups, stews, and chili.

I browsed through several copycat Wendy's chili recipes, even cooking a couple of them, before tweaking this and that and making my own version that I found to be just right. Since I've been using the crock pot so much lately, I made this in the crock pot and I think that having it cook on low all day long really made it that much better. It was SO delicious! Especially after fasting all day. (Food tastes a million times better when I'm hungry.)

In true Wendy's fashion, I like to eat this with saltines instead of topping with cheese and onions (my usual chili go-to toppings).

Click here for the printer-friendly recipe

Copycat Wendy's Chili (in the slow cooker)

Ingredients:
2 pounds ground beef (I like 90/10)
15-oz can of tomato sauce
15-oz can of crushed tomatoes
2 15-oz cans of petite diced tomatoes
2 15-oz cans of red kidney beans (do not drain)
2 15-oz cans of pinto beans (do not drain)
1 onion, diced
2 green bell peppers, chopped
4 Tbsp. chili powder
1 Tbsp. cumin
2 tsp. sugar
1-1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. black pepper
2 Tbsp. butter*

Directions for slow cooker:

Brown the ground beef in a skillet, and then drain. Add the beef to the slow cooker.
Stir in the rest of the ingredients with the exception of the butter. Cook on low for 8 hours. Stir in the butter and serve the chili with saltine crackers.

This makes a large batch of chili--about 16 cups. Luckily, chili makes for fantastic leftovers, and can even be frozen for another time. 

Notes:
*The butter is clearly optional, but you may notice that Wendy's chili has a silky mouthfeel to it. Adding a touch of butter to the chili gives it that same texture.

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Intermittent Fasting Trial, Day 1 -- Another Meal Prep Session

A few days ago, I wrote that I wanted to experiment with intermittent fasting. I am curious to see if it affects not only my weight, but things like my energy level, sleep, and digestion. My weight is at the highest it's been in eight years, and my attempts at getting back to calorie counting have only been half-hearted. 

I wanted to try something different, but only if it fits in with my number one rule: Don't make any changes you're not willing to live with forever.

I spent decades of my life trying all the different fad diets and they got me nowhere. So, in 2009, I decided to only make changes that I was willing to do forever. And it worked! I dropped 125 pounds by eating only the foods that I love (in moderate portions) and eventually exercising. Each change I made was something that I had to be willing to do for the rest of my life.

I've seen a number of fad diets come and go over the last nine years since I started losing weight. Sometimes they are tempting to try when my weight is up 10 or 20 pounds, but I always remind myself that I need to stick with the promise I made myself all those years ago.

Intermittent fasting is very trendy right now, but I don't consider it a "fad diet". Like I wrote in my post about it, it seems to me to be a pretty natural way of eating and it would be very convenient in my life. It's certainly something I would be willing to do forever if I enjoy doing it during this 30-day trial period.

I'm calling this a "trial" or "challenge" or "experiment" because I am genuinely curious what changes (if any) the intermittent fasting will have on me. My plan is to do it for 30 days and keep a record of as many things as I can--my hunger levels, my weight and body fat, my sleep patterns, and even my mental state. It will be awesome if I notice a decrease in anxiety or stress, as some people have reported. 

Anyways, today went very well! It's not quite bedtime now, but I am feeling full and content and I don't think I'll be eating anything else tonight. 

I had a super busy day planned, which was great in helping me not focus on hunger (or boredom eating). Remember how I prepped 20 freezer-to-slow-cooker meals last month? Well, we used them all up, having one nearly every single day. And I LOVED IT. I'd spent 7-8 hours prepping everything in one day, but for three weeks after that, I didn't have to cook at all--and we were still able to eat a home-cooked meal every night. 

Yesterday, I did a huge grocery run to do another prep session--this time, I planned to prep 27 meals for the month of November. I used several of the recipes from last month, but I ditched the ones we didn't like and added some of our personal favorites from my recipe collection. I included a lot of my favorite recipes, but most of them aren't slow cooker recipes, so I converted them the best I could. We'll see how it goes! (I'll share the list and notes once I see how everything turns out.)

So, after spending $300 at the grocery store yesterday (yikes! But it's not bad, considering it's for the entire month), I threw everything in the fridge in order to get right to work when I woke up in the morning. The kids didn't have school today (they always get the day after Halloween off), so I was able to sleep in until 9:00! It was SO nice. I haven't been sleeping well at all lately because of the nerve issue with my arm.

When I woke up, I quickly took my body measurements (I'm not at all ready to share those yet--oh, my, they are much different from the last time I took them! haha), my body fat percentage, my resting heart rate, and my weight. Just some numbers to use for comparison purposes later, if I feel like there is a difference. 

While my weight dipped into the 150's a couple of weeks ago, even seeing 158.0, today I was back up to 162.4. I'm sure it had nothing to do with the kids sharing their candy with me last night ;)  Let's hope that I see some progress this month--at least enough to give me a push to want to continue. 

By 9:15, I was in the kitchen with an apron on and prepping food for the 27 meals I planned to have in the freezer by the end of the day. (This meal prep sounds ridiculous, I know. I never understood people who made all sorts of freezer meals like this, but now that I tried it, I love it! The prep work isn't fun, but I love not having to cook all month.)

I had coffee this morning with a teaspoon of heavy cream (having cream in your coffee is controversial among people who do intermittent fasting, but I figured that if having coffee with a touch of heavy cream helps me to fast during the day, then it doesn't matter to me whether it's "correct" or not. I'm doing this for myself. And Dr. Jason Fung, author of The Complete Guide to Fasting and a bit of an intermittent fasting guru, says that it's fine.)

It worked well, too! I stayed very busy with the meal prep, which ended up taking until 5:00. Crazy, right? But I now have 27 meals in the freezer, ready to throw in the crock pot in the mornings. Jerry and I wanted to avoid eating out at all this month, so now we don't have any excuses. 

I didn't even really notice if I was hungry through the day or not, because I was so focused on what I was doing. The day went by so quickly! I ate dinner a little after 5:00, and thankfully, I didn't pig out. That's one concern I had about intermittent fasting, considering I have binge eating disorder. I didn't want to fast half of the day only to follow it up with a binge. 

I'm happy with how my first day went! It was much easier than I thought it would be. It may be more difficult when I'm not so busy, but considering I'm working on the kitchen renovation (and probably will be for another couple of months), I plan to stay busy enough to get used to the different eating patterns. 

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Today would have been Mark's birthday. I still laugh about the fact that he always told us his birthday was on Halloween (he thought it was) and then when he was in the hospital, his bracelet read "11-1-1955". We were all so surprised! Mark was never sure of his age, either, so it was interesting to finally learn that as well. (We didn't tell him that we'd been celebrating his birthday on the wrong day all those years--and I'll always think of his birthday as being on Halloween.) 

I'm sure Halloween was an easy way for him to remember it. I find it surprising that he would have been 63 today--he seemed about 10 years younger than that to me! I thought of him a lot last night when we were handing out candy. Halloween just isn't the same without him. 

BUT... how cute is Luke in his lederhosen?!

He loved passing out candy so much that when he went trick-or-treating at a few of the neighbors' houses, he gave away his candy to some random kids on his way back home, hahaha. 

And Riley... she is SO sweet! She has an enormous smile that (unfortunately) is impossible to catch on camera. She's very alert and made all sorts of squeaky noises when I was holding her. She looked like a baby doll in her little dirndl (a.k.a. dress; I had to look up the name of it.)!

While Halloween is bittersweet without Mark, I do love the new tradition of spending the evening with my nephew and niece :) 

I miss the days of dressing my kids in cute Halloween costumes. Yesterday, Noah dressed as Michael Myers, and Eli dressed as a bandit. 

I gave Eli a mustache and beard shadow with make-up, and I thought it looked hilarious. They're so grown up. They are both taller than I am now!

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RECIPE: Chocolate Lava Cake Pudding

Yesterday, I had a rare and random craving for chocolate pudding. And not just any chocolate pudding. It had to be warm, homemade chocolate pudding. When I asked the kids if they wanted some, they sounded kind of "Meh" about it. Eli helped me make it, and when I let him lick the spoon, he couldn't stop exclaiming how good it was. 

When Noah tasted it, his face lit up and he said, "This is like dessert! Actual DESSERT!" I laughed, and said, "What do you think chocolate pudding is? Of course it's dessert!" Sadly, both of the boys had only ever experienced Snack Pack pudding cups (and "Get Well Pudding", for which I will have to post the recipe another time). Eating the homemade pudding yesterday opened up a new world of dessert for them--I found their reactions pretty funny.

If you eat this pudding while it's still warm, about 15 minutes after cooling, it tastes just like the center of a lava cake. To make it extra heavenly, add a big dollop of whipped cream on top.

Anyway, here is my recipe for "lava cake" pudding. (In full disclosure, this is actually just homemade chocolate pudding. But when you eat it warm, you will think you died and went to lava cake heaven. I'm sure if I'd asked the kids if they wanted "lava cake pudding" instead of "chocolate pudding", they would have reacted completely differently.)

Don't let the photo fool you--I'm not a food photographer, so this is as pretty as it gets, haha.

Click here for a printer-friendly version

Chocolate Lava Cake Pudding (makes 4 servings)

1/2 cup sugar
1/3 cup cocoa powder
2 Tbsp. corn starch
2 cups milk (I use whole milk)
2 egg yolks
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 Tbsp. butter
(optional) whipped cream, for topping

Separate two eggs and discard the whites. Put the yolks in a bowl, stir until smooth, and set aside.

In a medium saucepan, combine sugar, cocoa powder, and cornstarch. Before turning on the heat, whisk in the milk slowly (make sure it combines with the cornstarch before pouring all of the milk in, otherwise you will end up with clumps of cornstarch).

Once the milk is stirred in, turn the heat on to medium-high. Keep whisking frequently until the mixture comes to a boil. Carefully pour about half of the mixture into the bowl of egg yolks, and stir well, then pour the yolk mixture back into the pan and stir it all together.

Bring it back to a boil and cook for about 30-60 seconds, stirring constantly. Remove from heat and stir in the butter and vanilla extract. Divide among four bowls. Let it set for 15-20 minutes to eat while it's warm (or put the bowls in the fridge and wait until it's chilled.

Then just listen to your kids exclaim that they didn't know chocolate pudding was a *real* dessert ;)

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An Intermittent Fasting Experiment

(I explain later why I chose such an unflattering photo for the title of this post, haha)

Unless you've been hiding under a rock for the last year or so, you have probably heard the words "intermittent fasting" thrown around a LOT.

In a nutshell, intermittent fasting is cycling between periods of eating and periods of fasting--usually fasting for a minimum of 12 hours, up to about 20 hours, per day. You have a "window" of time where you eat each day, and then spend the rest of the time fasting. This is done daily. (There are other methods that involve fasting on certain days, but when I refer to it here, I'm talking about the time window on a daily basis.

I've always made it clear that I'm not a fan of hopping on the next bandwagon of fad diets. I did that for 20 years, and it got me nowhere. It wasn't until I made the decision to only make changes that I was willing to live with forever that I finally lost the weight and kept (most) of it off.

Each new fad diet contradicts that last, and it's a never ending cycle. In my opinion, the ideal diet boils down to 1) variety, and 2) moderation. Basically, just eating a diverse variety of foods and keeping portions controlled to what our bodies are comfortable with.

Interestingly, I also think that intermittent fasting is a good idea--and I don't consider it a fad diet. (Right now, it's definitely trending, but fasting has been around since the beginning of time and it's not a new concept.) I feel like intermittent fasting is a logical concept--until the last several decades, food wasn't readily available at all times of the day and night, and eating snacks between meals wasn't really a "thing".

And WAY back in the day, when people had to hunt and gather food, they probably weren't snacking all day long. So, when I think of it that way, it makes a lot of sense to me. I don't think our bodies were meant to constantly digest food.

(All of this is my opinion, of course. I am not suggesting in any way that it is the ideal way of eating. As I've always said, we all need to do whatever works best for us as individuals. So, please don't feel the need to defend snacking. I'm not trying to recruit anyone, haha. That's why I'm calling what I'm about to write an "experiment".)

So, because I believe that intermittent fasting can be a good thing, I'd like to give it a try. Of course I'd like to drop these extra pounds I've picked up, but I also want to see if it makes me feel better in general. I get bad stomachaches sometimes after eating, and I also get very bloated when I overeat. I'd be interested to see if eating less frequently helps that.

(In the photos below, I was in Portland with Jerry, and I was MISERABLE. My abdomen felt so bloated that I thought it would burst open like a popped balloon. I was so sure that I looked six months pregnant by the way my stomach felt, so I had Jerry take these pictures. I was shocked to see that I looked normal--thin, even!--because I felt enormous.)

I also like the idea of the simplicity of it; the thought of not having to worry about what to eat for breakfast or lunch is so appealing. I've always done best with keeping my diet simple!

Anyway, the whole point of this is that I'm going to try out intermittent fasting for 30 days and see how I feel/what kind of results I notice (good or bad). I'm going to write in a journal to keep track of symptoms that I hope to improve (bloating, stomachaches, energy level, sleep, mood, and some others).

On my 40 Goals Before 40 Years Old list, I listed a goal of committing to a 30-day challenge. I've been thinking and thinking about what I want that challenge to be (and I've attempted a couple, but didn't make it). I finally decided that I'm going to challenge myself to try intermittent fasting for 30 days to knock this goal off my list as well as see if it works well for me.

Like I said, I am not pushing for or against intermittent fasting, nor am I trying to change anyone's opinion of it. I just think that because the concept makes sense to ME, it would be fun to try it as an experiment!

I know I could start this now, but I like the idea of starting on the first of the month, and since it's almost November, I'll start on Thursday, November 1. I'll mark down my starting weight, measurements, and body fat, then note anything else that may be helpful (hunger levels, sleep, energy, etc.)

As far as the length of my eating "window", a common time frame that people do is 16/8 (16 hours of fasting and 8 hours of eating). That would be like starting the fast at around 8 PM and then eating at noon the next day. That seems like a large window to me, and I know I could eat a lot of food in eight hours, hahaha.

I'd like to aim for six hours to start, and see if that feels doable. Four hours would be even better. So the fast would be roughly 8:00 PM to 2:00 PM the next day. I'm not going to keep a rigid start/stop time, but I will aim for 2:00-4:00PM until 8:00-10:00 PM as an eating window.

By the way, LOTS of readers have suggested that I read The Obesity Code: Unlocking the Secrets of Weight Loss, by Dr. Jason Fung. I think this book played a large part in the huge interest in intermittent fasting recently. I do have the book (I actually bought it a long time ago!) but I have only read the first couple of chapters. Since I'm going to be doing this experiment, I'll do my best to finish it as soon as I can.


I'm really looking forward to trying this, even if it winds up being a big flop. It's always exciting to focus on something new. And this is a good time to try it, because I've been staying super busy working on the kitchen (I finished painting half of the cabinet doors--it's taking forever because it's been so cold that the paint won't dry! I'm painting them in the garage, which doesn't have heat.)

If any of you have tried intermittent fasting and want to share your experience (good or bad), please do! I'd like to know how other people do with it.

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25 Fun Race Signs to Cheer for Runners

Like I mentioned yesterday, Jerry and I went to the Detroit Marathon to cheer on Dave as he ran his first half-marathon. On the way there, we stopped and bought a few poster boards to write signs to hold during the race.

I'm terrible at coming up with ideas for signs! But I know that I love to see them during races--especially the funny ones. Inspirational signs are nice, but I love a sign that can make me laugh when I'm chugging along in a race.

Anyway, as I was searching through sign ideas on Google, I saved some that I thought were great. Here are 25 of my favorites :)

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Share your favorite race signs in a comment, if you'd like! If you're going to be cheering on a runner, I wrote a post about some ideas that may be helpful: How to Support Your Runner.

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