After yesterday’s frightening weigh in (and on Halloween, no less!), I’ve decided to give IF a  go. Intermittent Fasting, or “IF” as it’s known, is a popular method for losing weight. There are many different kinds, from whole-day fasting to various other less intense schedules. I will be doing the 16/8 schedule which means you fast for 16 hours and can eat within that 8 hour window. It doesn’t mean you can eat as much as you want; you still need to be sensible, and for maximum results, you should only eat meals you would normally eat within that window. For me, this means skipping my favorite meal of the day: breakfast.

I want to put this out there: I’m a bear when I’m hungry. When Sherry and I vacation, whether it’s just us or with friends, she knows that I need to be fed regularly or, regardless of how much fun we’re having or the neat things we’re seeing, my mood will be bad. I try my best to conceal it, but it bubbles up to the surface. When I told my friend and co-worker Steve that I was trying IF today, he looked sideways at me and said, “Well you’re going to be a lot of fun this morning.”

SIGH

So, why am I trying it? Because I eat Paleo, I exercise (except this week due to weather and schedule conflicts), and I still find myself not getting back down into the 165-170 lbs range. As I talked about yesterday, my alcohol consumption has been higher than it not only should, but more than I actually like. I am not a teetotaler, but I don’t drink often outside of social situations, yet I find myself in social situation after social situation lately that has me drinking more than I have for the preceding 10 months.

Right now, I’m not hungry, but I’m peckish. I am missing my bacon and egg breakfast, and while it’s acceptable to drink black coffee while fasting, it’s no replacement for that yummy bacon and eggs. I don’t know that I could do this long-term, and as I understand it, it’s not meant to be a long-term lifestyle. It’s meant to help get past plateaus and to lose large amounts of weight quickly. I’d be okay with either right now. I’m not overweight, but I am heavier than I’d like to be.

So, IF it is. I will be reporting on my experiences with it this week, and my goal is to stick with it for at least a week or two. I do have a trip to San Antonio planned, so I will likely have breakfast while we are there, but otherwise, I’m going to stick to it. I want to give it a fair shake, and I want to be able to report back on how it went.

In the meantime, I just hope I don’t bite anyone’s head off before noon every day.