Welcome to my tenth month of intermittent fasting! If you’ve been interested in the fasting lifestyle I hope that my experience here is useful to you. This post is part of a series, so if you want to start at the very beginning, click on over to Month Zero – I’ll wait.
My size decrease has stalled again *insert sad trombone*. I honestly think that OMAD is my maintenance plan…not my weight loss plan. Is it bad? No, not really, but it is unexpected.
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Last month when I weighed in (and obviously have been taking photos in certain pants each month) I have clearly seen that my noticeable size loss was during my first three months fasting when I was re-training my body to be metabolically flexible.
- December – started fasting – wasn’t too strict because we took a vacation
- January – lost size
- February – lost size
- March – maintained
- April – maintained
- May – maintained
- June – gained size
- July – lost size
- August – maintained
- September – maintained
I don’t own a scale, and only weigh myself every three-ish months. I gauge my successes by measurements and how my pants fit. I still haven’t reached my goal, but I’m only one or two sizes away from it.
Q. So what is my goal size or weight?
A. Weight doesn’t matter, just size. I’m just trying to get back into my pre-baby body, the one that I had fewer than three years ago; meaning that I still have and miss wearing majority of the clothes in my closet. I generally fit into a Junior’s size three in pants, and extra small women’s shirts.
Month ten was September for me.
I eat one meal a day (OMAD) between five and six in the evening. If I am still hungry two or more hours later I try to fill up on fibrous veggies unless I am craving simple carbs. I try to resist sweets.
In the time-restricted eating (TRE) mind, I average about 20/4 daily.
September – As I talked about above I really do think that my body decided that OMAD was my maintenance plan, not my shrinking body plan.
Earlier in September I realized that I maybe wasn’t getting into ketosis daily anymore. This is just intuition – I don’t have a breath monitor and I don’t use urine strips. So I can’t tell when I am in ketosis, but I can tell when I haven’t been reaching it often because one spot on my gums barely bleeds (when brushing the teeth) when I have not been in ketosis – autophagy really does wonders for my oral health.
One week late last month I focused on fixing that. I kept my OMAD, but made it extra fatty to remind my body how to burn fat for fuel. Two days of breve lattes and buttered broth-based soups – and my gum stopped bleeding in the morning. The next day I wasn’t hungry all day and just had a green juice and small dinner before bed.
So now I feel like I’m back on track, but really amazed how easy it is for me to get off said track. This is why I really think that OMAD is my maintenance plan, but that I need ADF for shrinking.
The struggle in month ten – I’ll say it again “staying disciplined is hard when I’m bored at home.” Luckily temperatures are cooling down, so I can busy myself and Kid Jupiter with bike rides to the park without melting, or running around the yard without feeding the mosquitos. I need to tighten up my window and indulge in fewer late-night writing sessions.
The success in month ten – Just realizing that I’ve been inadvertently maintaining most of this year. So the real success was realizing that I need ADF, and that my body doesn’t need much to get back into daily ketosis.
➤ ➤ Goal Pants, two pairs
➤ ALLSAINTS, 30″ waist.
I can sit in these pants now! So they fit my sitting hips, but the waist digs into my tum and is really uncomfortable. For now, wearing them is off the table because I don’t want to sit in them.
➤ Denizen by Levi’s, size 3. I’ve fit into a junior’s size three most of my adult life – until I got pregnant and my body said “QUICK! DOUBLE THIS BODY SIZE.” I can button these, but that’s really uncomfortable – so here they are unbuttoned.
☞ Related: What I Wish I Knew about the First Trimester
Q. Any new plans for October?
A. More alternate day fasting!
Now that I have identified that OMAD is my maintenance plan, I need to work in more ADF days. I’m not sure if I want to do the super low calorie version (one 500 calorie meal) or not. I’ve never been a good calorie counter, so I might just stick with water, black coffee, and plain green tea those days. It’s just a matter of finding good evenings to skip dinner, but I’m optimistic overall because I can burn my own fat for fuel, and that it’s cool enough to go outside again without immediately sweating.
☞ Ready for more? Here’s Intermittent Fasting, Month Eleven (October)
Lady Jupiter 