So . . . how am I doing? February has been a tough time of year for me for about 25 years, it started when I was pregnant with Damian. I had a week this year where I just wanted to say screw you and walk out of my job, but I'm feeling a lot better about it now. My mood is still rather grey, but at least I'm not "quit my job and move to the Caribbean" anymore (although that still sounds wonderful).
It doesn't help that in the last 6 months to a year I've gained almost 10lbs and can't get rid of any of it (that makes almost 20 lbs since 2020). I've tried a couple things. In January I cut out alcohol on the weekdays, and that may have worked except my eating wasn't great. I also started religiously intermittent fasting. I started drinking less, but went back to drinking during the week, but much less than I had been.
I've mentioned BeachYogaGirl a couple times when I talk about doing yoga with my sister. Anyway, she also has a blog, which I wasn't reading, but the last few months she's been talking about menopause and posting on instagram (where I started following her before joining her website). The blogs have been very informative. My mom never talked about menopause, or perimenopause, and she's gone now, so I can't ask her. (Why is menopause such a taboo subject??) Actually Kerri's blog was the main reason I started intermittent fasting (IF), and doing it as it's supposed to be done.
This is all over the place, but let me talk about IF a min. In the past, when I've done it, I would have coffee with creamer in the morning because I am (mildly) addicted to caffeine (not like I have been in the past, I only drink a cup a day and don't drink soda hardly ever). Anyway, basically the creamer breaks the fast, and it doesn't matter if you don't eat anything. (I hate black coffee.) According to what I've read, including Kerri's blog, the purpose of IF is to allow our bodies to increase insulin sensitivity (which is good). When you fast, insulin decreases (also good) so that your body releases stored sugar and uses it for energy. When you eat or ingest anything that causes your insulin to increase, you break your fast and your body stops releasing the stored sugar. So, I quit drinking coffee on weekdays. I started drinking tea (but you have to be careful with tea, some of it will break your fast). I don't mind tea without sugar or creamer. I've even looked up my vitamins that I take and now take some of them in the evening before starting my fast time because they would break my fast (like collagen). I am currently fasting about 15 hours, I am not hard on my end time in the evening because my family doesn't always eat early enough, but I do calculate 15 hours from when I end (usually between 6:30p and 7p). I only do 15 hours because I start getting nauseous from hunger if I go much longer. I am also not as strict (or even follow it at all) on the weekends.
Anyway, I've been doing this now for almost 2 months and it hasn't helped at all.
My sister's husband was drinking a premeal thing, and she said it was very expensive, so they looked up alternatives to it, and found out that Metamucil had the same benefits. She said they've started drinking that, and one of the benefits is appetite control. Well, I decided to try that too, especially since I was trying to increase my fiber intake (which is the main thing Metamucil is known for).
My sister asked me if I'm still tracking my food, and I am not. I quit a long time ago and when I got on MyFitnessPal a few months ago, it changed so much I didn't like it anymore. She suggested just writing down what I eat, and not counting calories (which has never really helped me anyway) I'm so addicted to the thought of NEEDING to count calories that I downloaded another app, FatSecret. The community activity is kind of cool, reminds me of MyFitnessPal before it got very advertise-y. But then I decided that maybe just writing it down on paper is a good idea. When I input into an app, I just look at how many calories I have left, maybe I should pay more attention to what I'm eating instead. So I started doing that this week. Although, I did not change my eating habits.
I am currently eating a lot of sugar (still working on Christmas candy and now Valentine's day candy. 🙄 Next week I'm going to work on what I'm actually eating.
My problem is that I truly believe that I will lose weight, but don't actually follow through with making and keeping the changes going.
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