Going Back to What Works

Since I last posted I've struggled, I've floundered, then I dug down deep and I've found a way to win the war.

Once I reached 137 I plateaued.  I was stuck and I couldn't figure out a way to loose any more weight.  Then I started gaining weight.  Slowly the pounds started coming back.  I could see it in my belly and I could feel it when I tried to squeeze into my clothes.

I couldn't find any motivation to exercise at the level I did while loosing.  My heart wasn't in it anymore.  Every day I promised myself that I'd work harder and longer. 

Two weeks ago I made the decision to go back to how I was eating while I lost weight last year.  I put that off thinking I could exercise the extra calories off.  That doesn't work.  It never has for me and it never will.  It has to be 80 percent diet. 

The major change that I've added back in is fasting.  I've never strayed from my commitment to veganism.  I was just eating too much.  Too much of anything is still too much. 

Fasting is really just a eating schedule.  My schedule looks like this now:
Saturday and Sunday I eat what I want (that's vegan).  After dinner on Sunday I fast till Tuesday breakfast; about 32 hours.  Tuesday - Thursday I fast 18 hours, with an eating window of 6 hours.  After lunch on Thursday I start fasting till Saturday Breakfast; 42 hours.  So I have two longer fasts and three shorter ones. 

I'm at the beginning of my third week with this schedule.  I'm at 131.  My goal weight is 125; 6 lbs. to go.  I expect it will take me two more week.  Once there I'll evaluate how my eating schedule needs to change for maintenance.  I expect that I will need to keep fasting as part of my lifestyle permanently.  Veganism has given me my health back but fasting has enabled me to attain and maintain a healthy weight. 

I don't feel any different at 131 then I did at 137 and I don't expect that will change once I get to 125.  My main reason for that goal weight is to give myself some room to fluctuate.  It's my safety net.  I know that once I try to start a maintenance program again my weight is bound to go up and down a little while I figure out exactly what my eating schedule needs to be.

Wouldn't it be great if I could just eat a healthy vegan diet and weigh exactly what I want to weigh.  Unfortunately, life, my life isn't like that.  I've come to some conclusions about my weight and one of them is that I will have to have periods where I'm a little hungry in order to maintain my slimmer body and my better health.

I'm not trying to go back to the exercise level I had during my weight loss.  I just don't want to spend two hours every day exercising.  What seems to be my new normal is 1 mile of walking, then 1 or two miles of jogging each morning.  In the evenings I've been doing 30 minutes of step.  Today I'm changing that to 30 minutes of my strength building exercises: squats, sit-ups, etc.

So this is my new life.  My second attempt to get to maintenance and actually maintain.