Growing Up (And In).

Down another kilo!!! That's two this week - so I've lost 18 kilos or 39 pounds so far! Can't believe it, it's so exciting when another bit just drops off. I haven't done anything differently - my feast day on Tuesday was1575 calories, had a fast day of 480 calories yesterday and back on a feast day today - I'm tempted to buy something nice for later, as John is on the night shift and I'll be alone. But that's probably a habit I should be breaking so maybe not.
One more kilo to go and I'll be at my first goal of three stone! Since I have two more weeks before work starts again it looks as though I might make it.

We went to meet a friend for lunch yesterday - I really wanted a delicious-sounding sandwich - goat's cheese, pesto, rocket and sun-dried tomatoes. But it being a fast day I stuck to the soup - Mexican bean - it was nice but the tomato part of the soup was just tinned tomatoes instead of actual tomato soup which was disappointing.
I was starving by about eight o'clock last night so I had a bowl of courgette soup I'd made - so handy having vegetable soup - kills any hunger pangs and it's about 30 calories for a bowl. My stomach was rumbling by the time I went to bed though - so much so that I couldn't wait this morning and jumped out of bed at about half seven to go have some breakfast - avocados on rice cakes.
Fasting till the evening and then having a dinner is really what works best for me.

I was worried last night - I was properly looking forward to eating today and I was lying in bed planning what I'd have, when I thought that it's probably not good to look forward to food so much, is it?? I mean, I know I was hungry but I always feel disappointed at the end of a feast day and slightly excited at the end of a fast day. I suppose as long as it's not making me binge it's ok. And whilst I always promise myself that I'll get crisps for my feast day, I never actually bother. Once the day comes and I'm able to eat what I want, I just go for the healthier option. I'm also getting fussy with my calories.  I'm at my parents' house now for lunch and I wanted a treat with my coffee. I found a pack of chocolate rice cakes, which I normally would scoff down. However, they're 18 calories each and quite small. I had one and decided that it wasn't nice enough to waste all those calories on. My sister offered me chocolate cake, which I know is delicious, and I didn't really want any. Too many calories.

I wonder is this good or bad. In the ADF book, by James Johnson, he does say not to self-restrict on feast days, as you will get bored faster. However, if I was craving it I would have it. So maybe I'm just finally learning self-control and food no longer holds its death-vice grip on me. I can look forward to it, and thoroughly enjoy it, but I don't need or crave it. I'm growing up! Hurray!

Nearly at Goal Number One!!

Apologies again for the lack of posts - we're currently fostering four puppies and another dog. And we have our own dog. Things are mental here!

So, last week was a bit of a disaster in terms of ADF. I found I'd lost another kilo, or two pounds which was great. Had a feast day last Sunday week. Ate away, intending to fast the next day. Then, my friend is back in Cork, so we decided to meet up on Monday evening. I told her to come for dinner - cue wine, Doritos, chocolate... However, I did fast all day in anticipation of a big dinner so I still only finished the day at 2200. Considering I managed that in one meal, it's pretty impressive. Next day, another friend wanted to call to see the puppies. I told her to come for dinner, and she said she'd bring dessert. So, I fasted again, and only intended eating dinner and a bit of dessert. However, within 10 minutes of her being there, we had decided to go buy more crisps and Doritos. I didn't even bother counting, I just figured that I had ingested another 2200 calories. The next day, Wednesday, I felt guilty and horrible - so when another friend asked to come and see the puppies I didn't invite her for dinner and I made her eat loads of dessert to get rid of it! That day was good enough, I had 600 calories. One hundred of those was by accident - I ate a square of chocolate before remembering that I was already at my 500 calorie limit.

So, on Thursday, John brought me for dinner - I had chicken wings as a starter and then a lovely creamy pasta dish with chicken and sundried tomatoes. Since it was a feast day again, I also allowed myself to eat some more Doritos. So delicious. It's 1000 calories per 200g bag though!! I ate a few more than I should have so that day came to about 1900 calories.
On Friday, I was supposed to fast but a friend wanted to meet us for drinks. So I decided to eat and switch my fast day to Saturday. I easily had about 2200 calories on Friday, what with the drink and the crisps my friend kept buying in the pub.

However, since Saturday, I've been back on track. Saturday was tough - I always want to eat loads after a night out and John was being all hungover and munchy. He had a McDonald's - terrible for you but so so tempting. He also finished all the Doritos, whilst I salivated next to him. However, I held firm and finished the day at 494 calories.

Since then I've been good. My feast days are around 1600 calories and I'm keeping my fast days at 480 calories roughly. I didn't gain any weight in that terrible week of eating which was a nice surprise and yesterday I weighed myself to find another kilo gone! And that was after a feast day, which is very surprising.
So I'm only two kilos away from my goal of losing three stone by the time I go back to work. I only have 16 days left though, so I'm not sure if I'll manage it. I don't really mind if I don't to be honest though, having lost 17 kilos, or 37 pounds is better than I ever expected.

Lauren Kim, at http://tryingadf.blogspot.ie/ told me of a calculator on the ADF official website - http://www.johnsonupdaydowndaydiet.com/html/how-to-do-the-diet.html which tells you how many calories you should eat on your feast and fast days. I'm about right with my fast days but for my feast days he recommends 2200 calories! I usually feel guilty if I eat about 1800! It's tempting but I think that knowing myself, I'd end up using all those extra calories on crisps or other junk. So I'm going to keep at my usual limit but once a week I'll allow myself to go that bit higher without feeling like I cheated afterwards. Or at least I'll try. The "My Fitness Pal" app is very good at making you feel guilty if you go over the calories it recommends. On the bar chart section the bar goes red when you go over your daily intake and it really makes me feel like I've failed! Probably a part of what keeps me on track!

Am I? Aren't I?

So, woke up and weighed myself - down a kilo after all. Kind of. The bar was kind of hovering depending on how my feet were placed. But I'm saying it is a kilo to keep myself happy.
I know you shouldn't weigh yourself every day, but it's the most exciting part of my day! (Though John wants me to mention that it comes second to spending time with him... :) ) I've lost another inch from my hips too which is nice but I haven't noticed it in my clothes yet. Everything else has been the same for the last two weeks. Which makes sense as I haven't lost much weight...

Today was a feast day. I was saying yesterday how James B. Johnson, who wrote "The Alternate-Day Diet" warns against counting calories on feast days, in case "diet fatigue" sets in. I was thinking about this, as I've mentioned before that I'm really careful on feast days and count everything, trying not to go above 2000 calories, at most. I've decided not to worry about my way of doing it. If I do really want something, I do feel free to eat it on feast days. The only difference is that I count it and try to take only a bit so that I don't go over my calories. And if that teaches me portion control, it can only be a good thing!

So today I had A LOT of coffee - I'm going to allow myself to do that on feast days and try to abstain or have one cup only on fast days. That was 240 calories.
I didn't feel like breakfast as I got up late. For lunch I finished my vegetable soup and had a bread roll with it. 285 calories.

Dinner was a feast! I had chicken and wholegrain noodles with peanuts, raisins, green peppers and mushrooms, all in a Thai red curry sauce. 597 calories.

I also picked a little throughout the day but counted it. I had half a shortbread biscuit, a TINY bit of chocolate, and as a snack just now I had 33g of wenslydale and cranberry cheese, 4 multigrain crackers and 30g of a fruit tart I made for John. 360 calories in all. So that comes to 1452 calories for the day which I'm very happy about.

I checked my RMR, and it's 1908 calories. I'm going to try to stay below that on feast days if I can. That doesn't allow for any movement at all - even for a sedentary lifestyle - with no exercise and a desk job, it would go up to just over 2000 calories. However, as I'm the laziest person ever, I'm not even going to allow for that much movement. For example, I literally moved from chair to chair today and that was the extent of my exercise.

As I said in a previous post, I had very bad eczema when I was about 12 or 13. My arms, knees and chest were so itchy that I would scratch till they bled, and I ended up with huge scabs everywhere. Sexy. Anyway, at that time my mother took me to get an allergy test done, to see if we could help it. I was allergic to lots of things but the two main ones were sugar and yeast. Sugar is the one that actually caused me to itch everywhere, but I found that, as I got older, it generally didn't cause me any problem as long as I drank a decent amount of water every day. (Perhaps a pity, in terms of weight...) Yeast causes me to get very bloated and have awful stomach cramps, which sometimes double me over. However, as with sugar, as long as I don't eat bread all day long, and drink water, it rarely troubles me. I usually would have about two slices of bread a day, or else a small roll, and that was fine.
All that to say, however, that since starting my diet, nearly four weeks ago, my intake of bread has lessened considerably since it's so calorific. I think that possibly, as a result, I've become more intolerant to it. I had a roll for lunch and I'm really crampy now.
So I'm going to not eat bread for a few days, and then try again in about five or six days maybe. If I get cramps again, I'll know and it'll be bye bye to yeast. I'm crossing my fingers that this is just a fluke cramp because I love my bread!!!

I have also found that I've become much more intolerant to rich food. I get heartburn now much more easily on a feast day. Whilst what I'm eating now is SO much healthier than before I started this diet, I'm still having cheese and pate on feast days and I think my body is not appreciating it as it used to. It doesn't really bother me though. Anything that discourages me from eating fatty foods can only be good!

Stuck

So... Weighed myself yesterday - had gone up one kilo. But since I suspect the two I had lost on Sunday were water retention, I was quite happy. Until I weighed myself this morning - up another kilo. So haven't moved in over a week now. Bit fed up.

I decided to carefully calculate how much that quiche I made was and was horrified to discover that it was 4000! Since I had a quarter on Sunday, a fast day, I had 1000 calories instead of my usual 500. Just shows how off food estimations can be. No more guessing.

Yesterday,  I had a lot of coffee, which means a lot of milk. Fat-free but still. Uses up a lot of precious calories. I had focaccia and guacamole like I'd been promising myself for days for breakfast, which came to 215 calories. I'd had a big pint of water before which helped to fill me up faster.

For lunch I had some mushroom soup, three multigrain crackers and 30g of wenslydale and cranberry cheese. 375 calories.

For dinner, John and I finished the quiche with some salad. So that was another 1000 calories.
I also had half a shortbread biscuit and a piece of chocolate through out the day - 108 calories.

So that came to 1787 calories for the whole day. Which is fine and still under 2000. But since my weight hasn't moved, I feel like I've been overindulging and I can see myself getting hung up on my feast days. Which you're really not supposed to do. I bought the book, "The Alternate-Day Diet: The Original Fasting Diet" by James B. Johnson M.D. and he specifically says not to be too careful on feast days, or it just becomes another diet and you'll get bored of it too.

I don't know. He also says that three weeks seems to be the sticky part. Weight tends to not move and people become lazier about food choices, with calories creeping back up. It's important to be really, really strict about tracking everything that passes your lips, even if it's a quarter of a biscuit. I think on fast days I'm ok, I still am very careful but I can see how on feast days, my total might be 100 or so calories more than I calculate, if I take an (albeit tiny) taste of John's dessert, or forget to count one cup of milky coffee.

So as of today I'm going to make sure EVERYTHING is noted. Today is a fast day, and I made vegetable soup for myself. I'm not going to eat anything until dinnertime, and then I'll have a big bowl of that, which is 114 calories. Maybe I'll have some crackers and cheese - 187 calories, or maybe not. No harm in stopping at 114 calories either.

Just wish I could see some more results - it's exciting and pleasurable to do when things are moving but otherwise... not so much.