Excited! Lost 3 lbs this week with intermittent fasting. 3 down, 27 to go!
Week 1: 3lbs
I loved intermittent fasting. I can binge eat like there's no tomorrow, and two giant meals versus 3-4 regular-sized ones makes me a happy camper. I've found drinking coffee in the morning really helps with any cravings until it's time to break the fast. Or a filling fruit, like a banana.
FrugalWad - What an inspiring story! Thanks for posting! I'm on a journey to drop 75 lbs to get back to my ideal weight and one that I am very comfortable at -- I have 50lb to go. I lost 25lb from Oct to Dec 2015 doing a program called The Whole 30. I totally agree with you on the $$ saving through buying just healthy foods (and less food) and cutting out restaurants (in my case, mostly fast food).
I saw the thread about the Whole 30 group some time ago when I first got on the forum. I'll have to dig through the pages and see how people have been with it. I've followed a few diets before, like Body for Life and I can't remember how many other ones that have popped up on
HappyEaters.net, or
Bodybuilding.com.
I cannot have chocolate in my house, even if I buy it for my kids. Will need to keep that in mind and buy in small quantities that I can give to kids as one time treat and be done with it. Not buy with the thought of keeping it for treats later on. The result is there are no more treats for later on because I ate them last night.
I'm the same way with ice cream. A tub can disappear in a day, and that'll be my calorie limit. I know, no matter how hard I try, ice cream is not a thing that can live in peace in my freezer. So now if I want any, it's a treat, and I'll either go out and buy it at an ice cream parlor, or plan on just getting a much smaller sized carton (pint, maybe? Like those little Haagen Daz ones), and know it'll be gone in a day or two, no matter how many servings it actually has.
I'm on a baking streak. I've baked two batches of cornbread, and a batch of black bean chocolate chip brownies. Along with a batch of Alton Brown's homemade hot cocoa mix. Most of it's wrapped up and stored in the freezer. I plan on having one of each for each day, so I take them out the night before, along with the frozen turkey from a holiday sale, and that way I've kind of prepped my meals for the next day. Along with any fruit and whatever.
I've found the more I can prepare meals ahead of time, the easier it is to stick to a calorie range. My freezer is full of bags stuffed with single servings wrapped up in foil, ready to take out the night before they're needed.
I also keep a white board on the fridge that I can quickly write down my menu for the day, and associated calories. It helps keep things in check.
It's the start of a new week, and I'm down from 198 from the weekend to 196. It's a great start to the week!
I used to hate soups and stews. That was a catch-all phrase for me. I hated soup. Loathed stews. But now I've found that I hated bad soups and stews. I've been experimenting with the ones found on
BudgetBytes and have been enjoying them immensely. Since the largest part of my grocery bill has always been dinners, this has cut down my starting 2016 grocery budget by at least a third! It's also cut the average dinner calories down by a couple hundred too. It'll be great to see how that affects my weight along the way.