Intermittent Fasting Update

Weight Lost, in last 2 weeks: 4 pounds.

What worked:

• Taking occasional notes on mistakes, problems, and possible solutions. It allowed me to reflect on my choices, and make better choices the next day.
• Choosing healthier, lower calorie options to foods I already eat - I switched to fat free milk, low-fat or fat-free yogurt, egg white omelets, etc.
• Serving smaller portion sizes. I overate less.
• Fasting through dinner - from about 1pm, until breakfast the next day.
• Fasting twice a week.
• Tracking my weight every few days.
• Quitting drinking my calories - cutting out juice and soda and limiting the amount of creamer I used in my coffees worked super well.
• Drinking more water. This worked super well, because I just always carried a full refillable on me. 
• Setting an alarm on my phone to remind me when I'm supposed to be fasting.

What didn't work:

• Counting calories and sticking to a strict caloric number. I quickly got annoyed and quit counting.
• Quitting coffee. I love it too much, and I'd rather be fat and happy than miserable and caffeine deprived.
• Eating more protein. I don't know why, but it just didn't happen.
• Weighing myself every day. I usually forgot.
• Fasting through breakfast - it made me miserable and I ate more because I was miserable.
• I'm still not getting enough protein or iron. 
• I'm still eating too many carbs, and not enough vegetables.
• Fasting every day - ugh, don't try it. I got grouchy and mean.
• Exercising every day. I forgot and lost interest.

What I'm going to do different:

• Fasting twice a week, on Tuesdays and Saturdays.
• Fasting starting at 1pm and going until the next morning.
• Focusing on high-protein foods.
• Eating at least 1 vegetable a day.
• No more counting calories, or sticking to a restrictive number.
• Continueing to drink my coffee.
• Weighing myself once a week.
• Focusing on lower-calorie, healthier alternatives.
• Trying to exercise for at least five minutes everyday.
• Schedule all my fasts into my phone calendar, with an accompanying alarm.

Overall, I like it. Intermittent fasting seems incredibly natural. It was easy and comfortable. And it takes pressure off the focus on eating super-low calorie foods because I'm going a while without calories, which naturally lowers my daily consumption. It takes away a lot of the pressure on my food choices, and makes eating more enjoyable and fun. :)

Playing Around With Intermitent Fasting

Well, I've heard a lot of good stuff about intermittent fasting lately (from both real people and research studies) and I'll admit now I've done and tried a lot of those diet fads, but I think I'm going to give it a try. There's this guy a like, and he's coming back in town in a month, and I want to be prettier than when he left so that maybe he notices the difference. You know, the stop, once over, twice over look, and "woah". Yeah, that. I want that.

So... I'm dieting. Duh. That is the only way to quickly lose weight. Now, I'll be restricting my calories (obviously, again only way to lose weight via dieting), but I'm going to do it the smart way... by eating lower-calorie stuff. And cutting my drinking calories completely.

So, I'm going to be drinking only water. No juice, tea or coffee (I drink too much of all three). I don't drink soda like ever anyways so I'm not worried about that.

Calories are restricted to 1200 (1600 is the suggested for me to maintain weight). That's subject to change though since I may need more or less to lose weight effectively and not die.

And, as for the fasting part, I'll be exteding my sleep-time fast till noon (AKA I won't eat after waking up until noon).

I'll also be exercising a lot, hopefully. Swimming, running, riding my bike, dancing, some bodyweight stuff (like pushups and side crunches and squats), walking, yardwork, fishing, hiking, soccer and basketball sort of things.

So. We'll see how this goes. Wish me luck!

Edit:
Intermittent Fasting Update