Stroke! Stroke! Stroke! Eureka
This week I came close to setting a new yearly record for my 30-minute row. I'm confident that the loss of strength I experienced in the first two weeks is passing now that my metabolism seems to be adjusting.
I'm also getting used to the rhythm of the diet. It's a little like rowing: first put everything you've got into the stroke, then relax through the recovery. I've learned to pace myself better during the fast days. Having a few "slow release" 100-calorie meal choices, and having learned it helps to start off with a little healthy fat in the morning, I can now look forward to four or five little meals on a typical fast day. I'm enjoying it more too. One hundred grams of fresh juicy strawberries -- 32 calories -- seem to taste better every week. Savour with a tablespoon of my high-garlic homemade hummus -- about 25 calories -- licked slowly off the spoon. Decadent! The full days aren't so bad, either. We really appreciate our meals a lot more. That delicious feeling of "I can have anything I want today, now what will it be?" Surprisingly we are not pigging out. Rather we're looking around for healthy tasty choices that we can enjoy, ... and enjoy looking forward to on a future fast day.
When it comes to dieting, I'm beginning to conclude, psychology is everything. This past week the diet has felt very "psychological". The best and most challenging aspect of the fast days is that I have an extra couple of hours I didn't have before. It's great to have more time for other activities. But I'm also acutely aware that if I don't fill those hours with absorbing activities, I'll start thinking of food, and the game will be lost.
So, in the spirit of not thinking so much of food, I'm no longer going to report on our progress every week. I will report back from time to time when anything significant occurs. It seems a fitting time to switch gears: four weeks in and I'm exactly half way to my weight loss target. Stay tuned!
Resources:
Calorie Restriction (Wikipedia)
Why I want to live longer and stay healthy. (Yes, that's me too.)
The series:
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