Week 17 Summary

Day 121, Feast Day #67

This morning I woke up a pound lighter. So that makes for 26 lbs (11.8 kg) lost in just over 17 weeks of alternate day fasting. This puts me at about 1.5 lbs (0.7 kg) lost per week so far. I am a little worried I will fast myself down too small for my wedding dress. So I tried the dress on again today. It fits right now without any shapewear and I can zip it up myself (unlike when I originally bought it and had to squeeze in with the help of a layer of strong Lycra compressing my belly and a second pair of hands). So I just have to work a bit more at eating all of my calories on fast days and possibly cutting back to a 6:1 or 5:2 schedule for maintenance if the dress gets too loose.

Yesterday I fasted 22 hours on just tea and water and then broke my fast with an African-style fish stew and a late night snack of nuts, plain Greek yogurt with a little honey, and some raspberries. I wasn't very hungry at all yesterday, maybe because I ate so much the day before. Any brief thoughts I had about food passed quickly and I got a ton of chores and wedding tasks done. I don't often experience the feelings of being light-headed or tired like I did when I first started intermittent fasting, which is nice.

Zach is off doing fieldwork, so I have been testing out new recipes while he is away and adding to my dinner tool belt. So far my favorite was this Paleo recipe for Asian-inspired pork meatballs. They were so yummy!

I added in some minced garlic and red chili flakes to them and substituted soy aminos, since I don't have any coconut ones. They are also only ~252 calories for five meatballs the way I made them, therefore perfect for an easy fast day meal.

This is how last week's numbers factored in:

Calories
Week 1: 1,437 kcal or 76% of baseline calories (-3,213 kcal/week)
Week 2: 1,938 kcal or 102% of baseline calories (+294 kcal/week)
Week 3: 1,680 kcal or 89% of baseline calories (-1,512 kcal/week)
Week 4: 2,196 kcal or 116% of baseline calories (+2,100 kcal/week)
Week 5: 1,829 kcal or 96% of baseline calories (-469 kcal/week)
Week 6: 1,531 kcal or 81% of baseline calories (-2,555 kcal/week)
Week 7: 1,954 kcal or 103% of baseline calories (+406 kcal/week)
Week 8: 1,196 kcal or 63% of baseline calories (-4,900 kcal/week)
Week 9: 1,638 kcal or 86% of baseline calories (-1,806 kcal/week)
Week 10: 1,637 kcal or 86% of baseline calories (-1,813 kcal/week)
Week 11: 1,681 kcal or 89% of baseline calories (-1,505 kcal/week)
Week 12*: 2,108 kcal or 111% of baseline calories (+1,484 kcal/week)
Week 13*: 2,649 kcal or 140% of baseline calories (+5,271 kcal/week)
Week 14: 1,882 kcal or 99% of baseline calories (-98 kcal/week)
Week 15: 1,280 kcal or 68% of baseline calories (-4,312 kcal/week)
Week 16: 1,861 kcal or 98% of baseline calories (-245 kcal/week)
Week 17: 1,684 kcal or 89% of baseline calories (-1484 kcal/week)

While ADFing: 1,775 kcal or 94% of baseline calories
Baseline Days: 1,896 kcal

All Feast Days: 2,831 kcal or 149% of baseline calories
All Fast Days: 438 kcal or 23% of baseline calories

For reference
Week 1: 3 feast days, 4 fast days
Week 2: 4 feast days, 3 fast days
Week 3: 4 feast days, 1 medium day, 1 fast day
Week 4: 4 feast days, 3 fast days
Week 5: 4 feast days, 3 fast days
Week 6: 3 feast days, 4 fast days
Week 7: 4 feast days, 3 fast days,
Week 8: 3 feast days, 4 fast days
Week 9: 4 feast days, 3 fast days
Week 10: 4 feast days, 3 fast days
Week 11: 4 feast days, 3 fast days
Week 12: 5 feast days, 2 fast days*
Week 13: 5 feast days, 2 fast days*
Week 14: 4 feast days, 1 medium day, 2 fast days
Week 15: 3 feast days, 4 fast days
Week 16: 4 feast days, 3 fast days
Week 17: 4 feast days, 3 fast days
*Includes days during my bachelorette party weekend.

I feasted hardcore this past week with a fondue party and a couple happy hours with friends. It turns out what I was feasting on was notably different than past weeks. I ended up averaging just 119 grams of carbs a day, versus my average of 186 grams over the last 17 weeks, a 36% decrease. I've been trying to reduce the amount of grains I have been eating, since quitting wheat cold turkey didn't last longer than 72 hours for me. I have been feeling less tired recently despite no changes in how long I am sleeping. I wonder if my recent burst in productivity is from reducing the refined and total carbs in my diet or if I am just riding waves of wedding jitters and stress that is leading to more work getting done. Maybe it is just because I am trying to stay busy and not think about Zach being away.

Fast(ing) Food - Low-Cal Tuna Salad

Day 7, Fast Day #4

One of the reasons I have made it this far with alternate day fasting is that for one glorious part of my fast day, I feel full and the rest of the time, water and tea do a fairly good job of keeping my stomach occupied. Don't get me wrong, I am still hungry most of the time. But the tea and water help my stomach forget about its emptiness for a bit.

Now, 400-500 calories is not a lot of calories, but it can be a great mass of food if you want it to be. Or it could be less than a cup of Ben & Jerry's Chocolate Fudge Brownie ice cream. Although the latter option provides a great deal of bliss for a moment, the rest of your fast day is going to be even more difficult.

So what am I eating and drinking on fast days? 

Most of the volume I am consuming is zero calorie liquids: water, tea, and coffee. The tea and coffee may have a calorie or two here or there, but they are worth it for the variety for me. I start drinking water as soon as I wake up and keep drinking it until bedtime. I have found I am much thirstier in general both fast and feast days on ADF than I was prior to this diet. I have been drinking an average of 6 cups of tea a day, one cup of coffee, and 8 glasses of water a day. I get heartburn a lot, so one coffee is all I can really handle in terms of caffeine intake on a fast day. The herbal tea is great because some of it tastes kind of like food and the different flavors provide the variety I need to not go crazy.

Currently in my tea arsenal I have: Stash Strawberry Pomegranate herbal tea, the Kroger Brand (Private Selection) Peppermint herbal tea, and Kroger Brand (Private Selection) Rooibos Red Tea. These are all caffeine-free. The strawberry pomegranate flavor is tasty, but there is no resteep value in it. The others are good overall for the money. I drank all of my remaining ginger and jasmine tea already. A lot more tea is going on the grocery list for next week. It is a good thing I love tea and normally drink it without any sweeteners.

In terms of foods, I have been mostly eating raw and pickled produce this week:

• Carrots (a whole carrot, ~30-35 kcal)
• Broccoli  (a spear, ~10 kcal)
• Onion (a slice, ~15 kcal) - for flavor
• Celery (a stalk, ~5 kcal)
• Cabbage (a leaf, ~5 kcal)
• Spinach (a leaf, ~2 kcal)
• Dill Pickles (large, whole pickle, ~10 kcal)
• Pickled Sweet Peppers (1 pepper, ~5 kcal)
• Clementine (one fruit, ~40 kcal) - TREAT
• Navel orange (one fruit, ~70 kcal) - TREAT

I feel like this little guy:

I eat most of these things solo. However, I made some of these things into a salad and put on Kraft's Fat-Free Zesty Italian dressing (~15 kcal per two tbsps). I am not really a fan of any fat-free or light dressing, so I would never eat a salad with this dressing normally. But when you are hungry, everything tastes a lot better. If you have low-calorie salad dressing recommendations that don't taste too sweet, I would LOVE to hear them.

On the pre-prepared foods side, I am currently loving Progresso's light line of soups. The ones I have been eating are 120 calories per can (60 calories per serving, two servings per can): Light Savory Vegetable Barley, Light Vegetable and Noodle, Light Zesty Southwestern-Style Vegetable. No can opener required on these, so they are an easy take-to-work food too.

I also have developed a cheap and low-calorie take on tuna salad which I plan on eating for lunch again today:

Fast Day Tuna Salad

• one 2.5 oz size Bumble Bee Premium Light Tuna in Water Pouch (~70 kcal/pouch)
• 2 tbsp celery bits (~2 kcal)
• a dash or two of lemon juice (not enough calories to register on the nutrition label)
• dill pickle relish (not enough calories to register on the nutrition label)
• sprinkle of pepper
• heavy sprinkling of Old Bay seasoning 

Mix this all in a bowl or tupperware and eat. I was surprised by how good this tasted. Always take all of my taste opinions with a grain of salt because I am rather hungry on my fast days.

I am aware some of you may have the misfortune of not knowing what Old Bay is. It is a delicious seafood spice blend from Baltimore, MD. I went to college at the University of Maryland, College Park and one of the most important things I learned in those four years is that Old Bay makes almost anything taste incredible. I put it on and in crab, crab cakes, salmon cakes, any type of fish really, mac 'n' cheese, pasta, potato chips, corn, in dips, on any battered and fried food. You can substitute this with a generic seafood seasoning... but you should really buy Old Bay and join the Old Bay Nation with me. Your mouth will thank you. No, I am not an Old Bay spokesperson, I just love it.