As some of you know, I have something called fibromyalgia. It can sometimes be debilitating for me due to what are called flare ups where pain levels become extremely high. This often makes exercise a bit of a challenge for me. With a lot of support and encouragement from my husband, walking is my go-to exercise. Stretching is also extremely important. As my pain levels allow, I increase my activity level to include other forms of exercise. Over time and steadily implementing a healthy diet and exercise regimine, my fibromyalgia symptoms begin to decrease and so long as I maintain that healthy lifestyle my symptoms almost disappear.
Over the past two years of the pandemic I did what a lot of folks have done, I lost sight of what I had been doing up to that point, quit doing the things that had been working, and started gaining weight. As my weight went up, my pain levels increased exponentially and my energy plummeted. Thankfully, I also know that as my weight goes back down, the pain will decrease steadily and my energy will return.
Because I allowed myself to get really out of shape this past two years, many of the things I had previously been doing just weren’t working. In fact, no matter how strict I was with myself I was still gaining weight. It became extremely frustrating.
I had been watching a friend of mine (Sheila), who has also struggled with weight, over the past year or so as she was on a journey to regain her health and reduce her weight. She was using a system called intermittent fasting coupled with a healthy diet. Her results have been nothing short of miraculous!
I’ve been reading up on the science behind intermittent fasting and have been slowly implementing aspects of intermittent fasting over the past few weeks. I’ve increased my fasting time to 12 and sometimes 14 hours and reduced my window for eating to 10 to 12 (and sometimes 8 ) hours. I’ve already seen the beginnings of improvement in my energy levels, some improvements with my digestive issues, and the very beginnings of some minor weight loss. All this without fully implementing IF.
I’m currently on vacation where eating is ALWAYS an issue for folks who are trying to lose weight. Despite the vacation eating, I am doing my best to maintain at least the 12 hour fasting – stopping eating by no later than 6:30 at night and not eating anything until at least 7 the next morning. So far I have been successful. We shall see the end results once I get home.
This video is a really good explanation of the various stages of intermittent fasting! One of the things to remember is to combine intermittent fasting with
(1) a healthy diet – I am using a combination of Herbalife products and a low carb/higher healthy fats diet; and
(2) exercise – start where you can and slowly increase as your body allows.
Musings By Rebecca 