Hello lovely people. It’s been a while eh? I wasn’t sure that this time would come again and if it did, whether it would be in the same format, but it worked while it worked last time and so I’ve decided to re-ignite Fat Friday and kick start my weight loss journey. A few things have changed, some are the same, and we’ll be finding our feet together as we go, but it feels like the right time and the right decision to be back.
Fat Friday is a weekly blog post tracking my weight loss and fitness journey, used to keep myself accountable, keep a record of my progress, and share hints & tips that have helped me. To track my progress, or read my previous entries, click here.
Please join me, support me, and help me along my way as I aim to improve my life for the better!
Phew, I think it’s been almost a year since I honestly posted about losing weight while I was making an effort to try and be healthier. In that year, I have piled a fair amount back on, and have really abandoned fitness. I have travelled to Disney and to Russia and plenty of local places in between, and I’ve had an OK year, it’s just a year that has been full of eating too much and not exercising enough.
At the end of last year I had a serious back issue which hampered me well into the first half of this year. It left me feeling quite limited and rubbish about what I could do. I have done bits of exercise and classes etc. but have ended up feeling fat, unhealthy, unfit, and generally not great about myself. I have slowly been slipping a bit more fitness in over the summer, attending the gym and going on walks here and there, and my housemate and I have been starting to think about healthier eating, and so it began again.
A friend at work mentioned intermittent fasting/16:8 and how it was something he was giving a go and finding relatively easy. My housemate Emma had mentioned it to me before, and I made the decision overnight that when I went into work on Monday morning (the Monday just gone) I would begin this new ‘diet’.
What is intermittent fasting I hear you cry? Well, it’s quite simple really, you are only permitted to eat and drink calorie containing food and drinks for an 8hr period everyday, and then for the remainder of the day you only drink water (or in my case, coffee). You can essentially pick the 8hr period you want to have food in, and depending on what shift I am on, I tend to have a decent meal between 1130 and 1330 and then have a decent meal between 1900 and 2000, and then that’s it. I have quite a lot of water and 2 coffees in the morning, and water and herbal tea in the evening.
I am only 5 days in, but so far, I have found it very doable. I think I am going to see how I last on this for a couple of weeks, and then once I feel a bit better and (hopefully) lose a bit of weight, I will start introducing workouts into my routine as well. I am wary of eating too much in the 8hr period to compensate for the rest of the day, but so far I have struggled to eat more than I normally would in the same period so I have essentially cut a meal a day out. I am making lunches for work more regularly that are infinitely more healthy and filling than what I was eating before, but at the same time it hasn’t stopped me enjoying meals with my housemate or sweet things for dessert if I fancy.
WEIGHT: This week: N/A Total: N/A
EXERCISE: 0 Sessions
MOOD: Optmistic
RECIPE/FOOD/SNACK of the week: N/A
HINTS/TIPS of the week: Why not today?
As I say, we’re right at the beginning of what I am hopeful will be a successful weight loss journey. I’ve kept my tracking parameters from last time (see above) and I will update these weekly if you want a shortened lowdown of the week. I haven’t been doing it long enough yet to see if it will work for me in the long run or if it is even going to help me lose weight, but I am here and giving it ago. I have a big holiday with my Mum next March/April to the west coast of America, so I am hoping that this date in mind will give me something to work with. And as always, I am bringing you on the journey with me. Any advice, support, and all things in between is appreciated!!!
Travel in Retrospect 