Part 2 - Day 34

A pretty good loss from yesterday, getting closer to the red line!

Today I am still feeling pretty sick.  I stayed home most of the day with my baby and oldest daughter, who are both still sick as well.  As far as eating, it was not much.  I had a nice bowl of tomato soup to try to get some energy along with some hydration, and that was pretty good.  I also had half a blueberry muffing and a couple bites of pancake the kids were having for dinner.

I am starting to feel just a bit better, so hopefully the worst of the sickness is behind me.  We'll see how I do tonight and how I feel tomorrow.  I'm hoping I can get over this so I can feel good going back to work next week.  Also, once I feel better I can get more aggressive again at getting the weight off more quickly.

Part 2 - Day 33

Just a small loss this time, still getting closer to the line, so that's great:

Still feeling pretty sick today, so I didn't have much of an appetite, so that's a good thing.  I did take my daughter to lunch on a daddy-daughter date to Taco Bell, and I got a 7-layer burrito, fresco style.  That's about 350 Calories. Other than that, I had a couple cookies in the evening.  I have to lay off the cookies!

I'm really just trying to manage my sickness at this point, so trying to rest and stay hydrated.  Feeling pretty good other than that, though.  Glad to see the weight still coming down.

Part 2 - Day 32 - Sickness falls

Well, I had another really nice weight loss today:

That is actually really surprising after what I ate yesterday.

Today I did mostly fast.  At dinner time I did have a few black olives and apple slices as I was sitting with my family.

I've started getting sick, so that's a real bummer.  Mostly runny nose, coughing, sneezing, and just feeling miserable.  I'm not sure if my fasting will help or hurt my cold.  For now I think I'm just going to keep up with the fasting unless I really feel like I need to eat something more substantial to help ward off the sickness.  Maybe in that case I could just have some chicken soup or something.

Anyhew, I'm really happy with my progress toward getting back down to the red line.  I'm already half way there!  When I started writing again just a few days ago I was about 10 pounds above my goal, now I'm about 5 pounds above my goal, so it is definitely working.  I'll continue fasting for the most part until I get back down to the line.

As you can see, I haven't done a strict fast all of these days like I had planned, but I am still making good progress by keeping myself aware, being mindful of my goal, and just eating a very small amount each day when I do eat.  It might be better to fast completely, but sometimes there are limits and we need to keep our sanity.  At least that's what I'm telling myself right now.  It is extremely difficult to exercise a huge amount of willpower when you are miserable, but I think how we act when we are not feeling the best is a good test of character and determination.

I know I can do this.  I am making good progress, and that is great to see.  I'm not going to get discouraged by my circumstances.  I will never give up, and I will keep moving forward!

Part 2 - Day 31 - A little closer; crazy day...

Another awesome loss during my fast:

Today was a really crazy day, and I didn't fast like I wanted.

I was actually feeling pretty good fasting wise this morning.  I think when a fast is started, Day 2 tends to be the hardest as far as cravings, then Day 3 is probably the hardest as far as feeling the effects of the fast, that is lack of energy, brain fog, etc.  That usually goes away pretty quickly, in the next day or two, in my experience.  But anyway, I was feeling pretty good overall, no cravings really, and just hanging out with my kids while my wife was at the gym.  Then at about 10am my little 10 month old baby had a seizure.  My 12 year old daughter was holding her at the time, and suddenly said "Daddy, something's happening!" and the baby was just convulsing, not breathing.  Nothing like this has every happened to us before, so I called 911, and the ambulance came and took my baby to the ER.  I dropped off the other kids and joined my wife there (she came home while the paramedics were at our house and rode with her in the ambulance), and we were there until about 2pm.  Baby is totally OK now, it was just a febrile seizure, which apparently are pretty common and not overly concerning.

Well, I think I might have been in shock all day, reliving those moments when it seemed to me she wasn't breathing.  That compounded my already low-energy feeling, and I thought I should eat something, so after poking around and having couple bites of chicken and a cookie, I figured I should just accept it and made a big, but lo cal, salad (sorry I forgot to take a pic before I  had a couple bites):

I like to use just salsa and a couple of tablespoons of sour cream for the dressing.  It's delicious and much lower calorie than typical dressings like Ranch.  I really can't stand the lo cal dressings you can buy off the shelf.  So I ate that and felt better.  It was getting late and I was really tired/drained.  We had promised my oldest daughter we'd have a movie night, so we did, and we had some chips w/ sour cream  and some chocolate to go along with that, which I did eat unfortunately.

I can definitely attest, as I've said before, that when we are tired, drained, stressed, etc., that it definitely lowers our will power.  In retrospect, I probably should have just gone to bed, but I really didn't want to disappoint my daughter, especially after what she'd been through.  Sometimes it's a tough call.  I don't regret anything.

Despite that "failure", I am really happy with the results of the fast so far, and I am not discouraged!  I am making great progress getting back down to my goal, and I will continue.  Never give up!  Keep moving forward!

Part 2 - Day 30 - First day fasting, done!

So I lost about 2 pounds the first day fasting:

That's great!  I don't expect to lose 2 pounds every day, but this is a really good start.

I always am shocked by how quickly I start to feel good when I fast, or just eat well for that matter.  By dinner time yesterday I was feeling really good, lots of energy, with the bloated feeling already being completely gone.  It is really nice to have that really clean feeling, fully fasted, drinking fresh, clear water.  The contrast after a couple weeks of eating junk all the time is striking.

I made a Generaly Tsao's chicken for dinner and a small batch of cookies for my family last night for New Year, and I wasn't super tempted, mostly due to the incredible feeling I had.  I did stay up later than I would have liked and started feeling pretty tired by the time I went to bed, then I had a hard time getting to sleep because I was past the over-tired/second wind stage, but finally did manage to get to sleep.

I'm writing this in the morning, and I am feeling generally really good now.  I wasn't able to sleep as long as I might have liked, so I may end up taking a little nap today, but I feel confident I can continue my fast.  I don't feel hungry at all, but that's not unusual for me in the morning, so I'm not going to let my guard down.

I am excited to be back on track.  It's a huge confidence boost just to be headed in the right direction again.  I love the quote from the legendary Jim Rohn: “We must all suffer from one of two pains: the pain of discipline or the pain of regret. The difference is discipline weighs ounces while regret weighs tons.”