Intermittent Fasting Update - September 2020 - Binging

It's been kind of a weird month. My diet has been pretty steady all things considered, but my progress was noticeably slower. I'll talk a little further down about my experiences with binging this past week.

My birthday was August 18, and as a bit of a treat, that weekend I went to a local baker who specializes in low-carb and diabetic friendly confections and got a large cheesecake. I ended up snacking on that for 2 weeks and the side effects were interesting to say the least!

Warning: potentially gross content in the next few paragraphs. Skip to the next heading if you aren't interested. One of the side effects of the artificial sweetener this bakery used, I think is constipation. I've tried searching for information but it tends to be mixed. Some sweeteners can cause diarrhea, while others can make you constipated. I'm usually a pretty regular dude, once or maybe twice a day if I eat a larger meal, but for whatever reason, this cheesecake stopped me up for 3 days at one point! It never really got to the point of discomfort, but it definitely could have I think if I didn't make an effort to move things along.

If you find yourself in a similar situation, eat some straight plain salt. I ate a small pinch and then waited an hour, then got another one. I'm not 100% up on the science here, but salt is essentially natures laxative when taken on it's own. Be warned though that you need to replenish your electrolytes (with more salt!) if you go this route.

Binging

I want to try and organize some thoughts here that I have on binging. Obviously, food is and was a massive (hah!) part of my life. I got fat from turning to food to cover up my problems. Sometimes I was just overeating, but looking back now, there were definitely periods of binging that weren't healthy.

I feel like I sorta had one of those moments on Labor Day this past weekend. We had breakfast with some friends outside in their front lawn and to stay sociable, I worked out my eating schedule from the day before so I could join everyone. The menu was pancakes and bacon with fruit and juice. Not an unhealthy breakfast by any stretch, but definitely not first on my dietary list. I ate 3 pancakes with syrup, some bacon and a banana, then had some tortilla chips with a cream cheese dip a little later. If I had stopped there for the day, probably would have been fine.

Then later, I went to my parents house and had a late lunch. Chili cheese dogs (no bun!) but then a good portion of potato chips and some assorted popcorn while watching some movies.

Finally, on the way home, the wife and I stopped at an old drive-in burger place here in Dallas that we noticed that morning. I had a cheeseburger and some onion rings. Kellers

Now, normal people read this and don't see a particularly large problem. However, I've been eating one meal a day for about 18 months now! 3 decently sized meals, all of which were by themselves over my carb limit is unusual.

Looking back, I think I just wanted to live in the moment and feel good. The food tasted good, everyone else was eating, it was easy. But that's childish. Children do what feels good and act on impulses. I need to make a conscious effort to resist or remove myself from these situations in the future, but that's a challenge in and of itself too.

The Next 30 Days

September, despite a rocky start, is looking better. Despite my binge at the start of this week, I'm back down on the scale and actually at my lowest weight of 2020! I think a good short term goal is under 230 lbs by the next update post, or even more ideally, before the end of the month. That's going to take a lot of discipline though and maybe even a little exercise. Either way, I'm feeling good now and I think that's something to celebrate.

One thing that I hope will make things easier is a change in my delivered meal plan. The past 2 boxes I ordered have featured 2 dishes that I didn't totally love; Prime rib with blue cheese and brussels sprouts and a bun-less burger with artichoke hearts. The protein in each of these was fine, but the sides are putting me off now. The first few times I ate each of them I didn't seem to mind, but the more times I eat each one, the less interested I am in those vegetables. I'm sure prepared differently I wouldn't mind, but the sort of mushy-watery texture inherent in a frozen prepared food isn't as appetizing. I want my food to work for me rather than make me want to eat something else. I've since purchased a few bags of frozen broccoli to supplement.

My newest order of delivered meals should be here tomorrow and does not include these dishes. I'm hoping this will keep me motivated to not talk myself into getting something to-go from a restaurant under the guise of "date-night" with my wife!

Conclusion

If you have questions, feel free to leave a comment or reach out on Twitter @daronspence . I’m sometimes slow to reply here on the site, but if more people comment it might motivate me 🙃

Also feel free to join my fasting circle on the app I use. Sorry! https://lifefastingtracker.app.link/z3D7qHg2W8