@poggyvegan funnily enough I had a blip upwards on the full moon this month, not huge but upwards and then the next day I was incredibly hungry and had my binge. Aside from that I have been weighing more regularly as you suggested. There are fewer and smaller blips on the BSD than ADF and so far none of those soul destroying setbacks like in March. I am seeing a steady loss of around half a pound a day. Even the cake and icecream and vegetable chips I had on Easter Sunday didn’t derail this. I am now under 14 stone and I am wearing the size 34 trousers comfortably. I am glad to hear you are nearing your goal.

@zenhamster I love that username:)) I am glad you found the journal useful:)) I hope yours helps you on your journey. The monthly challenges are great too.

I have been using the tracker on here for three months today. I have dropped from 230lbs to 194lbs in that time and gone from a 39 inch waist to 33 inch one. My BMI has dropped from 34.5 to 29 and my waist to height ratio from 0.57 to 0.48 both indicators of reduced risks to my health. I feel so much better:)) This really works:)) My trouser size has dropped by 5 sizes. My jumpers look as if two of me would fit in them. I had already lost a significant amount before I started using this site so I have lost over fifty pounds since November, less than 6 months.

The strange thing is that I now look the way I thought I looked before. I must have been really in denial about how big I was. I look at my fat belly and other wobbly bits and they don’t seem different to my usual self image. But I had been avoiding looking in mirrors or having my photo taken for years. It took getting to the point that moving was incredibly uncomfortable before I finally took action. I regret not doing it sooner but at least I have started now. I have set my final goal at the 140lbs I was when I got married. Admittedly I never stayed at that weight but I know it is possible. So I still have a long way to go. Another 54 lbs. But I will do it:)) I have shown that it is possible to lose fifty pounds in less than six months so I hope to do it by the end of the year. Watch this space…

I have now swapped back to ADF. Today was my first NFD in a month (except for two failed fast days) and I really enjoyed it. I had lashings of yoghurt on both lunch and dinner which was a lovely enhancement. I haven’t had that for years. I don’t like sweet yogurt but on savoury food I do like the plain stuff. Trying the vegan version put me off as it has an aftertaste that I don’t like, although mum and my sister eat huge quantities of it.

I swapped back as I had a mishap with a piece of brie on Saturday and then a completely failed fast day on Sunday. The fast days every day had started to feel like deprivation rather than as something doable as they did at first when 800 calories felt quite generous after being used to 500 on fast days. So now I can once more tell myself I can eat that tomorrow to get me through a sticky patch. Which I had to do several times on Monday, and I doubt I would have completed the fast without that comfort. Especially as my sister was busily dipping nuts in chocolate and making the kitchen into a temptation zone. But I resisted! And was rewarded with my lowest weight yet this morning 191.8 lbs, 87 kg. And half an inch off my measurements. My waist is now 32.5, my waist to height ratio is 0.47 and my BMI is 28.7. So much better:))

@poggy-vegan I suspect properly flat tummies are very hard to achieve later in life. I don’t hope to ever have one however much weight I lose as my children stretched both the skin and the muscles badly. I am just starting to be able to tighten the muscles
. after them being useless for twenty plus years. I had assumed that constipation was a problem veggies and vegans don’t get as I never have. I am a great fan of pre and probiotics for when the rabbits are unwell. When their guts go wrong they really suffer and a dose of their fibre plex paste is the quickest way to sort them out. I have wondered if I should try it! But our gut flora is probably quite different as we don’t ferment our food the way they do, thank goodness. Coprophagy is not an appealing process although they show every sign of enjoying it. There are a lot of positive things said about kefir and I am debating trying it except it does see to involve quite a bit of faffing about which I am not a fan of. There is a water based version available apparently which can be made to taste like ginger beer if desired.

I have now been fasting for seven months and have lost about 70lbs. Everyone notices now, despite my wearing my usual clothes, apart from the old trousers which are so unbelievably big that I could stuff a pillow down them and they would still fall down. Even the ones I was so pleased to fit into not that long ago are ridiculously big now. I have gone from 42s being too tight to bend over in to 32s being comfortable. I could stuff a pillow up my shirts and jumpers too but as they can’t fall down it isn’t a problem. I like loose clothes. I also hate shopping and always wear the same thing, cargo trousers and a golf shirt with a fleece or two when it’s cold.

I seem to have hit another plateau and my weight is going up and down around 180lbs. But my measurements have decreased after staying the same throughout May, so progress still. I think it may be time to slow down and try and find a balance, eat well but still fast two days and use an eating window and see if I can maintain. I have achieved what I wanted which is to be able to move more easily and have more energy. Looks are not important. Hopefully I can gradually lose more weight and progress towards a healthy BMI while learning how to eat well in a sustainable way. Losing ten pounds a month is not sustainable clearly. I need to keep burning fat to keep the inflammation under control so I shouldn’t be in too much of a rush to get rid of it all at once as I am not keen on eating extra fat to supply it. Except cheese of course. I am not willing to give up veg to maintain ketosis, there are so many important nutrients in veg. This may be a load of nonsense but burning fat clearly suits me and is more important than looking thin so I am trying to get my head around how to keep it up long term.

So my current plan going forward into month 8 is to keep to 20/4 daily intermittent fasting and do 2 fast days with just one meal under 800 calories a week, while sticking with LCHF food, mainly veg. I at least want to know how my body responds to this even if I change it later. Today is a fast day and I ate mashed beans, chilis mangetout, sugar snaps, avocado, and feta cheese topped with yoghurt, a few nuts and seeds, and an apricot at half past two. That will do me until tomorrow afternoon, apart from water, teas (I am drinking peppermint tea while typing this) and black coffee in the morning. I will probably fast Tuesday and Thursday next week as those are nice busy days. I am weighing daily now so will note changes from what I was doing before. Which has lately been a rather skewed version of ADF that I was trying to make fit my work days, but didn’t really work as it broke the pattern that makes ADF easier to follow. You need to be able to tell yourself that you can eat tomorrow. And your body just falls into the rhythm.

I just made a beautiful new recipe. I am going to write it down so I don’t forget what I did as it is definitely a keeper. I was going to make my chick pea fry up with sweetcorn and coriander as I had coriander that needed to be used but was worried that I would eat too much of it as I like it so much, and I went below 80kg this morning and want to stay there.So I decided to try a dhal again but tweak it so that my mother would like it as she really didn’t like the last one, which was annoying as I could eat it every week.

FatRabbit’s Dhal for Fussy Pea Lovers

First I fried up a diced large onion in olive oil with minced turmeric root and ginger and garlic and chili and coriander and mustard seeds and a couple of cloves of garlic then added two diced carrots and a couple of red peppers, put the lid on and let them soften while I boiled up 250g each of yellow split peas and puy lentils for ten minutes. I chopped the coriander and added the stalky end to the veg mix but held the leafiest bits to add at the end. I strained the pulses and added them to the softened veg and added boiling water to three quarters fill the saucepan and left it to simmer for another half an hour while I sliced up some runner beans and chopped some cherry toms and went and picked some mint and oregano and chopped that with the coriander leaves. I also thawed some frozen peas as my mum loves peas. I steamed the runner beans over the dhal for the last ten minutes and heated the peas then added them to the dhal once the pulses were cooked along with salt, some ground pepper, the toms and the chopped herbs. I gave it a good stir and it was ready, served with a good squeeze of lime juice on it was lovely and I am fighting to stop myself going back for more. Mum seemed to like it too and my sister inhaled hers with approval. I will definitely be making that again. The peas and the tomatoes were added with my mum in mind but they worked well. So did the runner beans.

I spent a time not being vegetarian too, after the birth of my second child. I blame him! No really it was the disconnect between the way I was living and who I am. Everything from that time is a bit of a blur, I was not myself at all. After my divorce I went back to being vegetarian and was even vegan for a while. Even now I only eat organic cheese, everything else is vegan. I stopped being vegan in part because I got fed up of listening to my sister nag people about it. Evangelism of any sort turns my stomach! And I like cheese.

I think the 800 calories version is a good plan although only for people who are willing to make healthy choices the rest of the time too. If you want to continue eating rubbish you need to cut deeper on fast days to stand a chance of benefiting at all.

My body seems to naturally fall into an alternate day pattern Yesterday I needed more food than a fast day allows, even at 800 calories, and I gave in to my cheese craving and had seconds of chilis, sugar snap peas and chopped chicory with a couple of pieces of cheddar on top, zapped in the microwave and then smothered in yogurt and nuts and seeds and chili powder. So delcious! Today I didn’t mean to fast in compensation but it has happened anyway as I am simply not hungry. That happened last time I broke a fast too. I think that I am getting to the point that I can trust my body to tell me what I need. I will probably want more tomorrow. But not until after I finish working. It is easier than before not to eat until after four. Today it was after five. I feel so good with an empty stomach that it counteracts any feeling of hunger while I am busy. As soon as I eat moving becomes unpleasant too for several hours at least.

I feel so much happier now my internal and external body images match. I felt for years as if I was trapped in a fat suit that had little to do with who I was. As if no one could see me properly. I don’t feel that different inside but the mirror shows how I feel not that alien exterior that I wore for years. I still have the flabby belly with its loose skin and stretch marks etc, which is fine, that is from life, it is part of me, but that huge excess I was carrying was just pure misery strapped on to the real me, which now shows again.

Thanks, I’ll have to try the plank again. Last time I tried it was too painful but I don’t have such a large bum to hold up anymore so maybe I’ll manage it this time. Although finding somewhere to do it might be tricky. There is altogether too much furniture in this house.

Well I did it. Today I have a healthy BMI :)) 24.8

I am officially UnFatRabbit :))

Now the challenge is to stay this way…

Plus:-

Youngest son has also lost 30 pounds in the last three months and is no longer obese. Yay :)) I doubt he would have done it if he hadn’t had my example to follow.

Yesterday I fit into the smallest pair of trousers, size 29, the smallest both that I bought and that they make. And they are comfortable with no muffin top. I really have done it 🙂

This morning I weigh 165 lbs, 74.8kg and have a BMI of 24.7. Waist 29, Hips and bust 38 and waist to height ratio of 0.42. I am delighted 🙂 But not finished… I don’t really know where to aim for from here.

A year ago I was 100 lbs heavier than I am now. I was struggling to move, bending was something that required planning and even my XXXL trousers were popping buttons when I so much as breathed. I am so pleased that I have done something about it. Now my clothes are loose and many sizes smaller, bending is easy and I feel wonderful 🙂

A year ago I thought that I couldn’t lose weight. It was just too daunting, too big, too miserable. I thought that trying to lose weight would just make me think about food more and lead to weight gain the way it had every other time I attempted it. And yet I knew that if I didn’t I couldn’t continue to do my work as the weight gain was chipping away at my abilities. I was suffering with asthma, with fibromyalgia, with anxiety. A year ago I was incredibly worried about the future. A year ago I was on the verge of discovering the solution. I had looked on as someone close had lost the weight that she had carried for years by doing 5:2. I was nearly ready to commit to it. But not quite. In October last year I was still eating pasta every day, and beans on toast and burritos and enchiladas with tortillas. Lots of things made from flour. Lots of simple carbs. And they were going straight to producing more fat and they were making me hungrier. Making me crave more and more and more of them. I had already stopped giving in to sugar cravings and stopped the cycle of treats in the evenings. After about three weeks of stubborn refusal to give in that had stopped being a problem. But it didn’t stop the weight gain. To reverse the trend I had to give up pasta and wheat in general. A year ago I wasn’t yet ready to do that.

But a year on I have done it 🙂 I want to encourage anyone else sitting on the fence to get off it and get on with it. This is possible, you can do it and you will be so happy that you did! I feel at least twenty years younger. My energy levels are way up, my mood is way up and my anxiety and pain levels are way down. Nothing tastes as good as thin feels! This isn’t about what other people think of you, it isn’t about society’s expectations, it is about how you feel. Do it for yourself.

A year ago I started reading about fasting. I was miserable and worried about the future. I didn’t think I was capable of working through the winter as my weight was inexorably increasing and moving increasingly difficult. I really really needed to find a solution. And I did. I read Jason Fung’s online material and felt so liberated by the knowledge that sugar makes you crave sugar and that being fat makes you hungrier. I was hungry not because I am greedy but because of my blood chemistry. It changed from a moral to a scientific thing which made it so much easier to tackle as it became less personal, more theoretical. And I like problem solving. I bought and read the every other day diet as an ebook. I didn’t go for 5:2 because I am impatient, I wanted certain fast results, and I was worried that given my unstable hormones during menopause it just wouldn’t work for me.

A year ago I weighed over 250lbs, possibly as much as 260. My waist was 45 inches, my hips about 55. My waist to height ratio was 0.66 and my BMI about 39. Very unhealthy. A year later I weigh under 150lbs, my waist is 27.5 inches and my hips 36. My waist to height ratio is 0.4 and my BMI is 22.5. I am now happy with myself and ready to undertake the next challenge, that of maintenance.

During the year I have completely changed how I eat. I used to have a large brunch at 11 or 12 and then spend the rest of the day sluggish and in pain. It always included toast or tortillas. Then I often had pasta or pizza or chips in the evening. I was vegetarian but ate very few vegetables. I struggled not to keep snacking during the evening having to constantly fight the urge for extra food. I was constantly hungry and when I tried to lose weight I just thought about food even more and as a consequence ate even more and went the wrong way. The first few fasts were very very difficult but I was desperate enough to power my way through them using a stream of black coffee and spice tea to fill my belly until I had all my calories in one decent sized meal, then more tea … At the end of that year I now eat mostly vegetables. I have only had toast once or twice over the year and was unimpressed by the bloating and discomfort that followed. And I only succumbed to pasta a few times despite it being a huge favourite. I am quite happy without it. Rice was another problem, also gone from my diet. The portions we considered normal were huge! And so unnecessary. The one good thing I did use to eat was beans and they are still a staple. They come in so many different forms that they lend themselves to a wonderfully varied diet, but are high in protein and good for the gut biome. Definitely a keeper. But even those have reduced in the last few months. I have started to really like fruit, which I didn’t before, and vegetables have begun to be much more satisfying. I used to have this nagging feeling that they needed something with them, but not now. I often turn to fried cabbage as the bulk of a meal where previously I would have used rice or pasta or mashed potato. I am not afraid to cook with plenty of olive oil and add seeds too as well as put lots of spice and other veg in it. It is miles away from the soggy boiled cabbage the dinner ladies sadisticly tortured us with at school years ago.

I am sure my current feeling of well being has its basis in the changed inhabitants of my gut. And they obviously love fruit and veg and don’t rate cake or pasta at all.

I feel well equipped now to embark on my first year of maintenance. Here I go, Unfatrabbit is ready for the future.

I am very pleased that I have stayed under my 150lb goal through my non fast days this week, so may go even lower this week. Wriggle room is always welcome. A good start to my first year of maintenance:))

Interestingly I am craving fruit and salad and not missing the cheese at all. Probably a good time to go back to being vegan especially given the havoc dairy plays on my hands. They are painful enough from the cold without adding extra inflammation.

I haven’t done particularly well resisting Christmas temptations this year. Especially compared with last when I didn’t miss a single fast day doing ADF right through Christmas and lost a substantial amount of weight in December. I raided the chocolate and nuts meant to go in the stockings and gave myself a splitting headache by eating a bag of doritos. Not much damage done to my weight but I don’t want to fall back into bad habits, bad moods and illhealth so it can’t continue. I managed the big Christmas shop without adding sweet treats except for pudding for Christmas day so there is nothing to raid. If I want sweet it has to be fruit. And people are under strict instructions not to buy me, or my sons, chocolate or sweets for Christmas. We all need to lose weight. I have bought healthy savoury treat food, organic cheese and smoked salmon for the boys, olives for my sister and nuts and dried apricots for my mum. Proper treats, not a nudge towards illhealth both mental and physical. Knowing what I know now I can’t in good conscience give anyone biscuits cake or chocolates. Here have some misery, love from me. I think not!

I didn’t intend to write about that. But to reset my goal to ten stone. I thought I would be too thin at that weight but at a few pounds over it I can see there is easily three pounds that could go from my bottom and legs. My upper body is properly thin, but my rear is not there yet and and I find I do want it thinner. There is of course weight in the loose skin too but there are also still handfuls of fat. So my wedding weight of 140 lbs, i.e. ten stone is again the target, as it was when I first started this post. I am 142.6 this morning so not far to go. Surely having come so far I can get there. Christmas is just one day after all not a cliff I am going to fall off! Doing it by the 21st of Jan, a year after starting this post would be a good target, that is as a steady thing, bounces brought under control. You don’t own a weight the first time you reach it.

Thanks for your kind words Jean. I wish you luck with that seven pounds 🙂

Today it has been 14 months since I started fasting and I can hardly believe how different I look and feel. I have met every goal and although there is still some fat around my belly and thighs the rest of me is quite skinny. My skin has done amazingly well at shrinking too for the most part. Again it is my belly and thighs that are saggy but that is where I was carrying most of the weight. It is hard to think that I was carrying the equivalent of two and a half sacks of rabbit pellets around with me all the time. While I can manage to lift one I simply couldn’t lift two and a half of them. No wonder life was such a struggle. I have lost an entire person. 8 stone! Many women weigh that. I

This year hasn’t started well. First toothache then I managed to poison myself eating too many chocolate covered golden berries. They are healthy a few at a time, not by the bag. Yet another lesson hopefully learned. I was far too ill to go to my language class last night. My head was splitting, I was shivery and achy and my insides were hellbent on jumping ship. Sugar has deeply unpleasant effects and being dressed up in a healthy coat can only do so much to mask it. No more dried fruit for me!