When you’re used to eating when bored, suddenly stopping yourself is difficult.
I’ve always been a big girl. Unfortunately, due to extreme stress and medication, I gained a lot more weight than I ever would’ve expected. Of course, being overweight seems to be the root of every single medical problem now – insert sarcasm here.
Yet, as much as people like to say, “Just eat better,” or “A calorie deficit is all you need,” for all of us who have been big forever, we know it is never that simple.
I’ve tried it all too – green smoothies, the military diet, flat out not eating, restricting myself, and a lot of detox teas.
Here I am now, 24 and 270 pounds.
I decided to take a serious look at my eating pattern and wonder what kind of eating habits would work best for me to bring me down weight-wise. This was the beginning of my intermittent fasting journey. I noticed that eating breakfast or eating anything before around 11am – 12pm made me feel nauseous and I was never quite ready to eat. For a long time, I didn’t even realize I was skipping breakfast, especially while I was in college. I’m not a morning person, so in college, I would schedule all my classes for the afternoon and evening, and just eat either right before, between or after those classes. Little did I know, I was intermittent fasting before I knew what the term meant.
Intermittent fasting is when you decide to eat only during a certain time. For instance, I eat from either 11am – 7pm, 12pm – 8pm and sometimes 12pm – 9pm depending on the weight of my meals, how far I spaced them out and if I’m a little extra hungry that day.
There are many methods of intermittent fasting, such as: