I'm feeling torn on the new blog issue, on one hand I bought a domain and everything and I want to do it but on the other-I seem to be experiencing a scheduling issue already and I've only been back in school a week and a half. eek.
I've had a great weekend, gone out to eat A LOT and yesterday at my brother's house and I've had no anxiety over food and am maintaining my recent loss. I expect to see it start creeping downward again once I'm back on my cooking again. I tend to eat more towards the model of the DASH diet (dietary approach to stop hypertension)and so when I go out to eat or eat other people's cooking I retain a bit of water.
Wow, after learning in depth about the kidneys and renal disease I am hyper focused on taking care of my kidneys through my diet and water consumption. It is amazing and wonderful that we HAVE dialysis now, don't get me wrong, and all of the advances made in that area but TAKE CARE OF YOUR KIDNEYS. End stage renal disease is going up and up and up, as of 2005 we were at almost half a million cases and it is just increasing. The top two causes? Diabetes and hypertension. I believe people feel they are immune to problems if they don't have a "weight problem" and so they eat a diet of crap (the SAD diet, standard American diet) and strain the shit out of the kidneys for years and have decreased functionality, high blood pressure, etc etc when they get older. People in Nigeria don't experience this, hrrrm. Food for thought.
I'm often stymied from writing entries by the feeling that I shouldn't write things unless I can fully go over every detail of what I'm talking about or thinking and that is just not possible most of the time. So if something I say doesn't make sense or you simply want to talk about it, PLEASE COMMENT.
Hope everyone is having a lovely weekend.

So Intermittent Fasting. I did my mini presentation on it Tuesday and wasn't quite happy with what I did. I felt exhausted and certainly was not as engaging as I should have been. It was also way too huge of a topic to present in 7 minutes and quite controversial. I got people up in arms, asking questions and I had no time or mental clarity to answer properly.
On the other hand? I've been practicing a 16-18 hr fast version the last three days and have dropped 4 lbs. I am now to a lower weight than I have been since maybe...May? maybe April? This is the extra 15 lbs that has forced me out of most of my professional wardrobe and been somewhat immovable until now. I am quite pleased.
I am also surprised, REALLY surprised. I thought I would feel terrible and be ready to gnaw my arm off by the time the fast ended and well, not true at all. I have been a 5-6 mini meals/day type eater for several years now and aren't we all taught that breakfast is so important? I am finding for myself it is not a definite rule. Essentially I stop eating at 6-8 (whenever my dinner is) and then don't eat until 14-18 hrs, but usually 16 the next day. I did one day where I went 24 hrs but that was a few weeks ago and even though it WAS doable I could not see myself doing so on a consistent basis. I can easily do this form though and plan to continue.

Some observations: I am not ravenously hungry. Food tastes much better. It is easier to get my water in, MUCH. I do not go nuts when I do break the fast, I eat a normal portion and am maybe eating two meals and a snack. I've eaten restaurant food twice and still dropped 4 lbs. (Don't worry about the rapid loss, I know a bit of it was bloat from eating wolfgang puck pizza twice in a row.) I feel more focused and have more energy, I even get so charged up I'm a bit jittery, I suspect this will pass. This has seriously helped me detach from food, perhaps the best benefit so far, I don't spend my time thinking about what I'm going to eat, what I can fit in or what I can bring in order to avoid suboptimal food. In short, extremely freeing after becoming food obsessed through dieting and then trying to eat for performance.
And on that note, workouts have not suffered though I have had little opportunity to test that. I'll investigate that further this three day weekend, perhaps starting with tonight.
I think I should take pictures but haven't done so yet, that tends to fire off defeatist behavior but I'd hate to not document this.
All for now, must get ready for school.