As I finished up my Whole 30 Plan last week, I had a decision to make. Not only was I finishing a very strict 30 Day plan, but I was also leaving for vacation the same day. Now, if you are a chronic dieter you will realize that this could be a perfect storm.
We had great weather for our vacation this week!
Most "dieters" use vacation as an excuse to either cheat or completely throw their good eating habits out the window. This plus the fact that I have been very strict diet for over a month means that the temptation to throw caution to the wind was very strong. For me, I was thinking of vacation another way... "Read More" below!
So, I've been reading a lot lately and I wanted to try a few different ideas to help break my current plateau. Whole 30 was great and made me feel great, but the weight loss was limited on that plan. This is not Whole 30's fault, but more a problem with my body. Once you lose a significant amount of weight, you will most likely reach a "set point" where your body tries to hold on to your remaining weight. This is where I am, even though I am technically in still in the "obese" category for my BMI.
So, this year I decided it would be interesting to use my vacation week as a time to try out a new diet strategy. Why during vacation? Well, it actually makes a lot of sense. When you go on vacation, your whole routine is thrown out of whack anyways, so I think it's a great time to change your eating routine. Also, I have more free time and mental energy to focus on a new plan and implement it. So, this week I decided to start something called "Intermittent Fasting", and more specifically, a "Compressed Eating Window".
The idea is simple. Once you've fully acclimated to a lower carb Paleo Lifestyle, your body should be really good at burning fat (rather than carbs). This means that when you go to sleep and enter a "fasting" state overnight, your body should actually use your fat for energy. (This does not work if you are eating a carb and grain loaded diet)
The idea with "intermittent fasting" is that when you wake up, you should try to keep your body in that fasting state for as long as is reasonably comfortable. This means that you put off eating breakfast and possibly wait to eat until lunch. If your last meal or snack was around 7PM the night before and you wait until 11AM to eat your first meal, then you've given your body 16 hours to fast, and thus, more time to burn fat.
This idea is called a "Compressed Eating Window" because you would be eating all of your meals between the hours of 11AM and 7PM.
At first, this seemed a bit extreme to me, but I have found a few "hacks" and other ideas that have made it much more doable and easy for me. I will talk more about this in my next post. Just know that I have not suffered on this plan. It has been a fun adventure for me and I hope that it will help with my current weight loss plateau. We will see on Sunday! See you then!
-Stephen
So, this year I decided it would be interesting to use my vacation week as a time to try out a new diet strategy. Why during vacation? Well, it actually makes a lot of sense. When you go on vacation, your whole routine is thrown out of whack anyways, so I think it's a great time to change your eating routine. Also, I have more free time and mental energy to focus on a new plan and implement it. So, this week I decided to start something called "Intermittent Fasting", and more specifically, a "Compressed Eating Window".
The idea is simple. Once you've fully acclimated to a lower carb Paleo Lifestyle, your body should be really good at burning fat (rather than carbs). This means that when you go to sleep and enter a "fasting" state overnight, your body should actually use your fat for energy. (This does not work if you are eating a carb and grain loaded diet)
The idea with "intermittent fasting" is that when you wake up, you should try to keep your body in that fasting state for as long as is reasonably comfortable. This means that you put off eating breakfast and possibly wait to eat until lunch. If your last meal or snack was around 7PM the night before and you wait until 11AM to eat your first meal, then you've given your body 16 hours to fast, and thus, more time to burn fat.
This idea is called a "Compressed Eating Window" because you would be eating all of your meals between the hours of 11AM and 7PM.
At first, this seemed a bit extreme to me, but I have found a few "hacks" and other ideas that have made it much more doable and easy for me. I will talk more about this in my next post. Just know that I have not suffered on this plan. It has been a fun adventure for me and I hope that it will help with my current weight loss plateau. We will see on Sunday! See you then!
-Stephen
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