Encouragement - the ups and downs of the first 25 days
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glogg4me
Posts: 5 Member
To encourage FMD ers that started 1-3 weeks ago I thought I’d share a bit about my first 25 days. When I began FMD I had lost 11.5 lbs. eating a balanced diet of healthy foods but I was vigorously keeping, with exercise, my net calories no higher than 1200 calories a day sometimes as low as 1050 a day. My exercise levels were about 1 hour 6 days a week. Once I hit 171.5 I was stuck and didn’t move for over a month. I couldn’t eat less and I couldn’t afford the time to exercise more. Enter FMD – The first week my husband commented that he had never in our 20 year marriage seen me eat that much food and I lost 3lbs my first week. Week 2 I lost 1.5 lbs. All this while eating on average anywhere between 1450 and 1850 calories a day and spending half the time on exercise. However from day 11 to 20 I basically stayed at 167 with one brief wobble down to 166. Week four began with a gain of 1.5 lbs.
Yes, I was discouraged, particularly as I was eating a broad variety of foods and had followed the plan precisely with the exception of struggling to eat within half an hour of waking up, forgetting to eat the fruit portion of my lunch a couple of times and going too long before having my 2nd snack a few times. However, despite no continuation of weight loss I was able to stay committed because I still had made more net progress than the month prior to FMD, my chronic stiffness/pain in my knees, and increasing episodes of stiffness and pain in my hip and my knuckles (I’m only 48) is gone, my chronic acid reflux has been nonexistent these past 25 days (and I have had some seriously stressful things going on right now), despite needing to wake up for a pee in the wee hours my insomnia is gone and despite my weight going up 1.5 lbs. the measurements I took informed me that I had lost .5 inches off of each area of my body (remember, I’m doing half the volume of exercise).
The Sunday before week for I discussed my confusion with my husband and he said, “I don’t like to interfere, but I think from what I have observed that you may have inadvertently eaten less at your meals than when you started and that you are choosing the leanest possible proteins exclusively which wasn’t the case the first 10 days and you might be over focused on almond butter for your healthy fat in phase 3.” Long story short, he was right. I was rigorous from Sunday on to have the full portion size for my desired target loss, had lean grass fed ground beef one day, and tried a little harder to maintain the eating timeframe. Low and behold I have lost 4lbs since Monday. So, it may be counter-intuitive and therefore a real struggle to resist a backslide into old dieting “virtuous” patterns, so check yourself and REALLY give it 28 days. Have a beautiful weekend
Yes, I was discouraged, particularly as I was eating a broad variety of foods and had followed the plan precisely with the exception of struggling to eat within half an hour of waking up, forgetting to eat the fruit portion of my lunch a couple of times and going too long before having my 2nd snack a few times. However, despite no continuation of weight loss I was able to stay committed because I still had made more net progress than the month prior to FMD, my chronic stiffness/pain in my knees, and increasing episodes of stiffness and pain in my hip and my knuckles (I’m only 48) is gone, my chronic acid reflux has been nonexistent these past 25 days (and I have had some seriously stressful things going on right now), despite needing to wake up for a pee in the wee hours my insomnia is gone and despite my weight going up 1.5 lbs. the measurements I took informed me that I had lost .5 inches off of each area of my body (remember, I’m doing half the volume of exercise).
The Sunday before week for I discussed my confusion with my husband and he said, “I don’t like to interfere, but I think from what I have observed that you may have inadvertently eaten less at your meals than when you started and that you are choosing the leanest possible proteins exclusively which wasn’t the case the first 10 days and you might be over focused on almond butter for your healthy fat in phase 3.” Long story short, he was right. I was rigorous from Sunday on to have the full portion size for my desired target loss, had lean grass fed ground beef one day, and tried a little harder to maintain the eating timeframe. Low and behold I have lost 4lbs since Monday. So, it may be counter-intuitive and therefore a real struggle to resist a backslide into old dieting “virtuous” patterns, so check yourself and REALLY give it 28 days. Have a beautiful weekend
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