INTERMITTENT FASTING & 5:2 / ABOUT 15 MONTHS & 50 POUNDS LATER.

I moved from Southern California to the Scottish countryside in 2011. Almost instantaneously I began to put on weight. A LOT of weight. This post is about how I finally found something that helped me take it off. Hopefully these tips can help someone else out there too.

Before I say anything else, I MUST say this. I'm 100% for body positivity and accepting one's self as they are. I want for everyone to be happy with who they are and feel good about themself, no matter their size or weight. For me, I didn't recognise the person I had become. I had never been this size and I did not feel good about it, mentally or physically. For this reason I could not embrace it. I see lots of stuff out there now about women in every size and shape and I love it. It’s just that my own story and comfort zones are different to theirs. Okay, lets move on.

So there are a variety of reasons as to why I blossomed into a larger size when I got here. Some of them physical, some of them mental, some of them genetic. For a long time I blamed my metabolism slowing down as I aged as the main cause. That might be true to an extent, but I was not accounting for all of the good habits I dropped when I moved here, or some of the really bad habits that I picked up and incorporated into my daily life.

When I lived in California I used to have the really good habit of walking every day for about 45 minutes on my lunch hour. And I'd often go hiking for a few hours at the weekends.

During this time I would eat a lot of what are considered healthier and more balanced foods. I would say about 75% of my diet was healthier, and about 25% was gorgeously naughty food. I LOVE FOOD. The good, the bad, and the naughty ;) I still do, and I still indulge.

Anyways, back then I was also drinking about a bottle of wine a night by myself. One bottle minimum. Every single night. Eek. That's hard to write. There is more than a lot of calories in a nightly bottle of wine. And it was just not healthy for other obvious reasons. I thankfully see the issue with this now.

I think being a bit younger and all the walking kept the weight down back then, and if I ever did put on a few pounds I could take it right off. For an array of reasons, when I moved to Scotland I just stopped moving. No more walks or hikes. Never a healthy light salad crossed my plate. But LOTS of highly processed tasty treats did cross my plate. And introduce the new habit of ice cream standing at the kitchen counter at 3 am. Well I am sure you gathered that that all that adds up. QUICKLY.

I would try to start exercising but when I didn’t see any results very quickly as I used to, I would give up, and blame my aging metabolism or the “dreich" Scottish weather for not letting me exercise enough. But the fact of the matter is, I dropped some good habits and adopted some really bad ones and I freaking stopped moving. I basically turned into a potato. Lol ;)

As I got progressively heavier I lost confidence in myself. Nobody was allowed to take a photo of me. If a photo was taken I was absolutely cringing inside. Dreading for anyone to put it out there in the realms of social media. I didn't recognise that person. I didn’t want to see her, and I wanted nobody else to see her either.

I couldn't wear most of my clothing any longer. I simply couldn't fit into anything anymore. I was no longer able to express myself as I would like to. Clothing is such a big part of self expression, and that has always been so important to me. I could now only wear a few pieces from my wardrobe. And of what I could wear it was only the pieces with the most stretch factor. At one point I began to outgrow some of the stretchy ones too. It was terrible and I felt like absolute crap. And not just because of the clothing.

The funny thing is, when I think back to how I actually felt back in California in my smaller figure, and with less years behind me, wearing whatever I wanted to wear back then, I was NOT happy in my skin at that time either.

I think it's important to recognise that being a young woman growing up a short drive away from Hollywood, in the era of Kate Moss and the popularity of the “Heroin Chic” look, I feel like having a distorted body image was the norm. I never felt thin enough or pretty enough or good in my body. Never really truly. I knew soooooo many girls (and full grown women) back then who felt this way.

I think it’s also important to recognise that here in the Scottish countryside, thousands of miles away, and years and years later, I still know so many ladies that feel unhappy with their size or the way they look. Also, with it being years later, add aging to that. But lets save aging and my evolving feelings on that for another post. For now I wanted to discuss finding something, or a couple of somethings that have helped me get back on track to feeling healthier and happier in my skin, than I EVER have.

It's taken me over a year to get here, so no this is not a fad diet and this is not a quick fix. But these few changes in my every day habits have stuck, and they have worked. I cannot see myself ever going back.

The most important aspects have been the feeling of being comfortable in my body and of being able to wear more and more of what I want to wear as the weight and the inches fall off. Also able to try that new yoga pose, do yoga at all, or walking up that huge hill once again (not breathless and having to stop every few seconds).

I hope this post helps even one single person out there to find that little sparkle of… “maybe this could work for me too”.

Okay here are the things I started doing:

Introduced an Intermittent Fasting eating window to my daily diet. I generally consume any food between 12pm and 8pm. Sometimes I switch it up like 1 or 2pm to 9pm. I think the important thing is to start, and maybe be a bit more strict just in the beginning as you get used to it. Then you can move it around and switch it up as you see fit. But sticking to some sort of window most of the time seems to work.

5:2 or I call them “low calorie days”. One or two a week. Less than 800 calories on these days. After about maybe 5 months of eating within a certain time frame, I wanted the weight to fall off a bit more quickly, so I began to follow the new 5:2 diet that allows for up to 800 calories to be consumed in the day. I usually do about 720 - 750 calories. I dont drink alcohol on these days. I do still follow the eating window to consume these calories. I try to stick to eating foods as close to whole as possible, not raw but not overly processed. There are all sorts of books and blogs on tips and tricks to follow on your 5:2 days.

The fasting portion of the eating window means you will have a shrunken tummy, which means when fasting window closes and you can eat again, you'll naturally eat smaller portions.

REALLY IMPORTANT: I haven't been denying myself anything. I DO eat carbs. I DO have drinks. I DO eat sugar.

NOTE: I do find I notice myself feeling rather Crap-tastic if I go for too much processed food at once. Especially if it's stuff like the tempting boxes of cookies or candies or something like Pringles. I do notice though, that if I sometimes have things that are fatty and sugary, but baked in a bakery or made by me, I don't feel as crappy. Like stuff that does not have all sorts of preservatives and additives and colouring and sweeteners besides sugar. Like stuff with partially hydrogenated anything, ingredients that dont happen in nature. You know what I mean. I've def noticed I can't eat all the crud all the time. Just sometimes.

SCIENCE?: So the health benefits of a minimum of 16 hours of a fasting period seem to have to do with allowing all the cells of your body to regenerate. To dispose of what they need to dispose of, and to repair what needs fixed. Not to have all the energy of the body focused on digestion.

I'm probably not the best at conveying all scientific reasons “why it works” aspects of it all. I just know I got used to eating like this after a few weeks, and it has helped. And I feel so much better on so many levels. And over the holidays when I relaxed the eating window a bit, eating lots of seriously fatty and sugary and just plain naughty foods, I only gained 3.5 pounds. The week after I got back into the swing of the regular eating window I lost 4 pounds. So it works. It just does.

One other important thing: The eating window seems to help with more than weight loss. Anti aging and age reversal. And certain illnesses even. There are studies out there from prestigious universities that discuss all of this. Take the time to use your Google fingers to discover your own information.

My final thoughts are these: I think eating more in a specific window of time seems to make you pay more attention to what you're eating, and how the food is actually making you feel. You also REALLY appreciate all food.

This eating schedule has really helped soooo much. Since March of 2018 I've lost about fifty pounds. Or about 3.5 “stones”. Maintaining this regular eating window combined with one or two low calorie days has helped me FEEL GOOD IN MY BODY. I think it can help a LOT of people if not everyone.

Okay thank you for visiting my blog/ website today. Please come back and let me know if you try any of the tips or strategies, and if they have helped! Also let me know if you have anything to add! Or if you found something else! Alright, have yourself a nice day or night, wherever in the world you may be.

Much love,

Tara xx