I'm starting a Ramadan-style fast tomorrow morning. I've been struggling the last few weeks. With everything! My weight loss is at a standstill, I've been letting my appetite rule my decision-making process, and I've been letting my mother hijack my life so much so that my exercise schedule is gone. So I've decided to get back on track using a vehicle...Ramadan.
Ramadan is the Muslim holy fasting month. It started last week. But my peri-menopausal body decided to surprise me with an extra-heavy Shark Week, which just knocked me on my ass for a few days, so I postponed the start of Georgia's version of Ramadan until all that business is done. I start my 30-day Ramadan-style fast in the morning.
Here's the fasting plan: Sunrise is around 6:15. I'm getting up at 5:30 for breakfast. It'll consist of a double portion of steel-cut oats, a poached egg and a little olive oil, plus my big cup of coffee with half and half. (I forgot to plan for cutting out coffee before starting the fast, so I'll wean myself by having a decreasing amount of coffee in the mornings over the next week or so.)
I'm going to keep drinking water during the day. I won't have any other sort of beverage. I'll be taking my vitamins throughout the day, so I need the water. I'm not Muslim, I can make my own rules about this! I'm also adding a good bit of skin-brushing on a daily basis, plus conditioning my skin with almond oil.
Sunset is just before 8:15, so to break my daily fast I'm going with a modified traditional method...three dates. That's how my Muslim friends broke their fast. I don't really like how sweet the dates are, so I'm going to make myself a date-banana smoothie with full-fat Greek yogurt. And I think that's all I'm going to have. If I simply can't handle that, I'll resort to vegetables. And going to bed by 10!
Right after sunrise, I'm going to start with the exercising. I'll spend about 40 minutes on my rowing machine, then Pilates. Around noon, I'll hit the rowing machine again. In the late afternoon, I'll do my weight lifting split routine. I'll exercise six days a week.
I should see a caloric deficit that will buy me at least a 5-6 lb loss. I'm going to weigh myself every Sunday morning and record it here. Plus all my personal observations about how I'm doing.
When I fast, things come up, and usually all my anger issues first. I may be in a pissy mood by Tuesday. Good thing I'll be seeing my therapist on Wednesday! I hope to work through some personal stuff over the next month. I have my EBT work to do and I'm very curious to see what the fasting will bring up for me.
I may be "fasting" from other things over the next month. Like no TV during the day, or other behaviors that lead to mindless eating. I drive a long distance on Tuesdays to go to class, and I have a tendency to snack on something along the way. Maybe I'll just turn the radio up loud. If I listen to NPR, I'll learn something!
Who knows where the next 30 days are going to take me. I hope it's a fruitful journey.
1 comment:
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