So I have been doing Intermittent Fasting for over seven weeks now, and as you might guess from the rhyme I wrote about it a few days ago, I couldn’t be happier. Also, as I suggested in the rhyme, up until recently I would not have wanted to talk about it, as a matter of pride or preserving my self-concept of not caring about such things (This blog post actually represents the first time I am openly talking about it… rhyme-free, of course). After all, I’m athletic, I’m fit, I’m healthy, and somehow I thought it wasn’t okay for me to be worried about my own weight.
For several years now, I had thought about this issue but didn’t do anything about it. I just kept doing my running, and was secretly dissatisfied with the whole weight thing. It was like an annoyance gnawing on me. Although I ran all the time (60-100 miles per month for years now, with two half marathons completed so), I felt like I didn’t have control over this issue, and it bothered me. I tried doing other kinds of exercise, such as crunches and abs workouts, but these didn’t seem to work.
An interesting string of events this summer brought me to a solution. First of all, I spent several days in June suffering from food poisoning. I couldn’t eat much of anything over that period except rice, electrolyte-filled drinks, and eggs. As it happened, I weighed myself that week (which was something rarely I did back then) and realized I had lost 5 pounds. I was intrigued, and a little light bulb began to go on in my brain: being unable to eat had a positive side effect.
A few weeks later, my wife and I happened to be watching a Reality TV game show called “Alone,” in which contestants try to survive on their own as long as possible out in the wilderness. They fish, they set traps for mice, they eat plants. Try as they might to stay nourished, each contestant who lasts for awhile ends up losing a lot of weight. In fact, this became a season-ending problem for several contestants in Season 3, where two people were actually removed from the show because they were in danger of dying due to malnourishment. Though this might seem kind of morbid or strange, that light bulb had become a desk lamp as I saw further proof: fasting works. What’s more, at this point I realized not only was I intrigued by the idea of fasting, I wasn’t afraid of it.
Finally, a few months ago I did some online research on BMI (Body Mass Index), and found that I was considered overweight. Holy smokes! I wasn’t exactly surprised, given how long this had bugged me, but it was nonetheless disturbing. Overall, it verified that I wasn’t just imagining things. At this point, the desk lamp and become a full on strobe light, and I was ready to take action.
I started by giving up my avoidance of the issue. I stopped making myself wrong for caring about my weight and started to face that I wanted to do something substantive about it.
That’s when, over the course of a week or so, I heard several people mention the idea of Intermittent Fasting. These people included my dad, my wife, someone on a Youtube video, and a musician-comedian I met recently. These messages each individually blew up the strobe light into a full-blown crystal chandelier lighting up a ballroom. Clarity hit me: I’m going to do Intermittent Fasting.
I wasted no time. Within days, I started my first 16 hour fast. At the same time, I got a book on the subject and read it (but without waiting to actually start fasting). I haven’t looked back. My original goal was to lose 20 lbs. I lost about 6 lbs or so in the first month. For the last week and a half, I haven’t eaten processed sugar or grains. This has helped my progress enormously, and now I’ve lost about 15lbs as of this morning. I think it’s possible that I will reach the 20 lb goal within a week or so (for a Halloween treat… without the candy!).
Believe me, there are many things that have not come as easily as this. And I realize how many people struggle with this issue. I feel very grateful and blessed that this process has been so effortless.
I am grateful for the progress so far and look forward to more. I also look forward to learning even more about how the principles of the Law of Attraction work, by using myself as the principal object of study. I’m sure I will report to you later on further findings.
Meanwhile, if there is anything I would hope you get from this post, other than me congratulating myself, is the power of alignment. When you want something and you are truly aligned–that means you give up fear or resistance or self-judgment–it is only natural that you will get it!!
Also that your DNA on the Goslow side actually says it’s easier for you to lose weight, once aligned and once you want to.
Good point, Aunt Judy. Thanks for the comment.