Seeing Results

Since starting back to work in August, I've been cycling to work nearly every day. I've had an odd day here or there when I rode the bus, like rainy days, but usually I ride my bike. This gives me ten miles a day, five miles to work and five miles to home. Depending on how fast I go, my Garmin tells me I burn anywhere from 230 - 280 calories with each five miles, so I burn around 500 calories a day by riding my bike (and this afternoon, after I arrived home, I achieved the 1000 miles cycled for the year -- really since June 1).

Also since starting back to work in August, I've stopped eating breakfast. This came about for two reasons: 1) it frees up time in the morning. I used to spend anywhere from a half hour to 45 minutes making the meal and eating the meal. Now I use that time to read or clean the apartment; and 2) I wanted to try the intermittent fasting I'd read about. I was really never all that hungry after waking, and I wanted to try to lose about ten pounds, so the intermittent fasting seemed like a way to deal with both. In not eating breakfast, this saves me about another 500 calories a day. 

The ~500 calories burned cycling added to the ~500 calories not consumed each morning put me into a ~1000 calories deficit each day. At least that's how I think it works. That's what I'm going with. If it's not, well, that's fine. Either way, it does appear the cycling and the no more breakfast are starting to make a difference.

I'm not sure if I've lost any weight since I never weighed myself when I started. My clothes, though, are saying yes, some weight has come off. Everything is looser, a few shirts almost too loose. A dress I bought several years ago was pretty snug through the bosom area, and now it isn't. When I wore it to work the other day, I felt so comfortable in it and enjoyed wearing it all day. When it was snug, I wasn't as comfortable and even a bit self-conscious about how it fit. I also have a dress that was just a smidge too tight through the waist. Now I can zip that baby up with ease. That's such a wonderful feeling.

At first I worried about not eating breakfast. For so long we've been told breakfast is the most important meal of the day. I completely bought into that. Now? Now I believe if a person is truly hungry then yes, eat breakfast. If a person isn't, don't eat breakfast. I eat during a six-hour window, between noon and six pm, and this works for me. There are evenings when I eat a bit later, like if I go out with friends, and if this happens, I simply extend the fast a few hours the next day. I wait to eat my first meal of the day until I truly feel hungry, which is a new eating behavior for me. 

I was actually surprised with how natural the fast/eat system fell into place for me. I really had no issues making this a part of my life, and I'm pretty certain this will continue to be a part of my life. I do think I'll stop by the gym tomorrow and weigh in. I am curious about what I weigh, and I'd like to check back in at the end of the semester to see if there's any significant difference. If not, that's fine. At the very least, the cycling everyday is good for my emotional health -- seeing the Monarch butterflies floating across the air and having a grasshopper flitting alongside make me smile.