Fast-5 Diet and Lifestyle: Re: [fast5] Day 2 A Little Tougher Than Yesterday

Paul, there are all kinds of ways to do this, and perhaps you need to think a bit about whether you're in any danger of setting yourself up to "fail". Do you "need" to go cold turkey? Do you "need" to lose a certain amount of weight in a certain time? If so, then why exactly? Is the value to be gained from an IF lifestyle a matter of how quickly you bring it about? Is it a matter of having achieved a particular "goal" weight by a certain date? Or is it perhaps more about finding the best way to transition to an entirely different relationship with food and with your "energy economy" over the long-term. That's a different way to think about motivating yourself, as contrasted with short-term, scale-based "results". That said, my own experience was that the combination of exercise and a degree of calorie-management (because candidly in my view, and I think Dr Herring's, that's what counts in the end) was pretty successful in producing reasonably steady progress week by week until I achieved my body composition "target". But if the psychological transition hadn't also thoroughly bedded in, it would have been all to easy to reverse this process just as rapidly, something I had also experienced in the past.

Of course only you can answer these questions. As to specific advice, of course food laid out for one can be a great temptation in the short run, whilst you're still psychologically primed to think in terms of eating at set times during the day. Also there's the potential issue of social pressure, which everyone has to deal with in their own way. I suspect this is why a "warrior" approach was helpful for me, because I always had my own low-calorie goodie-bag on hand to snack from, as an alternative to whatever was on hand (and I worked at the time in an office where high-calorie snacks were constantly on offer as "rewards" and celebrations). My body composition plan was a good cover story for not joining in the general gluttony (I lost over 30 pounds on this regime). Later, I made the switch, over time, from warrior-style snacking to daytime fasting without any change in weight or body composition.

By the way, if you are of an "experimental" turn of mind, one way of really transforming your attitude to the whole transition experience is to treat it as a process of observation of your unique reaction whenever you make a change in your regime. Notice precisely how your body tells you that you need or want to eat - what signals it gives you, how they change in response to, say a drink of water as opposed to eating something, or to a piece of fruit as compared to a hamburger, or even just waiting a bit. One psychological aspect of transitioning to IF is that most of us harbour a deep fear of "starvation" and tend to subconsciously worry that unfamiliar signals from our body are a sign that we're imminently going to weaken or even die. Of course, given our species history and assuming that we're in normal health, this simply can't be true, although it's often supported by others' fears for us and conventional "wisdom". A successful transition to IF is about allowing yourself to experience the truth of this and ultimately achieving a new stable relationship with food on an entirely different basis. This is why it can't be rushed. All the "oldies" in this group can tell you is that we did it and survived - in fact, flourished - and perhaps share the odd trick or two.

Best, David

On 13 September 2011 20:43, Paul Martin <bluechip4271@yahoo.com> wrote:

Hey Everyone

Today is the second day and I could use a little encouragement. Had to walk away from a conference lunch. Temptation was too great and didn't feel like explaining myself to people I just met.

Feeling a little hungrier than yesterday. I'm trying to do this cold turkey and it's a little tough. I have a feeling it will be hard to stay the course if I have to wait 3+ weeks before seeing any results (pounds or inches). I may give in and measure or weigh myself at the end of the week in the hopes that I will see some change and keep me motivated.

Any encouragement, words of wisdom or advice would be greatly appreciated.

Paul

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