July 6, 2008 Archives

One of the things I've struggled with over the last 15 years or so has been my weight. Ever since I severely injured myself playing football. I tore the cartilage in my left ankle, twisted/pulled the ligaments in my right ankle and hyper-extended my right knee. When I played football regularly my weight never fluctuated much from about 13 stone (182lbs / 82½kg). Depending on how much running I also did it sometimes was even less. In the first couple of years after stopping my weight went up to 15 stone (210lbs / 95½kg), it eventually went up to about 17 stone (238lbs / 108kg). My weight remained pretty steady there until about 7 years ago.

Within a year of starting work at Perkins my weight had ballooned to over 20 stone (280lbs / 127kg) and in the following five years it went up to approximately 24 stones (336lbs / 152½kg). After embarking on a new diet and taking some weight loss medication I got back down to under 20 stone (280lbs / 127kg) within a year. Unfortunately, I have very poor dietary control and really lack the desire to stick to a managed diet plan and am now back above 24 stone (338lbs / 157½kg) again.

Anyway, after doing some reading on the internet I've come across a few sites suggesting a regime of intermittent fasting as a potential solution. The beauty of the plan is that you don't have to strictly manage the kinds or amount of food that you eat. The plan relies on intermittently fasting, much like palaeolithic man did and most wild animals do. The plan calls for a period of fasting followed by a period of eating in a cycle. I'm going to give it a try.

My plan is that I will eat normally today until 6pm. I have already had my breakfast and will eat our main Sunday meal sometime between 4pm and 5pm as usual. I may then have a small snack before 6pm. I will then fast until 6pm tomorrow eveing at which point I will have a normal evening meal and perhaps snack a bit later. On Tuesday I will have my normal breakfast and then eat normally in the afternoon until 6pm at which point I will fast until 6pm Wednesday. I will have a normal evening of eating on Wednesday after 6pm and then have breakfast and normal afternoon eating until 6pm on Thursday at which point I will again fast until 6pm on Friday. Friday 6pm onwards to Sunday 6pm I will eat normally and then repeat the cycle next week.

• Sunday: Breakfast, Lunch, Nothing After 6pm
• Monday: Nothing Until 6pm, Dinner/Supper
• Tuesday: Breakfast, Lunch, Nothing After 6pm
• Wednesday: Nothing Until 6pm, Dinner/Supper
• Thursday: Breakfast, Lunch, Nothing After 6pm
• Friday: Nothing Until 6pm, Dinner/Supper
• Saturday: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner/Supper as Normal