So I’m still doing intermittent fasting. In case you don’t know, this site offers a great beginners guide to fasting https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/intermittent-fasting-guide#section3. For me I follow a 16:8 cycle. I eat between the hours of 12-8 and fast the other hours. This is the cycle that works best for me and keeps me from noshing at night.

My first post about this kind of eating was done on June 2 https://multipleexperiences.org/2018/06/02/its-not-the-grapes-intermittent-fasting-next/I am surprised it’s been two months already. This is what I’ve learned and done that has helped me stick to it.

1. I’m flexible when I need to be. For example I was away at my sisters house last weekend and it was impossible to stick to a 12-8 eating schedule. We were on different time schedule for things we were doing. Guess what, I didn’t worry about it and got right back on when I got home. This hold true for family and friends nights out for dinner.
2. I usually drank water in the morning but do start drinking coffee by like 11. You are allowed black coffee and it is considered fasting it is the milk that technically isn’t. It is my one hiccup.
3. I don’t have to start eating exactly at 12 and I don’t have to continue to eat until 8. Meaning I don’t have to have my food ready to go exactly at 12pm. Sometimes I don’t eat until 12:30 or 1. I also don’t have gorge myself to fill up by 8. I eat my snack after dinner. Sometimes I’m done at 7 or 7:30. Etc.
4. I haven’t lost weight but I haven’t gained. It has stopped my excess eating especially at night. I am a snacker and this way of eating has stopped my nighttime endless moshing.
5. It works for me. It fits into my lifestyle and how I eat. I’ve thought about changing to 11-7 or maybe to 11:30-7:30 more because of the coffee but haven’t decided yet.
6. I definitely drink more water. I was always a water drinker but never in the morning. Now I consume water in the morning because coffee isn’t my first beverage of the day.
7. I’m not hungry. I don’t wake up hungry anymore. I am not hungry at night either. I do go bed early but I’m up early and I never have an issue. It has become very easy to follow now.
8. I also don’t get caffeine headaches from drinking coffee 3-4 hours after I got up which is something I would get without my instant caffeine.
9. My bladder has better control in the morning with water instead of coffee. Coffee is a diuretic.

These are all good things of why this works for me. I know many others who have had great success with intermittent fasting. There are so many ways to do it, if your interested try one that works for you.

Have a wonderful weekend.