I was late getting week two written up when I realized that week three was shaping up exactly the same way…so this post is a two-fer and covers both!
As you may recall, I had two goals for week two:
- get to the gym at least twice in addition to teaching my fitness class on Saturday
- drink at least 60% of my water – 60fl oz.
Neither of these things happened. So I carried them on to week three…where only the water goal happened. While I was disappointed, I did get an interesting bonus in week two!
For a very long time I have had pain in the tibialis anterior in both my legs. This is the muscle that runs along the outside of the lower leg. I have believed the entire time that it had to do with very tight muscles and ligaments, and so have been trying to stretch them. But the stretching never made a difference. After walking for about 10 minutes or maybe half-way through my dance fitness class I would have a terrible, hot, pain in my legs. The muscles were tight, my skin would be red, and any movement even to wiggle my toes was agony. So at the end of week two when I had my class to teach after a 2-week break, I was a little worried about how it would go. To my great surprise, I did not have a single inkling of pain. I did not need to slow down, take and extra break….nothing.
The pain that I had been experiencing has been a result of inflammation rather than tight muscles. Toxins in my body were building up and causing nerve and muscle tissue to become inflamed and uncomfortable. Intermittent fasting helps boost the body’s natural processes for getting rid of toxins as well as fats, and promotes autophagy and so over the first two weeks of fasting the inflammation had significantly reduced.
Week three was a steady continuation of week two. My energy was good overall, I missed my goals but did not feel like I had missed the opportunity to do good for myself, and my weight stayed about the same. After losing a total of eight pounds in the first 8-9 days, my weight has not really changed. I am sure this is because I have not done all I should in terms of my activity level and water consumption. But again…I don’t feel like my missing something good I have done something bad; I feel like I dropped the ball on a couple of goals, but I am still doing good.
During week three I did take notice of my overall feeling. Even though there were days that I really “pigged out” after fasting, I did not get that over-full/bloated feeling that I would have before. Yes, I indulged in some junk food but it did not result in feeling quite as rough or ill as it would have before. So it feels like my body knows better about what to do and how to do it.
Going in to week 4 I am going to shake up the schedule a bit. Rather than a standard 16:8 plan, I am going to have my days vary a bit to include one day that is a 20-hour fast and the next day that is a 24-hour non-fast.
If you have tried or are trying intermittent fasting, comment below and let me know how you are doing! What are your struggles? What have you learned? Let’s chat!
Funked Up Fit 