Intermittent Fasting Journal – Week 18

by Donna Reish

In this episode, Donna Reish, Intermittent Fasting blogger, teacher, and podcaster, gives her and her husband’s five and six months update, including a total weight loss of over sixty pounds for the two of them and multiple clothing sizes. She describes how, unlike other weight management plans they have tried, they continue to lose pounds, inches, sizes, etc., in a plan that they are able to easily implement and stick with—even during special times and vacations! During the “Listener Lessons” portion of this recording, Donna explains their vacation experiences of twelve days out of fourteen traveling for business and pleasure and how they continued with at least sixteen hours of fasting during this time. She teaches readers the importance of deciding ahead of time what your eating plans will always be rather than waiting until the heat of the moment and letting hunger or emotions make decisions for you. By deciding ahead of time what her fasting protocol was going to look like during these trips, she was able to plan for each day ahead of time and stick with her plan. Donna continue to teach about how we need to “plan our specials carefully.” One special can turn into two, which can turn into three…and the next thing you know, everything is special, and it is hard to meet our weight management goals. She gives benchmarks that she uses for choosing “specials.” She explains the difference between other weight loss times in which she “threw in the towel” before vacation because it felt futile—compared to Daily IF in which you just vary your eating window so minimize vacation weight gain. This mindset shift included starting vacation on a strong note of good fasts before the trip. Donna then examines her vacation days and why she chose to fast when she did and eat when she did. She encourages listeners to create new food associations and new pleasurable activities in place of eating (during fasting hours). She helps listeners learn to use self talk to motivate oneself and help achieve self discipline. Lastly, she describes a new product from the show’s sponsor, Plexus Slim Hunger Control and she teaches how this plant-based, healthy drink can help with fasting.

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