Grief, Retirement & Intermittent Fasting

It's been a minute since I've had the energy to sit down and write and I am not beating myself up over it.  Part of it is I just haven't been in a place to really expound/share on the loss of my mama. I was honestly busy working as well as giving myself time to experience the loss of someone so special and integral to my life and I wasn't really willing to share that time with anyone, let alone write it all down.  Now that it's been almost 2 years since mama has passed I have a better handle on my emotions and feel inspired to start writing again. If not for anyone, for myself.  So really this is for me but if someone out there reads this and it helps that will just be icing on the cake. An extra blessing, if you will.

 I feel mama's loss in a much different way than I did a year ago, it now feels a bit softer and not so sharp and painful. It's the feeling of acceptance and of opening myself up to another level of grieving. I honestly don't think grief ever goes completely away, especially when you love someone so completely and deeply. There are just new levels to experience and sometimes they are easier and other times not so much. I am in a good head space and have moved into a softer grief and for that I am ever so grateful. I miss you mama but I know you are in a better place and I will see you again someday.

ALSO... I am "retired" if you can call it that at 49. I started working at a Chiropractors office as a Chiropractic Assistant and running their front office in November of 2017 and retired this August.  Covid-19 hit us like everyone else but because we were a Chiropractic office we didn't have to close and couldn't practically work from home so it was business as usual. We did have some weeks it was pretty slow but all in all it wasn't too bad. Honestly, I loved working there but I was ready to be done especially because my M-I-L will be coming to live with us soon due to her Alzheimer's disease and I wanted some time for myself before that happened. (Side note, my husband has just retired as well so we have a lot of time to spend on our many projects and on us. I'm pretty excited about that.)

 

I have been diligently focusing on my health since I've been home and have made some big changes that are making a huge difference in my everyday life. One of those things is food related.  I have been on a weight loss journey since April and slowly over time I have lost 24.6 lbs. Slow and steady, right! I feel great and look great (if I do say so myself) and have a couple of new things I've added to my health regime.  Wait for it...

 So. . . I started this thing called intermittent fasting.  What, you may be asking is intermittent fasting? Well let me tell you. Intermittent fasting is simply time restricted eating. You fast for a certain number of hours and eat during a certain time frame. It can be a schedule of 16:8 or 18:6 or 20:4 or 5:2 and what those numbers mean is you can fast for 16 hours or 18 hours or 20 hours or however long you'd like. The second set of numbers after the : is the amount of time you have to eat your meals . The 5:2 fast, also known as The Fast Diet, is a popular intermittent fasting diet. It was popularized by British journalist Michael Mosley. It's called the 5:2 diet because five days of the week are normal eating days, while the other two restrict calories to 500–600 per day. 

*While I am fasting, I am also eating normal calories and for me that means eating between my BMR and TDEE (there are many calculators for BMR & TDEE online) although during my long fasts (23:1) I eat under my calories for obvious reasons. 1 hour isn't a lot of time to eat 1500 calories so naturally I eat less on those days*

I started fasting on August 19th 2020 with an 16:8 schedule. What that means is I fasted for 16 hours and ate within an 8hr time frame. It really has been super easy to implement into my life and I have noticed a huge decrease in my daily pain and fatigue.  

*Intermittent fasting helps to regulate blood sugar, insulin response in your body, fights cancer, and reduces inflammation.  It can also help with weight and fat loss. Another benefit of fasting is Autophagy.  *Autophagy is the body's way of cleaning out damaged cells, in order to regenerate newer, healthier cells, according to Priya Khorana, PhD, in nutrition education from Columbia University. “Auto” means self and “phagy” means eat. So the literal meaning of autophagy is “self-eating.”* This effect usually starts around the 18-20 hour of fasting with maximum benefits occurring around the 48-72 hour mark. Autophagy and it's benefit is still being studied*

So after doing a 16:8 schedule for a few days I tried an 18:6 schedule, then a 20:4 schedule and finally a 23:1 schedule. I just started a challenge for myself for the month of October where I will be doing 10,000 steps daily as well as 23:1 and 18:6 on alternating days. So one day I will fast 23 hours and eat within a one hour time frame and the next day I will fast for 18 hours and eat within a 6 hour time frame. For example, today was a 23:1 schedule day and it started yesterday at 3pm. I fasted from 3pm yesterday to 2pm today and ate from 2pm-3pm-ish and started tomorrows fast at 4pm today and that will end at 10am tomorrow morning. 

I feel 100% better fasting than I did before and that is what I was after. Before I started fasting I was in constant daily pain and had chronic fatigue and was in bed a lot of the time. Since I started fasting my pain has decreased significantly and fatigue is nowhere to be found most days. In addition to fasting I am eating low-ish (under 100g) carb most days of the week, not sure that has anything to do with it but who knows. Another benefit of fasting, for me, is I don't feel like food has control of me anymore. What I mean by that is the act of counting calories forces you to be food focused and that can be either a good thing or a bad thing.  For me it was a bad thing. Now don't get me wrong I still count calories but am no longer obsessed with it or controlled by it. 

And that my friends is what I have been doing this past year.  Life is looking up and for that I am glad. May this find you happy and healthy. Blessings!

"Limitations only exist if you let them" Godspeed...this comes from the Middle English expression "God spede (you)", a wish for success and fortune for one setting out on an enterprise, voyage, adventure, or travels. It may also mean good luck. © 2020 Shannon M. King. This publication is the exclusive property of Shannon M. King and is protected under the US Copyright Act of 1976 and all other applicable international, federal, state and local laws. The contents of this post/story may not be reproduced as a whole or in part, by any means whatsoever, without consent of the author, Shannon M. King. All rights reserved.