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Intermittent Feasting

Well, we made it through Thanksgiving. 

This was my first while practicing Intermittent Fasting. A holiday based around eating is usually a source of stress and panic when one is working on weight management, but not this year for this girl!

I went into the holiday feeling great, having just recently surpassed my goal weight and lost 22 pounds (yes, an extra pound since I wrote this post!). Some of my family was able to make it up to Colorado for a couple of days and I'd already made the decision that Thursday would be a "Planned Indulgence Day." 



A Planned Indulgence (you can read more about it here) is when you plan on having a shorter fasting window or longer eating window...or no fasting window at all. 

I didn't want to concern myself with windows, especially while surrounded with my loved ones and all the delicious food the holiday entails. PLUS Courtney and other friends were kind enough to share some very special family pie recipes with me, and darn it, I was going to try all of them, especially if I was going to spend time baking them.

Yes, with IF, you can make your pie AND EAT IT, TOO!!

I wish I would've kept better track of exactly what I ate and when for the purpose of sharing it with you, but I got sidetracked with cleaning, baking, roasting, basting and toasting, so I'll recap as best I can and promise to document better at Christmas.

WEDNESDAY

Eating Window: 4 or 5pm - 1 am

I broke fast around 4 or 5pm (about 21/22 hours in) with a glass of eggnog (I don't usually break with alcohol, but my sister had just gotten there and it is the holidays, after all!)

Another glass of eggnog
1 decent-sized slice of pizza with pepperoni, Canadian bacon, black olives, mushrooms, and Roma tomatoes
3 pieces of cheesy bread with pizza sauce
2-4 honey BBQ chicken wings (I can't quite remember)
1 Colorado craft beer (Bristol Brewing's Beehive Honey Wheat)
1 piece of freshly baked pecan pie
And (thanks to my friend Lizzy who stopped by and made sure my glass remained full) several glasses of wine.

I gave up on trying to finish my last glass and went to bed around 1 am in preparation for cooking Thanksgiving dinner with a giant hangover.

THURSDAY

Eating Window: 8:30 am - 12:30 am

I surprisingly wasn't in as much pain as I'd thought I'd be, but I definitely needed the aid of Ibuprofen and a bit of ginger tea in my coffee. (I LOVE Traditional Medicinals Ginger Aid for these occasions. You can find it on Amazon here...and yes, I put tea in my coffee! I like the taste and it makes the healing process that much quicker for me).




I can't quite remember, but I believe I started eating on the veggie and meat trays around 11:30 am while cooking the Thanksgiving dinner. I planned to do this so that I could taste test some of the food I was making.

I can't honestly tell you the exact amount of all the food and beverages I consumed on Thanksgiving, but I can tell you what I had and that this was over the course of several hours, not all in one sitting, AND that I had little bits of everything so I wouldn't explode.

Broccoli
Cauliflower
Cherry Tomatoes
Baby Carrots
Summer Sausage
Cheese
Crackers
Turkey
Homemade Mashed Potatoes and Gravy
Cranberry Sauce (the jelly kind shaped like a can because it's the best, obviously)
Oyster Stuffing
Galuskies (a Volga German dish that's basically ground beef, pork and rice balls wrapped in cabbage and boiled in sauerkraut. It's a little stinky, but SOOO dang good).
Texas Caviar (a southern recipe with black eyed peas, hominy, jalapeno, onion, green pepper and tomato in an Italian salad dressing marinade..another family recipe, like the galuskies).
Buttered Corn & Green Beans
A dinner roll with butter
Pumpkin Pie
Sweet Potato Pie
Pecan Pie
Sour Cream Apple Pie (yes, ALL the pie!!)
Blue Bell Natural Vanilla Bean Ice Cream
A bit of my nieces natural sugar cane Root Beer
A few more glasses of wine
A bit of eggnog
A little bit of the bf's good Scotch
A Corona with lime

I probably overate a bit, but for the most part, I never felt overly full and I definitely wouldn't say that I binged. I mainly sampled everything and ate until I was satisfied. 


FRIDAY

Eating Window 1:30 pm - 11:30 pm

Before my family got back on the road to head home, we got out the leftovers so everyone could have lunch.

Turkey
Cranberry Sauce
Oyster Stuffing
Mashed Potatoes and Gravy
Buttered Corn & Green Beans
A Galuskie

After everyone left, the bf and I ventured out into nearby Old Colorado City to walk off some of our feasting and get some Christmas ideas. Afterward, we stopped in at a local wine and coffee bar and had a glass of wine and a shot of espresso with cream for a bit of a wake-me-up. Then went to meet Lizzy and her family for dinner at a local restaurant.

My dinner included:
1 glass of red wine
Creole Pasta (Tasso ham, chopped chicken, red onions, red peppers, spinach, tomatoes, asiago cheese, and cavatappi pasta tossed in a vibrant Cajun cream wine sauce and served with Texas toast)

I definitely couldn't eat my whole plate. I actually don't think I even really put a dent in it. Thankfully, the bf was there to make sure I didn't have to cart around leftovers.

After dinner, we went downtown to check out some of the local bars we hadn't gotten to yet. Over the few stops and lots of walking, I had:

1 beer (Fat Tire)
A slightly sweet, specialized martini cocktail (can't remember what all was in it, but it had "Pink" in the name)
A cocktail called "The White Rabbit" that came complete with a flaming marshmallow in the middle that had been coated in sugar (I definitely never want to see the sugar content of this drink, but it was DELICIOUS)

A shared plate of mussels
A stout beer
And a shared piece of delicious carrot cake (which I forgot to take a picture of)

So yes, I ATE and DRANK and I was merry. I woke up Saturday feeling a little bloated and really tired after all of that and I was definitely ready to get back to my normal fasting and sleeping routine.

Just out of curiosity, I got on the scale to see what the damage was. I was fully expecting something in the 5 pound gain range, but I was shocked when I saw that my weight had gone up only .2 pounds. Yes, there's a "point" in front of that 2. POINT TWO POUNDS.

I'm very interested to see what happens at Christmas with going back to Kansas and having multiple meals with family and friends. 

I do, however, know that I will not once feel guilty for enjoying the delicious food that my family and myself will work so hard to make, and I will be in control of my food, not the other way around.

If you'd like to learn more about Intermittent Fasting, I highly recommend checking out any and all of the books right here on our Resources page. They also make great gifts!

You can also always feel free to leave a comment or send me an email right here!

To feasting with family,

Carly



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