Intermittent Fasting Update and Tips

 

So it's been a little bit, but I decided to make this post an update on my intermittent fasting cause it's getting exciting now. And with my update I'd like to share some things I've learned through trial and error along the way. 

That way someone else out there wanting to give this a try doesn't have to learn the hard way like I did and you'll get your results faster. So here we go...

I'll start with the fact that I'm still doing the 16:8 IF schedule, and that works for me. However, now I try ending my fast at 12 p.m. instead of two and then begin again at 8 p.m.. Sometimes I start later, too. It just depends on the day, but this is basically what I've been doing and it works for me. My body has adjusted to this routine. 

Where I went wrong the first four weeks...trying to fast with a little bit of cream and sugar in my coffee. Before I did this, I found that you could do just a tad, like a teaspoon of cream and sugar but it's still not as good as a full fast without any sugar whatsoever. Well, I learned the hard way. I saw some results, but not like I did when I finally sacrificed my morning cup of coffee.

Before I explain, let me add that you can still have your coffee if you like it black. I just can't do this, so I trained my body to get up and move with just water or plain green tea and voila, my body is just fine. Actually, lately I've been trying green tea with cinnamon which this doctor says helps to speed up weight loss. 

I never thought I'd see the day where I could wake up and get going without my cup of coffee doused in cream and sugar. But waiting till 12-1 gives me something to look forward to when I finally have that cup of coffee the way I like it and it makes me feel like I earned it. At first as I began to cut back on sugar, I did experience an increase in headaches, which I believe was a combination of stress in my life but also sugar leaving my body. 

Not getting as many headaches in the past few weeks, so that's good. And I feel like I have more energy which is shocking cause I used to feel like I literally could not even get out of bed without my first cup. Sometimes, okay, usually, TWO to move my rear. But I now have MORE energy than with my coffee in the morning. 

I've lost track of weeks here and have yet to step on a scale, but looking at the calendar it looks like I'm at week 12. Like I've said before, the scale has traumatized me, so I'm waiting. I might do it today actually and then check again on Monday of next week, because I've added something else into my regimen that I wanted to share, which is making the remainder of the weight melt off and I wish I had done this sooner. 

But I feel like this was kind of good in a way, cause it showed me what works, what doesn't, and what really speeds things up. I was waiting for the right time to shuffle in exercise and I feel like I've lost enough weight (about two pant sizes and a bra cup) to give it a go. My reasoning for waiting was again the psychological factor of as I've explained in previous posts.

How I tried-and-tried exercising, working out up to an hour a day, five days a week at one point and my weight wouldn't budge. In fact, I had gained. It was beyond frustrating. And also as I've stated before, this was never a problem I experienced a day in my life till my late 30s into my early 40s. So if this can work for me in my 40s, this can work for anyone. 

A year ago I gave the Chloe Ting challenge a try 😂. <----- That's how it went, yeah. Weight didn't budge. I "imagined" it was a few times, but, no, it wasn't budging. I gave up and began to focus the remainder of 2020 on my health, which as it turned out part of my health problems were adding to my weight gain. It wasn't all of it, but it was a big part of it. Blah, blah, metabolism, age, and sedentary job added into it as well, not gonna lie. 

Okay. So I was already seeing amazing results by cutting out sugar in the morning, but I'm not kidding you, after my first day of doing Chloe's 2 week shred again, bam, I woke up the next morning with a visual difference in my face, arms, and stomach. Morning after second day, bam, even more again. I feel like I finally cracked the code to get the weight off.

And that day was exciting for me because I've also been working on my skin and hair the past year and everything's coming together at once, which I'll post another time or else I'll be here all day 😂. What was exciting was that one of my girls said to me after I did my mascara for the day, which is all I wear for the most part, along with some powder cause I'm transforming my skin too. 

And she said, "mommy, look at me." And she made me look at her like three times and she said, "mommy, your eyes look so pretty today." "You look so pretty." And I laughed because I had made a mess with my mascara like I always do when I apply it, then I have to wipe it off. 

But it looks like I have eyeliner on at first till it dries and I wipe it off. She thought I had eyeliner on 😂 and that it looked so pretty on mommy. That was super cute. But kids are so honest and it just made my day. They're my go to if I need to know if something looks bad or not, especially her sister 😂. 

My face is shrinking a lot, which is why they looked "different," cause it's the same mess every day but I'm finally losing the weight and starting to look like me, which feels so good. Today was day three, so we'll see how this 2 week challenge goes. Bottom line, if you really want to see results with intermittent fasting, fast results, you have to completely cut sugar, none at all during your fasting window, and add in exercise and it will literally melt off. 

Yes, you can still lose without the exercise. But if fast is what you want, and you can't wait to love yourself when you look in the mirror and feel good in your clothes then exercise too. That's all I want is to feel good in my clothes again, and recognize myself when I look in the mirror or catch a glimpse of my reflection somewhere and not cringe 😂. I think I can finish the rest of this weight off within 30 days. We shall see...so exciting! 

Good luck to anyone else out there going through the same thing trying to make a change! Good luck with your transformation! We've got this!

With Love,

Carmen

Intermittent Fasting is Working - It Works

Finally Seeing Results

Today marks my 4th week of intermittent fasting the right way and it's working. I knew how to make it work but like I said before, the morning coffee thing is what made it hard for me because I just can't do black coffee. I've tried. So I'm doing just a little bit of creamer, which is okay, just not as good as black coffee. Okay, 2 tbsp. instead of one, but it's still working. 

My eating window during the week is usually between 2 p.m. and 7 p.m., sometimes ending at 8 p.m. at the latest. I do this Monday through Friday, then on the weekends I pretty much eat regular but still mindful of sugar intake and still careful with my coffee and eat normal portions of course. We've always had special pancakes on Saturday and eggs on Sunday, and so I've still been having our weekend breakfasts with bacon and sausage, etc. 

So although I wait till two to break my fast, I realize that even just a little sugar in my coffee could ruin all that hard work and mess up my ketosis. So how do I know it's working for me? Well like I've also said before, I have yet to jump on the scale cause the scale is not our friend. The scale is psychologically abusive, so I'm gonna wait till my clothes get a little bigger to jump on that baby. 

The way I can tell is that my clothes are getting bigger and fitting better. My face is slimming down, which my entire life I was the girl with the chubby cheeks. This is cute when you're a toddler or a baby, or even a little girl - everyone wants to squeeze your cheeks cause you're so cute. But not so cute when you're 42 years old...that's a whole other story. 

Even if I go just ten pounds over my normal weight it always goes straight to my face. I hate that, so I never let that happen. And now I'm beyond ten pounds over, lol. That's all I'll say, but I'm not obese if that makes sense. I was getting close to the obese marker though if I'm gonna be honest here and well beyond ten pounds over. 

And for me, my weight gain really was caused by sedentary job, age, and mainly the digestive issues I'm having, which are presently being treated, which I "think" are also finally starting to heal. I can sleep on my side again so that's a positive sign. The pain was so bad from my peptic ulcers that I couldn't sleep on my side, either side. 

Other signs that intermittent fasting is working for me is I can see that my tummy has gone down. I'll elaborate more once I reach my goal, but love handles are pretty much gone - yes, I had those. And I'm leaving the fat zone and have more or less entered into the "thick" zone now. I don't mind being a little thick, but I'll see where this journey takes me. My ultimate goal is to feel good in my own skin. 

Feel good in my clothes. Be happy when I look at myself in the mirror and most importantly - to be healthy. My blood pressure went up too with the weight gain and I was prescribed something for it back in December but never took it. The side effects scared me and my doctor really felt I could bring it down with diet just as I had, which was the conclusion we came to the year prior when we discovered I was heading towards high blood pressure. 

And I was trying that year, but nothing worked till I finally pin pointed my problem, my digestive issues. So regardless, though, I'd hate to say it's age cause I feel like that's a cop out but my doctor did say age many times to me. Ugh, metabolism changes with age. It just made me realize this can happen to anyone cause it was never an issue for me, ever, never ever. 

I'm glad it happened at this point in life though, because I'm more confident and it also happened at a time when I was more focused on my spirituality and my mental state, being happy no matter what. Sometimes even laughing at myself, well, many times I've done that. I felt like Adam Sandler in the movie Click when he woke up fat, lol. 

Ah, yes, that scene popped into my mind many times, although I wasn't nearly as big as he was in that scene, but just to watch the changes in my body were hilarious. There were a few moments I honestly wanted to cry out of frustration cause I've tried everything, but mostly laughed at myself. 

Please note that I've never been one to judge overweight people and I raised my kids to be the same. There are big women in my family. And there are many beautiful big women out there. I'm just not one of them. Heavy C isn't cute. Carmen looks better at a smaller weight and she's more happy at a smaller weight. I just don't have the face for it; goes right to my face. Plus, vanity aside, high blood pressure is deadly. 

I'll post another update on this in four more weeks and if I see more improvement I will jump on the scale and divulge actual details on pounds lost. But I know that you can lose weight too without so many pounds going down - body fat, inches, and all that good stuff comes into play as well. There's definitely good stuff going on and a lot of it, which is very exciting. I'm excited to get dressed again. Bottom line - intermittent fasting works but you've gotta do it right. 

With Love,

Carmen

Weight loss over 40: Will cream in coffee break a fast?

 Intermittent Fasting for Coffee Feins...

Where do I begin here...? First, I guess I'll begin with the fact that I've never had a weight problem in my life. I was always average weight with sort of a sporty physique growing up. 

As a little girl, I was slender, then as a teen I was sporty and played softball, etc., that type of physique. Then had kids and always bounced back after pregnancy. 

After I had my twins clearly my body had stretched beyond belief considering I made it 37 weeks with two nearly full-term babies. Had to wait two months to start exercising cause you have to wait longer with twins. Once I was given the green light I started working out immediately and lost all of the weight and then some by the time they were five months. 

Then...I stopped working out, went into full mom mode juggling everything I was juggling and began to put it back on and then some for the first time in my life. Didn't happen all at once. It was a "process" and I've come to the conclusion there were a few variables at play here to cause my downfall. Desk job, age, and now that I know also my hiatal hernia which messed up my digestion process causing other problems. Okay. 

So now that we know what led me to this post let's dive into what I've done to attempt to lose the weight. I'm 42 now and began to attempt losing the weight at about 35ish. For the first time in my life each attempt was an epic fail to my dismay. I used all the usual tactics that always worked for me - smaller portions, working out, green tea, etc. 

Not only did I not lose the weight but I began to gain as I tried losing - yes, very discouraging. Needless to say I gave up. Then started again. Then gave up. Then started again. This was a cycle. I learned about intermittent fasting, which seems to be great for weight loss over 40. My GI even recommended it to me. I've dappled in intermittent fasting but could never quite nail the complete removal of cream and sugar in my morning coffee because I'm a coffee fein. 

I literally couldn't give up my morning coffee. Guess it wasn't "that" important to me. So I also tried to just accept my weight but then when you do that it goes up... Then I'd try losing again. Then accepting, then tried losing. I bought an exercise bike, mini stepper, hand weights, elastic bands, etc. Following a simple home workout video always worked for me. Not a gym person. But nothing was working. 

So here I am...trying again but this time I've decided to give intermittent fasting a try with just cream, no sugar. Before I began this experiment I carefully did my research. This video in particular helped me make up my mind to give it a try. Will cream in coffee break a fast? These folks answer that question with their own experiment and expertise and so I decided to give it a try. 

But before waking up and giving it a try first thing in the morning with my first cup - I did my own experiment. I got my body used to just cream in my coffee a couple days prior throughout the day and I have to say it's doable. I got used to the taste. I let it cool a little before sipping with such little cream. Yes, I drink coffee throughout the day. Not as much as I used to but I do. I'd say about four cups a day now. 

When I was younger I could go through 1-2 pots of coffee a day. Gross, I know. So they say 1-2 tsp of cream is okay. I'm doing two which is also 1 tbsp. you could say. You'll obviously have more benefits with black coffee but this is doable. I just can't do black coffee. I would be like the wicked witch of the west with black coffee, so I'm doing cream. I'm one week in and I feel like I see a difference. My daughters see it too. We shall see... 

I will not get on the scale till I see clothing get looser as the scale is lucky I didn't take it out back and smash it to pieces. The scale is public enemy number one and is not your friend. Avoid it at all costs. Weigh yourself once a week or even less than that. I want to see a difference in the way my clothing fits before I jump on that baby again...definitely a mind f**k, the scale. Yes, I censored myself, lol.

If you're on the same journey, good luck. It's frustrating, I know. I remember when I was younger hearing women say they felt like they gained weight from simply breathing. Now...I get it. Good luck and never give up...but love yourself no matter what. 

P.S. I'm a little behind on my post schedule that I set for myself. I spent the day yesterday doing some organizing and putting together a piece of furniture that five years ago would have taken me two hours, but at 42 feeling like I have the body of a 90-year-old it took me literally hours...but I did it! I was determined. 

People kept asking if I needed help and I kept saying "no, I've got this," cause I'm stubborn. By bedtime I could barely move and woke up feeling like I ran a marathon or lifted weights for hours. Aging sucks...I literally hate my body, lol. 

If anyone wonders what it's like to age it's like this... Your spirit wants to do one thing but your body won't cooperate and has an agenda of its own - to cause you pain you never imagined from doing simple tasks. My goal this year is to start running too. 

We're gonna become a "running family." I already have two runners. Gonna be fun...

With Love,

Carmen

Homemade Hair Mask for Hair Loss and Hair Health

I've been wanting to post for a while and have had so many ideas, but haven't made time. Today I've decided to post about something I've been wanting to share and I'll be adding this to a new section of my blog that I'm calling "beauty problem solvers." 

For anyone that doesn't know, right around the time I started this blog I also had a website that I spent between 2010 and 2011 building based on beauty problems. I'm not a guru or an expert, or anything of the sort.

I just have a passion for finding natural remedies for ANYTHING, including beauty problems. That site had 101 pages and I was sad when I forgot to pay my hosting and whatever else on the date it was due and I lost it all about five years ago . . . So I've decided to make it fit here and I'm starting with this hair mask and how to grow back hair after hair loss issues. My hair loss issues actually started about eight years ago. 

I will sum this up as best as I can without rambling, but the journey started within two weeks of the depo shot. But also, I later realized this as I started to realize I was frying my hair with 450 of heat from my flat iron, it also began just a few months after I bought my first "good" flat iron that could reach 450 with tourmaline plates. I love this baby. Still have it - I just don't go to 450. 

First my hair started getting greasy and then it seemed to be thinning. I started diving into what to do to make it stop. I make light of this, but this is something that really made me feel bad about myself. So when looking for ways to grow back my hair and to keep it from falling out of my head more I explored organic shampoos with tea tree oil, vitamins, etc. and these things helped. I made sure I was not "scrubbing" my scalp as this adds to oil and paid attention to the proper ways to shampoo the hair. 

There is actually a proper way - I used to just lather it on and do my thing. Fast forward; it seemed to be under control, but then started getting worse about two years ago. My hair was getting dry and thinning worse than ever. I attribute this now to genetics, stress, and things I was doing wrong with my hair, and scalp health. Also around this time I started getting more white hairs - not gray, white. 

So I said to myself, are we going to (yes, I speak to myself in third person all the time) start coloring regularly or accept the gray. I really don't mind the gray/white, but I think I'll try dying it regularly because some of those little hairs would just stick up and wouldn't grow much longer. So I started dying my hair a dark brown once a month. I also started skipping shampoos to give my hair a rest in between and made the BIG mistake of using dry shampoo on the off days. 

On my "on" days I would do a hair mask and sometimes an ACV scalp rinse. I started with just castor oil and olive oil mixed and graduated to what I'm going to share here. So the next thing you know, hair's coming out in clumps and I realized it was the dry shampoo. It was too heavy on my fragile hair and sensitive scalp. During this time I lived in baseball hats and during the winter, winter hats. 

Plus, if it's cold my motto is it's better to be warm than look good ha, ha, but I think you can have both with a stylish hat. I just wanted to be warm and this helped hide my issues. I'm not a princess - I want warmth. Moving on here...my hair was also getting crunchy dry from the hair dye. I said I'm just going to accept my white/gray hairs and let it come in naturally. I really didn't mind them anyway and coloring my hair isn't really my thing. 

I like the color of my hair and I've always had a natural auburn tint to it on top of the dark brown. So now I had to grow out the dyed crap and keep working on improving scalp and hair health. I did this with scalp rinses weekly at first (equal parts ACV with water) and then I would do a hair mask with about 1 tbsp. of castor oil mixed with 1 tbsp. of olive oil, applying it to my hair, letting it sit, and then wrapping my hair for 20-30 minutes before washing twice and then conditioning. 

Because I prefer my hair straight, I would flat iron and then I learned to "wrap" my hair at night for my "off" days (skip days). This became a routine. My hair began to come back in and the dark brown/black grew out. About three trims later and the black/dark brown was gone and I was still working on my hair. When I finally got a clue about my flat iron I lowered the heat to 370 because they say 350 is best, but that extra 20 degrees really makes a difference with my hair. 

It won't straighten on 350. What I'm doing now - hair masks every other day before shampooing, scalp rinses following my hair mask, wrapping my hair in a silk scarf the night before my skip day and the night of my wash day if that makes sense, using less heat, doing scalp massages when shampooing (you can find videos on how to do this), using heat protectant with keratin, and I've recently fallen in love with and found the secret to fighting frizz with  an "Argan oil of Morocco weightless healing dry oil" spray.

I spritz my hair starting from the middle of my head to my ends holding the bottle a good distance away and not saturating my hair. It comes out really light though. I was afraid of making my hair greasy, but my hair seems to be thirsty for this stuff. It's awesome. Makes it shiny and frizz free. My hair now? I can finally leave the house without hats. It's coming in thicker and growing longer. It's a work in progress, but this is working for me. Maybe it'll work for you . . . 

The hair mask is actually fun if you like doing things like this. The ingredients are all basic ingredients you'll find in various natural hair masks out there. I've just taken what works best for me. On a side note I'll add that the coffee mixture seems to be turning my white/gray hairs brown. They're still whitish/gray, but really heading more into brown. I learned a long time ago that coffee can supposedly do this when applied to hair. So we have a win-win here, ha. 

They say a specific type of coffee grounds is best, but I found that this weighed my hair down more and caused more fallout, so I started using my instant coffee grounds - the Nescafe. My absolute favorite (quick and strong baby) coffee in the whole wide world. A little warning about the banana. I mash with a fork, because it's just quicker for me and I hate extra dishes, but you can throw it into a blender or something if you prefer. 

If I haven't shared my feelings on dishes even though I do them and I've added how much time I waste of my life at the sink every day - three to four hours in total on the weekends and about two hours weekdays, then check this out... There are times when I'm at the sink or doing laundry for that matter (the chasing in the wind chores) and this song pops into my head. Oh, wait, I have shared my loathing of dishes!

But to make myself laugh out loud while talking in third person to self, when I'm done this song sometimes pops into my head. And then I have a good laugh when that happens and exit the kitchen. Problems, I know... So much for not rambling!!

Fun Natural Hair Mask Recipe

Ingredients

• 4 tbsp. plain yogurt
• 1/2 banana mashed
• 1 egg
• 2 tbsp. castor oil
• 2 tbsp. olive oil
• 1 tbsp. honey
• a sprinkle of coffee grounds 

Directions:

1. First you'll want to mash your banana. I just mash it with a fork, but warning here - you'll notice after washing your hair pieces of banana. It comes out for me when I blow dry my hair with a round brush and it's just quicker to mash it with a fork for me. But if you want you can put it into a blender or something first. Then add in the egg and mix the banana and egg well. 
2. Now add your yogurt, oils, honey, and top with a sprinkle of coffee (leave out if you prefer).
3. Brush hair and part hair in the middle. start applying with a small brush. I used a contour brush (that I'll never use on my face again) and it works well for me. Keep taking the hair in sections and starting from the scalp apply all over hair. Once you've done your entire scalp, both sides, apply to the ends. It's best to use the brush for this too. 
4. Wrap your hair with a towel and leave on for 20-30 minutes.
5. Wash twice (mainly because of castor oil) and then condition. 
6. Do your thing. My thing is blow drying and then flat ironing. 
7. Optional step:  If you'd like to do the scalp rinse, which for me goes hand-in-hand with the mask. It's an important step. I rinse the mask from my hair before washing with shampoo, then apply the scalp rinse. I let this sit while I wash the rest of myself and then after about three minutes or so I shampoo. 

ACV Scalp Rinse

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup Bragg's Organic Apple Cider Vinegar
• 1/2 cup water

Directions:

1. Mix ingredients into cup and use warm/to hot water, because by the time you get into the shower and rinse, the temp should be just right when you do the scalp rinse. Otherwise you're going to be dumping ice on your head. If you like ice, use cold then. :) 

How to Wrap Hair 

If you're wondering how to wrap hair, or what I'm talking about, there are great videos on YouTube showing how to do this. Here's one for long hair and here's a great one for short hair. Depending on how often you skip washing your hair this is great for the skip nights. I don't need dry shampoo and my hair doesn't look dirty on my skip days! 

To freshen my hair up on my skip days I apply just a little heat protectant spray and blow dry my hair for just a couple seconds with a round brush to bring life back to it. Add my Argan oil/Morrocan oil mix spray to my ends, spray with hairspray and we're good. 

Good luck!!!