Am I the only one who tends to freak herself out?
Not on purpose, of course. But sometimes, I swear, my Mind gets the best of me. It amazes me how strong the mind can be at convincing the body that something is happening when it really isn’t. It’s fascinating.
That’s how most of my anxiety happens. I focus in too much on whatever my Mind tells me might be happening, and usually those things aren’t all good. It’s annoying. Thankfully, I’ve learned to control it and I tell myself that I’m just freaking myself out. It works most of the time.
Reason why I’m writing this – Monday was my first intermittent fasting day! Tuesday was a regular non-IF day so I was eating like a normal person, ha, but I wanted to write about my experience with intermittent fasting so far, as promised.
Before the first meal
Well, my last meal on Sunday was at 7pm (a big serving of frozen yogurt topped with crazy delicious toppings so I was sure it would hold me off until noon the next day. All those calories… soo good!). I woke up at 8:30am and I went to the gym to work out. Can I just quickly say WOOP WOOP for that? I haven’t worked out in a week and after that one time, I already feel like myself again. I don’t know why I get out of that workout funk sometimes but I celebrate each time I am get back into it. Well, not literally, but I do pat myself on the back. Way to go, Kam!
So anyway, working out on empty stomach increases the hGH so you are more likely to burn fat and speed the metabolism. I tend to workout on empty stomach anyway so this wasn’t anything new to me. I did an awesome shoulder and chest strength workout and then did some steady state cardio (just walking on a slight incline) for 15 minutes. The total workout was 45 minutes. Mike recommends to keep your workouts intense but short so that you don’t tire yourself out too much. I’m down with that.
I tend to lose appetite following a workout so skipping breakfast wasn’t too difficult for me to do, although my Mind was silently wagging her finger at me for doing so. “You need to get protein in! Feed those muscles!” she screamed. I shut her up with a cup of White Tea. Apparently, it doesn’t matter when we get the protein in, the total amount of protein consumed per day is what matters. I went with it. If Mike is wrong, well then, shame on him!
I packed a sandwich to school. YES! I actually packed a sandwich to school. Do you know the last time I did that? I think it was back in high school! Wow, it felt weird but awesome at the same time. I felt a little nostalgic but it made me feel happy too. It was like being young again and not caring about eating sandwiches. I ate sandwiches all the time when I lived at my parents’ house but I stopped once I went away to college. Ohhh carbs… Screw that.
First meal
So I had my first meal at 11am when I got to class. I was going to wait until noon but my Mind kept wagging her finger at me and telling me I’m gonna become weak so I couldn’t ignore her any longer. Besides, eating an hour before the time I originally planned isn’t all that bad, right? It’s my first day after all, I didn’t want to shock my system too much. So I ate. And it was glorious. I missed this so much!
It was a sandwich with turkey breast, two slices of provolone cheese, Laughing Cow tomato basil cheese wedge and cucumber. Heaven.
Did I feel hungry before eating it? Not very much but I did feel a little empty. It took about an hour for the sandwich to wake me up again and for me to feel “normal” again. I actually felt the sandwich for that full hour after, it’s like it was kind of just sitting there, very prevalent. But that feeling went away after an hour.
Then I went to work and stayed there until 4pm. I wasn’t really hungry at all. My Mind was randomly popping up telling me that I’m gonna be hungry and I’m gonna get weak. She can be so annoying. I told her to shut up again and drank some water. My co-workers were eating some fast food when I got in and it actually made me a little grossed out. This is progress! I never liked fast food but it’s progress that it didn’t make me hungry too!
Second meal and…
Then I got home at 4pm and started making my last meal of the day: I opted for a sweet potato hash with egg whites and onions with cucumber on the side. My last meal of the day was at 4:30pm.
I went to my last painting class and that’s where my Mind was having a field day. Everything was fine on the way to the art studio but once I got there, she kept urging me to eat the popcorn that was there. I didn’t feel physically hungry at all; I actually still felt pretty full from the sweet potato hash so I shut her up with some more tea.
That’s when I started feeling groggy. It was a pretty crappy feeling: I felt tried, groggy, and just overall slowed down. I wasn’t hungry though, my stomach was not making any signs of hunger. My mind fairy kept urging me to get frozen yogurt on my way back (because it’s on the way back) and that will make me feel better. But I kept telling her to stop, that I was not hungry, I was just tired from being busy all day. She kept egging me to get that damn froyo. She is so annoying, I swear.
I left at the end of the class period and went to the train AWAY from the frozen yogurt place, I wasn’t going to let her win, although I have to admit she had the upper hand during our battle at one point. I firmly stood the ground and went on the train and focused on reading a great book. She wasn’t quitting, kept telling me to eat something when I get home. Ugh. I decided to just make myself more tea when I got home and talked to my roommate and started on homework. And guess what? The Mind gave up. She left. I was not hungry and she finally left me alone. I even got a second wind around 11pm and didn’t want to go to sleep as I originally planned.
I had to take a moment and relax in bed while reading up on some old blog posts from my favorite bloggers.
So far so good.
Have you experienced internal Mind battles before?
How do you deal with them? I wanted to name her my Mind Fairy but realized that sounded a little odd… Haha!
