I tried Intermittent Fasting (IF) for 5 months [Updated on 4 Oct]

There are many posts on Intermittent Fasting, I am definitely not the expert and in fact, this is probably an old fad already.
Intermittent Fast is an eating pattern where a person fasts for a period of time and only eat for a smaller number of hours.  For eg, I was on the 16/8, fasting for 16 hours (8pm to next day 12pm) and eat for 8 hours (lunch at 12pm and finish my dinner by 8pm). 

There were studies that fasting for a long period of time allowed our body to rest from digestion (which consumes a lot of resources) and focus on repairing the body.  
I embarked on it for the two benefits below (taken from 10 Intermittent Fasting Benefits: Weight Loss, Cell Repair & More (healthline.com)):
1. Recovery of hormones functions. I had eczema on my hands after my pregnancy, my skins become smooth when nearing my period then became dry and peeling after my period.  It used to crack which takes a long time to recover.  I have a strong feeling my eczema is due to my hormones however I never see a doctor since it comes and goes and I was managing it (alright, you can call me stubborn).  
2. Lost of weight
Given that I had started exercising daily, I know that I would not be increasing the intensity of my exercise thus I need to find another routine to ensure I am able to lose more weight or keep the weight off.

My husband had done it before last year but I was quite unhappy with it as he would not be able to have his breakfast with me or he would need to eat an early dinner.  All seems rather disruptive to our routines. Eventually, it didn't work out with him, perhaps I was a major contributing factor. Opsie~ 

However, this year when it is my turn, I was more consistent since we usually have our breakfast together at home (for more controlled meals) so I just skip that, opting for a cup of black coffee.

There is also a whole lot of contents on what food will actually cause you to break your fast, so generally, anything that has sugar content and calories will be a big no-no. It is very safe to drink black coffee or tea with no sugar since we just need something warm in the morning.

At the start I tried 12/12 so I could still have my three meals.  I read that 12hr was probably too short to really be considered as fasting.  Thus I increase to 14(fast)/10 and had a light breakfast at 10am.  There was an article that it is not good for woman to assume long hours of fasting.  However my female friend who also tried IF told me, she had been doing it 16/8 and she had been seeing the results of weight loss after a long weekend of good food. 

And thus eventually on the 4th day of trying IF, I increase my fasting hours to 16/8. I usually prepare my lunch at 11plus and then ate at 12plus.

I guess the big question is it is working??
The skin on my palm and fingers have definitely been better.  It doesn't crack though there are days that it is dry.  So I hope that it means my liver functions are recovering and I have lower inflammation in my body. 

I also have lost 5 kg (72 - 67) abeit slowly since I started 2 months ago.  But then it is also probably a combined effort from my daily 30mins yoga flow exercise and eating healthily with my husband.  (That will be on another post!)

The next question is if I will be continuing with IF?

I realise I tend to binge eat all the snacks I can eat when 12pm come however I will not do that if I had a very light breakfast, a small bun with black coffee.  I kept thinking I can finally eat, I better eat now!! I am lucky I was at home so there is a limit to what I can stuff myself with since I don't really have to worry about the calories. 

I also realise after 2 months on IF, I am really not that hungry in the morning and I am more attune to my feeling of hunger and fullness.  Recently I had been off IF for a week, mainly cos my kids are sick and I feel very tired too.  I decided to not enforce this to minimize any unfortunate h-angry moments with my girls.  I also want to just listen to my body to stop eating whenever I feel some fullness.  I had read other blogs that when they stopped IF for a while, it does not affect their effort.  So I am very hopeful.  Will update 2 months later to see if my strategy worked.  

This post took even longer, maybe 3.5hrs, with 2 young kids at home.  Either they are calling for my attention all the time, they are hungry, go toilet, ask you to play with them or they are so quiet, you had better go look for them, most probably they are creating a mess at some corner of the house. >< 

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Since I updated my exercise routine, I thought I might as well update this post as well. I did IF mainly on weekdays and allowed myself breakfast on weekends. The truth is I am not hungry for breakfast in the mornings as much so that really helped. I even observed that when I ate a heavy breakfast in preparation for a whole day of activities, it throws my hungry meter slightly off the balance and I eat a lot more than usual throughout the whole day. Thus I just allowed myself a small breakfast and brought some snacks for my energy level during the day. 

I observed that eating light breakfast only on weekends and not on weekdays is easy to enforce and had not thrown my weight into a roller coaster ride.  

I usually prepare for my lunch around 12pm and only get to enjoy them after 12pm so essentially I had been doing 17/7 on some days. 

I am had been weighing at 63kg since Sep 2021 for a while now and is finally at my healthy asian BMI. I do hope to lose to 60kg so that during celebration filled weekends, I won't feel so guilty seeing that I had some buffer left. hahaha However I am happy with my current weight. Hopefully I can keep IF up and continue to update here.  Adios~

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