Month 1 Check-in

Time to check in after 30 days of intermittent fasting and what could charitably be called ‘sporadic workouts’

Before I started anything I got a blood test at LabCorp designed for men’s health. I needed a baseline to understand where my health was – and by checking every 60 days I can track the improvement (hopefully) to my overall health. [link to posts about bloodwork]

I decided to ease into fasting and start with an 18:6 program where I eat my first meal around noon and finish eating by 6 pm. This level of fasting was a bit rough in the first few weeks but once I settled into a new habit it slowly became easier and easier. Now I sometimes get busy and don’t feel hungry until way past the 18 hour mark and I’ve stopped late night snacking altogether.

I really didn’t get to workout too much in January – the first few weeks were a chaotic mix of someone in the house being really sick and me struggling with some kind of bronchitis / sinusitis 1-2 punch. Since I couldn’t breath or exert myself without a coughing fit  cardio was out of the question but I did start the lifting regimen I plan on following throughout the year.

I started very very slowly with light weights – I haven’t lifted since I hurt my shoulder almost 18 months ago and while the shoulder feels fine now I really didn’t want to start the year re-injuring it. I also need to accept at my age jumping into heavy weights almost assuredly will end up in a major injury. Slowly raising the weights also lets me make visible progress while keeping the soreness / lactic buildup to a minimum.

For the lifting program I split it into a three day push/pull split with a focus on compound exercises to start each set (the heavy lifts) training the entire body over the three days. [see lifting program post for details if you are curious] (link here)

So – what was the result of month 1 of the ‘Blow it up and glow it up’? I lost 23 pounds.

I know – I was shocked at that number as well . I wasn’t starving myself – I was eating healthier yes, but not at a starvation level – I just compressed my eating into that 6 hour window. I occasionally mixed in a burger, some pizza, and even some snacks during that window and the power of intermittent fasting seems to have powered through those poor food choices.

The only major change I made to my diet was eliminating ultra processed foods and foods with added sugar. The only exemption was having a single dessert on Saturday, preferably one that I made myself  (however, this past week were some delicious girl scout cookies because thin mints are amazing)

I also did a ton of research about which supplements actually work and aren’t a waste of money / snake oil and created a supplement stack to help my old self recover from the workouts. [supplement stack link]

Overall amazing progress in the first month – I was hoping for 8-10 pounds a month and while I’m sure some of that 23 pounds is water – it’s still weight I’m not carrying around – also I’m hoping sticking to the weight training will spare some of the muscle/bone loss from rapid weight loss.

Here’s hoping February is as successful!