I suspect I am off by a day or 2, but for the sake on continuity I’m calling this day 5.

I’m not sure if this is for me. Yesterday I bought a bagel and coffee. I ate half the bagel 1/2 of the bagel in the morning since people showed up early for the training session. Ate the other 1/2 at lunch with my roasted veggies and 2 small pieces of steak. By the time I got home I was ravenous. I over ate and had 3 rice bowls of rice and cha-siu. I normally eat one. I weighed myself this morning as I do everyday (collateral damage of having a sca in the bathroom where Franklin needs to weigh himself to calculate how much to take off during dialysis). I’ve gained! Duh…3 bowls. I didn’t eat past 8pm so that’s good.

This morning I just didn’t want to count the hours. I don’t like being so hungry. I recall the two times where I was successful in losing a few pounds in the last couple of years was

1. Made lunches with S under the guidance of her bf. Salad, 1/4 sweet potato, piece of salmon and 2 healthy snacks. I ate every couple hours. I did go to the gym, but I was doing that before with out much success, so i attribute the success to the combo of the two
2. I ate decent salad lunches I made at home for a month when I first started this job. This location doesn’t have as much food choices as before and the if I do choose to go buy the walk is further and outside. Not great with this wet or cold winter. It was easy to do. I chopped and washed Romain and spinach on the weekend and filled a big tub. Every morning I’d just fill my lunch container, add whatever protein we had from dinner, throw in a half of an avocado for creaminess since I don’t add dressing, add cucumber or shredded carrots for a crunch. Then as Franklin has been taking longer to recoup from dialysis and from a busy week he literally sleeps all day on one or both days on the weekend. I have all 3 kids to take care of between laundry, feeding them, activities, etc. That extra chore of chopping veggies was dropped off. Rather than lying down with the baby for an hour or so while he naps I should use that time to chop. But, I just use it to mentally escape/recharge/hide. I roasted 2 big pans of veggies this week for lunch. That was pretty easy – cauliflower, broccoli, green beans, carrots and those tiny cabbages (the name escapes me atm)

UPDATE: tiny cabbages aka Brussel sprouts (thanks for the correct terminology Nicole!)
It hasn’t even been a full week so, I kow I’m not giving this a fair chance. I’m aiming too high to just fast 16 hours right off the bat. Like my smart cousin J said, start at 12, then slowly increase to 13, 14, etc. I did do 15 hours today. I finished last night at 8pm, and even though I bought an egg white and cheese breakfast wrap from Subway I didn’t eat it until 11:30 am. Not because I was mindful to fast, but I just had my coffee first and working.

Confession: I packed a healthy apple for snack, but also a zip lock bag filled with cheese balls. I ate half the bag and the apple for snack. 1.5 L of water (thank you new water bottle)

We’ll see if I continue. Still on the fence.