We interrupt this blog's sleepy slumber for this important "Cindy's ongoing fitness journey" update

It's been an interesting summer for me. In the Spring, frustrated with some personal health issues, I met with my doctor to discuss a laundry list of ailments but top of mind was my weight. The scale had been holding steady at 256 pounds since January. No matter what I did such as increasing cardio, adding weights, and cycling my caloric intake, my body was a big bag of "nope".

As I wait to enter a clinical program to deal with the underlying disease that doctors claim contributes to my insulin resistance, which in turns contributes to my very slow metabolic rate, my doctor asked me if I had ever considered intermittent fasting, along with reducing carbohydrates and adding more protein to my diet. This was almost a month ago, on July 13. On the following Monday, after researching intermittent fasting, insulin resistance and Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome based diets, I started eating within a 10-hour window and then for 14 hours I did not consume a single calorie. I also increased my exercise where I biked five days a week, regardless of weather, for 20-23 km, as opposed to three days a week for 27 km. When I weighed myself on July 16, I was 257 pounds. Exactly a year before, I weighed this much:

Here's what I weighed this past Monday:

I'm pretty sure I lost weight in my feet. A nine pound weight loss in one month is pretty amazing. It's also not sustainable. Most of it is probably water loss due to the heat, and exercising in this heat, so I think it's fair to say I've lost seven pounds since meeting with my doctor.

Remarkably, my body is responding to intermittent fasting and now I'm eating in an eight hour window with breakfast at 10:30 am, lunch at 2 pm and dinner at 6 pm. From 6:30 pm all the way to 10:30 am the next morning I consume nothing with a calorie. I drink a ton of water, too. My weight loss app is set to calorie cycling so the intake varies from day to day, but it's anywhere from 1247 to 1658 calories a day depending on the amount of physical activity the day before. The only thing I've worked hard to omit is sugar and anything white, with the exception of basmati rice and yellow-flesh potatoes. NO ONE WILL TAKE THAT AWAY FROM ME.

If you're still reading, I'm hoping this post helps others struggling with PCOS, obesity or insulin resistance. Please talk to your doctor if this style of eating, coupled with 375 or more minutes of exercise weekly is healthy for you.

I've logged over 2200 km on my bike since April 23, 2017. I've pushed that bike so hard that I'm probably going to need to overhaul most of its components by the end of the year.

100km in 5 days. 2200km total. Crushing it so hard I'm wearing out my bike's crankshaft. It sounds like my knees on a cold day! #cyclist #abetterme #rideon #longdistancecycling

A post shared by Cj Smith (@thiscrazytrain) on Aug 6, 2018 at 8:36am PDT