Six and half.

It was pretty much 12:00 when I managed to drag myself out of bed.  Six and a half hours sleep is not good but it's one of those things really.  So, I got up two hours later than I would have hoped for and I need to swing my body-clock around so that I don't spend all my rest-day in bed and have my clock ready for 05:30 starts Saturday, Sunday, Monday and Tuesday.  The only real impact IF will have on my family is that with my shifts the way they are, there are very few times that I will be having an evening meal with them but then even without IF, there are very few times that I get to have meals with them anyway.  Weight is down to 207lbs.  Still a considerable distance from my goal of 175lbs but it is coming down slowly.  I'm still using http://www.myfitnesspal.com to record my daily intake of food.  Because I had a busy shift yesterday, I fell quite short of the desirable amount of food to eat.  I eat just under 1000 calories which is kinda frowned upon but I don't think will adversely affect me if it is done only occasionally and I can make up for it the following day.

So, Yesterday, I had less than optimum amounts of food and I do not feel excessively hungry and I had less than optimum amounts of sleep yet I do not feel excessively tired (Although another cup of coffee wouldn't go amiss).  In myself, I feel good.  I feel much better than I normally do.

Friday's fasting starts at 13:00 so whether I start today's fasting at 16:00 as planned or 18:00 to give me extra time today, my window for eating is quite small on Friday so I could do with planning Friday's lunch so that I get the calories I need within a short period.

Oh Ye Gods, That could have gone better.

I've just finished a 14hr shift that should have been 10hrs!  It's 05:30 and I was tired at 01:30.  I've not felt excessively tired although I am feeling peckish now.  I'm going to bed now and will do a fuller update when I awake.

IF Initial results.

208lbs this morning.  Still feel really good (apart from my annoying cough and shortness of breath)  Slept quite well last night so it could be that my body-clock is getting under control.  I think that daily IF is achievable and will help me reach my goals.  Once I have got a consistent pattern to my daily routine, I will then have to look at what extra exercise I can do but my weight and body-clock are my two main goals at this time.  Work are talking about returning our shift patterns to normal which will be gratefully embraced, making the IF and body-clock setting a little easier.

Daily intermitant fasting?

I've just got in from work and whilst it was not my original plan to fast each day, I might see how far I can do it.  It is simply a case of fasting for the eight hours before bed and of course, I won't be eating whilst I'm asleep.  The theory is that this will reduce my overall calorific intake and if it sorts out my body-clock at the same time, well, that can't be a bad thing.  I'm resisting the urge to eat the chocolate chip cookies in the kitchen that keep calling me and I'm also resisting the urge to read my emails too. I can sort both of them out in the morning.  There is not a whole lot more to add other than I am quite tired now which would indicate that maybe yesterday's fasting has set my morning to 10am.  I can see the fasting being problematic when we want to eat out with friends but it doesn't have to be a hard and fast rule (no pun intended).  We will see over the next month how impactive it is to my life-style and see how that weighs up to the impact on my weight and bodyclock.  There are mixed views on the internet with some saying that it is unhealthy to do long-term and others saying that it is a way of life for them.  Preliminary results from studies show good health benefits but that may be more to do with reduced bodyweight than the actual act of fasting itself.  If I fast tomorrow (technically today, wednesday) it will leave me with a quite narrow window for food consumption on Thursday and an even narrower window on Friday as I prepare my body-clock for early shifts on Saturday.

Resetting My Body-Clock

Everything went pretty much to plan yesterday.  I finished eating at 18:00.  I didn't get to sleep until about 3am, an hour later than I was hoping to because I got tied up replying to an email.  I think tonight I will have to force myself not to read my emails before bed.  I did somewhat gorge myself before 18:00 which was difficult considering that I was working and trying to snack at the same time.  It may be worth me simply eating to a normal routine and stopping that routine during the fasting period.

So I got up at 10:30 although I was awoken by the postman with parcels at 09:30.  I went back to bed for an extra half hour but woke up an hour later, whoops.  So, in theory, my morning should now be reset to 10:30 and we shall see how well that has worked over the next couple of days.  I then have a couple of rest-days followed by four early shifts which I will be looking to set my morning to about 05:30.  In reality, it is the night-shifts that I want to be most successful.  At present I sleep for about 4 hours when I get in from work and my body just wakes up so I get up and do stuff but by 15:00 I'm tired again and go back to sleep for another 4 hours.  If I can set my morning to be 8 hours after I go to sleep, it may help me to sleep through.  We will have to see. 

It Starts.

So, I currently weigh 209lbs.  My eating window for today is between 13:00 and 18:00 which theoretically, if all goes to plan means I finish work at 01:00, get myself to bed at 02:00 and have my alarm set for 10:00 which is when I can start eating again.  This gives me the 16 hours fasting between 18:00 and 10:00 which, if the science is correct, should reset my body-clock's morning to 10:00.

I'll be looking to try this prior to any significant change to the time I want set as my morning.  I have marked out two months worth of fasting times but I'm hoping to see some effect either for better or worse within the first month.

So far, it is 11:00 and I don't feel remarkably hungry considering that I haven't eaten for 14 hours so far.  It should not be any big deal to hold out the next two hours.

Oh Ye Gods, Has it really been that long?

Luckily, I don't think anyone actually reads this apart from me.  So, November last year, work changed my shift patterns and it has royally screwed my body clock.  The other day, I read an article that shows that you can reset your body clock by fasting so I thought, what the heck, I'll give it a go.  The other benefits of intermittent fasting include things like reduced chances of diabetes so that can only be a good thing.  Some have argued that there are health risks involved so I thought it would be prudent to keep a record of how I get on.  I will weigh myself in the morning and see if fasting does have an impact on my weight.  I know that I am about 2 and a half stone overweight.  I will see how I feel overall.  I have had a cough for just over two weeks now which is very unusual for me as I don't feel unwell and unlike other coughs I have had, it does not get worse at night, just comes out of the blue.  I am feeling short of breath but this would be expected if I have a chest infection of similar.  I shall do another update tomorrow morning with my current weight and I will have to see if I can update via text.