October 26, Day 35

Another short morning walk to get the blood flowing early, followed by some stretching. Honestly thought about adding in some jump rope even though I remembered what a tough workout that can be. Damn, that's a lot of added stress on the already overstressed knees and ankles. I'm going to have to go easy on that until some of this weight comes off.

The food logging is going okay. I've ended the past two days below the calories calculated for a steady 2 pound per week weightloss. I pretty much know the calorie dense foods to avoid and am looking to be more aware of the nutrient dense foods to be desired.
I've incorporated a little intermittent fasting (IF) the past two days and will continue to do that a few days per week. IF provides some additional healthy benefits that are worth reading about and really just shifts (and sometimes condenses) your eating hours. Considering my normal waking hours, I need to shift my eating hours to later in the day with my final mealtime (or snack time) being around 8 or 9 PM. Normal bedtime is midnight to 1 AM, and wake up time is usually between 7:30 and 8.

I do feel like there has been a bit of a mindset shift that will be beneficial. That's the thing I've really needed. So much of our poor diet and eating has been around food as culture, making food the focal point of gatherings, etc., that we no longer eat to live. We now live to eat. And most of the food that we've developed to fit our busy lifestyles isn't very good for us. We sacrifice nutrition for quick calories and move on. 
Even as the pace of life has greatly slowed in retirement, the lifelong bad habit of relying on processed foods and calorie dense food has clung to our daily diets. I need to change those habits. I believe that we can eat to live and still enjoy good tasting food. It's about finding the balance.

John