The amazing Obesity Code book and understanding Fasting

I am always keen to lose weight but I don't want to go down the Weight Watchers, calorie counting, or watch what you eat route.  I didn't want to deprive myself of food knowing that the minute my brain says you can't eat x, y or z because it's 750 calories, my brain would then also say "you want that baaad, you want to eat 6 of those in one sitting and you want them now"!

Then I found this.

At the beginning of last year, I came across a book called The Obesity Code.  It's designed to help you not only lose weight but to keep the weight off.  All the time I will lose weight, I will do great and then within six to 12 months, I will put that weight back on!  I yo-yo diet. 

Over the last few years, I'm putting on more weight than I'm exercising and moving around to lose that weight.  I know we should embrace our bodies and love the skin we are in, but for me, it's a whole mindset.  It's a mental thing more than anything, so I started at the beginning of Lockdown 1 to read this book.

I put on over a dress size in the first 5 weeks of Lockdown 1 and it was demoralising.  I wanted to drop a dress size before Lockdown, then LD1 happens and I went up within the month, six weeks at most because I was coming downstairs, sitting on my bum all day, having a break every 5 minutes as we were homeschooling then tottering back off up to bed after having a half-hour stroll around the neighbourhood.

This book is not light reading.  It is thick, detailed, it is scientific with backup to claims and I loved it!  I do love a book that can cite its sources!  It explains why we yo-yo diet, it explains what food is doing to our body.  Why it is bad to eat certain foods and what it is doing to our body.

It doesn't just state these claims, it has the clinical trial references and findings to back these claims.

Ultimately, at the end of the book, it is about fasting.  I have read online that people are very opinionated on fasting.  I was too, but I tend to keep my opinions to myself if I have nothing to back up my judgment, it's just a feeling I have with no core evidence so I don't tend to become a keyboard warrior.

Everyone is entitled to their option, but it's when someone tries to force their opinion on others, or state others are wrong is when you're out of line!  I've seen comments about fasting and that it is a terrible practice, but what is their proof? Are they mistaking fasting for starving as these are two extremely different things!

I like my food, I appreciate my food but we have made changes since reading The Obesity Code.  We don't use sweeteners, I have honey not sugar in my tea and we no longer have margarine in the house.  Where possible we limit processed food.  

I no longer have breakfast, why was I having breakfast?  I wasn't hungry when I got up and just ate because "that's the most important meal of the day".  Is it?  Who has told us this?  Would it be such a surprise if we found out it was Cereal companies who told us this?  Why are we getting up and eating if we are not needing food at that time?  Is it water and hydration we need or food?  These questions are covered in the book.

I listen to my body more now.

It took me the entire year to read this book!  It's detailed and hard going.  I would read a bit, digest it, think about what I'd read, and even make notes before carrying on.  It's not a light read but so fascinating and so worthwhile.

I finished this book around a month before Christmas and started a fasting routine.  I wasn't concerned with what I was going to eat at Christmas as I knew my fasting would clear out any overindulgence.

What I didn't cope with, was Lockdown 3.  That one hit me hard and my fasting went out the window along with a lot of other cares if I'm honest!  I didn't go back to buying processed foods and sweeteners but I also didn't much care if I was eating hobnobs at 9.30pm!  To be honest, lockdown 3 very nearly broke me.

LD3 is over, and our lives are starting to get back to some form of normality.  With my son at school, I find it easier to fast.  With walking him to and from school I'm getting 20 minutes of brisk walking in and 10 minutes of fun cardio at lunchtime and I can now say that my + dress size jeans that I had to buy for Lockdown 1 are no finally feeling baggy on me!

I have a long way to go, but I know I can enjoy Easter, Christmas, and holidays without worrying about what I eat, as I know when I get home and back to routine, I can put in fasting days in a healthy and controlled manner.

The Obesity Diet was by far the best book I read of 2020.