My last post was near the beginning of my IF journey. I had lost five pounds in two weeks without much deprivation. It was encouraging! By the time school started again I was down three more pounds and was only four little pounds from my goal of 155 pounds or about 70 kilos.

School started about five weeks ago and I’m holding steady at that same weight: 159 pounds. But that means that it has been five weeks and the goal weight is still the same four pounds away. I’m not discouraged, though because this has been a heckuva start to the school year, the most stressful one I’ve ever experienced. Thank you, COVID and a rather — ahem! — INTERESTING administration! So the fact that I haven’t put the weight back on is a win.

It’s also a win because it is much harder on the schedule we have at work to make the 8 hour window work. I have to really pay attention to timing, much more so than when I wasn’t working because there is very little flexibility with lunchtime at work. I also have to make sure that one day’s eating window doesn’t interfere with the next day’s, as sometimes I have lunch duty and it can get the timing off because I will have to either eat earlier or skip lunch altogether.

The other difficulty I am having is getting back to my workouts, which since before the end of summer… well, let’s just say that my motivation to work out in 85 – 95 degree weather (29 – 35 degrees Celsius) went down in heatwave-induced flames. Belgium is not known for hot weather so there is no air conditioning in my little house nor in most gyms. I know, I know; I’m a wuss, but it’s not my fault! As an adult I became accustomed to air conditioned American gyms!

Finally, I had some bloodwork done recently, mainly to see where my cholesterol is since going almost 100% vegan. (In the interest of transparency, you must know that I am unfortunately NOT vegan in all my choices; I still eat cheese on pizza, and eggs from friends’ happy, dirt-scratching hens once in a while. I’d like to say those choices are very rare but… I really love pizza. I mean, REALLY. Especially parmagiana: roasted eggplant and parmesan cheese on a delicious thin crust… mmmm… oh, sorry ’bout that.)

Anyway, I never indulge in that dirty little addiction more than once a week and usually no more than once every two to three weeks, so please don’t judge me too harshly.

In the past, I have tended toward slightly high cholesterol — 200 – 220. So I got my blood work back and guess what! I’m still right at the same place!!! 210!!! What the actual HECK??? Not happy with that, although the doctor isn’t alarmed. She says it’s most likely family tendency but she also mentioned pasta as a potential culprit. Wait…wha…what???

PASTA??? PASTA can cause high cholesterol??? NOOOOOOOOOO….!!!!

Turns out you have to choose whole grain pasta, which I sometimes do, but admittedly, not always. And here where I live, some of the tasty American choices are harder to get, and the choices I have aren’t always great. Also Thai food, which I love, uses coconut milk of course, and guess what? Coconut milk is very bad for you if cholesterol tends to be a problem.

Well, fudge. *sigh*

Looks like reading labels religiously is called for, and maybe sacrificing some of my favorite things in favor of keeping my cholesterol down. Maybe that, coupled with getting back to working out, will get rid of those last few pounds.

Goal for the coming week: three workouts.

Got advice for me? Please put it in the comments! I’d love to hear!

Thanks for reading!