Quarter Moon Diet

I don’t make New Year resolutions.  There is no point.  New Year resolutions are things said much more out of the habit of making New Year resolutions than from the conviction that they should be kept.  So far in my life I have only managed to keep one New Year resolution, one made many years ago, and that was to cease making New Year resolutions.  All that said, this year, quite apart from anything to do with the New Year (in fact the decision was made at Yule 2015) I decided to lose some weight.

In pursuit of this plan to regain my girlish figure ( Hah! ) I decided on a diet and exercise plan.  Despite all claims to the contrary there is only one effective way to lose weight: reduce the number of calories consumed and increase the number of calories expended.  To be truly successful, such a regimen must be sustainable in the long term.  So I decided to try my own variation of the Lunar Diet.  I also decided to shut up about it until it showed some results.

The Lunar Diet calls for fasting during the three days of the Full Moon in each lunar cycle, plus a reasonable diet during the rest of the month.  (There is nothing special about the full moon, it is just a monthly marker for the purposes of the diet.)  This means that one must fast for three consecutive days out of every 29, or just about 10% of the time.  Put another way, this diet calls for a 10% reduction in calories consumed.  This isn’t a bad plan, so long as you don’t mind feeling like a famine victim once every month, or twice in those few months in which we get a Blue Moon.  But I feared that every such fast would be followed by a feast.  Going on an eating binge once per month is not an obvious path to weight loss.  So I considered some variations on the theme and came up with what I call the Quarter Moon Diet.

My Quarter Moon Diet calls for fasting one day per week (lunar quarter) and therefore four days per lunar month, one-seventh or 14% of the total days and the same percentage of calories not consumed.  So, strictly in terms of calories not consumed, the Quarter Moon Diet is superior to the Lunar Diet by a whopping 40%.  Also, because one is fasting a single day at a time rather than for three consecutive days I consider the problem of the rebound binge is less likely to materialize.  Plus I won’t wake up in the middle of the night trying to eat my own arm – now there’s a bonus!

On the fast day each month I can pretend that I’m prepping for a blood test the next day and just fast a bit longer than usual.  I consume nothing but water or coffee / tea (with skim milk) from after supper on the night before the fast day until 06:00 the day after, a total of about 36 hours. 

On all other days I try to be good.  Breakfast is high-fibre cereal with low-fat milk.  Lunch, if I eat lunch at all, is something healthy and low-fat: soup maybe, or fruit, or perhaps I’ll go crazy and have a six-inch veggie delight at Subway.  Dinner is whatever my wife decides to cook, just a normal-sized helping, no seconds and no desserts.  The rest of the time I eschew all junk food, snacks, sweets and alcohol (wasted calories), and I quaff down a lot of water.  I don’t count calories.  The result is that I’m not particularly hungry and I don’t require special treatment from the kitchen.

To go along with the Quarter Moon Diet I have increased my level physical activity by walking some miles every day that the weather allows, going to the gym for an hour or so every morning and roasting myself in the sauna after each workout.  Thus I increase the number of calories expended.  Bear in mind that it is winter in New Brunswick right now so aerobic snow shoveling is an added activity, usually on days when I don’t go on walkabout.

The other item I include in the Quarter Moon regimen is the easiest thing of all for naturists – go naked at home and don’t crank up the thermostat.  It is claimed studies show that being a bit chilly causes the human body to secrete the hormone irisin, which, it is also claimed, stimulates the conversion of fat into body heat.  I don’t have any idea how well this works but it’s a really good excuse for being naked when the Jehovah’s Witnesses show up unexpectedly.

So, how is this all working for me?  Is it working at all?

Well, yes, it does seem to be working.  Time will reveal the truth of the matter. 

Week #3 Update: The situation as of Week #3 is that I’ve found out the fasting isn’t difficult to get used to.  I have lost 3.5 kg of body weight overall.  I have no doubt lost a somewhat greater amount of fat because I’m also gaining muscle mass from my exercise regimen.  And oh, I’m spending less money by not snacking when I’m away from home.  So while my butt is decreasing in size my wallet is getting fatter.  What’s not to love about that?!  If I can continue to lose weight at the current rate (a fond hope but a complete unknown) then I could lose quite a bit by the start of summer.  I’ll barely cast a shadow on a sunny day.

Week #7 Update:  Hey, this diet is working, so far anyway.  Total weight loss to date is 10 kg, so says the scale at the gym this morning.   Fast Tuesday isn't getting easier but it isn't getting worse either . . . I don't feel hungry on that day, just a little cranky.  That's okay, I can handle being cranky so long as I keep losing weight.  I'll just try my best not to spread the crankiness around.