It’s been a while since I wrote my last Fit by 40 post and now we are almost six months since I started on this journey (I hate calling it a journey but I can’t think of any other word to use!) I thought it was about time I gave you an update.

Since my last update I haven’t really been trying to lose any more weight, although I would still like to lose a few more pounds before Christmas. I have lost a pound in the last month but I am actually really happy with that. In fact for the last three weeks I have weighed exactly the same, down to 0.2 of a pound! And that is good because really now my plan is to work out what I can eat, and how much I can eat, without starting to gain weight again. I wrote a little while ago about changing my attitude to food and that is really what I am trying to do now.

I had great success following the Shake That Weight plan, and I still have a few products left that I may actually save to use for a week after Christmas as I am sure there will be some indulgence there. But I am no longer following the diet – for me it was always a short term plan to allow to me to lose weight relatively quickly before adjusting my eating habits to maintain that weight loss.

For the last couple of weeks I have actually been loosely following a 16:8 intermittent fasting plan. All that means is that I don’t eat for 16 hours of each day (and a lot of that is when I’m asleep so it’s really not that difficult), and eat within the other 8 hours of the day. Basically it means I try not to snack after 8:30 pm, I don’t eat breakfast, and then I eat lunch and dinner. I am not counting calories or particularly restricting my intake, although I am trying to stick to the smaller portions that I was eating when following Shake That Weight.

To be honest I need to do a bit more research but this article on intermittent fasting explains it quite well and there does seem to be quite a lot of credible science behind the idea. I’m intrigued to see whether I do lose any more weight over the next few weeks by following this plan. And of course I’ll be sure to let you know.

So that’s the weight loss part of my Fit by 40 plan pretty much done. Of course I need to keep the weight off now and I also need to think about what my goals are now. Because Fit by 40 was never just about losing weight. It is about becoming more active, and taking care of myself more too.

Although I haven’t been doing the yoga which I was singing the praises of so much a couple of months ago I have been walking a lot more with all the school runs. I’m getting a Fitbit for Christmas (from Barry, but I know I’m getting it because I ordered it myself!) and I’m hoping that will spur me on to increase my activity even further. I do want to get back to doing yoga again as well I just need to find some motivation from somewhere. And it’s a bit tricky at the moment because I started watching Grey’s Anatomy again from the beginning, and there are 13 series to watch! I’m nearly at the end of Season 4 already but watching that much TV takes a lot of time and dedication! [I am kidding of course, not about watching Grey’s Anatomy, but that I am doing it to the exclusion of everything else]

So anyway, that’s where we’re at. I am hopeful that I will make it through the festive period without over-indulging too much, and I will be back with another update in January when there will be just under six months left until my 40th birthday in May.

In the meantime you can read the rest of my Fit by 40 posts here and if you’ve ever tried, or are following an intermittent fasting plan then I’d love to hear more about it so do please leave me a comment below.